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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies,
+From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Editor: Thomas Jefferson Randolph
+
+Illustrator: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2005 [EBook #16784]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines, 1829 set of Jefferson Papers]
+
+MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS
+JEFFERSON.
+
+Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
+
+
+[Illustration: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage of Volume Three (of four)]
+
+
+VOLUME IV.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, August 30, 1803
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1803.
+
+Deak. Sir,
+
+The enclosed letter came to hand by yesterday’s post. You will be
+sensible of the circumstances which make it improper that I should
+hazard a formal answer, as well as of the desire its friendly aspect
+naturally excites, that those concerned in it should understand that
+the spirit they express is friendly viewed. You can judge also from your
+knowledge of the ground, whether it may be usefully encouraged. I take
+the liberty, therefore, of availing myself of your neighborhood to
+Boston, and of your friendship to me, to request you to say to the
+Captain and others verbally whatever you think would be proper, as
+expressive of my sentiments on the subject. With respect to the day
+on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may be told, that
+disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the
+great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of dividing them
+with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and
+have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform
+answer to every application of the kind.
+
+On further consideration as to the amendment to our constitution
+respecting Louisiana, I have thought it better, instead of enumerating
+the powers which Congress may exercise, to give them the same powers
+they have as to other portions of the Union generally, and to enumerate
+the special exceptions, in some such form as the following.
+
+‘Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of
+the United States, its white inhabitants shall be citizens, and stand,
+as to their rights and obligations, on the same footing with other
+citizens of the United States, in analogous situations. Save only that
+as to the portion thereof lying north of an east and west line drawn
+through the mouth of Arkansas river, no new State shall be established,
+nor any grants of land made, other than to Indians, in exchange for
+equivalent portions of land occupied by them, until an amendment of the
+constitution shall be made for these purposes.
+
+‘Florida also, whensoever it may be rightfully obtained, shall become
+a part of the United States, its white inhabitants shall thereupon be
+citizens, and shall stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the
+same footing with other citizens of the United States, in analogous
+situations.’
+
+I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is
+said about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will
+be desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence. I find
+but one opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the country for
+some time. We meet in Washington the 25th of September to prepare for
+Congress. Accept my affectionate salutations, and great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.--TO WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803
+
+
+TO WILSON C NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 3rd was delivered me at court; but we were much
+disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison and the Governor being
+here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of
+the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what
+we are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers,
+to believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
+obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
+treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and
+an unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
+State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should
+be done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
+respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of
+the observations you make on the power given by the constitution to
+Congress, to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the
+subject to the territory then constituting the United States. But when I
+consider that the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the
+treaty of 1783, that the constitution expressly declares itself to be
+made for the United States, I cannot help believing the intention was
+not to permit Congress to admit into the Union new States, which should
+be formed out of the territory for which, and under whose authority
+alone, they were then acting. I do not believe it was meant that they
+might receive England, Ireland, Holland, &tc. into it, which would
+be the case on your construction. When an instrument admits two
+constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the
+other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise. I had
+rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found
+necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our
+powers boundless. Our peculiar security is in the possession of a
+written constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
+I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of
+the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no
+constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the
+definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies and
+delineates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives
+all the powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of
+these enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
+whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President and
+Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a judicial
+sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more likely than
+that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case
+of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting it, by adding, by way
+of amendment to the constitution, those powers which time and trial show
+are still wanting. But it has been taken too much for granted, that by
+this rigorous construction the treaty power would be reduced to nothing.
+I had occasion once to examine its effect on the French treaty, made by
+the old Congress, and found that out of thirty odd articles which that
+contained, there were one, two, or three only, which could not now be
+stipulated under our present constitution. I confess, then, I think
+it important, in the present case, to set an example against broad
+construction, by appealing for new power to the people. If, however,
+our friends shall think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with
+satisfaction; confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct
+the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects.
+
+No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the
+contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, and proves to me
+their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their
+sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
+and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that
+due reflection which ought to precede action. I leave this about the
+21st, and shall hope the District Court will give me an opportunity
+of seeing you. Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Washington, October 4, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+No one would more willingly than myself pay the just tribute due to
+the services of Captain Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his
+widow, as you suggest. But when one undertakes to administer justice,
+it must be with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be
+done for every one in equal degree. To what a train of attentions
+would this draw a President? How difficult would it be to draw the line
+between that degree of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and
+that not so entitled? If drawn in a particular case differently from
+what the friends of the deceased would judge right, what offence would
+it give, and of the most tender kind? How much offence would be given
+by accidental inattentions, or want of information? The first step
+into such an undertaking ought to be well weighed. On the death of Dr.
+Franklin, the King and Convention of France went into mourning. So did
+the House of Representatives of the United States: the Senate refused.
+I proposed to General Washington that the executive departments should
+wear mourning; he declined it, because he said he should not know where
+to draw the line, if he once began that ceremony. Mr. Adams was then
+Vice-President, and I thought General Washington had his eye on him,
+whom he certainly did not love. I told him the world had drawn so
+broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on the one side, and the
+residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear mourning for them,
+and the question still remain new and undecided as to all others. He
+thought it best, however, to avoid it. On these considerations alone,
+however well affected to the merit of Commodore Barry, I think
+it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may become
+embarrassing.
+
+Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers?
+With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With
+no partialities certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to
+destroy their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the
+waters, the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.
+
+Affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, November 1, 1803.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
+with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
+so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
+here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
+ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with
+the world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
+difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
+speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
+thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
+having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings
+to unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on
+the globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
+America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
+horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of
+France to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and
+that this may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as
+France there, and the United States here, what she can expect from so
+gross a compound of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the
+book of wisdom. She is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more
+than we are. Our policy will be to form New Orleans and the country on
+both sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all
+above that, to transplant our Indians into it, constituting them a
+Marechaussee to prevent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall
+have filled up all the vacant country on this side. This will secure
+both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for half a century, and we
+may safely trust the provisions for that time to the men who shall live
+in it.
+
+I have communicated with Mr. Gallatin on the subject of using your
+house in any matters of consequence we may have to do at Paris. He
+is impressed with the same desire I feel to give this mark of our
+confidence in you, and the sense we entertain of your friendship and
+fidelity. Mr. Behring informs him that none of the money which will be
+due from us to him, as the assignee of France, will be wanting at Paris.
+Be assured that our dispositions are such as to let no occasion pass
+unimproved, of serving you, where occurrences will permit it.
+
+Present my respects to Madame Dupont, and accept yourself assurances of
+my constant and warm friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.--TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803
+
+TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, November 4,1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A report reaches us this day from Baltimore (on probable, but not
+certain grounds), that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First
+Consul, was yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The
+effect of this measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to
+suppose; but as it might occur to him _primâ facie_, that the executive
+of the United States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it
+advisable to mention the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by
+explanations set that idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all
+persons are free to enter into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age,
+no one having a power to restrain it, not even their parents; and that
+under that age, no one can prevent it but the parent or guardian. The
+lady is under age, and the parents, placed between her affections
+which were strongly fixed, and the considerations opposing the measure,
+yielded with pain and anxiety to the former.
+
+     * November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
+     the 3rd, but will this day.
+
+Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
+man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
+of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
+of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
+society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
+rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
+obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
+against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be
+nothing. The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by
+twenty-four against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in
+the House of Representatives for making provision for its execution,
+was carried by eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority
+of sixty-six, and the necessary bills are going through the Houses
+by greater majorities. Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his
+government, proposed to have added to the ratification a protestation
+against any failure in time or other circumstances of execution, on
+our part. He was told, that in that case we should annex a counter
+protestation, which would leave the thing exactly where it was; that
+this transaction had been conducted from the commencement of the
+negotiation to this stage of it, with a frankness and sincerity
+honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the heart of an honest man
+to review; that to annex to this last chapter of the transaction such an
+evidence of mutual distrust, was to change its aspect dishonorably
+for us both, and contrary to truth as to us; for that we had not the
+smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its part; and I
+assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence in the word of the First
+Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. He saw that we had
+ratified the treaty; that both branches had passed by great majorities
+one of the bills for execution, and would soon pass the other two;
+that no circumstances remained that could leave a doubt of our punctual
+performance; and like an able and an honest minister (which he is in the
+highest degree) he undertook to do, what he knew his employers would do
+themselves, were they here spectators of all the existing circumstances,
+and exchanged the ratification’s purely and simply; so that this
+instrument goes to the world as an evidence of the candor and confidence
+of the nations in each other, which will have the best effects. This was
+the more justifiable, as Mr. Pichon knew that Spain had entered with us
+a protestation against our ratification of the treaty, grounded, first,
+on the assertion that the First Consul had not executed the conditions
+of the treaties of cession, and secondly, that he had broken a solemn
+promise not to alienate the country to any nation. We answered, that
+these were private questions between France and Spain, which they must
+settle together; that we derived our title from the First Consul, and
+did not doubt his guarantee of it: and we, four days ago, sent off
+orders to the Governor of the Mississippi territory and General
+Wilkinson, to move down with the troops at hand to New Orleans, to
+receive the possession from Mr. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to
+carry the order of the Consul into execution, he can probably command a
+volunteer force at New Orleans, and will have the aid of ours also, if
+he desires it, to take the possession and deliver it to us. If he is
+not so disposed, we shall take the possession, and it will rest with the
+government of France, by adopting the act as their own and obtaining the
+confirmation of Spain, to supply the non-execution of their stipulation
+to deliver, and to entitle themselves to the complete execution of our
+part of the agreements. In the mean time, the legislature is passing the
+bills, and we are preparing every thing to be done on our part towards
+execution, and we shall not avail ourselves of the three months’ delay
+after possession of the province, allowed by the treaty for the delivery
+of the stock, but shall deliver it the moment that possession is known
+here, which will be on the eighteenth day after it has taken place.
+
+*****
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.--TO DAVID WILLIAMS, November 14, 1803
+
+TO DAVID WILLIAMS.
+
+Washington, November 14, 1803.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received the volume on the claims of literature; which
+you did me the favor to send me through Mr. Monroe: and have read
+with satisfaction the many judicious reflections it contains, on the
+condition of the respectable class of literary men. The efforts for
+their relief, made by a society of private citizens, are truly laudable:
+but they are, as you justly observe, but a palliation of an evil, the
+cure of which calls for all the wisdom and the means of the nation. The
+greatest evils of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring
+from the vicious distribution of its members among the occupations
+called for. I have no doubt that those nations are essentially
+right, which leave this to individual choice, as a better guide to an
+advantageous distribution, than any other which could be devised.
+But when, by a blind concourse, particular occupations are ruinously
+overcharged, and others left in want of hands, the national authorities
+can do much towards restoring the equilibrium. On the revival of
+letters, learning became the universal favorite. And with reason,
+because there was not enough of it existing to manage the affairs of
+a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its individuals to the
+happiness of which they were susceptible, by improvements in their
+minds, their morals, their health, and in those conveniences which
+contribute to the comfort and embellishment of life. All the efforts of
+the society, therefore, were directed to the increase of learning,
+and the inducements of respect, ease, and profit were held up for its
+encouragement. Even the charities of the nation forgot that misery was
+their object, and spent themselves in founding schools to transfer to
+science the hardy sons of the plough. To these incitements were added
+the powerful fascinations of great cities. These circumstances have long
+since produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned
+occupation, and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and
+the more, as their habits of life have disqualified them for re-entering
+into the laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever
+entirely cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it may be
+cured. Doubtless there are many engines which the nation might bring to
+bear on this object. Public opinion and public encouragement are among
+these. The class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is
+the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same
+artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in
+learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its
+primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first
+order. It counts among its handmaids the most respectable sciences,
+such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics
+generally, Natural History, Botany. In every College and University, a
+professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be
+honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with
+this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid
+charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of
+crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers,
+their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling,
+now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools,
+instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present state of
+society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might
+restore them to that branch, qualified to enrich and honor themselves,
+and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them.
+A gradual abolition of the useless offices, so much accumulated in all
+governments, might close this drain also from the labors of the field,
+and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these, and the better means
+which will occur to others, the surcharge of the learned, might in
+time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizenss the sum of
+industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.
+
+Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked
+by exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane
+resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come
+here. Those who can labor do well, for the most part. Of the learned
+class of emigrants, a small portion find employments analogous to their
+talents. But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in
+the scenes where it began. Even here we find too strong a current from
+the country to the towns; and instances beginning to appear of that
+species of misery, which you are so humanely endeavoring to relieve with
+you. Although we have in the old countries of Europe the lesson of their
+experience to warn us, yet I am not satisfied we shall have the firmness
+and wisdom to profit by it. The general desire of men to live by their
+heads rather than their hands, and the strong allurements of great
+cities to those who have any turn for dissipation, threaten to make them
+here, as in Europe, the sinks of voluntary misery. I perceive, however,
+that I have suffered my pen to run into a disquisition, when I had taken
+it up only to thank you for the volume you had been so kind as to send
+me, and to express my approbation of it. After apologizing, therefore,
+for having touched on a subject so much more familiar to you, and better
+understood, I beg leave to assure you of my high consideration and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.--TO JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803
+
+TO JOHN RANDOLH.
+
+Washington, December 1, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The explanations in your letter of yesterday were quite unnecessary to
+me. I have had too satisfactory proofs of your friendly regard, to be
+disposed to suspect any thing of a contrary aspect.
+
+I understood perfectly the expressions stated in the newspaper to
+which you allude, to mean, that ‘though the proposition came from the
+republican quarter of the House, yet you should not concur with it.’ I
+am aware, that in parts of the Union, and even with persons to whom Mr.
+Eppes and Mr. Randolph are unknown, and myself little known, it will be
+presumed from their connection, that what comes from them comes from me.
+No men on earth are more independent in their sentiments than they are,
+nor any one less disposed than I am to influence the opinions of others.
+We rarely speak of politics, or of the proceedings of the House, but
+merely historically; and I carefully avoid expressing an opinion on them
+in their presence, that we may all be at our ease. With other members, I
+have believed that more unreserved communications would be advantageous
+to the public. This has been, perhaps, prevented by mutual delicacy. I
+have been afraid to express opinions unasked, lest I should be suspected
+of wishing to direct the legislative action of members. They have
+avoided asking communications from me, probably, lest they should be
+suspected of wishing to fish out executive secrets. I see too many
+proofs of the imperfection of human reason, to entertain wonder or
+intolerance at any difference of opinion on any subject; and acquiesce
+in that difference as easily as on a difference of feature or form:
+experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices
+of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object,
+and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we cannot do all we
+would wish.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.--TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR. GALLATIN.
+
+The Attorney General having considered and decided, that the
+prescription in the law for establishing a bank, that the officers in
+the subordinate offices of discount and deposit, shall be appointed ‘on
+the same terms and in the same manner practised in the principal bank,’
+does not extend to them the principle of rotation, established by the
+legislature in the body of directors in the principal bank, it follows
+that the extension of that principle has been merely a voluntary and
+prudential act of the principal bank, from which they are free to
+depart. I think the extension was wise and proper on their part, because
+the legislature having deemed rotation useful in the principal bank
+constituted by them, there would be the same reason for it in the
+subordinate banks to be established by the principal. It breaks in upon
+the _esprit de corps_, so apt to prevail in permanent bodies; it gives
+a chance for the public eye penetrating into the sanctuary of those
+proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the directors may
+introduce for their personal emolument, and which the resentments of
+excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted, might betray
+to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the year, or at
+other periods, of correcting a choice, which, on trial, proves to have
+been unfortunate; an evil of which themselves complain in their distant
+institutions. Whether, however, they have a power to alter this or not,
+the executive has no right to decide; and their consultation with you
+has been merely an act of complaisance, or from a desire to shield so
+important an innovation under the cover of executive sanction. But
+ought we to volunteer our sanction in such a case? Ought we to disarm
+ourselves of any fair right of animadversion, whenever that institution
+shall be a legitimate subject of consideration? I own I think the most
+proper answer would be, that we do not think ourselves authorized to
+give an opinion on the question.
+
+From a passage in the letter of the President, I observe an idea of
+establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This
+institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the
+principles and form of our constitution. The nation is, at this time,
+so strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this
+moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient
+to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet
+a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in
+the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its
+branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may,
+in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe
+which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any
+other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
+What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all
+its branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace
+we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further
+growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile
+we know, 1. from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing
+the body of directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of
+most of the stock-holders: 2. from their opposition to the measures and
+principles of the government, and to the election of those friendly to
+them: and, 3. from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now,
+while we are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our
+constitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination
+under its authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an
+equal footing only with other banks, as to the favors of the government.
+But, in order to be able to meet a general combination of the banks
+against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make a beginning
+towards an independent use of our own money, towards holding our own
+bank in all the deposits where it is received, and letting the Treasurer
+give his draft or note for payment at any particular place, which, in a
+well conducted government, ought to have as much credit as any private
+draft, or bank note, or bill, and would give us the same facilities
+which we derive from the banks? I pray you to turn this subject in your
+mind, and to give it the benefit of your knowledge of details; whereas,
+I have only very general views of the subject. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Washington, December 13, 1803.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.--TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804
+
+
+TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
+letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
+you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
+together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who
+departs in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
+Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have
+also to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your
+Harmony, which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is
+the first I have been able to meet with, which is clear of those long
+repetitions of the same transaction, as if it were a different one
+because related with some different circumstances.
+
+I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
+doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so
+much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and
+better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving,
+as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines,
+extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every
+thing relative to his personal history and character. It would be short
+and precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent
+to Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and
+two English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality, and paste
+them on the leaves of a book, in the manner you describe as having been
+pursued in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by
+better hands.
+
+I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our horizon, which
+was to burst in a tornado; and the public are un-apprized how near this
+catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank and friendly developement of causes
+and effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte to see that
+the train was unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved
+us from that storm. I did not expect he would yield till a war took
+place between France and England, and my hope was to palliate and
+endure, if Messrs. Ross, Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture
+until that event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge
+it came on sooner than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense
+of Bonaparte might not see the course predicted to be necessary and
+unavoidable, even before a war should be imminent, was a chance which
+we thought it our duty to try: but the immediate prospect of rupture
+brought the case to immediate decision. The denouement has been happy:
+and I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a
+government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to
+the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one
+confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I
+believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of
+the western confederacy will be as much our children and descendants
+as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with
+that country, in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a
+separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire
+to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all
+the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within
+my power.
+
+Have you seen the new work of Malthus on Population? It is one of the
+ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate
+the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws
+of England, and other palliations for that evil, several important
+questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are
+treated with a masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have
+been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard
+of. Probably our friends in England will think of you, and give you an
+opportunity of reading it.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Washington, March 3, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Although it is long since I received your favor of October the 27th,
+yet I have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it. In the Middle and
+Southern States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place
+as is perhaps desirable. For as there will always be an opposition, I
+believe it had better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New
+York seems to be in danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly
+with us; Rhode Island with us on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on
+the verge of the republican shore; Connecticut advancing towards it very
+slowly, but with steady step; your State only uncertain of making port
+at all. I had forgotten Delaware, which will be always uncertain
+from the divided character of her citizens. If the amendment of the
+constitution passes Rhode Island (and we expect to hear in a day or
+two), the election for the ensuing four years seems to present nothing
+formidable. I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies of the
+federal party have obliged me to throw myself on the verdict of my
+country for trial, my great desire having been to retire at the end
+of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it was my decided
+purpose when I entered into office. They force my continuance. If we
+can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her course for another four
+years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall be free
+to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my books. That your
+enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I sincerely
+pray, and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI.--TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804
+
+
+TO GIDEON GRANGER.
+
+Monticello, April 16, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of
+forming a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what
+they called the seven eastern States. The idea was new to me, and after
+time for reflection, I had no opportunity of conversing with you again.
+The federalists know that, _eo nomine_, they are gone for ever. Their
+object, therefore, is, how to return into power under some other form.
+Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans,
+join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name.
+I say, join the minority; because the majority of the republicans, not
+needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of
+ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
+must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their
+numbers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they
+must pay in. Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on
+the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when this party
+is formed, who will constitute the majority of it, which majority is
+then to dictate? Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of
+putting themselves into gear with the republican minority, is exactly
+like Roger Sherman’s proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island.
+The idea of forming seven eastern States is moreover clearly to form the
+basis of a separation of the Union. Is it possible that real republicans
+can be gulled by such a bait? And for what? What do they wish, that they
+have not? Federal measures? That is impossible. Republican measures?
+Have they them not? Can any one deny, that in all important questions
+of principle, republicanism prevails? But do they want that their
+individual will shall govern the majority? They may purchase the
+gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price;
+but the federalists must not have the passions of other men, if, after
+getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be
+governed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they
+relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the
+seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the mean time,
+all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them
+a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to eject
+the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power. I
+cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this
+trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass
+of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of
+principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all
+other similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their
+authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict
+and upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others
+should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly
+overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be
+the conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your
+health and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, June 13,1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, June 13,1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to express
+in your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
+awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled
+your kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and
+friendship. I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible
+impression on her mind, and that to the last, on our meetings after long
+separations, whether I had heard lately of you, and how you did, were
+among the earliest of her inquiries. In giving you this assurance, I
+perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same time, am thankful for
+the occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that circumstances
+should have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of separation
+between us. The friendship with which you honored me has ever been
+valued, and fully reciprocated; and although events have been passing
+which might be trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be
+of that kind, nor felt that my own was. Neither my estimate of your
+character, nor the esteem founded in that, has ever been lessened for a
+single moment, although doubts whether it would be acceptable may have
+forbidden manifestations of it.
+
+Mr. Adams’s friendship and mine began at an earlier date. It accompanied
+us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had
+drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to
+lessen mutual esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of
+an honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing
+among our fellow citizens, attached them to the one or the other of us,
+and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We
+never stood in one another’s way. For if either had been withdrawn at
+any time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would
+have sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration
+was sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
+friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can
+say with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams’s life, and one only, ever
+gave me a moment’s personal displeasure. I did consider his last
+appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my
+most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation could
+ever be expected; and laid me under the embarrassment of acting through
+men, whose views were to defeat mine, or to encounter the odium of
+putting others in their places. It seems but common justice to leave a
+successor free to act by instruments of his own choice. If my respect
+for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame to the influence of
+others, it left something for friendship to forgive, and after brooding
+over it for some little time, and not always resisting the expression of
+it, I forgave it cordially, and returned to the same state of esteem
+and respect for him which had so long subsisted. Having come into life
+a little later than Mr. Adams, his career has preceded mine, as mine
+is followed by some other; and it will probably be closed at the same
+distance after him which time originally placed between us. I maintain
+for him, and shall carry into private life, an uniform and high measure
+of respect and good will, and for yourself a sincere attachment.
+
+I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which
+I have long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it
+will be received, I feal[sp.] relief from being unbosomed. And I have
+now only to entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject
+of domestic affliction, to one which seems of a different aspect. But
+though connected with political events, it has been viewed by me most
+strongly in its unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The
+injury these have sustained has been a heavy price for what has never
+given me equal pleasure. That you may both be favored with health,
+tranquillity, and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the
+assurance of his highest consideration and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII.--TO GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR PAGE.
+
+Washington, June 25, 1804.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of
+the goodness of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an
+affectionate concern for the greatness of it. It is great indeed. Others
+may lose of their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half
+of all I had. My evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of
+a single life. Perhaps I maybe destined to see even this last cord of
+parental affection broken! The hope with which I had looked forward
+to the moment, when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to
+retire to that domestic comfort from which the last great step is to be
+taken, is fearfully blighted. When you and I look back on the country
+over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit!
+Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the
+inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of
+war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce
+a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet,
+by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable
+thing to bear up through the heat of the action to witness the death of
+all our companions, and merely be the last victim? I doubt it. We have,
+however, the traveller’s consolation. Every step shortens the distance
+we have to go; the end of our journey is in sight, the bed wherein we
+are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the friends we have lost. ‘We
+sorrow not, then, as others who have no hope’; but look forward to the
+day which ‘joins us to the great majority.’ But whatever is to be our
+destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we should acquiesce in
+the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in
+the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with us. Of those
+connected by blood, the number does not depend on us. But friends we
+have, if we have merited them. Those of our earliest years stand nearest
+in our affections. But in this too, you and I have been unlucky. Of our
+college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have stood with us in
+the great political questions which have agitated our country: and these
+were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not believe the Lilliputian
+fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so many. Will not Mrs.
+Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a healthier region
+for the months of August and September? And may we not flatter ourselves
+that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not many summers
+to live. While fortune places us then within striking distance, let us
+avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of other times.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
+salutations, and assurances of constant affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, XIV.--TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804
+
+
+TO P. MAZZEI.
+
+Washington, July 18, 1804.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure
+of business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something
+of public importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a
+principle of conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely
+from all private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic;
+I scarcely write a letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another
+consideration has led to this, which is the liability of my letters to
+miscarry, be opened, and made ill use of. Although the great body of our
+country are perfectly returned to their ancient principles, yet there
+remains a phalanx of old tories and monarchists, more envenomed, as all
+their hopes become more desperate. Every word of mine which they can get
+hold of, however innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted, tormented,
+perverted, and, like the words of holy writ, are made to mean every
+thing but what they were intended to mean. I trust little, therefore,
+unnecessarily in their way, and especially on political subjects. I
+shall not, therefore, be free to answer all the several articles of your
+letters.
+
+On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation,
+as far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not
+been renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been
+declined. We believe, that with nations as with individuals, dealings
+may be carried on as anvantageously[sp.], perhaps more so, while their
+continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a
+contract, which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced
+constructions, to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war
+instead of a bond of peace.
+
+We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we
+will prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels, and goods all the
+privileges of the most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily,
+we cannot doubt they will voluntarily do the same for us. Our interests
+against the Barbaresques being also the same, we have little doubt she
+will give us every facility to insure them, which our situation may ask
+and hers admit. It is not, then, from a want of friendship that we do
+not propose a treaty with Naples, but because it is against our system
+to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at
+all with the affairs of Europe. The kind offices we receive from that
+government are more sensibly felt, as such, than they would be, if
+rendered only as due to us by treaty.
+
+Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli,
+which, in addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the
+credit which Commodore Morris’s two years’ sleep lost us, and for which
+he has been broke. I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they
+mistake their interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should
+she have declared war, as we expect, and almost wish.
+
+Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
+dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge
+it in twelve years more. That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen
+millions of dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay
+the expenses of any war we may be forced into, without new taxes or
+loans. The spirit of republicanism is now in almost all its ancient
+vigor, five sixths of the people being with us. Fourteen of the
+seventeen States are completely with us, and two of the other three will
+be in one year. We have now got back to the ground on which you left us.
+I should have retired at the end of the first four years, but that the
+immense load of tory calumnies which have been manufactured respecting
+me, and have filled the European market, have obliged me to appeal once
+more to my country for a justification. I have no fear but that I shall
+receive honorable testimony by their verdict on those calumnies. At the
+end of the next four years I shall certainly retire. Age, inclination,
+and principle all dictate this. My health, which at one time threatened
+an unfavorable turn, is now firm. The acquisition of Louisiana, besides
+doubling our extent, and trebling our quantity of fertile country, is
+of incalculable value, as relieving us from the danger of war. It has
+enabled us to do a handsome thing for Fayette. He had received a grant
+of between eleven and twelve thousand acres north of the Ohio, worth,
+perhaps, a dollar an acre. We have obtained permission of Congress to
+locate it in Louisiana. Locations can be found adjacent to the city of
+New Orleans, in the island of New Orleans and in its vicinity, the value
+of which cannot be calculated. I hope it will induce him to come over
+and settle there with his family. Mr. Livingston having asked leave to
+return, General Armstrong, his brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is
+of the first order of talents.
+
+Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
+Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson
+Andrews. To these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of
+my youngest daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has
+left two children. My eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six
+children. This loss has increased my anxiety to retire, while it has
+dreadfully lessened the comfort of doing it. Wythe, Dickinson, and
+Charles Thomson are all living, and are firm republicans. You informed
+me formerly of your marriage, and your having a daughter, but have said
+nothing in you late letters on that subject. Yet whatever concerns your
+happiness is sincerely interesting to me, and is a subject of anxiety,
+retaining, as I do, cordial sentiments of esteem and affection for you.
+Accept, I pray you, my sincere assurances of this, with my most friendly
+salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.--TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, July 22, 1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not again
+have intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to
+have been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to
+Callendar are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I
+think, as 1796, I was told in Philadelphia, that Callendar, the author
+of the ‘Political Progress of Britain,’ was in that city, a fugitive
+from persecution for having written that book, and in distress. I
+had read and approved the book; I considered him as a man of genius,
+unjustly persecuted. I knew nothing of his private character, and
+immediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his relief, and to
+serve him. It was a considerable time after, that, on application from
+a person who thought of him as I did, I contributed to his relief, and
+afterwards repeated the contribution. Himself I did not see till long
+after, nor ever more than two or three times. When he first began to
+write, he told some useful truths in his coarse way; but nobody sooner
+disapproved of his writing than I did, or wished more that he would be
+silent. My charities to him were no more meant as encouragements to his
+scurrilities, than those I give to the beggar at my door are meant
+as rewards for the vices of his life, and to make them chargeable to
+myself. In truth, they would have been greater to him, had he never
+written a word after the work for which he fled from Britain. With
+respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and printers at
+large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping to any
+concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those of
+Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who published volumes against me for
+every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I never
+supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these
+editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable of that base warfare,
+and believed him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I may have thought
+of the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne
+testimony to Mr. Adams’s personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my
+presence, without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed
+that any person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us
+meddled in that dirty work. But another fact is, that I ‘liberated a
+wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.’ I do not know
+who was the particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every person
+under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I
+considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and
+as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a
+golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution
+in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery
+furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship
+the image. It was accordingly done in every instance, without asking
+what the offenders had done, or against whom they had offended, but
+whether the pains they were suffering were inflicted under the pretended
+sedition law. It was certainly possible that my motives for contributing
+to the relief of Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition
+law might have been to protect, encourage, and reward slander; but they
+may also have been those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of
+distress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect
+the constitution, violated by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which of
+these were my motives, must be decided by a regard to the general tenor
+of my life. On this I am not afraid to appeal to the nation at large,
+to posterity, and still less to that Being who sees himself our motives,
+who will judge us from his own knowledge of them, and not on the
+testimony of Porcupine or Fenno.
+
+You observe, there has been one other act of my administration
+personally unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me. I
+declare on my honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act is
+alluded to. I never did a single one with an unkind intention. My sole
+object in this letter being to place before your attention, that the
+acts imputed to me are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might
+flow from good as well as bad motives, I shall make no other addition,
+than the assurances of my continued wishes for the health and happiness
+of yourself and Mr. Adams.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
+received it only by that day’s post. I return you Monroe’s letter, which
+is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
+contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
+surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the
+greater wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes
+on their enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France
+and England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and
+deadly hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that
+England should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get
+footing on our continent, and that France should willingly see the
+United States re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons
+should be replaced on their throne and agree to any terms of
+restitution, is possible: but that they and England joined, could
+recover us to British dominion, is impossible. If these things are
+not so, then human reason is of no aid in conjecturing the conduct of
+nations. Still, however, it is our unquestionable interest and duty to
+conduct ourselves with such sincere friendship and impartiality towards
+both nations, as that each may see unequivocally, what is unquestionably
+true, that we may be very possibly driven into her scale by unjust
+conduct in the other. I am so much impressed with the expediency of
+putting a termination to the right of France to patronize the rights of
+Louisiana, which will cease with their complete adoption as citizens of
+the United States, that I hope to see that take place on the meeting
+of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from a newspaper respecting St.
+Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I conceive the British insults
+in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot be respected by France as a
+neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves as an independent one,
+if we do not take effectual measures to support, at every risk, our
+authority in our own harbors. I shall write to Mr. Wagner directly
+(that a post may not be lost by passing through you) to send us blank
+commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to be filled up,
+signed, and forwarded by us. Affectionate salutations and constant
+esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII.--TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till now
+the general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans.
+Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions. Among these is one
+for yourself as Governor. With respect to this I will enter into frank
+explanations. This office was originally destined for a person * whose
+great services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly
+acceptable to the nation at large. Circumstances, however, exist,
+which do not now permit his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time
+hereafter. That, therefore, being suspended, and entirely contingent,
+your services have been so much approved, as to leave no desire to
+look elsewhere to fill the office. Should the doubts you have sometimes
+expressed, whether it would be eligible for you to continue, still exist
+in your mind, the acceptance of the commission gives you time to satisfy
+yourself by further experience, and to make the time and manner of
+withdrawing, should you ultimately determine on that, agreeable to
+yourself. Be assured, that whether you continue or retire, it will be
+with every disposition on my part to be just and friendly to you.
+
+*****
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [* In the margin is written by the author, ‘La Fayette.’]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, September 11, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 11, 1804,
+
+Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received,
+but a press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps,
+indeed, I may have already trespassed too far on your attention. With
+those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly
+indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only
+truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive. The act of personal
+unkindness alluded to in your former letter, is said in your last to
+have been the removal of your eldest son from some office to which
+the judges had appointed him. I conclude, then, he must have been a
+commissioner of bankruptcy. But I declare to you, on my honor, that
+this is the first knowledge I have ever had that he was so. It may be
+thought, perhaps, that I ought to have inquired who were such, before
+I appointed others. But it is to be observed, that the former law
+permitted the judges to name commissioners occasionally only, for every
+case as it arose, and not to make them permanent officers. Nobody,
+therefore, being in office, there could be no removal. The judges, you
+well know, have been considered as highly federal; and it was noted
+that they confined their nominations exclusively to federalists. The
+legislature, dissatisfied with this, transferred the nomination to the
+President, and made the offices permanent. The very object in passing
+the law was, that he should correct, not confirm, what was deemed the
+partiality of the judges. I thought it therefore proper to inquire,
+not whom they had employed, but whom I ought to appoint to fulfil
+the intentions of the law. In making these appointments, I put in a
+proportion of federalists, equal, I believe, to the proportion they bear
+in numbers through the Union generally. Had I known that your son had
+acted, it would have been a real pleasure to me to have preferred him
+to some who were named in Boston, in what was deemed the same line
+of politics. To this I should have been led by my knowledge of his
+integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards yourself and Mr.
+Adams.
+
+You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of
+the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right
+to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for
+them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action
+assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a
+right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was
+placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing
+the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;
+because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That
+instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each
+other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide
+what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in
+their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also
+in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch. Nor does
+the opinion of the unconstitutionality, and consequent nullity of that
+law, remove all restraint from the overwhelming torrent of slander,
+which is confounding all vice and virtue, all truth and falsehood,
+in the United States. The power to do that is fully possessed by the
+several State legislatures. It was reserved to them, and was denied
+to the General Government, by the constitution, according to our
+construction of it. While we deny that Congress have a right to control
+the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the right of the States,
+and their exclusive right, to do so. They have, accordingly, all of them
+made provisions for punishing slander, which those who have time and
+inclination resort to for the vindication of their characters. In
+general, the State laws appear to have made the presses responsible for
+slander as far as is consistent with its useful freedom. In those States
+where they do not admit even the truth of allegations to protect the
+printer, they have gone too far.
+
+The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to
+possess, has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention once
+more to those circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be
+judged. I hope you will see these intrusions on your time to be, what
+they really are, proofs of my great, respect for you. I tolerate with
+the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion,
+without imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and
+uncertainty of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both
+of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree
+conscientiously in the same object, the public good: but they differ
+essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side
+believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the
+other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people;
+the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is
+right, time and experience will prove. We think that one side of this
+experiment has been long enough tried, and proved not to promote
+the good of the many: and that the other has not been fairly and
+sufficiently tried. Our opponents think the reverse. With whichever
+opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must prevail. My anxieties
+on this subject will never carry me beyond the use of fair and honorable
+means of truth and reason; nor have they ever lessened my esteem for
+moral worth, nor alienated my affections from a single friend, who did
+not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has happened, I confess I have
+not been insensible to it: yet have ever kept myself open to a return
+of their justice. I conclude with sincere prayers for your health and
+happiness, that yourself and Mr. Adams may long enjoy the tranquillity
+you desire and merit, and see in the prosperity of your family what is
+the consummation of the last and warmest of human wishes,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.--TO MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. NICHOLSON.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of yesterday,
+asking information on the subject of the gun-boats proposed to be built.
+I lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting
+them, premising a few words on the system of fortifications. Considering
+the harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to
+defence, and the estimates we have seen of the fortifications planned
+for some of them, this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale
+for less than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of war with
+less than fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. And when
+done, they avail little; because all military men agree, that wherever a
+vessel may pass a fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case
+at all our sea-port towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according
+to the advantages of the position, but can never be prevented. Our
+own experience during the war proved this on different occasions. Our
+predecessors have, nevertheless, proposed to go into this system, and
+had commenced it. But, no law requiring us to proceed, we have suspended
+it.
+
+If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn
+our attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to,
+before a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in
+aid of each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages, which may be
+moved to any point on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging
+the vessel. A sufficient number of these should be lent to each sea-port
+town, and their militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to
+do this; it has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more
+competently.
+
+2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so
+stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her
+after entering to depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the United
+States, which ought to be in a state of substantial defence. The whole
+of these would require, according to the best opinions, two hundred
+and forty gun-boats. Their cost was estimated by Captain Rogers at two
+thousand dollars each; but we had better say four thousand dollars. The
+whole would cost one million of dollars. But we should allow ourselves
+ten years to complete it, unless circumstances should force it sooner.
+There are three situations in which the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up
+under a shed, in readiness to be launched and manned by the seamen and
+militia of the town on short notice. In this situation she costs nothing
+but an enclosure, or a centinel to see that no mischief is done to her.
+2. Afloat, and with men enough to navigate her in harbor and take care
+of her, but depending on receiving her crew from the town on short
+warning. In this situation, her annual expense is about two thousand
+dollars, as by an official estimate at the end of this letter. 3. Fully
+manned for action. Her annual expense in this situation is about eight
+thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined. ‘When there is general
+peace, we should probably keep about six or seven afloat in the second
+situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen thousand dollars; the
+rest all hauled up. When France and England are at war, we should keep,
+at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation, their annual expense
+fifty thousand dollars. When we should be at war ourselves, some of them
+would probably be kept in the third situation, at an annual expense of
+eight thousand dollars; but how many, must depend on the circumstances
+of the war. We now possess ten, built and building. It is the opinion of
+those consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to put every harbor
+under our view into a respectable condition; and that this should limit
+the views of the present year. This would require an appropriation of
+sixty thousand dollars, and I suppose that the best way of limiting it,
+without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would build more. I
+should think it best not to give a detailed report, which exposes our
+policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, will suffice for the
+information of the House. I do not know whether General Wilkinson would
+approve the printing his paper. If he would, it would be useful. Accept
+affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.--TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. VOLNEY.
+
+Washington, February 8, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the books
+some time after, which were all distributed according to direction.
+The copy for the East Indies went immediately by a safe conveyance. The
+letter of April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying
+that, did not come to hand till August. That copy was deposited in the
+Congressional library. It was not till my return here from my autumnal
+visit to Monticello, that I had an opportunity of reading your work. I
+have read it, and with great satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a
+judge than most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton,
+so as to know any thing of the face of the country; nor much indulged
+myself in geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep
+scratches, which we can make or find on the surface of the earth, do not
+repay our time with as certain and useful deductions, as our pursuits in
+some other branches. The subject of our winds is more familiar to me.
+On that, the views you have taken are always great, supported in their
+outlines by your facts; and though more extensive observations, and
+longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will probably
+take their place in this first great canvass which you have sketched. In
+no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or judgment more than
+in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in his sleigh and snow,
+the very idea of which gives me the shivers. The comparison of climate
+between Europe and North America, taking together its corresponding
+parts, hangs chiefly on three great points. 1. The changes between heat
+and cold in America are greater and more frequent, and the extremes
+comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer in America than in Europe.
+Habit, however, prevents these from affecting us more than the smaller
+changes of Europe affect the European. But he is greatly affected by
+ours. 2. Our sky is always clear; that of Europe always cloudy. Hence a
+greater accumulation of heat here than there, in the same parallel. 3.
+The changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and sudden in
+Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls in half
+the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate of the
+United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It
+is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all
+disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited
+from our English ancestors. During a residence of between six and seven
+years in Paris, I never but once saw the sun shine through a whole day,
+without being obscured by a cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the
+moment, in which, viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could
+say there was not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at
+Monticello, on my return from France, in January, and during only two
+months’ stay there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to
+France, that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of
+a cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an European
+should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our taste in
+this, as in most other cases.
+
+The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to what
+we then knew of it. Further experience has developed more and more
+its peculiar character. Facts appear to have established, that it is
+originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never generated but
+in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large cities, in the
+neighborhood of the water; and that, to catch the disease, you must
+enter the local atmosphere. Persons having taken the disease in the
+infected quarter, and going into the country, are nursed and buried by
+their friends, without an example of communicating it. A vessel going
+from the infected quarter, and carrying its atmosphere in its hold into
+another State, has given the disease to every person who there entered
+her. These have died in the arms of their families, without a single
+communication of the disease. It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic,
+not a contagious disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode
+of purifying the vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if
+ventilation be found insufficient. In the long scale of bilious fevers,
+graduated by many shades, this is probably the last and most mortal
+term. It seizes the native of the place equally with strangers. It has
+not been long known in any part of the United States. The shade
+next above it, called the stranger’s fever, has been coeval with the
+settlement of the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit, Norfolk,
+Charleston, New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the months
+of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine
+yellow fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them
+some time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
+respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger’s
+fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black vomit,
+that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear of yellow
+fever on the Allegany mountains, in Kentucky, &c. This is a matter
+of definition only: but it leads into error those who do not know how
+loosely and how interestedly some physicians think and speak. So far
+as we have yet seen, I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow
+fever, which seizes on all indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of
+bilious fever, never known in the United States till lately, nor farther
+south, as yet, than Alexandria, and that what they have recently called
+the yellow fever in New Orleans, Charleston, and Norfolk, is what has
+always been known in those places as confined chiefly to strangers, and
+nearly as mortal to them, as the other is to all its subjects. But both
+grades are local: the stranger’s fever less so, as it sometimes extends
+a little into the neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so,
+confined within narrow and well defined limits, and not communicable
+out of those limits. Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite
+to originate this disease as is generated only in low, close, and
+ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have supposed it practicable to prevent
+its generation by building our cities on a more open plan. Take, for
+instance, the chequer-board for a plan. Let the black squares only be
+building squares, and the white ones be left open, in turf and trees.
+Every square of houses will be surrounded by four open squares, and
+every house will front an open square. The atmosphere of such a town
+would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the miasmata which
+produce yellow fever. I have accordingly proposed that the enlargements
+of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be
+on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of
+cities to be built, that his means of prevention can be employed.
+
+The _genus irritabile vatum_ could not let the author of the Ruins
+publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of discrediting that
+puzzling composition. Some one of those holy calumniators has selected
+from your new work every scrap of a sentence, which, detached from its
+context, could displease an American reader. A cento has been made of
+these, which has run through a particular description of newspapers, and
+excited a disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the
+reading of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
+error.
+
+Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, that
+they have little time to write or invent. A good invention here,
+therefore, is such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the acceptance
+of a friend. A Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, has invented
+a machine, which he calls a polygraph, and which carries two, three, or
+four pens. That of two pens, with which I am now writing, is best;
+and is so perfect that I have laid aside the copying-press, for a
+twelvemonth past, and write always with the polygraph. I have directed
+one to be made, of which I ask your acceptance. By what conveyance I
+shall send it while Havre is blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you
+will be pleased with it, and will use it habitually as I do; because it
+requires only that degree of mechanical attention which I know you to
+possess. I am glad to hear that M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the
+reformation of medicine. It needs the hand of a reformer, and cannot
+be in better hands than his. Will you permit my respects to him and the
+Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
+
+A word now on our political state. The two parties which prevailed with
+so much violence when you were here, are almost wholly melted into
+one. At the late Presidential election I have received one hundred and
+sixty-two votes against fourteen only. Connecticut is still federal by a
+small majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she has been since 1775, and
+will be till Anglomany with her yields to Americanism. Connecticut will
+be with us in a short time. Though the people in mass have joined us,
+their leaders had committed themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps
+them hostile; they brood over their angry passions, and give them vent
+in the newspapers which they maintain. They still make as much noise as
+if they were the whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile
+papers, published chiefly in the seaports, are the only ones which find
+their way to Europe, and make very false impressions there. I am happy
+to hear that the late derangement of your health is going off, and that
+you are reestablished. I sincerely pray for the continuance of that
+blessing, and with my affectionate salutations, tender you assurances of
+great respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying-pen of the
+polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.--TO JUDGE TYLER, March 29, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, March 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 17th found me on a short visit to this place, and I
+observe in it with great pleasure a continuance of your approbation
+of the course we are pursuing, and particularly the satisfaction you
+express with the last inaugural address. The first was, from the nature
+of the case, all profession and promise. Performance, therefore, seemed
+to be the proper office of the second. But the occasion restricted me to
+mention only the most prominent heads, and the strongest justification
+of these in the fewest words possible. The crusade preached against
+philosophy by the modern disciples of steady habits, induced me to dwell
+more in showing its effect with the Indians than the subject otherwise
+justified.
+
+The war with Tripoli stands on two grounds of fact. 1st. It is made
+known to us by our agents with the three other Barbary States, that they
+only wait to see the event of this, to shape their conduct accordingly.
+If the war is ended by additional tribute, they mean to offer us the
+same alternative. 2ndly. If peace was made, we should still, and shall
+ever, be obliged to keep a frigate in the Mediterranean to overawe
+rupture, or we must abandon that market. Our intention in sending Morris
+with a respectable force, was to try whether peace could be forced by
+a coercive enterprise on their town. His inexecution of orders baffled
+that effort. Having broke him, we try the same experiment under a better
+commander. If in the course of the summer they cannot produce peace, we
+shall recall our force, except one frigate and two small vessels, which
+will keep up a perpetual blockade. Such a blockade will cost us no more
+than a state of peace, and will save us from increased tributes, and
+the disgrace attached to them. There is reason to believe the example
+we have set, begins already to work on the dispositions of the powers
+of Europe to emancipate themselves from that degrading yoke. Should we
+produce such a revolution there, we shall be amply rewarded for what
+we have done. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.--TO DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
+
+Washington, May 11, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among
+our friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place
+in other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their
+good intentions will produce great public evil. The minority,
+whichever section shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the
+federalists, and some compromise of principle; because these will not
+sell their aid for nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism
+gain, some portion of that ground which we thought we had rescued to
+good government. I do not express my sense of our misfortunes from any
+idea that they are remediable. I know that the passions of men will take
+their course, that they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and
+that this melancholy truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an
+upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing
+of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of
+both parties. The war _ad internecionem_ which we have waged against
+federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and unhappiness. We
+have met it, with pain indeed, but with firmness, because we believed it
+the last convulsive effort of that Hydra, which in earlier times we had
+conquered in the field. But if any degeneracy of principle should ever
+render it necessary to give ascendancy to one of the rising sections
+over the other, I thank my God it will fall to some other to perform
+that operation. The only cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is
+the undivided good will of all those with whom I have acted.
+
+Present me affectionately to Mrs. Logan, and accept my salutations, and
+assurances of constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.--TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, May 21, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An accumulation of business, which I found on my return here from a
+short visit to Monticello, has prevented till now my acknowledgment of
+your favor of the 14th _ultimo_. This delay has given time to see the
+result of the contest in your State, and I cannot but congratulate you
+on the advance it manifests, and the certain prospect it offers that
+another year restores Massachusetts to the general body of the nation.
+You have indeed received the federal unction of lying and slandering.
+But who has not? Who will ever again come into eminent office,
+unanointed with this chrism? It seems to be fixed that falsehood and
+calumny are to be their ordinary engines of opposition; engines which
+will not be entirely without effect. The circle of characters equal
+to the first stations is not too large, and will be lessened by the
+voluntary retreat of those whose sensibilities are stronger than their
+confidence in the justice of public opinion. I certainly have known, and
+still know, characters eminently qualified for the most exalted trusts,
+who could not bear up against the brutal hackings and hewings of these
+heroes of Billingsgate. I may say, from intimate knowledge, that we
+should have lost the services of the greatest character of our country,
+had he been assailed with the degree of abandoned licentiousness now
+practised. The torture he felt under rare and slight attacks, proved
+that under those of which the federal bands have shown themselves
+capable, he would have thrown up the helm in a burst of indignation.
+Yet this effect of sensibility must not be yielded to. If we suffer
+ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the enemy
+will use that weapon; for what one so cheap to those of whose system of
+politics morality makes no part? The patriot, like the Christian, must
+learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty;
+and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more
+requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But
+that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are
+repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good
+example. To the other falsehoods they have brought forward, should they
+add, as you expect, insinuations of want of confidence in you from the
+administration generally, or myself particularly, it will, like their
+other falsehoods, produce in the public mind a contrary inference.
+
+*********
+
+I tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.--TO THOMAS PAINE, June 5, 1805
+
+
+TO THOMAS PAINE.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
+received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to
+your farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
+attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
+answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which
+it will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian
+blinds, can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you
+propose will have advantages. You know it has been practised on the
+cloth market at Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs
+in his book, to which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a
+dome, being one hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in
+the capitol we unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all
+framed in De Lorme’s manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has
+it been tried and persevered in by any workman?
+
+France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
+truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become
+a mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however,
+expressed satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the
+subject of that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners,
+you know I can do nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a
+question in Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which
+the constitution authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would
+cover an expenditure for importing settlers to Orleans. The letter of
+the revolutionary sergeant was attended to by General Dearborn, who
+wrote to him informing him how to proceed to obtain his land.
+
+Doctor Eustis’s observation to you, that ‘certain paragraphs in the
+National Intelligencer,’ respecting my letter to you, ‘supposed to be
+under Mr. Jefferson’s direction, had embarrassed Mr. Jefferson’s friends
+in Massachusetts; that they appeared like a half denial of the letter,
+or as if there was something in it not proper to be owned, or that
+needed an apology,’ is one of those mysterious half confidences
+difficult to be understood. That tory printers should think it
+advantageous to identify me with that paper, the Aurora, &c. in order to
+obtain ground for abusing me, is perhaps fair warfare. But that any one
+who knows me personally should listen one moment to such an insinuation,
+is what I did not expect. I neither have, nor ever had, any more
+connection with those papers than our antipodes have; nor know what is
+to be in them until I see it in them, except proclamations and other
+documents sent for publication. The friends in Massachusetts who could
+be embarrassed by so weak a weapon as this, must be feeble friends
+indeed. With respect to the letter, I never hesitated to avow and to
+justify it in conversation. In no other way do I trouble myself to
+contradict any thing which is said. At that time, however, there were
+certain anomalies in the motions of some of our friends, which events
+have at length reduced to regularity.
+
+It seems very difficult to find out what turn things are to take in
+Europe. I suppose it depends on Austria, which knowing it is to stand in
+the way of receiving the first hard blows, is cautious of entering into
+a coalition. As to France and England we can have but one wish, that
+they may disable one another from injuring others.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+[The following, in the hand-writing of the Author, is inserted in his
+MS. of this period. Whether it was published, or where, is not stated.]
+
+Richmond, 1780, December 31. At 8 A. M. the Governor receives the first
+intelligence that twenty-seven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay,
+and were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby’s point (the
+southern cape of James river); their destination unknown.
+
+
+1781, January 2. At 10 A. M. information received that they had entered
+James river, their advance being at Warrasqueak bay. Orders were
+immediately given for calling in the militia, one fourth from some,
+and one half from other counties. The members of the legislature,
+which rises this day, are the bearers of the orders to their respective
+counties. The Governor directs the removal of the records into the
+country, and the transportation of the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham (on the river seven miles above); there to be carried across the
+river.
+
+
+January 3. At 8 P. M. the enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown;
+convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.
+
+
+January 4. At 5 A. M. information is received that they had passed
+Kennon’s and Hood’s the evening before, with a strong; easterly wind,
+which determines their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The
+Governor now calls in the whole militia from the adjacent counties.
+
+
+At 5 P. M. information, that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up
+at Westover (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
+Richmond); and consequently Richmond their destination. Orders are
+now given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham, and to throw them across the river directly at Richmond.
+
+The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the
+night, then rode up to the foundery (one mile below Westham), ordered
+Captains Boush and Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to continue all night wagoning
+to Westham the arms and stores still at the foundery, to be thrown
+across the river at Westham, then proceeded to Westham to urge the
+pressing the transportation there across the river, and thence went to
+Tuckahoe (eight miles above and on the same side of the river) to see
+after his family, which he had sent that far in the course of the day.
+He arrived there at 1 o’clock in the night.
+
+
+January 5. Early in the morning, he carried his family across the river
+there, and sending them to Fine Creek (eight miles higher up) went
+himself to Britton’s on the south side of the river, (opposite to
+Westham). Finding the arms, &c. in a heap near the shore, and exposed
+to be destroyed by cannon from the north bank, he had them removed under
+cover of a point of land near by. He proceeded to Manchester (opposite
+to Richmond). The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1 P. M. Having found
+that nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond, he set out
+for Chetwood’s to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that
+place as a rendezvous and head-quarters; but not finding him there,
+and understanding he would be at Colonel Fleming’s (six miles above
+Britton’s), he proceeded thither. The enemy had now a detachment
+at Westham, and sent a deputation from the city of Richmond to the
+Governor, at Colonel Fleming’s, to propose terms for ransoming the
+safety of the city, which terms he rejected.
+
+
+January 6. The Governor returned to Britton’s, had measures taken more
+effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy, having
+burnt some houses and stores, left Richmond after twenty-four hours’
+stay there, and encamped at Four Mile Creek (eight or ten miles below);
+and the Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.
+
+
+January 7. He returned to Britton’s to see further to the arms there,
+exposed on the ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before,
+and thence proceeded to Manchester and lodged there. The enemy encamped
+at Westover.
+
+
+January 8. At half after 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and
+resumed his residence there. The enemy are still retained in their
+encampment at Westover by an easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has
+now three hundred militia at the Forest (six miles off from Westover);
+General Nelson, two hundred at Charles City Court-House (eight miles
+below Westover); Gibson, one thousand, and Baron Steuben, eight hundred,
+on the south side of the river.
+
+
+January 9. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.
+
+
+January 10. At 1 P. M. they embark: and the wind having shifted a little
+to the north of west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
+Steuben marches for Hood’s, where their passage may be checked. He
+reaches Bland’s mills in the evening, within nine miles of Hood’s.
+
+
+January 11. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they make good
+their retreat.
+
+
+During this period, time and place have been minutely cited, in order
+that those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the
+Governor, may lay their finger on the point, and say, when and where it
+was. Hereafter, less detail will suffice.
+
+Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold with a
+reinforcement of two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg,
+and about the last of April to Manchester. The Governor had remained
+constantly in and about Richmond, exerting all his powers for collecting
+militia, and providing such means for the defence of the State as its
+exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, and with only the
+river between him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within
+four, five, or six miles of them.
+
+M. de la Fayette about this time arrived at Richmond with some
+continental troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued
+to occupy that place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips
+and Arnold held Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis,
+about the middle of May, joining them with the main southern army, M.
+de la Fayette was obliged to retire. The enemy crossed the river, and
+advanced up into the country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles
+of Charlottesville, at which place the legislature being to meet in
+June, the Governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or three
+miles from it. His office was now near expiring, the country under
+invasion by a powerful army, no services but military of any avail;
+unprepared by his line of life and education for the command of armies,
+he believed it right not to stand in the way of talents better fitted
+than his own to the circumstances under which the country was placed.
+He therefore himself proposed to his friends in the legislature, that
+General Nelson, who commanded the militia of the State, should be
+appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the union of the civil and
+military power in the same hands, at this time, would greatly facilitate
+military measures. This appointment accordingly took place on the 12th
+of June, 1781.
+
+This was the state of things, when, his office having actually expired,
+and no successor yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment, of
+horse, was detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson
+(whom they thought still in office) and the legislature now sitting in
+Charlottesville. The Speakers of the two Houses, and some other members
+of the legislature, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello.
+Tarleton, early in the morning, (June 23, I believe,) when within ten
+miles of that place, detached a company of horse to secure him and
+his guests, and proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to
+Charlottesville, where he hoped to find the legislature unapprized of
+his movement. Notice of it, however, had been brought both to Monticello
+and Charlottesville about sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues,
+returned to Charlottesville, and, with the other members of the
+legislature, had barely time to get out of his way. Mr. Jefferson sent
+off his family, to secure them from danger, and was himself still at
+Monticello, making arrangements for his own departure, when Lieutenant
+Hudson arrived there at half speed, and informed him the enemy were then
+ascending the hill of Monticello. He departed immediately, and knowing
+that he would be pursued if he took the high road, he plunged into the
+woods of the adjoining mountain, where, being at once safe, he proceeded
+to overtake his family. This is the famous adventure of Carter’s
+Mountain, which has been so often resounded through the slanderous
+chronicles of Federalism. But they have taken care never to detail the
+facts, lest these should show that this favorite charge amounted to
+nothing more, than that he did not remain in his house, and there singly
+fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be taken prisoner.
+Having accompanied his family one day’s journey, he returned to
+Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours’ stay in
+Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded
+with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest,
+where, riding in his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse,
+and disabled from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr.
+Turner finds it more convenient to give him this fall in his retreat
+before Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof that
+he withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which Don Quixote
+would not have practised.
+
+The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place,
+are taken from the notes made by the writer hereof, for his own
+satisfaction, at the time: the others are from memory, but so well
+recollected, that he is satisfied there is no material fact misstated.
+Should any person undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence
+which may at all merit the public respect, the writer will take the
+trouble (though not at all in the best situation for it) to produce the
+proofs in support of it. He finds, indeed, that, of the persons whom he
+recollects to have been present on these occasions, few have survived
+the intermediate lapse of four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that
+some, as well as himself, are yet among the living; and he is positively
+certain, that no man can falsify any material fact here stated. He well
+remembers, indeed, that there were then, as there are at all times,
+some who blamed every thing done contrary to their own opinion, although
+their opinions were formed on a very partial knowledge of facts. The
+censures, which have been hazarded by such men as Mr. Turner, are
+nothing but revivals of these half-informed opinions. Mr. George
+Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very honest one, was
+prompted by these persons to bring specific charges against Mr.
+Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were communicated through a
+mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also the
+heads of justification on each of them. I well remember this paper, and
+believe the original of it still exists; and though framed when every
+real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabricated
+flight from Richmond was not among the charges stated in this paper, nor
+any charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting, singly, the troop of
+horse. Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House
+of Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable sentence of
+entire approbation of Mr. Jefferson’s conduct, and so much the more
+honorable, as themselves had been witnesses to it. And Mr. George
+Nicholas took a conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will,
+and when the matter was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the
+erroneous opinions he had been led into on that occasion, and to make
+just reparation by a candid acknowledgment of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.--TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806
+
+
+TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1806.
+
+Gentlemen,
+
+I have received the favor of your letter of February the 2nd, and read
+with thankfulness its obliging expressions respecting myself. I regret
+that the object of a letter from persons whom I so much esteem, and
+patronized by so many other respectable names, should be beyond the
+law which a mature consideration of circumstances has prescribed for my
+conduct. I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of
+his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to
+see it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This
+I believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
+inquiry and information, the subjects of distress to whose relief his
+contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
+life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it
+would leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind
+from different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far
+beyond any resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in the
+East Indies, the object of the present application, is but one of many
+items. However disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our means
+having limits, we are necessarily circumscribed by them. They are too
+narrow to relieve even the distresses under our own eye: and to desert
+these for others which we neither see nor know, is to omit doing a
+certain good for one which is uncertain. I know, indeed, there have
+been splendid associations for effecting benevolent purposes in remote
+regions of the earth. But no experience of their effect has proved that
+more good would not have been done by the same means employed nearer
+home. In explaining, however, my own motives of action, I must not be
+understood as impeaching those of others. Their views are those of
+an expanded liberality. Mine may be too much restrained by the law of
+usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with minds like yours, will be
+felt as a justification. With this apology, I pray you to accept my
+salutations, and assurances of high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.--TO MR. DUANE, March 22, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. DUANE.
+
+Washington, March 22, 1806.
+
+I thank you, my good Sir, cordially, for your letter of the 12th; which,
+however, I did not receive till the 20th. It is a proof of sincerity,
+which I value above all things; as, between those who practise it,
+falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. There is an enemy
+somewhere endeavoring to sow discord among us. Instead of listening
+first, then doubting, and lastly believing anile tales handed round
+without an atom of evidence, if my friends will address themselves to
+me directly, as you have done, they shall be informed with frankness
+and thankfulness. There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would
+disguise. But secret slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are
+secret. Although you desire no answer, I shall give you one to those
+articles admitting a short answer, reserving those which require more
+explanation than the compass of a letter admits, to conversation on your
+arrival here. And as I write this for your personal satisfaction, I
+rely that my letter will, under no circumstances, be communicated to any
+mortal, because you well know how every syllable from me is distorted by
+the ingenuity of political enemies.
+
+In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or
+indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever
+had before. This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from
+design. And if there be any coolness between those of the south and
+myself, it has not been from me towards them. Certainly there has been
+no other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among
+our friends. That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is
+sufficiently known. We were not disposed to join in league with Britain,
+under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind,
+and to enter into war with Spain, and consequently France. The House of
+Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.’s
+resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western
+service. We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if
+it can be effected honorably. This, perhaps, is not the only ground
+of his alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of
+eighty-seven to eleven republicans may satisfy you: but you will better
+satisfy yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things
+can be known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied
+on all essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.
+
+That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is
+totally unfounded. There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial
+administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise. And while
+differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm,
+that as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my
+message to Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was
+not a unanimity of concurrence in the members of the administration. The
+fact is, that in ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me
+on those of his department, and where any thing arises too difficult or
+important to be decided between us, the consultation becomes general.
+
+That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public
+profession and concealed counteraction, is false.
+
+That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and
+declared I would appoint none but those called moderates of both
+parties, and that I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those
+called the third party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.
+
+That the expedition of Miranda was countenanced by me is an absolute
+falsehood, let it have gone from whom it might; and I am satisfied it is
+equally so as to Mr. Madison. To know as much of it as we could was our
+duty, but not to encourage it.
+
+Our situation is difficult; and whatever we do, is liable to the
+criticisms of those who wish to represent it awry. If we recommend
+measures in a public message, it may be said that members are not sent
+here to obey the mandates of the President, or to register the edicts
+of a sovereign. If we express opinions in conversation, we have then our
+Charles Jenkinsons, and back-door counsellors. If we say nothing, ‘we
+have no opinions, no plans, no cabinet.’ In truth, it is the fable of
+the old man, his son, and ass, over again.
+
+These are short facts, which may suffice to inspire you with caution,
+until you can come here and examine for yourself. No other information
+can give you a true insight into the state of things; but you will have
+no difficulty in understanding them when on the spot. In the mean time,
+accept my friendly salutations and cordial good wishes.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.--[Confidential.]
+
+Washington, March 24,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed to be made
+at Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose, General
+Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint
+commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
+Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
+stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add
+a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
+confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
+Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be
+a southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated
+are almost entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet
+ultimately decided on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted.
+Under this expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake
+it, I give you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may
+be preparing both your mind and your measures for the mission. The
+departure would be required to be very prompt; though the absence,
+I think, will not be long, Bonaparte not being in the practice of
+procrastination. This particular consideration will, I hope, reconcile
+the voyage to your affairs and your feelings. The allowance to an extra
+mission, is salary from the day of leaving home, and expenses to
+the place of destination, or in lieu of the latter, and to avoid
+settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For the return, a
+continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment of the
+commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as possible,
+and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure as proposed
+provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal until we
+see it proper. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, April 13, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause for your
+not acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe. My only
+hope had been, that they could have gone on one summer without you.
+An unjust hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid,
+show itself whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for
+ratification. I wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a
+person who would have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General
+Smith was so prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be
+impossible for them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave
+the matter with Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish
+sincerely you were back in the Senate; and that you would take the
+necessary measures to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you
+should go to our legislature. Giles’s absence has been a most serious
+misfortune. A majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard
+are too dexterous for them, and have very much influenced their
+proceedings. Tracy has been of nearly every committee during the
+session, and for the most part the chairman, and of course drawer of the
+reports. Seven federalists voting always in phalanx, and joined by some
+discontented republicans, some oblique ones, some capricious, have so
+often made a majority, as to produce very serious embarrassment to the
+public operations; and very much do I dread the submitting to them, at
+the next session, any treaty which can be made with either England or
+Spain, when I consider that five joining the federalists, can defeat a
+friendly settlement of our affairs. The House of Representatives is as
+well disposed as I ever saw one. The defection of so prominent a leader
+threw them into dismay and confusion for a moment; but they soon rallied
+to their own principles, and let him go off with five or six followers
+only. One half of these are from Virginia. His late declaration of
+perpetual opposition to this administration, drew off a few others, who
+at first had joined him, supposing his opposition occasional only,
+and not systematic. The alarm the House has had from this schism, has
+produced a rallying together, and a harmony, which carelessness and
+security had begun to endanger. On the whole, this little trial of the
+firmness of our representatives in their principles, and that of the
+people also, which is declaring itself in support of their public
+functionaries, has added much to my confidence in the stability of our
+government; and to my conviction, that should things go wrong at any
+time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of
+their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this schism,
+its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation; and
+must be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably
+be about the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there.
+Congress has agreed to rise on Monday the 21st.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.--TO MR. HARRIS, April 18, 1806
+
+TO MR. HARRIS.
+
+Washington, April 18, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+It is now some time since I received from you, through the house of
+Smith and Buchanan, at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander,
+for which I have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial,
+because of the value the bust derives from the great estimation in which
+its original is held by the world, and by none more than by myself.
+It will constitute one of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am
+preparing for myself at my native home. Accept, at the same time, my
+acknowledgments for the elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the
+customs of the Russians. I had laid it down as a law for my conduct
+while in office, and hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no
+present beyond a book, a pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value;
+as well to avoid imputations on my motives of action, as to shut out
+a practice susceptible of such abuse. But my particular esteem for the
+character of the Emperor places his image in my mind above the scope of
+law. I receive it, therefore, and shall cherish it with affection. It
+nourishes the contemplation of all the good placed in his power, and of
+his disposition to do it.
+
+A little before Dr. Priestley’s death, he informed me that he had
+received intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the
+Emperor entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have
+therefore selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which
+I pray you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to
+occupy his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to
+be made by others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the
+compass of the time which his higher callings can yield to such an
+object.
+
+At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
+aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there
+had ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia,
+traces of it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore
+availed myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain
+vocabularies of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding
+to a list then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I
+have made such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give
+to the public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a
+report of Mr. Volney’s to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas,
+entitled _Vocabulaires Comparés des Langues de toute la Terre_; with
+a list of one hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is
+limited. I find that seventy-three of these words are common to that
+and to my vocabulary, and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of
+language, to make the inquiry so long desired, as to the probability
+of a common origin between the people of color of the two continents. I
+have to ask the favor of you to procure me a copy of the above work of
+Pallas, to inform me of the cost, and permit me to pay it here to your
+use; for I presume you have some mercantile correspondent here, to whom
+a payment can be made for you. A want of knowledge what the book may
+cost, as well as of the means of making so small a remittance, obliges
+me to make this proposition, and to restrain it to the sole condition
+that I be permitted to reimburse it here.
+
+I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
+have delivered: it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
+State will explain to you.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.--TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
+
+
+TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
+
+Washington, April 19, 1806.
+
+I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty, of the great
+satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,
+and sincere expressions of the respect and veneration I entertain for
+your character. It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts
+of my life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a
+portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign,
+whose ruling passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity
+of his people; and not of his own people only, but who can extend his
+eye and his good will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its
+course, unambitious in its views.
+
+The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
+observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of
+their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect
+that your Majesty’s interposition in them has been disinterested and
+generous, and having in view only the general good of the great
+European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is to
+re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead
+you to think of the general intercourse of nations, and to make that
+provision for its future maintenance, which, in times past, it has so
+much needed. The northern nations of Europe, at the head of which your
+Majesty is distinguished, are habitually peaceable. The United States
+of America, like them, are attached to peace. We have then with them
+a common interest in the neutral rights. Every nation, indeed, on the
+continent of Europe, belligerent as well as neutral, is interested in
+maintaining these rights, in liberalizing them progressively with the
+progress of science and refinement of morality, and in relieving
+them from restrictions which the extension of the arts has long since
+rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
+
+Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their
+power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
+nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
+correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such
+a definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent,
+would give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them
+with an authority, which would protect them in an important degree
+against future violation; and should any further sanction be necessary,
+that of an exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse
+with all the others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to
+the offence, more easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The
+essential articles of these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily
+to be defined.
+
+Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
+no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
+in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that
+they are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond
+the narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of
+his equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a
+happy concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step
+can now and then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the
+present occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty’s character will not be
+wanting to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may
+your life become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and
+may He who called it into being for the good of the human family, give
+it length of days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, May 4, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected
+to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar
+confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying
+trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does not find it
+convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_, which you
+have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney’s pursuits having been confined
+to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what has
+passed here, which the public possess. He has a just view of things so
+far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time
+ago, at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from
+the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.
+Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state
+of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
+Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
+has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
+weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
+demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
+eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
+of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph’s popular eloquence gave him
+such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
+and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
+and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
+them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
+himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
+momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
+good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and, without any
+leader, pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
+by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
+questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
+voting with him, has been from four to six or eight, against from
+ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with
+ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal opposition to this
+administration, and consequently associated with them in his votes, he
+will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from this is that
+there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the body of the
+nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and
+to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and
+that no _ignis faiuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the
+present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have
+yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence to the
+administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal
+ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
+Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
+carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
+this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than
+him who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground
+of opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
+advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
+among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support
+of you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
+former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would
+lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be
+embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You must not commit
+yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand such details
+as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time before the
+fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by that time
+the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish you were
+here at present, to take your choice of the two governments of Orleans
+and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you; and I verily
+believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much withdrawn
+from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should be known.
+The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two thousand
+dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter at St.
+Louis, where there is good society, both French and American, a healthy
+climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring
+property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there
+in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are
+established there. As I think you can within four months inform me what
+you say to this, I will keep things in their present state till the last
+day of August, for your answer.
+
+The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
+settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox,
+personally, I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it
+is founded in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had
+opportunities of knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he
+shall be in the administration, my reliance on that government will be
+solid. We had committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to
+meet Mr. Pitt’s policy and hostility, before we heard of his death,
+which self-respect did not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late
+unparalleled outrage on us at New York excited such sentiments in the
+public at large, as did not permit us to do less than has been done. It
+ought not to be viewed by the ministry as looking towards them at all,
+but merely as the consequences of the measures of their predecessors,
+which their nation has called on them to correct. I hope, therefore,
+they will come to just arrangements. No two countries upon earth have so
+many points of common interest and friendship; and their rulers must
+be great bunglers indeed, if, with such dispositions, they break them
+asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is on the ocean. England
+may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that element a little, but
+nothing she can do will retard us there one year’s growth. We shall be
+supported there by other nations, and thrown into their scale to make a
+part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on the other hand, she
+is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the sentiment of family
+feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the security of both.
+We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the line, and half
+that number of frigates, and were France to give us the money, and
+England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to England
+serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
+school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
+immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
+state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
+England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us
+on the sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent
+of Europe, might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these
+scenes. We ask for peace and justice from all nations, and we will
+remain uprightly neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the
+opinion that an English ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than
+that of France. We begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole
+Gulf Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to
+be frowned on for the present, and prohibited so soon as either consent
+or force will permit us. We shall never permit another privateer to
+cruise within it, and shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers.
+This is essential for our tranquillity and commerce. Be so good as to
+have the enclosed letters delivered, to present me to your family, and
+be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
+
+For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
+name.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII.--TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
+
+
+TO GENERAL SMITH.
+
+Washington, May 4,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I
+have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper
+I see overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a
+single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have
+made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle
+I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
+authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
+lodging together at Conrad’s, he was pressed on me to be made Governor
+of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very
+principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that
+ground, I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the
+appointment to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own
+principle, because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely
+a military station. The legislature had sanctioned that idea by the
+establishment of the office of Commandant, in which were completely
+blended the civil and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the
+Governor should be in suit with them. I observed too, that the House of
+Representatives, on the very day they passed the stricture on this union
+of authorities, passed a bill making the Governor of Michigan, commander
+of the regular troops which should at any time be within his government.
+However, on the subject of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation
+at this time. We shall see what turn things take at home and abroad in
+the course of the summer. Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr.
+Fox, which gives me hopes that we shall have an amicable arrangement
+with that government. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of
+great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII.--TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
+
+Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and
+sends him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the
+latter part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to
+see, is in them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on
+the fourth of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of
+the day which divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a
+dollar in the pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from
+all the ruin of Mr. Pitt’s administration. We, too, shall encounter
+follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light:
+and the vigor of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt’s
+follies have been great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with
+age, and exhausted by excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV.--TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BIDWELL.
+
+Washington, July 5, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
+heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons
+are proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under
+circumstances of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between
+them. But it shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on
+the triumph of republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism
+has now lost all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow
+Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a
+mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but
+always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
+
+Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an
+accommodation there on both the points of ‘accustomed commerce and
+impressment.’ In this there must probably be some mutual concession,
+because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing. But
+I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of the
+Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some time
+before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the efforts made
+here, and made professedly to assassinate that negotiation in embryo, if
+the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail over his temper, the present
+state of things in Europe may induce him to require of Spain, that she
+should do us justice at least. That he should require her to sell us
+East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there are not wanting
+considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent foundation for
+peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall be, our old
+enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find enough to carp
+at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error where they
+found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point
+is ‘war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain’:
+and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be
+fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There
+one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
+
+I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
+part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than
+all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say,
+there never was a time when the services of those who possess talents,
+integrity, firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress.
+Some one of that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in
+the House of Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as
+his own business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it,
+and carry it through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing
+his own judgment, should implicitly support all the measures of the
+administration; but that, where he does not disapprove of them, he
+should not suffer them to go off in sleep, but bring them to the
+attention of the House, and give them a fair chance. Where he
+disapproves, he will of course leave them to be brought forward by those
+who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain my idea by an example? The
+classification of the militia was communicated to General Varnum and
+yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you approved, it was trusted
+you would support. I knew, indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to
+any thing which might break up the present organization of the militia:
+but when so modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps,
+be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your
+sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but using the same
+freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere.
+It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail: but a
+militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
+Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
+composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
+them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
+public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
+shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
+while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
+the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
+respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
+important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
+to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all
+other information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it
+becomes a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one
+of those artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual
+arms; and men of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this
+order. The last session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time:
+but as soon as the members penetrated into the views of those who were
+taking a new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have
+ever seen act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better
+dispositions.
+
+*****
+
+Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it
+proceeds from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness.
+Opportunities of candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I
+must not lose them when they occur. The information I receive from your
+quarter agrees with that from the south; that the late schism has made
+not the smallest impression on the public, and that the seceders are
+obliged to give to it other grounds than those which we know to be the
+true ones. All we have to wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every
+one may take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect
+nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is not
+true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among other
+things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no one of
+which has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the suggestions
+of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to
+perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
+not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
+with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or
+exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present
+age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will
+never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was
+invented by a Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in
+England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit
+of writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to
+your daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful
+machines. I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its
+perfection I have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction
+to find it the best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two
+years’ daily use of them, I have had opportunities of trying several.
+As a secretary, which copies for us what we write without the power
+of revealing it, I find it a most precious possession to a man in
+public-business. I enclose directions for unpacking and using the
+machine when you receive it; but the machine itself must await a special
+and sure conveyance under the care of some person going to Paris. It is
+ready packed, and shall go by the first proper conveyance.
+
+As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet
+at L’Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first
+impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,
+and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.
+It will secure to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a
+long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with
+them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of Congress,
+drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its members,
+is universally reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I
+have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally
+so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the
+opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the resource
+of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the
+inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies.
+
+We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
+truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
+for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded
+from all the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by
+securing for her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan
+or colonial, while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may,
+therefore, be employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more
+useful friends to France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope
+they will be sensible of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of
+future misunderstanding to another age, enable you to present us such
+an arrangement, as will insure to our fellow-citizens long and permanent
+peace and friendship with them. With respect to our western boundary,
+your instructions will be your guide. I will only add, as a comment
+to them, that we are attached to the retaining the Bay of St. Bernard,
+because it was the first establishment of the unfortunate La Sale, was
+the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly covered and conveyed to
+us by France, under that name, than any other spot in the country. This
+will be secured to us by taking for our western boundary the Guadaloupe,
+and from its head around the sources of all waters eastward of it,
+to the highlands embracing the waters running into the Mississippi.
+However, all these things I presume will be settled before you receive
+this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and satisfaction to us all.
+
+Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
+nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did
+little injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want
+of rain; and even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many
+chances to run.
+
+This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
+order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will
+so provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be _hors
+d’insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
+to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
+competent.
+
+I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.--TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
+
+
+TO W. A. BURWELL.
+
+Monticello, September 17, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands till the
+9th instant. About the same time, I received the Enquirer in which
+Decius was so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper observed,
+that the matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly, of
+inferences from these facts: that he was not well enough informed to
+affirm or deny his facts, and he therefore examines his inferences,
+and in a very masterly manner shows that even were his facts true, the
+reasonable inferences from them are very different from those drawn by
+Decius. But his facts are far from truth, and should be corrected. It
+happened that Mr. Madison and General Dearborn were here when I received
+your letter. I therefore, with them, took up Decius and read him
+deliberately; and our memories aided one another in correcting his bold
+and unauthorized assertions. I shall note the most material of them in
+the order of the paper.
+
+1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note,
+had proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish
+spoliations, or even for French. Their instructions were to make no
+treaty in which Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although
+they were permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into
+Spanish ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is
+not true that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as
+our western boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their
+instructions. Although we considered our title good as far as the
+Rio Bravo, yet in proportion to what they could obtain east of the
+Mississippi, they were to relinquish to the westward, and successive
+sacrifices were marked out, of which even the Colorado was not the last.
+3. It is not true that the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great
+Britain should consider our supplying her enemies with money as a breach
+of neutrality. After the very words of the treaty were finally agreed
+to, it took some time, perhaps some days, to make out all the copies in
+the very splendid manner of Bonaparte’s treaties. Whether the 30th of
+April, 1803, the date expressed, was the day of the actual compact, or
+that on which it was signed, our memories do not enable us to say. If
+the former, then it is strictly conformable to the day of the compact;
+if the latter, then it was postdated, instead of being antedated. The
+motive assigned, too, is as incorrect as the fact. It was so far from
+being thought, by any party, a breach of neutrality, that the British
+minister congratulated Mr. King on the acquisition, and declared that
+the King had learned it with great pleasure: and when Baring, the
+British banker, asked leave of the minister to purchase the debt and
+furnish the money to France, the minister declared to him, that so far
+from throwing obstacles in the way, if there were any difficulty in the
+payment of the money, it was the interest of Great Britain to aid it.
+4. He speaks of a double set of opinions and principles; the one
+ostensible, to go on the journals and before the public, the other
+efficient, and the real motives to action. But where are these double
+opinions and principles? The executive informed the legislature of the
+wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be made to repel them, by
+force, if necessary. But as it might still be possible to negotiate
+a settlement, they asked such means as might enable them to meet the
+negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first part of this system
+was communicated publicly, the second, privately; but both were equally
+official, equally involved the responsibility of the executive, and were
+equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase of the Floridas was
+in direct opposition to the views of the executive, as expressed in the
+President’s official communication. It was not in opposition even to the
+public part of the communication, which did not recommend war, but only
+to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized with the private part,
+which asked the means of negotiation in such terms as covered the
+purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak it out. He
+speaks of secret communications between the executive and members, of
+backstairs influence, &tc.. But he never spoke of this while he and
+Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it almost solely. But when he differed from the
+executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting to
+him, expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit,
+for the purchase of Florida), which he acknowledges they expressed to
+him, then he roars out upon backstairs influence. 6. The committee, he
+says, forbore to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not
+they recommend the raising ------- regiments? Besides, if it was proper
+for the committee to forbear recommending offensive measures, was it
+not proper for the executive and legislature to exercise the same
+forbearance? 7. He says Monroe’s letter had a most important bearing on
+our Spanish relations. Monroe’s letter related, almost entirely, to our
+British relations. Of those with Spain he knew nothing particular since
+he left that country. Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed
+an opinion on our affairs with Spain, of which he knew we had better
+information than he could possess. His opinion was no more than that
+of any other sensible man; and his letter was proper to be communicated
+with the English papers, and with them only. That the executive did not
+hold it up on account of any bearing on Spanish affairs, is evident from
+the fact, that it was communicated when the Senate had not yet entered
+on the Spanish affairs, and had not yet received the papers relating to
+them from the other House. The moment the Representatives were ready to
+enter on the British affairs, Monroe’s letter, which peculiarly related
+to them, and was official solely as to them, was communicated to both
+Houses, the Senate being then about entering on the Spanish affairs.
+
+*****
+
+These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any
+use of them you think best, without letting your source of information
+be known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber-tree?
+Accept affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Washington, October 12, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You witnessed, in the earlier part of the administration, the malignant
+and long continued efforts which the federalists exerted in their
+newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and myself.
+These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made, through
+other channels, to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn and
+myself, but with no more success. The machinations of the last session
+to put you at cross questions with us all, were so obvious as to be seen
+at the first glance of every eye. In order to destroy one member of the
+administration, the whole were to be set to loggerheads to destroy one
+another. I observe in the papers lately, new attempts to revive this
+stale artifice, and that they squint more directly towards you and
+myself. I cannot, therefore, be satisfied, till I declare to you
+explicitly, that my affections and confidence in you are nothing
+impaired, and that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the
+notice of candid and honorable minds. I make the declaration, that no
+doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts they fear, may find a
+moment’s harbor in either of our minds. I have so much reliance on the
+superior good sense and candor of all those associated with me, as to be
+satisfied they will not suffer either friend or foe to sow tares among
+us. Our administration now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime
+pleasure in believing it will be distinguished as much by having placed
+itself above all the passions which could disturb its harmony, as by the
+great operations by which it will have advanced the well-being of the
+nation.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
+unalterable respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII.--TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN DICKINSON.
+
+Washington, January 13, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 1st instant, and am ever thankful
+for communications which may guide me in the duties which I wish to
+perform as well as I am able. It is but too true, that great discontents
+exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have
+for their sources, 1. the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be
+partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the
+other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger. 2.
+The administration of justice in our forms, principles, and language,
+with all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more abhorrent,
+because of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption
+of bankrupt and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the United
+States and engrossed the practice. 3. The call on them by the land
+commissioners to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this
+is really to record and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on
+rights so ancient that the title papers are lost, they expect the
+land is to be taken from them wherever they cannot produce a regular
+deduction of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the
+final result, which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the
+government towards them. Among the American inhabitants it is the old
+division of federalists and republicans. The former, are as hostile
+there as they are every where, and are the most numerous and wealthy.
+They have been long endeavoring to batter down the Governor, who has
+always been a firm republican. There were characters superior to him,
+whom I wished to appoint, but they refused the office: I know no better
+man who would accept of it, and it would not be right to turn him out
+for one not better. But it is the second cause, above mentioned, which
+is deep seated and permanent. The French members of the legislature,
+being the majority in both Houses, lately passed an act, declaring
+that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of their land, and
+enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in Latin, as the depositories of
+these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of the Houses thereupon
+passed a vote for self-dissolution of the legislature as a useless body,
+which failed in the other House by a single vote only. They separated,
+however, and have disseminated all the discontent they could. I propose
+to the members of Congress in conversation, the enlisting thirty
+thousand volunteers, Americans by birth, to be carried at the public
+expense, and settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred and
+sixty acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on the
+condition of giving two years of military service, if that country
+should be attacked within seven years. The defence of the country would
+thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number would entitle the
+territory to become a State, would make the majority American, and make
+it an American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten the
+pill to the French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to
+our own good as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both
+will be promoted by whatever will amalgamate us together.
+
+I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will
+end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired
+of an office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be
+glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but
+unceasing drudgery, and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming
+vacant, every appointment made, _me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis_.
+My only consolation is in the belief, that my fellow-citizens at large
+give me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit
+the continuance of that good will which follows well intended actions,
+and their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into
+retirement.
+
+God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and
+happy years.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX,--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, February 28,1807
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, February 28,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But such has
+been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of my power
+to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond the
+extent of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello,
+it can then be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however,
+generally, that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so
+acceptable a favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts
+and opinions. I have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it;
+indeed, both self-love and the desire to do what is best strongly invite
+unreserved communication. There is one subject which will not admit a
+delay till I see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to
+retire from Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here,
+that you should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more
+loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists,
+who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who
+will be three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of
+Representatives is as well disposed a body of men as I ever saw
+collected. But there is no one whose talents and standing, taken
+together, have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is,
+that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and
+it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would rally round you in an
+instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for the public good.
+Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery in the House. There are
+enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying point is all that is
+wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself. You never will have
+it so much in your power again to render such eminent service.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.--TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807
+
+
+TO JAMES MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine’s hands
+on the last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately
+communicated to us; and since that, Mr. Purviance has arrived with
+an original. On the subject of it you will receive a letter from
+the Secretary of State, of about this date, and one more in detail
+hereafter. I should not have written, but that I perceive uncommon
+efforts, and with uncommon wickedness, are making by the federal papers
+to produce mischief between myself, personally, and our negotiators; and
+also to irritate the British government, by putting a thousand speeches
+into my mouth, not one word of which I ever uttered. I have, therefore,
+thought it safe to guard you, by stating the view which we have given
+out on the subject of the treaty, in conversation and otherwise; for
+ours, as you know, is a government which will not tolerate the being
+kept entirely in the dark, and especially on a subject so interesting
+as this treaty. We immediately stated in conversation, to the members
+of the legislature and others, that having, by a letter received in
+January, perceived that our ministers might sign a treaty not providing
+satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3rd
+of February, informed you, that should such an one have been forwarded,
+it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore, that you should
+resume negotiations for inserting an article to that effect; that we
+should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn from you the
+result of our instructions, which probably would not be till summer,
+and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We observed, too,
+that a written declaration of the British commissioners, given in at
+the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the
+acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us bound by
+the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement we
+have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
+made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as
+a hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to
+have screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every
+thing, and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil
+of all the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to
+expunge the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we
+may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present
+hostilities. If peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the
+benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years,
+to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any
+other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the
+British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the
+treaty cannot be put into an acceptable form, then the next best thing
+is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting that die
+away insensibly; but, in the mean time, agreeing informally, that both
+parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve
+that friendly understanding which we so sincerely desire, until the one
+or the other may be disposed to yield the points which divide us. This
+will leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see
+that the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of
+continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to Mr. Pinckney, who, by
+procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us time, the most
+precious of all things to us. The government of New Orleans is still
+without such a head as I wish. The salary of five thousand dollars
+is too small; but I am assured the Orleans legislature would make it
+adequate, would you accept it. It is the second office in the United
+States in importance, and I am still in hopes you will accept it. It is
+impossible to let you stay at home while the public has so much need
+of talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of periodical
+headache, without scarcely command enough of my mind to know what
+I write. As a part of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as
+yourself, be so good as to communicate so much of it to him; and with
+my best respects to him, to Mrs. Monroe, and your daughter, be assured
+yourself, in all cases, of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI.--M. LE COMTE DIODATI, March 29, 1807
+
+
+M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
+
+Washington, March 29, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Antient Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 29th reached me the 18th of February. It
+enclosed a duplicate of that written from Brunswick five years before,
+but which I never received, or had notice of, but by this duplicate. Be
+assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such negligence towards
+you, as a failure to answer it would have implied. It would illy have
+accorded with those sentiments of friendship I entertained for you at
+Paris, and which neither time nor distance has lessened. I often pass in
+review the many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati and yourself on
+the banks of the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count them among
+the most pleasing I enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days of
+tranquillity and happiness. They had begun to cloud a little before I
+left you; but I had no apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the
+beginning, was to spread over such an extent of space and time. I have
+often thought of you with anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered
+the storm, and into what port you had retired. The letters now received
+give me the first information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your
+safe and quiet retreat. Were I in Europe, _pax et panis_ would certainly
+be my motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history
+with more matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of
+happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition
+for my own country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed now upwards of
+twenty years, while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption. I
+again, my friend, repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming
+torrent of its lava.
+
+At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
+propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
+of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed
+uniform health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy
+for me, and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my
+farms, and my family. Having performed my _quadragena stipendia_, I
+am entitled to my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others
+should be sooner sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have,
+therefore, requested my fellow-citizens to think of a successor for
+me, to whom I shall deliver the public concerns with greater joy than I
+received them. I have the consolation too of having added nothing to my
+private fortune, during my public service, and of retiring with hands
+as clean as they are empty. Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever
+excusable, are so when writing to a friend to whom our concerns are
+not uninteresting. I shall always be glad to hear of your health and
+happiness, and having been out of the way of hearing of any of our
+cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_ at Paris, any details of their
+subsequent history, which you will favor me with, will be thankfully
+received. I pray you to make my friendly respects acceptable to Madame
+la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my continued esteem,
+and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, April 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
+the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
+fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
+to go under cover of the Secretary of State’s despatches by any vessel
+going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned
+for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that the United
+States’ armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is to touch
+at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London, and at Brest,
+with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
+
+You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
+between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received in
+January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up
+their minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
+impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received
+in the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators,
+assuring them of the discretion with which impressments should be
+conducted, which could be construed into a covenant only by inferences,
+against which its omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in
+its terms totally unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3rd, they
+were immediately informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory
+article on that head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the
+negotiations on that point. The treaty having come to as actually in the
+inadmissible shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know
+the result of the instructions of February the 3rd. I have but little
+expectation that the British government will retire from their habitual
+wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without
+that we will never tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing
+a non-importation or non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to
+become just. This may bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To
+show, however, the sincerity of our desire for conciliation, I have
+suspended the non-importation act. This state of things should be
+understood at Paris, and every effort used on your part to accommodate
+our differences with Spain, under the auspices of France, with whom
+it is all-important that we should stand in terms of the strictest
+cordiality. In fact, we are to depend on her and Russia for the
+establishment of neutral rights by the treaty of peace, among which
+should be that of taking no persons by a belligerent out of a neutral
+ship, unless they be the soldiers of an enemy. Never did a nation
+act towards another with more perfidy and injustice than Spain has
+constantly practised against us: and if we have kept our hands off of
+her till now, it has been purely out of respect to France, and from the
+value we set on the friendship of France. We expect, therefore, from
+the friendship of the Emperor, that he will either compel Spain to do us
+justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be in possession
+of the city of Mexico.
+
+No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have
+been given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense
+incurred, in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against
+Mexico. Although at first he proposed a separation of the western
+country, and on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo,
+according to the usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very
+early saw that the fidelity of the western country was not to be
+shaken, and turned himself wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an
+enterprise on that country in this, that we had only to lie still, and
+he would have had followers enough to have been in the city of Mexico
+in six weeks. You have doubtless seen my several messages to Congress,
+which gave a faithful narrative of that conspiracy. Burr himself, after
+being disarmed by our endeavors of all his followers, escaped from the
+custody of the court of Mississippi, but was taken near Fort Stoddart,
+making his way to Mobile, by some country people, who brought him on
+as a prisoner to Richmond, where he is now under a course for trial.
+Hitherto we have believed our law to be, that suspicion on probable
+grounds was sufficient cause to commit a person for trial, allowing time
+to collect witnesses till the trial. But the judges here have decided,
+that conclusive evidence of guilt must be ready in the moment of arrest,
+or they will discharge the malefactor. If this is still insisted on,
+Burr will be discharged; because his crimes having been sown from Maine,
+through the whole line of the western waters, to New Orleans, we cannot
+bring the witnesses here under four months. The fact is, that the
+federalists make Burr’s cause their own, and exert their whole influence
+to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents of Miranda. And
+it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominent in our judiciary
+department, which is consequently in opposition to the legislative and
+executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures often.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr’s offences, was
+received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety and doubt in
+the public mind, in the present defective state of the proof, is not
+wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the
+judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,
+dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans.
+The federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr’s cause their
+own, mortified only that he did not separate the union or overturn the
+government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they
+would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy,
+as they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them
+of this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.
+
+The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
+administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The
+present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,
+so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I
+believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,
+we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on
+foot an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the
+scene of these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they
+will give time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress,
+what the real facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to
+appeal to the patriotism of particular persons in different places, of
+whom we have requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on
+such information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process
+or facilities from the federal courts, but frowned on by their new-born
+zeal for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow
+the liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the
+accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the
+judges have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What
+loop-hole they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot
+foresee. Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not
+name, will satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr’s guilt. And I
+do suppose the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment
+of men, in a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round
+Blannerhassett’s island, when they expected Governor Tiffin’s men to be
+on them _modo guerrino arraiati_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his
+men at the mouth of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of
+Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation,
+regularly signed with the aid of the Governor, as between two
+independent and hostile commanders.
+
+But a moment’s calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
+collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
+when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
+inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
+‘More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme
+Court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they
+exist. Why are they not proved.’ In what terms of decency can we
+speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of
+Cumberland, and return in five weeks, to do which has never taken less
+than twelve. Again, ‘If, in November or December last, a body of
+troops had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the
+affidavits, establishing the fact, could not have been obtained by the
+last of March.’ But I ask the Judge, where they should have been lodged?
+At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New
+Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension and examination.
+It was not known at Washington till the 26th of March, that Burr would
+escape from the western tribunals, be retaken and brought to an eastern
+one: and in five days after (neither five months nor five weeks, as the
+Judge calculated) he says, it is ‘impossible to suppose the affidavits
+could not have been obtained.’ Where? At Richmond he certainly meant,
+or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his audience. But all the
+principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on the
+favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this odious republic. ‘I
+understand,’ says the Judge, ‘probable cause of guilt to be a case
+made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,’ &c. Speaking as a
+lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at least. But this
+is confounding probability and proof. We had always before understood
+that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender
+must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the
+Judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters
+of information in Mr. Rodney’s hands, the letters and facts published in
+the local newspapers, Burr’s flight, and the universal belief or rumor
+of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of enlistment,
+military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or capitulation, so as
+to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the United States who
+does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt acts to have taken
+place?
+
+If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
+administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to
+condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged
+them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work
+well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.
+If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never
+far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then, and
+amend the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent
+of the nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches
+of the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and
+to the common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class
+of offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are
+themselves protected in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment
+is a farce which will not be tried again. If their protection of Burr
+produces this amendment, it will do more good than his condemnation
+would have done. Against Burr, personally, I never had one hostile
+sentiment. I never, indeed, thought him an honest, frank-dealing man,
+but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose
+aim or shot you could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the
+confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their
+confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it: and if his punishment
+can be commuted now for an useful amendment of the constitution, I shall
+rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to
+offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 2, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While Burr’s case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from
+time to time with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury
+v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the
+threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be
+law. 1. Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed all cognizance of
+the case; although they then went on to say what would have been their
+opinion, had they had cognizance of it. This then was confessedly an
+extra-judicial opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2. Because, had
+it been judicially pronounced, it would have been against law; for to
+a commission, a deed, a bond, delivery is essential to give validity.
+Until, therefore, the commission is delivered out of the hands of the
+executive and his agents, it is not his deed. He may withhold or cancel
+it at pleasure, as he might his private deed in the same situation. The
+constitution intended that the three great branches of the government
+should be co-ordinate, and independent of each other. As to acts,
+therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no control to
+another branch. A judge, I presume, cannot sit on a bench without a
+commission, or a record of a commission: and the constitution having
+given to the judiciary branch no means of compelling the executive
+either to deliver a commission, or to make a record of it, shows it did
+not intend to give the judiciary that control over the executive, but
+that it should remain in the power of the latter to do it or not. Where
+different branches have to act in their respective lines, finally
+and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it different and
+opposite constructions. Thus in the case of William Smith, the House of
+Representatives determined he was a citizen, and in the case of William
+Duane (precisely the same in every material circumstance) the judges
+determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callender and others, the
+judges determined the sedition act was valid under the constitution,
+and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
+imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was
+a nullity under the constitution, and exercised his regular power of
+prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing
+the real law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these
+different constructions of the same act by different branches, less
+mischief arises, than from giving to any one of them a control over the
+others. The executive and Senate act on the construction, that until
+delivery from the executive department, a commission is in their
+possession, and within their rightful power; and in cases of commissions
+not revocable at will, where, after the Senate’s approbation and the
+President’s signing and sealing, new information of the unfitness of
+the person has come to hand before the delivery of the commission,
+new nominations have been made and approved, and new commissions have
+issued.
+
+On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act,
+and maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control
+which may be attempted by the judges in subversion of the independence
+of the executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
+therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the constitution
+the supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
+constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was
+_coram non judice_, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried
+into effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the
+gratuitous opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, and
+denounced as not law: and I think the present a fortunate one, because
+it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad,
+therefore, if, in noticing that case, you could take occasion to express
+the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were
+given extra-judicially and against law, and that their reverse will be
+the rule of action with the executive. If this opinion should not
+be your own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the
+executive. If it is your own also, you would of course give to the
+arguments such a developement, as a case, incidental only, might render
+proper.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines,
+than that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the
+faulty classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with
+attention, and according to the best information I possess, classing
+them more rigorously. I am persuaded, that were the duty on cheap wines
+put on the same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge
+the field of those who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The
+introduction of a very cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood,
+within two years past, has quadrupled in that time the number of those
+who keep wine, and will ere long increase them tenfold. This would be a
+great gain to the treasury, and to the sobriety of our country. I will
+here add my tariff, wherein you will be able to choose any rate of duty
+you please; and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be
+proper for legislative attention. Affectionate salutations.
+
+[Illustration: page77]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think it will be
+fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of the present
+scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller: though the same
+views of protecting the offender may again reduce the number to sixteen,
+in order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur. It is
+understood, that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not choose to
+embark in his projects, unless approved by their government, he asserted
+that he had that approbation. Most of them took his word for it, but
+it is said that with those who would not, the following stratagem was
+practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from General Dearborn,
+was made to express his approbation, and to say that I was absent
+at Monticello, but that there was no doubt that, on my return, my
+approbation of his enterprises would be given. This letter was spread
+open on his table, so as to invite the eye of whoever entered his room;
+and he contrived occasions of sending up into his room, those whom he
+wished to become witnesses of his acting under sanction. By this means,
+he avoided committing himself to any liability to prosecution for
+forgery, and gave another proof of being a great man in little things,
+while he is really small in great ones. I must add General Dearborn’s
+declaration, that he never wrote a letter to Burr in his life, except
+that when here, once in a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of
+invitation to dine. The only object of sending you the enclosed letters
+is to possess you of the fact, that you may know how to pursue it,
+if any of your witnesses should know any thing of it. My intention in
+writing to you several times, has been to convey facts or observations
+occurring in the absence of the Attorney General, and not to make to
+the dreadful drudgery you are going through the unnecessary addition of
+writing me letters in answer, which I beg you to relieve yourself from,
+except when some necessity calls for it.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVII.--TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN, June 10, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
+
+Washington, June 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
+capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to yourself,
+I may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided to
+others, on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of
+making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it
+has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence
+of my fellow-citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards
+excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me.
+However, I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may
+be satisfied, that, in selecting persons for the management of their
+affairs, I am influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and
+especially, that the field of public office will not be perverted by
+me into a family property. On this subject, I had the benefit of useful
+lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be
+imitated and what avoided. But, in truth, the nature of our government
+is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the
+people, in their Chief Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing
+which can strengthen him with that confidence.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVIII.--TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807
+
+TO JOHN NORVELL.
+
+Washington, June 11, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
+proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
+occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
+not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society
+into civil government: I mean a work which presents in one full
+and comprehensive view the system of principles on which such an
+organization should be founded, according to the rights of nature. For
+want of a single work of that character, I should recommend Locke
+on Government, Sidney, Priestley’s Essay on the First Principles of
+Government, Chipman’s Principles of Government, and the Federalist.
+Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, because of the
+demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch of the subject.
+If your views of political inquiry go further, to the subjects of money
+and commerce, Smith’s Wealth of Nations is the best book to be read,
+unless Say’s Political Economy can be had, which treats the same
+subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass, and more
+lucid manner. But I believe this work has not been translated into our
+language.
+
+History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
+have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in
+the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history
+becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general
+history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of
+Hume seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the
+government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner,
+as to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary
+readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the
+text of Hume as his ground-work, abridging it by the omission of some
+details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to
+mislead, by either the suppression of a truth, or by giving it a false
+coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we
+may properly call it Hume’s history republicanized. He has, moreover,
+continued the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it,
+to the year 1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is
+republican; and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a
+single quarto volume. Adding to this Ludlow’s Memoirs, Mrs. Macaulay’s
+and Belknap’s histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free
+principles of the English constitution.
+
+To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should
+be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining
+it to true, facts and sound principles only.’ Yet I fear such a paper
+would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression
+of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its
+benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.
+Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself
+becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real
+extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in
+situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of
+the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my
+fellow-citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief,
+that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
+their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just
+as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
+except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
+General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
+now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
+subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
+can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a
+newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he
+who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with
+falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
+facts, and the details are all false.
+
+Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
+Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
+Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
+very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
+information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk
+his own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a
+mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude
+to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little
+than too much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers
+who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they
+would occupy.
+
+Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
+practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
+depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation
+is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the
+morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those
+who do not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance
+to their auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which
+should fill a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility
+that some may believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to
+escape them, that it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing
+a slander, who is its real author.
+
+These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
+request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
+intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
+enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their
+own wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty
+communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public
+papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoided putting
+myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer
+away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties
+will permit me to enjoy.
+
+I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIX.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, June 12, 1807
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+******
+
+The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to
+our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,
+and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
+therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
+For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
+unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a
+very different thing in practice. The minor business in each department
+is done by the Head of the department, on consultation with the
+President alone. But all matters of importance or difficulty are
+submitted to all the Heads of departments composing the cabinet;
+sometimes by the President’s consulting them separately and
+successively, as they happen to call on him; but in the greatest cases,
+by calling them together, discussing the subject maturely, and finally
+taking the vote, in which the President counts himself but as one. So
+that in all important cases the executive is, in fact, a directory,
+which certainly the President might control: but of this there was never
+an example either in the first or the present administration. I have
+heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes decided things against his
+council.
+
+*****
+
+I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
+opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of
+a third negotiator was not at this time advisable. For the present,
+therefore, the question must rest. Mr. Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to
+come home, and is detained only by the delicacy of not deserting his
+post. In the existing temper between him and his colleague, it would
+certainly be better that one of them should make an opening for
+re-composing the commission more harmoniously. I salute you with
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER L.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving the necessary
+right of the President of the United States to decide, independently of
+all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public
+interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I assure you of
+my readiness, under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish, on all
+occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But the letter
+of General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the defence
+of Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges against
+him, which were in my possession when the Attorney General went on to
+Richmond in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken for
+granted he left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains
+the order in which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter
+desired, under the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th: but
+lest the Attorney General should not have left those papers with you,
+I this day write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty
+whether he is at Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce
+delay in his receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be
+apprized. But, as I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter,
+I must beg leave to devolve on you the exercise of that discretion
+which it would be my right and duty to exercise, by withholding the
+communication of any parts of the letter, which are not directly
+material for the purposes of justice.
+
+With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
+practicable. But when the request goes to ‘copies of the orders issued
+in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.
+by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,’ it seems to cover
+a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil
+and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying
+open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to
+examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be
+able to judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with
+the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular
+order, which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then
+he must know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer
+can be given. If the object had been specified, we might then have had
+some guide for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records
+might be useful to him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is
+right, we are without the indications which may enable us to do it. If
+the researches of the Secretary at War should produce any thing proper
+for communication, and pertinent to any point we can conceive in the
+defence before the court, it shall be forwarded to you. I salute you
+with respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 17, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication of
+one to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed
+you in mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers
+respecting the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General,
+when he went to Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in
+your possession, but would immediately write to him, if he had not, to
+forward that particular letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly
+on the same day, but having no answer, I know not whether he has
+forwarded the letter. I stated in the same letter, that I had desired
+the Secretary at War, to examine his office, in order to comply with
+your further request, to furnish copies of the orders which had been
+given respecting Aaron Burr and his property; and in a subsequent letter
+of the same day, I forwarded to you copies of two letters from the
+Secretary at War, which appeared to be within the description expressed
+in your letter. The order from the Secretary of the Navy, you said, you
+were in possession of. The receipt of these papers had, I presume, so
+far anticipated, and others this day forwarded will have substantially
+fulfilled, the object of a subpoena from the District Court of Richmond,
+requiring that those officers and myself should attend the Court in
+Richmond, with the letter of General Wilkinson, the answer to that
+letter, and the orders of the departments of War and the Navy, therein
+generally described. No answer to General Wilkinson’s letter, other
+than a mere acknowledgment of its receipt, in a letter written for a
+different purpose, was ever written by myself or any other. To these
+communications of papers, I will add, that if the defendant supposes
+there are any facts within the knowledge of the Heads of departments, or
+of myself, which can be useful for his defence, from a desire of doing
+any thing our situation will permit in furtherance of justice, we shall
+be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of deposition, through
+any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our testimony at
+this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by consent of
+parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the part of
+the United States. Mr. Burr’s consent will be given of course, if he
+supposes the testimony useful.
+
+As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court
+is sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
+obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
+should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
+and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
+and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
+seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
+without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood
+to be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
+constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then
+mean that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate
+authority.
+
+With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private
+side to our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for
+inventions, certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent
+in their nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All
+nations have found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of
+their affairs, some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known
+to their executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of
+the case, must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests
+will permit publication. Hence, under our constitution, in requests of
+papers, from the legislative to the executive branch, an exception is
+carefully expressed, as to those which he may deem the public welfare
+may require not to be disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed
+resolution of the House of Representatives, which produced the message
+of January 22nd, respecting this case. The respect mutually due between
+the constituted authorities, in their official intercourse, as well
+as sincere dispositions to do for every one what is just, will always
+insure from the executive, in exercising the duty of discrimination
+confided to him, the same candor and integrity to which the nation has
+in like manner trusted in the disposal of its judiciary authorities.
+Considering you as the organ for communicating these sentiments to
+the Court, I address them to you for that purpose, and salute you with
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LII.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 19,1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 19,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons had been
+(as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and I have
+desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask what is to
+be done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge decides
+it to have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason or
+misdemeanor, as you think the evidence will support; let the court
+decide where he shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have
+the marshal aided in his transportation, with the executive means. And
+we think it proper, further, that when Burr shall have been convicted of
+either treason or misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed all
+those persons against whom you should find evidence sufficient, whose
+agency has been so prominent as to mark them as proper objects of
+punishment, and especially where their boldness has betrayed an
+inveteracy of criminal disposition. As to obscure offenders and
+repenting ones, let them lie for consideration.
+
+I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
+singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
+was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore,
+of the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
+implicitly as any man’s for whatever he affirms. The letter-writer,
+also, is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for
+more than a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally,
+that Burr was engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther
+Martin knew all about it. We think you should immediately despatch a
+subpoena for Graybell; and while that is on the road, you will have time
+to consider in what form you will use his testimony; e.g. shall Luther
+Martin be summoned as a witness against Burr, and Graybell held ready
+to confront him? It may be doubted whether we could examine a witness
+to discredit our own witness. Besides, the lawyers say that they are
+privileged from being forced to breaches of confidence, and that
+no others are. Shall we move to commit Luther Martin, as _particeps
+criminis_ with Burr? Graybell will fix upon him misprision of treason at
+least. And at any rate, his evidence will put down this unprincipled and
+impudent federal bull-dog, and add another proof that the most clamorous
+defenders of Burr are all his accomplices. It will explain why Luther
+Martin flew so hastily to the aid of ‘his honorable friend,’ abandoning
+his clients and their property during a session of a principal court
+in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with the clamors and ruin of his
+clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as a witness. He will prove
+that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage several thousand men,
+chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the habit of employing in
+the works he directs, under pretence of a canal opposite Louisville,
+or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he could with that force
+alone have carried every thing before him, and would not have been where
+he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr, Bollman, Yrujo,
+and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him not the less in
+our view.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpoenas?
+
+Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
+it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were to
+work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses
+will some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and
+that consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from
+the men themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of
+to-morrow evening, and be with you Monday evening. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIII.--TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807
+
+TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, June 19, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3rd instant, I avail
+myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to Mr.
+Lincoln, and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late happy
+event of the election of a republican executive to preside over its
+councils. The harmony it has introduced between the legislative and
+executive branches, between the people and both of them, and between
+all and the General Government, are so many steps towards securing that
+union of action and effort in all its parts, without which no nation can
+be happy or safe. The just respect, with which all the States have ever
+looked to Massachusetts, could leave none of them without anxiety while
+she was in a state of alienation from her family and friends. Your
+opinion of the propriety and advantage of a more intimate correspondence
+between the executives of the several States, and that of the Union, as
+a central point, is precisely that which I have ever entertained; and
+on coming into office I felt the advantages which would result from that
+harmony. I had it even in contemplation, after the annual recommendation
+to Congress of those measures called for by the times, which the
+constitution had placed under their power, to make communications in
+like manner to the executives of the States, as to any parts of them
+to which their legislatures might be alone competent. For many are the
+exercises of power reserved to the States, wherein an uniformity of
+proceeding would be advantageous to all. Such are quarantines, health
+laws, regulations of the press, banking institutions, training militia,
+&c. &c. But you know what was the state of the several governments when
+I came into office. That a great proportion of them were federal, and
+would have been delighted with such opportunities of proclaiming their
+contempt, and of opposing republican men and measures. Opportunities so
+furnished and used by some of the State governments, would have produced
+an ill effect, and would have insured the failure of the object of
+uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured even now (Connecticut and
+Delaware being still hostile) it must be on some greater occasion than
+is likely to arise within my time. I look to it, therefore, as a course
+which will probably be to be left to the consideration of my successor.
+
+I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and
+never more to take the field under their own banners. They will now
+reserve themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to
+earn favors from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over
+their more numerous antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely
+accept their votes, no great harm will be done; because it will only
+place in power one shade of republicanism, instead of another. But
+when they purchase the votes of the federalists, by giving them
+a participation of office, trust, and power, it is a proof that
+anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion. I do not think that the
+republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen into this heresy, nor
+that there are in your State materials of which a minority can be made
+who will fall into it.
+
+With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
+should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
+course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military,
+the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
+affections of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of
+precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
+claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
+as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present.
+I confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
+parading himself through the several States as an object of public gaze,
+and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable, should be purely
+voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
+of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
+of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland,
+I must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have
+never yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me
+to be so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have
+no reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office.
+A journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen,
+would much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and,
+founded in curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I
+should see my friends, too, more at our mutual ease, and be left more
+exclusively to their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring
+I have made up no opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a
+question for future consideration and advice.
+
+In the mean time, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
+esteem,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His presence here
+is with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred and fifty
+workmen require his constant directions on various public works of
+pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon as
+possible. How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I
+know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and
+his principal accomplices should come fully out, and judicially, as they
+will establish the just complaints we have against his nation.
+
+I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the _subpoena
+duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the question there as
+_coram non judice_, I did not read his argument with much attention.
+Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual, where an opinion is to be
+supported, right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and
+passes over those which are solid. Laying down the position generally,
+that all persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no exception
+unless it can be produced in his law books. But if the constitution
+enjoins on a particular officer to be always engaged in a particular
+set of duties imposed on him, does not this supersede the general law,
+subjecting him to minor duties inconsistent with these? The constitution
+enjoins his constant agency in the concerns of six millions of people.
+Is the law paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single
+one? Let us apply the Judge’s own doctrine to the case of himself and
+his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to
+quell a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the
+general law, a part of the posse of the State sheriff. Would the Judge
+abandon major duties to perform lesser ones? Again; the court of Orleans
+or Maine commands, by subpoenas, the attendance of all the judges of
+the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts as judges, and the
+interests of millions committed to them, to serve the purposes of a
+single individual? The leading principle of our constitution is the
+independence of the legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each
+other, and none are more jealous of this than the judiciary. But would
+the executive be independent of the judiciary, if he were subject to
+the commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for disobedience; if the
+several courts could bandy him from pillar to post, keep him constantly
+trudging from north to south, and east to west, and withdraw him
+entirely from his constitutional duties? The intention of the
+constitution, that each branch should be independent of the others, is
+further manifested by the means it has furnished to each, to protect
+itself from enterprises of force attempted on them by the others, and
+to none has it given more effectual or diversified means than to the
+executive. Again; because ministers can go into a court in London,
+as witnesses, without interruption to their executive duties, it is
+inferred that they would go to a court one thousand or one thousand five
+hundred miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans
+by every criminal who will swear that their testimony ‘may be of use to
+him.’ The Judge says, ‘it is apparent that the President’s duties,
+as chief magistrate, do not demand his whole time, and are not
+unremitting.’ If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat
+of government, during the sickly season, he should be told that such
+arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at and
+between the several stations we take, that it goes on as unremittingly
+there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass more hours in
+public business at Monticello than I do here, every day; and it is much
+more laborious, because all must be done in writing. Our stations being
+known, all communications come to them regularly, as to fixed points.
+It would be very different were we always on the road, or placed in the
+noisy and crowded taverns where courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected
+here every hour, having been kept away by a sick child. I salute you
+with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LV.--TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June 21, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
+
+Washington, June 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen years of
+age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
+
+*****
+
+I am not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they
+acquire there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the
+happiness of their after life. But there are particular branches of
+science, which are not so advantageously taught any where else in
+the United States as in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for
+Botany, Mr. Peale’s Museum for Natural History, your Medical School for
+Anatomy, and the able professors in all of them, give advantages not to
+be found elsewhere. We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia
+to attend the schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps
+Surgery; but not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask?
+Being led to the subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express
+my opinions on that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to
+finish first with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask
+of you, and which is the object of this letter.
+
+*****
+
+This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
+further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
+most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
+less enlightened.
+
+We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its
+organs and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and
+tending to its destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature
+providing for the re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary
+evacuation of the morbific matter, or by some other operation which
+escapes our imperfect senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by
+stools, vomiting, sweat, urine, expectoration, bleeding, &c, which, for
+the most part, ends in the restoration of healthy action. Experience has
+taught us also, that there are certain substances, by which, applied to
+the living body, internally or externally, we can at will produce these
+same evacuations, and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but
+slowly, and do effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength
+to accomplish. Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized
+by specific signs or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural
+evacuation or process, whenever that disease recurs under the same
+appearances, we may reasonably count on producing a solution of it, by
+the use of such substances as we have found produce the same evacuation
+or movement. Thus, fulness of the stomach we can relieve by emetics;
+diseases of the bowels, by purgatives; inflammatory cases, by bleeding;
+intermittents, by the Peruvian bark; syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness,
+by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the utility of medicine. It goes to the
+well defined forms of disease, and happily, to those the most frequent.
+But the disorders of the animal body, and the symptoms indicating
+them, are as various as the elements of which the body is composed. The
+combinations, too, of these symptoms are so infinitely diversified,
+that many associations of them appear too rarely to establish a definite
+disease: and to an unknown disease, there cannot be a known remedy.
+Here, then, the judicious, the moral, the humane physician should stop.
+Having been so often a witness to the salutary efforts which nature
+makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he should rather trust
+to their action, than hazard the interruption of that, and a greater
+derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a machine so
+complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject so sacred
+as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be necessary to
+keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be of the most
+innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I have ever
+known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored
+water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put
+together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous physician
+goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the scanty
+field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region of what
+is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory of
+corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of
+stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the
+lancet, and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which
+lets him into all nature’s secrets at short hand. On the principle which
+he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases
+into families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all
+the cases he has thus arbitrarily marshaled together. I have lived
+myself to see the disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown,
+succeed one another like the shifting figures of a magic-lanthern, and
+their fancies like the dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris,
+becoming, from their novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to
+the next novelty their ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the
+fashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The
+medicine therefore restored him, and the young doctor receives new
+courage to proceed in his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow
+creatures. I believe we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced and
+presumptuous band of medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys
+more of human life in one year, than all the Robin-hoods, Cartouches,
+and Macheaths do in a century. It is in this part of medicine that I
+wish to see a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the
+first degree of value set on clinical observation, and the lowest on
+visionary theories. I would wish the young practitioner, especially, to
+have deeply impressed on his mind the real limits of his art, and that
+when the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office is to be a
+watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving them
+fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they can
+derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient.
+I have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
+transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I
+would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than
+hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my
+hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge
+of the human body, and observation on the effects of medicinal
+substances on that. The anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are
+those in which the young physician should be formed. If he enters with
+innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely possible he
+should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong indeed,
+if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity
+against the authority of his instructers, and the bewitching delusions
+of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion of
+instruction, which our medical students derive from your labors; and,
+associating with it one of the chairs which my old and able friend,
+Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them as the two fundamental
+pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an opinion of the talents
+of the professors in the other branches which constitute the school of
+medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that it is from this side
+of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so many other things,
+will at length be led into sound principles in this branch of science,
+the most important of all others, being that to which we commit the care
+of health and life.
+
+I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
+heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
+presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
+credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology
+I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too,
+to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so
+familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give
+a confession of my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps,
+at times, to him as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine,
+without defining its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted
+me, for a moment, to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste
+of politics, into which I have been impressed by the times on which I
+happened, and to indulge in the rich fields of nature, where alone I
+should have served as a volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations
+and partialities.
+
+I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVI.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806; but supposing, from your not
+acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried, I sent
+a duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2nd. These having gone
+by the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours
+of May the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
+department of State, carried by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what
+a critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by
+their armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them
+two-deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority
+under which this aggression is committed, their minister here is
+unapprized. You will see by the proclamation of July the 2nd, that
+(while we are not omitting such measures of force as are immediately
+necessary) we propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal
+and reparation, and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or
+other measures, uncommitted, to the legislature. This country has never
+been in such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In
+this state of things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at
+least with Spain, become more interesting. You know the circumstances
+respecting this last power, which have rendered it ineligible that you
+should have proceeded heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle
+is now removed by their recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another
+minister, and, in the mean time, of a _chargé des affaires_, who has
+been received. The way being now open for taking your station at Madrid,
+it is certainly our wish you should do so, and that this may be more
+agreeable to you than your return home, as is solicited in yours of May
+the 1st. It is with real unwillingness we should relinquish the benefit
+of your services. Nevertheless, if your mind is decidedly bent on that,
+we shall regret, but not oppose your return. The choice, therefore,
+remains with yourself. In the mean time, your place in the joint
+commission being vacated by either event, we shall take the measures
+rendered necessary by that. We have seen, with real grief, the
+misunderstanding which has taken place between yourself and General
+Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to form an opinion
+between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt by persons,
+both of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have not been
+without fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has seemed,
+however, that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little to be
+done, in matters so distant from them.
+
+The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
+No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it
+probable this will continue very much the case till we get an answer
+from England. Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is
+now secured south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Washington, July 14, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+I received last night your letters of February the 20th and April the
+29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to
+acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I receive
+whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate esteem
+for yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the state of
+Madame de la Fayette’s health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of
+learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give great
+confidence to that hope.
+
+Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of
+yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established on this
+side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
+found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
+been formed from infancy. Certainly had you been, as I wished, at the
+head of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one
+moment’s uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious
+of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the
+western States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their
+head, establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus
+provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom.
+The man who could expect to effect this, with American materials, must
+be a fit subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however,
+demands more serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the
+United States who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of
+our laws in favor of the accused against the accuser, that I question
+if he is convicted. Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to
+select the twelve who are to try him, and if there be any one who will
+not concur in finding him guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry
+to tell you that Bollman was Burr’s right hand man in all his guilty
+schemes. On being brought to prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison
+and myself the whole of the plans, always, however, apologetically for
+Burr as far as they would bear. But his subsequent tergiversations
+have proved him conspicuously base. I gave him a pardon, however, which
+covers him from every thing but infamy. I was the more astonished at his
+engaging in this business, from the peculiar motives he should have
+felt for fidelity. When I came into the government, I sought him out on
+account of the services he has rendered you, cherished him, offered
+him two different appointments of value, which, after keeping them long
+under consideration, he declined for commercial views, and would have
+given him any thing for which he was fit. Be assured he is unworthy of
+ever occupying again the care of any honest man. Nothing has ever so
+strongly proved the innate force of our form of government, as this
+conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men to follow his
+fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by
+assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation
+was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty
+desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was or was
+suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in
+one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of
+the military but to take care of their respective stations. His first
+enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed
+would powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door
+of Mexico. It is with pleasure I inform you that not a single native
+Creole, and but one American of those settled there before we received
+the place, took any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants
+from the United States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt,
+and adventurers and speculators of all descriptions.
+
+I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing
+on which we stand, at present, with England. Never, since the battle of
+Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation
+as at present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The
+federalists themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they
+will return to their old trade of condemning every step we take towards
+obtaining it. ‘Reparation for the past, and security for the future,’ is
+our motto. Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort
+to non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near
+two thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast,
+and cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
+
+I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve
+Madame de Tesse in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &c. which I
+sent her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England,
+and discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit, for that
+season. Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has,
+I fear, been equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will
+persevere in my endeavors.
+
+Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tesse, Madame de la Fayette, and
+your family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVIII.--TO JOHN PAGE, July 17, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN PAGE.
+
+Washington, July 17, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public offices of mere
+profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or
+second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments
+on that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen that
+confidence so necessary to enable the executive to direct the whole
+public force to the best, advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Boiling
+Robertson’s talents and integrity I have long been apprized, and would
+gladly use them where talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought
+of him for the vacant place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but
+supposing the salary of two thousand dollars not more than he makes
+by his profession, and while remaining with his friends, I have, in
+despair, not proposed it to him. If he would accept it, I should name
+him instantly with the greatest satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform
+me on this point.
+
+With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some
+casual conversation, it was said that the most conspicuous accomplices
+of Burr were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on
+me, that neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this
+subject, I have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a
+wish they might be understood by the federalists in office. I have never
+removed a man merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished
+them to give a vote at an election, but according to their own wishes.
+But as no government could discharge its duties to the best advantage
+of its citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting
+instead of executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage
+and influence of their offices against the government and its measures,
+I have only requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe: and
+if their conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in
+opposition, it ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they
+could not conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed
+in them; and on failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say,
+those who maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government.
+Nothing which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger
+from these principles.
+
+I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the
+late British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the
+demand of reparation for the past, and security for the future, that is
+to say, an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest
+should produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war: but if they
+are refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and
+property, and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean,
+and who may man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these
+to us would be worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile
+and Trafalgar. The mean time may also be importantly employed in
+preparations to enable us to give quick and deep blows.
+
+Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and
+respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIX.--TO WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Washington, July 20, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications, yet
+I merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which they
+are susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others will
+be considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us to
+hear every thing, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all
+their confidence that every thing is doing which can be done, and when
+our greatest praise shall be, that we appear to be doing nothing. The
+law for detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation
+for it, and that for fortifications, enable us to do every thing for
+land service, as well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters,
+their opinion is known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our
+merchants a precious interval to call in their property and our seamen,
+and the postponing the summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give
+too quick an alarm to the adversary. They will be called, however,
+in good time. Although we demand of England what is merely of right,
+reparation for the past, security for the future, yet as their pride
+will possibly, nay probably, prevent their yielding them to the extent
+we shall require, my opinion is, that the public mind, which I believe
+is made up for war, should maintain itself at that point. They have
+often enough, God knows, given us cause of war before; but it has been
+on points which would not have united the nation. But now they have
+touched a chord which vibrates in every heart. Now then is the time to
+settle the old and the new.
+
+I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the
+subject of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I
+suspect you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe,
+does not exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better
+the condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to
+it, as a monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse.
+He is not of the very first order of understanding, but he is of a
+high one. He has taken a peculiar affection to this country and its
+government, of which he has given me public as well as personal proofs.
+Our nation being like his, habitually neutral, our interests as to
+neutral rights, and our sentiments, agree. And whenever conferences
+for peace shall take place, we are assured of a friend in him. In fact,
+although in questions of restitution he will be with England, in those
+of neutral rights he will be with Bonaparte and every other power in
+the world, except England: and I do presume that England will never have
+peace until she subscribes to a just code of marine law. I have gone
+into this subject, because I am confident that Russia (while her present
+monarch lives) is the most cordially friendly to us of any power on
+earth, will go furthest to serve us, and is most worthy of conciliation.
+And although the source of this information must be a matter of
+confidence with you, yet it is desirable that the sentiments should
+become those of the nation. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LX.--TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, August 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the post-office
+had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury Burr’s conduct would
+convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be offered against
+him. But to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings in
+those who administer it? Why do not Blannerhasset, Dayton, &c.
+demand private and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal
+application of law to every condition of man is fundamental, how could
+it be denied to them? How can it ever be denied to the most degraded
+malefactor? The enclosed letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of
+one from Alston to Blannerhasset, came to hand yesterday. I enclose
+them, because it is proper all these papers should be in one deposite,
+and because you should know the case and all its bearings, that you may
+understand whatever turns up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the
+letter-writer is sound, may be doubted. For however these, and other
+circumstances which have come to us, may induce us to believe that the
+bouncing letter he published, and the insolent one he wrote to me, were
+intended as blinds, yet they are not sufficient for legal conviction.
+Blannerhasset and his wife could possibly tell us enough. I commiserate
+the sufferings you have to go through in such a season, and salute you
+with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXI.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 4, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been ------
+that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from
+ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place.
+It is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single
+witness be paid or permitted to depart, until his testimony has been
+committed to writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by
+yourself in the presence of any of Burr’s counsel, who may choose to
+attend to cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before
+Congress, that they may decide, whether the defect has been in the
+evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of the law, and
+that they may provide the proper remedy for the past and the future. I
+must pray you also to have an authentic copy of the record made out
+(without saying for what) and to send it to me: if the Judge’s opinions
+make not a part of it, then I must ask a copy of them, either under his
+hand, if he delivers one signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
+
+This criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
+disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the
+pivot on which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign
+governments may wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted
+of the misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some
+short confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short.
+Be assured yourself, and communicate the same assurances to your
+colleagues, that your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed
+in this affair to my entire satisfaction and your own honor.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXII.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now
+re-enclose you the subpoena. As I do not believe that the district
+courts have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon
+superior duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am
+unwilling, by any notice of the subpoena, to set a precedent which
+might sanction a proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a
+letter, public and for the court, covering substantially all they ought
+to desire. If the papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson’s letter may,
+in your judgment, be communicated without injury, you will be pleased to
+communicate them. I return you the original letter.
+
+I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison’s counsel on this
+occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of
+opinion, that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should
+proceed at Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the
+head of the Judge: if successful, it will give time to see whether a
+prosecution for treason against him can be instituted in any, and
+what other court. But, we incline to think, it may be best to send
+Blannerhasset and Smith (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the
+treason and misdemeanor. The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well
+go on at Richmond.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIII.--TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+
+
+TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR,
+
+Washington, January 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 18th, and am thankful to you
+for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to
+refuse what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider
+the government of the United States as interdicted by the constitution
+from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
+discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that
+no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of
+religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers
+not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any
+religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has
+been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the
+States, as far as it can be in any human authority. But it is only
+proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and
+prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an
+authority over religious exercises, which the constitution has directly
+precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is
+to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those
+who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some
+degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does the change
+in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less a law of
+conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for
+the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct
+its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious
+societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power
+of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and
+prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline.
+Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times
+for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their
+own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their
+own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
+
+I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I
+have ever believed, that the example of State executives led to the
+assumption of that authority by the General Government, without due
+examination, which would have discovered that what might be a right in a
+State government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another.
+Be this as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his
+own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given
+to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the
+religious exercises of his constituents.
+
+I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give
+me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which
+I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a
+public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, February 18, 1808.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as to bring
+for me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage, and you
+wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the
+favor of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them
+to Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must intreat you
+to send me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be
+enabled to reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between
+us, against which this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my
+recollection or knowledge, there were any thing, I pray that that may
+be left to be settled by itself. If I could have known the amount
+beforehand, I should have remitted it, and asked the advance only
+under the idea that it should be the same as ready money to you on your
+arrival. I must again, therefore, beseech you to let me know its amount.
+
+I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and
+another, who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I
+sincerely pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you;
+with me I confidently trust they will not. For independently of the
+dictates of public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere
+friendship for you both will insure its sacred observance. I suffer no
+one to converse with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend
+Clinton estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him,
+as they will be to the other two candidates, under forms, which, however
+false he can scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to
+him also, never to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest
+is a fair and honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no
+doubt the personal conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no
+ground of dissatisfaction with each other. But your friends will not be
+as delicate. I know too well from experience the progress of political
+controversy, and the exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates,
+not to fear for the continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing
+thing said, draws on another, that a third, and always with increasing
+acrimony, until all restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult
+for yourselves to keep clear of the toils in which your friends will
+endeavor to interlace you, and to avoid the participation in their
+passions which they will endeavor to produce. A candid recollection of
+what you know of each other will be the true corrective. With respect
+to myself, I hope they will spare me. My longings for retirement are
+so strong, that I with difficulty encounter the daily drudgeries of my
+duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not stronger than that of
+carrying into it the affections of all my friends. I have ever viewed
+Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of my happiness.
+Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among the greatest
+calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I have great
+confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will guard
+me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
+weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
+
+Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
+assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
+have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had
+never entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds,
+because explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1.
+You consider the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been
+in some way injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself,
+I might say in its justification, that it has been the regular and
+habitual practice of the United States to do this, under every form
+in which their government has existed. I need not recapitulate the
+multiplied instances, because you will readily recollect them. I went as
+an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, yourself as an adjunct first
+to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr. Pinckney, and I really believe
+there has scarcely been a great occasion which has not produced an
+extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is well known, that I was
+strongly opposed to it in the case of which you complain. A committee of
+the Senate called on me with two resolutions of that body on the subject
+of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain, and requesting that
+I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the resolutions, the
+committee entered into free conversation, and observed, that although
+the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary mission,
+yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them on the
+measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave them
+so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
+end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set
+upon me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as
+myself, and represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain
+redress would throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the
+opinion of nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary,
+at length, to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national
+council, and it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from
+any want of confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an
+extraordinary mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating
+the degree of importance which this country attached to the rights which
+we considered as infracted.
+
+2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
+was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment’s credit
+to the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public
+papers, or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word
+of which I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of
+the views to mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my
+confidence was firm, that neither yourself nor the British government,
+equally outraged by them, would believe me capable of making the editors
+of newspapers the confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact
+was this. The treaty was communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day
+Congress was to rise. Two of the Senators inquired of me in the evening,
+whether it was my purpose to detain them on account of the treaty. My
+answer was, ‘that it was not: that the treaty containing no provision
+against the impressment of our seamen, and being accompanied by a
+kind of protestation of the British ministers, which would leave that
+government free to consider it as a treaty or no treaty, according
+to their own convenience, I should not give them the trouble of
+deliberating on it.’ This was substantially, and almost verbally, what
+I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never failed when the occasion
+would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing
+my conviction, that it was all that could be obtained from the British
+government; that you had told their commissioners that your government
+could not be pledged to ratify, because it was contrary to their
+instructions; of course, that it should be considered but as a projet;
+and in this light I stated it publicly in my message to Congress on the
+opening of the session. Not a single article of the treaty was ever made
+known beyond the members of the administration, nor would an article of
+it be known at this day, but for its publication in the newspapers,
+as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as we have always
+understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as the most sacred
+of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your reputation and
+favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to justify your
+failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably unattainable.
+Reviewing, therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you will become
+sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground. I cannot,
+indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you; and
+that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find,
+my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us,
+that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If
+you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs
+of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren
+and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without
+ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that
+the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are
+brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated
+so positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the
+narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view
+of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge
+of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any
+affirmative which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own
+ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you
+will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing
+passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not
+then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the
+ocean of slander, of falsehood, and of malice, on which our credulous
+friends are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did,
+said, or thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me
+injury as causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in
+which you are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no
+sentiment. Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the
+nation, I know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and
+as far as my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially
+supported,
+
+For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve
+in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and
+to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and
+friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor
+myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be
+in their place) those who are still buffeting the storm, uncertain
+of their fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it
+may continue with entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that
+friendship which I have ever borne you, and of which I now assure you,
+with the tender of my high respect and affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson,
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVI.--TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
+for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I
+cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to
+express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
+approbation of my fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
+am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them: and
+never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest
+of my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with
+so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish
+between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to
+the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose,
+indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any
+decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must
+always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse
+principles. But I came to the government under circumstances calculated
+to generate peculiar acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession
+of a political sect, who wished to transform it ultimately into the
+shape of their darling model, the English government; and in the mean
+time, to familiarize the public mind to the change, by administering it
+on English principles, and in English forms. The elective interposition
+of the people had blown all their designs, and they found themselves and
+their fortresses of power and profit put in a moment into the hands of
+other trustees. Lamentations and invective were all that remained to
+them. This last was naturally directed against the agent selected to
+execute the multiplied reformations, which their heresies had rendered
+necessary. I became of course the butt of every thing which reason,
+ridicule, malice, and falsehood could supply. They have concentrated all
+their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded themselves, that I
+am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I hope, therefore, that
+my retirement will abate some of their disaffection to the government of
+their country, and that my successor will enter on a calmer sea than
+I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the hands of his
+friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without even the hope
+of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed, retain their
+rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated with us
+in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow-citizens, now solidly
+republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation
+of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a
+degeneracy in our government.
+
+*****
+
+I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVII.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, March 23, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand. You know
+our principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not employ
+their influence in opposing the government, but only give their own vote
+according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well with
+those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
+
+We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
+denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
+beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
+flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
+punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination
+of Mr. Rose’s mission, _re infectâ_, put it in my power to communicate
+to Congress yesterday, every thing respecting our relations with England
+and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his
+worthy coadjutor Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really
+their persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The
+embargo appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter
+except yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact,
+it is the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does
+not take place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent
+to withdraw the operation of their decrees and orders from us, when
+Congress shall meet in December, they will have to consider at what
+point of time the embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I
+am inclined to believe, we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare
+for the defence of our sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the
+works of defence will be completed, which have been provided for by the
+legislature. I think Congress will rise within three weeks. I salute you
+with great affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVIII.--TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808
+
+TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
+
+Washington, March 30, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I proceed to state
+to you my views of the present state and prospect of foreign affairs,
+under the confidence that you will use them for your own government and
+opinions only, and by no means let them get out as from me. With France
+we are in no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible
+to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England,
+is postponed for this year. This is effected by the embargo, as the
+question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain time,
+perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to our
+citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would
+come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the
+embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In
+the mean time, we have good information, that a negotiation for peace
+between France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria.
+The way for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France
+(through the Moniteur, which is their government paper), that herself
+and her allies will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her
+maritime principles; nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be
+said about them in the treaty, and both sides will be left in the next
+war to act on their own. No doubt the meaning of this is, that all
+the Continental powers of Europe will form themselves into an armed
+neutrality, to enforce their own principles. Should peace be made, we
+shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and prosperity. If we have
+any thing to fear, it will be after that. Nothing should be spared from
+this moment in putting our militia into the best condition possible,
+and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer, we shall get our whole
+sea-ports put into that state of defence, which Congress has thought
+proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say, put
+_hors d’insulte_ from a maritime attack, by a moderate squadron. If
+armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be provided,
+but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven regiments only
+for the present year, depending always on our militia for the operations
+of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be obliged always
+to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn in about three
+weeks. I hope Captain McComb is going on well with your defensive works.
+We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient number of
+gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessels which can cross the
+bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
+complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
+shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
+ten good seamen. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIX.--TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LEIB.
+
+Washington, June 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the
+Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the
+favorable sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will
+so much sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the
+knowledge that I carry with me the good will and approbation of my
+republican fellow-citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison
+with whom I have so long acted. With respect to the federalists, I
+believe we think alike; for when speaking of them, we never mean to
+include a worthy portion of our fellow-citizens, who consider themselves
+as in duty bound to support the constituted authorities of every branch,
+and to reserve their opposition to the period of election. These having
+acquired the appellation of federalists, while a federal administration
+was in place, have not cared about throwing off their name, but,
+adhering to their principle, are the supporters of the present order
+of things. The other branch of the federalists, those who are so in
+principle as well as in name, disapprove of the republican principles
+and features of our constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any
+public calamity (war with England excepted) which might lessen the
+confidence of our country in those principles and forms. I have
+generally considered them rather as subjects for a madhouse. But they
+are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without perhaps
+being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince England,
+that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and that, if they will
+but hold out a while, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come
+when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders
+of council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not
+distant, when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the
+embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be
+taken under these orders, without making reprisal. Yet this is the very
+state of things which these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring
+about; and in this it is but too possible they may succeed. But the
+fact is, that if we have war with England, it will be solely produced by
+their manoeuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what
+will be the issue. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXX.--TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808
+
+
+TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, October 15, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of September the 22nd waited here for my return, and it is
+not till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation
+of his principles, given you by the French Emperor, in conversation,
+is correct as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with
+England, knowing we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay
+to England the tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders
+of council, would be to aid her in the war against him, and would give
+him just ground to declare war with us. He concludes, therefore,
+as every rational man must, that the embargo, the only remaining
+alternative, was a wise measure. These are acknowledged principles, and
+should circumstances arise, which may offer advantage to our country in
+making them public, we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not
+usual nor agreeable to governments to bring their conversations before
+the public, I think it would be well to consider this on your part as
+confidential, leaving to the government to retain or make it public,
+as the general good may require. Had the Emperor gone further, and said
+that he condemned our vessels going voluntarily into his ports in breach
+of his municipal laws, we might have admitted it rigorously legal,
+though not friendly. But his condemnation of vessels taken on the high
+seas by his privateers, and carried involuntarily into his ports, is
+justifiable by no law, is piracy, and this is the wrong we complain of
+against him.
+
+Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
+dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
+friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston.
+
+I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXI.--TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
+
+Washington, October 27, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You will wonder that your letter of June the 3rd should not be
+acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the
+12th, and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business
+I found here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever
+participated in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one
+moment believed. I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise
+against Mexico was of a very different character, I had supposed what I
+heard on that subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for
+me, and I for ever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend
+my belief of innocence to a very different description of men in New
+Orleans; but I think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a
+set of foreign adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur
+in any enterprise to separate that country from this. I did wish to
+see these people get what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law
+itself, that _inter arma silent leges_, that in an encampment expecting
+daily attack from a powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to
+all law, I expected that instead of invoking the forms of the law to
+cover traitors, all good citizens would have concurred in securing them.
+Should we have ever gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by
+manacles of the law, not only in the beginning, but in any part of the
+revolutionary conflict? There are extreme cases where the laws become
+inadequate even to their own preservation, and where the universal
+resource is a dictator, or martial law. Was New Orleans in that
+situation? Although we knew here that the force destined against it was
+suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this unknown at New Orleans at
+the time that Burr’s accomplices were calling in the aid of the law to
+enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that it was reasonable,
+according to the state of information there, to act on the expectation
+of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
+
+Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
+offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
+rebellion as big as an handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
+this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
+it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
+periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment’s fear. My
+long and intimate knowledge of my countrymen satisfied and satisfies me,
+that, let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law,
+and the world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array
+themselves in opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have
+indeed thought it a duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful,
+that of a Bonaparte, for instance, by the only means competent, that of
+a classification of the militia, and placing the junior classes at the
+public disposal: but the lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all
+apprehensions from my mind. If, in a peninsula, the neck of which is
+adjacent to him, and at his command, where he can march any army without
+the possibility of interception or obstruction from any foreign power,
+he finds it necessary to begin with an army of three hundred thousand
+men, to subdue a nation of five millions, brutalized by ignorance, and
+enervated by long peace, and should find constant reinforcements of
+thousands after thousands necessary to effect at last a conquest as
+doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be necessary against eight
+millions of free Americans, spread over such an extent of country
+as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of food, autumnal
+diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how reinforced, across an
+ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a bitter enemy, whose
+peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than momentary? And for
+what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese Creoles would but
+contemplate these truths, they would cling to the American Union, soul
+and body, as their first affection, and we should be as safe there as
+we are every where else. I have no doubt of their attachment to us in
+preference of the English.
+
+I salute you with sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXII.--TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808
+
+
+TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, November 13, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision.
+Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in
+smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away
+what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to
+bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State
+encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are
+made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I
+presume there can be no want in Massachusetts, as yet, as I am informed
+that Governor Sullivan’s permits are openly bought and sold here and
+in Alexandria, and at other markets. The Congressional campaign is just
+opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2.
+War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will
+not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
+first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
+most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
+the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
+general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their
+edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores
+peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On
+this occasion, I think it fair to leave to those who are to act on them,
+the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should
+not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute
+them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been
+pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
+impracticable. I salute you with sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIII.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24, 1808
+
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, November 24, 1808.
+
+My Dear Jefferson,
+
+Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but
+give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you,
+by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
+recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers
+which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers,
+without a friend or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so
+little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your
+safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is
+wrong, prudence, and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the
+estimation of the world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age,
+the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely,
+without a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and
+recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from
+time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and
+become as worthless to society as they were. I had the good fortune to
+become acquainted very early with some characters of very high standing,
+and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become what they were.
+Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr.
+Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course
+in it will insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode
+of deciding on my conduct, tended more to its correctness than any
+reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they
+pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two courses would
+be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through
+a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I
+should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I
+was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players,
+fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and
+many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the
+death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question
+eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation,
+well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a
+horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an orator? or the honest advocate of my
+country’s rights? Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that these little
+returns into ourselves, this self-catechizing habit, is not trifling,
+nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of
+what is right.
+
+I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
+tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
+imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes
+an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial
+good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering
+habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the
+practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little
+conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of
+nothing worth a moment’s consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and
+flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and
+make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for
+the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said
+by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects
+him in the most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good
+nature, in the eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for
+our government in society I must not omit the important one of never
+entering into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an
+instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I
+have seen many, of their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one
+another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning,
+either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what
+we hear from others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was
+one of the rules, which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most
+amiable of men in society, ‘never to contradict any body.’ If he was
+urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as
+if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express
+an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his
+opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no
+injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of
+argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is
+gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the
+gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I will
+give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, and
+shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him, and say nothing.
+It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two classes
+of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of
+young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view
+of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications
+which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other
+consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up
+a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce
+into mixed society a question on which they foresee there will be a
+difference of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my
+dear Jefferson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of
+yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among
+the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be
+a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with
+yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered
+state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set
+one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They
+are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on
+which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry
+bull: it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an
+animal. You will be more exposed than others to have these animals
+shaking their horns at you, because of the relation in which you stand
+with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me and to hate me
+as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be to them what
+the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation.
+Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom
+you can administer only occasional ease. My character is not within
+their power. It is in the hands of my fellow-citizens at large, and will
+be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican mass of
+our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what
+their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these
+puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show,
+that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of
+public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you
+to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself
+to, avoid taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons
+generally; for it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and
+you will find your path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper
+warn me that it is time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing the same to
+Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
+mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIV.--TO DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
+
+Washington, January 14, 1809.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
+December the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens
+of Boston, of the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient
+character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord
+with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully
+through the revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national
+government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for
+its protection the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these
+united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe,
+seems likely to be pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce
+with nearly the whole world. They have declared it shall be carried on
+with such places, in such articles, and in such measure only, as they
+shall dictate; thus prostrating all the principles of right, which
+have hitherto protected it. After exhausting the cup of forbearance
+and conciliation to its dregs, we found it necessary, on behalf of that
+commerce, to take time to call it home into a state of safety, to put
+the towns and harbors which carry it on into a condition of defence, and
+to make further preparation for enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and
+restoring it to its rightful freedom. This required a certain measure of
+time, which, although not admitting specific limitation, must, from its
+avowed objects, have been obvious to all: and the progress actually made
+towards the accomplishment of these objects, proves it now to be near
+its term.
+
+While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
+commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary
+and necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended
+for its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so
+kind as to enclose me, show that those who have concurred in them, have
+judged with more candor the intentions of their government, and
+are sufficiently aware of the tendency of the excitements and
+misrepresentations which have been practised on this occasion. And such,
+I am persuaded, will be the disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts
+at large, whenever truth can reach them. Associated with her sister
+States in a common government, the fundamental principle of which is,
+that the will of the majority is to prevail, sensible, that in the
+present difficulty, that will has been governed by no local interests
+or jealousies, that to save permanent rights, temporary sacrifices
+were necessary, that these have fallen as impartially on all, as in a
+situation so peculiar they could be made to do, she will see, in the
+existing measures, a legitimate and honest exercise of the will and
+wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful to themselves and
+their associates, will not, to avoid a transient pressure, yield to the
+seductions of enemies to their independence, foreign or domestic, and
+take a course equally subversive of their well-being, as of that of
+their brethren.
+
+The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
+Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
+consoling to its members: and, encouraged by the declaration of the
+continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
+they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according
+to the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to
+the good of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of
+tendering you personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, January 28, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer has been
+delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation of your
+absence from Richmond.
+
+The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
+entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the
+former, and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect
+as an extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all
+minds revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives
+a few days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another,
+but rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very
+generally in conversation by all others: and I am satisfied such a
+proposition would get no vote in the Senate. The course the legislature
+means to pursue, may be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting
+in May, and a proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June,
+and then resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation.
+There will be considerable opposition to this last proposition, not
+only from the federalists, old and new, who oppose every thing, but from
+sound members of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good
+majority, and that it is the only proposition which can be devised
+that could obtain a majority of any kind. Final propositions, will,
+therefore, be soon despatched to both the belligerents through the
+resident ministers, so that their answers will be received before the
+meeting in May, and will decide what is to be done. This last trial for
+peace is not thought desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should
+be successful in Spain, however every virtuous and liberal sentiment
+revolts at it, it may induce both powers to be more accommodating
+with us. England will see here the only asylum for her commerce
+and manufactures, worth more to her than her orders of council. And
+Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look immediately to the
+Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply purchased by a repeal
+of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps the Floridas thrown
+into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of affairs in Europe
+produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and prosperity may
+be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take the tented
+field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
+
+There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
+endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is
+probable there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear
+we may renounce for ever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt.
+If we can keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from
+debt, will be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our
+position and increasing strength will put us _hors d’insulte_ from any
+nation. I am now so near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in
+affairs beyond the expression of an opinion. I think it fair, that
+my successor should now originate those measures of which he will be
+charged with the execution and responsibility, and that it is my duty to
+clothe them with the forms of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me
+from a drudgery to which I am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene
+of tranquillity, amidst my family and friends, more congenial to my
+age and natural inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a
+pleasure to me to see you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVI.--TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809
+
+
+TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, February 7, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing
+their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable
+revolution of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New
+England and New York members, and in a kind of panic, they voted the 4th
+of March for removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave
+all reason to believe, they would not agree either to war or
+non-intercourse. This, too, was after we had become satisfied, that
+the Essex Junto had found their expectation desperate, of inducing the
+people there to either separation or forcible opposition. The majority
+of Congress, however, has now rallied to the removing the embargo on the
+4th of March, non-intercourse with France and Great Britain, trade every
+where else, and continuing war preparations. The further details are not
+yet settled, but I believe it is perfectly certain that the embargo
+will be taken off the 4th of March. Present my warmest affections to my
+dearest Martha, and the young ones, and accept the assurances of them to
+yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVII.--TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLLINS.
+
+Washington, February 19, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one as I ever entered into,
+and where an improper construction was never less expected, is making
+some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain it to you,
+because I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the Agricultural
+Society of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough presented
+to them, which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal work
+with half the force of their best ploughs, they thought it would be a
+benefit to mankind to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me,
+with a view to its being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke
+of Bedford also, who is one of their members, to be made use of for
+England, although the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now
+going to France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware
+and New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which
+they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a
+very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool, and flax equally. The
+last spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the cotton of
+the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished to try also
+that of our southern States. I immediately got a friend to have two
+tierces of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to Messrs. Falls
+and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it being given me, I immediately
+wrote to them to re-ship them to New York, to be sent by the Mentor.
+Their first object was to make a show of my letter, as something very
+criminal, and to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like
+request, some time ago (but before the embargo), from the President of
+the Board of Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send
+them some of the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or
+three barrels of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the
+same Society the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had
+carried over from France to England, and I have since received from a
+member of it the seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known
+here. I mention these things, to show the nature of the correspondence
+which is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent
+purpose of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is
+discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace,
+however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters,
+they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and their
+correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. Vaccination
+has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal diffusion of a
+blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it is mortifying, to be
+obliged to note these things, which are known to every one who knows any
+thing, and felt with approbation by every one who has any feeling. But
+we have a faction to whose hostile passions the torture even of right
+into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their malice I have long
+learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise. But I observe,
+that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are receiving
+liberally from others) that this small return should be made. They will
+think more justly at another day: but, in the mean time, I wish to avoid
+offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so good,
+under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed from
+Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &c. which
+I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed, when
+received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted with
+a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
+I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
+should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
+it, I know nothing.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVIII.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
+May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
+and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are
+read with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.
+
+After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being
+entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The
+edicts of the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean,
+we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships,
+and property, to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state
+of defence. We have now taken off the embargo, except as to France
+and England and their territories, because fifty millions of exports
+annually sacrificed, are the treble of what war would cost us; besides,
+that by war we should take something, and lose less than at present. But
+to give you a true description of the state of things here, I must
+refer you to Mr. Coles, the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy,
+intelligent, and well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your
+notice, and conversation on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity
+may be relied on. I expect he will find you with Spain at your feet,
+but England still afloat, and a barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all
+these concerns I am now leaving to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison.
+Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having
+gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting
+the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner,
+released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off
+the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of
+science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the
+times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting
+them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political
+passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without
+censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public
+approbation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so able to take
+care of them, that if we are destined to meet misfortunes, it will
+be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the
+United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit
+of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and delight; hailing
+you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations, and assurances
+of constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred
+shepherd’s dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now
+beginning to pay great attention to the raising sheep.
+
+T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIX.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my departure from
+Washington, I found from their signatures that they were from literary
+characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset
+that it was private, and that his public communications were in the
+letter to the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however, on
+reading his letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a passage
+of some length, proper to be communicated to you, and which I have
+therefore extracted.
+
+I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
+although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better
+to be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable
+a snow storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the
+expedition but fatigue, I have more confidence in my _vis vitæ_ than I
+had before entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats
+sown, not much tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has
+suffered considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple,
+weeping-willow, and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at
+Richmond, and all produce is hurrying down.
+
+I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
+months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have
+a smooth administration. I know no government which would be so
+embarrassing in war as ours. This would proceed very much from the
+lying and licentious character of our papers; but much, also, from the
+wonderful credulity of the members of Congress in the floating lies of
+the day. And in this no experience seems to correct them. I have never
+seen a Congress during the last eight years, a great majority of which
+I would not implicitly have relied on in any question, could their minds
+have been purged of all errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly
+with the protraction of the session, and I apprehend, in case of war,
+their session would have a tendency to become permanent. It is much,
+therefore, to be desired that war may be avoided, if circumstances will
+admit. Nor in the present maniac state of Europe, should I estimate
+the point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we shall, on the
+contrary, have credit with the world, for having made the avoidance
+of being engaged in the present unexampled war, our first object. War,
+however, may become a less losing business than unresisted depredation.
+With every wish that events may be propitious to your administration, I
+salute you with sincere affection and every sympathy of the heart.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXX.--TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809
+
+
+TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA,
+
+Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society
+of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
+receive, fellow-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure,
+the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties
+which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to
+them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office, have
+drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of
+private life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with
+you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which
+nature has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I
+gladly lay down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my
+fellow-citizens, repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors,
+and perplexities of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express
+to administer to my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness;
+and the measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in
+the several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained
+for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life, has been before them; and to their sentence I
+submit it: but the testimony of my native county, of the individuals who
+have known me in private life, to my conduct in its various duties and
+relations, is the more grateful, as proceeding from eye-witnesses and
+observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I
+may ask, in the face of the world, ‘Whose ox have I taken, or whom have
+I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received
+a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?’ On your verdict I rest with
+conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness are received with
+just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+April 3, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXI.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, June 13, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you
+had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed in the debates of
+Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations
+more fully in conversation, which I will now do by abridgment in
+writing. Mr. Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain prosecutions
+at common law in Connecticut, for libels on the government, and not only
+himself, but others have stated them with such affected caution, and
+such hints at the same time, as to leave on every mind the impression
+that they had been instituted either by my direction, or with my
+acquiescence, at least. This has not been denied by my friends, because
+probably the fact is unknown to them. I shall state it for their
+satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed of as they think best.
+
+I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the
+time exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
+obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
+time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
+prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies
+uttered from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote
+to Mr. Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating
+that I had laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the
+thousand calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my
+own conduct, and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that
+I had found no reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I
+was unwilling it should be broke through by others as to any matter
+concerning me; and I therefore requested him to desire the district
+attorney to dismiss the prosecution. Some time after this, 1 heard of
+subpoenas being served on General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as
+witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first time, conjectured
+the subject of the libel. I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to
+require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The answer of Mr.
+Huntington, the district attorney, was, that these subpoenas had been
+issued by the defendant without his knowledge, that it had been his
+intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first meeting of the
+court, and to accompany it with an avowal of his opinion, that they
+could not be maintained, because the federal court had no jurisdiction
+over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till then know that
+there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now know what
+were their subjects. But all went off together; and I afterwards saw, in
+the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the clergyman, disavowing
+any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never
+uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either showed me, or said
+there were affidavits of at least half a dozen respectable men who were
+present at the sermon, and swore no such expressions were uttered, and
+as many equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the clergyman
+expressed his gratification at the dismission of the prosecution. I
+write all this from memory, and after too long an interval of time to be
+certain of the exactness of all the details; but I am sure there is no
+variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small lapses of
+memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that the
+prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
+without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
+and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground
+on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and
+others; to wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null,
+and that my obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not
+suffering rights secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no
+law. I always understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if
+not instituted, by Judge Edwards, and the marshal, being republican,
+had summoned a grand jury partly or wholly republican: but that Mr.
+Huntington declared from the beginning against the jurisdiction of the
+court, and had determined to enter _nolle-prosequis_ before he received
+my directions.
+
+I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
+goes to those to me only, not those from me. The bill had got to its
+passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana),
+and the house under too much pressure of business near the close of the
+session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was given
+to the letters from as well as to both my predecessors, I suppose
+no reason exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive a
+correspondence as I am subject to, and still considerably on public
+matters, it would be a sensible convenience to myself, as well as those
+who have occasion to receive letters from me. It happens, too, as I was
+told at the time (for I have never looked into it myself), that it was
+done by two distinct acts on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I
+think, mentioned this to me. I know from the Post Master General, that
+Mr. Adams franks all his letters. I state this matter to you as being my
+representative, which must apologize for the trouble of it. We have been
+seasonable since you left us. Yesterday evening and this morning we have
+had refreshing showers, which will close and confirm the business of
+planting. Affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, August 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen, on whatsoever measures
+you should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am
+satisfied that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has
+been sanctioned by universal approbation; and although it was not
+literally the case foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper
+extension of their provision to a case similar, though not the same.
+It proved to the whole world our desire of accommodation, and must have
+satisfied every candid federalist on that head. It was not only proper
+on the well-grounded confidence that the arrangement would be honestly
+executed, but ought to have taken place even had the perfidy of England
+been foreseen. Their dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our
+placing them so shamefully in the wrong, and by the union it must
+produce among ourselves. The last proclamation admits of quibbles, of
+which advantage will doubtless be endeavored to be taken, by those to
+whom gain is their god, and their country nothing. But it is soundly
+defensible. The British minister assured us, that the orders of council
+would be revoked before the 10th of June. The executive, trusting in
+that assurance, declared by proclamation that the revocation was to take
+place, and that on that event the law was to be suspended. But the event
+did not take place, and the consequence, of course, could not follow.
+This view is derived from the former non-intercourse law only, having
+never read the latter one. I had doubted whether Congress must not be
+called; but that arose from another doubt, whether their second law had
+not changed the ground, so as to require their agency to give operation
+to the law. Should Bonaparte have the wisdom to correct his injustice
+towards us, I consider war with England as inevitable. Our ships will
+go to France and its dependencies, and they will take them. This will
+be war on their part, and leaves no alternative but reprisal. I have no
+doubt you will think it safe to act on this hypothesis, and with energy.
+The moment that open war shall be apprehended from them, we should take
+possession of Baton Rouge. If we do not, they will, and New Orleans
+becomes irrecoverable, and the western country blockaded during the war.
+It would be justifiable towards Spain on this ground, and equally so on
+that of title to West Florida, and reprisal extended to East Florida.
+Whatever turn our present difficulty may take, I look upon all cordial
+conciliation with England as desperate during the life of the present
+King. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify himself. My
+confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in the ------
+of Canning. I consider the present as the most shameless ministry which
+ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will immortalize their infamy. In
+general their administrations are so changeable, and they are obliged
+to descend to such tricks to keep themselves in place, that nothing like
+honor or morality can ever be counted on in transactions with them. I
+salute you with all possible affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIII.--TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BARTON.
+
+Monticello, September 21, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with all
+possible pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole of the
+Indian vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable misfortune
+has deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing myself of
+every possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same
+set of words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur
+again to any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty,
+and had digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have
+printed them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet
+digested Captain Lewis’s collection, nor having leisure then to do it,
+I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as
+originals, were packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water
+with about thirty other packages of my effects, from Washington, and
+while ascending James river, this package, on account of its weight and
+presumed precious contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being
+disappointed on opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of
+which he thought he could make no use. Among these were the whole of the
+vocabularies. Some leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud;
+but these were very few, and so defaced by the mud and water, that no
+general use can ever be made of them. On the receipt of your letter I
+turned to them, and was very happy to find, that the only morsel of
+an original vocabulary among them, was Captain Lewis’s of the Pani
+language, of which you say you have not one word. I therefore enclose it
+to you as it is, and a little fragment of some other, which I see is in
+his hand-writing, but no indication remains on it of what language it
+is. It is a specimen of the condition of the little which was recovered.
+I am the more concerned at this accident, as of the two hundred and
+fifty words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty words of
+the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the other quarters of
+the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and would have furnished
+materials for a comparison, from which something might have resulted.
+Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the wrecks of my
+loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary when you are done
+with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect, although I am
+too old to expect to make much progress in it.
+
+I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the
+astronomy of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or
+modern and rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most
+interesting countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
+
+I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
+perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
+and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
+that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a
+greater adept in the language than I am.
+
+Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIV.--TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809
+
+
+TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
+
+Monticello, October 4, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding month, and
+have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I have read it with
+pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would probably be as free
+as is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has one feature
+which I like much; that which provides that when the three co-ordinate
+branches differ in their construction of the constitution, the opinion
+of two branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not
+sufficiently solved this difficulty.
+
+Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
+official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal
+worth marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish
+to select for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the
+present occasion, of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with
+your merit and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a
+particular respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a
+great comfort to have to do business with frank and honorable minds.
+And here give me leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present
+retirement, there can be no motive but a regard for truth.
+Your predecessor, soured on a question of etiquette against the
+administration of this country, wished to impute wrong to them in all
+their actions, even where he did not believe it himself. In this spirit,
+he wished it to be believed that we were in unjustifiable co-operation
+in Miranda’s expedition. I solemnly, and on my personal truth and honor,
+declare to you, that this was entirely without foundation, and that
+there was neither co-operation nor connivance on our part. He informed
+us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native country from
+bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance at least. He was
+at once informed, that, although we had great cause of complaint against
+Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think proper to act as
+her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that our hostility
+should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no suspicion that
+he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase military stores.
+Against this there was no law, nor consequently any authority for us to
+interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it improper to
+betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain. Although his
+measures were many days in preparation at New York, we never had the
+least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his enterprise,
+until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his proceedings kept
+them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at Philadelphia, and
+the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of them gave us any
+information of the enlistment of men, until it was too late for any
+measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure. The officer
+in the Customs, who participated in this transaction with Miranda,
+we immediately removed, and should have had him and others further
+punished, had it not been for the protection given them by private
+citizens at New York, in opposition to the government, who, by their
+impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able to overbear the minds of
+the jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could induce me, at this
+time, to make this declaration so gratuitously, were it not founded in
+sacred truth: and I will add further, that I never did, or countenanced,
+in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith;
+having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and
+another for a private man.
+
+I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
+breathe through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
+sincere with which I now salute you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, October 11, 1809.
+
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the
+enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of
+whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me
+to place it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right,
+neither more nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three
+lines, in such form as I may forward him by way of answer.
+
+I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions
+which has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
+arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It
+would be, indeed, a great public calamity, were it to fix you in the
+purpose which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of
+our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment
+of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we
+shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it
+in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt
+should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge
+will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of
+debt, corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge
+of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and
+it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another
+President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects
+subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
+great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix
+on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our
+country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary
+considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never
+can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated
+by our fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to
+admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was,
+that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress
+than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel
+your aid to be still as important for the future, as it has been for the
+past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of
+Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the
+most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope,
+then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that
+you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political
+career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement,
+as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In
+addition to the common interest in this question, I feel particularly
+for myself the considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you
+for your valuable aid during my administration of the public affairs,
+a just sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was
+earned by your labors, and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship
+and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to promote the
+common good; and of which I pray you now to accept the most cordial and
+respectful assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVI.--TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810
+
+
+TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, February 10, 1810.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
+received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that
+the portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a
+share in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has
+never before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice
+we have observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit
+their esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise,
+would have preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence
+of all other nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which
+is now blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the
+mounds of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any
+other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a
+moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection
+which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his
+interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men,
+have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if
+it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that others could be
+honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when is this state
+of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the
+first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and
+might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order
+and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
+stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are
+ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the
+tyrant of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become
+the principle of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest
+minister, were accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their
+system of lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with
+you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity you.
+
+It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
+kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
+to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain
+their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
+functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go straight
+forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can
+lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or
+passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock
+of our safety. In times of peace the people look most to their
+representatives; but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that
+their confidence is even now veering in that direction; that they are
+looking to the executive to give the proper direction to their affairs,
+with a confidence as auspicious as it is well founded.
+
+I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
+all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
+faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for
+the valuable aids I received from you. Though separated from my
+fellow-laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all,
+and I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVII.*--TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
+
+Monticello, February 19,1810.
+
+     [* This letter is endorsed, ‘not sent.’]
+
+Sir,
+
+Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet
+enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
+and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time
+elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
+before his principles were departed from by those who professed to
+be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving
+mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that
+the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been
+adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere
+contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men
+not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force
+them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while
+themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real
+doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.
+
+You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices
+which the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
+administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends
+are men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
+principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
+neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of
+their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions
+are no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
+administration conducted the government on principles professed by the
+Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians,
+as to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with
+their professions. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them,
+and in this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle
+in this, to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the
+professions of religious sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is
+a very obvious one. The mother society is in England. Its members are
+English by birth and residence, devoted to their own country, as good
+citizens ought to be. The Quakers of these States are colonies or
+filiations from the mother society, to whom that society sends its
+yearly lessons. On these the filiated societies model their opinions,
+their conduct, their passions, and attachments. A Quaker is, essentially
+an Englishman, in whatever part of the earth he is born or lives. The
+outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce have kept us in
+perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against
+their own government; not on their profession of peace, for they saw
+that peace was our object also; but from devotion to the views of the
+mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an administration sought war with
+France, the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of
+peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to
+the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original became
+treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old
+leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress,
+against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of
+Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration. He
+accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must
+not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more effect on the
+society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled among
+us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. I know
+individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
+
+I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
+in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVIII.--TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+
+
+TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
+
+Monticello, February 26, 1810.
+
+My Dear General and Friend,
+
+I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and
+avoiding every thing political, lest coming from one in the station I
+then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps
+even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry.
+Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and
+avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended, what I say is
+from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.
+
+The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
+justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
+devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
+worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
+and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which
+might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not
+been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment
+that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent,
+every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may
+venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree,
+prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the
+necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them
+among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than
+will ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly
+added, of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from
+Europe; heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of
+field-pieces, several founderies casting one every other day each; a
+military school of about fifty students, which has been in operation a
+dozen years; and the manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding
+forty thousand young soldiers to our force every year that the war is
+deferred: at all our sea-port towns of the least consequence we have
+erected works of defence, and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or
+two heavy pieces, either eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders,
+sufficient in the smallest harbors to repel the predatory attacks of
+privateers or single armed ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors
+to such more serious attacks as they may probably be exposed to. All
+these were nearly completed, and their gunboats in readiness, when
+I retired from the government. The works of New York and New Orleans
+alone, being on a much larger scale, are not yet completed. The former
+will be finished this summer, mounting four hundred and thirty-eight
+guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one hundred gunboats, will
+be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which will ever be trusted
+across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are less advanced. These
+are our preparations. They are very different from what you will be told
+by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But it is not to them
+the government communicates the public condition. Ask one of them if
+he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you will find
+probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes from. You
+will ask, perhaps, where are the proofs of these preparations for
+one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
+authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
+authorized, they would be executed.
+
+Two measures have not been adopted which I pressed on Congress
+repeatedly at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted
+territory of Orleans, by donations of land to able bodied young men, to
+be engaged and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute
+a force always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was,
+to class the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all
+those from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into
+service at a moment’s warning. This would have given us a force of three
+hundred thousand young men, prepared, by proper training, for service in
+any part of the United States; while those who had passed through that
+period would remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent
+States. These two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary
+for the entire security of our country. They would have given me, on
+my retirement from the government of the nation, the consolatory
+reflection, that having found, when I was called to it, not a single
+sea-port town in a condition to repel a levy of contribution by a single
+privateer or pirate, I had left every harbor so prepared by works
+and gun-boats, as to be in a reasonable state of security against any
+probable attack; the territory of Orleans acquired, and planted with an
+internal force sufficient for its protection; and the whole territory of
+the United States organized by such a classification of its male force,
+as would give it the benefit of all its young population for active
+service, and that of a middle and advanced age for stationary defence.
+But these measures will, I hope, be completed by my successor, who,
+to the purest principles of republican patriotism, adds a wisdom and
+foresight second to no man on earth.
+
+So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
+Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my
+books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My
+mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am
+in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to
+dark, I give to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends;
+and from candle-light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect;
+and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course
+I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near
+sixty-seven years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and
+harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose,
+with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at
+length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without
+being responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and
+by no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such
+young men as ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring village,
+and have the use of my library and counsel, and make a part of my
+society. In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor to keep
+their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom
+and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils
+and government of their country, they will keep ever in view the sole
+objects of all legitimate government.
+
+*****
+
+Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
+independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my
+limited views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of
+mind never before known to me. Except, for this, my happiness would have
+been perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may
+enjoy as many years of life, health, and ease as yourself shall wish, is
+the sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIX.--TO DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JONES.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with
+all antient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned,
+with real sorrow, that circumstances have risen among our executive
+counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were friends.
+To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and
+therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both
+parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient: but to the
+nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to
+believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out.
+That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States: but I hope
+that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no
+cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done
+by consultation between the President and the Head of the department
+alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a
+consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled, or
+by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing. The
+latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because the
+President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an
+opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it
+is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This
+was General Washington’s practice for the first two or three years of
+his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened
+to embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In
+these discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet
+like two cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the
+majority, which of course was three to one, the President decided.
+The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no
+inconvenience. I practised this last method, because the harmony was so
+cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual
+views of the subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I
+think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any case of
+consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into a
+directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is
+better calculated, too, to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure
+it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place.
+It is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present case, and will
+doubtless be resorted to.
+
+Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But
+when viewed in comparison with those of Europe, they are the joys of
+Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed
+our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no
+other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but
+one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over
+the earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin
+over the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses.
+And the system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst this
+wreck of the world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be
+sure, our petty squabbles and heart-burnings, and we have something of
+the blue devils at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are
+eating up other nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim,
+nor the Leviathan move on dry land: and if we will keep out of their
+way, they cannot get at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves
+within the scope of their tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the
+tail, may be our fortune. Our business certainly was to be still. But
+a part of our nation chose to declare against this, in such a way as to
+control the wisdom of the government. I yielded with others, to avoid
+a greater evil. But from that moment, I have seen no system which could
+keep us entirely aloof from these agents of destruction. If there be
+any, I am certain that you, my friends, now charged with the care of us
+all, will see and pursue it. I give myself, therefore, no trouble with
+thinking or puzzling about it. Being confident in my watchmen, I sleep
+soundly. God bless you all, and send you a safe deliverance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XC.--TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810
+
+TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the
+refreshing dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient as
+well as recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty
+years we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these
+have passed away, and so I trust will those of the present day. The
+toryism with which we struggled in ‘77, differed but in name from the
+federalism of ‘99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism, of
+1808, against which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still,
+in another form. It is a longing for a King, and an English King, rather
+than any other. This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
+
+The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is
+too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
+Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
+never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear;
+and especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the
+embers, merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two
+subdued (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England
+alone a short work), ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of
+Alexander, his prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the
+world, would glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged
+forests. Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more
+than half a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria,
+you know, he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come ‘Pontus and
+Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,’ the fine countries on the
+Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis,
+which bounded the glories of his Macedonian rival; with the invitations
+of his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after
+receiving under his protection the mother country, he cannot refuse to
+visit. When all this is done and settled, and nothing of the old world
+remains unsubdued, he may turn to the new one. But will he attack us
+first, from whom he will get but hard knocks, and no money? Or will
+he first lay hold of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, and
+the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from his affection to
+republics, independent of motives of expediency, must grant to ours the
+Cyclops’ boon of being the last devoured. While all this is doing, we
+are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that nothing can
+happen to cut short or disturb his enterprises.
+
+But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence, than
+all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
+first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
+Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
+the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided
+by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now
+to destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
+alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be
+our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
+separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith
+of a nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the
+friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
+chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
+that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
+morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But,
+in addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of
+itself, reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been
+the least faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since
+the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her
+commerce and corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and
+Brunswick. To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her
+Methuin treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable
+to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits
+England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her
+King is a cipher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
+to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument
+of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the
+government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The
+nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once,
+the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this
+purpose they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs,
+so equal in weight, that a small matter turns the balance. To keep
+themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
+every artifice used, which may flatter the pride, the passions, or power
+of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of
+keeping themselves in place. The question, whether a measure is moral,
+is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
+merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other
+effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements,
+however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they
+were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse
+every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true
+character of the English government in practice, however different
+its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the
+individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
+duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
+whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In
+an absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties.
+The despot is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition,
+maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted,
+therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith;
+and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.
+
+When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did
+not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that
+throne. The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings,
+has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of
+animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a
+stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their
+sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions,
+let every thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
+think, and in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and
+this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the
+constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the
+animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
+Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe,
+I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
+reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own
+knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial.
+The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their
+lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand
+miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding
+days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The
+Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was
+the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of
+government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was
+a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph
+of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know was in a
+straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine, who
+had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
+state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
+lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind
+and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
+generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an
+exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third
+generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of
+Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us and have you, my friend, and
+all such good men and true, in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCI.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, July 16,1810
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, July 16,1810.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in
+congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles
+in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of
+these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The
+federalists, during their short-lived ascendancy, have, nevertheless,
+by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which
+can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to
+cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came
+on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days;
+long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who giving in to
+his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to
+his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress.
+They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced
+the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our
+present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the
+world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be
+made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the
+embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of
+our enemies; and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise
+and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove
+genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they,
+too, are gone: and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first
+breeze of success which England shall feel: for it has now been some
+years, that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim
+the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it,
+but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy
+as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself
+out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in
+no situation done any thing which might amount to an acknowledged
+relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid
+a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war
+itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable
+means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced
+her, had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that
+occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country, as to
+control the will of its government and three fourths of its people,
+and oblige the three fourths to submit to one fourth, is to me the most
+mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of
+our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence,
+is in her own conduct, and not from any thing in our power. Radically
+hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she
+will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture,
+not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her
+conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not
+injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing
+out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.
+
+But these are views which concern the present and future generation,
+among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in
+our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
+effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving
+her to agriculture, manufactures, and emigration, will lessen her
+happiness. But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs.
+Dearborn do? How do you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself
+with a garden, a farm, or what? That your pursuits, whatever they
+be, may make you both easy, healthy, and happy, is the prayer of your
+sincere friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCII.--TO J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810
+
+TO J. B. COLVIN.
+
+Monticello, September 20, 1810.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you
+for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it.
+If I have left in the breasts of my fellow-citizens a sentiment of
+satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it
+will soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.
+
+The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
+which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
+beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
+embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws, is
+doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the
+highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
+country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by
+a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself,
+with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with
+us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle
+of Germantown, General Washington’s army was annoyed from Chew’s
+house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although
+the property of a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the
+suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the
+safety of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of
+Virginia took horses, carriages, provisions, and even men, by force, to
+enable that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy;
+and he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions,
+meets another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of
+self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by
+force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of
+self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
+_meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state an
+hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the executive of
+the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for
+a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated
+by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might
+appropriate it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he,
+for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself by
+transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage
+offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense: but a reverence
+for law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally
+accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons
+against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph
+would find means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the
+ensuing spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind
+of the other party. Ought the executive, in that case, and with that
+foreknowledge, to have secured the good to his country, and to have
+trusted to their justice for the transgression of the law? I think he
+ought, and that the act would have been approved. After the affair of
+the Chesapeake, we thought war a very possible result. Our magazines
+were illy provided with some necessary articles, nor had any
+appropriations been made for their purchase. We ventured, however, to
+provide them, and to place our country in safety; and stating the case
+to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
+
+To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
+Wilkinson’s situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
+to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which
+he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British
+fleet from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within
+the city. Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1. In seizing
+notorious conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of
+the guilty and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men.
+2. In sending them to the seat of government, when the written law gave
+them a right to trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of
+their continuing their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of
+the law, apathy of the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of
+lawyers, unknown disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the
+enemy, salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have
+been convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these
+constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the
+_salus populi_ supreme over the written law. The officer who is called
+to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice
+of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes
+it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and
+his fellow-citizens generally, are bound to judge according to the
+circumstances under which he acted. They are not to transfer the
+information of this place or moment to the time and place of his action;
+but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that there never
+was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr’s band was
+crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson’s
+information was very different, and he could act on no other.
+
+From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
+question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
+petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for
+a legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the
+written law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of
+greater evil than a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is
+incumbent on those only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves
+on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of its very
+high interests are at stake.
+
+An officer is bound to obey orders: yet he would be a bad one who should
+do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the
+most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases
+may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his
+own peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country, and the
+rectitude of his motives.
+
+I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that
+they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the
+hands of news-writers. I met their scurrilities without concern, while
+in pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my
+present retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
+
+Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIII.--TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811
+
+TO MR. LAW.
+
+Monticello, January 15, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner
+acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet,
+which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which
+I know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22nd
+is also received.
+
+Mr. Wagner’s malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
+printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
+When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
+mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
+than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as
+to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I
+felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to
+England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of
+the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
+circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that
+if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our
+connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both
+our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them,
+and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and
+intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship
+with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington,
+I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that
+government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
+administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
+their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox’s power.
+But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally
+wanton in their injuries and insults, and has manifested equal hatred
+and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose
+principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have
+adopted the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying
+themselves with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and
+unprincipled, and which never can come into power while republicanism is
+the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such
+a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require
+centuries. Whereas, the good will of the government itself would give
+them, and immediately, every benefit which reason or justice would
+permit it to give. With respect to myself, I saw great reason to believe
+their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a
+supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. This wretched party
+imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a
+personal injury, other than in open war, and for numerous individuals
+there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I must have had a
+mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national
+partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. My
+affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all
+mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in
+the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the
+war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. The
+war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of their
+population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers
+wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a powerful
+opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the
+expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial interest,
+and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be
+neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so
+infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,
+and the well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the
+English constitution, renders a dependance on that government very
+unsafe. The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us,
+have added another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This
+obstacle to friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and
+I verily believe the successor will come in with fairer and wiser
+dispositions towards us; perhaps on that event their conduct may be
+changed. But what England is to become on the crush of her internal
+structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her monied
+interest, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless
+mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear
+with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing,
+her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by
+permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute
+on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
+relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And
+yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to
+take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element,
+would be the desire of every nation.
+
+I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
+myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
+Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
+Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
+which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person,
+should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIV.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Monticello, January 16, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a
+letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received
+your welcome favor of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the
+heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with
+your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because
+I knew that condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and
+still think, this is one of the cases wherein we should ‘not sorrow,
+even as others who have no hope.’
+
+*****
+
+You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. ‘My present course of life
+admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest,
+to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other
+concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the
+few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences;
+not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange
+sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their
+own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and
+approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of
+good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of retirement
+will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may at
+length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but
+revolutionary duties would ever have called me.
+
+I shall receive your proposed publication, and read it with the pleasure
+which every thing gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in
+the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
+
+I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
+friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern
+you take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from
+me, nor from the want of sincere desire, and of effort on my part, to
+renew our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and
+of action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high
+degree of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself.
+Certainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those
+principles of rational republicanism, which, after the necessity of
+throwing off our monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment
+of a new government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the
+principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on
+that account. While he was Vice-President, and I Secretary of State,
+I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon,
+desiring me to call together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr.
+Adams to join us (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being
+done) in order to determine on some measure which required despatch; and
+he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him.
+I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine,
+having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a
+collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton,
+on the merits of the British Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his
+opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it
+would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by
+man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices,
+it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed;
+and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable
+government. And this you may be assured was the real line of difference
+between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another
+incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate
+Hamilton’s political principles. The room being hung around with a
+collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of
+Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they were. I told
+him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever
+produced, naming them. He paused for some time: ‘The greatest man,’
+said he, ‘that ever lived, was Julius Caesar.’ Mr. Adams was honest as
+a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
+politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
+govern men.
+
+You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about
+that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our
+constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to
+bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to
+homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know,
+was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often
+by the pen of the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced by them into some open
+indications of his new principles of government, and in fact, was so
+elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards
+me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly
+flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and
+the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to
+bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial
+satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the
+political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr.
+Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia
+the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide
+the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called
+on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly affected,
+and accosted me with these words. ‘Well, I understand that you are to
+beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will be as faithful
+a subject as any you will have.’ ‘Mr. Adams,’ said I, ‘this is no
+personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles on the
+subject of government divide our fellow-citizens into two parties. With
+one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on
+the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be
+more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name
+at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two
+other names would be in the place of ours, without any change in the
+motion of the machine. Its motion is from its principle, not from you
+or myself.’ ‘I believe you are right,’ said he, ‘that we are but passive
+instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal
+dispositions.’ But he did not long retain this just view of the
+subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which
+the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
+ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
+intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
+myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
+to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
+called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
+by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence
+he had not used towards me before, ‘Sir, the event of the election is
+within your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to
+the public creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding
+offices, and the government will instantly be put into your hands. We
+know it is the wish of the people it should be so.’ ‘Mr. Adams,’ said I,
+‘I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or private life,
+can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements.
+I say, however, I will not come into the government by capitulation. I
+will not enter on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates
+of my own judgment.’ I had before given the same answer to the same
+intimation from Gouverneur Morris. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘things must take
+their course.’ I turned the conversation to something else, and soon
+took my leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted
+with any thing like dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of
+midnight appointment, which have been condemned by all men. The last day
+of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the midnight,
+were employed in filling all offices and especially permanent ones, with
+the bitterest federalists, and providing for me the alternative, either
+to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it would be
+to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such
+numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A little time and
+reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and
+passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first
+wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means in my power;
+for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some republican
+members of the delegation from his State, the giving him, either
+directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State,
+and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it
+affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the
+offer; and, moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such
+a step in the outset, as auguring very ill of the course I meant to
+pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for
+some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
+
+Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
+between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment,
+she made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the
+tenderest expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a
+single one of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with
+the wishes ‘of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your
+friend, Abigail Adams.’ Unpromising as was the complexion of this
+letter, I determined to make an effort towards removing the clouds from
+between us. This brought on a correspondence which I now enclose for
+your perusal, after which be so good as to return it to me, as I have
+never communicated it to any mortal breathing, before. I send it to you,
+to convince you I have not been wanting either in the desire, or the
+endeavor to remove this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly
+disgraceful to us both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to
+prevent a public competition from affecting our personal friendship. I
+soon found from the correspondence that conciliation was desperate,
+and yielding to an intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further
+explanation. I have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had.
+I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a
+powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from
+me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering
+purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the
+occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly
+passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but
+no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever
+misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence without my asserting his just
+character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved
+of the principles and practices of his administration. This was
+unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury.
+Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had
+not: and I am satisfied Mr. Adams’s conduct was equally honorable
+towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play
+in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
+suspicions.
+
+I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know
+every thing which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of
+the state of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they
+admit a revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
+solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in any thing on my part
+which may second your efforts; which will be the easier with me,
+inasmuch as I do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression
+of which could give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to
+yourself, with the assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship
+and respect for yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCV.--TO M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811
+
+TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
+
+Monticello, January 26, 1811.
+
+Sir,
+
+The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way
+to me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed
+very much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which
+accompanied it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I
+received from its perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu’s
+a work of much merit; but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of
+paradox, of false principle, and misapplied fact, as to render its value
+equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at
+its errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a great
+desideratum. This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought,
+precision; of idea, of language, and of logic, which will force
+conviction into every mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of
+truth and sincerity, that I consider it the most precious gift the
+present age has received. But what would it have been, had the author,
+or would the author, take up the whole scheme of Montesquieu’s work, and
+following the correct analysis he has here developed, fill up all its
+parts according to his sound views of them. Montesquieu’s celebrity
+would be but a small portion of that which would immortalize the author.
+And with whom? With the rational and high-minded spirits of the present
+and all future ages. With those whose approbation is both incitement
+and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope desperate? To what
+object can the occupation of his future life be devoted so usefully to
+the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to others who have
+higher claims on his attention, to press these considerations.
+
+My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to
+the object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is
+the least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists
+any enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following
+the receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its
+execution. The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me
+by post, from time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by
+the original, I could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however,
+it is substantially correct, without being an adequate representation
+of the excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I
+found it impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition
+in our language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the
+author towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view,
+propose to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy
+of the work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret
+of the author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint
+lives; and those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death will
+be equally worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his
+living consent shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both
+his and my papers will furnish the evidence. In the mean time, the many
+important truths the works so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it
+the political rudiment of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
+
+One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
+executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
+government was first established, we had many doubts on this question,
+and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that
+at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France,
+while the single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions
+and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety
+proportioned to the importance of a. choice between them. The experiment
+in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstance
+peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and
+dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in
+power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We
+had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of
+the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to
+exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They
+fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so
+inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable:
+they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it
+continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This
+was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise
+ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory,
+and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form
+of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men
+constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady
+tenor of our single executive, during a course of twenty-two years of
+the most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented,
+gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved.
+Aided by the counsels of a cabinet of Heads of departments, originally
+four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or
+all together, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings
+their views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and
+direction in all the branches of the government. The excellence of this
+construction of the executive power has already manifested itself here
+under very opposite circumstances. During the administration of our
+first President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided, by as
+marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism and republicanism could
+bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a directory, like positive
+and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing wills would have
+balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute inaction. But the
+President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided
+the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it,
+unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the
+cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their account; because they
+knew also they had provided a regulating power, which would keep the
+machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate knowledge of these
+scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of others of a character entirely
+opposite. The third administration, which was of eight years, presented
+an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to which perhaps
+history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during the whole
+time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the members.
+We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed,
+by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other’s ideas, as to
+produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
+were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
+equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
+departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and
+strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of
+designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the divisions
+of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced persevering
+oppositions. But the power of decision in the President left no object
+for internal dissension, and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by
+the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they
+could foment would change the course of the executive power. I am not
+conscious that my participations in executive authority have produced
+any bias in favor of the single executive; because the parts I have
+acted have been in the subordinate, as well as superior stations, and
+because, if I know myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I
+know that I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power
+from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to
+conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
+the exercise of power over others.
+
+I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that,
+to insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be
+subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without
+suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of
+government. You apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of
+talent, and destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by
+usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes
+as many examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a
+plurality, as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered
+permanent by usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger
+is lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly
+increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from
+feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you propose
+might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in
+a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check
+on the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to
+this idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our
+State governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by
+man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us
+possessed. Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their
+foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal
+administration, regularly organized with a legislature and governor
+resting on the choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press,
+can never be so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit
+voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any
+force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which
+it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of
+two thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for
+deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their
+governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State,
+that is to say, of every man in it, able to bear arms; and that militia,
+too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into infantry,
+cavalry, and artillery, trained under officers general and subordinate,
+legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they are already
+in habits of obedience. The republican government of France was lost
+without a struggle, because the party of ‘_un et indivisible_’ had
+prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to which the people
+might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were
+virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out
+of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But
+with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular
+organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by their
+Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention, present
+such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the first
+conception of that object.
+
+Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
+perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
+wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
+attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would
+be befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that
+local discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face
+the sound parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach
+the majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the
+ascendancy in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by
+laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which
+local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would
+be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into
+which we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at
+liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities
+of their individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential
+to preserve the purity of the government, by the censorship which these
+parties habitually exercise over each other.
+
+You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the
+grounds on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from
+yours. They prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my
+own, which have forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion
+questioned by you. Permit me now to render my portion of the general
+debt of gratitude, by acknowledgments in advance for the singular
+benefaction which is the subject of this letter, to tender my wishes
+for the continuance of a life so usefully employed, and to add the
+assurances of my perfect esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
+Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
+sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
+councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those
+whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
+Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that
+the dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
+occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
+affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony
+and affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our
+country than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of
+their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers
+and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the
+latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible:
+but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government,
+they will be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have
+been the theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting
+after war, some against France, and some against England. But the people
+wish for peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become
+the reformers of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and
+sword, a return to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more
+losing than war, they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes
+are clamoring for on false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by
+these clamors, as the re-election of their legislators shows, and they
+are firm to their executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
+
+We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
+lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton
+this year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market.
+This is the case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears
+alarmingly in our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want
+of rain.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances
+of my constant and affectionate esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVII.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+*****
+
+I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will
+long continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the
+way. I sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and
+because it multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have
+been able to judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against
+the government. Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now;
+but the mass of our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an
+incident, another proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of
+self-government, and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The
+spirit, indeed, which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter,
+although I believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down
+in peaceable times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the
+determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of
+the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force
+a war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between
+her and your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce.
+Pickering here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate
+this. Such a lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit
+theirs to a majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse
+with the rest of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they
+would propose to themselves, even for the moment. The defection would
+certainly disconcert the other States, but it could not ultimately
+endanger their safety. They are adequate, in all points, to a defensive
+war. However, I hope your majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will
+save us from this trial, to which I think it possible we are advancing.
+The death of George may come to our relief; but I fear the dominion
+of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also. Perhaps, if some
+stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from the Mammoth of
+the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people of England
+might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again. Tell my
+old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping with
+which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice
+and protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
+pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
+assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust
+can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem
+it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it
+flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to
+come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the
+more gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now
+_hors de combat_ myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack
+of rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not
+very long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in
+the focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue
+out of all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long
+health, and friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVIII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that
+I can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as
+I have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
+therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams
+and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I
+communicated to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and
+myself, in proof that I could not give friendship in exchange for such
+sentiments as she had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and
+maintained in her letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of
+these could admit a reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in
+proportion as the return to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In
+these jaundiced sentiments of hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing
+the weight which her opinions had with him, and notwithstanding she
+declared in her letters that they were not communicated to him. A late
+incident has satisfied me that I wronged him as well as her in not
+yielding entire confidence to this assurance on her part. Two of the Mr.
+------, my neighbors and friends, took a tour to the northward during
+the last summer. In Boston they fell into company with Mr. Adams, and by
+his invitation passed a day with him at Braintree. He spoke out to
+them every thing which came uppermost, and as it occurred to his mind,
+without any reserve, and seemed most disposed to dwell on those things
+which happened during his own administration. He spoke of his masters,
+as he called his Heads of departments, as acting above his control, and
+often against his opinions. Among many other topics, he adverted to
+the unprincipled licentiousness of the press against myself, adding, ‘I
+always loved Jefferson, and still love him.’
+
+This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards
+him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives.
+Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin’s character of him, I
+knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes
+incorrect and precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who
+have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice
+myself, and defended him when assailed by others, with the single
+exception as to his political opinions. But with a man possessing so
+many other estimable qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere
+differences of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any
+thing else. His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different
+views of the same subject are the result of a difference in our
+organization and experience. I never withdrew from the society of any
+man on this account, although many have done it from me; much less
+should I do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand and
+heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite
+occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There
+is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so
+long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call for a
+letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which
+I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion
+of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
+necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you can,
+perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and knowing this,
+should an occasion of writing first present itself to him, he will
+perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first occur
+to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give fair
+play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
+in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
+greatest intimacy with him.
+
+I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
+kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
+which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God
+ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens
+of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not
+their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things
+in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse
+and middling goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a
+manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within
+itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and
+household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as
+sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax,
+which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on your
+northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company
+establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning
+jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family; but
+nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting from
+our household manufactures are such that they will never again be laid
+aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened than the
+British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures. Restore free
+intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have totally
+changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from them
+will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
+
+A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It
+carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers,
+we were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most
+valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the
+same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet
+passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the
+storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not
+expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First
+the detention of the western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz,
+outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the
+outlawry. In your day, French depredations: in mine, English, and the
+Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the English orders of council, and
+the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will be the
+impressment of our seamen, or something else: and so we have gone on,
+and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in
+the history of man. And I do believe we shall continue to growl, to
+multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise,
+and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men. As for France and
+England, with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of
+robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science produces no better
+fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of national
+morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
+and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
+garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave.
+I think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in
+exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I
+find myself much the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former
+occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers,
+who have fallen before us. Of the signers of the Declaration of
+Independence, I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side
+of the Potomac, and on this side, myself alone. You and I have
+been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarkable health, and a
+considerable activity of body and mind. I am on horseback three or four
+hours of every day; visit three or four times a year a possession I have
+ninety miles distant, performing the winter journey on horseback. I walk
+little, however, a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the
+midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a
+great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good
+health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I
+would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a letter
+like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits,
+occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure of knowing, that
+in the race of life, you do not keep, in its physical decline, the
+same distance ahead of me, which you have done in political honors and
+achievements. No circumstances have lessened the interest I feel in
+these particulars respecting yourself; none have suspended for one
+moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you with unchanged
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER C.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for
+that I received from you. Not of the fine texture, or delicate character
+of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that
+display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles Lettres,
+but a mere sober, dry, and formal piece of logic. _Ornari res ipsa
+negat_. Yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading,
+to cast an eye over some of the questions it discusses. At any rate,
+accept it as the offering of esteem and friendship.
+
+You wish to know something of the Richmond and Wabash prophets. Of
+Nimrod Hews I never before heard. Christopher Macpherson I have known
+for twenty years. He is a man of color, brought up as a book-keeper by a
+merchant, his master, and afterwards enfranchised. He had understanding
+enough to post up his leger from his journal, but not enough to bear
+up against hypochrondriac affections, and the gloomy forebodings they
+inspire. He became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and
+rhapsodizing what neither himself nor any one else could understand.
+I think he told me he had visited you personally while you were in the
+administration, and wrote you letters, which you have probably forgotten
+in the mass of the correspondences of that crazy class, of whose
+complaints, and terrors, and mysticisms, the several Presidents have
+been the regular depositories. Macpherson was too honest to be molested
+by any body, and too inoffensive to be a subject for the mad-house;
+although, I believe, we are told in the old book, that ‘every man that
+is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, thou shouldst put him in prison
+and in the stocks.’
+
+The Wabash prophet is a very different character, more rogue than fool,
+if to be a rogue is not the greatest of all follies. He arose to notice
+while I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper
+subject of inquiry for me. The inquiry was made with diligence. His
+declared object was the reformation of his red brethren, and their
+return to their pristine manner of living. He pretended to be in
+constant communication with the Great Spirit; that he was instructed by
+him to make known to the Indians that they were created by him distinct
+from the whites, of different natures, for different purposes, and
+placed under different circumstances, adapted to their nature and
+destinies; that they must return from all the ways of the whites to the
+habits and opinions of their forefathers; they must not eat the flesh
+of hogs, of bullocks, of sheep, &c. the deer and buffalo having been
+created for their food; they must not make bread of wheat, but of Indian
+corn; they must not wear linen nor woollen, but dress like their fathers
+in the skins and furs of animals; they must not drink ardent spirits:
+and I do not remember whether he extended his inhibitions to the gun and
+gunpowder, in favor of the bow and arrow. I concluded from all this that
+he was a visionary, enveloped in the clouds of their antiquities, and
+vainly endeavoring to lead back his brethren to the fancied beatitudes
+of their golden age. I thought there was little danger of his making
+many proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the
+whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm
+if he did. We let him go on, therefore, unmolested. But his followers
+increased till the English thought him worth corruption, and found him
+corruptible. I suppose his views were then changed; but his proceedings
+in consequence of them were after I left the administration, and are,
+therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been informed what were the
+particular acts on his part, which produced, an actual commencement
+of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that his subsequent
+proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord
+Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
+
+Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
+embargo, and communicated it to me. But he had learned nothing of the
+particular agent, although, of his workings, the information he had
+obtained appears now to have been correct. He stated a particular which
+Henry has not distinctly brought forward, which was, that the eastern
+States were not to be required to make a formal act of separation from
+the Union, and to take a part in the war against it; a measure deemed
+much too strong for their people: but to declare themselves in a state
+of neutrality, in consideration of which they were to have peace and
+free commerce, the lure most likely to insure popular acquiescence.
+Having no indications of Henry as the intermediate in this negotiation
+of the Essex junto, suspicions fell on Pickering, and his nephew
+Williams in London. If he was wronged in this, the ground of the
+suspicion is to be found in his known practices and avowed opinions,
+as that of his accomplices in the sameness of sentiment and of language
+with Henry, and subsequently by the fluttering of the wounded pigeons.
+
+This letter, with what it encloses, has given you enough, I presume, of
+law and the prophets. I will only add to it, therefore, the homage of my
+respects to Mrs. Adams, and to yourself the assurances of affectionate
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CI.--TO JAMES MAURY, April 25, 1812
+
+
+TO JAMES MAURY.
+
+Monticello, April 25, 1812.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend and Classmate,
+
+Often has my heart smote me for delaying acknowledgments to you,
+receiving, as I do, such frequent proofs of your kind recollection in
+the transmission of papers to me. But instead of acting on the good old
+maxim of not putting off to to-morrow what we can do to-day, we are too
+apt to reverse it, and not to do today what we can put off to to-morrow.
+But this duty can be no longer put off. To-day we are at peace;
+to-morrow war. The curtain of separation is drawing between us, and
+probably will not be withdrawn till one, if not both of us, will be at
+rest with our fathers. Let me now, then, while I may, renew to you the
+declarations of my warm attachment, which in no period of life has ever
+been weakened, and seems to become stronger as the remaining objects of
+our youthful affections are fewer.
+
+Our two countries are to be at war, but not you and I. And why should
+our two countries be at war, when by peace we can be so much more useful
+to one another? Surely the world will acquit our government of having
+sought it. Never before has there been an instance of a nation’s bearing
+so much as we have borne. Two items alone in our catalogue of wrongs
+will for ever acquit us of being the aggressors; the impressment of our
+seamen, and the excluding us from the ocean. The first foundations of
+the social compact would be broken up, were we definitively to refuse to
+its members the protection of their persons and property, while in their
+lawful pursuits. I think the war will not be short, because the object
+of England, long obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain, and to
+exact transit duties from every vessel traversing it. This is the sum of
+her orders of council, which were only a step in this bold experiment,
+never meant to be retracted if it could be permanently maintained. And
+this object must continue her in war with all the world. To this I
+see no termination, until her exaggerated efforts, so much beyond her
+natural strength and resources, shall have exhausted her to bankruptcy.
+The approach of this crisis is, I think, visible in the departure of her
+precious metals, and depreciation of her paper medium. We, who have gone
+through that operation, know its symptoms, its course, and consequences.
+In England they will be more serious than elsewhere, because half the
+wealth of her people is now in that medium, the private revenue of her
+money-holders, or rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe, greater
+than that of her land-holders. Such a proportion of property, imaginary
+and baseless as it is, cannot be reduced to vapor, but with great
+explosion. She will rise out of its ruins, however, because her lands,
+her houses, her arts, will remain, and the greater part of her men. And
+these will give her again that place among nations which is proportioned
+to her natural means, and which we all wish her to hold. We believe that
+the just standing of all nations is the health and security of all. We
+consider the overwhelming power of England on the ocean, and of France
+on the land, as destructive of the prosperity and happiness of the
+world, and wish both to be reduced only to the necessity of observing
+moral duties. We believe no more in Bonaparte’s fighting merely for the
+liberty of the seas, than in Great Britain’s fighting for the liberties
+of mankind. The object of both is the same, to draw to themselves the
+power, the wealth, and the resources of other nations. We resist the
+enterprises of England first, because they first come vitally home to
+us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing the lash of George the
+III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future day. When the wrongs
+of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall resist them
+also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice to the
+champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
+
+The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I
+am not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If
+I could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct
+of England would have permitted them to be directed towards her,
+they would have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr.
+Addington, I discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even
+friendship and respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing
+these dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will.
+But we had then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe
+himself, and to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his
+subsequent conduct has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English
+minister here, had learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions,
+without head enough to distinguish when they were misplaced. Mr.
+Addington and Mr. Fox passed away too soon to avail the two countries
+of their dispositions. Had I been personally hostile to England,
+and biassed in favor of either the character or views of her great
+antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand. I had
+only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if ever I was gratified
+with the possession of power, and of the confidence of those who had
+entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was enabled to
+use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion
+here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another person in
+the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could have
+resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments and
+orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer is,
+that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
+other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
+England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
+Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
+our neighborhood.
+
+I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics,
+to possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes
+which are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself
+from all political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life
+with what have been the passions of every portion of it, books, science,
+my farms, my family, and friends.
+
+To these every hour of the day is now devoted. I retain a good activity
+of mind, not quite as much of body, but uninterrupted health. Still the
+hand of age is upon me. All my old friends are nearly gone. Of those in
+my neighborhood, Mr. Divers and Mr. Lindsay alone remain. If you could
+make it a _partie quarrée_, it would be a comfort indeed. We would
+beguile our lingering hours with talking over our youthful exploits, our
+hunts on Peter’s Mountain, with a long train of _et cetera_ in addition,
+and feel, by recollection at least, a momentary flash of youth.
+Reviewing the course of a long and sufficiently successful life, I find
+in no portion of it happier moments than those were. I think the old
+hulk in which you are, is near her wreck, and that like a prudent rat,
+you should escape in time. However, here, there, and every where, in
+peace or in war, you will have my sincere affections, and prayers for
+your life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, May 30, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Another communication is enclosed, and the letter of the applicant is
+the only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember
+such a person as the secretary of Mr. Adams, and messenger to the Senate
+while I was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding
+to it a strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the
+Anglomen and malcontents; in other words, the federalists and quids. Yet
+it would reconcile neither. It would only change the topic of abuse
+with the former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter. It
+would prevent our eastern capitalists and seamen from employment in
+privateering, take away the only chance of conciliating them, and keep
+them at home, idle, to swell the discontents; it would completely disarm
+us of the most powerful weapon we can employ against Great Britain, by
+shutting every port to our prizes, and yet would not add a single
+vessel to their number; it would shut every market to our agricultural
+productions, and engender impatience and discontent with that class
+which, in fact, composes the nation; it would insulate us in general
+negotiations for peace, making all the parties our opposers, and very
+indifferent about peace with us, if they have it with the rest of the
+world; and would exhibit a solecism worthy of Don Quixotte only, that
+of a choice to fight two enemies at a time, rather than to take them
+by succession. And the only motive for all this is a sublimated
+impartiality, at which the world will laugh, and our own people will
+turn upon us in mass as soon as it is explained to them, as it will be
+by the very persons who are now laying that snare. These are the hasty
+views of one who rarely thinks on these subjects. Your own will
+be better, and I pray to them every success, and to yourself every
+felicity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIII.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812
+
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It has given me great pleasure to receive a letter from you. It seems as
+if, our ancient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections
+of the heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our
+acquaintance commenced in 1764, both then just of age. We happened to
+take lodgings in the same house in New York. Our next meeting was in
+the Congress of 1775, and at various times afterwards in the exercise of
+that and other public functions, until your mission to Europe. Since we
+have ceased to meet, we have still thought and acted together, ‘_et idem
+velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum amicitia est_.’ Of this harmony of
+principle, the papers you enclosed me are proof sufficient. I do not
+condole with you on your release from your government. The vote of your
+opponents is the most honorable mark by which the soundness of your
+conduct could be stamped. I claim the same honorable testimonial. There
+was but a single act of my whole administration of which that party
+approved. That was the proclamation on the attack of the Chesapeake.
+And when I found they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to
+apprehend I had done wrong, and to exclaim with the Psalmist, ‘Lord,
+what have I done, that the wicked should praise me!’
+
+What, then, does this English faction with you mean? Their newspapers
+say rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we
+will permit them to govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their
+anti-republican spirit, it ought to be met at once. But a government
+like ours should be slow in believing this, should put forth its whole
+might when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
+reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the
+vindictive passions of the petty incorporations of Greece. I rather
+suspect that the principal office of the other seventeen States will be
+to moderate and restrain the local excitement of our friends with you,
+when they (with the aid of their brethren of the other States, if they
+need it) shall have brought the rebellious to their feet. They count on
+British aid. But what can that avail them by land? They would separate
+from their friends, who alone furnish employment for their navigation,
+to unite with their only rival for that employment. When interdicted
+the harbors of their quondam brethren, they will go, I suppose, to ask
+a share in the carrying-trade of their rivals, and a dispensation with
+their navigation act. They think they will be happier in an association
+under the rulers of Ireland, the East and West Indies, than in an
+independent government, where they are obliged to put up with their
+proportional share only in the direction of its affairs. But I trust
+that such perverseness will not be that of the honest and well meaning
+mass of the federalists of Massachusetts; and that when the questions
+of separation and rebellion shall be nakedly proposed to them, the Gores
+and the Pickerings will find their levees crowded with silk-stocking
+gentry, but no yeomanry; an army of officers without soldiers. I hope,
+then, all will still end well: the Anglomen will consent to make peace
+with their bread and butter, and you and I shall sink to rest, without
+having been actors or spectators in another civil war.
+
+How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count; but I
+you in that of our grand-children. We have not timed these things well
+together, or we might have begun a re-alliance between Massachusetts
+and the Old Dominion, faithful companions in the war of Independence,
+peculiarly tallied in interests, by each wanting exactly what the other
+has to spare; and estranged to each other, in latter times, only by the
+practices of a third nation, the common enemy of both. Let us live only
+to see this re-union, and I will say with old Simeon, ‘Lord, now
+lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy
+salvation.’ In that peace may you long remain, my friend, and depart
+only in the fulness of years, all passed in health and prosperity. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. June 13. I did not condole with you on the reprobation of your
+opponents, because it proved your orthodoxy. Yesterday’s post brought
+me the resolution of the republicans of Congress, to propose you as
+Vice-President. On this I sincerely congratulate you. It is a stamp of
+double proof. It is a notification to the factionaries that their nay is
+the yea of truth, and its best test. We shall be almost within striking
+distance of each other. Who knows but you may fill up some short recess
+of Congress with a visit to Monticello, where a numerous family will
+hail you with a hearty country welcome. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIV.--TO JUDGE TYLER, June 17,1812
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, June 17,1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+On the other subject of your letter, the application of the common law
+to our present situation, I deride with you the ordinary doctrine,
+that we brought with us from England the common law rights. This narrow
+notion was a favorite in the first moment of rallying to our rights
+against Great Britain. But it was that of men who felt their rights
+before they had thought of their explanation. The truth is, that we
+brought with us the rights of men; of expatriated men. On our arrival
+here, the question would at once arise, by what law will we govern
+ourselves? The resolution seems to have been, by that system with which
+we are familiar, to be altered by ourselves occasionally, and adapted to
+our new situation. The proofs of this resolution are to be found in
+the form of the oaths of the judges, 1 Hening’s Stat. 169, 187; of the
+Governor, ib. 504; in the act for a provisional government, ib. 372; in
+the preamble to the laws of 1661-2; the uniform current of opinions and
+decisions; and in the general recognition of all our statutes framed
+on that basis. But the state of the English law at the date of
+our emigration, constituted the system adopted here. We may doubt,
+therefore, the propriety of quoting in our courts English authorities
+subsequent to that adoption; still more, the admission of authorities
+posterior to the Declaration of Independence, or rather to the accession
+of that King, whose reign, _ab initio_, was that very tissue of wrongs
+which rendered the Declaration at length necessary. The reason for it
+had inception at least as far back as the commencement of his reign.
+This relation to the beginning of his reign, would add the advantage of
+getting us rid of all Mansfield’s innovations, or civilizations of the
+common law. For however I admit the superiority of the civil, over the
+common law code, as a system of perfect justice, yet an incorporation of
+the two would be like Nebuchadnezzar’s image of metals and clay, a thing
+without cohesion of parts. The only natural improvement of the common
+law, is through its homogeneous ally, the chancery, in which new
+principles are to be examined, concocted, and digested. But when,
+by repeated decisions and modifications, they are rendered pure and
+certain, they should be transferred by statute to the courts of common
+law, and placed within the pale of juries. The exclusion from the courts
+of the malign influence of all authorities after the _Georgium sidus_
+became ascendant, would uncanonize Blackstone, whose book, although the
+most elegant and best digested of our law catalogue, has been perverted
+more than all others to the degeneracy of legal science. A student finds
+there a smattering of every thing, and his indolence easily persuades
+him, that if he understands that book, he is master of the whole body
+of the law. The distinction between these and those who have drawn their
+stores from the deep and rich mines of Coke’s Littleton, seems
+well understood even by the unlettered common people, who apply the
+appellation of Blackstone-lawyers to these ephemeral insects of the law.
+
+Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and
+so much of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a
+question of transcendant difficulty. It was discussed at the first
+meeting of the committee of the revised code, in 1776, and decided
+in the negative, by the opinions of Wythe, Mason, and myself, against
+Pendleton and Thomas Lee. Pendleton proposed to take Blackstone for that
+text, only purging him of what was inapplicable, or unsuitable to us. In
+that case, the meaning of every word of Blackstone would have become
+a source of litigation, until it had been settled by repeated legal
+decisions. And to come at that meaning, we should have had produced, on
+all occasions, that very pile of authorities from which it would be said
+he drew his conclusion, and which, of course, would explain it, and
+the terms in which it is couched. Thus we should have retained the same
+chaos of law-lore from which we wished to be emancipated, added to the
+evils of the uncertainty which a new text and new phrases would have
+generated. An example of this may be found in the old statutes, and
+commentaries on them, in Coke’s second institute; but more remarkably,
+in the institute of Justinian, and the vast masses, explanatory or
+supplementary of that, which fill the libraries of the civilians. We
+were deterred from the attempt by these considerations, added to which,
+the bustle of the times did not permit leisure for such an undertaking.
+
+Your request of my opinion on this subject has given you the trouble of
+these observations. If your firmer mind in encountering difficulties,
+would have added your vote to the minority of the committee, you would
+have had on your side one of the greatest men of our age, and, like him,
+have detracted nothing from the sentiments of esteem and respect which I
+bore to him, and tender with sincerity the assurance of to yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CV.--TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812
+
+
+TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Monticello, October 1, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of September the 20th has been duly received, and I cannot
+but be gratified by the assurance it expresses, that my aid in the
+councils of our government would increase the public confidence in them;
+because it admits an inference that they have approved of the course
+pursued, when I heretofore bore a part in those councils. I profess,
+too, so much of the Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the
+general of yesterday to act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be
+useful to his country; holding that to be false pride, which postpones
+the public good to any private or personal considerations. But I am
+past service. The hand of age is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties
+apprizes me that those of the mind cannot be unimpaired, had I not still
+better proofs. Every year counts by increased debility, and departing
+faculties keep the score. The last year it was the sight, this it is the
+hearing, the next something else will be going, until all is gone.
+Of all this I was sensible before I left Washington, and probably my
+fellow-laborers saw it before I did. The decay of memory was obvious:
+it is now become distressing. But the mind, too, is weakened. When I
+was young, mathematics was the passion of my life. The same passion has
+returned upon me, but with unequal powers. Processes which I then read
+off with the facility of common discourse, now cost me labor, and time,
+and slow investigation. When I offered this, therefore, as one of the
+reasons deciding my retirement from office, it was offered in sincerity
+and a consciousness of its truth. And I think it a great blessing that
+I retain understanding enough to be sensible how much of it I have lost,
+and to avoid exposing myself as a spectacle for the pity of my friends;
+that I have surmounted the difficult point of knowing when to retire. As
+a compensation for faculties departed, nature gives me good health, and
+a perfect resignation to the laws of decay which she has prescribed to
+all the forms and combinations of matter.
+
+The detestable treason of Hull has, indeed, excited a deep anxiety
+in all breasts. The depression was in the first moment gloomy and
+portentous. But it has been succeeded by a revived animation, and a
+determination to meet the occurrence with increased efforts; and I have
+so much confidence in the vigorous minds and bodies of our countrymen,
+as to be fearless as to the final issue. The treachery of Hull, like
+that of Arnold, cannot be matter of blame on our government. His
+character, as an officer of skill and bravery, was established on the
+trials of the last war, and no previous act of his life had led to doubt
+his fidelity. Whether the Head of the war department is equal to his
+charge, I am not qualified to decide. I knew him only as a pleasant,
+gentlemanly man in society; and the indecision of his character rather
+added to the amenity of his conversation. But when translated from
+the colloquial circle to the great stage of national concerns, and the
+direction of the extensive operations of war, whether he has been able
+to seize at one glance the long line of defenceless border presented by
+our enemy, the masses of strength which we hold on different points of
+it, the facility this gave us of attacking him, on the same day, on
+all his points, from the extremity of the lakes to the neighborhood
+of Quebec, and the perfect indifference with which this last place,
+impregnable as it is, might be left in the hands of the enemy to fall
+of itself; whether, I say, he could see and prepare vigorously for
+all this, or merely wrapped himself in the cloak of cold defence, I
+am uninformed. I clearly think with you on the competence of Monroe
+to embrace great views of action. The decision of his character, his
+enterprise, firmness, industry, and unceasing vigilance, would, I
+believe, secure, as I am sure they would merit, the public confidence,
+and give us all the success which our means can accomplish. If our
+operations have suffered or languished from any want of energy in the
+present head which directs them, I have so much confidence in the wisdom
+and conscientious integrity of Mr. Madison, as to be satisfied, that,
+however torturing to his feelings, he will fulfil his duty to the public
+and to his own reputation, by making the necessary change. Perhaps he
+may be preparing it while we are talking about it: for of all these
+things I am uninformed. I fear that Hull’s surrender has been more than
+the mere loss of a year to us. Besides bringing on us the whole mass of
+savage nations, whom fear and not affection had kept in quiet, there is
+danger that in giving time to an enemy who can send reinforcements of
+regulars faster than we can raise them, they may strengthen Canada and
+Halifax beyond the assailment of our lax and divided powers. Perhaps,
+however, the patriotic efforts from Kentucky and Ohio, by recalling
+the British force to its upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to
+strike a blow below. Effectual possession of the river from Montreal to
+the Chaudiere, which is practicable, would give us the upper country
+at our leisure, and close for ever the scenes of the tomahawk and
+scalping-knife.
+
+But these things are for others to plan and achieve. The only succor
+from the old, must lie in their prayers. These I offer up with sincere
+devotion; and in my concern for the great public, I do not overlook my
+friends, but supplicate for them, as I do for yourself, a long course of
+freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVI.--TO MR. MELISH, January 13, 1813
+
+
+TO MR. MELISH.
+
+Monticello, January 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of December the 15th, and with it the copies
+of your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. The
+book I have read with extreme satisfaction and information. As to the
+western States, particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the
+actual condition of that interesting portion of our country, I had not
+an adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the
+condition of the maritime States. I had no conception that manufactures
+had made such progress there, and particularly of the number of carding
+and spinning machines dispersed through the whole country. We are
+but beginning here to have them in our private families. Small
+spinning-jennies of from half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon,
+however, make their way into the humblest cottages, as well as the
+richest houses; and nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and
+middling clothing for our families, will for ever hereafter continue to
+be made within ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on
+foreign manufactures: but I have now thirty-five spindles a going, a
+hand carding-machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply
+of my own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The
+continuance of the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the
+evils of impressment and of the orders of council, a great blessing
+for us will grow. I have not formerly been an advocate for great
+manufactories. I doubted whether our labor, employed in agriculture,
+and aided by the spontaneous energies of the earth, would not procure
+us more than we could make ourselves of other necessaries. But other
+considerations entering into the question, have settled my doubts.
+
+The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition of our
+citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and English
+travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners and habits
+of their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed every thing
+differing from that test as boorish and barbarous, that your work will
+be read here extensively, and operate great good.
+
+Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other part of
+the work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to
+bring to what I think the correct one; and, on a point so interesting,
+I value your opinion too highly not to ambition its concurrence with
+my own. Stating in volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of
+difference between the two great political parties here, you conclude
+it to be, ‘whether the controlling power shall be vested in this or that
+set of men.’ That each party endeavors to get into the administration of
+the government, and to exclude the other from power, is true, and may
+be stated as a motive of action: but this is only secondary; the primary
+motive being a real and radical difference of political principle. I
+sincerely wish our differences were but personally who should govern
+and that the principles of our constitution were those of both parties.
+Unfortunately, it is otherwise; and the question of preference between
+monarchy and republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere,
+threatens a permanent division here.
+
+Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
+shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
+compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
+perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
+corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton’s opinion,
+which others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that
+a correction of what are called its vices, would render the English
+an impracticable government.. This government they wished to have
+established here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the
+present constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of
+their favorite model. This party has therefore always clung to England,
+as their prototype, and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this
+change. A weighty minority, however, of these leaders, considering the
+voluntary conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant,
+if not desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment,
+as being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a
+commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other States
+may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to the
+desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is
+the last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being of all
+the most dependant on the others. Not raising bread for the sustenance
+her own inhabitants, not having a stick of timber for the construction
+of vessels, her principal occupation, nor an article to export in them,
+where would she be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and
+thrown into dependance on England, her direct and natural, but now
+insidious, rival? At the head of this minority is what is called the
+Essex Junto of Massachusetts. But the majority of these leaders do not
+aim at separation. In this they adhere to the known principle of
+General Hamilton, never, under any views, to break the Union. Anglomany,
+monarchy, and separation, then, are the principles of the Essex
+federalists; Anglomany and monarchy, those of the Hamiltonians,
+and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among the people who call
+themselves federalists. These last are as good republicans as the
+brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in the devotion
+to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from their
+leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
+separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
+popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
+standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
+thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
+
+The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
+constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to
+it they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have
+any ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further,
+by shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
+responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment.
+They esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest
+the governing powers of both.
+
+This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
+councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which
+they are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for
+power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over
+his fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
+conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
+legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
+refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient
+that power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the
+primary principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that
+on which I have acted; and had it been a mere contest who should
+be permitted to administer the government according to its genuine
+republican principles, there has never been a moment of my life, in
+which I should not have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family,
+my farm, my friends, and books.
+
+You expected to discover the difference of our party principles in
+General Washington’s Valedictory, and my Inaugural Address. Not at all.
+General Washington did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was
+neither an Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished
+the people to have as much self-government as they were competent to
+exercise themselves. The only point in which he and I ever differed
+in opinion, was, that I had more confidence than he had in the natural
+integrity and discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to
+which they might trust themselves with a control over their government.
+He has asseverated to me a thousand times his determination that the
+existing government should have a fair trial, and that in support of
+it he would spend the last drop of his blood. He did this the more
+repeatedly, because he knew General Hamilton’s political bias, and
+my apprehensions from it. It is a mere calumny, therefore, in the
+monarchists, to associate General Washington with their principles.
+But that may have happened in this case which has been often seen in
+ordinary cases, that, by often repeating an untruth, men come to
+believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this party, to bolster
+themselves up on the revered name of that first of our worthies. If
+I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, it proves the
+estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and my desire of
+placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I am certain I risk
+no use of the communication which may draw me into contention before the
+public. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of a _Septagénaire_.
+
+To return to the merits of your work; I consider it as so lively a
+picture of the real state of our country, that if I can possibly obtain
+opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy to a friend in
+France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will translate
+and circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations of former
+travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political faith may
+have on your general opinion, a part of my object will be obtained, if
+it satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, and of the high
+respect and consideration with which I tender you my salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVII.--TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818
+
+
+TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.
+
+United States of America,
+
+May 24, 1818.
+
+I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your letter
+of November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely gratified by the
+occasion it gives me of expressing to you the sentiments of high respect
+and esteem which I entertain for you. It recalls to my remembrance a
+happy portion of my life, passed in your native city; then the seat
+of the most amiable and polished society of the world, and of which
+yourself and your venerable father were such distinguished members. But
+of what scenes has it since been the theatre, and with what havoc has
+it overspread the earth! Robespierre met the fate, and his memory
+the execration, he so justly merited. The rich were his victims, and
+perished by thousands. It is by millions that Bonaparte destroys
+the poor, and he is eulogized and deified by the sycophants--even of
+science. These merit more than the mere oblivion to which they will
+be consigned; and the day will come when a just posterity will give to
+their hero the only pre-eminence he has earned, that of having been the
+greatest of the destroyers of the human race. What year of his military
+life has not consigned a million of human beings to death, to poverty,
+and wretchedness? What field in Europe may not raise a monument of the
+murders, the burnings, the desolations, the famines, and miseries, it
+has witnessed from him! And all this to acquire a reputation, which
+Cartouche attained with less injury to mankind, of being fearless of God
+or man.
+
+To complete and universalize the desolation of the globe, it has been
+the will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a tyrant as
+unprincipled and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in the poor maniac
+George, but in his government and nation. Bonaparte will die, and his
+tyrannies with him. But a nation never dies. The English government and
+its piratical principles and practices, have no fixed term of duration.
+Europe feels, and is writhing under the scorpion whips of Bonaparte. We
+are assailed by those of England. The one continent thus placed under
+the gripe of England, and the other of Bonaparte, each has to grapple
+with the enemy immediately pressing on itself. We must extinguish the
+fire kindled in our own house, and leave to our friends beyond the water
+that which is consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one
+thousand of our ships, and impressed into her service more than six
+thousand of our citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of
+her Prince Regent, that she would not repeal her aggressive orders as to
+us, until Bonaparte should have repealed his as to all nations; till her
+minister, in formal conference with ours, declared, that no proposition
+for protecting our seamen from being impressed, under color of taking
+their own, was practicable or admissible; that, the door to justice and
+to all amicable arrangement being closed, and negotiation become both
+desperate and dishonorable, we concluded that the war she had been for
+years waging against us, might as well become a war on both sides. She
+takes fewer vessels from us since the declaration of war than before,
+because they venture more cautiously; and we now make full reprisals
+where before we made none. England is, in principle, the enemy of all
+maritime nations, as Bonaparte is of the continental; and I place in
+the same line of insult to the human understanding, the pretension
+of conquering the ocean, to establish continental rights, as that of
+conquering the continent, to restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam;
+the object of England is the permanent dominion of the ocean, and the
+monopoly of the trade of the world. To secure this, she must keep a
+larger fleet than her own resources will maintain. The resources of
+other nations, then, must be impressed to supply the deficiency of her
+own. This is sufficiently developed and evidenced by her successive
+strides towards the usurpation of the sea. Mark them, from her first war
+after William Pitt, the little, came into her administration. She first
+forbade to neutrals all trade with her enemies in time of war, which
+they had not in time of peace. This deprived them of their trade from
+port to port of the same nation. Then she forbade them to trade from
+the port of one nation to that of any other at war with her, although a
+right fully exercised in time of peace. Next, instead of taking vessels
+only entering a blockaded port, she took them over the whole ocean, if
+destined to that port, although ignorant of the blockade, and without
+intention to violate it. Then she took them returning from that port,
+as if infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came her paper
+blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without sending
+a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they must, of
+course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her orders of
+council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other, without
+coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute to
+her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed to
+the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
+the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could
+not send a vessel from St. Mary’s to St. Augustine, distant six hour’s
+sail, on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice
+with the outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this
+too daring and outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain
+articles of commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute
+important branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no
+longer rest on inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in
+open parliament, that the object of the present war is a monopoly of
+commerce.
+
+In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
+speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
+execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
+with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might retaliate
+on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each other. To
+make war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, therefore, to
+single out an enemy, we offered to both, that if either would revoke
+its hostile decrees, and the other should refuse, we would interdict all
+intercourse whatever with that other; which would be war of course, as
+being an avowed departure from neutrality. France accepted the offer,
+and revoked her decrees as to us. England not only refused, but declared
+by a solemn proclamation of her Prince Regent, that she would not revoke
+her orders even as to us, until those of France should be annulled as to
+the whole world. We thereon declared war, and with abundant additional
+cause.
+
+In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the ruinous
+effects of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing them to the
+nation and to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial proclamation,
+suspending the orders on certain conditions, but claiming to renew them
+at pleasure, as a matter of right. Even this might have prevented the
+war, if done and known here before its declaration. But the sword being
+once drawn, the expense of arming incurred, and hostilities in full
+course, it would have been unwise to discontinue them, until effectual
+provision should be agreed to by England, for protecting our citizens on
+the high seas from impressment by her naval commanders, through, error,
+voluntary or involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers,
+entering our ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen,
+(which they have no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which
+they neither do, nor ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and
+which no nation ever before pretended to do in any case), entering
+our ships, I say, under pretext of searching for and taking out their
+seamen, they took ours, native as well as naturalized, knowing them to
+be ours, merely because they wanted them; insomuch, that no American
+could safely cross the ocean, or venture to pass by sea from one to
+another of our own ports. It is not long since they impressed at sea two
+nephews of General Washington, returning from Europe, and put them,
+as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of their ships of war.
+There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between England and us;
+but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirit of conciliation on
+both sides would not permit to continue them at war. The sword, however,
+can never again be sheathed, until the personal safety of an American
+on the ocean, among the most important and most vital of the rights we
+possess, is completely provided for.
+
+As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of council, we
+offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, if she would
+suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements for securing our
+citizens against them. She refused to do it, because impracticable by
+any arrangement, as she pretends; but, in truth, because a body of sixty
+to eighty thousand of the finest seamen in the world, which we possess,
+is too great a resource for manning her exaggerated navy, to be
+relinquished, as long as she can keep it open. Peace is in her hand,
+whenever she will renounce the practice of aggression on the persons of
+our citizens. If she thinks it worth eternal war, eternal war we
+must have. She alleges that the sameness of language, of manners, of
+appearance, renders it impossible to distinguish us from her subjects.
+But because we speak English, and look like them, are we to be punished?
+Are free and independent men to be submitted to their bondage?
+
+England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the war. She
+has called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of her orders
+of council. She knows there has never been a moment of suspension of our
+reclamations against it, from General Washington’s time inclusive, to
+the present day: and that it is distinctly stated in our declaration of
+war, as one of its principal causes. She has pretended we have entered
+into the war, to establish the principle of ‘free bottoms, free goods,’
+or to protect her seamen against her own right over them. We contend for
+neither of these. She pretends we are partial to France; that we have
+observed a fraudulent and unfaithful neutrality between her and her
+enemy. She knows this to be false, and that if there has been any
+inequality in our proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in
+her favor. Her ministers are in possession of full proofs of this.
+Our accepting at once, and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous
+Alexander, their greatest friend, and the most aggravated enemy of
+Bonaparte, sufficiently proves whether we have partialities on the side
+of her enemy. I sincerely pray that this mediation may produce a just
+peace. It will prove that the immortal character, which has first
+stopped by war the career of the destroyer of mankind, is the friend of
+peace, of justice, of human happiness, and the patron of unoffending
+and injured nations. He is too honest and impartial to countenance
+propositions of peace derogatory to the freedom of the seas.
+
+Shall I apologize to you, my dear Madam, for this long political letter?
+But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings must plead for the
+unreserved expression of them; and they have been the less reserved,
+as being from a private citizen, retired from all connection with
+the government of his country, and whose ideas, expressed without
+communication with any one, are neither known, nor imputable to them.
+
+The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities of
+interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name to
+this letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference to the
+date of time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in answer to
+that. This omission must not lessen in your view the assurances of my
+great esteem, of my sincere sympathies for the share which you bear in
+the afflictions of your country, and the deprivations to which a lawless
+will has subjected you. In return, you enjoy the dignified satisfaction
+of having met them, rather than be yoked, with the abject, to his car;
+and that, in withdrawing from oppression, you have followed the virtuous
+example of a father, whose name will ever be dear to your country and
+to mankind. With my prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may
+see it re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does
+not infer either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of
+prosperity which would be the consequence of such a government, in
+that, in short, which the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, if
+wisdom could have stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent zeal of
+men, who did not know the character of their own countrymen, and that
+you may long live in health and happiness under it, and leave to the
+world a well educated and virtuous representative and descendant of
+your honored father, is the ardent prayer of the sincere and respectful
+friend who writes this letter.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 27, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 27, 1813.
+
+Another of our friends of seventy-six is gone, my Dear Sir, another of
+the co-signers of the Independence of our country. And a better man than
+Rush could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer
+genius, or more honest. We too must go; and that ere long. I believe
+we are under half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the
+Declaration. Yourself, Gerry, Carroll, and myself, are all I know to be
+living. I am the only one south of the Potomac. Is Robert Treat Paine,
+or Floyd living? It is long since I heard of them, and yet I do not
+recollect to have heard of their deaths.
+
+Moreton’s deduction of the origin of our Indians from the fugitive
+Trojans, stated in your letter of January the 26th, and his manner
+of accounting for the sprinkling of their Latin with Greeks is really
+amusing. Adair makes them talk Hebrew. Reinold Foster derives them from
+the soldiers sent by Kouli Khan to conquer Japan. Brerewood, from the
+Tartars, as well as our bears, wolves, foxes, &c. which, he says, ‘must
+of necessity fetch their beginning from Noah’s ark, which rested after
+the deluge, in Asia, seeing they could not proceed by the course
+of nature, as the imperfect sort of living creatures do, from
+putrefaction.’ Bernard Romans is of opinion that God created an original
+man and woman in this part of the globe. Doctor Barton thinks they are
+not specifically different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a
+broader range, he thinks, ‘that in all the vast countries of America,
+there is but one language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered
+highly probable, that all the languages of the earth bear some affinity
+together.’ This reduces it to a question of definition, in which every
+one is free to use his own: to wit, What constitutes identity, or
+difference in two things, in the common acceptation of sameness? All
+languages may be called the same, as being all made up of the same
+primitive sounds, expressed by the letters of the different alphabets.
+But, in this sense, all things on earth are the same, as consisting of
+matter. This gives up the useful distribution into genera and species,
+which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief of our imperfect
+memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian tribes descended,
+some have gone into their religion, their morals, their manners,
+customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be learnedly
+proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended from
+those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
+draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves
+in spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of
+winter, he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe,
+because our wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard,
+&c. But when, for convenience, we distribute languages, according to
+common understanding, into classes originally different, as we choose
+to consider them, as the Hebrew, the Greek, the Celtic, the Gothic; and
+these again into genera, or families, as the Icelandic, German, Swedish,
+Danish, English; and these last into species, or dialects, as English,
+Scotch, Irish, we then ascribe other meanings to the terms, ‘same’ and
+‘different.’ In some one of these senses, Barton, and Adair, and Foster,
+and Brerewood, and Moreton, may be right, every one according to his
+own definition of what constitutes ‘identity.’ Romans, indeed, takes a
+higher stand, and supposes a separate creation. On the same unscriptural
+ground, he had but to mount one step higher, to suppose no creation at
+all, but that all things have existed without beginning in time, as
+they now exist, and may for ever exist, producing and reproducing in a
+circle, without end. This would very summarily dispose of Mr. Moreton’s
+learning, and show that the question of Indian origin, like many others,
+pushed to a certain height, must receive the same answer, ‘Ignoro.’ You
+ask if the usage of hunting in circles has ever been known among any of
+our tribes of Indians? It has been practised by them all; and is to this
+day, by those still remote from the settlements of the whites. But their
+numbers not enabling them, like Genghis Khan’s seven hundred thousand,
+to form themselves into circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make
+their circle by firing the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually
+forcing the animals to a centre, they there slaughter them with arrows,
+darts, and other missiles. This is called fire-hunting, and has been
+practised in this State within my time, by the white inhabitants. This
+is the most probable cause of the origin and extension of the vast
+prairies in the western country, where the grass having been of
+extraordinary luxuriance, has made a conflagration sufficient to kill
+even the old as well as the young timber.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
+must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the
+early and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with
+you on this ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing
+that we cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall
+into the same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but
+even those of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these
+can be resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that
+we can turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In
+the mean time, one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is
+necessary; these being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel
+with us. But I respect too much the weighty opinions of others to be
+unyielding on this point, and acquiesce with the prayer, ‘_quod
+felix faustumque sit_’; adding ever a sincere one for your health and
+happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 15, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
+about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of
+May. Of Lindsay’s Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed
+of himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters
+of mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his
+editor was new to me, and certainly presents itself for the first time
+under unfavorable circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of
+his book; and that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the
+world in the very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing
+private letters which passed between two friends, with no views to their
+ever being made public, is an instance of inconsistency as well as of
+infidelity, of which I would rather be the victim than the author.
+
+By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters, I have been
+enabled to turn to them. They had completely vanished from my memory.
+The last is on the subject of religion, and by its publication will
+gratify the priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations
+against me. They wish it to be believed, that he can have no religion
+who advocates its freedom. This was not the doctrine of Priestley; and I
+honored him for the example of liberality he set to his order. The
+first letter is political. It recalls to our recollection the gloomy
+transactions of the times, the doctrines they witnessed, and the
+sensibilities they excited. It was a confidential communication of
+reflections on these from one friend to another, deposited in his bosom,
+and never meant to trouble the public mind. Whether the character of
+the times is justly portrayed or not, posterity will decide. But on one
+feature of them, they can never decide, the sensations excited in free
+yet firm minds by the terrorism of the day. None can conceive who did
+not witness them, and they were felt by one party only. This letter
+exhibits their side of the medal. The federalists, no doubt, have
+presented the other, in their private correspondences, as well as open
+action. If these correspondences should ever be laid open to the public
+eye, they will probably be found not models of comity towards their
+adversaries. The readers of my letter should be cautioned not to confine
+its view to this country alone. England and its alarmists were equally
+under consideration. Still less must they consider it as looking
+personally towards you. You happen, indeed, to be quoted, because you
+happened to express more pithily than had been done by themselves, one
+of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer to the address of
+the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of Patriotic Addresses,
+page 198.] One of the questions, you know, on which our parties took
+different sides, was on the improvability of the human mind, in science,
+in ethics, in government, &c. Those who advocated reformation of
+institutions, _pari passu_ with the progress of science, maintained that
+no definite limits could be assigned to that progress. The enemies of
+reform, on the other hand, denied improvement, and advocated steady
+adherence to the principles, practices, and institutions of our fathers,
+which they represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of
+excellence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. Although in
+the passage of your answer alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish
+to influence the freedom of inquiry, you predict that that will produce
+nothing more worthy of transmission to posterity than the principles,
+institutions, and systems of education received from their ancestors.
+I do not consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess yourself
+too much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained
+and unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before
+our ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an
+expression lent to the prejudices of your friends; and although I
+happened to cite it from you, the whole letter shows I had them only
+in view. In truth, my dear Sir, we were far from considering you as
+the author of all the measures we blamed. They were placed under the
+protection of your name, but we were satisfied they wanted much of your
+approbation. We ascribed them to their real authors, the Pickerings, the
+Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks, _et id genus omne_, with whom we
+supposed you in a state of _duresse_. I well remember a conversation
+with you in the morning of the day on which you nominated to the Senate
+a substitute for Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience
+under ‘the legacy of Secretaries which General Washington had left you,’
+and whom you seemed, therefore, to consider as under public protection.
+Many other incidents showed how differently you would have acted with
+less impassioned advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your
+minds were not together. You would do me great injustice, therefore, by
+taking to yourself what was intended for men who were then your secret,
+as they are now your open enemies. Should you write on the subject, as
+you propose, I am sure we shall see you place yourself farther from them
+than from us.
+
+As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave others to
+judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
+shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
+others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
+sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
+reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
+the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
+in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
+truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should
+be different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
+indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
+sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
+tender you the assurance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CX.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
+myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
+suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
+the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
+that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
+trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.
+
+It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed
+to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it
+within the limits of its faculties, ‘never to borrow a dollar without
+laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and
+the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged
+to the creditors on the public faith.’ On such a pledge as this,
+sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable
+interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the
+necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and
+their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable
+consequence, revolution. But the term of redemption must be moderate,
+and, at any rate, within the limits of their rightful powers. But what
+limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is
+to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I
+answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and
+the power of man expire with his life, by nature’s law. Some societies
+give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry;
+some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians.
+The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations.
+Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its
+continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the
+succeeding generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively,
+from one generation to another for ever. We may consider each generation
+as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind
+themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than
+the inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the
+ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for his
+debts, during the continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, the
+reversioner (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated from
+all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is
+determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in
+different climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation.
+I turn, for instance, to Buffon’s tables, of twenty-three thousand nine
+hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at which they happened, and
+I find that of the numbers of all ages living at one moment, half will
+be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. Bat (leaving out minors,
+who have not the power of self-government) of the adults (of twenty-one
+years of age) living at one moment, a majority of whom act for the
+society, one half will be dead in eighteen years and eight months. At
+nineteen years then from the date of a contract, the majority of the
+contractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let this general
+theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual births of
+the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred and
+ninety-four: the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon,
+will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of
+all ages. Of these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine
+thousand two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and
+forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last,
+one hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a
+majority. Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had
+borrowed a sum of money equal to the fee simple value of the State, and
+to have consumed it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day;
+or, if you please, in quarrelling and fighting with their unoffending
+neighbors. Within eighteen years and eight months, one half of the adult
+citizens were dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully
+levy the interest of their debt annually on themselves and their
+fellow-revellers, or fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this
+moment, a new majority have come into place, in their own right, and
+not under the rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are
+they bound to acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation
+as having had a right to eat up the whole soil of their country in
+the course of a life, to alienate it from them (for it would be an
+alienation to the creditors), and would they think themselves either
+legally or morally bound to give up their country, and emigrate to
+another for subsistence? Every one will say no: that the soil is the
+gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the deceased
+generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation on them to
+pay this debt. And although, like some other natural rights, this has
+not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no less a law, and
+ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the same time,
+a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the
+modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with
+blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever accumulating.
+Had this principle been declared in the British bill of rights, England
+would have been placed under the happy disability of waging eternal war,
+and of contracting her thousand millions of public debt. In seeking,
+then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our debts, let us rally
+to this principle, and provide for their payment within the term of
+nineteen years, at the farthest. Our government has not, as yet, begun
+to act on the rule, of loans and taxation going hand in hand. Had any
+loan taken place in my time, I should have strongly urged a redeeming
+tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of
+Congress, we should now set the example of appropriating some particular
+tax, sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within
+a fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your
+committee will render the immortal service of introducing this practice.
+Not that it is expected that Congress should formally declare such a
+principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But
+they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits.
+
+I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet,
+even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. We are an
+agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or
+improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly
+that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and
+that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in
+view. In such a nation there is one and one only resource for loans,
+sufficient to carry them through the expense of a war; and that will
+always be sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual
+in the preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of
+circulating coin. Every one knows, that, although not literally, it is
+nearly true, that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from
+the circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments
+with bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out
+of circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the
+vendor, receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his
+purchases or payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may
+continue to issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits
+of the circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend
+with us, at present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum
+than would be necessary for any war. But this, the only resource
+which the government could command with certainty, the States have
+unfortunately fooled away, nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and
+shavers, under the cover of private banks. Say, too, as an additional
+evil, that the disposable funds of individuals, to this great amount,
+have thus been withdrawn from improvement and useful enterprise, and
+employed in the useless, usurious, and demoralizing practices of bank
+directors and their accomplices. In the war of 1755, our State availed
+itself of this fund by issuing a paper money, bottomed on a specific tax
+for its redemption, and, to insure its credit, bearing an interest of
+five per cent. Within a very short time, not a bill of this emission was
+to be found in circulation. It was locked up in the chests of executors,
+guardians, widows, farmers, &tc. We then issued bills, bottomed on a
+redeeming tax, but bearing no interest. These were readily received, and
+never depreciated a single farthing. In the revolutionary war, the old
+Congress and the States issued bills without interest, and without
+tax. They occupied the channels of circulation very freely, till
+those channels were overflowed by an excess beyond all the calls of
+circulation. But although we have so improvidently suffered the field of
+circulating medium to be filched from us by private individuals, yet I
+think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole, if the States
+will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a tax
+appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure
+preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of
+six per cent., there is no one who would not take them in preference
+to the bank-paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as
+interest: and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private
+hoards to a considerable amount. Their credit once established, others
+might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest: and
+if ever their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills
+alone should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund,
+would reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an
+equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which,
+in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their
+possession of the circulation: but a steady and judicious alternation of
+emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going
+on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right
+to the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer
+the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, _in
+perpetuum_, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of
+charter rights. I believe that every State west and south of Connecticut
+river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would
+follow in time.
+
+Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind
+up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters
+expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they
+would supply with their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate
+tax, and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public
+pulse should indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills
+would make their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks,
+by their solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their
+receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to
+curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering
+up their paper, and running it constantly on them. The national paper
+might thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I
+am not without a hope, that this great, this sole resource for loans
+in an agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the
+nation during war: and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be
+sufficient to carry us through any war; provided, that, in the interval
+between war and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in,
+coin be permitted to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation
+until another war should require its yielding place again to the
+national medium.
+
+But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and
+others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found
+so convenient? I answer, let us have banks: but let them be such as are
+alone to be found in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There
+is not a bank of discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was
+not one when I was there), which offers any thing but cash in exchange
+for discounted bills. No one has a natural right to the trade of a
+money-lender, but he who has the money to lend. Let those then among us,
+who have a monied capital, and who prefer employing it in loans rather
+than otherwise, set up banks, and give cash or national bills for the
+notes they discount. Perhaps, to encourage them, a larger interest than
+is legal in the other cases might be allowed them, on the condition of
+their lending for short periods only. It is from Great Britain we copy
+the idea of giving paper in exchange for discounted bills: and while we
+have derived from that country some good principles of government and
+legislation, we unfortunately run into the most servile imitation of all
+her practices, ruinous as they prove to her, and with the gulph yawning
+before us into which those very practices are precipitating her. The
+unlimited emission of bank-paper has banished all her specie, and is
+now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own statesmen, carrying her
+rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did us, and will do us
+again, and every country permitting paper to be circulated, other than
+that by public authority, rigorously limited to the just measure for
+circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation,
+are at the mercy of those self-created money-lenders, and are prostrated
+by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.
+He who lent his money to the public or to an individual, before the
+institution of the United States bank, twenty years ago, when wheat was
+well sold at a dollar the bushel, and receives now his nominal sum when
+it sells at two dollars, is cheated of half his fortune: and by whom? By
+the banks, which, since that, have thrown into circulation ten dollars
+of their nominal money where there was one at that time.
+
+Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as they
+appear to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point out a
+resource ample enough, without overwhelming war-taxes, for the expense
+of the war, and possibly still recoverable; and that they hold up to
+all future time a resource within ourselves, ever at the command of
+government, and competent to any wars into which we may be forced. Nor
+is it a slight object to equalize taxes through peace and war.
+
+*****
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 21, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 21, 1813.
+
+
+[Illustration: page201]
+
+
+And I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where
+to begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions,
+and contentions which have occurred in our day. I should say with
+Theocritus,
+
+[Illustration: page201a]
+
+But I shall not do it. The _summum bonum_ with me is now truly
+epicurean, ease of body and tranquillity of mind; and to these I wish
+to consign my remaining days. Men have differed in opinion, and been
+divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of
+societies; and in all governments, where they have been permitted freely
+to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the
+United States, have existed through all time. Whether the power of the
+people, or that of the
+
+[Illustration: page202]
+
+should prevail, were questions which kept the States of Greece and Rome
+in eternal convulsions; as they now schismatize every people whose minds
+and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. And in fact, the
+terms of whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil
+history. They denote the temper and constitution of mind of different
+individuals. To come to our own country, and to the times when you and
+I became first acquainted: we well remember the violent parties which
+agitated the old Congress, and their bitter contests. There you and
+I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other
+anti-independents were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy
+of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present
+government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how
+bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and I were
+together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic
+from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should
+confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others hold
+off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should
+be made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
+Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
+delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and
+all were reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into
+motion, the line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties,
+each wishing to give the government a different direction; the one
+to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent
+branches, and to extend their permanence. Here you and I separated for
+the first time: and as we had been longer than most others on the public
+theatre, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen,
+the party which considered you as thinking with them, placed your
+name at their head; the other, for the same reason, selected mine. But
+neither decency nor inclination permitted us to become the advocates
+of ourselves, or to take part personally in the violent contests which
+followed. We suffered ourselves, as you so well expressed it, to be
+passive subjects of public discussion. And these discussions, whether
+relating to men, measures, or opinions, were conducted by the parties
+with an animosity, a bitterness, and an indecency, which had never been
+exceeded. All the resources of reason and of wrath were exhausted
+by each party in support of its own, and to prostrate the adversary
+opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the anti-federalists, the
+other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom. Of this acrimony,
+the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in the debates
+of Congress, of State legislatures, of stump-orators, in addresses,
+answers, and newspaper essays; and to these, without question, may be
+added the private correspondences of individuals; and the less guarded
+in these, because not meant for the public eye, not restrained by the
+respect due to that, but poured forth from the overflowings of the heart
+into the bosom of a friend, as a momentary easement of our feelings.
+In this way and in answers to addresses, you and I could indulge
+ourselves. We have probably done it, sometimes with warmth, often with
+prejudice, but always, as we believed, adhering to truth. I have not
+examined my letters of that day. I have no stomach to revive the memory
+of its feelings. But one of these letters, it seems, has got before the
+public, by accident and infidelity, by the death of one friend to whom
+it was written, and of his friend to whom it had been communicated,
+and by the malice and treachery of a third person, of whom I had never
+before heard, merely to make mischief, and in the same Satanic spirit,
+in which the same enemy had intercepted and published, in 1776, your
+letter animadverting on Dickinson’s character. How it happened that I
+quoted you in my letter to Doctor Priestley, and for whom, and not for
+yourself, the strictures were meant, has been explained to you in my
+letter of the 15th, which had been committed to the post eight days
+before I received yours of the 10th, 11th, and 14th. That gave you the
+reference which these asked to the particular answer alluded to in the
+one to Priestley. The renewal of these old discussions, my friend, would
+be equally useless and irksome. To the volumes then written on these
+subjects, human ingenuity can add nothing new, and the rather, as lapse
+of time has obliterated many of the facts. And shall you and I, my Dear
+Sir, at our age, like Priam of old, gird on the
+
+[Illustration: page203]
+
+Shall we, at our age, become the athletes of party, and exhibit
+ourselves, as gladiators, in the arena of the newspapers? Nothing in the
+universe could induce me to it. My mind has been long fixed to bow to
+the judgment of the world, who will judge by my acts, and will never
+take counsel from me as to what that judgment shall be. If your objects
+and opinions have been misunderstood, if the measures and principles of
+others have been wrongfully imputed to you, as I believe they have been,
+that you should leave an explanation of them, would be an set of justice
+to yourself. I will add, that it has been hoped that you would leave such
+explanations as would place every saddle on its right horse, and replace
+on the shoulders of others the burdens they shifted to yours.
+
+But all this, my friend, is offered merely for your consideration and
+judgment, without presuming to anticipate what you alone are qualified
+to decide for yourself. I mean to express my own purpose only, and the
+reflections which have led to it. To me, then, it appears, that there
+have been differences of opinion and party differences, from the
+first establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same
+question which now divides our own country: that these will continue
+through all future time: that every one takes his side in favor of
+the many, or of the few, according to his constitution, and the
+circumstances in which he is placed: that opinions, which are equally
+honest on both sides, should not affect personal esteem or social
+intercourse: that as we judge between the Claudii and the Gracchi, the
+Wentworths and the Hampdens of past ages, so, of those among us whose
+names may happen to be remembered for a while, the next generations
+will judge, favorably or unfavorably, according to the complexion of
+individual minds, and the side they shall themselves have taken: that
+nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by others,
+and will be said in every age in support of the conflicting opinions on
+government: and that wisdom and duty dictate an humble resignation to
+the verdict of our future peers. I doing this myself, I shall certainly
+not suffer moot questions to affect the sentiments of sincere friendship
+and respect, consecrated to you by so long a course of time, and of
+which I now repeat sincere assurances,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 22, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since my letter of June the 27th, I am in your debt for many; all of
+which I have read with infinite delight. They open a wide field for
+reflection, and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen
+indefinitely. I must follow the good example you have set; and when
+I have not time to take up every subject, take up a single one. Your
+approbation of my outline to Dr. Priestley is a great gratification to
+me; and I very much suspect that if thinking men would have the courage
+to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found
+they do not differ in religious opinions, as much as is supposed. I
+remember to have heard Dr. Priestley say, that if all England would
+candidly examine themselves, and confess, they would find that
+Unitarianism was really the religion of all: and I observe a bill is now
+depending in parliament for the relief of Anti-Trinitarians. It is too
+late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the
+Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that
+the one is not three, and the three are not one: to divide mankind by a
+single letter into
+
+[Illustration: page205]
+
+But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the
+priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and
+they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers,
+live without an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the
+oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand,
+nor therefore believe; for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind
+to an intelligible proposition.
+
+It is with great pleasure I can inform you, that Priestley finished the
+comparative view of the doctrines of the philosophers of antiquity, and
+of Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after. And with
+still greater pleasure, that I can have a copy of his work forwarded
+from Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your
+acceptance, by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after.
+The branch of the work which the title announces, is executed with
+learning and candor, as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a
+little hastily; for he felt himself pressed by the hand of death. The
+Abbe Batteux had, in fact, laid the foundation of this part in his
+‘Causes Premieres’; with which he has given us the originals of Ocellus
+and Timzeus, who first committed the doctrines of Pythagoras to writing:
+and Enfield, to whom the Doctor refers, had done it more copiously. But
+he has omitted the important branch, which, in your letter of August the
+9th, you say you have never seen executed, a comparison of the morality
+of the Old Testament with that of the New. And yet, no two things were
+ever more unlike. I ought not to have asked him to give it. He dared
+not. He would have been eaten alive by his intolerant brethren, the
+Cannibal priests. And yet, this was really the most interesting branch
+of the work.
+
+Very soon after my letter to Doctor Priestley, the subject being still
+in my mind, I had leisure, during an abstraction from business for a day
+or two, while on the road, to think a little more on it, and to sketch
+more fully than I had done to him, a syllabus of the matter which I
+thought should enter into the work. I wrote it to Doctor Rush; and there
+ended all my labor on the subject; himself and Doctor Priestley being
+the only depositories of my secret. The fate of my letter to Priestley,
+after his death, was a warning to me on that of Doctor Rush; and at my
+request, his family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original
+letter and syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much interest I
+take in keeping myself clear of religious disputes before the public;
+and especially of seeing my syllabus disembowelled by the Aruspices of
+the modern Paganism. Yet I enclose it to you with entire confidence,
+free to be perused by yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and
+to be returned to me.
+
+You are right in supposing, in one of yours, that I had not read much of
+Priestley’s Predestination, his no-soul system, or his controversy with
+Horsley. But I have read his Corruptions of Christianity, and Early
+Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them, and
+on Middleton’s writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to
+Waterland, as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been
+answered, nor can be answered by quoting historical proofs, as they have
+done. For these facts, therefore, I cling to their learning, so much
+superior to my own.
+
+I now fly off in a tangent to another subject. Marshall, in the first
+volume of his history, chapter 3, p. 180, ascribes the petition to the
+King, of 1774, (1 Journ. Cong. 67) to the pen of Richard Henry Lee. I
+think myself certain, it was not written by him, as well from what I
+recollect to have heard, as from the internal evidence of style. He
+was loose, vague, frothy, rhetorical. He was a poorer writer than his
+brother Arthur; and Arthur’s standing may be seen in his Monitor’s
+Letters, to insure the sale of which, they took the precaution of
+tacking to them a new edition of the Farmer’s Letters; like Mezentius,
+who ‘_mortua jungebat corpora vivis_.’ You were of the committee, and
+can tell me who wrote this petition; and who wrote the Address to the
+Inhabitants of the Colonies, ib. 45. Of the papers of July 1775, I
+recollect well that Mr. Dickinson drew the petition to the King, ib.
+149; I think Robert R. Livingston drew the Address to the Inhabitants of
+Great Britain, ib. 152. Am I right in this? And who drew the Address to
+the People of Ireland, ib. 180? On these questions, I ask of your memory
+to help mine. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIII.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, November 6, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance;
+but since the date of my last, I have received from Mr. Law a letter
+covering a memorial on that subject, which, from its tenor, I conjecture
+must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. This paper
+contains two propositions; the one for issuing treasury notes, bearing
+interest, and to be circulated as money; the other for the establishment
+of a national bank. The first was considered in my former letter; and
+the second shall be the subject of the present.
+
+The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank, suppose of
+thirty millions capital, of which they shall contribute ten millions in
+new six per cent, stock, the States ten millions, and individuals ten
+millions, one half of the two last contributions to be of similar stock,
+for which the parties are to give cash to Congress: the whole, however,
+to be under the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who
+are to name all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having
+any power of interference in its administration. Discounts are to be
+at five per cent., but the profits are expected to be seven per cent.
+Congress then will be paying six per cent, on twenty millions, and
+receiving seven per cent, on ten millions, being its third of the
+institution: so that on the ten millions cash which they receive from
+the States and individuals, they will, in fact, have to pay but five
+per cent, interest. This is the bait. The charter is proposed to be for
+forty or fifty years, and if any future augmentations should take place,
+the individual proprietors are to have the privilege of being the sole
+subscribers for that. Congress are further allowed to issue to the
+amount of three millions of notes, bearing interest, which they are to
+receive back in payment for lands at a premium of five or ten per
+cent., or as subscriptions for canals, roads, and bridges, in which
+undertakings they are, of course, to be engaged. This is a summary
+of the scheme, as I understand it: but it is very possible I may
+not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made
+Unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them. The advantages
+and disadvantages shall be noted promiscuously as they occur; leaving
+out the speculation of canals, &c. which, being an episode only in the
+scheme, may be omitted, to disentangle it as much as we can.
+
+1. Congress are to receive five millions from the States (if they will
+enter into this partnership, which few probably will), and five millions
+from the individual subscribers, in exchange for ten millions of six per
+cent, stock, one per cent, of which, however, they will make on their
+ten millions of stock remaining in bank, and so reduce it, in effect, to
+a loan of ten millions at five per cent, interest. This is good: but
+
+2. They authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions
+of dollars, (three times the capital), which increases our circulating
+medium fifty per cent., depreciates proportionably the present value
+of the dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same
+proportion.
+
+3. This loan of ten millions at five per cent., is to be once for all,
+only. Neither the terms of the scheme, nor their own prudence could ever
+permit them to add to the circulation in the same, or any other way, for
+the supplies of the succeeding years of the war. These succeeding years
+then are to be left unprovided for, and the means of doing it in a great
+measure precluded.
+
+4. The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash
+to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging
+to Congress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to
+themselves, say twenty millions, with which, as no one has a right ever
+to see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time
+for running away, after adding to their booty the proceeds of as much of
+their own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation.
+
+5. The subscribers may be one, two, or three, or more individuals, (many
+single individuals being able to pay in the five millions,) whereupon
+this bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions
+of dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the
+influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it
+will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England herself
+may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal
+and sole subscriber.
+
+6. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of
+relief, for forty or fifty years. That is to say, the eight millions
+of people now existing, for the sake of receiving one dollar and
+twenty-five cents apiece at five per cent, interest, are to subject the
+fifty millions of people who are to succeed them within that term, to
+the payment of forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest,
+which will be payable in the course of the fifty years.
+
+7. But the great and national advantage is to be the relief of the
+present scarcity of money, which is produced and proved by,
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+the troops, ammunition, he.
+
+2. By the cash sent to the frontiers, and the vacuum occasioned in the
+trading towns by that.
+
+3. By the late loans.
+
+4. By the necessity of recurring to shavers with good paper, which the
+existing banks are not able to take up; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications for bank charters, showing that an
+increase of circulating medium is wanting.
+
+Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of an increase of
+medium, one by one.
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+troops, ammunition, &c. Now I had always supposed that war produced
+a diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from
+industrious pursuits, for employment in arms &c. which are totally
+unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of
+ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from
+other branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it
+is but a shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.
+
+2. The cash sent to the frontiers occasions a vacuum in the trading
+towns, which requires a new supply. Let us examine what are the calls
+for money to the frontiers. Not for clothing, tents, ammunition, arms,
+which are all bought in the trading towns. Not for provisions; for
+although these are bought partly in the intermediate country, bank-bills
+are more acceptable there than even in the trading towns. The pay of
+the army calls for some cash; but not a great deal, as bank-notes are as
+acceptable with the military men, perhaps more so; and what cash is sent
+must find its way back again, in exchange for the wants of the upper
+from the lower country. For we are not to suppose that cash stays
+accumulating there for ever.
+
+3. This scarcity has been occasioned by the late loans. But does the
+government borrow money to keep it in their coffers? Is it not instantly
+restored to circulation by payment for its necessary supplies? And are
+we to restore a vacuum of twenty millions of dollars by an emission of
+ninety millions?
+
+4. The want of medium is proved by the recurrence of individuals with
+good paper to brokers at exorbitant interest; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications to the State governments for additional
+banks; New York wanting eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions,
+&c. But say more correctly, the speculators and spendthrifts of New York
+and Pennsylvania, but never consider them as being the States of New
+York and Pennsylvania. These two items shall be considered together.
+
+It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather
+than of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and
+of English writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an
+evil; and excepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is
+not a nation existing, I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation.
+The experiment is going on, however, desperately in England, pretty
+boldly with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which
+opinion experience approves: for I believe it to be one of those cases
+where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by
+ruin. In the mean time, however, let us reason on this new call for a
+national bank.
+
+After the solemn decision of Congress against the renewal of the charter
+of the bank of the United States, and the grounds of that decision (the
+want of constitutional power), I had imagined that question at rest, and
+that no more applications would be made to them for the incorporation
+of banks. The opposition on that ground to its first establishment, the
+small majority by which it was overborne, and the means practised
+for obtaining it, cannot be already forgotten. The law having passed,
+however, by a majority, its opponents, true to the sacred principle
+of submission to a majority, suffered the law to flow through its term
+without obstruction. During this, the nation had time to consider
+the constitutional question, and when the renewal was proposed, they
+condemned it, not by their representatives in Congress only, but by
+express instructions from different organs of their will. Here then
+we might stop, and consider the memorial as answered. But, setting
+authority apart, we will examine whether the legislature ought to comply
+with it, even if they had the power.
+
+Proceeding to reason on this subject, some principles must be premised
+as forming its basis. The adequate price of a thing depends on the
+capital and labor necessary to produce it. (In the term capital, I mean
+to include science, because capital as well as labor has been employed
+to acquire it.) Two things requiring the same capital and labor should
+be of the same price. If a gallon of wine requires for its production
+the same capital and labor with a bushel of wheat, they should be
+expressed by the same price, derived from the application of a common
+measure to them. The comparative prices of things being thus to be
+estimated, and expressed by a common measure, we may proceed to observe,
+that were a country so insulated as to have no commercial intercourse
+with any other, to confine the interchange of all its wants and supplies
+within itself, the amount of circulating medium, as a common measure
+for adjusting these exchanges, would be quite immaterial. If their
+circulation, for instance, were of a million of dollars, and the annual
+produce of their industry equivalent to ten millions of bushels of
+wheat, the price of a bushel of wheat might be one dollar. If, then, by
+a progressive coinage, their medium should be doubled, the price of a
+bushel of wheat might become progressively two dollars, and without,
+inconvenience. Whatever be the proportion of the circulating medium to
+the value of the annual produce of industry, it may be considered as the
+representative of that industry. In the first case, a bushel of wheat
+will be represented by one dollar; in the second, by two dollars. This
+is well explained by Hume, and seems admitted by Adam Smith, (B. 2. c.
+2. 436, 441, 490.) But where a nation is in a full course of interchange
+of wants and supplies with all others, the proportion of its medium
+to its produce is no longer indifferent, (lb. 441.) To trade on equal
+terms, the common measure of values should be as nearly as possible on
+a par with that of its corresponding nations, whose medium is in a
+sound state; that is to say, not in an accidental state of excess or
+deficiency. Now, one of the great advantages of specie as a medium is,
+that being of universal value, it will keep itself at a general level,
+flowing out from where it is too high into parts where it is lower.
+Whereas, if the medium be of local value only, as paper-money, if too
+little, indeed, gold and silver will flow in to supply the deficiency;
+but if too much, it accumulates, banishes the gold and silver not locked
+up in vaults and hoards, and depreciates itself; that is to say, its
+proportion to the annual produce of industry being raised, more of it
+is required to represent any particular article of produce than in
+the other countries. This is agreed by Smith (B. 2. c. 2. 437.), the
+principal advocate for a paper circulation; but advocating it on the
+sole condition that it be strictly regulated. He admits, nevertheless,
+that ‘the commerce and industry of a country cannot be so secure when
+suspended on the Daedalian wings of paper-money, as on the solid ground
+of gold and silver; and that in time of war the insecurity is greatly
+increased, and great confusion possible where the circulation is for the
+greater part in paper.’(B. 2. c. 2. 484.) But in a country where loans
+are uncertain, and a specie circulation the only sure resource for them,
+the preference of that circulation assumes a far different degree of
+importance, as is explained in my former letters.
+
+The only advantage which Smith proposes by substituting paper in the
+room of gold and silver money (B. 2. c. 2. 434.), is, ‘to replace an
+expensive instrument with one much less costly, and sometimes equally
+convenient’; that is to say, (page 437,) to allow the gold and silver
+to be sent abroad and converted into foreign goods,’ and to substitute
+paper as being a cheaper measure. But this makes no addition to the
+stock or capital of the nation. The coin sent out was worth as much,
+while in the country, as the goods imported and taking its place. It
+is only, then, a change of form in a part of the national capital, from
+that of gold and silver to other goods. He admits, too, that while a
+part of the goods received in exchange for the coin exported, may be
+materials, tools, and provisions for the employment of an additional
+industry, a part also may be taken back in foreign wines, silks, &c.
+to be consumed by idle people who produce nothing; and so far the
+substitution promotes prodigality, increases expense and consumption,
+without increasing production. So far also, then, it lessens the capital
+of the nation. What may be the amount which the conversion of the part
+exchanged for productive goods, may add to the former productive mass,
+it is not easy to ascertain, because, as he says, (page 441,) ‘It is
+impossible to determine what is the proportion which the circulating
+money of any country bears to the whole value of the annual produce. It
+has been computed by different authors, from a fifth* to a thirtieth of
+that value.’
+
+     * The real cash or money necessary to carry on the
+     circulation and barter of a State, is nearly one third part
+     of all the annual rents of the proprietors of the said
+     State; that is, one ninth of the whole produce of the land.
+     Sir William Petty supposes one tenth part of the value of
+     the whole produce sufficient. Postlethwayt, _voce_, Cash.
+
+In the United States it must be less than in any other part of the
+commercial world; because the great mass of their inhabitants being
+in responsible circumstances, the great mass of their exchanges in the
+country is effected on credit, in their merchant’s ledger, who supplies
+all their wants through the year, and at the end of it receives the
+produce of their farms, or other articles of their industry. It is a
+fact, that a farmer, with a revenue of ten thousand dollars a year, may
+obtain all his supplies from his merchant, and liquidate them at the end
+of the year, by the sale of his produce to him, without the intervention
+of a single dollar of cash. This, then, is merely barter, and in this
+way of barter a great portion of the annual produce of the United States
+is exchanged without the intermediation of cash. We might safely,
+then, state our medium at the minimum of one thirtieth. But what is
+one thirtieth of the value of the annual produce of the industry of the
+United States? Or what is the whole value of the annual produce of the
+United States? An able writer and competent judge of the subject, in
+1799, on as good grounds as probably could be taken, estimated it, on
+the then population of four and a half millions of inhabitants, to
+be thirty-seven and a half millions sterling, or one hundred and
+sixty-eight and three fourths millions of dollars. See Cooper’s
+Political Arithmetic, page 47. According to the same estimate, for our
+present population it will be three hundred millions of dollars, one
+thirtieth of which, Smith’s minimum, would be ten millions, and
+one fifth, his maximum, would be sixty millions for the quantum of
+circulation. But suppose, that, instead of our needing the least
+circulating medium of any nation, from the circumstance before
+mentioned, we should place ourselves in the middle term of the
+calculation, to wit, at thirty-five millions. One fifth of this, at
+the least, Smith thinks should be retained in specie, which would leave
+twenty-eight millions of specie to be exported in exchange for other
+commodities; and if fifteen millions of that should be returned in
+productive goods, and not in articles of prodigality, that would be the
+amount of capital which this operation would add to the existing mass.
+But to what mass? Not that of the three hundred millions, which is only
+its gross annual produce; but to that capital of which the three hundred
+millions are but the annual produce. But this being gross, we may infer
+from it the value of the capital by considering that the rent of lands
+is generally fixed at one third of the gross produce, and is deemed its
+nett profit, and twenty times that its fee simple value. The profits on
+landed capital may, with accuracy enough for our purpose, be supposed
+on a par with those of other capital. This would give us then for
+the United States, a capital of two thousand millions, all in active
+employment, and exclusive of unimproved lands lying in a great degree
+dormant. Of this, fifteen millions would be the hundred and thirty-third
+part. And it is for this petty addition to the capital of the nation,
+this minimum of one dollar, added to one hundred and thirty-three and a
+third, or three fourths per cent., that we are to give up our gold and
+silver medium, its intrinsic solidity, its universal value, and its
+saving powers in time of war, and to substitute for it paper, with all
+its train of evils, moral, political, and physical, which I will not
+pretend to enumerate.
+
+There is another authority to which we may appeal for the proper
+quantity of circulating medium for the United States. The old Congress,
+when we were estimated at about two millions of people, on a long and
+able discussion, June the 22nd, 1775, decided the sufficient quantity to
+be two millions of dollars, which sum they then emitted.* According to
+this, it should be eight millions, now that we are eight millions of
+people. This differs little from Smith’s minimum of ten millions, and
+strengthens our respect for that estimate.
+
+     * Within five months after this they were compelled, by the
+     necessities of the war, to abandon the idea of emitting only
+     an adequate circulation, and to make those necessities the
+     sole measure of their emissions.
+
+There is, indeed, a convenience in paper; its easy transmission from one
+place to another. But this may be mainly supplied by bills of exchange,
+so as to prevent any great displacement of actual coin. Two places
+trading together balance their dealings, for the most part, by their
+mutual supplies, and the debtor individuals of either may, instead of
+cash, remit the bills of those who are creditors in the same dealings;
+or may obtain them through some third place with which both have
+dealings. The cases would be rare where such bills could not be
+obtained, either directly or circuitously, and too unimportant to the
+nation to overweigh the train of evils flowing from paper circulation.
+
+From eight to thirty-five millions then being our proper circulation,
+and two hundred millions the actual one, the memorial proposes to issue
+ninety millions more, because, it says, a great scarcity of money is
+proved by the numerous applications for banks; to wit, New York for
+eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions, &c. The answer to this
+shall be quoted, from Adam Smith (B. 2, c. 2, page 462), where speaking
+of the complaints of the traders against the Scotch bankers, who had
+already gone too far in their issues of paper, he says, ‘Those traders
+and other undertakers having got so much assistance from banks, wished
+to get still more. The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend
+their credits to whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any
+other expense besides that of a few reams of paper. They complained
+of the contracted views and dastardly spirit of the directors of those
+banks, which did not, they said, extend their credits in proportion to
+the extension of the trade of the country; meaning, no doubt, by the
+extension of that trade, the extension of their own projects beyond what
+they could carry on, either with their own capital, or with what they
+had credit to borrow of private people in the usual way of bond or
+mortgage. The banks, they seem to have thought, were in honor bound to
+supply the deficiency, and to provide them with all the capital
+which they wanted to trade with.’ And again (page 470): ‘When bankers
+discovered that certain projectors were trading, not with any capital
+of their own, but with that which they advanced them, they endeavored
+to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and greater difficulties
+about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and enraged in the highest
+degree those projectors. Their own distress, of which this prudent and
+necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the immediate occasion, they
+called the distress of the country; and this distress of the country,
+they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity, and bad
+conduct of the banks, which did not give a sufficiently liberal aid to
+the spirited undertakings of those who exerted themselves in order to
+beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was the duty of the banks,
+they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time, and to as great an
+extent, as they might wish to borrow.’ It is, probably, the good paper
+of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks being unable to
+discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the risk of this
+good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal interest, to
+the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had rather try
+trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other laborious
+calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) ‘That the industry of Scotland
+languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the famous
+Mr. Law. By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which he seems to
+have imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of all
+the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money. It
+was afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the Duke of Orleans, at
+that time Regent of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying
+paper to almost any extent, was the real foundation of what is called
+the Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project both of banking and
+stockjobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw. The principles upon
+which it was founded are explained by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse
+concerning money and trade, which he published in Scotland when he first
+proposed his project. The splendid but visionary ideas which are set
+forth in that and some other works upon the same principles, still
+continue to make an impression upon many people, and have perhaps,
+in part, contributed to that excess of banking which has of late been
+complained of both in Scotland and in other places.’ The Mississippi
+scheme, it is well known, ended in France in the bankruptcy of the
+public treasury, the crush of thousands and thousands of private
+fortunes, and scenes of desolation and distress equal to those of an
+invading army, burning and laying waste all before it.
+
+At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about ‘a
+public debt being a public blessing’; that the stock representing it was
+a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers
+in dreams, and the gulls of that size entered _bonâ fide_ into it. But
+the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It
+is established on the principle, that ‘private debts are a public
+blessing;’ that the evidences of those private debts, called bank-notes,
+become active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for
+instance, who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our
+debt about two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they
+are, where they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when
+called on; nay, who have made us so sensible of the blessings of
+letting them run in our debt, that we have exempted them by law from the
+repayment of these debts beyond a given proportion, (generally estimated
+at one third.) And to fill up the measure of blessing, instead of
+paying, they receive an interest on what they owe from those to whom
+they owe; for all the notes, or evidences of what they owe, which we
+see in circulation, have been lent to somebody on an interest which is
+levied again on us through the medium of commerce. And they are so ready
+still to deal out their liberalities to us, that they are now willing to
+let themselves run in our debt ninety millions more, on our paying them
+the same premium of six or eight per cent, interest, and on the same
+legal exemption from the repayment of more than thirty millions of the
+debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look at this principle
+in its original form, and its copy will then be equally understood.
+‘A public debt is a public blessing.’ That our debt was juggled from
+forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount, according
+to this opinion, was a great public blessing, because the evidences of
+it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into active capital,
+and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active capital was
+created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in commerce the
+money due them from the public, and make from it an annual profit of
+five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that the
+public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the
+same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to
+either party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in
+the state of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from
+the public, of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on
+which he is receiving an annual interest. He wishes, however, to have
+the money itself, and to go into business with it. B has an equal sum of
+money in business, but wishes now to retire, and live on the interest.
+He therefore gives it to A, in exchange for A’s certificates of public
+stock. Now, then, A has the money to employ in business, which B so
+employed before. B has the money on interest to live on, which A lived
+on before: and the public pays the interest to B, which they paid to
+A before. Here is no new creation of capital, no additional money
+employed, nor even a change in the employment of a single dollar.
+The only change is of place between A and B, in which we discover no
+creation of capital, nor public blessing. Suppose, again, the public to
+owe nothing. Then A not having lent his money to the public, would be
+in possession of it himself, and would go into business without the
+previous operation of selling stock. Here again, the same quantity of
+capital is employed as in the former case, though no public debt exists.
+In neither case is there any creation of active capital, nor other
+difference than that there is a public debt in the first case, and none
+in the last; and we may safely ask which of the two situations is most
+truly a public blessing? If, then, a public debt be no public blessing,
+we may pronounce _a fortiori_, that a private one cannot be so. If the
+debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to any body, it is to
+themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of eight or ten
+per cent, on it. As to the public, these companies have banished all our
+gold and silver medium, which, before their institution, we had without
+interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and would have
+been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of which, they have
+given us two hundred millions of froth and bubble, on which we are to
+pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air, as Morris’s
+notes did. We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody on the
+principle of ‘a public debt being a public blessing,’ and its mutation
+into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as ridiculous
+as the original principle itself. In both cases, the truth is, that
+capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy: but
+jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with
+paper. I have called the actual circulation of bank paper in the United
+States, two hundred millions of dollars. I do not recollect where I have
+seen this estimate; but I retain the impression that I thought it just
+at the time. It may be tested, however, by a list of the banks now in
+the United States, and the amount of their capital. I have no means of
+recurring to such a list for the present day: but I turn to two lists in
+my possession for the years of 1803 and 1804.
+
+In 1803, there were thirty-four banks, whose capital was $28,902,000
+
+In 1804, there were sixty-six, consequently thirty-two additional ones.
+Their capital is not stated, but at the average of the others (excluding
+the highest, that of the United States, which was of ten millions)
+they would be of six hundred thousand dollars each, and
+add.........19,200,000
+
+Making a total of........ $48,102,000
+
+or say, of fifty millions in round numbers. Now every one knows the
+immense multiplication of these institutions since 1804. If they have
+only doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if
+trebled, as I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty
+millions, on which they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount.
+I should sooner, therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below
+than above the actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary
+document, (see Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other
+public papers of about that date) it appears that six years ago, the
+bank of England had twelve millions of pounds sterling in circulation,
+which had increased to forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and
+eighty-nine millions of dollars. What proportion all the other banks may
+add to this, I do not know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal
+it, this would give a circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight
+millions, or the double of ours on a double population. But that nation
+is essentially commercial, ours essentially agricultural, and needing,
+therefore, less circulating medium, because the produce of the
+husbandman comes but once a year, and is then partly consumed at home,
+partly exchanged by barter. The dollar, which was of four shillings and
+six pence sterling, was, by the same document, stated to be then six
+shillings and nine pence, a depreciation of exactly fifty per cent. The
+average price of wheat on the continent of Europe, at the commencement
+of its present war with England, was about a French crown, of one
+hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it was one hundred cents, and
+consequently we could send it there in competition with their own.
+That ordinary price has now doubled with us, and more than doubled in
+England; and although a part of this augmentation may proceed from the
+war demand, yet from the extraordinary nominal rise in the prices of
+land and labor here, both of which have nearly doubled in that period,
+and are still rising with every new bank, it is evident that were
+a general peace to take place to-morrow, and time allowed for the
+re-establishment of commerce, justice, and order, we could not afford
+to raise wheat for much less than two dollars, while the continent of
+Europe, having no paper circulation, and that of its specie not being
+augmented, would raise it at their former price of one hundred and ten
+cents. It follows, then, that with our redundancy of paper, we cannot,
+after peace, send a bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary
+circumstances double its price in particular places, and that then the
+exporting countries of Europe could undersell us. It is said our paper
+is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank
+where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have
+it: but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave
+a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form.
+It is a fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants of the
+banking cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of
+the vaults would hold out; but distance puts it out of the power of the
+country to do this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston
+bank, distant hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash.
+And while these calls are impracticable for the country, the banks have
+no fear of their being made from the towns; because their inhabitants
+are mostly on their books, and there on sufferance only and during good
+behavior.
+
+In this state of things, we are called on to add ninety millions more
+to the circulation. Proceeding in this career, it is infallible, that we
+must end where the revolutionary paper ended. Two hundred millions was
+the whole amount of all the emissions of the old Congress, at which
+point their bills ceased to circulate. We are now at that sum; but with
+treble the population, and of course a longer tether. Our depreciation
+is, as yet, but at about two for one. Owing to the support its credit
+receives from the small reservoirs of specie in the vaults of the banks,
+it is impossible to say at what point their notes will stop. Nothing
+is necessary to effect it but a general alarm; and that may take
+place whenever the public shall begin to reflect on, and perceive, the
+impossibility that the banks should repay this sum. At present, caution
+is inspired no farther than to keep prudent men from selling property
+on long payments. Let us suppose the panic to arise at three hundred
+millions, a point to which every session of the legislatures hastens
+us by long strides. Nobody dreams that they would have three hundred
+millions of specie to satisfy the holders of their notes. Were they even
+to stop now, no one supposes they have two hundred millions in cash, or
+even the sixty-six and two-thirds millions, to which amount alone the
+law obliges them to repay. One hundred and thirty-three and one-third
+millions of loss, then, is thrown on the public by law; and as to the
+sixty-six and two-thirds, which they are legally bound to pay, and ought
+to have in their vaults, every one knows there is no such amount of cash
+in the United States, and what would be the course with what they really
+have there? Their notes are refused. Cash is called for. The inhabitants
+of the banking towns will get what is in the vaults, until a few banks
+declare their insolvency; when, the general crush becoming evident, the
+others will withdraw even the cash they have, declare their bankruptcy
+at once, and leave an empty house and empty coffers for the holders of
+their notes. In this scramble of creditors, the country gets nothing,
+the towns but little. What are they to do? Bring suits? A million of
+creditors bring a million of suits against John Nokes and Robert Styles,
+wheresoever to be found? All nonsense. The loss is total. And a sum is
+thus swindled from our citizens, of seven times the amount of the real
+debt, and four times that of the factitious one of the United States,
+at the close of the war. All this they will justly charge on their
+legislatures; but this will be poor satisfaction for the two or three
+hundred millions they will have lost. It is time, then, for the public
+functionaries to look to this. Perhaps it may not be too late. Perhaps,
+by giving time to the banks, they may call in and pay off their paper
+by degrees. But no remedy is ever to be expected while it rests with
+the State legislatures. Personal motives can be excited through so many
+avenues to their will, that, in their hands, it will continue to go on
+from bad to worse, until the catastrophe overwhelms us. I still
+believe, however, that on proper representations of the subject, a great
+proportion of these legislatures would cede to Congress their power of
+establishing banks, saving the charter rights already granted. And this
+should be asked, not by way of amendment to the constitution, because
+until three fourths should consent, nothing could be done; but accepted
+from them one by one, singly, as their consent might be obtained. Any
+single State, even if no other should come into the measure, would find
+its interest in arresting foreign bank-paper immediately, and its own
+by degrees. Specie would flow in on them as paper disappeared. Their
+own banks would call in and pay off their notes gradually, and their
+constituents would thus be saved from the general wreck. Should the
+greater part of the States concede, as is expected, their power over
+banks to Congress, besides insuring their own safety, the paper of
+the non-conceding States might be so checked and circumscribed, by
+prohibiting its receipt in any of the conceding States, and even in the
+non-conceding as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other demands of the
+United States, or of the citizens of other States, that it would
+soon die of itself, and the medium of gold and silver be universally
+restored. This is what ought to be done. But it will not be done.
+_Carthago non delebitur_. The overbearing clamor of merchants,
+speculators, and projectors, will drive us before them with our eyes
+open, until, as in France, under the Mississippi bubble, our citizens
+will be overtaken by the crash of this baseless fabric, without
+other satisfaction than that of execrations on the heads of those
+functionaries, who, from ignorance, pusillanimity, or corruption, have
+betrayed the fruits of their industry into the hands of projectors and
+swindlers.
+
+When I speak comparatively of the paper emissions of the old Congress
+and the present banks, let it not be imagined that I cover them under
+the same mantle. The object of the former was a holy one; for if ever
+there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us
+independence. The object of the latter, is to enrich swindlers at the
+expense of the honest and industrious part of the nation.
+
+The sum of what has been said is, that pretermitting the constitutional
+question on the authority of Congress, and considering this application
+on the grounds of reason alone, it would be best that our medium should
+be so proportioned to our produce, as to be on a par with that of the
+countries with which we trade, and whose medium is in a sound state:
+that specie is the most perfect medium, because it will preserve its own
+level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die
+in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of
+war: that the trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its
+convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the
+advantages of the precious metals: that it is liable to be abused, has
+been, is, and for ever will be abused, in every country in which it is
+permitted; that it is already at a term of abuse in these States, which
+has never been reached by any other nation, France excepted, whose
+dreadful catastrophe should be a warning against the instrument which
+produced it: that we are already at ten or twenty times the due quantity
+of medium; insomuch, that no man knows what his property is now worth,
+because it is bloating while he is calculating; and still less what
+it will be worth when the medium shall be relieved from its present
+dropsical state: and that it is a palpable falsehood to say we can have
+specie for our paper whenever demanded. Instead, then, of yielding to
+the cries of scarcity of medium set up by speculators, projectors, and
+commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be spared to begin the work of
+reducing it by such gradual means as may give time to private fortunes
+to preserve their poise, and settle down with the subsiding medium; and
+that, for this purpose, the States should be urged to concede to the
+General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive
+power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
+
+To the existence of banks of discount for cash, as on the continent of
+Europe, there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of
+abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals.
+I think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than
+legal, interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion
+as the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those
+of a year or more. Even banks of deposite, where cash should be lodged,
+and a paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled
+to a return of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances,
+travelling persons, he. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered
+and robbed, and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued
+without deposite, it would require skilful and strict regulation. This
+would differ from the bank of Amsterdam, in the circumstance that the
+cash could be re-demanded on returning the note.
+
+When I commenced this letter to you, my dear Sir, on Mr. Law’s memorial,
+I expected a short one would have answered that. But as I advanced, the
+subject branched itself before me into so many collateral questions,
+that even the rapid views I have taken of each have swelled the volume
+of my letter beyond my expectations, and, I fear, beyond your patience.
+Yet on a revisal of it, I find no part which has not so much bearing on
+the subject as to be worth merely the time of perusal. I leave it
+then as it is; and will add only the assurances of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 13, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of August the 22nd, I have received your favors of August the
+16th, September the 2nd, 14th, 15th, and, and Mrs. Adams’s, of September
+the 20th. I now send you, according to your request, a copy of the
+syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with
+nerves, muscles, and flesh, is really beyond my time and information.
+Whoever could undertake it, would find great aid in Enfield’s judicious
+abridgment of Brucker’s History of Philosophy, in which he has reduced
+five or six quarto volumes, of one thousand pages each of Latin closely
+printed, to two moderate octavos of English open type.
+
+To compare the morals of the Old, with those of the New Testament, would
+require an attentive study of the former, a search through all its books
+for its precepts, and through all its history for its practices, and the
+principles they prove. As commentaries, too, on these, the philosophy of
+the Hebrews must be inquired into, their Mishna, their Gemara,
+Cabbala, Jezirah, Sonar, Cosri, and their Talmud, must be examined and
+understood, in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it would seem,
+has gone deeply into these repositories of their ethics, and Enfield his
+epitomizer, concludes in these words. ‘Ethics were so little understood
+among the Jews, that, in their whole compilation called the Talmud,
+there is only one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of morals
+chiefly consisted in a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of
+Moses were deduced six hundred and thirteen precepts, which were divided
+into two classes, affirmative and negative, two hundred and forty-eight
+in the former, and three hundred and sixty-five in the latter. It may
+serve to give the reader some idea of the low state of moral philosophy
+among the Jews in the middle age, to add, that of the two hundred
+and forty-eight affirmative precepts, only three were considered as
+obligatory upon women; and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was
+judged sufficient to fulfil any one single law in the hour of death;
+the observance of the rest being deemed necessary, only to increase the
+felicity of the future life. What a wretched depravity of sentiment
+and manners must have prevailed, before such corrupt maxims could have
+obtained credit! It is impossible to collect from these writings a
+consistent series of moral doctrine. (Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.) It
+was the reformation of this wretched depravity of morals which Jesus
+undertook. In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should
+have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been
+muffled by priests who have travestied them into various forms, as
+instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the
+Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the
+Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations,
+their Logos and Demiurgos, Æons, and Daemons, male and female, with a
+long train of &c. &c. &c. or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must
+reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the
+very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphiboligisms into which
+they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had
+fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta,
+and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood
+themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and
+benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have
+performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out
+of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his,
+and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds, in a dunghill. The
+result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated
+doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the unlettered
+Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians, of the first
+century. Their Platonizing successors, indeed, in after times, in order
+to legitimate the corruptions which they had incorporated into the
+doctrines of Jesus, found it necessary to disavow the primitive
+Christians, who had taken their principles from the mouth of Jesus
+himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers cotemporary with them. They
+excommunicated their followers as heretics, branding them with the
+opprobrious name of Ebionites and Beggars. For a comparison of the
+Grecian philosophy with that of Jesus, materials might be largely drawn
+from the same source. Enfield gives a history and detailed account of
+the opinions and principles of the different sects. These relate to
+the Gods, their natures, grades, places, and powers; the demi-Gods and
+Demons, and their agency with man; the universe, its structure, extent,
+and duration; the origin of things from the elements of fire, water,
+air, and earth; the human soul, its essence and derivation; the _summum
+bonum_, and _finis bonorum_; with a thousand idle dreams and fancies on
+these and other subjects, the knowledge of which is withheld from man;
+leaving but a short chapter for his moral duties, and the principal
+section of that given to what he owes himself, to precepts for
+rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the evils of life, and for
+preserving his mind in a state of constant serenity.
+
+Such a canvass is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of
+one whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life.
+We must leave, therefore, to others, younger and more learned than
+we are, to prepare this euthanasia for Platonic Christianity, and its
+restoration to the primitive simplicity of its founder. I think you give
+a just outline of the theism of the three religions, when you say that
+the principle of the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and
+of the Christian the love of God.
+
+An expression in your letter of September the 14th, that ‘the human
+understanding is a revelation from its maker,’ gives the best solution
+that I believe can be given of the question, ‘What did Socrates mean by
+his Daemon?’ He was too wise to believe, and too honest to pretend, that
+he had real and familiar converse with a superior and invisible being.
+He probably considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason,
+as revelations, or inspirations from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on
+important occasions, by a special superintending providence.
+
+I acknowledge all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which
+you ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct
+imagination can permit itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being
+so superlative, the hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be
+followed with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation
+in giving him the palm over all the hymnists of every language, and of
+every time. Turn to the 148th psalm in Brady and Tate’s version. Have
+such conceptions been ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th
+psalm is more to be esteemed for its pithiness than its poetry. Even
+Sternhold, the leaden Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the
+sublimity of his original, and expresses the majesty of God descending
+on the earth, in terms not unworthy of the subject.
+
+[Illustration: page225]
+
+The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are but
+mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
+
+The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian dissenters
+of Liverpool, in their printed form of prayer; but they are not always
+the best versions. Indeed, bad is the best of the English versions; not
+a ray of poetical genius having ever been employed on them. And how much
+depends on this, may be seen by comparing Brady and Tate’s 15th psalm
+with Blacklock’s _Justum et tenacem propositi virum_ of Horace, quoted
+in Hume’s History, Car. 2. ch. 66. A translation of David in this style,
+or in that of Pompei’s Cleanthes, might give us some idea of the merit
+of the original. The character, too, of the poetry of these hymns is
+singular to us; written in monostichs, each divided into strophe
+and antistrophe, the sentiment of the first member responded with
+amplification or antithesis in the second.
+
+On the subject of the Postscript of yours of August the 16th and of Mrs.
+Adams’s letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has
+caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there
+is no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us,
+which experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time
+and silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can
+suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings
+up, until recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 28, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the
+subjects of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of
+August the 16th and September the 2nd.
+
+The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than
+a political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
+
+[Illustration: page226]
+
+and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who,
+while with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by
+employing always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement
+of his own race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the
+old, for considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with
+the principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by
+Ocellus in another form;
+
+[Illustration: page226a
+
+which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus
+translated; ‘Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it
+shall be, in a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and
+sanctity, conjointly, this is what I think right. First, to lay it down
+that we do not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation
+of children. For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have
+not been given by God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the
+procreation of the race. For as it were incongruous for a mortal born
+to partake of divine life, the immortality of the race being taken away,
+God fulfilled the purpose by making the generations uninterrupted
+and continuous. This, therefore, we are especially to lay down as a
+principle, that coition is not for the sake of pleasure.’ But nature,
+not trusting to this moral and abstract motive, seems to have provided
+more securely for the perpetuation of the species, by making it the
+effect of the _oestrum_ implanted in the constitution of both sexes.
+And not only has the commerce of love been indulged on this unhallowed
+impulse, but made subservient also to wealth and ambition by marriages,
+without regard to the beauty, the healthiness, the understanding, or
+virtue of the subject from which we are to breed. The selecting the best
+male for a Haram of well chosen females, also, which Theognis seems
+to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless
+improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of
+veritable
+
+[Illustration: page227].
+
+For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
+whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father
+to son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against
+this privileged Solomon and his Haram, and oblige us to continue
+acquiescence under the
+
+[Illustration: page227a],
+
+which Theognis complains of, and to content ourselves with the
+accidental _aristoi_ produced by the fortuitous concourse of breeders.
+For I agree with you, that there is a natural aristocracy among men.
+The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly, bodily powers
+gave place among the _aristoi_. But since the invention of gunpowder
+has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death,
+bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness, and other
+accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction.
+There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth,
+without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the
+first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious
+gift of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of
+society. And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to
+have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue
+and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even
+say, that that form of government is the best, which provides the most
+effectually for a pure selection of these natural _aristoi_ into the
+offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous
+ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its
+ascendancy. On the question, what is the best provision, you and I
+differ; but we differ as rational friends, using the free exercise of
+our own reason, and mutually indulging its errors. You think it best
+to put the pseudo-aristoi into a separate chamber of legislation, where
+they may be hindered from doing mischief by their co-ordinate branches,
+and where, also, they may be a protection to wealth against the Agrarian
+and plundering enterprises of the majority of the people. I think that
+to give them power in order to prevent them from doing mischief, is
+arming them for it, and increasing instead of remedying the evil. For
+if the co-ordinate branches can arrest their action, so may they that of
+the co-ordinates. Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively.
+Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the United States has furnished many
+proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy;
+because enough of these will find their way into every branch of the
+legislation, to protect themselves. From fifteen to twenty legislatures
+of our own, in action for thirty years past, have proved that no fears
+of an equalization of property are to be apprehended from them. I think
+the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our constitutions, to
+leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the _aristoi_
+from the _pseudo-aristoi_, of the wheat from the chaff. In general,
+they will elect the really good and wise. In some instances, wealth may
+corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient degree to endanger
+the society.
+
+It is probable that our difference of opinion may, in some measure, be
+produced by a difference of character in those among whom we live. From
+what I have seen of Massachusetts and Connecticut myself, and still
+more from what I have heard, and the character given of the former by
+yourself, (Vol. I, page 111,) who know them so much better, there seems
+to be in those two States a traditionary reverence for certain families,
+which has rendered the offices of government nearly hereditary in those
+families. I presume that from an early period of your history, members
+of these families happening to possess virtue and talents, have honestly
+exercised them for the good of the people, and by their services have
+endeared their names to them. In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean
+it politically only, not morally. For having made the Bible the common
+law of their land, they seem to have modeled their morality on the story
+of Jacob and Laban. But although this hereditary succession to office
+with you may, in some degree, be founded in real family merit, yet in a
+much higher degree, it has proceeded from your strict alliance of Church
+and State. These families are canonized in the eyes of the people on the
+common principle, ‘You tickle me, and I will tickle you.’ In Virginia,
+we have nothing of this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having been
+secured against rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give themselves the
+trouble of acquiring influence over the people. Of wealth, there were
+great accumulations in particular families, handed down from generation
+to generation, under the English law of entails. But the only object
+of ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the King’s Council. All their
+court then was paid to the crown and its creatures; and they Philipized
+in all collisions between the King and the people. Hence they were
+unpopular; and that unpopularity continues attached to their names. A
+Randolph, a Carter, or a Burwell must have great personal superiority
+over a common competitor, to be elected by the people, even at this
+day. At the first session of our legislature after the Declaration of
+Independence, we passed a law abolishing entails. And this was followed
+by one abolishing the privilege of primogeniture, and dividing the
+lands of intestates equally among all their children, or other
+representatives. These laws, drawn by myself, laid the axe to the root
+of pseudo-aristocracy. And had another which I prepared been adopted by
+the legislature, our work would have been complete. It was a bill for
+the more general diffusion of learning. This proposed to divide every
+county into wards of five or six miles square, like your townships; to
+establish in each ward a free school for reading, writing, and common
+arithmetic; to provide for the annual selection of the best subjects
+from these schools, who might receive, at the public expense, a higher
+degree of education at a district school; and from these district
+schools to select a certain number of the most promising subjects, to
+be completed at an University, where all the useful sciences should
+be taught. Worth and genius would thus have been sought out from every
+condition of life, and completely prepared by education for defeating
+the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts. My proposition
+had, for a further object, to impart to these wards those portions of
+self-government for which they are best qualified, by confiding to them
+the care of their poor, their roads, police, elections, the nomination
+of jurors, administration of justice in small cases, elementary
+exercises of militia; in short, to have made them little republics, with
+a warden at the head of each, for all those concerns which, being under
+their eye, they would better manage than the larger republics of the
+county or State. A general call of ward-meetings by their wardens on the
+same day through the State, would at any time produce the genuine sense
+of the people on any required point, and would enable the State to act
+in mass, as your people have so often done, and with so much effect, by
+their town-meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made a part of
+this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and restored
+to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails and
+descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on
+education would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground
+of moral respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly
+government; and would have completed the great object of qualifying them
+to select the veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, to the
+exclusion of the pseudalists: and the same Theognis, who has furnished
+the epigraphs of your two letters, assures us that
+
+[Illustration: page229]
+
+Although this law has not yet been acted on but in a small and
+inefficient degree, it is still considered as before the legislature,
+with other bills of the revised code, not yet taken up, and I have great
+hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment, call it up,
+and make it the key-stone of the arch of our government.
+
+With respect to aristocracy, we should further consider, that before the
+establishment of the American States, nothing was known to history
+but the man of the old world, crowded within limits either small or
+overcharged, and steeped in the vices which that situation generates. A
+government adapted to such men would be one thing; but a very different
+one, that for the man of these States. Here every one may have land to
+labor for himself, if he chooses; or, preferring the exercise of any
+other industry, may exact for it such compensation as not only to afford
+a comfortable subsistence, but wherewith to provide for a cessation
+from labor in old age. Every one, by his property or by his satisfactory
+situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men
+may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control
+over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands
+of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted
+to the demolition and destruction of every thing public and private. The
+history of the last twenty-five years of France, and of the last forty
+years in America, nay, of its last two hundred years, proves the truth
+of both parts of this observation.
+
+But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man.
+Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and
+the American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
+insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents, and courage,
+against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed
+in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used
+for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could
+not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from
+the panic of this first catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents
+and enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of
+the country, a more governable power from their principles and
+subordination; and rank and birth and tinsel-aristocracy will finally
+shrink into insignificance, even there. This, however, we have no right
+to meddle with. It suffices for us, if the moral and physical condition
+of our own citizens qualifies them to select the able and good for the
+direction of their government, with a recurrence of elections at such
+short periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful servant,
+before the mischief he meditates may be irremediable, I have thus
+stated my opinion on a point on which we differ, not with a view to
+controversy, for we are both too old to change opinions which are the
+result of a long life of inquiry and reflection; but on the suggestion
+of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to die before we have
+explained ourselves to each other. We acted in perfect harmony,
+through a long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence.
+A constitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us thinks
+perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens
+the happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone. If we do
+not think exactly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to
+our country, which, after devoting to it long lives of disinterested
+labor we have delivered over to our successors in life, who will be able
+to take care of it and of themselves.
+
+Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or who may be
+its author, I have heard nothing but through your letter. If the person
+you suspect, it may be known from the quaint, mystical, and hyperbolical
+ideas, involved in affected, newfangled, and pedantic terms, which stamp
+his writings. Whatever it be, I hope your quiet is not to be affected at
+this day by the rudeness or intemperance of scribblers; but that you may
+continue in tranquillity to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of
+our country, until it shall be your own wish to take your seat among the
+_aristoi_ who have gone before you.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVI.--TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814
+
+
+TO THOMAS LIEPER.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had hoped, when I retired from the business of the world, that I
+should have been permitted to pass the evening of life in tranquillity,
+undisturbed by the peltings and passions of which the public papers
+are the vehicles. I see, however, that I have been dragged into the
+newspapers by the infidelity of one with whom I was formerly intimate,
+but who has abandoned the American principles out of which that intimacy
+grew, and become the bigoted partisan of England, and malcontent of his
+own government. In a letter which he wrote me, he earnestly besought me
+to avail our country of the good understanding which subsisted between
+the executive and myself, by recommending an offer of such terms to
+our enemy as might produce a peace, towards which he was confident that
+enemy was disposed. In my answer, I stated the aggressions, the insults,
+and injuries which England had been heaping on us for years, our long
+forbearance in the hope she might be led by time and reflection to a
+sounder view of her own interests, and of their connection with justice
+to us, the repeated propositions for accommodation made by us, and
+rejected by her, and at length her Prince Regent’s solemn proclamation
+to the world, that he would never repeal the orders in council as to
+us, until France should have revoked her illegal decrees as to all
+the world, and her minister’s declaration to ours, that no admissible
+precaution against the impressment of our seamen could be proposed: that
+the unavoidable declaration of war which followed these was accompanied
+by advances for peace, on terms which no American could dispense with,
+made through various channels, and unnoticed and unanswered through
+any: but that if he could suggest any other conditions which we ought
+to accept, and which had not been repeatedly offered and rejected, I was
+ready to be the channel of their conveyance to the government: and, to
+show him that neither that attachment to Bonaparte nor French influence,
+which they allege eternally without believing it, themselves, affected
+my mind, I threw in the two little sentences, of the printed extract
+enclosed in your friendly favor of the 9th ultimo, and exactly these two
+little sentences, from a letter of two or three pages, he has thought
+proper to publish, naked, alone, and with my name, although other parts
+of the letter would have shown that I wished such limits only to the
+successes of Bonaparte, as should not prevent his completely closing
+Europe against British manufactures and commerce; and thereby reducing
+her to just terms of peace with us.
+
+Thus am I situated. I receive letters from all quarters, some from known
+friends, some from those who write like friends, on various subjects.
+What am I to do? Am I to button myself up in Jesuitical reserve, rudely
+declining any answer, or answering in terms so unmeaning, as only
+to prove my distrust? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of
+sentiment with the world? I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits
+and temper. I cannot act as if all men were unfaithful, because some are
+so; nor believe that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather
+be the victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general
+confidence in the honesty of man.
+
+So far as to the breach of confidence which has brought me into the
+newspapers, with a view to embroil me with my friends, by a supposed
+separation in opinion and principle from them. But it is impossible
+there can be any difference of opinion among us on the two propositions
+contained in these two little sentences, when explained, as they were
+explained in the context from which they were insulated. That Bonaparte
+is an unprincipled tyrant, who is deluging the continent of Europe with
+blood, there is not a human being, not even the wife of his bosom, who
+does not see: nor can there, I think, be a doubt as to the line we ought
+to wish drawn between his successes and those of Alexander. Surely none
+of us wish to see Bonaparte conquer Russia, and lay thus at his feet the
+whole continent of Europe. This done, England would be but a breakfast:
+and although I am free from the visionary fears which the votaries of
+England have affected to entertain, because I believe he cannot effect
+the conquest of Europe; yet put all Europe into his hands, and he might
+spare such a force, to be sent in British ships, as I would as lieve
+not have to encounter, when I see how much trouble a handful of British
+soldiers in Canada has given us. No. It cannot be our interest that all
+Europe should be reduced to a single monarchy. The true line of
+interest for us is, that Bonaparte should be able to effect the complete
+exclusion of England from the whole continent of Europe, in order, as
+the same letter said, ‘by this peaceable engine of constraint, to make
+her renounce her views of dominion over the ocean, of permitting no
+other nation to navigate it but with her license, and on tribute to her,
+and her aggressions on the persons of our citizens who may choose to
+exercise their right of passing over that element.’ And this would be
+effected by Bonaparte’s succeeding so far as to close the Baltic against
+her. This success I wished him the last year, this I wish him this
+year; but were he again advanced to Moscow, I should again wish him
+such disasters as would prevent his reaching Petersburg. And were the
+consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war, I would
+rather meet them, than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a single
+hand.
+
+I have gone into this explanation, my friend, because I know you will
+not carry my letter to the newspapers, and because I am willing
+to entrust to your discretion the explaining me to our honest
+fellow-laborers, and the bringing them to pause and reflect, if any of
+them have not sufficiently reflected on the extent of the success we
+ought to wish to Bonaparte, with a view to our own interests only; and
+even were we not men, to whom nothing human should be indifferent. But
+is our particular interest to make us insensible to all sentiments of
+morality? Is it then become criminal, the moral wish that the torrents
+of blood this man is shedding in Europe, the sufferings of so many human
+beings, good as ourselves, on whose necks he is trampling, the burnings
+of ancient cities, devastations of great countries, the destruction of
+law and order, and demoralization of the world, should be arrested, even
+if it should place our peace a little further distant? No. You and
+I cannot differ in wishing that Russia, and Sweden, and Denmark, and
+Germany, and Spain, and Portugal, and Italy, and even England, may
+retain their independence. And if we differ in our opinions about Towers
+and his four beasts and ten kingdoms, we differ as friends, indulging
+mutual errors, and doing justice to mutual sincerity and honesty. In
+this spirit of sincere confidence and affection, I pray God to bless you
+here and hereafter.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVII.--TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES.
+
+Monticello, January 2,1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of November the 25th reached this place December the 21st,
+having been near a month on the way. How this could happen I know not,
+as we have two mails a week both from Fredericksburg and Richmond. It
+found me just returned from a long journey and absence, during which
+so much business had accumulated, commanding the first attentions, that
+another week has been added to the delay.
+
+I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have
+passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
+who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of
+a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which
+we are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and
+lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and
+a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by
+forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been
+produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with
+you; and I have read with great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on
+that subject, which I now return. It is at the same time a perfect model
+of the style of discussion which candor and decency should observe,
+of the tone which renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a
+succinct, correct, and dispassionate history of the origin and progress
+of party among us. It might be incorporated, as it stands, and without
+changing a word, into the history of the present epoch, and would give
+to posterity a fairer view of the times than they will probably derive
+from other sources. In reading it, with great satisfaction, there was
+but a single passage where I wished a little more developement of a very
+sound and catholic idea; a single intercalation to rest it solidly on
+true bottom. It is near the end of the first page, where you make a
+statement of genuine republican maxims; saying, ‘that the people ought
+to possess as much political power as can possibly consist with the
+order and security of society.’ Instead of this, I would say, ‘that
+the people, being the only safe depository of power, should exercise in
+person every function which their qualifications enable them to exercise
+consistently with the order and security of society; that we now find
+them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
+their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the
+judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that the range of their
+powers ought to be enlarged,’ &c. This gives both the reason and
+exemplification of the maxim you express, ‘that they ought to possess as
+much political power,’ &c. I see nothing to correct either in your facts
+or principles.
+
+You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him
+harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic.
+I do not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of
+his mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
+seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think I knew
+General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to
+delineate his character, it should be in terms like these.
+
+His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order;
+his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon,
+or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was
+slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but
+sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of
+the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all
+suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no General
+ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the
+course of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden
+circumstances, he was slow in a re-adjustment. The consequence was, that
+he often failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as
+at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers
+with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his
+character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every
+consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but,
+when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles
+opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I
+have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship
+or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every
+sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was
+naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had
+obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it
+broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he
+was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised
+utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all
+unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections;
+but he exactly calculated every man’s value, and gave him a solid esteem
+proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
+what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best
+horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that could be seen
+on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might
+be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
+his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
+copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on
+for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he
+wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This
+he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education
+was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added
+surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly,
+reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His
+correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing
+his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within
+doors. On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing
+bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did
+nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to
+place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited
+from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny
+and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an
+arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting
+its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and
+principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train;
+and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career,
+civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other
+example. How, then, can it be perilous for you to take such a man on
+your shoulders? I am satisfied the great body of republicans think of
+him as I do. We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on his ratification
+of the British treaty. But this was short-lived. We knew his honesty,
+the wiles with which he was encompassed, and that age had already begun
+to relax the firmness of his purposes; and I am convinced he is more
+deeply seated in the love and gratitude of the republicans, than in the
+Pharisaical homage of the federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist
+from preference of his judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct
+views of the rights of man, and his severe justice devoted him to them.
+He has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as
+an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with
+what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he was
+determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose
+the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these declarations he
+repeated to me the oftener and the more pointedly, because he knew my
+suspicions of Colonel Hamilton’s views, and probably had heard from
+him the same declarations which I had, to wit, ‘that the British
+constitution, with its unequal representation, corruption, and other
+existing abuses, was the most perfect government which had ever been
+established on earth, and that a reformation of these abuses would make
+it an impracticable government.’ I do believe that General Washington
+had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government. He was
+naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions:
+and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at length end in
+something like a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption
+of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress,
+and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us
+gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on
+with as little shock as might be to the public mind.
+
+These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the
+judgment-seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty
+years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the
+Revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us
+to take command of the army. During the war and after it we corresponded
+Occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office
+of Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and
+cordial. After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains
+were taken by our federal monarchists, and not entirely without
+effect, to make him view me as a theorist, holding French principles of
+government, which would lead infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy.
+And to this he listened the more easily, from my known disapprobation
+of the British treaty. I never saw him afterwards, or these malignant
+insinuations should have been dissipated before his just judgment, as
+mists before the sun. I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that
+‘verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.’
+
+More time and recollection would enable me to add many other traits of
+his character; but why add them to you, who knew him well? And I cannot
+justify to myself a longer detention of your paper.
+
+_Vale, proprieque tuum me esse tibi persuadeas_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 23d is received. Say had come to hand safely. But I
+regretted having asked the return of him; for I did not find in him one
+new idea on the subject I had been contemplating; nothing more than a
+succinct, judicious digest of the tedious pages of Smith.
+
+You ask my opinion on the question, whether the States can add any
+qualifications to those which the constitution has prescribed for their
+members of Congress? It is a question I had never before reflected on;
+yet had taken up an off-hand opinion, agreeing with your first,
+that they could not: that to add new qualifications to those of the
+constitution, would be as much an alteration, as to detract from them.
+And so I think the House of Representatives of Congress decided in some
+case; I believe that of a member from Baltimore. But your letter having
+induced me to look into the constitution, and to consider the question
+a little, I am again in your predicament, of doubting the correctness of
+my first opinion. Had the constitution been silent, nobody can doubt but
+that the right to prescribe all the qualifications and disqualifications
+of those they would send to represent them, would have belonged to the
+State. So also the constitution might have prescribed the whole, and
+excluded all others. It seems to have preferred the middle way. It has
+exercised the power in part, by declaring some disqualifications, to
+wit, those of not being twenty-five years of age, of not having been a
+citizen seven years, and of not being an inhabitant of the State at the
+time of election. But it does not declare, itself, that the member shall
+not be a lunatic, a pauper, a convict of treason, of murder, of felony,
+or other infamous crime, or a non-resident of his district; nor does
+it prohibit to the State the power of declaring these, or any other
+disqualifications which its particular circumstances may call for: and
+these may be different in different States. Of course, then, by the
+tenth amendment, the power is reserved to the State. If, wherever the
+constitution assumes a single power out of many which belong to the same
+subject, we should consider it as assuming the whole, it would vest
+the General Government with a mass of powers never contemplated. On the
+contrary, the assumption of particular powers seems an exclusion of all
+not assumed. This reasoning appears to me to be sound; but, on so recent
+a change of view, caution requires us not to be too confident, and that
+we admit this to be one of the doubtful questions on which honest men
+may differ with the purest motives; and the more readily, as we find we
+have differed from ourselves on it.
+
+I have always thought, that where the line of demarcation between
+the powers of the General and State governments was doubtfully or
+indistinctly drawn, it would be prudent and praiseworthy in both
+parties, never to approach it but under the most urgent necessity.
+Is the necessity now urgent, to declare that no non-resident of his
+district shall be eligible as a member of Congress? It seems to me that,
+in practice, the partialities of the people are a sufficient security
+against such an election; and that if, in any instance, they should
+ever choose a non-resident, it must be in one of such eminent merit and
+qualifications, as would make it a good, rather than an evil; and that,
+in any event, the examples will be so rare, as never to amount to a
+serious evil. If the case then be neither clear nor urgent, would it not
+be better to let it lie undisturbed? Perhaps its decision may never
+be called for. But if it be indispensable to establish this
+disqualification now, would it not look better to declare such others,
+at the same time, as may be proper? I frankly confide to yourself these
+opinions, or rather no-opinions, of mine; but would not wish to have
+them go any farther. I want to be quiet: and although some circumstances
+now and then excite me to notice them, I feel safe, and happier in
+leaving events to those whose turn it is to take care of them; and, in
+general, to let it be understood, that I meddle little or not at all
+with public affairs. There are two subjects, indeed, which I shall claim
+a right to further as long as I breathe, the public education and the
+subdivision of the counties into wards. I consider the continuance of
+republican government as absolutely hanging on these two hooks. Of the
+first, you will, I am sure, be an advocate, as having already
+reflected on it, and of the last, when you shall have reflected. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 5, 1814
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 5, 1814
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of January the 24th, yours of March the 14th has been
+received. It was not acknowledged in the short one of May the 18th, by
+Mr. Rives, the only object of that having been to enable one of our most
+promising young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. I
+learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned in your letter;
+and I hope Mr. Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored.
+But our machines have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we
+must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now
+a pinion, next a spring, will be giving way; and however we may tinker
+them up for a while, all will at length surcease motion. Our watches,
+with works of brass and steel, wear out within that period. Shall you
+and I last to see the course the seven-fold wonders of the times will
+take? The Attila of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of
+ten millions of the human race, whose thirst for blood appeared
+unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights and liberties of
+the world, shut up within the circuit of a little island of the
+Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and degraded
+pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. How miserably, how
+meanly, has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of the bathos
+will his history present! He should have perished on the swords of his
+enemies, under the walls of Paris.
+
+[Illustration: page240]
+
+But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a
+cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no
+statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil
+government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed
+him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly _des Cinq Cens_,
+eighteenth _Brumaire_ (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as
+a great scoundrel only. To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add
+that of a Czar of Muscovy, dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all
+the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the balance in which the
+fortunes of this new world are suspended. I own, that while I rejoice,
+for the good of mankind, in the deliverance of Europe from the havoc
+which would have never ceased while Bonaparte should have lived in
+power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the ocean remaining in vigor,
+and even participating in the merit of crushing his brother tyrant.
+While the world is thus turned upside down, on which side of it are
+we? All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of peace; the
+interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and even the
+interests of England. Her passions alone are opposed to it. Peace would
+seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed. Her
+orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers,
+and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I
+fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public
+papers, of demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will
+Massachusetts say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered
+as speaking through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of
+its will. She chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens,
+in which we were all interested, and with them her obligations to the
+co-States, rather than war with England. Will she now sacrifice the
+fisheries to the same partialities? This question is interesting to her
+alone; for to the middle, the southern, and western States, they are
+of no direct concern; of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and
+cotton to Massachusetts. I am really at a loss to conjecture what our
+refractory sister will say on this occasion. I know what, as a citizen
+of the Union, I would say to her. ‘Take this question ad referendum. It
+concerns you alone. If you would rather, give up the fisheries than war
+with England, we give them up. If you had rather fight for them, we will
+defend your interests to the last drop of our blood, choosing rather to
+set a good example than follow a bad one.’ And I hope she will determine
+to fight for them. With this, however, you and I shall have nothing
+to do; ours being truly the case wherein ‘_Non tali auxilio, nec
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.’ Quitting this subject, therefore, I
+will turn over another leaf.
+
+I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my
+other home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than here for
+reading, I amused myself with reading seriously Plato’s Republic. I
+am wrong, however, in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest
+task-work I ever went through. I had occasionally before taken up some
+of his other works, but scarcely ever had patience to go through a
+whole dialogue. While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and
+unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself,
+how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to
+give reputation to such nonsense as this. How the soi-disant Christian
+world, indeed, should have done it, is a piece of historical curiosity.
+But how could the Roman good sense do it? And particularly, how could
+Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? Although Cicero did not wield
+the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he was able, learned, laborious,
+practised in the business of the world and honest. He could not be the
+dupe of mere style, of which he was himself the first master in the
+world. With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and
+authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their
+profession, have an interest in the reputation and the dreams of Plato.
+They give the tone while at school, and few in their after years have
+occasion to revise their college opinions. But fashion and authority
+apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his
+sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In
+truth, he is one of the race of genuine sophists, who has escaped the
+oblivion of his brethren, first, by the elegance of his diction, but
+chiefly by the adoption and incorporation of his whimsies into the body
+of artificial Christianity. His foggy mind is for ever presenting the
+semblances of objects which, half seen through a mist, can be defined
+neither in form nor dimension. Yet this, which should have consigned
+him to early oblivion, really procured him immortality of fame and
+reverence. The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ
+levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw
+in the mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up
+an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit
+everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce
+it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from
+the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but
+thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on
+them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained.
+Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and it is
+now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle of
+Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
+of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
+arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
+it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
+the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
+living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts
+of the field or forest. Yet ‘Plato is a great philosopher,’ said La
+Fontaine. But, says Fontenelle, ‘Do you find his ideas very clear.’ ‘Oh,
+no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.’ ‘Do you not find him full
+of contradictions?’ ‘Certainly,’ replied La Fontaine, ‘he is but a
+sophist.’ Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, ‘Oh, Plato was a
+great philosopher.’ Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
+misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
+Socrates.
+
+But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I
+am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not
+receive them as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth
+are born under happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all
+learning in their mother’s womb, and bring it into the world ready made.
+The information of books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which
+is not innate is in contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must
+run its round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning and
+self-sufficiency; of rejecting the knowledge acquired in past ages, and
+starting on the new ground of intuition. When sobered by experience,
+I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of
+education. I mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the
+petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every
+neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, and sometimes
+Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of Euclid,
+imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They commit their
+pupils to the theatre of the world, with just taste enough of learning
+to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not enough to do service
+in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions, indeed. I presented
+one to you lately, and we have some others. But the terms I use are
+general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be seen of
+establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch of
+science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have
+you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I
+mean to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in
+human affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many
+professors only, as might bring them within the views of a just but
+enlightened economy? I should be happy in a communication of your ideas
+on this problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my being run
+away with by another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of
+the present letter, I will here present to Mrs. Adams and yourself, the
+assurance of my constant and sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXX.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been
+received with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the
+ocean of newspaper lies, serves like headlands to correct our course.
+Indeed, my scepticism as to every thing I see in a newspaper, makes me
+indifferent whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in
+August last, I expected would be great in any state of things; but they
+proved greater than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the
+President were wise and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1.
+To the insubordinate temper of Armstrong: and, 2. To the indecision of
+Winder. However, it ends well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check,
+perhaps, the silly boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the
+feelings of the world on our side: and the advantage of public opinion
+is like that of the weather-gage in a naval action. In Europe, the
+transient possession of our Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every
+Capital there was in possession of its enemy some often and long. But
+diabolical as they paint that enemy, he burnt neither public edifices
+nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show that
+Bonaparte, in atrocity, was an infant to their ministers and their
+generals. They are taking his place in the eyes of Europe, and have
+turned into our channel all its good will. This will be worth the
+million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost us.
+I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to
+counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English
+papers, the government will make it a standing instruction to
+their ministers at foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of
+occurrences here, by publishing in their papers the naked truth always,
+whether favorable or unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we
+candidly tell them the bad also.
+
+But you have two more serious causes of uneasiness; the want of men and
+money. For the former, nothing more wise or efficient could have been
+imagined than what you proposed. It would have filled our ranks with
+regulars, and that, too, by throwing a just share of the burthen on the
+purses of those whose persons are exempt either by age or office; and it
+would have rendered our militia, like those of the Greeks and Romans,
+a nation of warriors. But the go-by seems to have been given to your
+proposition, and longer sufferance is necessary to force us to what is
+best. We seem equally incorrigible in our financial course. Although a
+century of British experience has proved to what a wonderful extent the
+funding on specific redeeming taxes enables a nation to anticipitate
+in war the resources of peace, and although the other nations of Europe
+have tried and trodden every path of force or folly in fruitless quest
+of the same object, yet we still expect to find, in juggling tricks and
+banking dreams, that money can be made out of nothing, and in sufficient
+quantity to meet the expenses of a heavy war by sea and land. It is
+said, indeed, that money cannot be borrowed from our merchants as from
+those of England. But it can be borrowed from our people. They will give
+you all the necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt
+trash they now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will
+give them a paper-promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for
+common circulation. But you say the merchants will not take this paper.
+What the people take the merchants must take, or sell nothing. All these
+doubts and fears prove only the extent of the dominion which the
+banking institutions have obtained over the minds of our citizens, and
+especially of those inhabiting cities or other banking places; and this
+dominion must be broken, or it will break us. But here, as in the other
+case, we must make up our mind to suffer yet longer before we can
+get right. The misfortune is, that in the mean time, we shall plunge
+ourselves into inextinguishable debt, and entail on our posterity an
+inheritance of eternal taxes, which will bring our government and people
+into the condition of those of England, a nation of pikes and gudgeons,
+the latter bred merely as food for the former. But, however these two
+difficulties of men and money may be disposed of, it is fortunate that
+neither of them will affect our war by sea. Privateers will find their
+own men and money. Let nothing be spared to encourage them. They are the
+dagger which strikes at the heart of the enemy, their commerce. Frigates
+and seventy-fours are a sacrifice we must make, heavy as it is, to the
+prejudices of a part of our citizens. They have, indeed, rendered a
+great moral service, which has delighted me as much as any one in the
+United States. But they have had no physical effect sensible to the
+enemy; and now, while we must fortify them in our harbors, and keep
+armies to defend them, our privateers are bearding and blockading the
+enemy in their own sea-ports. Encourage them to burn all their prizes,
+and let the public pay for them. They will cheat us enormously. No
+matter; they will make the merchants of England feel, and squeal, and
+cry out for peace.
+
+I much regretted your acceptance of the war department. Not that I know
+a person who I think would better conduct it. But, conduct it ever so
+wisely, it will be a sacrifice of yourself. Were an angel from Heaven
+to undertake that office, all our miscarriages would be ascribed to
+him. Raw troops, no troops, insubordinate militia, want of arms, want of
+money, want of provisions, all will be charged to want of management in
+you. I speak from experience, when I was Governor of Virginia. Without a
+regular in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of
+the militia, invaded by two armies, Arnold’s from the sea-board, and
+Cornwallis’s from the southward,--when we were driven from Richmond and
+Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it
+was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them,
+which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.
+It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not
+till means were brought us by General Washington’s army, and the French
+fleet and army. And although the legislature, who were personally
+intimate with both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and
+thanks, yet General Lee has put all those imputations among the
+romances of his historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and
+uninquisitive readers. Not that I have seen the least disposition to
+censure you. On the contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington
+has met the praises of every one, and your plan for regulars and
+militia, their approbation. But no campaign is as yet opened. No
+generals have yet an interest in shifting their own incompetence on you,
+no army agents, their rogueries. I sincerely pray you may never meet
+censure where you will deserve most praise, and that your own happiness
+and prosperity may be the result of your patriotic services.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, February 14, 1815.
+
+Mr Dear Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and
+again, with extraordinary pleasure. It is the first glimpse which has
+been furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but
+fortunate revolution of your country. The newspapers told us only that
+the great beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted,
+and what the egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were
+awake to their own interests only, the hireling scribblers of the
+English press said little, and knew less. I see now the mortifying
+alternative under which the patriot there is placed, of being either
+silent, or disgraced by an association in opposition with the remains
+of Bonaparteism. A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to
+be expected by your nation; nor am I confident they are prepared
+to preserve it. More than a generation will be requisite, under the
+administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in
+the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent
+security of person and property, before they will be capable of
+estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence
+to the principles on which it rests for preservation. Instead of that
+liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if
+recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes, with an unprepared
+people, a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one. Possibly you
+may remember, at the date of the _jeu de paume_, how earnestly I urged
+yourself and the patriots of my acquaintance to enter then into a
+compact with the King, securing freedom of religion, freedom of the
+press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and a national legislature, all of
+which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and let these work
+on the amelioration of the condition of the people, until they should
+have rendered them capable of more, when occasions would not fail to
+arise for communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought
+them able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought
+otherwise, and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you were
+right; for subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitution
+of 1791. Unfortunately, some of the most honest and enlightened of our
+patriotic friends (but closet politicians merely, unpractised in the
+knowledge of man) thought more could still be obtained and borne. They
+did not weigh the hazards of a transition from one form of government to
+another, the value of what they had already rescued from those hazards,
+and might hold in security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving
+up the certainty of such a degree of liberty, under a limited monarch,
+for the uncertainty of a little more under the form of a republic. You
+differed from them. You were for stopping there, and for securing the
+constitution which the National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you
+were right; and from this fatal error of the republicans, from their
+separation from yourself and the constitutionalists, in their councils,
+flowed all the subsequent sufferings and crimes of the French nation.
+The hazards of a second change fell upon them by the way. The foreigner
+gained time to anarchize by gold the government he could not overthrow
+by arms, to crush in their own councils the genuine republicans, by the
+fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hired pretenders, and to turn the
+machine of Jacobinism from the change to the destruction of order: and,
+in the end, the limited monarchy they had secured was exchanged for
+the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of Robespierre, and the equally
+unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte. You are now rid of him,
+and I sincerely wish you may continue so. But this may depend on the
+wisdom and moderation of the restored dynasty. It is for them now to
+read a lesson in the fatal errors of the republicans; to be contented
+with a certain portion of power, secured by formal compact with the
+nation, rather than, grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty, and
+risk meeting the fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own
+exile. We are just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true,
+their most profound contemplation. The gazettes say, that Ferdinand of
+Spain is dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their
+new constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that
+although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their whole
+length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken place, yet
+that men have by no means fallen back to their former passiveness; but
+on the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a restlessness to
+obtain them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, and, if not quieted
+by reasonable relaxations of power, will break out like a volcano on
+the first occasion, and overwhelm every thing again in its way. I always
+thought the present King an honest and moderate man: and having
+no issue, he is under a motive the less for yielding to personal
+considerations. I cannot, therefore, but hope, that the patriots in and
+out of your legislature, acting in phalanx, but temperately and wisely,
+pressing unremittingly the principles omitted in the late capitulation
+of the King, and watching the occasions which the course of events will
+create, may get those principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by
+the solemnity of a national act.
+
+With us the affairs of war have taken the more favorable turn which
+was to be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, or
+superannuated, all our revolutionary officers of experience and grade;
+and our first draught in the lottery of untried characters had been
+most unfortunate. The delivery of the fort and army of Detroit, by the
+traitor Hull; the disgrace at Queenstown, under Van Rensellaer; the
+massacre at Frenchtown, under Winchester; and surrender of Boerstler
+in an open field to one third of his own numbers, were the inauspicious
+beginnings of the first year of our warfare. The second witnessed but
+the single miscarriage occasioned by the disagreement of Wilkinson and
+Hampton, mentioned in my letter to you of November the 30th, 1813; while
+it gave us the capture of York by Dearborn and Pike; the capture of Fort
+George by Dearborn also; the capture of Proctor’s army on the Thames by
+Harrison, Shelby, and Johnson; and that of the whole British fleet
+on Lake Erie by Perry. The third year has been a continued series of
+victories; to wit, of Brown and Scott at Chippeway; of the same at
+Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie; that of Brown over
+Drummond at the same place; the capture of another fleet on Lake
+Champlain by M’Donough; the entire defeat of their army under Prevost,
+on the same day, by M’Comb, and recently their defeats at New Orleans by
+Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four thousand men out of
+nine thousand and six hundred, with their two Generals, Packingham and
+Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded, mortally, as is said.
+
+This series of successes has been tarnished only by the conflagrations
+at Washington, a _coup de main_ differing from that at Richmond, which
+you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the circumstance only, that
+we had, in that case, but forty-eight hour’s notice that an enemy had
+arrived within our capes; whereas at Washington there was abundant
+previous notice. The force designated by the President was the double of
+what was necessary; but failed, as is the general opinion, through
+the insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack
+intended until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder
+before the occasion, and his indecision during it. Still, in the end,
+the transaction has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general
+indignation of our country, and by marking to the world of Europe the
+Vandalism and brutal character of the English government. It has merely
+served to immortalize their infamy. And add further, that through the
+whole period of the war, we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and
+so thoroughly established our superiority over them with equal force,
+that they retire from that kind of contest, and never suffer their
+frigates to cruise singly. The Endymion would never have engaged the
+frigate President, but knowing herself backed by three frigates and
+a razee, who, though somewhat slower sailors, would get up before she
+could be taken. The disclosure to the world of the fatal secret that
+they can be beaten at sea with an equal force, the evidence furnished by
+the military operations of the last year that experience is rearing us
+officers, who, when our means shall be fully under way, will plant our
+standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax, their recent and signal
+disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of their hopes from the
+Hartford Convention, will probably raise a clamor in the British nation,
+which will force their ministry into peace. I say force them; because,
+willingly, they would never be at peace. The British ministers find in
+a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the various contractors,
+and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of the war supplies,
+that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new ones, and therefore
+will not make peace, as long as by any delusions they can keep the
+temper of the nation up to the war point. They found some hopes on
+the state of our finances. It is true, that the excess of our banking
+institutions, and their present discredit, have shut us out from the
+best source of credit we could ever command with certainty. But the
+foundations of credit still remain to us, and need but skill, which
+experience will soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may
+carry us through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their
+Hartford Convention. Their fears of republican France being now done
+away, they are directed to republican America, and they are playing the
+same game for disorganization here, which they played in your country.
+The Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in
+the same pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to
+anarchize us, that their prototypes in France did there.
+
+I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same motives of
+money: nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, and wish to
+be Ins; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of their own party
+passions; while the Maratists alone are in the real secret: but they
+have very different materials to work on. The yeomanry of the United
+States are not the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them leave to
+go through the United States recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied
+they could not raise one single regiment (gambling merchants and
+silk-stocking clerks excepted), who would support them in any effort to
+separate from the Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood
+of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government
+established on so immovable a basis. Let them, in any State, even in
+Massachusetts itself, raise the standard of separation, and its citizens
+will rise in mass, and do justice themselves on their own incendiaries.
+If they could have induced the government to some effort of suppression,
+or even to enter into discussion with them, it would have given them
+some importance, have brought them into some notice. But they have not
+been able to make themselves even a subject of conversation, either of
+public or private societies. A silent contempt has been the sole notice
+they could excite; consoled, indeed, some of them, by the palpable
+favors of Philip. Have then no fears for us, my friend. The grounds
+of these exist only in English newspapers, endited or endowed by the
+Castlereaghs or the Cannings, or some other such models of pure and
+uncorrupted virtue. Their military heroes, by land and sea, may sink our
+oyster-boats, rob our hen-roosts, burn our negro-huts, and run off. But
+a campaign or two more will relieve them from further trouble or expense
+in defending their American possessions.
+
+You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in Virginia, in
+1781, which I must have lent to some one of the undertakers to write
+the history of the revolutionary war, and forgot to reclaim. I conclude
+this, because it is no longer among my papers, which I have very
+diligently searched for it, but in vain. An author of real ability
+is now writing that part of the history of Virginia. He does it in my
+neighborhood, and I lay open to him all my papers. But I possess none,
+nor has he any, which can enable him to do justice to your faithful and
+able services in that campaign. If you could be so good as to send me
+another copy, by the very first vessel bound to any port of the United
+States, it might be here in time; for although he expects to begin
+to print within a month or two, yet you know the delays of these
+undertakings. At any rate, it might be got in as a supplement. The old
+Count Rochambeau gave me also his memoire of the operations at York,
+which is gone the same way, and I have no means of applying to his
+family for it. Perhaps you could render them as well as us, the service
+of procuring another copy.
+
+I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Tesse.
+They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I have
+sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris once
+more, for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I never
+permitted myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of seventy-three
+at the loss of friends, may be the less, as the time is shorter within
+which we are to meet again, according to the creed of our education.
+
+This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young gentleman of
+Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and preparation for
+a life of distinction, in his own country. He passed a few days with
+me here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams and others, and
+appeared in every respect to merit them. He is well worthy of those
+attentions which you so kindly bestow on our countrymen, and for those
+he may receive I shall join him in acknowledging personal obligations.
+
+I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th; Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. February 26. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I received
+news of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we closed our
+war with the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I consider it as an
+armistice only, because no security is provided against the impressment
+of our seamen. While this is unsettled we are in hostility of mind with
+England, although actual deeds of arms may be suspended by a truce. If
+she thinks the exercise of this outrage is worth eternal war, eternal
+war it must be, or extermination of the one or the other party. The
+first act of impressment she commits on an American, will be answered
+by reprisal, or by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be
+merely a state of preparation for it. In this we have much to do,
+in further fortifying our seaport towns, providing military stores,
+classing and disciplining our militia, arranging our financial, system,
+and above all, pushing our domestic manufactures, which have taken such
+root as never again can be shaken. Once more, God bless you. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXII.*--TO MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. WENDOVER.
+
+Monticello, March 13, 1815.
+
+     [* This is endorsed;’ not sent.’]
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 30th was received after long delay on the
+road, and I have to thank you for the volume of Discourses which you
+have been so kind as to send me. I have gone over them with great
+satisfaction, and concur with the able preacher in his estimate of
+the character of the belligerents in our late war, and lawfulness of
+defensive war. I consider the war, with him, as ‘made on good advice,’
+that is, for just causes, and its dispensation as providential,
+inasmuch, as it has exercised our patriotism and submission to order,
+has planted and invigorated among us arts of urgent necessity, has
+manifested the strong and the weak parts of our republican institutions,
+and the excellence of a representative democracy compared with the
+misrule of Kings, has rallied the opinions of mankind to the natural
+rights of expatriation, and of a common property in the ocean, and
+raised us to that grade in the scale of nations which the bravery and
+liberality of our citizen soldiers, by land and by sea, the wisdom of
+our institutions and their observance of justice, entitled us to in the
+eyes of the world. All this Mr. McLeod has well proved, and from those
+sources of argument particularly which belong to his profession. On one
+question only I differ from him, and it is that which constitutes the
+subject of his first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs
+in the pulpit. I add the last words, because I admit the right in
+general conversation and in writing; in which last form it has been
+exercised in the valuable book you have now favored me with.
+
+The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the field of
+knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
+extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
+less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
+necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each
+of which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and
+attention of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages,
+teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of
+Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government, &c. Religion, too, is a
+separate department, and happens to be the only one deemed requisite
+for all men, however high or low. Collections of men associate together,
+under the name of congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the
+particular sect of opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute
+to make up a stipend as a compensation for the trouble of delivering
+them, at such periods as they agree on, lessons in the religion they
+profess. If they want instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply
+to other instructers; and this is generally the business of early life.
+But I suppose there is not an instance of a single congregation which
+has employed their preacher for the mixt purpose of lecturing them
+from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in Medicine, in Law, in the science and
+principles of Government, or in any thing but Religion exclusively.
+Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of a lesson in religion,
+put them off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical
+affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or
+conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving
+their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and
+giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if wanted, would
+rather seek from better sources in that particular art or science. In
+choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications, without
+inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we mean to
+have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which may
+twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
+they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example,
+it is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
+religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know
+how to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors:
+the preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
+understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
+religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and
+give us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And
+so ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the
+branches of science into any one of them, and the physician who is
+paid to visit the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and
+the merchant to whom money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief
+instead of it. But not withstanding this possible confusion of all
+sciences into one, common sense draws lines between them sufficiently
+distinct for the general purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to
+understand that a recipe in medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in
+geometry, is not a lesson in religion. I do not deny that a congregation
+may, if they please, agree with their preacher that he shall instruct
+them in Medicine also, or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these,
+from the pulpit, become not only a matter of right, but of duty also.
+But this must be with the consent of every individual; because the
+association being voluntary, the mere majority has no right to apply the
+contributions of the minority to purposes unspecified in the agreement
+of the congregation. I agree, too, that on all other occasions the
+preacher has the right, equally with every other citizen, to express his
+sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the subjects of Medicine, Law,
+Politics, he, his leisure time being his own, and his congregation not
+obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read his writings; and no
+one would have regretted more than myself, had any scruple as to this
+right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which have led to the
+expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the right. I feel
+my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the distinguished
+learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had proved that
+religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those principles
+on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted.
+
+These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those
+of the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
+doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry
+to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us
+both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
+constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
+ourselves.
+
+Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
+have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
+present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this
+mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly
+expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations
+not intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
+happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
+While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not
+wish to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres
+of the priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners
+of Massachusetts.
+
+I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIII.--TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
+
+
+TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, March 16, 1815.
+
+My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
+
+Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
+pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
+harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
+during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed,
+the affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
+recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
+Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
+public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen;
+and he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out
+a hope of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your
+visits together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or
+as you can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a
+month’s notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession
+ninety miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
+mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
+absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
+enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
+friendships.
+
+Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
+have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
+of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
+unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
+original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where
+it ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the
+tyrant of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his
+power still stalking over the deep. ‘_Quem deus vult perdere, prius
+dementat_.’ The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course
+impending. Are we to be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a
+reasonable conduct on their part, might make us the main pillar of their
+prosperity and existence. But their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to
+be the means which Providence permits to lead them to their final
+catastrophe. ‘_Nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem
+populum, nomini Romano_, said the General who erased Capua from the list
+of powers. What nourishment and support would not England receive from
+an hundred millions of industrious descendants, whom some of her people
+now born will live to see here. What their energies are, she has lately
+tried. And what has she not to fear from an hundred millions of such
+men, if she continues her maniac course of hatred and hostility to them.
+I hope in God she will change. There is not a nation on the globe
+with whom I have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal
+conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friendship to
+any. I know that their creatures represent me as personally an enemy to
+England. But fools only can believe this, or those who think me a
+fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the
+flagitious principles of her administration, and to those which govern
+her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to morality some
+place in her political code, and especially would she exercise decency,
+and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a
+people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friendship.
+They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other nation; and in
+peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us internally.
+Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our own are
+chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven with the
+whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war with
+her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
+experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have
+been able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and
+had the war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to
+command a single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay
+their own paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to
+avail themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
+circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
+for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
+rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government,
+I say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have
+even countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
+establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
+citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and
+which we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that
+of Britain.
+
+*****
+
+Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you
+with sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIV.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1815.
+
+My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
+
+I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great
+pleasure, and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events.
+Peace was indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome
+without the successes of New Orleans. These last have established
+truths too important not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are
+sincerely attached to the Union; that their city can be defended; that
+the western States make its defence their peculiar concern; that the
+militia are brave; that their deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring
+skill of their enemy; that we have officers of natural genius now
+starting forward from the mass; and that, putting together all our
+conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by land, with equal
+numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the pacification of
+Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable arrangement
+against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of peace, and not
+a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the principle of the
+war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will we forget your
+services. After the disasters produced by the treason or the cowardice,
+or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your capture of York
+and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our favor; and the
+subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces of the
+first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only, your
+resolution to retire from all public business could not but be approved.
+But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public counsels
+too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish their
+claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own State.
+Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your apostacy!
+Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote was
+my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
+standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
+counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
+promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
+usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to
+be nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected.
+But should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we
+shall receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among
+the crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold
+what their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look
+forward, then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her
+venal traitors, shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the
+principles of her brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give
+her modesty enough to suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on
+a par with her in wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery,
+and even in honesty, although not in psalm-singing, she will more
+justly estimate her own relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient
+principles, she would really be great, if she did not think herself the
+whole. I should be pleased to hear that you go into her councils,
+and assist in bringing her back to those principles, and to a sober
+satisfaction with her proportionable share in the direction of our
+affairs.
+
+Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
+assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXV.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 23,1815.
+
+Deak Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
+causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it
+with great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be
+published. The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it
+are so easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between
+them. 1. We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character.
+Accustomed to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting,
+they will see in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under
+wrong, to a certain degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and
+that peace and happiness are preferable to that false honor, which,
+by eternal wars, keeps their people in eternal labor, want, and
+wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the people of England, who have
+been deceived as to the causes and conduct of the war, and do not
+entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and wicked on our part,
+and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it will
+tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to the peace and
+prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own people, who,
+although they have known the details as they went along, yet have been
+so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists, that some
+impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be said
+that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
+character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
+Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
+things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
+every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
+show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative
+will present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its
+moderation, as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed
+at. Rubbing down these roughnesses (and they are neither many nor
+prominent), and preserving the original date, might, I think, remove all
+the offensiveness, and give more effect to the publication. Indeed,
+I think that a soothing postscript, addressed to the interests,
+the prospects, and the sober reason of both nations, would make it
+acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of reprinting it ought not
+to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have it translated into
+French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without either avowal or
+disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of an appendix,
+containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in libraries,
+and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history, the
+acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
+eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was
+fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends,
+and will powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of
+Europe. It will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and
+count no odds when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared
+to the pride of England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of
+impressment in an article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention
+for relinquishing it. Without this, she must understand that the present
+is but a truce, determinable on the first act of impressment of an
+American citizen, committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be
+better that this convention should be a separate act, unconnected with
+any treaty of commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all
+other treaty? If blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the
+price of injurious concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without
+such treaties with any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves
+from the European system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too
+sedulously cultivate an American system, essentially pacific. But if we
+go into commercial treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same
+time, with whom we have important commercial relations. France, Spain,
+Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed _pari
+passu_. Our ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and
+intercommunicating freely, each will be supported by the weight of the
+whole mass, and the facility with which the other nations will agree to
+equal terms of intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of
+England, or justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them
+it would be best to have but the single article _gentis amicissimæ_,
+leaving every thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized
+nations. But all these things will occur to yourself, with their counter
+considerations.
+
+Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
+particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
+that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
+carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to
+a wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
+receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
+strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in
+its place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue,
+and shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ
+me a considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to
+attend, and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on
+the shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds.
+This would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty’s
+business would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose
+you a letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not
+cost more than eight or ten days’ reasonable compensation. This is
+necessary for my safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for
+the public. You know there are persons, both in and out of the public
+councils, who will seize every occasion of imputation on either of us,
+the more difficult to be repelled in this case, in which a negative
+could not be proved. If you approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am
+through the review, I will give notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other
+person whom you will name, to come on immediately. Indeed it would be
+well worth while to add to his duty, that of covering the books with a
+little paper (the good bindings at least), and filling the vacancies
+of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought from Washington. This
+would add little more to the time, as he could carry on both operations
+at once.
+
+Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+respect,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
+have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In
+the first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all
+again into a course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the
+Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions
+of the station they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has
+clothed him with the semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity
+should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation,
+he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient
+dynasties that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the
+maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. But it is
+not possible he should love us; and of that our commerce had sufficient
+proofs during his power. Our military achievements, indeed, which he
+is capable of estimating, may in some degree moderate the effect of his
+aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that we are to become the natural
+enemies of England, as England herself has so steadily endeavored to
+make us, and as some of our own over-zealous patriots would be willing
+to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a cold toleration of some
+intercourse and commerce between the two nations. He has certainly
+had time to see the folly of turning the industry of France from the
+cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to those of sugar,
+cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power has given to
+other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the passions of his
+tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue from motives
+of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil happiness
+and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for human
+blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us. And if
+again some great man could arise in England, who could see and correct
+the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by exercising
+justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of temperate
+and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the place we
+ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded to the
+condition of mere partisans of either.
+
+A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper
+limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on
+the other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to
+attempt the forcing on the French, a ruler and government which they
+refuse; whether they will risk their own thrones to re-establish that
+of the Bourbons. If this is attempted, and the European world again
+committed to war, will the jealousy of England at the commerce which
+neutrality will give us, induce her again to add us to the number of
+her enemies, rather than see us prosper in the pursuit of peace and
+industry? And have our commercial citizens merited from their country
+its encountering another war to protect their gambling enterprises?
+That the persons of our citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the
+ocean, that the transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels,
+to the markets of our choice, and the return to us of the articles we
+want for our own use, shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental, and
+that the gauntlet must be for ever hurled at him who questions it. But
+whether we shall engage in every war of Europe, to protect the mere
+agency of our merchants and shipowners in carrying on the commerce of
+other nations, even were those merchants and ship-owners to take the
+side of their country in the contest, instead of that of the enemy, is a
+question of deep and serious consideration, with which, however, you and
+I shall have nothing to do; so we will leave it to those whom it will
+concern.
+
+I thank you for making known to me Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Gray. They are
+fine young men, indeed, and if Massachusetts can raise a few more such,
+it is probable she would be better counselled as to social rights and
+social duties. Mr. Ticknor is, particularly, the best bibliograph I
+have met with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of
+reprocuring some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded
+to Congress, to replace the devastations of British Vandalism at
+Washington. I cannot live without books. But fewer will suffice, where
+amusement, and not use, is the only future object. I am about sending
+him a catalogue, to which less than his critical knowledge of books
+would hardly be adequate.
+
+Present my high respects to Mrs. Adams, and accept yourself the
+assurances of my affectionate attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVII.--TO MR. LEIPER, June 12, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. LEIPER.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A journey soon after the receipt of your favor of April the 17th and
+an absence from home of some continuance, have prevented my earlier
+acknowledgment of it. In that came safely my letter of January the 2nd,
+1814. In our principles of government we differ not at all; nor in the
+general object and tenor of political measures. We concur in considering
+the government of England as totally without morality, insolent beyond
+bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive
+dominion of the sea, lost in corruption, of deep-rooted hatred towards
+us, hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and
+the eternal disturber of the peace of the world. In our estimate of
+Bonaparte, I suspect we differ. I view him as a political engine only,
+and a very wicked one; you, I believe, as both political and religious,
+and obeying, as an instrument, an unseen hand. I still deprecate his
+becoming sole lord of the continent of Europe, which he would have been,
+had he reached in triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment in
+our day of another Roman. empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over
+the face of the globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of Heaven.
+Nor does the return of Bonaparte give me pleasure unmixed; I see in his
+expulsion of the Bourbons, a valuable lesson to the world, as showing
+that its ancient dynasties may be changed for their misrule. Should the
+allied powers presume to dictate a ruler and government to France, and
+follow the example he had set of parcelling and usurping to themselves
+their neighbor nations, I hope he will give them another lesson in
+vindication of the rights of independence and self-government, which
+himself had heretofore so much abused, and that in this contest he
+will wear down the maritime power of England to limitable and safe
+dimensions. So far, good. It cannot be denied, on the other hand, that
+his successful perversion of the force (committed to him for vindicating
+the rights and liberties of his country) to usurp its government, and
+to enchain it under an hereditary despotism, is of baneful effect in
+encouraging future usurpations, and deterring those under oppression
+from rising to redress themselves. His restless spirit leaves no hope of
+peace to the world; and his hatred of us is only a little less than that
+he bears to England, and England to us. Our form of government is odious
+to him, as a standing contrast between republican and despotic rule; and
+as much from that hatred, as from ignorance in political economy, he had
+excluded intercourse between us and his people, by prohibiting the only
+articles they wanted from us, that is, cotton and tobacco. Whether the
+war we have had with England, the achievements of that war, and the hope
+that we may become his instruments and partisans against that enemy, may
+induce him, in future, to tolerate our commercial intercourse with his
+people, is still to be seen. For my part, I wish that all nations may
+recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown
+may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance
+may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce, and
+friendship may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our business to
+manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep all markets open for
+what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the amities
+or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no distant
+one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the
+stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our
+power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will
+be.
+
+The federal misrepresentation of my sentiments, which occasioned my
+former letter to you, was gross enough; but that and all others are
+exceeded by the impudence and falsehood of the printed extract you sent
+me from Ralph’s paper. That a continuance of the embargo for two months
+longer would have prevented our war; that the non-importation law
+which succeeded it was a wise and powerful measure, I have constantly
+maintained. My friendship for Mr. Madison, my confidence in his wisdom
+and virtue, and my approbation of all his measures, and especially of
+his taking up at length the gauntlet against England, is known to all
+with whom I have ever conversed or corresponded on these measures. The
+word federal, or its synonyme &c., may therefore be written under every
+word of Mr. Ralph’s paragraph. I have ransacked my memory to recollect
+any incident which might have given countenance to any particle of it,
+but I find none. For if you will except the bringing into power
+and importance those who were enemies to himself as well as to the
+principles of republican government, I do not recollect a single measure
+of the President which I have not approved. Of those under him, and
+of some very near him, there have been many acts of which we have all
+disapproved, and he more than we. We have at times dissented from the
+measures, and lamented the dilatoriness of Congress. I recollect an
+instance the first winter of the war, when, from sloth of proceedings,
+an embargo was permitted to run through the winter, while the enemy
+could not cruise, nor consequently restrain the exportation of our whole
+produce, and was taken off in the spring, as soon as they could resume
+their stations. But this procrastination is unavoidable. How can
+expedition be expected from a body which we have saddled with an hundred
+lawyers, whose trade is talking? But lies, to sow divisions among
+us, are so stale an artifice of the federal prints, and are so well
+understood, that they need neither contradiction nor explanation. As to
+myself, my confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the administration
+is so entire, that I scarcely notice what is passing, and have almost
+ceased to read newspapers. Mine remain in our post-office a week or ten
+days, sometimes, unasked for. I find more amusement in studies to which
+I was always more attached, and from which I was dragged by the events
+of the times in which I have happened to live.
+
+I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In
+that of the Revolution, we had France, Spain, and Holland on our side,
+and the credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion,
+unprepared and unexpecting war, we were compelled to declare it, and to
+receive the attack of England, just issuing from a general war, fully
+armed, and freed from all other enemies, and have not only made her
+sick of it, but glad to prevent, by a peace, the capture of her adjacent
+possessions, which one or two campaigns more would infallibly have made
+ours. She has found that we can do her more injury than any other enemy
+on earth, and henceforward will better estimate the value of our peace.
+But whether her government has power, in opposition to the aristocracy
+of her navy, to restrain their piracies within the limits of national
+rights, may well be doubted. I pray, therefore, for peace, as best for
+all the world, best for us, and best for me, who have already lived to
+see three wars, and now pant for nothing more than to be permitted to
+depart in peace. That you also, who have longer to live, may continue to
+enjoy this blessing with health and prosperity, through as long a life
+as you desire, is the prayer of yours affectionately.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. June the 14th. Before I had sent my letter to the post-office, I
+received the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French
+nation shall not have Bonaparte, and shall have Louis XVIII for their
+ruler. They are all then as great rascals, as Bonaparte himself. While
+he was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would
+answer our purposes, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in
+the right, he shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may
+dethrone every man of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been remarkable on
+several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or state of
+the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on
+our mutual recollections. I had sat down to answer your letters of June
+the 19th, 20th, and 22nds with pen, ink, and paper, before me, when I
+received from our mail that of July the 30th. You ask information on
+the subject of Camus. All I recollect of him is, that he was one of the
+deputies sent to arrest Dumourier at the head of his army, who were,
+however, themselves arrested by Dumourier, and long detained as
+prisoners. I presume, therefore, he was a Jacobin. You will find his
+character in the most excellent revolutionary history of Toulongeon. I
+believe also, he may be the same person who has given us a translation
+of Aristotle’s Natural History, from the Greek into French. Of his
+report to the National Institute on the subject of the Bollandists, your
+letter gives me the first information. I had supposed them defunct
+with the society of Jesuits, of which they were: and that their works,
+although above ground, were, from their bulk and insignificance, as
+effectually entombed on their shelves, as if in the graves of their
+authors. Fifty-two volumes in folio, of the _acta sanctorum_, in
+dog-Latin, would be a formidable enterprise to the most laborious
+German. I expect, with you, they are the most enormous mass of lies,
+frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture, that ever was heaped together on this
+globe. By what chemical process M. Camus supposed that an extract of
+truth could be obtained from such a farrago of falsehood, I must leave
+to the chemists and moralists of the age to divine.
+
+On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who
+shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it?
+Nobody; except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
+discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
+member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which
+are the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as
+you observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths
+of persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such
+speeches. In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made
+their great men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style,
+and in that of the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one,
+more judicious, more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the
+party diatribe of Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too
+much from him. I possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable
+portions of it, although I never read it through. But a very judicious
+and well informed neighbor of mine went through it with great attention,
+and spoke very highly of it. I have said that no member of the old
+Congress, as far as I knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not
+knew of the speeches you mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on
+the questions of Independence, and on the two articles of Confederation
+respecting taxes and voting, I took minutes of the heads of the
+arguments. On the first, I threw all into one mass, without ascribing
+to the speakers their respective arguments; pretty much in the manner of
+Hume’s summary digests of the reasonings in parliament for and against
+a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of arguments used by each
+speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question of Independence does
+not occupy more than five pages, such as of this letter: and on the
+other questions, two such sheets. They have never been communicated to
+any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the ablest work
+of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the constitutional
+convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every thing said and
+done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and exactness
+beyond comprehension.
+
+I presume that our correspondence has been observed at the post-offices,
+and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe, that a printer has had
+the effrontery to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people
+think they have a right to every thing, however secret or sacred. I had
+not before heard of the Boston pamphlet with Priestley’s Letters and
+mine.
+
+At length Bonaparte has got on the right side of a question. From the
+time of his entering the legislative hall to his retreat to Elba, no man
+has execrated him more than myself. I will not except even the members
+of the Essex Junto; although for very different reasons; I, because he
+was warring against the liberty of his own country, and independence
+of others; they, because he was the enemy of England, the Pope, and the
+Inquisition. But at length, and as far as we can judge, he seems to have
+become the choice of his nation. At least, he is defending the cause
+of his nation, and that of all mankind, the rights of every people to
+independence and self-government. He and the allies have now changed
+sides. They are parcelling out among themselves Poland, Belgium, Saxony,
+Italy, dictating a ruler and government to France, and looking askance
+at our republic, the splendid libel on their governments, and he is
+fighting for the principles of national independence, of which his whole
+life hitherto has been a continued violation. He has promised a free
+government to his own country, and to respect the rights of others; and
+although his former conduct inspires little confidence in his promises,
+yet we had better take the chance of his word for doing right, than the
+certainty of the wrong which his adversaries are doing and avowing. If
+they succeed, ours is only the boon of the Cyclops to Ulysses, of being
+the last devoured.
+
+Present me affectionately and respectfully to Mrs. Adams, and Heaven
+give you both as much more of life as you wish, and bless it with health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. August the 11th. I had finished my letter yesterday, and this
+morning receive the news of Bonaparte’s second abdication. Very
+well. For him personally, I have no feeling but reprobation. The
+representatives of the nation have deposed him. They have taken the
+allies at their word, that they had no object in the war but his
+removal. The nation is now free to give itself a good government, either
+with or without a Bourbon; and France unsubdued, will still be a bridle
+on the enterprises of the combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIX.--TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816
+
+
+TO DABNEY CARR.
+
+Monticello, January 19, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
+since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
+been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been
+able to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in
+this neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke’s History, I had
+suggested to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee
+of correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who
+introduced it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the
+press. My books, journals of the times, &c. being all gone, I have
+nothing now but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular
+statement you wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find
+that I remember old things better than new. The transaction took place
+in the session of Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry
+Lee, Frank Lee, your father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening,
+about the close of the session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on
+the measures which the circumstances of the times seemed to call for.
+We agreed, in result, that concert in the operations of the several
+Colonies was indispensable; and that to produce this, some channel of
+correspondence between them must be opened: that, therefore, we would
+propose to our House the appointment of a committee of correspondence,
+which should be authorized and instructed to write to the Speakers of
+the House of Representatives of the several Colonies, recommending the
+appointment of similar committees on their part, who, by a communication
+of sentiment on the transactions threatening us all, might promote
+a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the substance, not
+pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution, and your
+father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day, March
+the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by
+the reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was
+developed. It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some
+of us who proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed
+of the committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to
+the Speakers of all the other Assemblies. I remember that Mr. Carr and
+myself, returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the
+way, concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably
+beget the meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for
+the purpose of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the
+maintenance of our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm
+that we did it in consequence of no such proposition from any other
+Colony. No doubt, the resolution itself, and the journals of the day,
+will show that ours was original, and not merely responsive to one from
+any other quarter. Yet, I am certain I remember also, that a similar
+proposition, and nearly cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and
+that our northern messenger passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be
+settled by recurrence to the records of Massachusetts. The proposition
+was generally acceded to by the other Colonies, and the first effect,
+as expected, was the meeting of a Congress at New York the ensuing year.
+The committee of correspondence appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by
+you from Marshall, under the date of 1770, must have been for a special
+purpose, and _functus officio_ before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts
+herself would not then have proposed another. Records should be examined
+to settle this accurately. I well remember the pleasure expressed in the
+countenance and conversation of the members generally, on this _début_
+of Mr. Carr, and the hopes they conceived as well from the talents as
+the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two months after, and
+in him we lost a powerful fellow-laborer. His character was of a high
+order. A spotless integrity, sound judgment, handsome imagination,
+enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in his conceptions,
+of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with the
+sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible
+in whatever he thought was right: but when no moral principle stood
+in the way, never had man more of the milk of human kindness, of
+indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The
+number of his friends, and the warmth of their affection, were proofs of
+his worth, and of their estimate of it. To give to those now living,
+an idea of the affliction produced by his death in the minds of all who
+knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by themselves on the death of
+his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all his endowments and moral
+qualities, and whose recollection can never recur without a deep-drawn
+sigh from the bosom of any one who knew him. You mention that I showed
+you an inscription I had proposed for the tomb-stone of your father. Did
+I leave it in your hands to be copied? I ask the question, not that I
+have any such recollection, but that I find it no longer in the place of
+its deposite, and think I never took it out but on that occasion. Ever
+and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 8, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 8, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th and March the
+2nd, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and regret
+that distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation would be
+worth a volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.
+
+You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three
+years over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you that it is
+a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of
+benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are,
+indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants
+of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the
+future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may
+happen. To these I say, how much pain have cost us the evils which have
+never happened! My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in
+the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not
+oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge,
+even in the happiest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs
+against the opposite page of the account. I have often wondered for
+what good end the sensations of grief could be intended. All our
+other passions, within proper bounds, have an useful object. And the
+perfection of the moral character is, not in a stoical apathy, so
+hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because impossible, but in a
+just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the pathologists then would
+tell us what is the use of grief in the economy, and of what good it is
+the cause, proximate or remote.
+
+Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the
+pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while I
+was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning, and egoism.
+No heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak
+its language: his forte was Belles-lettres, painting, and sculpture.
+In these he was the oracle of the society, and as such, was the
+Empress Catharine’s private correspondent and factor, in all things not
+diplomatic. It was through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to
+go to Kamschatka, and cross over thence to the western coast of America,
+in order to penetrate across our continent in the opposite direction
+to that afterwards adopted for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she
+withdrew after he had got within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had
+him seized, brought back, and set down in Poland. Although I never heard
+Grimm express the opinion directly, yet I always supposed him to be
+of the school of Diderot, D’Alembert, D’Holbach; the first of whom
+committed his system of atheism to writing in ‘_Le Bon Sens_,’ and the
+last in his ‘_Systeme de la Nature_? It was a numerous school in
+the Catholic countries, while the infidelity of the Protestant took
+generally the form of theism. The former always insisted that it was
+a mere question of definition between them, the hypostasis of which on
+both sides, was ‘_Nature_,’ or ‘the _Universe_’: that both agreed in the
+order of the existing system, but the one supposed it from eternity,
+the other as having begun in time. And when the atheist descanted on
+the unceasing motion and circulation of matter through the animal,
+vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated,
+always changing form, and under all forms gifted with the power of
+reproduction; the theist pointing ‘to the heavens above, and to the
+earth beneath, and to the waters under the earth,’ asked, if these did
+not proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence and power; power
+in the production, and intelligence in the design, and constant
+preservation of the system; urged the palpable existence of final
+causes; that the eye was made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that
+we see because we have eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer
+obvious to the senses, as that of walking across the room, was to
+the philosopher demonstrating the non-existence of motion. It was in
+D’Holbach’s conventicles that Rousseau imagined all the machinations
+against him were contrived and he left, in his Confessions, the most
+biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after I left France; but I
+have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by them, that he kept
+his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of Grimm. Their
+volume has kept them out of our market.
+
+I have been lately amusing myself with Levi’s book, in answer to Dr.
+Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and
+incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy
+enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his
+two resurrections: the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body
+as well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of
+perfect obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal
+punishment for the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he
+explains this resurrection of bodies to be only of the original stamen
+of Leibnitz, or the human _calus in semine masculino_, considering that
+as a mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The
+second resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to
+enjoy divine glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that
+the Jews alone preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God
+would be deemed a very indifferent man with us: and it was to correct
+their anamorphosis of the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to
+establish the doctrine of a future state. However, Levi insists, that
+that was taught in the Old Testament, and even by Moses himself and the
+prophets. He agrees that an anointed prince was prophesied and promised:
+but denies that the character and history of Jesus had any analogy with
+that of the person promised. He must be fearfully embarrassing to the
+Hierophants of fabricated Christianity; because it is their own armor in
+which he clothes himself for the attack. For example, he takes passages
+of scripture from their context (which would give them a very different
+meaning), strings them together, and makes them point towards what
+object he pleases; he interprets them figuratively, typically,
+analogically, hyperbolically; he calls in the aid of emendation,
+transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and every other figure of rhetoric;
+the name of one man is taken for another, one place for another, days
+and weeks for months and years; and finally he avails himself of all his
+advantage over his adversaries by his superior knowledge of the Hebrew,
+speaking in the very language of the divine communication, while they
+can only fumble on with conflicting and disputed translations. Such is
+this war of giants. And how can such pigmies as you and I decide
+between them? For myself, I confess, that my head is not formed _tantas
+componere lites_. And as you began yours of March the 2nd, with a
+declaration, that you were about to write me the most frivolous letter I
+had ever read, so I will close mine by saying, I have written you a full
+match for it, and by adding my affectionate respects to Mrs. Adams, and
+the assurance of my constant attachment and consideration for yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, May 28,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from home,
+I found here the copy of your ‘Enquiry into the Principles of our
+Government,’ which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I
+pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in
+our situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had
+prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated
+during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted
+me to give to the whole a thorough reading: yet certain that you and I
+could not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government,
+I was impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the
+writing-table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.
+
+I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should
+confirm our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our
+constitution, and fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The
+sixth section on the good moral principles of our government, I found
+so interesting and replete with sound principles, as to postpone my
+letter-writing to its thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much
+other good matter, it settles unanswerably the right of instructing
+representatives, and their duty to obey. The system of banking we have
+both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all
+our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction,
+which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping
+away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I
+consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the
+lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation
+coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free
+possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unincumbered by
+their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life. You have
+successfully and completely pulverized Mr. Adams’s system of orders,
+and his opening the mantle of republicanism to every government of
+laws, whether consistent or not with natural right. Indeed, it must be
+acknowledged, that the term republic is of very vague application
+in every language. Witness the self-styled republics of Holland,
+Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to assign to this term a
+precise and definite idea, I would say, that, purely and simply,
+it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and
+personally, according to rules established by the majority: and that
+every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it
+has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct
+action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to
+very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be
+practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first
+shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot
+sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government,
+being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen by the
+citizens either _pro hac vice_, or for such short terms as should render
+secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. This I
+should consider as the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is
+practicable on a large scale of country or population. And we have
+examples of it in some of our State constitutions, which, if not
+poisoned by priestcraft, would prove its excellence over all mixtures
+with other elements; and, with only equal doses of poison, would still
+be the best. Other shades of republicanism may be found in other
+forms of government, where the executive, judiciary, and legislative
+functions, and the different branches of the latter, are chosen by the
+people more or less directly, for longer terms of years, or for life,
+or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities, some
+dependent on, and others independent of the peopje. The further the
+departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has
+the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none
+where the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &c. or
+self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion as
+the life continues in being after the act of election.
+
+The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the
+House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less
+the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by
+the people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because
+for life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military
+leaders, irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious
+constitution of our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive
+administration, the taxation, police, the military appointments of the
+county, and nearly all our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed,
+self-continued, holding their authorities for life, and with an
+impossibility of breaking in on the perpetual succession of any faction
+once possessed of the bench. They are, in truth, the executive, the
+judiciary, and the military of their respective counties, and the sum
+of the counties makes the State. And add, also, that one half of our
+brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the
+rights of representation, as if society were instituted for the soil,
+and not for the men inhabiting it; or one half of these could dispose of
+the rights and the will of the other half, without their consent.
+
+     What constitutes a State?
+     Not high-raised battlements, or lahor’d mound,
+     Thick wall, or moated gate;
+     Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown’d;
+     No: men, high-minded men;
+     Men, who their duties know;
+     But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
+     These constitute a State.’
+
+In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
+republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
+directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
+Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
+election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
+assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also,
+a principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
+judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
+found nugatory.
+
+If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government
+be the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other
+measure), it must be agreed that our governments have much less of
+republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the
+people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights
+and their interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of
+republican dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to
+a submission of true principle to European authorities, to speculators
+on government, whose fears of the people have been inspired by the
+populace of their own great cities, and were unjustly entertained
+against the independent, the happy, and therefore orderly citizens of
+the United States. Much I apprehend that the golden moment is past
+for reforming these heresies. The functionaries of public power rarely
+strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it, and an unorganized
+call for timely amendment is not likely to prevail against an organized
+opposition to it. We are always told that things are going on well; why
+change them? ‘_Chi sta bene, non si muova_,’ says the Italian, ‘Let him
+who stands well, stand still.’ This is true; and I verily believe they
+would go on well with us under an absolute monarch, while our
+present character remains, of order, industry, and love of peace, and
+restrained, as he would be, by the proper spirit of the people. But it
+is while it remains such, we should provide against the consequences of
+its deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it will yet be done,
+and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never happen.
+
+On this view of the import of the term republic, instead of saying, as
+has been said, ‘that it may mean any thing or nothing,’ we may say with
+truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as
+they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in
+their composition: and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens
+is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the
+evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than
+those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition
+of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I
+sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more
+dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money
+to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling
+futurity on a large scale.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXII.--TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816
+
+
+TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
+
+Monticello, June 7,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received a few-days ago from Mr. Dupont the enclosed manuscript, with
+permission to read it, and a request, when read, to forward it to
+you, in expectation that you would translate it. It is well worthy of
+publication for the instruction of our citizens, being profound, sound,
+and short. Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful
+limits of their powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce
+only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.
+No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights
+of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him:
+every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities
+of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him: and, no
+man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another,
+it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third.
+When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled
+their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into
+society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one
+of these texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and
+lighten equally our municipal codes. There is a work of the first
+order of merit now in the press at Washington, by Destutt Tracy, on the
+subject of political economy, which he brings into the compass of three
+hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary discourse on the origin of the
+right of property, he coincides much with the principles of the present
+manuscript; but is more developed, more demonstrative. He promises a
+future work on morals, in which I lament to see, that he will adopt the
+principles of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature; that the sense of
+justice and injustice is not derived from our natural organization,
+but founded on convention only. I lament this the more, as he is
+unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract subjects. Assuming
+the fact, that the earth has been created in time, and consequently the
+dogma of final causes, we yield, of course, to this short syllogism.
+Man was created for social intercourse; but social intercourse cannot be
+maintained without a sense of justice; then man must have been created
+with a sense of justice. There is an error into which most of the
+speculators on government have fallen, and which the well known state
+of society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In
+their hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have
+commenced in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are
+evidently in that state of nature which has passed the association of a
+single family; and not yet submitted to the authority of positive laws,
+or of any acknowledged magistrate. Every man, with them, is perfectly
+free to follow his own inclinations. But if, in doing this, he violates
+the rights of another, if the case be slight, he is punished by the
+disesteem of his society, or, as we say, by public opinion; if serious,
+he is tomahawked as a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by
+the influence of their character only; and they follow, or not, as they
+please, him of whose character for wisdom or war they have the highest
+opinion. Hence the origin of the parties among them adhering to
+different leaders, and governed by their advice, not by their
+command. The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the
+establishment of regular laws, magistrates, and government, propose
+a government of representatives, elected from every town. But of all
+things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will of one
+man. This, the only instance of actual fact within our knowledge, will
+be then a beginning by republican, and not by patriarchal or monarchical
+government, as speculative writers have generally conjectured.
+
+We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment of our
+friend Correa, to be Minister or Envoy of Portugal, here. This, I hope,
+will give him to us, for life. Nor will it at all interfere with
+his botanical rambles or journeys. The government of Portugal is so
+peaceable and inoffensive, that it has never any altercations with its
+friends. If their minister abroad writes them once a quarter that all is
+well, they desire no more. I learn (though not from Correa himself) that
+he thinks of paying us a visit as soon as he is through his course
+of lectures. Not to lose this happiness again by my absence, I have
+informed him I shall set out for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and
+be back the first week of July. I wish you and he could concert
+your movements so as to meet here, and that you would make this your
+headquarters. It is a good central point from which to visit your
+connections; and you know our practice of placing our guests at their
+ease, by showing them we are so ourselves, and that we follow our
+necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging unremittingly
+on their shoulders.
+
+I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIII.*--TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816
+
+
+TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1816.
+
+     [* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
+     inserted out of its regular order.]
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.
+
+Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are
+entirely just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we
+have reason to suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate
+termination. There is still an awful void between the present, and what
+is to be the last chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled
+with abominations, as frightful as those which have already disgraced
+it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate force,
+intelligence, and elasticity, to remain quiet under its present
+compression. Samson will arise in his strength, and probably will ere
+long burst asunder the cords and the webs of the Philistines. But what
+are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and how widely they may spread
+between the brethren of one family, our ignorance of the interior feuds
+and antipathies of the country places beyond our view. Whatever may be
+the convulsions, we cannot but indulge the pleasing hope, they will
+end in the permanent establishment of a representative government;
+a government in which the will of the people will be an effective
+ingredient. This important element has taken root in the European mind,
+and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of this, are already
+offering this modification of their governments, under the plausible
+pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part. Had Bonaparte
+used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment and support
+of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity and rest,
+and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every nation in
+Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the will
+of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper conduct,
+however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
+object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
+accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of
+man. What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and
+how faithfully should they cherish the parent tree at home. Chagrin and
+mortification are the punishments our enemies receive.
+
+You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence
+on England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so
+quoted with more candor. But within the thirty years which have since
+elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We were then in peace; our
+independent place among nations was acknowledged. A commerce which
+offered the raw material, in exchange for the same material after
+receiving the last touch of industry, was worthy of welcome to all
+nations. It was expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing
+industry was important, would cherish the friendship of such customers
+by every favor, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act
+of justice and friendship. Under this prospect, the question seemed
+legitimate, whether, with such an immensity of unimproved land,
+courting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that of
+manufactures, would add most to the national wealth. And the doubt
+on the utility of the American manufactures was entertained on this
+consideration, chiefly, that to the labor of the husbandman a vast
+addition is made by the spontaneous energies of the earth on which it
+is employed. For one grain of wheat committed to the earth, she renders
+twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold; whereas to the labor of the
+manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of flax, in his hands, on the
+contrary, yield but penny weights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious
+as it might seem, what a field did it promise for the occupation of the
+ocean; what a nursery for that class of citizens who were to exercise
+and maintain our equal rights on that element! This was the state of
+things in 1785, when the Notes on Virginia were first published; when,
+the ocean being open to all nations, and their common right in it
+acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the assent
+and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some
+consideration.
+
+But who, in 1785, could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render
+the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man? Who could
+have imagined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations,
+for science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from
+that honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws
+established by the Author of Nature between nation and nation, as
+between man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and
+piracies, merely because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity,
+and that under this disbandment of nations from social order, we should
+have been despoiled of a thousand ships, and have thousands of our
+citizens reduced to Algerine slavery. Yet all this has taken place. The
+British interdicted to our vessels all harbors of the globe, without
+having first proceeded to some one of hers, there paid a tribute
+proportioned to the cargo, and obtained her license to proceed to the
+port of destination. The French declared them to be lawful prize if they
+had touched at the port, or been visited by a ship of the enemy nation.
+Thus were we completely excluded from the ocean. Compare this state
+of things with that of ‘85, and say whether an opinion founded in
+the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to those of the
+present. We have experienced, what we did not then believe, that there
+exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of
+interchange with other nations. That to be independent for the comforts
+of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the
+manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former question
+is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry now is,
+Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a
+foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture,
+must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation,
+or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens
+and caverns. I am not one of these. Experience has taught me that
+manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort;
+and if those who quote me as of a different opinion, will keep pace with
+me in purchasing nothing foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric
+can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, it will not be
+our fault if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand,
+and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has so long
+wantonly wielded it. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own
+supply, the question of ‘85 will then recur, Will our surplus labor be
+then more beneficially employed, in the culture of the earth, or in the
+fabrications of art? We have time yet for consideration, before that
+question will press upon us; and the axiom to be applied will depend
+on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in so complicated a
+science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and
+expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to this is what
+has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered
+unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those who
+use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their disloyal
+propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly
+people.
+
+I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIV.--TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.
+
+Monticello, June 20, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to
+the drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt
+of your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot,
+however, deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I
+have received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris,
+in yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had
+not before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the
+perusal of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the
+subject of drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted
+into ours from the British system, by a man whose mind was really
+powerful, but chained by native partialities to every thing English; who
+had formed exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English
+constitution, the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely
+believed it for the good of this country to make them their model in
+every thing; without considering that what might be wise and good for a
+nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse
+with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one
+essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from the abusive
+governments of the old world.
+
+The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice
+to exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
+whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it
+is the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry
+on the business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with
+the other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute
+its distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to
+that, is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the
+mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every society
+has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and
+to say to all individuals, that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond
+the limits of these principles, and involving dangers which the society
+chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that
+we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on
+such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons
+infected with disease. Such is the situation of our country. We have
+most abundant resources of happiness within ourselves, which we may
+enjoy in peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected
+with the mania of rambling and gambling, to bring danger on the great
+mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home. In your letter to
+Fisk, you have fairly stated the alternatives between which we are to
+choose: 1. licentious commerce and gambling speculations for a few, with
+eternal war for the many; or, 2. restricted commerce, peace, and steady
+occupations for all. If any State in the Union will declare that it
+prefers separation with the first alternative, to a continuance in union
+without it, I have no hesitation in saying, ‘Let us separate.’ I would
+rather the States should withdraw, which are for unlimited commerce
+and war, and confederate with those alone which are for peace and
+agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe would join in sincere
+amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm’s length, by
+jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations, and war. No earthly
+consideration could induce my consent to contract such a debt as England
+has by her wars for commerce, to reduce our citizens by taxes to such
+wretchedness, as that laboring sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they
+are still unable to afford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much
+oatmeal or potatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this
+to feed the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up
+one thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial
+speculations. I returned from Europe after our government had got under
+way, and had adopted from the British code the law of drawbacks. I early
+saw its effects in the jealousies and vexations of Britain; and that,
+retaining it, we must become, like her, an essentially warring nation,
+and meet, in the end, the catastrophe impending over her. No one can
+doubt that this alone produced the orders of council, the depredations
+which preceded, and the war which followed them. Had we carried but our
+own produce, and brought back but our own wants, no nation would have
+troubled us. Our commercial dashers, then, have already cost us so many
+thousand lives, so many millions of dollars, more than their persons
+and all their commerce were worth. When war was declared, and especially
+after Massachusetts, who had produced it, took side with the enemy
+waging it, I pressed on some confidential friends in Congress to avail
+us of the happy opportunity of repealing the drawback; and I do rejoice
+to find that you are in that sentiment. You are young, and may be in the
+way of bringing it into effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and change of
+tone (for there are symptoms of that in Massachusetts), may not have
+obliterated altogether the sense of our late feelings and sufferings;
+may not have induced oblivion of the friends we have lost, the
+depredations and conflagrations we have suffered, and the debts we have
+incurred, and to have to labor for through the lives of the present
+generation. The earlier the repeal is proposed, the more it will be
+befriended by all these recollections and considerations. This is one of
+three great measures necessary to insure us permanent prosperity. This
+preserves our peace. A second should enable us to meet any war, by
+adopting the report of the war department, for placing the force of
+the nation at effectual command: and a third should insure resources
+of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during peace, and
+licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic medium of
+which we should be possessed at the commencement of a war, would be
+a sufficient fund for all the loans we should need through its
+continuance; and if the national bills issued, be bottomed (as is
+indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for their redemption
+within certain and moderate epochs, and be of proper denominations for
+circulation, no interest on them would be necessary or just, because
+they would answer to every one the purposes of the metallic money
+withdrawn and replaced by them. But possibly these may be the dreams of
+an old man, or that the occasions of realizing them may have passed away
+without return. A government regulating itself by what is wise and just
+for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few
+who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it
+existed, for a moment, at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix
+the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a
+greater degree than any where else; and for its growth and continuance,
+as well as for your personal health and happiness, I offer sincere
+prayers, with the homage of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXV.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816
+
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, July 12, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the copy of the
+letters on the calling a convention, on which you are pleased to ask
+my opinion. I have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any
+subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. On
+the contrary, while in public service especially, I thought the public
+entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they employed. But
+I am now retired: I resign myself, as a passenger, with confidence to
+those at present at the helm, and ask but for rest, peace, and good
+will. The question you propose, on equal representation, has become a
+party one, in which I wish to take no public share. Yet, if it be asked
+for your own satisfaction only, and not to be quoted before the public,
+I have no motive to withhold it, and the less from you, as it coincides
+with your own. At the birth of our republic, I committed that opinion
+to the world, in the draught of a constitution annexed to the Notes
+on Virginia, in which a provision was inserted for a representation
+permanently equal. The infancy of the subject at that moment, and our
+inexperience of self-government, occasioned gross departures in that
+draught from genuine republican canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy
+had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that we
+imagined every thing republican which was not monarchy. We had not yet
+penetrated to the mother principle, that ‘governments are republican
+only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute
+it.’ Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principle in
+them. But experience and reflection have but more and more confirmed me
+in the particular importance of the equal representation then proposed.
+On that point, then, I am entirely in sentiment with your letters; and
+only lament that a copyright of your pamphlet prevents their appearance
+in the newspapers, where alone they would be generally read, and produce
+general effect. The present vacancy too, of other matter, would give
+them place in every paper, and bring the question home to every man’s
+conscience.
+
+But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legislature, is
+not the only republican heresy in this first essay of our revolutionary
+patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be agreed that a
+government is republican in proportion as every member composing it has
+his equal voice in the direction of its concerns, (not indeed in person,
+which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a city, or small
+township, but) by representatives chosen by himself, and responsible to
+him at short periods, and let us bring to the test of this canon every
+branch of our constitution.
+
+In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than
+half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose.
+The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of
+irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent
+of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally
+so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the
+judges of the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves.
+In England, where judges were named and removable at the will of an
+hereditary executive, from which branch most misrule was feared, and has
+flowed, it was a great point gained, by fixing them for life, to make
+them independent of that executive. But in a government founded on
+the public will, this principle operates in an opposite direction,
+and against that will. There, too, they were still removable on a
+concurrence of the executive and legislative branches. But we have made
+them independent of the nation itself. They are irremovable, but by
+their own body, for any depravities of conduct, and even by their own
+body for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the inferior
+courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own body in
+succession for ever, so that a faction once possessing themselves of
+the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county in
+chains, for ever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real executive
+as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
+tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all
+the executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military
+leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The
+juries, our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are
+not selected by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an
+officer named by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up
+by the sheriff from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing
+respectable has retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be
+found? Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of
+our people. That would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly.
+Owing to this spirit, and to nothing in the form of our constitution,
+all things have gone well. But this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by
+the enemies of reformation, is not the fruit of our constitution, but
+has prevailed in spite of it. Our functionaries have done well, because
+generally honest men. If any were not so, they feared to show it.
+
+But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I
+do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down
+true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened
+into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of
+wealth against the ascendancy of the people. If experience be called
+for, appeal to that of our fifteen or twenty governments for forty
+years, and show me where the people have done half the mischief in these
+forty years, that a single despot would have done in a single year;
+or show half the riots and rebellions, the crimes and the punishments,
+which have taken place in any single nation, under Kingly government,
+during the same period. The true foundation of republican government
+is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and
+in their management. Try by this, as a tally, every provision of our
+constitution, and see if it hangs directly on the will of the people.
+Reduce your legislature to a convenient number for full, but orderly
+discussion. Let every man who fights or pays, exercise his just and
+equal right in their election. Submit them to approbation or rejection
+at short intervals. Let the executive be chosen in the same way, and for
+the same term, by those whose agent he is to be; and leave no screen of
+a council behind which to skulk from responsibility. It has been thought
+that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law.
+But I do not know that this is true, and if doubtful, we should follow
+principle. In this, as in many other elections, they would be guided by
+reputation, which would not err oftener, perhaps, than the present mode
+of appointment. In one State of the Union, at least, it has been long
+tried, and with the most satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut
+have been chosen by the people every six months, for nearly two
+centuries, and I believe there has hardly ever been an instance
+of change; so powerful is the curb of incessant responsibility. If
+prejudice, however, derived from a monarchical institution, is still
+to prevail against the vital elective principle of our own, and if the
+existing example among ourselves of periodical election of judges by
+the people be still mistrusted, let us at least not adopt the evil, and
+reject the good, of the English precedent; let us retain a movability
+on the concurrence of the executive and legislative branches, and
+nomination by the executive alone. Nomination to office is an executive
+function. To give it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of
+the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves the members from
+correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office themselves, and to
+a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility by dividing it
+among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper place, among
+executive functions, the principle of the distribution of power is
+preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest force on a single
+head.
+
+The organization of our county administrations may be thought more
+difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. Divide the
+counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can attend when
+called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the government of their
+wards in all things relating to themselves exclusively. A justice,
+chosen by themselves, in each, a constable, a military company, a
+patrol, a school, the care of their own poor, their own portion of the
+public roads, the choice of one or more jurors to serve in some court,
+and the delivery, within their own wards, of their own votes for
+all elective officers of higher sphere, will relieve the county
+administration of nearly all its business, will have it better done, and
+by making every citizen an acting member of the government, and in the
+offices nearest and most interesting to him, will attach him by
+his strongest feelings to the independence of his country, and its
+republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by every ward, would
+constitute the county court, would do its judiciary business, direct
+roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates, and administer all the
+matters of common interest to the whole county. These wards, called
+townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments,
+and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the
+wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its
+preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1. The general
+federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2. That of the
+State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; 3. The county
+republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; and, 4. The ward
+republics, for the small, and yet numerous and interesting concerns of
+the neighborhood: and in government, as well as in every other business
+of life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all
+matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole
+is cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the
+administration of the public affairs.
+
+The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2. Equal
+representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the people.
+4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and sheriffs
+elective. 6. Ward divisions. And, 7. Periodical amendments of the
+constitution.
+
+I have thrown out these, as loose heads of amendment, for consideration
+and correction: and their object is to secure self-government by the
+republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the
+people; and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those
+who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for
+continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not
+let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election
+between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into
+such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in
+our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for
+our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people,
+like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the
+earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily
+expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we
+must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to
+think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to
+obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the
+necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our land-holders, too, like theirs,
+retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs,
+but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in
+foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and
+the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson
+that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well as by private
+extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A
+departure from principle in one instance, becomes a precedent for a
+second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society
+is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities
+left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the _bellum
+omnium in omnia_, which some philosophers observing to be so general
+in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive
+state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
+Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
+
+Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem
+them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They
+ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and
+suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I
+belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country.
+It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present;
+and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of
+book-reading: and this they would say themselves, were they to rise
+from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried
+changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had
+better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves
+to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But
+I know, also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with
+the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more
+enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed,
+and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances,
+institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might
+as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a
+boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their
+barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately
+deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding
+to the gradual changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive
+accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses,
+entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects
+to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous innovations, which,
+had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected
+wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary
+forms. Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one
+generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of
+ordering its own affairs. Let us, as our sister States have done, avail
+ourselves of our reason and experience, to correct the crude essays of
+our first and unexperienced, although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning
+councils. And, lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its
+revision at stated periods. What these periods should be, nature herself
+indicates. By the European tables of mortality, of the adults living at
+any one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years.
+At the end of that period, then, a new majority is come into place; or,
+in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent of
+the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. It has,
+then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government
+it believes most promotive of its own happiness; consequently, to
+accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds itself, that received
+from its predecessors: and it is for the peace and good of mankind,
+that a solemn opportunity of doing this every nineteen or twenty years,
+should be provided by the constitution; so that it may be handed on,
+with periodical repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of
+time, if any thing human can so long endure. It is now forty years since
+the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same tables inform us,
+that, within that period, two thirds of the adults then living are now
+dead. Have then the remaining third, even if they had the wish, the
+right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws heretofore made
+by them, the other two thirds, who, with themselves, compose the present
+mass of adults? If they have not, who has? The dead? But the dead have
+no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where
+there is no substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe,
+and every thing upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants,
+during their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is the
+concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of that direction:
+and this declaration can only be made by their majority. That majority,
+then, has a right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make
+the constitution what they think will be best for themselves. But how
+collect their voice? This is the real difficulty. If invited by private
+authority to county or district meetings, these divisions are so large,
+that few will attend; and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely
+pronounced. Here, then, would be one of the advantages of the ward
+divisions I have proposed. The mayor of every ward, on a question like
+the present, would call his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of
+its members, convey these to the county court, who would hand on those
+of all its wards to the proper general authority; and the voice of
+the whole people would be thus fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed,
+discussed, and decided by the common reason of the society. If this
+avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard
+through that of force, and we shall go on, as other nations are doing,
+in the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and
+oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and so on, for ever.
+
+These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among men, and of
+the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from falling into
+the same dreadful track. I have given them at greater length than your
+letter called for. But I cannot say things by halves; and I confide them
+to your honor, so to use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the
+public papers. If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done
+that of equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them
+to yourself as the effusions of withered age, and useless time. I
+shall, with not the Less truth, assure you of my great respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, July 21, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to acknowledge a copious
+supply of the turnip-seed requested. Besides taking care myself, I
+shall endeavor again to commit it to the depository of the neighborhood,
+generally found to be the best precaution against losing a good thing.
+I will add a word on the political part of our letters. I believe we do
+not differ on either of the points you suppose. On education certainly
+not; of which the proofs are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge,
+proposed near forty years ago, and my uniform endeavors, to this day,
+to get our counties divided into wards, one of the principal objects of
+which is, the establishment of a primary school in each. But education
+not being a branch of municipal government, but, like the other arts
+and sciences, an accident only, I did not place it, with election, as a
+fundamental member in the structure of government. Nor, I believe, do
+we differ as to the county courts. I acknowledge the value of this
+institution; that it is in truth our principal executive and judiciary,
+and that it does much for little pecuniary reward. It is their
+self-appointment I wish to correct; to find some means of breaking up
+a cabal, when such a one gets possession of the bench. When this takes
+place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies, because its powers
+are so various, and exercised on every thing most immediately around
+us. And how many instances have you and I known of these monopolies of
+county administration! I knew a county in which a particular family (a
+numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a whole generation.
+never admitted a man on it who was not of its clan or connection. 1 know
+a county now of one thousand and five hundred militia, of which sixty
+are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom twenty are
+federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large and populous
+districts in it without a justice, because without a federalist
+for appointment: the militia are as disproportionably under federal
+officers. And there is no authority on earth which can break up this
+junto, short of a general convention. The remaining one thousand four
+hundred and forty, free, fighting, and paying citizens, are governed
+by men neither of their choice nor confidence, and without a hope
+of relief. They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free
+government for life, and indefinitely, for aught the constitution has
+provided. This solecism may be called any thing but republican, and
+ought undoubtedly to be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVII.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, September 5, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That which I wrote to
+you under the address of H. Tompkinson, was intended for the author
+of the pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and therefore, in your
+hands, found its true destination. But I must beseech you, Sir, not to
+admit a possibility of its being published. Many good people will revolt
+from its doctrines, and my wish is to offend nobody; to leave to those
+who are to live under it, the settlement of their own constitution, and
+to pass in peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions are sound,
+they will occur to others, and will prevail by their own weight,
+without the aid of names. I am glad to see that the Staunton meeting has
+rejected the idea of a limited convention. The article, however, nearest
+my heart, is the division of the counties into wards. These will be pure
+and elementary republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes
+the State, and will make of the whole a true democracy as to the
+business of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern.
+The affairs of the larger sections, of counties, of States, and of
+the Union, not admitting personal transaction by the people, will be
+delegated to agents elected by themselves; and representation will thus
+be substituted, where personal action becomes impracticable. Yet,
+even over these representative organs, should they become corrupt and
+perverted, the division into wards constituting the people, in their
+wards, a regularly organized power, enables them by that organization
+to crush, regularly and peaceably, the usurpations of their unfaithful
+agents, and rescues them from the dreadful necessity of doing it
+insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as republican as a large
+society can be; and secure the continuance of purity in our government,
+by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the people. No other
+depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did not end in
+converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their
+charge. George the III., in execution of the trust confided to him, has,
+within his own day, loaded the inhabitants of Great Britain with debts
+equal to the whole fee-simple value of their island, and under pretext
+of governing it, has alienated its whole soil to creditors who could
+lend money to be lavished on priests, pensions, plunder, and perpetual
+war. This would not have been so, had the people retained organized
+means of acting on their agents. In this example, then, let us read a
+lesson for ourselves, and not ‘go, and do likewise.’
+
+Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told, that on the
+question of equal representation, our fellow-citizens in some sections
+of the State claim peremptorily a right of representation for their
+slaves. Principle will, in this, as in most other cases, open the way
+for us to correct conclusion. Were our State a pure democracy, in which
+all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all their business,
+there would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until
+arrived at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation
+of morals, and ambiguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously in the
+public meetings of men. 3, Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of
+things with us takes away the rights of will and of property. Those,
+then, who have no will, could be permitted to exercise none in the
+popular assembly; and of course could delegate none to an agent in a
+representative assembly. The business, in the first case, would be done
+by qualified citizens only; and, in the second, by the representatives
+of qualified citizens only. It is true, that in the general
+constitution, our State is allowed a larger representation on account
+of its slaves. But every one knows, that that constitution was a
+matter of compromise; a capitulation between conflicting interests
+and opinions. In truth, the condition of different descriptions of
+inhabitants in any country is a matter of municipal arrangement, of
+which no foreign country has a right to take notice. All its inhabitants
+are men as to them. Thus, in the New England States, none have the
+powers of citizens but those whom they call freemen; and none are
+freemen Until admitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the
+General Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum of
+representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no powers as
+citizens; yet, in representation in the General Government, they count
+in the proportion of three to five; and so also in taxation. Whether
+this is equal, is not here the question. It is a capitulation of
+discordant sentiments and circumstances, and is obligatory on that
+ground. But this view shows there is no inconsistency in claiming
+representation for them from the other States, and refusing it within
+our own.
+
+Accept the renewal of assurances of my respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, October 14, 1816.
+
+Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well explained the
+uses of grief. That of September the 3rd, with equal truth, adduces
+instances of its abuse; and when we put into the same scale these
+abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even the uses of grief cost
+us, we may consider its value in the economy of the human being, as
+equivocal at least. Those afflictions cloud too great a portion of
+life, to find a counterpoise in any benefits derived from its uses. For
+setting aside its paroxyms on the occasions of special bereavements, all
+the latter years of aged men are overshadowed with its gloom. Whither,
+for instance, can you and I look without seeing the graves of those we
+have known? And whom can we call up, of our early companions, who has
+not left us to regret his loss? This, indeed, may be one of the salutary
+effects of grief; inasmuch as it prepares us to loose ourselves also
+without repugnance. Doctor Freeman’s instances of female levity cured by
+grief, are certainly to the point, and constitute an item of credit in
+the account we examine. I was much mortified by the loss of the Doctor’s
+visit, by my absence from home. To have shown how much I feel indebted
+to you for making good people known to me, would have been one pleasure;
+and to have enjoyed that of his conversation, and the benefits of
+his information, so favorably reported by my family, would have been
+another. I returned home on the third day after his departure. The loss
+of such visits is among the sacrifices which my divided residence costs
+me.
+
+Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism
+to which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. I have been
+contented with the humble achievement of reading the analysis of his
+work by Destutt Tracy, in two hundred pages, octavo. I believe I should
+have ventured on his own abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume,
+had it ever come to my hands; but the marrow of it in Tracy has
+satisfied my appetite: and even in that, the preliminary discourse of
+the analyzer himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than
+the body of the work. For the object of that seems to be to smother all
+history under the mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as those
+of Hercules and Jesus, can, by a fertile imagination and allegorical
+interpretations, be brought to the same tally, no line of distinction
+remains between fact and fancy. As this pithy morsel will not
+overburthen the mail in passing and repassing between Quincy and
+Monticello, I send it for your perusal. Perhaps it will satisfy you, as
+it has me; and may save you the labor of reading twenty-four times its
+volume. I have said to you that it was written by Tracy; and I had so
+entered it on the title-page, as I usually do on anonymous works whose
+authors are known to me. But Tracy requested me not to betray his
+anonyme, for reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have ceased to weigh. I
+am bound, then, to make the same reserve with you. Destutt-Tracy is, in
+my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual subjects, or the
+operations of the understanding. His three octavo volumes on Ideology,
+which constitute the foundation of what he has since written, I have not
+entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely abstract,
+and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte, with his
+repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has by
+this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without
+principle. The next work Tracy wrote was the Commentary on Montesquieu,
+never published in the original, because not safe; but translated and
+published in Philadelphia, yet without the author’s name. He has since
+permitted his name to be mentioned. Although called a Commentary, it is,
+in truth, an elementary work on the principles of government, comprised
+in about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a third
+work on Political Economy, comprising the whole subject within about
+the same compass; in which all its principles are demonstrated with
+the severity of Euclid, and, like him, without ever using a superfluous
+word. I have procured this to be translated, and have been four years
+endeavoring to get it printed: but, as yet, without success. In the mean
+time, the author has published the original in France, which he thought
+unsafe while Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet
+reached this country. He has his fourth and last work now in the press
+at Paris, closing, as he conceives, the circle of metaphysical sciences.
+This work, which is on Ethics, I have not seen, but suspect I shall
+differ from it in its foundation, although not in its deductions. I
+gather from his other works that he adopts the principle of Hobbes,
+that justice is founded in contract solely, and does not result from the
+constitution of man. I believe, on the contrary, that it is instinct and
+innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as
+that of feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise creator must have seen to
+be necessary in an animal destined to live in society: that every human
+mind feels pleasure in doing good to another: that the non-existence of
+justice is not to be inferred from the fact that the same act is deemed
+virtuous and right in one society which is held vicious and wrong
+in another; because, as the circumstances and opinions of different
+societies vary, so the acts which may do them right or wrong must vary
+also; for virtue does not consist in the act we do, but in the end it
+is to effect. If it is to effect the happiness of him to whom it
+is directed, it is virtuous, while, in a society under different
+circumstances and opinions, the same act might produce pain, and would
+be vicious. The essence of virtue is in doing good to others, while what
+is good may be one thing in one society, and its contrary in another.
+Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of morals (and as
+many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on the subject
+nearly), so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound system of
+morals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers, setting out
+from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same conclusions.
+This looks as if they were guided unconsciously, by the unerring-hand of
+instinct.
+
+Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
+description is it to be inquired for?
+
+What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
+great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has
+been foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from
+mortal prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist
+which render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is
+now equal to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor
+of the island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those
+who labor. Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other
+countries, and the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him
+to cover his back and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now
+almost general, are of the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted
+but by food and raiment. But where are the means of feeding and clothing
+them? The landholder has nothing of his own to give; he is but the
+fiduciary of those who have lent him money; the lender is so taxed in
+his meat, drink, and clothing, that he has but a bare subsistence left.
+The landholder, then, must give up his land, or the lender his debt,
+or they must compromise by giving up each one half. But will either
+consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of property? Or must it not
+be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably compromised, will they agree
+to risk another ruin under the same government unreformed? I think not;
+but I would rather know what you think; because you have lived with
+John Bull, and know better than I do the character of his herd. I salute
+Mrs. Adams and yourself with every sentiment of affectionate cordiality
+and respect;
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear
+Sir, how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as
+much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long
+hours from my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by
+that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o’clock, and often
+from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this
+to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part
+enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is
+the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must
+get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the
+subject of his book; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I
+constantly refuse; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a
+word for him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely
+my sufferings from this source; hoping it would have the effect of an
+indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others, who,
+in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their concerns,
+their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and speculations, political,
+moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical, &c. &c. &c.
+I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to,
+exercise and enjoy correspondence with the friends I love, and on
+subjects which they, or my own inclinations, present. In that case, your
+letters shall not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they
+have been to my great mortification.
+
+To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
+Tracy’s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
+original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
+years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now
+be had, I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
+Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
+under the word ‘Ideology’ all the subjects which the French term
+_Morale_, as the correlative to _Physique_, His works on Logic,
+Government, Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up
+the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the
+scope of the understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies
+exactly the ground of Locke’s work on the Understanding. The translation
+of that on Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation
+of mine. I have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very
+laborious. _Le premier jet_ having been by some one who understood
+neither French nor English, it was impossible to make it more than
+faithful. But it is a valuable work.
+
+The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four
+words, ‘Be just and good,’ is that in which all our inquiries must end;
+as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, ‘_Ubi panis, ibi
+deus_.’ What all agree in, is probably right; what no two agree in, most
+probably wrong. One of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small
+men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too,
+whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much
+spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had
+been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom
+I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was, ‘Say
+nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its
+evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been
+honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it
+cannot be a bad one.’ Affectionately adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Absences and avocations had prevented my acknowledging your favor of
+February the 2nd, when that of April the 19th arrived. I had not the
+pleasure of receiving the former by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business
+probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, and
+distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities.
+Your recommendations are always welcome, for, indeed, the subjects of
+them always merit that welcome, and some of them in an extraordinary
+degree. They make us acquainted with what there is excellent in our
+ancient sister State of Massachusetts, once venerated and beloved,
+and still hanging on our hopes, for what need we despair of after the
+resurrection of Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that
+the last retreat of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those
+advances of the mind which had carried the other States a century ahead
+of them. They seemed still to be exactly where their forefathers were
+when they schismatized from the covenant of works, and to consider as
+dangerous heresies all innovations good or bad. I join you, therefore,
+in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length
+broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the
+American history and character. If by religion, we are to understand
+sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation
+on that hypothesis is just, ‘that this would be the best of all possible
+worlds, if there were no religion in it.’ But if the moral precepts,
+innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution, as
+necessary for a social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism
+and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute
+true religion, then, without it, this would be, as you again say,
+‘something not fit to be named, even indeed, a hell.’
+
+You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the malice of
+Pickering could say of you. Were such things to be answered, our lives
+would be wasted in the filth of fendings and provings, instead of
+being employed in promoting the happiness and prosperity of our
+fellow-citizens. The tenor of your life is the proper and sufficient
+answer. It is fortunate for those in public trust, that posterity will
+judge them by their works, and not by the malignant vituperations and
+invectives of the Pickerings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men
+of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides
+to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with
+effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion
+as they feel that effect. Thus, in the Revolution, Hancock and the
+Adamses were the raw-head and bloody bones of tories and traitors; who
+yet knew nothing of you personally but what was good. I do not entertain
+your apprehensions for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state
+of retirement. Such a mind as his, fraught with information and with
+matter for reflection, can never know _ennui_. Besides, there will
+always be work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness
+to his country. For example, he and Monroe (the President) are now
+here on the work of a collegiate institution to be established in our
+neighborhood, of which they and myself are three of six Visitors. This,
+if it succeeds, will raise up children for Mr. Madison to employ his
+attention through life. I say, if it succeeds; for we have two very
+essential wants in our way: 1. means to compass our views; and 2. men
+qualified to fulfil them. And these you will agree are essential wants
+indeed.
+
+I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his is a field
+familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His work is highly
+praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been occupied and delighted
+with reading another work, the title of which did not promise much
+useful information or amusement, ‘_L’Italia avanti il Dominio del
+Romani, dal Micali_. It has often, you know, been a subject of regret
+that Carthage had no writer to give her side of her own history,
+while her wealth, power, and splendor prove she must have had a very
+distinguished policy and government. Micali has given the counterpart
+of the Roman history, for the nations over which they extended their
+dominion. For this he has gleaned up matter from every quarter, and
+furnished materials for reflection and digestion to those who, thinking
+as they read, have perceived that there was a great deal of matter
+behind the curtain, could that be fully withdrawn. He certainly gives
+new views of a nation whose splendor has masked and palliated their
+barbarous ambition. I am now reading Botta’s History of our own
+Revolution. Bating the ancient practice which he has adopted, of putting
+speeches into mouths which never made them, and fancying motives of
+action which we never felt, he has given that history with more detail,
+precision, and candor, than any writer I have yet met with. It is, to be
+sure, compiled from those writers; but it is a good secretion of their
+matter, the pure from the impure, and presented in a just sense of
+right, in opposition to usurpation.
+
+Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affectionate esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLI.--TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817
+
+
+TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, May 14, 1817.
+
+Although, Dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling little in
+its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute at times
+my old friends, were it only to say and to know that ‘all’s well.’
+Our hobby has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so
+desperate, that little matter is furnished us for active attention. With
+you too, it has long been forbidden ground, and therefore imprudent
+for a foreign friend to tread, in writing to you. But although our
+speculations might be intrusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable,
+and mine are sincerely offered for the well-being of France. What
+government she can bear, depends not on the state of science, however
+exalted, in a select band of enlightened men, but on the condition of
+the general mind. That, I am sure, is advanced and will advance, and
+the last change of government was fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be
+less obstructive to the effects of that advancement. For I consider your
+foreign military oppression as an ephemeral obstacle only.
+
+Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but that is
+a cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment of the
+necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our government is
+solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even to civil schism,
+are precious facts for us; and of these the strongest proofs were
+furnished, when, with four eastern States tied to us, as dead to living
+bodies, all doubt was removed as to the achievements of the war, had
+it continued. But its best effect has been the complete suppression of
+party. The federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was
+so, have separated from their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are
+received with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut,
+as a State, and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which
+were essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen
+a republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts indeed
+still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide crimes and
+treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh
+advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut
+as the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my
+attention. That is essentially a Quaker State, the fragment of a
+religious sect which, there, in the other States, in England, are a
+homogeneous mass, acting with one mind, and that directed by the mother
+society in England. Dispersed, as the Jews, they still form, as those
+do, one nation, foreign to the land they live in. They are Protestant
+Jesuits, implicitly devoted to the will of their superior, and
+forgetting all duties to their country in the execution of the policy
+of their order. When war is proposed with England, they have religious
+scruples; but when with France, these are laid by, and they become
+clamorous for it. They are, however, silent, passive, and give no other
+trouble than of whipping them along. Nor is the election of Monroe an
+inefficient circumstance in our felicities. Four and twenty years,
+which he will accomplish, of administration in republican forms and
+principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people as
+to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition of party
+dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened society beyond
+imagination. The war then has done us all this good, and the further one
+of assuring the world, that although attached to peace from a sense of
+its blessings, we will meet war when it is made necessary.
+
+I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The
+achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. But
+it is a very serious one, what will then become of them. Ignorance and
+bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government. They
+will fall under military despotisms, and become the murderous tools of
+the ambition of their respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be
+for their greater happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to
+judge. No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind
+exercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the
+question is not what we wish, but what is practicable. As their sincere
+friend and brother, then, I do believe the best thing for them, would be
+for themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under the guarantee
+of France, Russia, Holland, and the United States, allowing to Spain
+a nominal supremacy, with authority only to keep the peace among them,
+leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government, until
+their experience in them, their emancipation from their priests,
+and advancement in information, shall prepare them for complete
+independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because her
+selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
+disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
+revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
+permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension
+of her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
+Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
+send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
+wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
+led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
+sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
+are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have still
+many years to be a spectator of these events. That these years may
+indeed be many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate
+friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 16, 1817
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, June 16, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The importance that the enclosed letters should safely reach their
+destination, impels me to avail myself of the protection of your cover.
+This is an inconvenience to which your situation exposes you, while it
+adds to the opportunities of exercising yourself in works of charity.
+
+According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before your
+departure, we have had almost an entire change in the body of Congress.
+The unpopularity of the compensation law was completed, by the manner of
+repealing it as to all the world except themselves. In some States, it
+is said, every member is changed; in all, many. What opposition there
+was to the original law, was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of
+those have been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I
+have never known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation; and what
+is remarkable, is, that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost
+entirely silent, and the people not only unled by their leaders, but in
+opposition to them. I confess I was highly pleased with this proof
+of the innate good sense, the vigilance, and the determination of the
+people to act for themselves.
+
+Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note: a navigation
+act, particularly, applicable to those nations only who have navigation
+acts; pinching one of them especially, not only in the general way, but
+in the intercourse with her foreign possessions. This part may re-act
+on us, and it remains for trial which may bear longest. A law respecting
+our conduct as a neutral between Spain and her contending colonies,
+was passed by a majority of one only, I believe, and against the
+very general sentiment of our country. It is thought to strain our
+complaisance to Spain beyond her right or merit, and almost against the
+right of the other party, and certainly against the claims they have to
+our good wishes and neighborly relations. That we should wish to see
+the people of other countries free, is as natural, and at least as
+justifiable, as that one King should wish to see the Kings of other
+countries maintained in their despotism. Right to both parties, innocent
+favor to the juster cause, is our proper sentiment.
+
+You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after
+passing both houses, was negatived by the President. The act was
+founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution,
+which authorizes Congress ‘to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide
+for the general welfare,’ was an extension of the powers specifically
+enumerated to whatever would promote the general welfare; and this,
+you know, was the federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet ever was,
+and, indeed, it is almost the only land-mark which now divides the
+federalists from the republicans, that Congress had not unlimited
+powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those
+specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should
+provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers,
+so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes
+which the enumeration did not place under their action: consequently,
+that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for
+which they may raise money. I think the passage and rejection of this
+bill a fortunate incident. Every State will certainly concede the power;
+and this will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal to
+them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a
+mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
+claim of universal power. For in the phrase, ‘to lay taxes, to pay the
+debts and provide for the general welfare,’ it is a mere question of
+syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first, or
+are distinct and co-ordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided
+by the exact definition of powers immediately following. It is fortunate
+for another reason, as the States, in conceding the power, will modify
+it, either by requiring the federal ratio of expense in each State, or
+otherwise, so as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this
+caution, intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
+habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have the
+appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called ‘logging,’ the
+term of the farmers for their exchanges of aid in rolling together the
+logs of their newly cleared grounds. Three of our papers have presented
+us the copy of an act of the legislature of New York, which, if it has
+really passed, will carry us back to the times of the darkest bigotry
+and barbarism to find a parallel. Its purport is, that all those who
+shall hereafter join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking
+Quakers, shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and
+all their children and property taken out of their hands. This act being
+published nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any
+history of the circumstances of its passage, I am not without a hope it
+may have been a mere abortive attempt. It contrasts singularly with a
+cotemporary vote of the Pennsylvania legislature, who, on a proposition
+to make the belief in a God a necessary qualification for office,
+rejected it by a great majority, although assuredly there was not a
+single atheist in their body. And you remember to have heard, that, when
+the act for religious freedom was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion
+to insert the name of Jesus Christ before the phrase, ‘the author of our
+holy religion,’ which stood in the bill, was rejected, although that was
+the creed of a great majority of them.
+
+I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now produces
+scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison’s election there was little, on
+Monroe’s all but none. In Mr. Adams’s time and mine, parties were so
+nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful for our peace. But since
+the decided ascendancy of the republican body, federalism has looked
+on with silent but unresisting anguish. In the middle, southern, and
+western States, it is as low as it ever can be; for nature has made some
+men monarchists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course,
+there always will be.
+
+*****
+
+We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in Maine, the
+mercury was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit, which is
+sixteen degrees lower than it was in Paris in 1788-9. Here it was at six
+degrees above zero, which is our greatest degree of cold.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my constant
+and affectionate friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 17, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mr. Holly’s own hand your
+favor of January the 28th, being then at my other home. He dined only
+with my family, and left them with an impression which has filled me
+with regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them.
+I am glad he is gone to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more
+rapidly there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are, and
+bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though neither you
+nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary people to them. Our
+greediness for wealth, and fantastical expense have degraded, and will
+degrade, the minds of our maritime citizens. These are the peculiar
+vices of commerce.
+
+I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of you
+through a letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to reclaim against
+an expression of Mr. Wirt’s, as to the commencement of motion in
+the revolutionary ball. The lawyers say that words are always to be
+expounded _secundum subjectam materiem_, which, in Mr. Wirt’s case, was
+Virginia. It would, moreover, be as difficult to say at what moment
+the Revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the
+moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him
+a beginning. But the most agreeable part of his letter was that which
+informed me of your health, your activity, and strength of memory;
+and the most wonderful, that which assured me that you retained your
+industry and promptness in epistolary correspondence. Here you have
+entire advantage over me. My repugnance to the writing-table becomes
+daily and hourly more deadly and insurmountable. In place of this has
+come on a canine appetite for reading. And I indulge it, because I see
+in it a relief against the _tædium senectutis_; a lamp to lighten my
+path through the dreary wilderness of time before me, whose bourne I see
+not. Losing daily all interest in the things around us, something else
+is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which occupies the
+mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own stock.
+
+I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of South
+America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is
+within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their
+minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it
+would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that
+would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to
+take charge of themselves understanding; with more certainty, if, in
+the mean time, under so much control as may keep them at peace with
+one another. Surely, it is our duty to wish them independence and
+self-government, because they wish it themselves, and they have the
+right, and we none, to choose for themselves: and I wish, moreover, that
+our ideas may be erroneous, and theirs prove well-founded. But these are
+speculations, my friend, which we may as well deliver over to those who
+are to see their developement. We shall only be lookers on, from the
+clouds above, as now we look down on the labors, the hurry, and bustle
+of the ants and bees. Perhaps, in that super-mundane region, we may
+be amused with seeing the fallacy of our own guesses, and even the
+nothingness of those labors which have filled and agitated our own time
+here.
+
+_En attendant_, with sincere affections to Mrs. Adams and yourself, I
+salute you both cordially.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, November 13, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 13, 1818.
+
+The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which
+your letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding.
+Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of
+connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what
+you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to
+endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable,
+time and silence are the only medicine. I will not, therefore, by
+useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor,
+although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more
+where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that
+the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same
+cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to
+an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we
+shall still love, and never lose again. God bless you, and support you
+under your heavy affliction.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLV.--TO ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818
+
+
+TO ROBERT WALSH.
+
+Monticello, December 4, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of November the 8th has been some time received; but it is in my
+power to give little satisfaction as to its inquiries. Dr. Franklin had
+many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision
+enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on
+the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in
+Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of
+the proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
+Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which,
+spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr.
+Lee was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides
+enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the
+agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into
+that State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor’s enemy
+also, but from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges
+against him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also,
+ever maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he
+would have waived the formal recognition of our independence, I never
+heard on any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was
+urgent to retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe, that
+had they been ultimately made a _sine qua non_, our commissioners (Mr.
+Adams excepted) would have relinquished them, rather than have broken
+off the treaty. To Mr. Adams’s perseverance alone, on that point, I
+have always understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the
+charge of subservience to France, besides the evidence of his friendly
+colleagues before named, two years of my own service with him at Paris,
+daily visits, and the most friendly and confidential conversations,
+convince me it had not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the
+confidence of that government in the highest degree, insomuch, that
+it may truly be said, that they were more under his influence, than
+he under theirs. The fact is, that his temper was so amiable and
+conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or
+even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate
+and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his
+enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that reasonable disposition,
+which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding
+what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality
+and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual influence,
+and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the government
+of France.
+
+I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too
+much in detail for the scale of Delaplaine’s work, but which may find a
+cadre in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is
+in a great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
+recollections and assurances of respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVI.--TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818
+
+
+TO M. DE NEUVILLE.
+
+Monticello, December 13, 1818.
+
+I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
+of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
+no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
+Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
+much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from
+the incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from
+her slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her
+central position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than
+she ever was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future
+day, remind of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most
+eagerly. I hope, however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk
+no new troubles. Her constitution, as now amended, gives as much of
+self-government as perhaps she can yet bear, and will give more, when
+the habits of order shall have prepared her to receive more. Besides the
+gratitude which every American owes her, as our sole ally during the
+war of independence, I am additionally affectioned by the friendships
+I contracted there, by the good dispositions I witnessed, and by the
+courtesies I received.
+
+I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties
+on wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on
+that liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use
+to the middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to
+the poison of whiskey, which is desolating their houses. No nation is
+drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine
+substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the
+only antidote to the bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of
+other merchandise, and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog:
+and who will not prefer it? Its extended use will carry health and
+comfort to a much enlarged circle. Every one in easy circumstances (as
+the bulk of our citizens are) will prefer it to the poison to which they
+are now driven by their government. And the treasury itself will find
+that a penny a piece from a dozen, is more than a groat from a single
+one. This reformation, however, will require time. Our merchants know
+nothing of the infinite variety of cheap and good wines to be had in
+Europe; and particularly in France, in Italy, and the Grecian islands:
+as they know little, also, of the variety of excellent manufactures and
+comforts to be had any where out of England. Nor will these things be
+known, nor of course called for here, until the native merchants of
+those countries, to whom they are known, shall bring them forward,
+exhibit, and vend them at the moderate profits they can afford. This
+alone will procure them familiarity with us, and the preference they
+merit in competition with corresponding articles now in use.
+
+Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your kind visit
+to Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assurances of the
+gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem and respectful
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVII.--TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY, March 21, 1819
+
+
+TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY.
+
+Monticello, March 21, 1819.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and
+the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me
+not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied
+it, of Doctor Rush’s answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like
+other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my
+own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little
+animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the
+vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the
+Doctor’s glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend;
+but halve its effect by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I
+cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors
+and cider are my table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of
+my friend, is of tea and coffee. I have been blest with organs of
+digestion, which accept and concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever
+the palate chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth
+by age. I was a hard student until I entered on the business of life,
+the duties of which leave no idle time to those disposed to fulfil
+them; and now, retired, and at the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard
+student. Indeed my fondness for reading and study revolts me from the
+drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist, the consequence of an
+early dislocation, makes writing both slow and painful. I am not so
+regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was, devoting to it from
+five to eight hours, according as my company or the book I am reading
+interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or half hour’s
+previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the
+intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise
+with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the
+day, unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular
+conversation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
+unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate than
+my friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have
+not had one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight or ten years
+through life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of bathing my
+feet in cold water every morning for sixty years past. A fever of more
+than twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my
+life. A periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps,
+in six or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time, which seems
+now to have left me; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I
+enjoy good health; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without
+fatigue six or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may
+end these egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has
+been so much like that of other people, that I might say with Horace,
+to every one, ‘_Nomine mutato, narratur fabula de te_.’ I must not end,
+however, without due thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are
+so good as to express towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for
+these, be pleased to accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 9, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June
+the 22nd. The first, delivered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the
+gratification of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is, to
+be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as
+I found Mr. Greenwood to be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams
+Wells, shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to
+his advantage.
+
+But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg
+county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Register, which you
+were so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you
+seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very
+unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us
+as having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago,
+in that part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of
+Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise locality. If this paper
+be really taken from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should
+have escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the
+bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, too, which is
+edited by a North-Carolinian: and that the fire should blaze out all at
+once in Essex, one thousand miles from where the spark is said to
+have fallen. But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is the
+narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious as the
+paper itself? It appeals, too, to an original book, which is burnt, to
+Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hughes, and
+Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent
+to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect,
+in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step
+of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his history of
+Marion, whose scene of action was the country bordering On Mecklenburg.
+Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent
+States, all silent. When Mr. Henry’s resolutions, far short of
+independence, flew like lightning through every paper, and kindled both
+sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of the same date, of the
+independence of Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, absolving it from
+the British allegiance, and abjuring all political connection with that
+nation, although sent to Congress, too, is never heard of. It is not
+known even a twelvemonth after, when a similar proposition is first made
+in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not you have addressed
+our timid brethren in peals of thunder, on their tardy fears? Would
+not every advocate of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg
+county, in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting Dickinson and
+others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example of independent
+Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper
+speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delegation (Caswell,
+Hooper, Hughes,) ‘in the cause of liberty and independence.’ Now, you
+remember as well as I do, that we had not a greater tory in Congress
+than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes
+feeble, according as the day was clear or cloudy; that Caswell, indeed,
+was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was
+present; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then
+uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes, and the vote of the State.
+I must not be understood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State
+of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm,
+positively, that this paper is a fabrication: because the proof of a
+negative can only be presumptive. But I shall believe it such until
+positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced. And if
+the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs
+a vindication by the production of such proof. For the present, I must
+be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
+
+I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his friends;
+but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship
+in our University, which we should have offered him in form. Mr.
+Bowditch, too, refuses us; so fascinating is the _vinculum_ of the
+_dulce natale solum_. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can be
+found, like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement in
+their respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to
+natives of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our
+Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are.
+
+I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance
+of which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary
+communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there,
+here, and every where, I am and shall always be, affectionately and
+respectfully yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIX.--TO JUDGE ROANE, September 6,1819
+
+
+TO JUDGE ROANE.
+
+Poplar Forest, September 6,1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces
+signed Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation in
+the copies you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every
+tittle of them. They contain the true principles of the revolution
+of 1800, for that was as real a revolution in the principles of our
+government as that of 1776 was in its form; not effected indeed by the
+sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform,
+the suffrage of the people. The nation declared its will by dismissing
+functionaries of one principle, and electing those of another, in the
+two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election.
+Over the judiciary department, the constitution had deprived them of
+their control. That, therefore, has continued the reprobated system: and
+although new matter has been occasionally incorporated into the old, yet
+the leaven of the old mass seems to assimilate to itself the new; and
+after twenty years’ confirmation of the federated system by the voice
+of the nation, declared through the medium of elections, we find the
+judiciary, on every occasion, still driving us into consolidation.
+
+In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
+constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your
+quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that ‘the judiciary is the
+last resort in relation _to the other departments of the government_,
+but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under
+which the judiciary is derived.’ If this opinion be sound, then indeed
+is our constitution a complete _felo de se_. For intending to establish
+three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check
+and balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one
+of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the
+others, and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of
+the nation. For experience has already shown that the impeachment it
+has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one
+you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not
+belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally
+the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line
+they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have
+excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted
+with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing
+of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape
+into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of
+eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is
+independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the
+spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.
+Independence can be trusted no where but with the people in mass. They
+are inherently independent of all but moral law. My construction of
+the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each
+department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to
+decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases
+submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately
+and without appeal. I will explain myself by examples, which, having
+occurred while I was in office, are better known to me, and the
+principles which governed them.
+
+A legislature had passed the sedition-law. The federal courts
+had subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and
+imprisonment. On coming into office, I released these individuals by the
+power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could never be
+more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering without the
+authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorized
+by the constitution, and therefore null. In the case of Marbury and
+Madison, the federal judges declared that commissions, signed and sealed
+by the President, were valid, although not delivered. I deemed delivery
+essential to complete a deed, which, as long as it remains in the hands
+of the party, is as yet no deed, it is in posse only, but not in
+esse, and I withheld delivery of the commissions. They cannot issue a
+mandamus* to the President or legislature, or to any of their officers.
+When the British treaty of 180- arrived, without any provision against
+the impressment of our seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The Senate
+thought I should ask their advice. I thought that would be a mockery of
+them, when I was predetermined against following it, should they advise
+its ratification. The constitution had made their advice necessary to
+confirm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some;
+but I have never doubted its soundness. In the cases of two persons,
+antenati, under exactly similar circumstances, the federal court had
+determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen; the House of
+Representatives nevertheless determined that the other (Smith of South
+Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him to his seat in their body.
+Duane was a republican, and Smith a federalist, and these decisions were
+during the federal ascendancy.
+
+     * The constitution controlling the common law in this
+     particular.
+
+These are examples of my position, that each of the three departments
+has equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the
+constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided
+for themselves under a similar question. But you intimate a wish that my
+opinion should be known on this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw
+from all contests of opinion, and resign every thing cheerfully to
+the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, and their
+successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive advance of
+science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of age. I wish, therefore,
+to offend no man’s opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions
+on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with a firm and
+fearless step. But, loving mankind in my individual relations with
+them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace; and like the
+superannuated soldier, ‘_quadragenis stipendiis emeritis_’ to hang my
+arms on the post. I have unwisely, I fear, embarked in an enterprise of
+great public concern, but not to be accomplished within my term, without
+their liberal and prompt support. A severe illness the last year and
+another from which I am just emerged, admonish me that repetitions may
+be expected, against which a declining frame cannot long bear up. I am
+anxious therefore to get our University so far advanced as may encourage
+the public to persevere to its final accomplishment. That secured, I
+shall sing my _Nunc demittas_. I hope your labors will be long continued
+in the spirit in which they have always been exercised, in maintenance
+of those principles on which I verily believe the future happiness of
+our country essentially depends. I salute you with affectionate and
+great respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, December 10, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of November the 23rd.
+The banks, bankrupt-law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing.
+These are occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will pass under
+the ship. But the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the
+Missouri country by revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the
+battle of Bunker’s Hill to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous
+a question. It even damps the joy with which I hear of your high health,
+and welcomes to me the consequences of my want of it. I thank God that I
+shall not live to witness its issue. _Sed hæc hactenus_.
+
+I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters
+of Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effusions of an exalted
+patriot, while the parricide Caesar is lost in odious contrast. When the
+enthusiasm, however, kindled by Cicero’s pen and principles, subsides
+into cool reflection, I ask myself, What was that government which the
+virtues of Cicero were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar
+to subvert? And if Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and
+sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power,
+have done to lead his fellow-citizens into good government? I do not say
+to restore it, because they never had it, from the rape of the Sabines
+to the ravages of the Caesars. If their people indeed had been, like
+ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be
+obvious. ‘Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve
+Italy from the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a
+nation entitled to self-government, and do its will.’ But steeped in
+corruption, vice, and venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody
+had done more than Caesar to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero, Cato,
+Brutus, have done, had it been referred to them to establish a
+good government for their country? They had no ideas of government
+themselves, but of their degenerate Senate, nor the people of liberty,
+but of the factious opposition of their tribunes. They had afterwards
+their Tituses, their Trajans, and Antoninuses, who had the will to make
+them happy, and the power to mould their government into a good and
+permanent form. But it would seem as if they could not see their way
+clearly to do it. No government can continue good, but under the control
+of the people; and their people were so demoralized and depraved, as to
+be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their reformation then
+was to be taken up _ab incunabulis_. Their minds were to be informed by
+education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of
+virtue, and deterred from those of vice, by the dread of punishments,
+proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth
+as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one
+false consequence after another, in endless succession. These are
+the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the
+structure of order and good government. But this would have been an
+operation of a generation or two, at least, within which period would
+have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have quashed the
+whole process. I confess then, I can neither see what Cicero, Cato, and
+Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could have devised to lead their people
+into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved, nor how further
+shown why it has been the fate of that delightful country never to have
+known, to this day, and through a course of five and twenty hundred
+years, the history of which we possess, one single day of free and
+rational government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient, middle,
+and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in the science of
+government at this time, will enable you, if any body, to go back with
+our principles and opinions to the limes of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus,
+and tell us by what process these great and virtuous men could have led
+so unenlightened and vitiated a people into freedom and good government,
+_et eris mihi magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas
+carissimum te mihi esse_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLI.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, April 13, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of March the 27th is received, and, as you request, a copy of
+the syllabus is now enclosed. It was originally written to Dr. Rush. On
+his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of
+it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied
+with. At the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent
+it to his friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it appeared
+in the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that repository is
+scarcely known in this country; and the syllabus, therefore, is still a
+secret, and in your hands I am sure it will continue so.
+
+But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its
+true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the
+Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with
+him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of
+Spiritualism: he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness
+of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, &c. &c. It
+is the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral
+precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues
+in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed,
+needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be
+founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the
+sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many
+passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely
+benevolence; and others again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity,
+so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it
+impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same
+being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him
+the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery
+of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul
+was the great Coryphæus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.
+These palpable interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me
+to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that
+his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been
+given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of his doctrine, not
+all of mine: I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern
+moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent.
+
+I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal
+improvement prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever expressed
+of the advantages of a western communication through the James River, I
+still entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links
+of communication.
+
+The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the ten
+pavilions destined for the Professors, and about thirty dormitories,
+will be completed this year, and three others, with six hotels for
+boarding, and seventy other dormitories, will be completed the next
+year, and the whole be in readiness then to receive those who are to
+occupy them. But means to bring these into place, and to set the machine
+into motion, must come from the legislature. An opposition, in the mean
+time, has been got up. That of our alma mater, William and Mary, is not
+of much weight. She must descend into the secondary rank of academies of
+preparation for the University. The serious enemies are the priests of
+the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind
+its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits are now resounding with
+denunciations against the appointment of Doctor Cooper, whom they charge
+as a monotheist in opposition to their tritheism. Hostile as these sects
+are, in every other point, to one another, they unite in maintaining
+their mystical theogony against those who believe there is one God only.
+The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most intolerant of all sects,
+the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the word of the lawgiver, if
+such a word could be now obtained, to put the torch to the pile, and
+to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere the flames in which their oracle
+Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because, he could not find in his
+Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three are one, and
+one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that magistrates have
+a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic creed. They pant to
+re-establish, by law, that holy inquisition, which they can now only
+infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to the
+hierophants of our particular superstition the direction of public
+opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and
+privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering
+their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as
+wax in the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations
+against endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason
+of the people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of
+this State will support this institution, and give fair play to the
+cultivation of reason. Can you ever find a more eligible occasion of
+visiting once more your native country, than that of accompanying Mr.
+Correa, and of seeing with him this beautiful and hopeful institution
+_in ovo_.
+
+Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or
+even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore
+had ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused
+and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican
+threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them
+together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked
+principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once
+conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that
+it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irritations, until
+it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation
+preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in
+believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much,
+and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of
+this question: not by the line which has been so confidently counted on;
+the laws of nature control this; but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri,
+or more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My
+only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this; and I
+envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of
+their fathers’ sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate
+the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of
+self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize their
+epoch in future history, as the counterpart of the medal of their
+predecessors.
+
+You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it immediately
+threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down mechanically, by
+bandages from the toe to the knee. These I have worn for six months. But
+the tendency to turgidity may proceed from debility alone. I can walk
+the round of my garden; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day
+without fatigue. I shall set out for Poplar Forest within three or four
+days; a journey from which my physician augurs much good.
+
+I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLII.--TO JOHN HOLMES, April 22, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLMES.
+
+Monticello, April 22, 1820.
+
+I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send
+me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is
+a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read
+newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were
+in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore
+from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, like a
+fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered
+it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for
+the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is not a man on
+earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this
+heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The cession of that kind of
+property (for so it is misnamed) is a bagatelle which would not cost
+me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and
+expatriation could be effected: and, gradually, and with due sacrifices,
+I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we
+can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale,
+and self-preservation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as
+the passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a
+slave of a single human being who would not be so without it, so their
+diffusion over a greater surface would make them individually happier,
+and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation,
+by dividing the burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An
+abstinence, too, from this act of power, would remove the jealousy
+excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the
+different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the
+exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the constitution has
+taken from them, and given to the General Government. Could Congress,
+for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen,
+or that they shall not emigrate into any other State?
+
+I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice
+of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government
+and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and
+unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be,
+that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh
+the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more
+likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before
+they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason
+against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
+the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIII.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, August 4, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, which was received
+in due time; and there being no subject of the day, of particular
+interest, I will make this a supplement to mine of April the 13th. My
+aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions
+of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of
+being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced
+the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers
+father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and
+theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter
+ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he
+was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions
+and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter
+asked only what is granted in reading every other historian. When
+Livy and Siculus, for example, tell us things which coincide with our
+experience of the order of nature, we credit them on their word, and
+place their narrations among the records of credible history. But when
+they tell us of calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other
+things against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not
+belonging to history. In like manner, when an historian, speaking of a
+character well known and established on satisfactory testimony, imputes
+to it things incompatible with that character, we reject them without
+hesitation, and assent to that only of which we have better evidence.
+Had Plutarch informed us that Cæsar and Cicero passed their whole lives
+in religious exercises, and abstinence from the affairs of the world,
+we should reject what was so inconsistent with their established
+characters, still crediting what he relates in conformity with our ideas
+of them. So again, the superlative wisdom of Socrates is testified
+by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be questioned. When,
+therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on
+words, and sophisms, as a school-boy would be ashamed of, we conclude
+they were the whimsies of Plato’s own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates
+of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking of Plato, I will add,
+that no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with more
+_ignes fatui_, than this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in Politics,
+and Physics. In the latter, to specify a single example, compare his
+views of the animal economy, in his Timasus, with those of Mrs. Bryan in
+her Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized
+philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But Plato’s
+visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mystical theology,
+and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian saint. It is surely
+time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of
+names so artificially magnified. But to return from this parenthesis.) I
+say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication
+of the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers
+matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a ground-work of vulgar
+ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and
+fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the
+Supreme Being, aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morality and
+benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity
+of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors,
+with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed.
+These could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them.
+They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. They show that
+there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid
+conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their
+hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, and ascribing
+each to its genuine author? The difference is obvious to the eye and
+to the understanding, and we may read as we run to each his part; and I
+will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have done, will undertake to
+winnow this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a moment’s
+consideration. The parts fall asunder of themselves, as would those of
+an image of metal and clay.
+
+There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we
+may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence
+from the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the
+reformation of some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by
+Moses. That sect had presented for the object of their worship, a being
+of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus,
+taking for his type the best qualities of the human head and heart,
+wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of
+these, but in infinite perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him
+really worthy of their adoration. Moses had either not believed in
+a future state of existence, or had not thought it essential to be
+explicitly taught to his people. Jesus inculcated that doctrine
+with emphasis and precision. Moses had bound the Jews to many idle
+ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no effect towards producing
+the social utilities which constitute the essence of virtue; Jesus
+exposed their futility and insignificance. The one instilled into his
+people the most anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other
+preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence. The office
+of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus
+had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step
+to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of
+the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the
+being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac,
+and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying
+snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He was
+justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by
+misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and
+in defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, _ad
+homines_, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind
+as the Son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the
+writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he might
+conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very possible.
+The whole religion of the Jews, inculcated on him from his infancy,
+was founded in the belief of divine inspiration. The fumes of the
+most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code,
+as special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen
+that, in the course of ages events would now and then turn up to which
+some of these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of
+allegories, figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not
+only preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times,
+but are the foundation of much of the religions of those who have
+schismatized from them. Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure
+heart, conscious of the high strains of an eloquence which had not been
+taught him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of his own fine
+genius for inspirations of an higher order. This belief, carried,
+therefore, no more personal imputation, than the belief of Socrates,
+that himself was under the care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon.
+And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these
+inspirations, while perfectly sane on all other subjects. Excusing,
+therefore, on these considerations, those passages in the gospels which
+seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing to him what alone is
+consistent with the great and pure character of which the same writings
+furnish proofs, and to their proper authors their own trivialities
+and imbecilities, I think myself authorized to conclude the purity and
+distinction of his character, in opposition to the impostures which
+those authors would fix upon him; and that the postulate of my former
+letter is no more than is granted in all other historical works.
+
+Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been much
+pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some
+valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good
+in his new country; the public instruction there, as I understand,
+being within the department destined for him. He is not without
+dissatisfaction, and reasonable dissatisfaction, too, with the piracies
+of Baltimore; but his justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure,
+distinguish between the iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound
+principles of our country at large, and of our government especially.
+From many conversations with him, I hope he sees, and will promote, in
+his new situation, the advantages of a cordial fraternization among
+all the American nations, and the importance of their coalescing in an
+American system of policy, totally independent of, and unconnected with
+that of Europe. The day is not distant, when we may formally require
+a meridian of partition through the ocean which separates the two
+hemispheres, on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be
+heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the
+eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our regions, shall
+lie down together in peace. The excess of population in Europe, and
+want of room, render war, in their opinion, necessary to keep down that
+excess of numbers. Here, room is abundant, population scanty, and peace
+the necessary means for producing men, to whom the redundant soil is
+offering the means of life and happiness. The principles of society
+there and here, then, are radically different, and I hope no American
+patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in
+the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary
+contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I am earnest for
+an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning them the task
+of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the cannibalisms of
+the African coasts, and, to us, the suppression of the same enormities
+within our seas: and for this purpose, I should rejoice to see the
+fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren of
+the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be
+of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the
+invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be
+preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval
+collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and respect for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1820.
+
+I am a great defaulter, my Dear Sir, in our correspondence, but
+prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and when it does, matters
+of business imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however,
+slowly, swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I
+believe, proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I
+ride six or eight miles a day without fatigue; and within a few days,
+I shall endeavor to visit my other home, after a twelvemonth’s absence
+from it. Our University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise,
+and the oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and
+it is becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have lately
+had an opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your
+North American Review of January last, having been not without anxiety
+to see what that able work would say of us: and I was relieved on
+finding in it much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms
+where indulged, I found they would have been obviated had the
+developements of our plan been fuller. But these were restrained by the
+character of the paper reviewed, being merely a report of outlines,
+not a detailed treatise, and addressed to a legislative body, not to
+a learned academy. For example, as an inducement to introduce the
+Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it would reward amply
+the few weeks of attention which alone would be requisite for its
+attainment; leaving both term and degree under an indefinite expression,
+because I know that not much time is necessary to attain it to an useful
+degree, sufficient to give such instruction in the etymologies of our
+language as may satisfy ordinary students, while more time would be
+requisite for those who should propose to attain a critical knowledge
+of it. In a letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts who sent
+you, I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the English
+and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary he
+meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for
+simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and
+difficulties presented by it’s rude alphabet, and unformed orthography.
+But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond
+the bounds of a report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts died, I believe,
+before any progress was made in the work he had projected.
+
+The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our placing
+military and naval architecture in the department of pure mathematics.
+Military architecture embraces fortification and field works, which,
+with their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts, &c. are based on a
+technical combination of lines and angles. These are adapted to offence
+and defence, with and against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades,
+he. But lines and angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch
+of pure mathematics: and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other
+projectiles, the necessary appendages of military works, although no
+part of their architecture, belong to the conic sections, a branch of
+transcendental geometry. Diderot and D’Alembert, therefore, in their
+_Arbor scienciæ_, have placed military architecture in the department
+of elementary geometry. Naval architecture teaches the best form and
+construction of vessels; for which best form it has recourse to the
+question of the solid of least resistance; a problem of transcendental
+geometry. And its appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch as
+in the preceding case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of
+the water on the rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may
+be placed in the department of mechanics, as Diderot and D’Alembert
+have done; but belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in its
+military character to military architecture, it simplified our plan to
+place both under the same head. These views are so obvious, that I am
+sure they would have required but a second thought to reconcile the
+reviewer to their location under the head of pure mathematics. For
+this word location, see Bailey, Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, &c. But if
+dictionaries are to be the arbiters of language, in which of them shall
+we find neologism? No matter. It is a good word, well sounding, obvious,
+and expresses an idea, which would otherwise require circumlocution. The
+reviewer was justifiable, therefore, in using it; although he noted
+at the same time, as unauthoritative, _centrality, grade, sparse_; all
+which have been long used in common speech and writing. I am a friend
+to neology. It is the only way to give to a language copiousness and
+euphony. Without it we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred
+or of Ulphilas; and held to their state of science also: for I am
+sure they had no words which could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen,
+cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism, electricity, hyaline, and thousands of
+others expressing ideas not then existing, nor of possible communication
+in the state of their language. What a language has the French become
+since the date of their revolution, by the free introduction of new
+words! The most copious and eloquent in the living world; and equal to
+the Greek, had not that been regularly modifiable almost _ad infinitum_.
+Their rule was, that whenever their language furnished or adopted a
+root, all its branches in every part of speech, were legitimated by
+giving them their appropriate terminations:
+
+[Illustration: page331]
+
+And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the
+adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity,
+fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize,
+fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root,
+and it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist,
+neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical;
+its verb, neologize; and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but
+the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the
+work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses
+a new word, if ill formed, it is rejected in society, if well formed,
+adopted, and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries.
+And if, in this process of sound neologization, our trans-Atlantic
+brethren shall not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after
+the Ionians, a second example of a colonial dialect improving on its
+primitive.
+
+But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of May the
+12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &c. Its crowd of scepticisms kept me
+from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid it down,
+again and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur
+ultimately to my habitual anodyne, ‘I feel, therefore I exist.’ I feel
+bodies which are not myself: there are other existences then. I call
+them matter. I feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where
+there is an absence of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial
+space. On the basis of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect
+the fabric of all the certainties we can have or need. I can conceive
+thought to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed
+for that purpose by its creator, as well as that attraction is an action
+of matter, or magnetism of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator
+the power of endowing matter with the mode of action called thinking,
+shall show how he could endow the sun with the mode of action called
+attraction, which reins the planets in the track of their orbits, or how
+an absence of matter can have a will, and by that will put matter into
+motion, then the Materialist may be lawfully required to explain the
+process by which matter exercises the faculty of thinking. When once we
+quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial
+existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels,
+God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no
+God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am
+supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys, and
+the Stewarts. At what age* of the Christian church this heresy of
+immaterialism, or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a
+heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He told us, indeed,
+that ‘God is a spirit,’ but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor
+said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, of the
+three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and thin indeed, an
+ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. ‘_Deus reapse corporalis
+est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus_.’ Tertullian,’
+_Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?_’ And again, ‘_Quis negabit Deum esse
+corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est, sui generis in
+sua effigie_. St. Justin Martyr,
+
+[Illustration: 332]
+
+And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, ‘_Quamvis enim subtilia
+sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturas
+eorum, corpora sunt tenuia_.’ And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius,
+Tatian, Athenagoras, and others, with whose writings I pretend not a
+familiarity, are said by those who are better acquainted with them,
+to deliver the same doctrine. (Enfield x. 3. 1.) Turn to your Ocellus
+d’Argens, 97, 105. and to his Timseus 17. for these quotations. In
+England, these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2.
+when the writ _de hæretico comburendo_ was abolished; and here until the
+Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies being
+now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing
+from the material atheist only in their belief, that ‘nothing made
+something,’ and from the material deist, who believes that matter alone
+can operate on matter.
+
+     [* That of Athanasius and the Council of Nicasa, anno 324]
+
+Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses, I rid
+myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations
+hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and disquiet the
+mind. A single sense may indeed be sometimes deceived, but rarely; and
+never all our senses together, with their faculty of reasoning. They
+evidence realities, and there are enough of these for all the purposes
+of life, without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and
+phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things
+which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may
+indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. I am sure that I really know
+many, many things, and none more surely than that I love you with all
+my heart, and pray for the continuance of your life until you shall be
+tired of it yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, November 28, 1820
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor, with a
+request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary Board in time to
+lay it before the legislature on the second day of their session. It
+was enclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. If delivered
+before the crowd of other business presses on them, they may act on
+it immediately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly
+combinations and manoeuvres by the enemies of the institution. I enclose
+you now a paper presenting some views which may be useful to you in
+conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution
+is to cost, and reproaches of deceptive estimates. One hundred and
+sixty-two thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars will be about
+the cost of the whole establishment, when completed. Not an office
+at Washington has cost less. The single building of the courthouse of
+Henrico has cost nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of
+bricks of William and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
+
+Surely Governor Clinton’s display of the gigantic efforts of New York
+towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate the pride as well
+as the patriotism of our legislature, to look to the reputation and
+safety of their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of
+becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our
+own negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the
+hands of the other States, what our indigenous predecessors were when
+invaded by the science and arts of Europe. The mass of education in
+Virginia, before the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her
+sister colonies. What is her education now? Where is it? The little
+we have, we import, like beggars, from other States; or import their
+beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to
+restore us to our station among our confederates? Not more money from
+the people. Enough has been raised by them, and appropriated to this
+very object. It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for
+their greatest good. That good requires, that while they are instructed
+in general, competently to the common business of life, others should
+employ their genius with necessary information to the useful arts, to
+inventions for saving labor and increasing our comforts, to nourishing
+our health, to civil government, military science, &c.
+
+Would it not have a good effect for the friends of the University
+to take the lead in proposing and effecting a practical scheme of
+elementary schools? to assume the character of the friends, rather than
+the opponents of that object? The present plan has appropriated to the
+primary schools forty-five thousand dollars for three years, making one
+hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. I should be glad to know if
+this sum has educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children? I doubt
+it much. And if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a
+piece for what might have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the
+literary revenue to be sixty thousand dollars, I think it demonstrable,
+that this sum, equally divided between the two objects, would amply
+suffice for both. One hundred counties, divided into about twelve wards
+each, on an average, and a school in each ward of perhaps ten
+children, would be one thousand and two hundred schools, distributed
+proportionably over the surface of the State. The inhabitants of each
+ward, meeting together (as when they work on the roads), building
+good log-houses for their school and teacher, and contributing for his
+provisions, rations of pork, beef, and corn, in the proportion, each of
+his other taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without feeling it;
+and those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of their own
+children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the tuition
+fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would still be fed and
+lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten dollars, and three
+hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an average (more or less duly
+proportioned), would there be thirty such paupers for every county? I
+think not. The truth is, that the want of common education with us is
+not from our poverty, but from want of an orderly system. More money is
+now paid for the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the
+whole, if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in New
+York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one
+hundred and sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty
+established academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen
+pupils; and five colleges, with seven hundred and eighteen students;
+to which last classes of institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand
+dollars have been given; and the whole appropriations for education
+estimated at two and a half millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is
+Virginia become, with a population almost equal to that of New York!
+And whence this difference? From the difference their rulers set on
+the value of knowledge, and the prosperity it produces. But still, if a
+pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may do. If among fifty children in each
+of the six thousand schools of New York, there are only paupers enough
+to employ twenty-five dollars of public money to each school, surely
+among the ten children of each of our one thousand and two hundred
+schools, the same sum of twenty-five dollars to each school will teach
+its paupers (five times as much as to the same number in New York), and
+will amount for the whole to thirty thousand dollars a year, the one
+half only of our literary revenue.
+
+Do then, Dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take in
+hand the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the elementary
+schools, and none are more warmly so than myself, lighten the
+difficulties of the University, and promote in every order of men the
+degree of instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their
+views in life. It will combine with the mass of our force, a wise
+direction of it, which will insure to our country its future prosperity
+and safety. I had formerly thought that visitors of the schools might
+be chosen by the county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward,
+and to superintend them. I now think it would be better for every ward
+to choose its own resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a
+teacher in the ward, to superintend the school, and to call meetings of
+the ward for all purposes relating to it: their accounts to be settled,
+and wards laid off by the courts. I think ward elections better for
+many reasons, one of which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary
+education out of the hands of fanaticizing preachers, who, in county
+elections, would be universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the
+county would possess itself of all its schools.
+
+A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the effect of
+age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with me. I cannot,
+therefore, present these views by separate letters to each of our
+colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to communicate them to
+Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge, and to request them to
+consider this as equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon, being the local
+representative of the University and among its most zealous friends,
+would be a more useful second to General Breckenridge in the House of
+Delegates, by a free communication of what concerns the University, with
+which he has had little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So also,
+would it be as to Mr. Rives, who would be a friendly advocate.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVI.--TO THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820
+
+TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
+
+Monticello, December, 25, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return home after a long absence, I find here your favor of
+November the 23rd, with Colonel Taylor’s ‘Construction Construed,’ which
+you have been so kind as to send me, in the name of the author as well
+as yourself. Permit me, if you please, to use the same channel
+for conveying to him the thanks I render you also for this mark of
+attention. I shall read it, I know, with edification, as I did his
+Enquiry, to which I acknowledge myself indebted for many valuable ideas,
+and for the correction of some errors of early opinion, never seen in
+a correct light until presented to me in that work. That the present
+volume is equally orthodox I know before reading it, because I know
+that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any
+political principle of importance. Every act of his life, and every word
+he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to the two Presidents,
+late and now in office, I know them both to be of principles as truly
+republican as any men living. If there be any thing amiss, therefore,
+in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable deficit lately
+unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress
+to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the public
+contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss
+for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the
+treasury. I had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my
+old fellow-laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
+minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries,
+the people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
+Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it,
+will, I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
+
+But it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. Taxes
+and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary of the United
+States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working
+under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric.
+They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general
+and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay
+all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to
+forget the maxim, ‘_Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem._’ We shall
+see if they are bold enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers
+have lately taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book in his
+address to the public, I will say, that against this every man should
+raise his voice, and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this
+admirable address? Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one
+which can be changed but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay bare
+these wounds of our constitution, expose these _decisions seriatim_,
+and arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to these bold
+speculators on its patience. Having found, from experience, that
+impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider
+themselves secure for life; they skulk from responsibility to public
+opinion, the only remaining hold on them, under a practice first
+introduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in
+conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as if unanimous and
+with the silent acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty
+chief judge, who sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his
+own reasoning. A judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General
+to Congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion _seriatim_ and
+openly, and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the
+record. A judiciary independent of a King or executive alone, is a good
+thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at
+least in a republican government.
+
+But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the work you
+send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a
+point of declining (one or two instances only excepted). Complimentary
+thanks to writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me
+sometimes before the public, without my consent having been asked. But
+I am far from presuming to direct the reading of my fellow-citizens, who
+are good enough judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I am,
+also, too desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention.
+Against this I am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be
+unaccompanied by corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet
+sensible sufficiently to be unwilling to trust myself before the public,
+and when I cease to be so, I hope that my friends will be too careful
+of me to draw me forth and present me, like a Priam in armor, as a
+spectacle for public compassion. I hope our political bark will ride
+through all its dangers; but I can in future be but an inert passenger.
+
+I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 22, 1821.
+
+I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and spirits
+enough to take part in the late convention of your State, for revising
+its constitution, and to bear your share in its debates and labors.
+The amendments of which we have as yet heard, prove the advance of
+liberalism in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the
+human mind will some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand
+years ago. This country, which has given to the world the example of
+physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet
+it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms,
+in practice, the freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
+
+Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question, what
+does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the
+Missouri question? And this, by the bye, is but the name of the case, it
+is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. The real question,
+as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate population,
+is, Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and a dagger? For if
+Congress has the power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of
+the States, within the States, it will be but another exercise of that
+power, to declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again
+Athenian and Lacedæmonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian
+war to settle the ascendancy between them? Or is this the tocsin of
+merely a servile war? That remains to be seen: but not, I hope, by you
+or me. Surely, they will parley awhile, and give us time to get out
+of the way. What a Bedlamite is man? But let us turn from our own
+uneasiness to the miseries of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo,
+it seems, have come to a parley, with dispositions at length to stop
+the useless effusion of human blood in that quarter. I feared from the
+beginning, that these people were not yet sufficiently enlightened for
+self-government; and that after wading through blood and slaughter,
+they would end in military tyrannies, more or less numerous. Yet as they
+wished to try the experiment, I wished them success in it: they have
+now tried it, and will possibly find that their safest road will be an
+accommodation with the mother country, which shall hold them together
+by the single link of the same chief magistrate, leaving to him power
+enough to keep them in peace with one another, and to themselves the
+essential power of self-government and self-improvement, until they
+shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of freedom,
+to walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
+functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
+security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the press,
+habeas corpus, and trial by jury, would make a good beginning. This
+last would be the school in which their people might begin to learn the
+exercise of civic duties as well as rights. For freedom of religion they
+are not yet prepared. The scales of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen
+from their eyes, to accept it for themselves individually, much less to
+trust others with it. But that will come in time, as well as a general
+ripeness to break entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir,
+how easily we prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while
+we cannot cure our own. We must leave both, I believe, to Heaven, and
+wrap ourselves up in the mantle of resignation, and of that friendship
+of which I tender to you the most sincere assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, January 31, 1821
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together, three days ago. They
+fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards
+the University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened. As
+to what had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust
+with entire confidence to what yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr.
+Johnson shall think best. You will see what is practicable, and give it
+such shape as you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think
+sixty thousand dollars will be necessary, including the library.
+Its instalments cannot begin until those of the former loan are
+accomplished; and they should not begin later, nor be less than thirteen
+thousand dollars a year. (I think it safe to retain two thousand dollars
+a year for care of the buildings, improvement of the grounds, and
+unavoidable contingencies.) To extinguish the second loan, will require
+between five and six instalments, which will carry us to the end of
+1833, or thirteen years from this time. My individual opinion is, that
+we had better not open the institution until the buildings, library, and
+all, are finished, and our funds cleared of incumbrance. These buildings
+once erected, will secure the full object infallibly at the end of
+thirteen years, and as much earlier as the legislature shall choose. And
+if we were to begin sooner, with half funds only, it would satisfy the
+common mind, prevent their aid beyond that point, and our institution,
+remaining at that for ever, would be no more than the paltry academies
+we now have. Even with the whole funds we shall be reduced to six
+Professors. While Harvard will still prime it over us with her twenty
+Professors. How many of our youths she now has, learning the lessons of
+anti-Missourianism, I know not; but a gentleman lately from Princeton
+told me he saw there the list of the students at that place, and that
+more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt,
+deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of
+restrictionists.
+
+But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best
+friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the
+necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you say, will
+explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself
+they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that yourself, General
+Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at your posts in the
+legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened.
+If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
+our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed
+at all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your
+country, and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or
+later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal
+to this? What object of our lives can we propose so important? What
+interest of our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health,
+time, labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us, can
+these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? The
+exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If
+any member of our college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from
+this sacred duty, it would be myself, who _quadragenis stipendiis
+jamdudum peractis_, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep
+the field: but I will die in the last ditch, and so I hope you will,
+my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr.
+Johnson and General Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life
+wherein to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear and very
+dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but view the sacrifices which
+seem to stand in your way, as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be
+postponed to this, the greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy
+labors, until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old
+Simeon, ‘_Nunc dimittas, Domine_. Under all circumstances, however, of
+praise or blame, I shall be affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIX.--TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821
+
+
+TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
+
+Monticello, February 15, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I learn with deep affliction, that nothing is likely to be done for our
+University this year. So near as it is to the shore that one shove more
+would land it there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
+open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our
+country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections
+that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they
+should be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to
+deliver over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for
+them, we secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling
+this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of
+seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high
+promise; these are considerations which will occur to all; but all, I
+fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a
+tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between
+different portions of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear,
+be obliterated, and we are now trusting to those who are against us
+in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds
+and affections of our youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three
+hundred thousand dollars a year to the northern seminaries, for the
+instruction of our own sons, then we must have there five hundred of our
+sons, imbibing opinions and principles in discord with those of their
+own country. This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and
+if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy. We are now certainly
+furnishing recruits to their school. If it be asked what are we to do,
+or said we cannot give the last lift to the University without stopping
+our primary schools, and these we think most important; I answer, I know
+their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction
+of the people. Who first started that idea? I may surely say, Myself.
+Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew more than forty
+years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the education of the
+people, generally, had never been suggested in this State. There you
+will see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of general
+education we are now urging and acting on: and it is well known to those
+With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never have proposed a
+sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us
+keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we cannot do every
+thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary schools need
+no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a considerable
+expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year or two on
+the primary schools, and an application of the whole income, during that
+time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the University,
+would enable us then to start both institutions at the same time. The
+intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private classical
+schools, for the middle grade, may hereafter receive any necessary aids
+when the funds shall become competent. In the mean time, they are going
+on sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the private expense
+of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are competent to
+their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I presume, left
+no doubt, that the present plan of primary schools, of putting money
+into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing, and under
+no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other must be thought
+of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, the whole revenue
+of that year, with that of the last three years which has not been
+already thrown away, would place our University in readiness to start
+with a better organization of primary schools, and both may then go on,
+hand in hand, for ever. No diminution of the capital will in this way
+have been incurred; a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A
+relinquishment of interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars,
+would so far, also, forward the University without lessening the
+capital.
+
+But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to yourself and
+your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I do the conditions
+of the literary fund and its wisest application; and I shall acquiesce
+with perfect resignation to their will. I have brooded, perhaps with
+fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to me the hope of
+continuing to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed that
+the course and circumstances of my life had placed within my power some
+services favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be
+egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my
+colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the legislature
+shall enable them to do.
+
+I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxieties,
+freely to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a different light. I
+am sure that all act conscientiously, and that all will be done honestly
+and wisely which can be done. I yield the concerns of the world with
+cheerfulness to those who are appointed in the order of nature to
+succeed to them; and for yourself, for our colleagues, and for all in
+charge of our country’s future fame and fortune, I offer up sincere
+prayers.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLX.--TO --------- NICHOLAS, December 11,1821
+
+
+TO --------- NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, December 11,1821,
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of December the 19th places me under a dilemma, which I
+cannot solve but by an exposition of the naked truth. I would have
+wished this rather to have remained as hitherto, without inquiry; but
+your inquiries have a right to be answered. I will do it as exactly
+as the great lapse of time and a waning memory will enable me. I may
+misremember indifferent circumstances, but can be right in substance.
+
+At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed at
+the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the
+executive and the judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious
+consideration how head could be made against their enterprises on the
+constitution. The leading republicans in Congress found themselves of
+no use there, browbeaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelming
+majority. They concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in the
+State legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The
+alien and sedition laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy
+between Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately
+confidential, than between any other two States of republican policy.
+Mr. Madison came into the Virginia legislature. 1 was then in the
+Vice-Presidency, and could not leave my station. But your father,
+Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and myself happening to be together, the
+engaging the co-operation of Kentucky in an energetic protestation
+against the constitutionality of those laws, became a subject of
+consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions
+for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce them to that
+legislature, with a solemn assurance, which I strictly required, that
+it should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered
+them to him, and, in keeping their origin secret, he fulfilled his
+pledge of honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas asked me if
+I would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn them.
+I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
+intimated it before to any one, I know not: but I afterwards observed in
+the papers repeated imputations of them to me; on which, as has been my
+practice on all occasions of imputation, I have observed entire silence.
+The question, indeed, has never before been put to me, nor should I
+answer it to any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed
+by it, and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be
+withdrawn from public notice. Your father’s zeal and talents were too
+well known, to derive any additional distinction from the penning these
+resolutions. That circumstance, surely, was of far less merit than the,
+proposing and carrying them through the legislature of his State. The
+only fact in this statement, on which my memory is not distinct, is
+the time and occasion of the consultation with your father and Colonel
+Nicholas. It took place here I know; but whether any other person was
+present, or communicated with, is my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was
+either with us, or consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to minute
+details.
+
+I fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this
+difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in
+the present assaults on the constitution. But its assaults are more sure
+and deadly, as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you
+and your cotemporaries meet them with the same determination and effect,
+as your father and his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve
+inviolate a constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and
+purity, will prove in the end a blessing to all the nations of the
+earth. With these prayers, accept those for your own happiness and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXI.--TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822
+
+
+TO JEDIDIAH MORSE.
+
+Monticello, March 6, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, and have now to
+express my sense of the honorable station proposed to my ex-brethren
+and myself, in the constitution of the society for the civilization and
+improvement of the Indian tribes. The object, too, expressed, as that of
+the association, is one which I have ever had much at heart, and never
+omitted an occasion of promoting, while I have been in situations to
+do it with effect, and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and
+retirement, would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable
+plan of raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state
+of physical and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by
+circumstances foreign to them. That the plan now proposed is entitled
+to unmixed approbation, I am not prepared to say, after mature
+consideration, and with all the partialities which its professed object
+would rightfully claim from me.
+
+I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private
+associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose
+magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government.
+Yet such a line does exist. I have seen the days, they were those which
+preceded the Revolution, when even this last and perilous engine became
+necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second
+time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government
+had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of
+correction remained to them, but to organize a collateral power, which,
+with their support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But
+such is not the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral
+power, which, by a change of its original views, and assumption of
+others we know not how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready
+organized, and in force sufficient to shake the established foundations
+of society, and endanger its peace and the principles on which it is
+based. Is not the machine now proposed of this gigantic stature? It
+is to consist of the ex-Presidents of the United States, the
+Vice-President, the Heads of all the executive departments, the members
+of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the several States and
+Territories, all the members of both Houses of Congress, all the general
+officers of the army, the commissioners of the navy, all Presidents and
+Professors of colleges and theological seminaries, all the clergy of
+the United States, the. Presidents and Secretaries of all associations
+having relation to Indians, all commanding officers within or near
+Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and agents; all these ex
+officio; and as many private individuals as will pay a certain price
+for membership. Observe, too, that the clergy will constitute * nineteen
+twentieths of this association, and, by the law of the majority, may
+command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the high authorities
+of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted and wielded
+by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both as to purpose and
+process. . Can this formidable array be reviewed without dismay?
+
+     * The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated
+     at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four
+     hundred; but if the former number be halved, the reasoning
+     will be the same.
+
+It will be said, that in this association will be all the confidential
+officers of the government; the choice of the people themselves. No man
+on earth has more implicit confidence than myself in the integrity
+and discretion of this chosen band of servants. But is confidence or
+discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our constitution? It
+will comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries of the government: but
+seceded from their consitutional stations as guardians of the nation,
+and acting not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary
+society, having no limit to their purposes but the same will which
+constitutes their existence. It will be the authorities of the people,
+and all influential characters from among them, arrayed on one side, and
+on the other, the people themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a
+fearful array. It will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know
+they are so at present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of
+our choice and unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against
+the adored principles of our constitution, as for gravity to change
+its direction, and gravid bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed
+imaginary: but the example is real. Under its authority, as a precedent,
+future associations will arise with objects at which we should
+shudder at this time. The society of Jacobins, in another country,
+was instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever kindled the
+hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their purposes which
+extended their association to the limits of the nation, and rendered
+their power within it boundless; and it was this power which degenerated
+their principles and practices to such enormities, as never before could
+have been imagined. Yet these were men; and we and our descendants
+will be no more. The present is a case where, if ever, we are to guard
+against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be;
+for who can now imagine what we may become under circumstances not now
+imaginable? The object, too, of this institution, seems to require
+so hazardous an example as little as any which could be proposed. The
+government is, at this time, going on with the process of civilizing
+the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any one of us is able
+to devise, and with resources more competent than we could expect to
+command by voluntary taxation. Is it that the new characters called into
+association with those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it
+that a plan originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better
+than that prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not
+self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is it
+that there is no danger that a new authority, marching independently
+along side of the government, in the same line and to the same object,
+may not produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct the operations of
+the government, or wrest the object entirely from their hands? Might we
+not as well appoint a committee for each department of the government,
+to counsel and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to
+counsel and direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well
+for their foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian
+affairs? And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we
+expect to see spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate
+themselves in this and that of its functions? In a word, why not take
+the government out of its constitutional hands, associate them indeed
+with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are theirs, but insuring
+them to be our own by allowing them a minor vote only?
+
+These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so
+irrresistible, that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, without
+which I should not have obtruded an opinion) I have not been able to
+withhold the expression of them. Not knowing the individuals who have
+proposed this plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining personal
+disrespect for them. On the contrary, I see in the printed list persons
+for whom I cherish sentiments of sincere friendship; and others, for
+whose opinions and purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet
+thinking, as I do, that this association is unnecessary; that the
+government is proceeding to the same object under control of the law;
+that they are competent to it in wisdom, in means, and inclination; that
+this association, this wheel within a wheel, is more likely to produce
+collision than aid; and that it is, in its magnitude, of dangerous
+example; I am bound to say, that, as a dutiful citizen, I cannot in
+conscience become a member of this society, possessing as it does my
+entire confidence in the integrity of its views. I feel with awe the
+weight of opinion to which I may be opposed, and that, for myself, I
+have need to ask the indulgence of a belief, that the opinion I have
+given is the best result I can deduce from my own reason and experience,
+and that it is sincerely conscientious. Repeating, therefore, my just
+acknowledgments for the honor proposed to me, I beg leave to add the
+assurances to the society and yourself of my highest confidence and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, June 26, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your
+denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in
+its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will
+find it is as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the
+sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there
+is but one God. I wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn
+from you that the latter, at least, is making progress, and the more
+rapidly in proportion as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and
+noise about it. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the
+happiness of man.
+
+1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
+
+2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
+
+3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is
+the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored
+to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the
+demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
+
+1. That there are three Gods.
+
+2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
+
+3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the
+proposition, the more merit in its faith.
+
+4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
+
+5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be
+saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former
+can damn them; no virtues of the latter, save.
+
+Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who
+believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus; or the impious
+dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false
+shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but
+to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian
+name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy
+imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their
+blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too
+hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so
+falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always
+as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would
+now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free
+inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience
+to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is
+reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the
+United States, who will not die an Unitarian.
+
+But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its
+votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of
+creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the
+religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they
+will give up morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser
+are the Quakers, who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the
+Gospel, schismatize about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale
+of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any
+more than of feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the
+wisdom of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its
+charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love their
+neighbor! I conclude my sermon with sincere assurances of my friendly
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 27, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great satisfaction. For
+although I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily
+on you, as on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the
+degree of that pressure. Much reflection, too, has been produced by
+your suggestion of lending my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have
+generally great aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public
+papers; because of my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be
+exhibited in scene on the public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the
+precept of Horace, ‘_Solve senescentem, mature sanus, equum, ne
+peccet ad extremum ridendus_.’ In the present case, however, I see a
+possibility that this might aid in producing the very quiet after
+which I pant. I do not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under the
+persecution of letters, of which every mail brings a fresh load.
+They are letters of inquiry, for the most part, always of good will,
+sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much oftener from persons
+whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and civilly, and to
+which, therefore, civility requires answers. Perhaps, the better known
+failure of your hand in its function of writing, may shield you in
+greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the misfortune of
+its disability. I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, and
+a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single year. It
+was the year before the last. I found the number to be one thousand two
+hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate
+research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration.
+Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I will repeat
+the question suggested by other considerations in mine of the 1st. Is
+this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no
+end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is
+paradise. It occurs, then, that my condition of existence, truly stated
+in that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions
+which are so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a
+relief would, to me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the 11th,
+equally interesting and affecting, should accompany that to which it is
+an answer. The two, taken together, would excite a joint interest, and
+place before our fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient
+servants, who, having faithfully performed their forty or fifty
+campaigns, _stipendiis omnibus expletis_, have a reasonable claim
+to repose from all disturbance in the sanctuary of invalids and
+superannuates. But some device should be thought of for their getting
+before the public otherwise than by our own publication. Your printer,
+perhaps, could frame something plausible, ------‘s name, should be left
+blank, as his picture, should it meet his eye, might give him pain. I
+consign, however, the whole subject to your consideration, to do in it
+whatever your own judgment shall approve, and repeat always, with truth,
+the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIV.--TO WILLIAM T. BARRY, July 2, 1822
+
+
+TO WILLIAM T. BARRY.
+
+Monticello, July 2, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am very thankful for
+the kindness of its expressions respecting myself. But it ascribes to me
+merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause
+of independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for
+its success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition.
+So also in the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious
+were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government
+to its republican tack. To preserve it in that will require unremitting
+vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into
+our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to
+our objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of
+republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider
+the party division of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist
+in any government, and well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those
+of a more dangerous character. We already see the power, installed
+for life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a
+scare-crow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great
+object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid by
+their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights,
+and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing*
+power of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever this
+vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the
+most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care
+over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will
+have to choose between reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit
+of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the canker
+is become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the body
+politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied. Let the
+future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and renewable
+by the President and Senate. This will bring their conduct, at regular
+periods, under revision and probation, and may keep them in equipoise
+between the general and special governments. We have erred in this
+point, by copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to have
+the judges independent of the King. But we have omitted to copy their
+caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address of
+both legislative Houses. That there should be public functionaries
+independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism
+in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency.
+
+To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my
+power to give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated, and now
+stiffened wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that I am obliged
+to decline every thing possible requiring writing. An act of our
+legislature will inform you of our plan of primary schools, and the
+annual reports show that it is becoming completely abortive, and must
+be abandoned very shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and
+eighty thousand dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars
+a year more until it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has
+received the elements of common education, it must be in some part of
+the country not known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed the
+early predictions of its fate. But on this subject I must refer you
+to others more able than I am to go into the necessary details; and I
+conclude with the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXV.--TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, July 19, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist, makes writing an
+operation so slow and painful to me, that I should not so soon have
+troubled you with an acknowledgment of your favor of the 8th, but for
+the request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter
+of June the 26th. No, my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest
+of hornets would it thrust my head! the _genus irritabile vatum_, on
+whom argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in
+matters of religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily
+wrongs of the world, but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an
+enterprise more than Quixotic. I should as soon undertake to bring the
+crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound understanding, as inculcate reason into
+that of an Athanasian. I am old, and tranquillity is now my _summum
+bonum_. Keep me, therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his
+victim Servetus. Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive
+Christianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off
+the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mycologists
+of the middle and modern ages. I am not aware of the peculiar resistance
+to Unitarianism, which you ascribe to Pennsylvania. When I lived in
+Philadelphia there was a respectable congregation of that sect, with a
+meeting-house and regular service which I attended, and in which Doctor
+Priestley officiated to numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two
+churches, and their pastor, author of an inestimable book on this
+subject, was elected chaplain to the late Congress. That doctrine has
+not yet been preached to us: but the breeze begins to be felt which
+precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all in a bustle, shutting its
+doors and windows to keep it out. But it will come, and drive before it
+the foggy mists of Platonism which have so long obscured our atmosphere.
+I am in hopes that some of the disciples of your institution will become
+missionaries to us, of these doctrines truly evangelical, and open our
+eyes to what has been so long hidden from them. A bold and eloquent
+preacher would be no where listened to with more freedom than in this
+State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might need a preparatory
+discourse on the text of ‘Prove all things, hold fast that which is
+good,’ in order to unlearn the lesson that reason is an unlawful guide
+in religion. They might startle on being first awaked from the dreams of
+the night, but they would rub their eyes at once, and look the spectres
+boldly in the face. The preacher might be excluded by our hierophants
+from their churches and meeting-houses, but would be attended in
+the fields by whole acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from
+Cambridge would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the
+tritheistical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be my
+welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem and respect
+for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 1, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to
+answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th; but to little
+purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only.
+I know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our
+seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
+treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the
+opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a
+naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this
+subject we communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to
+the United States and took part in the administration under General
+Washington, I constantly maintained that opinion; and in December, 1790,
+took advantage of a reference to me from the first Congress which met
+after I was in office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for
+the protection of our Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them
+an accurate statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private.
+I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to that
+extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colonel Hamilton’s
+opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your recollections on that
+subject are certainly corroborated by his known anxieties for a close
+connection with Great Britain, to which he might apprehend danger from
+collisions between their vessels and ours. Randolph was then Attorney
+General; but his opinion on the question I also entirely forget. Some
+vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into the Mediterranean.
+The additions to these in your time, I need not note to you, who
+are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
+of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
+Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that
+the public safety might require some additional vessels of strength,
+to be prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided
+they could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept
+in the water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this
+view I proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level
+of the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that
+places for these docks should be selected where there was a command of
+water on a high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which
+the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the
+majority of the legislature was against any addition to the navy,
+and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against it on a
+principle of opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to
+remain on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be
+launched and finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour’s
+notice. On this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
+
+This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That
+of the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations.
+Yet a navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or
+twelve years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs
+as much as would build a new one: and that a nation who could count on
+twelve or fifteen years’ of peace, would gain by burning its navy and
+building a new one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by
+circumstances. Since my proposition for a force adequate to the piracies
+of the Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in our own seas
+for considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I wish we could have
+a convention with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down
+the pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of
+Africa, and for us to perform the same duties for the society of nations
+in our seas. In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the
+vessels of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
+weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The annexed is the letter to which the foregoing is a reply.]
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+Montezillo, October 15, 1822. Dear Sir,
+
+I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon a
+subject of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last.
+
+You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built, and the
+four captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry,
+&c, to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
+Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to you; for several
+reasons. First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we
+were at Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers.
+Secondly, because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only
+indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of
+the Navy; only four Heads of department. You were Secretary of State;
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and I
+believe Bradford was Attorney General. I have always suspected that you
+and Knox were in favor of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was
+clear. But Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment.
+But his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your opinion, for I
+know he had a great regard for you, might induce him to decide in favor
+of you and Knox, even though Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition
+to you. That Hamilton was averse to the measure, I have personal
+evidence; for while it was pending, he came in a hurry and a fit of
+impatience to make a visit to me. He said, he was likely to be called
+upon for a large sum of money to build ships of war, to fight the
+Algerines, and he asked my opinion of the measure. I answered him that
+I was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of opinion, from the
+commencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most powerful, the
+safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country. My advice,
+therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly be
+spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. The
+conversation was of some length, but it was manifest in his looks and in
+his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
+that I had expressed.
+
+Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, requesting
+him to procure a commision for her son, in the navy; ‘that navy,’ says
+her ladyship, ‘of which his father was the parent.’ ‘For,’ says she, ‘I
+have frequently heard General Washington say to my husband, the navy was
+your child.’ I have always believed it to be Jefferson’s child, though
+Knox may have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton’s hobby
+was the army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof
+from his own lips, in many different conversations, some of them of
+length, in which he always insisted that it was only building and
+arming ships for the English. ‘_Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus
+imperii; si non, his utere mecum_.’
+
+If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble servant.
+
+John Adams.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVII.--TO DOCTOR COOPER, November 2, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR COOPER.
+
+Monticello, November 2, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere
+of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of
+fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy
+in all. I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of
+toleration and freedom of religion, it could have arisen to the height
+you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism.
+The blasphemy and absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the
+impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of
+reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation. In Boston, however, and
+its neighborhood, Unitarianism has advanced to so great strength, as now
+to humble this haughtiest of all religious sects; insomuch, that they
+condescend to interchange with them and the other sects, the civilities
+of preaching freely and frequently in each other’s meeting-houses. In
+Rhode Island, on the other hand, no sectarian preacher will permit an
+Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our Richmond there is much fanaticism,
+but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and praying
+parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked
+husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms
+as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use to a
+mere earthly lover. In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good
+degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four
+sects, but without either church or meeting-house. The court-house is
+the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian
+and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in
+hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others’
+preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony. It is not so in
+the districts where Presbyterianism prevails undividedly. Their ambition
+and tyranny would tolerate no rival, if they had power. Systematical
+in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects, they aim, like the
+Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile to
+every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at seeing others
+begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of instruction, to
+which there is now so growing an attention, will be the remote remedy
+to this fever of fanaticism; while the more proximate one will be the
+progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the religion of
+the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
+
+In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A
+handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is
+an institution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion.
+Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward
+an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds
+of some honest friends to the institution. In our annual report to the
+legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public
+establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of
+encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself,
+a professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the University,
+so near as that the students may attend the lectures there, and have
+the free use our own library, and every other accommodation we can give
+them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of each other.
+This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution
+professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. I think the
+invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions,
+and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects
+together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall
+soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and
+make the general religion, a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
+
+The time of opening our University is still as uncertain as ever. All
+the pavilions, boarding-houses, and dormitories are done. Nothing is
+now wanting but the central building for a library and other general
+purposes. For this we have no funds, and the last legislature refused
+all aid. We have better hopes of the next. But all is uncertain. I have
+heard with regret of disturbances on the part of the students in your
+seminary. The article of discipline is the most difficult in American
+education. Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by
+parents, beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle
+to science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the
+Revolution. I look to it with dismay in our institution, as a breaker
+ahead, which I am far from being confident we shall be able to weather.
+The advance of age, and tardy pace of the public patronage, may probably
+spare me the pain of witnessing consequences.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVIII.--TO JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822
+
+
+TO JAMES SMITH.
+
+Monticello, December 8, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject of Unitarianism,
+and to express my gratification with your efforts for the revival of
+primitive Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is better
+established, than that the doctrine of one God, pure and uncompounded,
+was that of the early ages of Christianity; and was amoung the
+efficacious doctrines which gave it triumph over the polytheism of the
+ancients, sickened with the absurdities of their own theology. Nor was
+the unity of the Supreme Being ousted from the Christian creed by the
+force of reason, but by the sword of civil government, wielded at the
+will of the fanatic Athanasius. The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like
+another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and
+growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs. And a strong
+proof of the solidity of the primitive faith, is its restoration,
+as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to itself the freedom of
+religious opinion, and its external divorce from the civil authority.
+The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe, is now all
+but ascendant in the eastern States; it is dawning in the west, and
+advancing towards the south; and I confidently expect that the present
+generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the
+United States. The eastern presses are giving us many excellent pieces
+on the subject, and Priestley’s learned writings on it are, or should
+be, in every hand. In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three,
+and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no
+candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what
+presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He
+proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining
+guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without
+rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullability,
+which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the
+mind becomes a wreck.
+
+I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in
+one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of
+believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that
+is the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual
+freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought
+in question before the public on this or any other subject, and I
+pray you to consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part
+in controversies, religious or political. At the age of eighty,
+tranquillity is the greatest good of life, and the strongest of our
+desires that of dying in the good-will of all mankind. And with the
+assurances of all my good-will to Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and
+Tory, accept for yourself that of my entire respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, CLXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, February 25, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, in due time, your two favors of December the 2nd and
+February the 10th, and have to acknowledge for the ladies of my native
+State their obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind
+as to bestow on them. They certainly claim no advantages over those of
+their sister States, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances
+existing with many of them, and happily availed, which our situation
+does not offer. But the paper respecting Monticello, to which you
+allude, was not written by a Virginian, but a visitant from another
+State; and written by memory at least a dozen years after the visit.
+This has occasioned some lapses of recollection, and a confusion of some
+things in the mind of our friend, and particularly as to the volume of
+slanders supposed to have been cut out of newspapers and preserved. It
+would not, indeed, have been a single volume, but an Encyclopaedia in
+bulk. But I never had such a volume; indeed, I rarely thought those
+libels worth reading, much less preserving and remembering. At the end
+of every year, I generally sorted all my pamphlets, and had them bound
+according to their subjects. One of these volumes consisted of personal
+altercations between individuals, and calumnies on each other. This
+was lettered on the back, ‘Personalities,’ and is now in the library of
+Congress. I was in the habit, also, while living apart from my family,
+of cutting out of the newspapers such morsels of poetry, or tales, as
+I thought would please, and of sending them to my grandchildren, who
+pasted them on leaves of blank paper and formed them into a book. These
+two volumes have been confounded into one in the recollection of our
+friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has heightened the scenes she
+visited, as well as the merits of the inhabitants, to whom her society
+was a delightful gratification.
+
+I have just finished reading O’Meara’s Bonaparte. It places him in a
+higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him. I had thought him
+the greatest of all military captains, but an indifferent statesman, and
+misled by unworthy passions. The flashes, however, which escaped
+from him in these conversations with O’Meara, prove a mind of great
+expansion, although not of distinct developement and reasoning. He
+seizes results with rapidity and penetration, but never explains
+logically the process of reasoning by which he arrives at them. This
+book, too, makes us forget his atrocities for a moment, in commiseration
+of his sufferings. I will not say that the authorities of the world,
+charged with the care of their country and people, had not a right
+to confine him for life, as a lion or tiger, on the principles of
+self-preservation. There was no safety to nations while he was permitted
+to roam at large. But the putting him to death in cold blood, by
+lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults, and deprivations, was
+a degree of inhumanity to which the poisonings and assassinations of the
+school of Borgia and the den of Marat never attained. The book proves,
+also, that nature had denied him the moral sense, the first excellence
+of well-organized man. If he could seriously and repeatedly affirm, that
+he had raised himself to power without ever having committed a crime, it
+proves that he wanted totally the sense of right and wrong. If he could
+consider the millions of human lives which he had destroyed or caused to
+be destroyed, the desolations of countries by plunderings, burnings,
+and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of the world without the
+consent of their constituents, to place his brothers and sisters on
+their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of men and
+jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the demolition
+of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their rights and
+amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train of his
+other enormities; the man, I say, who could consider all these as no
+crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
+have been lifted to slay him.
+
+You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of my arm is
+well knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a discouraging condition,
+kept entirely useless by an oedematous swelling of slow amendment.
+
+God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 11, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may continue in life and
+health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of, ‘_Mon
+Dieu! jusqu’a quand?_’ would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin
+in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be;
+or rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false
+God, he did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom
+you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of
+the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable
+to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious
+attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives
+a great handle to atheism by their general dogma, that, without a
+revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God.
+Now one sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians: the
+other five sixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian
+revelation, are without a knowledge of the existence of a God! This
+gives completely a _gain de cause_ to the disciples of Ocellus, Timasus,
+Spinosa, Diderot, and D’Holbach. The argument which they rest on as
+triumphant and unanswerable is, that in every hypothesis of cosmogony,
+you must admit an eternal pre-existence of something; and according to
+the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to employ two principles to
+solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They say then, that it is more
+simple to believe at once in the eternal pre-existence of the world,
+as it is now going on, and may for ever go on by the principle of
+reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe in the eternal
+pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the world, a being
+whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and mode, or
+place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no power of the
+mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. On the contrary, I hold
+(without appeal to revelation), that when we take a view of the
+universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the
+human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate
+skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The
+movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by
+the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our
+earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters, and atmosphere;
+animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles;
+insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or
+mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses; it is
+impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is
+in all this, design, cause, and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a
+fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and
+regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their
+regenerator into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of
+the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in
+its course and order. Stars, well known, have disappeared, new ones have
+come into view; comets, in their incalculable courses, may run foul of
+suns and planets, and require renovation under other laws; certain races
+of animals are become extinct; and were there no restoring power, all
+existences might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should
+be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are these evidences of
+an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men
+who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion
+of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal
+pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of a self-existent
+universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more probable,
+than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early Christians,
+indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of both the
+creator and the world, without changing their relation of cause and
+effect. That this was the opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by
+Cardinal Toleta, in these words; ‘_Deus ab terno fuit jam omnipotens,
+si cut cum produxit mundum. Ah aternopotuit producers mundum. Si sol ah
+czterno esset, lumen ah æterno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium.
+At lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficients solis et pedis; potuit
+ergo cum causa æterna effectus coaternus esse. Cujus sententia, est S.
+Thomas, theologorum primus_.’--Cardinal Toleta.
+
+[Illustration: page364]
+
+[Illustration: page365]
+
+Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us, that ‘God
+is a spirit’ (John iv. 24.), but without defining what a spirit is:
+[Greek phrase] Down to the third century, we know that it was still
+deemed material but of a lighter, subtler matter than our gross bodies.
+So says Origen; _Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Originem,
+reapte corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum
+incorporeus_.’ These are the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen.
+Origen himself says, [Greek and Latin phrase]
+
+These two fathers were of the third century. Calvin’s character of
+this Supreme Being seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the
+reformation of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those
+more worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of
+Jesus in his discourses to the Jews: and his doctrine of the cosmogony
+of the world is very clearly laid down in the three first verses of
+the first chapter of John, in these words: [Greek phrase] Which, truly
+translated, means, ‘In the beginning God existed, and reason [or mind]
+was with God, and that mind was God. This was in the beginning with God.
+All things were created by it, and without it was made not one thing
+which was made.’ Yet this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of
+Jesus, that the world was created by the supreme intelligent being, has
+been perverted by modern Christians to build up a second person of their
+tritheism, by a mistranslation of the word _Xoyog_. One of its legitimate
+meanings, indeed, is ‘a word.’ But in that sense it makes an unmeaning
+jargon: while the other meaning, ‘reason,’ equally legitimate, explains
+rationally the eternal pre-existence of God, and his creation of, the
+world. Knowing how incomprehensible it was that ‘a word,’ the mere
+action or articulation of the organs of speech could create a world,
+they undertook to make of this articulation a second pre-existing being,
+and ascribe to him, and not to God, the creation of the universe. The
+atheist here plumes himself on the uselessness of such a God, and the
+simpler hypothesis of a self-existent universe. The truth is, that the
+greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves
+the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a
+system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation
+in his genuine words. And the day will come, when the mystical
+generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of
+a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva
+in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason,
+and freedom of thought, in these United States, will do away all this
+artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine
+doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
+
+So much for your quotation of Calvin’s ‘_Mon Dieu! jusqu’a quand_’ in
+which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I join you
+cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness than
+reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our ancient
+colleagues, and receive with them the seal of approbation, ‘Well done,
+good and faithful servants.’
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a twelvemonth before,
+I thought myself singularly unfortunate in so timing my journey, as
+to have been absent exactly at the moment of your late visit to our
+neighborhood. The loss, indeed, was all my own; for in these short
+interviews with you. I generally get my political compass rectified,
+learn from you whereabouts we are, and correct my course again. In
+exchange for this, I can give you but newspaper ideas, and little indeed
+of these, for I read but a single paper, and that hastily. I find Horace
+and Tacitus so much better writers than the champions of the gazettes,
+that I lay those down, to take up these, with great reluctance. And on
+the question you propose, whether we can, in any form, take a bolder
+attitude than formerly in favor of liberty, I can give you but
+commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow’s mite, and offered only
+because requested. The matter which now embroils Europe, the presumption
+of dictating to an independent nation the form of its government, is so
+arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as well as moral sentiment,
+enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our
+equal execrations against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all
+nations do not owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their
+sympathies with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of
+the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and indeed, for
+the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or draw
+on ourselves the power, of this formidable confederacy. I have ever
+deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take active
+part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely
+distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power,
+their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government,
+are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their
+energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and
+lives of their people. On our part, never had a people so favorable
+a chance of trying the opposite system, of peace and fraternity with
+mankind, and the direction of all our means and faculties to the
+purposes of improvement instead of destruction. With Europe we have
+few occasions of collision, and these, with a little prudence and
+forbearance, may be generally accommodated. Of the brethren of our own
+hemisphere, none are yet, or for an age to come will be, in a shape,
+condition, or disposition to war against us. And the foothold, which the
+nations of Europe had in either America, is slipping from under them,
+so that we shall soon be rid of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at
+present to hold up a speck of war to us. Its possession by Great Britain
+would indeed be a great calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us
+in guarantying its independence against all the world, except Spain, it
+would be nearly as valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she
+take it, I would not immediately go to war for it; because the first war
+on other accounts will give it to us; or the island will give itself to
+us, when, able to do so. While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take
+part in the present war of Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in
+reward for doing nothing, peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and
+interest. We may gratify ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial
+to Spain as would be justifiable without giving cause of war to her
+adversary; we might and ought to avail ourselves of the happy occasion
+of procuring and cementing a cordial reconciliation with her, by
+giving assurance of every friendly office which neutrality admits, and
+especially, against all apprehension of our intermeddling in the quarrel
+with her colonies. And I expect daily and confidently to hear of a spark
+kindled in France, which will employ her at home, and relieve Spain from
+all further apprehensions of danger.
+
+That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her
+government is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to look
+back a little on past events. During the ascendancy of Bonaparte, the
+word among the herd of Kings was, ‘_Sauve qui peut_.’ Each shifted
+for himself, and left his brethren to squander and do the same as they
+could. After the battle of Waterloo, and the military possession of
+France, they rallied and combined in common cause, to maintain each
+other against any similar and future danger. And in this alliance,
+Louis, now avowedly, and George, secretly but solidly, were of the
+contracting parties; and there can be no doubt that the allies are bound
+by treaty to aid England with their armies, should insurrection take
+place among her people. The coquetry she is now playing off between
+her people and her allies is perfectly understood by the latter,
+and accordingly gives no apprehensions to France, to whom it is all
+explained. The diplomatic correspondence she is now displaying, these
+double papers fabricated merely for exhibition, in which she makes
+herself talk of morals and principle, as if her qualms of conscience
+would not permit her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies, are all to
+gull her own people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the five powers
+are the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the dupes. Playing
+thus so dextrously into each other’s hands, and their own persons
+seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
+These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This war is
+evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England
+is also acting her part. ‘Save but the Nobles, and there shall be no
+war,’ says she, masking her measures at the same time under the form of
+friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party, offering
+herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not permitted openly to
+oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will
+get from her. And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks
+at it rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
+
+But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage of carrying
+coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude and uninformed notions
+of things beyond my cognizance, only be so good as to remember that it
+is at your request, and with as little confidence on my part as profit
+on yours. You will do what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act
+their follies and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith
+the paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are willingly
+resigned, with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXII.--TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Our correspondence is of that accommodating character, which admits of
+suspension at the convenience of either party, without inconvenience to
+the other. Hence this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the
+11th. I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on
+continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in
+preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet
+I hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry
+explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine
+monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what
+they endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on
+principle, but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the
+formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions
+on European writings and practices, believing the experience of old
+countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer
+guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in
+numerous associations cannot be restrained within the limits of order
+and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over them by
+authorities independent of their will. Hence their organization of
+kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still further to constrain the
+brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by
+hard labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees,
+so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary
+to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable
+life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders
+in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and
+excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of
+superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths of
+opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And in
+the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw
+the cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the
+dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to
+subject to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of
+maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention
+had deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover,
+therefore, in practice, the powers which the nation had refused, and to
+warp to their own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of
+the federal party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will
+of the majority of the convention, and of the people themselves. We
+believed, with them, that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature
+with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could
+be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers,
+confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties
+by dependence on his own will. We believed that the complicated
+organization of kings, nobles, and priests, was not the wisest nor best
+to effect the happiness of associated man; that wisdom and virtue were
+not hereditary; that the trappings of such a machinery consumed, by
+their expense, those earnings of industry they were meant to protect,
+and, by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance.
+We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of
+their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of
+law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their
+reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed, than
+with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in Europe,
+by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment of the people
+then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the other
+party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of the
+country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and order
+than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong holds of federalism.
+And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our
+constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
+order, and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort
+truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at
+justification of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will
+the opening scenes of our present government be seen in their true
+aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in private hoards, shall
+be broken up and laid open to public view. What a treasure will be found
+in General Washington’s cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of
+as candid a friend to truth as he was himself! When no longer, like
+Caesar’s notes and memorandums in the hands of Anthony, it shall be open
+to the high priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so much, and
+no more, as suits their views.
+
+With respect to his Farewell Address, to the authorship of which, it
+seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you some facts. He
+had determined to decline a re-election at the end of his first term,
+and so far determined, that he had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for
+him something valedictory, to be addressed to his constituents on his
+retirement. This was done: but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce
+in a second election, to which no one more strenuously pressed him than
+myself, from a conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer
+habit, the respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his
+character only could effect. When, at the end of this second term, his
+Valedictory came out, Mr. Madison recognised in it several passages of
+his draught; several others we were both satisfied were from the pen
+of Hamilton, and others from that of the President himself. These he
+probably put into the hands of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence
+it may all appear in Hamilton’s hand-writing, as if it were all of his
+composition.
+
+I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists were,
+1. To warp our government more to the form and principles of monarchy,
+and 2. To weaken the barriers of the State governments as co-ordinate
+powers. In the first they have been so completely foiled by the
+universal spirit of the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise,
+shrunk from the odium of their old appellation, taken to themselves a
+participation of ours, and under the pseudo-republican mask, are now
+aiming at their second object, and strengthened by unsuspecting
+or apostate recruits from our ranks, are advancing fast towards an
+ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that a prevalence of the
+doctrines of consolidation would one day call for reformation or
+revolution. I answer by asking, if a single State of the Union would
+have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers to the General
+Government? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from the
+jealousy and fear of every State, of being subjected to the other
+States, in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe
+the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general
+surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government,
+one and undivided?
+
+You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether the
+Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and
+trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, my
+dear Sir, because I am unable. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on
+it, have disqualified me from investigations so severe, and researches
+so laborious. And it is the less necessary in this case, as having been
+already done by others with a logic and learning to which I could
+add nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of
+Virginia, in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821,
+Judge Roane, under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for the
+Enquirer, a series of papers on the law of that case. I considered these
+papers maturely as they came out, and confess, that they appeared to me
+to pulverize every word which had been delivered by Judge Marshall,
+of the extra-judicial part of his opinion; and all was extra-judicial,
+except the decision that the act of Congress had not purported to
+give to the corporation of Washington the authority claimed by their
+lottery-law, of controlling the laws of the States within the States
+themselves. But unable to claim that case, he could not let it go
+entirely, but went on gratuitously to prove, that notwithstanding the
+eleventh amendment of the constitution, a State could be brought, as
+a defendant, to the bar of his court; and again, that Congress might
+authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise legislation within
+a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I cite the sum and
+result only of his doctrines, according to the impression made on my
+mind at the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate in
+circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely
+refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human reason
+as a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us.
+And I mention this particular case as one only of several, because it
+gave occasion to that thorough examination of the constitutional limits
+between the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for.
+There were two other writers in the same paper, under the signatures of
+Fletcher of Saltoun, and Somers, who in a few essays presented some very
+luminous and striking views of the question. And there was a particular
+paper which recapitulated all the cases in which it was thought the
+federal court had usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will
+be found in the Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th.
+It is not in my present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can
+furnish them, I will procure and forward them. If they had been read in
+the other States, as they were here, I think they would have left, there
+as here, no dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken up
+by our legislature of 1821-22, and two draughts of remonstrances were
+prepared and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference
+of opinion as to the matter of right; but there was as to the expediency
+of a remonstrance at that time, the general mind of the States being
+then under extraordinary excitement by the Missouri question; and it
+was dropped on that consideration. But this case is not dead; it only
+sleepeth. The Indian Chief said, he did not go to war for every petty
+injury by itself, but put it into his pouch, and when that was full,
+he then made war. Thank Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and
+rational mode of redress.
+
+This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case to
+prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the court, is
+very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect another instance, and
+the more particularly, perhaps, because it in some measure bore on
+myself. Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions
+to some federal justices of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed
+and sealed by him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the
+department of State, on my entrance into office, and 1 forbade their
+delivery. Marbury, named in one of them, applied to the Supreme Court
+for a Mandamus to the Secretary of State (Mr. Madison), to deliver the
+commission intended for him. The Court determined at once, that being an
+original process, they had no cognizance of it; and there the question
+before them was ended. But the Chief Justice went on to lay down what
+the law would be, had they jurisdiction of the case; to wit, that they
+should command the delivery.
+
+The object was clearly to instruct any other court having the
+jurisdiction, what they should do, if Marbury should apply to them.
+Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could any thing
+exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle of law never
+yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to
+the validity of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it
+remains in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is
+not a deed, and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of a
+third person it may be made an escrow. But whatever is in the executive
+offices is certainly deemed to be in the hands of the President; and, in
+this case, was actually in my hands, because, when I countermanded them,
+there was as yet no Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and
+Madison is continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were
+settled law, without any animadversion on its being merely an obiter
+dissertation of the Chief Justice.
+
+It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of words which
+shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, this limit of
+jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will guide us safely in
+most of the cases. 1. The capital and leading object of the constitution
+was, to leave with the States all authorities which respected their
+own citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which
+respected citizens of foreign or other States: to make us several as
+to ourselves, but one as to all others. In the latter case, then,
+constructions should lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will
+bear it; and in favor of the States in the former, if possible to be so
+construed. And indeed, between citizens and citizens of the same
+State, and under their own laws, I know but a single case in which a
+jurisdiction is given to the General Government. That is, where any
+thing but gold or silver is made a lawful tender, or the obligation of
+contracts is any otherwise impaired. The separate legislatures had so
+often abused that power, that the citizens themselves chose to trust
+it to the general, rather than to their own special authorities. 2. On
+every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when
+the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the
+debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the
+text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it
+was passed. Let us try Cohen’s case by these canons only, referring
+always however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
+
+1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law of his
+State. It was a domestic case therefore, and not a foreign one.
+
+2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing against
+the General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, the States
+meant to surrender the authority of preserving order, of enforcing moral
+duties, and restraining vice, within their own territory? And this is
+the present case, that of Cohen being under the ancient and general law
+of gaming. Can any good be effected, by taking from the States the moral
+rule of their citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority,
+or to one of their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning
+of words, hunting after possible constructions, and hanging inference on
+inference, from heaven to earth, like Jacob’s ladder? Such an intention
+was impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference,
+if exercised by, both governments, as may be done with equal right,
+would equally authorize both to claim all powers, general and
+particular, and break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made for
+men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by
+the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought
+for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make any thing mean every
+thing or nothing, at pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms of
+advocates, whose trade it is, to prove that a defendant is a plaintiff,
+though dragged into court, torto collo, like Bonaparte’s volunteers into
+the field in chains, or that a power has been given, because it ought
+to have been given, et alia talia. The States supposed, that, by their
+tenth amendment, they had secured themselves against constructive
+powers. They were not lessoned yet by Cohen’s case, nor aware of the
+slipperiness of the eels of the law. I ask for no straining of words
+against the General Government nor yet against the States. I believe the
+States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government
+our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome
+distribution of powers, established by the constitution for the
+limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to
+Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they
+may more secretly be bought and sold, as at market.
+
+But the Chief Justice says, ‘there must be an ultimate arbiter
+somewhere.’ True, there must; but does that prove it is either party?
+The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their
+deputies in convention, at the call of Congress, or of two thirds of the
+States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed
+by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity
+of our constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that
+of other nations is at once to force.
+
+I rejoice in the example you set of _seriatim_ opinions. I have heard it
+often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some of your brethren
+will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in time, it may be
+felt by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the primitive court
+be again restored. Why should not every judge be asked his opinion, and
+give it from the bench, if only by yea or nay? Besides ascertaining the
+fact of his opinion, which the public have a right to know, in order
+to judge whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the
+opinions were unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly the weight
+of their authority.
+
+The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to relieve
+you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
+accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
+my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond
+the sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with
+me in principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
+consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in
+every feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the
+republican form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the
+salutary distribution of powers which that has established. These are
+the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be
+in danger of foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I
+add those for the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness
+to your country.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 30,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
+after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
+and to be returned then to him.
+
+You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering’s fourth of July observations
+on the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
+personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
+quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
+should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams’s memory
+has led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
+forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
+wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage
+of that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it
+not supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the
+spot. He says, ‘The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin,
+Sherman, Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and
+then appointed him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a
+sub-committee, met, and after the urgencies of each on the other, I
+consented to undertake the task; that, the draught being made, we, the
+sub-committee, met, and conned the paper over, and he does not remember
+that he made or suggested a single alteration.’ Now these details
+are quite incorrect. The committee of five met; no such thing as a
+sub-committee was proposed, but they unanimously pressed on myself alone
+to undertake the draught. I consented; I drew it: but before I reported
+it to the committee, I communicated it separately to Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections, because they were the two
+members of whose judgments and amendments I wished most to have the
+benefit, before presenting it to the committee: and you have seen the
+original paper now in my hands, with the corrections of Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams interlined in their own hand-writings. Their alterations
+were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy,
+reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress.
+This personal communication and consultation with Mr. Adams, he
+has misremembered into the actings of a sub-committee. Pickering’s
+observations, and Mr. Adams’s in addition, ‘that it contained no new
+ideas, that it is a common-place compilation, its sentiments hacknied
+in Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis’s
+pamphlet,’ may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard
+Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke’s Treatise on Government.
+Otis’s pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from
+reading or reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to
+neither book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as
+any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no
+sentiment which had ever been expressed before. Had Mr. Adams been
+so restrained, Congress would have lost the benefit of his bold and
+impressive advocations of the rights of Revolution. For no man’s
+confident and fervid addresses, more than Mr. Adams’s, encouraged and
+supported us through the difficulties surrounding us, which, like the
+ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night and by day. Yet, on
+the same ground, we may ask what of these elevated thoughts was new, or
+can be affirmed never before to have entered the conceptions of man?
+
+Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons for
+declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, had been
+hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of July, ‘76, or this
+dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of memory, let history
+say. This, however, I will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the
+Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of
+it. As to myself, I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive
+auditor of the opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could
+be, of its merits or demerits. During the debate I was sitting by
+Doctor Franklin, and he observed that I was writhing a little under
+the acrimonious criticisms on some of its parts; and it was on that
+occasion, that by way of comfort, he told me the story of John Thomson,
+the hatter, and his new sign.
+
+Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of it
+expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other three
+fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only one he
+approves), which recommends friendship to his dear England, whenever she
+is willing to be at peace with us. His insinuations are, that although
+‘the high tone of the instrument was in unison with the warm feelings of
+the times, this sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never
+be forgotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne
+in mind on every celebration of this anniversary.’ In other words, that
+the Declaration, as being a libel on the government of England, composed
+in times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare
+the feelings of our English friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. But it
+is not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind; but to cherish the
+principles of the instrument in the besoms of our own citizens: and it
+is a heavenly comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly
+felt, as to render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of
+memory of Mr. Adams’s, worthy of being solemnly announced and supported
+at an anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-day. In
+opposition, however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that these principles
+may be eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for
+yourself of long life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 15th was received in due time, and with the
+welcome of every thing which comes from you. With its opinions on the
+difficulties of revolutions from despotism to freedom, I very much
+concur. The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.
+Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body fend mind
+to their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on,
+to think and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their
+ignorance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the
+Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This
+is the present situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is
+not desperate. The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of
+printing, has eminently changed the condition of the world. As yet, that
+light has dawned on the middling classes only of the men in Europe.
+The kings and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet received its
+rays; but it continues to spread, and while printing is preserved, it
+can no more recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt to
+recover the right of self-government may fail, so may a second, a third,
+&c. But as a younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment
+becomes more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some
+subsequent one of the ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed.
+In France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the second by
+Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII., and his holy allies; another is
+yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and
+all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. This
+is now well understood to be a necessary check on Kings, whom they will
+probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, than to exterminate.
+To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of
+desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years
+of desolation. For what inheritance so valuable, can man leave to his
+posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred
+to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that he will never submit, but
+finally defeat this atrocious violation of the laws of God and man,
+under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes,
+afford reasonable hope, that that nation will settle down in a temperate
+representative government, with an executive properly subordinated to
+that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece, will follow suit. You
+and I shall look down from another world on these glorious achievements
+to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.
+
+I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein you say that
+the omission of his signature to the Declaration of Independence was by
+accident. Our impressions as to this fact being different, I shall
+be glad to have mine corrected, if wrong. Jay, you know, had been in
+constant opposition to our laboring majority. Our estimate at the time
+was, that he, Dickinson, and Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity,
+perseverance, and partiality to our English connection, had constantly
+kept us a year behind where we ought to have been, in our preparations
+and proceedings. From about the date of the Virginia instructions of May
+the 15th, 1776, to declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented himself from
+Congress, and never came there again until December, 1778. Of course,
+he had no part in the discussions or decision of that question. The
+instructions to their Delegates by the convention of New York, then
+sitting, to sign the Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th
+of July only, and on that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay,
+by a letter received from him, as they had done as early as the 29th
+of May, by another letter. And I think he had been omitted by the
+convention on a new election of Delegates, when they changed their
+instructions. Of this last fact, however, having no evidence but an
+ancient impression, I shall not affirm it. But whether so or not, no
+agency of accident appears in the case. This error of fact, however,
+whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to the public. But
+truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it for our own
+satisfaction.
+
+I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
+month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
+supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious.
+But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the
+recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out
+of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we
+can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid
+of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all
+at once. Against this _tedium vita_, however, I am fortunately mounted
+on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty
+or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give
+exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment
+of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more
+healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles
+have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness
+with which such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall
+live to see it go into action.
+
+Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this
+letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now
+attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new
+affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, dark
+hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a
+friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was
+to be made public by that friend or his representative. And now it is
+said to be actually published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts
+have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of
+separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that
+of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence,
+whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this
+would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that
+aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy
+and insensibility. With me, however, no such armor is needed. The
+circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the
+partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state
+of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also:
+and there might, not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by
+filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous
+phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name,
+to me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things
+concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had
+been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper
+to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of
+each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men,
+who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen
+the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and
+motives of others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time and
+reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring
+to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would
+be strange, indeed, if, at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt
+up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so
+sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I
+am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now
+made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to
+sow tares between friends who have been such for near half a century.
+Beseeching you, then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this
+wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among
+the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my
+unabated and constant attachment, friendship, and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, October 24,1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, October 24,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most
+momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of
+Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass, and points
+the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on
+us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious.
+Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves
+in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to
+intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a
+set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own.
+
+She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from
+that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of
+despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of
+freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit;
+she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
+proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty
+weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at
+one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.
+Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one,
+or all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole
+world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial
+friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our affections, than to
+be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would
+purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the
+war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its
+consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and
+establish the American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign
+powers, of never permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the
+affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to
+depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can effect a division
+in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its
+most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr.
+Canning’s opinion, that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With
+Great Britain withdrawn from their scale, and shifted into that of our
+two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war. For
+how would they propose to get at either enemy without superior fleets?
+Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of
+declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights
+of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of
+another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the
+equally lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy.
+
+But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to
+our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly
+confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting
+addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control
+which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of
+Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as
+all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our
+political well-being. Yet, as I am sensible that this can never be
+obtained, even with her own consent, but by war; and its independence,
+which is our second interest (and especially its independence of
+England), can be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning
+my first wish to future chances, and accepting its independence, with
+peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association, at the
+expense of war and her enmity.
+
+I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we
+aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not
+stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother
+country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible
+interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under
+any other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any
+power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should
+think it, therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the
+British government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in
+these letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as
+his authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of
+which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them
+for consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable
+aspect in which it is seen by himself.
+
+I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long
+ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not
+qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the
+question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so
+decisive of our future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I
+have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce me to the hazard
+of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still my mite
+towards any thing which may be useful to our country. And praying you to
+accept it at only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant
+and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, November 4, 1823.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so
+slow and laborious, as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all
+correspondence: not, however, from yours, while I can make a stroke with
+a pen. We have gone through too many trying scenes together, to forget
+the sympathies and affections they nourished.
+
+Your trials have indeed been long and severe. When they will end, is yet
+unknown, but where they will end, cannot be doubted. Alliances, Holy or
+Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell
+the rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the
+scene, and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that
+Spain will prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines
+not to be so, and that her success will be the turning of the tide of
+liberty, no more to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of
+society in Europe can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know
+when with you, and I do now. A hereditary chief, strictly limited, the
+right of war vested in the legislative body, a rigid economy of the
+public contributions, and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses,
+will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.
+But the only security o£ all, is in a free press. The force of public
+opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The
+agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the
+waters pure.
+
+We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful country. For
+in peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is
+to be the next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My
+opinion on that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter.
+The question will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and
+southernmost candidates. The former will get every federal vote in the
+Union, and many republicans; the latter, all those denominated of
+the old school; for you are not to believe that these two parties are
+amalgamated, that the lion and the lamb are lying down together.
+The Hartford convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent,
+prostrated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned it through
+shame and mortification; and now call themselves republicans. But the
+name alone is changed, the principles are the same. For in truth,
+the parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature. They exist in all
+countries, whether called by these names, or by those of Aristocrats and
+Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles
+and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the people, and is
+a tory by nature. The healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes them, and is
+formed a whig by nature. On the eclipse of federalism with us, although
+not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the
+false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view
+of producing a geographical division of parties, which might insure
+them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold into the
+snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral and
+laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead of
+aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used, merely
+as tools for electioneering purposes; and that trick of hypocrisy then
+fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now succeeding a
+distinction, which, like that of republican and federal, or whig and
+tory, being equally intermixed through every State, threatens none of
+those geographical schisms which go immediately to a separation. The
+line of division now is the preservation of State rights as reserved in
+the constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument,
+to merge all into a consolidated government. The tories are for
+strengthening the executive and General Government; the whigs cherish
+the representative branch, and the rights reserved by the States, as the
+bulwark against consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy.
+And although this division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists,
+is well understood, and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing
+election, with the reflecting men of both parties.
+
+I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr.
+Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of
+her American work: but her ‘Few Days in Athens,’ was entirely new, and
+has been a treat to me of the highest order. The matter and manner
+of the dialogue is strictly ancient; the principles of the sects are
+beautifully and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and
+portraiture of the interlocutors are of higher finish than any thing in
+that line left us by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it
+is equal to the best morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance,
+that Herculaneum is likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of
+ancient genius; and may we not hope more from the same pen?
+
+After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disabled arm, I
+am again in tolerable health, but extremely debilitated, so as to be
+scarcely able to walk into my garden. The hebitude of age too, and
+extinguishment of interest in the things around me, are weaning me from
+them, and dispose me with cheerfulness to resign them to the existing
+generation, satisfied that the daily advance of science will enable them
+to administer the commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still
+many valuable years to give to your country, and with my prayers that,
+they may be years of health and happiness, and especially that they may
+see the establishment of the principles of government which you have
+cherished through life, accept the assurance of my affectionate and
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, February 3, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and
+am glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
+satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
+nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
+equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a—a = 0.
+Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
+do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
+ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue,
+to set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and
+if foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our
+legislature, no harm will have been done by the provisos.
+
+You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
+legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
+the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act
+was expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that
+a re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday,
+the 29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
+meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
+there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
+fourth, &c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give it
+certainty enough.
+
+You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
+apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
+dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text
+and reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
+Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
+competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
+whole sum at once.
+
+I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
+for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
+certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
+every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have
+all, from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our
+Professors, as the only means by which we can give to our institution
+splendor and pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only
+question, therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate,
+will be, Is he the most highly qualified? The college of Philadelphia
+has lost its character of primacy by indulging motives of favoritism and
+nepotism, and by conferring the appointments as if the professorships
+were entrusted to them as provisions for their friends. And even that
+of Edinburgh, you know, is also much lowered from the same cause. We are
+next to observe, that a man is not qualified for a Professor, knowing
+nothing but merely his own profession. He should be otherwise well
+educated as to the sciences generally; able to converse understandingly
+with the scientific men with whom he is associated, and to assist in the
+councils of the Faculty on any subject of science on which they may have
+occasion to deliberate. Without this, he will incur their contempt,
+and bring disreputation on the institution. With respect to the
+professorship you mention, I scarcely know any of our judges personally;
+but I will name, for example, the late Judge Roane, who, I believe, was
+generally admitted to be among the ablest of them. His knowledge was
+confined to the common law chiefly, which does not constitute one half
+of the qualification of a really learned lawyer, much less that of a
+Professor of law for an University. And as to any other branches
+of science, he must have stood mute in the presence of his literary
+associates, or of any learned strangers or others visiting the
+University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we propose to take?
+
+In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of
+appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I
+never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I
+never saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better
+qualified; and I have the most unlimited confidence, that in the
+appointment of Professors to our nursling institution, every individual
+of my associates will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its
+character, and adopt, as our sacred motto, ‘_Detur digniori_? In this
+way it will honor us, and bless our country.
+
+I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities
+beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let
+them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely
+to the present case.
+
+Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself
+of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIX.--TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824
+
+
+TO JARED SPARKS.
+
+Monticello, February 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of
+the North American Review. This has anticipated the one I should receive
+in course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new
+series. The article on the African colonization of the people of color,
+to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration.
+It is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more,
+too, than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of
+that colony.
+
+In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational
+objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. The establishment of a colony
+on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the
+arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science.
+By doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course
+of injuries we have been committing on their population. And considering
+that these blessings will descend to the ‘_nati natorum, et qui
+nascentur ab illis_,’ we shall in the long run have rendered them
+perhaps more good than evil. To fulfil this object, the colony of
+Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of
+success. Under this view, the Colonization Society is to be considered
+as a missionary society, having in view, however, objects more humane,
+more justifiable, and less aggressive on the peace of other nations,
+than the others of that appellation.
+
+The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to
+our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to
+provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that
+population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and
+protection, as a separate, free, and independent people, in some country
+and climate friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the
+coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed
+entirely impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which
+have been urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit
+no controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate,
+yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are
+in the United States a million and a half of people of color in
+slavery. To send off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be
+practicable for us, or expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years
+for its accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their
+estimated value as property, in the first place, (for actual property
+has been lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from
+the possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and
+old, would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must be paid
+or lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their transportation
+by land and sea to Mesurado, a year’s provision of food and clothing,
+implements of husbandry and of their trades, which will amount to three
+hundred millions more, making thirty-six millions of dollars a year
+for twenty-five years, with insurance of peace all that time, and it is
+impossible to look at the question a second time. I am aware that at
+the end of about sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will
+commence, from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during
+the remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still
+impossible to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say this to
+induce an inference that the getting rid of them is for ever impossible.
+For that is neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be
+done in this way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that
+is, by emancipating the after born, leaving them, on due compensation,
+with their mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance,
+and then putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for
+deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject five
+and forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to conceive any
+other practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on Virginia, under
+the fourteenth query. The estimated value of the new-born infant is
+so low (say twelve dollars and fifty cents), that it would probably
+be yielded by the owner gratis, and would thus reduce the six hundred
+millions of dollars, the first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions
+and a half: leaving only the expenses of nourishment while with the
+mother, and of transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to
+be furnished? Why not from that of the lands which have been ceded by
+the very States now needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration,
+for the most part, but that of the general good of the whole. These
+cessions already constitute one fourth of the States of the Union. It
+may be said that these lands have been sold; are now the property of
+the citizens composing those States; and the money long ago received and
+expended. But an equivalent of lands in the territories since acquired
+may be appropriated to that object, or so much at least, as may be
+sufficient; and the object, although more important to the slave States,
+is highly so to the others also, if they were serious in their arguments
+on the Missouri question. The slave States, too, if more interested,
+would also contribute more by their gratuitous liberation, thus taking
+on themselves alone the first and heaviest item of expense.
+
+In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular place
+of asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that in the
+revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might open to us
+some one within practicable distance. This has now happened. St. Domingo
+has become independent, and with a population of that color only; and
+if the public papers are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay
+their passage, to receive them as free citizens, and to provide them
+employment. This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense
+but of nurture with the mother a few years, and would call, of course,
+for a very moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole
+annual increase to be of sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels,
+of four hundred tons burthen each, constantly employed in that short
+run, would carry off the increase of every year, and the old stock
+would die off in the ordinary course of nature, lessening from the
+commencement until its final disappearance. In this way no violation of
+private rights is proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in
+as fast as the means to be provided for their care would be competent
+to it. Looking at my own State only, (and I presume not to speak for
+the others,) I verily believe that this surrender of property would
+not amount to more, annually, than half our present direct taxes, to be
+continued fully about twenty or twenty-five years, and then gradually
+diminishing for as many more until their final extinction; and even this
+half tax would not be paid in cash, but by the delivery of an object
+which they have never yet known or counted as part of their property:
+and those not possessing the object will be called on for nothing. I
+do not go into all the details of the burthens and benefits of this
+operation. And who could estimate its blessed effects? I leave this
+to those who will live to see their accomplishment, and to enjoy a
+beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave it with this admonition, to
+rise and be doing. A million and a half are within their control;
+but six millions (which a majority of those now living will see them
+attain), and one million of these fighting men, will say, ‘We will not
+go.’
+
+I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scruples.
+But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and
+an amendment of the constitution, the whole length necessary. The
+separation of infants from their mothers, too, would produce some
+scruples of humanity. But this would be straining at a gnat, and
+swallowing a camel.
+
+I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of the duty
+on imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against it, until
+those in power shall become sensible of this stain on our legislation
+and shall wipe it from their code, and from the remembrance of man, if
+possible.
+
+I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson„
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXX.--TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824
+
+
+TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
+
+Monticello, April 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It was with great pleasure I learned that the good people of New Orleans
+had restored you again to the councils of our country. I did not doubt
+the aid it would bring to the remains of our old school in Congress, in
+which your early labors had been so useful. You will find, I suppose,
+on revisiting our maritime States, the names of things more changed than
+the things themselves; that though our old opponents have given up their
+appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned their views, and
+that they are as strong nearly as they ever were. These cares, however,
+are no longer mine. I resign myself cheerfully to the managers of the
+ship, and the more contentedly, as I am near the end of my voyage. I
+have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason,
+and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical
+idea of the character of the constitution of our government, which I
+have adopted as a key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the
+whole field of government is divided into two departments, domestic and
+foreign, (the States in their mutual relations being of the latter) that
+the former department is reserved exclusively to the respective States
+within their own limits, and the latter assigned to a separate set of
+functionaries, constituting what may be called the, foreign branch,
+which, instead of a federal basis, is established as a distinct
+government _quo ad hoc_, acting as the domestic branch does on the
+citizens directly and coercively; that these departments have distinct
+directories, co-ordinate, and equally independent and supreme, each
+within its own sphere of action. Whenever a doubt arises to which of
+these branches a power belongs, I try it by this test. I recollect no
+case where a question simply between citizens of the same State has been
+transferred to the foreign department, except that of inhibiting tenders
+but of metallic money, and _ex post facto_ legislation. The causes of
+these singularities are well remembered.
+
+I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of national
+improvement, which I have read with great pleasure, and recognise in it
+those powers of reasoning and persuasion of which I had formerly seen
+from you so many proofs. Yet, in candor, I must say it has not removed,
+in my mind, all the difficulties of the question. And I should really be
+alarmed at a difference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own,
+were it not that I have, as companions in sentiment, the Madisons, the
+Monroes, the Randolphs, the Macons, all good men and true, of primitive
+principles. In one sentiment of the speech I particularly concur. ‘If we
+have a doubt relative to any power, we ought not to exercise it.’ When
+we consider the extensive and deep-seated opposition to this assumption,
+the conviction entertained by so many, that this deduction of powers by
+elaborate construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the
+difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise;
+that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and
+forwards, so that no undertaking under it will be safe; that there is
+not a State in the Union which would not give the power willingly, by
+way of amendment, with some little guard, perhaps, against abuse; I
+cannot but think it would be the wisest course to ask an express grant
+of the power. A government held together by the bands of reason only,
+requires much compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should
+not be crammed down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when
+they may be put into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great
+deal of indulgence is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and
+fraternity. In such a case, it seems to me it would be safer and wiser
+to ask an express grant of the power. This would render its exercise
+smooth and acceptable to all, and insure to it all the facilities which
+the could contribute, to prevent that kind of abuse which all will fear,
+because all know it is so much practised in public bodies, I mean the
+bartering of votes. It would reconcile every one, if limited by the
+proviso, that the federal proportion of each State should be expended
+within the State. With this single security against partiality and
+corrupt bargaining, I suppose there is not a State, perhaps not a man
+in the Union, who would not consent to add this to the powers of the
+General Government. But age has weaned me from questions of this kind.
+My delight is now in the passive occupation of reading; and it is
+with great reluctance I permit my mind ever to encounter subjects of
+difficult investigation. You have many years yet to come of vigorous
+activity, and I confidently trust they will be employed in cherishing
+every measure which may foster our brotherly union, and perpetuate a
+constitution of government destined to be the primitive and precious
+model of what is to change the condition of man over the globe. With
+this confidence, equally strong in your powers and purposes, I pray you
+to accept the assurance of my cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXI.--TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824
+
+
+TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT.
+
+Monticello, June 5,1824.
+
+Dear and Venerable Sir,
+
+I am much indebted for your kind letter of February the 29th, and for
+your valuable volume on the English constitution. I have, read this with
+pleasure and much approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution
+of the English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon, it is
+really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed
+in their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that
+Paine, who thought more than he read, should have credited the great
+authorities who have declared, that the will of Parliament is the
+constitution of England. So Marbois, before the French revolution,
+observed to me, that the Almanac Royal was the constitution of France.
+Your derivation of it from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on
+legitimate principles. Having driven out the former inhabitants of that
+part of the island called England, they became aborigines as to you, and
+your lineal ancestors. They doubtless had a constitution; and although
+they have not left it in a written formula, to the precise text of which
+you may always appeal, yet they have left fragments of their history
+and laws, from which it may be inferred with considerable certainty.
+Whatever their history and laws show to have been practised with
+approbation, we may presume was permitted by their constitution;
+whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And although this
+constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force, yet force
+cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the nation, by
+their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws; which shows
+they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the pullings
+and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation, and its kings
+of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was sometimes
+gain, and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their rights
+from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the
+thread of pretended inheritance extinguished all regal usurpations, and
+the nation reentered into all its rights; and although in their bill of
+rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the
+others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also,
+whenever occasion should occur. The new King received no rights or
+powers, but those expressly granted to him. It has ever appeared to me,
+that the difference between the whig and the tory of England is, that
+the whig deduces his rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory
+from the Norman. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says in so many
+words, (note AA to chapter 42,) that, in the reign of the Stuarts, ‘it
+was the people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who
+attempted, as is pretended, to usurp upon the people.’ This supposes the
+Norman usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,)
+‘the Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and
+seems specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the
+people are the origin of all just power.’ And where else will this
+degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the
+origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be
+in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?
+
+Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
+album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
+to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
+investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
+appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet
+we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
+never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
+it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
+little into our former education. We established however some, although
+not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our
+States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may
+exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves
+competent (as in electing their functionaries, executive and
+legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all
+judiciary cases in which any fact is involved), or they may act by
+representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and
+duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of
+person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the
+press. In the structure of our legislatures, we think experience has
+proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two separate bodies of
+deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right has been mistaken,
+some making one of these bodies, and some both, the representatives of
+property instead of persons; whereas the double deliberation might be
+as well obtained without any violation of true principle, either by
+requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by electing a proper
+number of representatives of persons, dividing them by lots into two
+chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals, in order
+to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am myself a native and
+resident, was not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
+say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men
+peaceably together to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to
+writing, and place it among their archives, where every one should be
+free to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other
+States, as they proceeded successively to the same work, made
+successive improvements; and several of them, still further corrected
+by experience, have, by conventions, still further amended their first
+forms. My own State has gone on so far with its _première ébauch_; but
+it is now proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other
+improvements, I hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties
+into wards. The former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four
+miles square; the latter should be about six miles square each, and
+would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these
+might be, 1. An elementary school. 2. A company of militia, with its
+officers. 3. A justice of the peace and constable. 4. Each ward should
+take care of their own poor. 5. Their own roads. 6. Their own police.
+7. Elect within themselves one or more jurors to attend the courts
+of justice. And, 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes for all
+functionaries reserved to their election. Each ward would thus be a
+small republic within itself, and every man in the State would thus
+become an acting member of the common government, transacting in person
+a great portion of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet
+important and entirely within his competence. The wit of man cannot
+devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and well-administered
+republic.
+
+With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their
+relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose
+the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are
+co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State
+governments, are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs
+which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government
+is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States;
+these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the
+other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control
+over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two
+exceptions only to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two
+departments should claim each the same subject of power, where is the
+common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little
+importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them
+aloof from the questionable ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor
+compromised, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe the
+doubtful power to that department which they may think best. You will
+perceive by these details, that we have not yet so far perfected our
+constitutions as to venture to make them unchangeable. But still, in
+their present state, we consider them not otherwise changeable than by
+the authority of the people, on a special election of representatives
+for that purpose expressly: they are until then the _lex legum_.
+
+But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind another, and
+all others, in succession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made
+the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powrers can only
+belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with
+will. The dead are not even things. The particles of matter which
+composed their bodies, make part now of the bodies of other animals,
+vegetables, or minerals, of a thousand forms. To what then are attached
+the rights and powers they held while in the form of men? A generation
+may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life; when that
+has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights
+and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and
+institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the
+inherent and unalienable rights of man.
+
+I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of
+the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
+usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of
+the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced,
+is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
+Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard
+the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever
+existed. But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means,
+they stole this law in upon us. In a case of _quare impedit_ in the
+Year-book, 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far
+the ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court. And
+Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his opinion in these words. ‘_A tiel leis
+qu’ils de seint eglise ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner
+credence; car ceo common ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes.
+Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise:
+et semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si
+poit apperer or a nous que Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en
+tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy_,’ &c.
+See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his
+first book, c. 3. is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and
+mistakes it thus. ‘To such laws of the church as have warrant in holy
+scripture, our law giveth credence.’ And cites Prisot; mistranslating
+‘ancien scripture’ into ‘holy scripture.’ Whereas, Prisot palpably says,
+‘to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writing, it is
+proper for us to give credence;’ to wit, to their ancient written laws.
+This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot.
+Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the
+common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max.
+3. and Sheppard, title, ‘Religion,’ in 1675, copies the same
+mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses
+it in these words; ‘Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.’ 1
+Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings
+and re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in
+1728, that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court
+would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity
+was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore,
+409, ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy
+and profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra.
+Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that
+‘Christianity is part of the laws of England,’ citing Ventris and
+Strange. And finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in
+Evans’s case, in 1767, says, that ‘the essential principles of revealed
+religion are part of the common law.’ Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament,
+and all into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we
+find this chain of authorities hanging link by link, one upon another,
+and all ultimately on one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation
+of the words ‘ancien scripture,’ used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot;
+Wingate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate.
+Hale cites nobody. The court, in Woolston’s case, cite Hale. Wood cites
+Woolston’s case. Blackstone quotes Woolston’s case and Hale. And Lord
+Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might
+defy the best read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this
+judiciary forgery; and I might go on further to show, how some of the
+Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred’s laws, the
+20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts
+of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead
+my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this, between Church
+and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara,
+rogues all!
+
+I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowledgments
+for your good wishes to the University we are now establishing in this
+State. There are some novelties in it. Of that of a professorship of
+the principles of government, you express your approbation. They will be
+founded in the rights of man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will
+approve: and that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us
+in that type and dialect, must be the text-books of the reading of the
+learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles
+of government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be
+placed in the library of the University. Having at this time in England
+a person sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr.
+Gilmer of my neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage,
+counsel, and guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the
+deceptions of partial and false recommendations, in the selection
+of characters. He is a gentleman of great worth and correctness, my
+particular friend, well educated in various branches of science, and
+worthy of entire confidence.
+
+Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us a speedy
+meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and
+evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have.both witnessed; and
+in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration
+and esteem for your person and character.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXII.--TO MARTIN VAN BUREN, June 29, 1824
+
+
+TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.
+
+Monticello, June 29, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering’s elaborate philippic against Mr.
+Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the acknowledgment
+until I could read it and make some observations on it.
+
+I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such a period
+of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and
+viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been
+industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he
+had marked for his hatred; some of whom certainly, if enmities towards
+him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the
+grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing
+personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party
+sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as
+himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an
+enmity which I had never felt, and that with respect to myself, as well
+as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every direction, to
+get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, where he could
+not, certificates and journals, catching at every gossipping story he
+could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions what he could find
+no where else, and then arguing on this motley farrago, as if
+established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his wonder,
+‘at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. Adams should not
+have cooled ‘; that on the contrary, ‘they had acquired the mastery of
+his soul,’ (p. 100 ;) that ‘where these were enlisted, no reliance
+could be placed on his statements,’ (p. 104 ;) the facility and little
+truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning
+persons who were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that ‘he is
+capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached
+facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable
+inferences,’ if suited to his purpose at the instant,’ (p. 174;) while
+making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his ‘_ecce homo_,’
+(p. 100;) how justly might we say to him, ‘_Mutato nomine, de te fabula
+narratur_.’ For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his
+benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to
+his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter.
+104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146,150,151,153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr.
+Adams’s strictures on him, written and pointed, should have excited some
+notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the
+sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more
+questionable. He says, (p. 4) ‘of Mr. Jefferson I should have said
+nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October the 12th, 1823.’
+Now the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend,
+wounded by a publication which I thought an ‘outrage on private
+confidence.’ Not a word or allusion in it respecting Mr. Pickering, nor
+was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of
+this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his
+pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.
+
+He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions, and my motives. The very
+actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great
+majority of my fellow-citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr.
+Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect.
+My motives he chooses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a
+passion for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It
+is no office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted
+my actions and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates,
+letters, journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary
+them. Nor shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to
+them these antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded,
+as if they had not been already a thousand times repeated, refuted, and
+adjudged against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed
+virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there
+never was a virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Savior
+himself. But he has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to
+leave motives to him who can alone see into them.
+
+But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the
+thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than
+a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of
+his which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the
+other myself. He observes, that my letter of October the 12th, 1823,
+acknowledges the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September the 18th,
+which, having been written a few days after Cunningham’s publication, he
+says was no doubt written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches
+he had uttered against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham.
+And thus having ‘no doubt’ of his conjecture, he considers it as proven,
+goes on to suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place
+Mr. Adams at my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it,
+as an undoubted fact. Now I do most solemnly declare, that so far from
+being a letter of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes,
+there was not a word or allusion in it respecting Cunningham’s
+publication.
+
+The other allegation respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34,
+he quotes Doctor Stuart, as having, twenty years ago, informed him that
+General Washington, ‘when he became a private citizen,’ called me to
+account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of
+unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, ‘in
+what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment
+of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death, the
+correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period
+of his Presidency was also missing.’ The diary being of transactions
+during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some
+time after he became a private citizen, and the pretended correspondence
+of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and supposed
+correspondence are brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy
+of the letter itself. The correspondence could not be found, indeed,
+because it had never existed. I do affirm, that there never passed
+a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between General
+Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would never have
+degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation in that
+letter on the ‘Samsons in combat.’ The whole story is a fabrication, and
+I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a
+pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or any other
+evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, suppositions, and
+presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted for it. With
+Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him to be an
+honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. Pickering,
+very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and, under the
+dominion of these, readily welcoming fancies for facts. But, come the
+story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood.
+
+This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for
+federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted
+a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our
+country. In this information there was not one word which would not
+then have been, or would not now be approved by every republican in
+the United States, looking back to those times, as you will see by a
+faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on
+the subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph,
+extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the
+persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and
+their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. ‘To
+them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire
+paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with
+ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter
+respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this
+country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burden of
+federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject
+of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by Mr.
+Pickering, (page 33,) as if it were genuine, and really written by me.
+And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the
+ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this
+forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, ‘A letter from
+Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and
+republished in the Moniteur, with very severe strictures on the conduct
+of the United States.’ And instead of the letter itself, he copies
+what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an exaggerated
+commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently leaves to
+his reader to make the ready inference that these were the sentiments of
+the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A negative cannot
+be possibly proved. But, in defect of impossible proof of what was not
+in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in my possession. It
+has been shown to several, and is open to any one who wishes to see it.
+I have presumed only that the interpolation was done in Paris. But I
+never saw the letter in either its Italian or French dress, and it may
+have been done here, with the commentary handed down to posterity by the
+judge. The genuine paragraph, re-translated through Italian and French
+into English, as it appeared here in a federal paper, besides the
+mutilated hue which these translations and re-translations of it
+produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which
+entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of
+misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of
+an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung
+up since he had left us, states their object to be ‘to draw over us
+the substance, as they had already done the forms of the British
+government.’ Now the ‘forms’ here meant, were the levees, birth-days,
+the pompous cavalcade to the State House on the meeting of Congress, the
+formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to
+re-echo the speech in an answer, &c. &c. But the translator here, by
+substituting form in the singular number, for forms in the plural, made
+it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its form of
+legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities, co-ordinate and
+independent: to which form it was to be inferred that I was an enemy. In
+this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering still
+quotes, it (pages 34, 35, 38), and countenances the inference. Now
+General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms,
+as they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my
+return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York,
+I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established
+of royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected
+phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly
+maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the
+government, executive and judiciary (General Washington alone excepted),
+and by a great part of the legislature, save only some members who had
+been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent introduction. I
+took occasion, at various times, of expressing to General Washington my
+disappointment at these symptoms of a change of principle, and that
+I thought them encouraged by the forms and ceremonies, which I found
+prevailing, not at all in character with the simplicity of republican
+government, and looking as if wishfully to those of European courts.
+His general explanations to me were, that when he arrived at New York
+to enter on the executive administration of the new government, he
+observed to those who were to assist him, that placed as he was in an
+office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms and ceremonies
+of other governments, still less apprized of those which might be
+properly established here, and himself perfectly indifferent to all
+forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what they should be; and
+the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, a man of parade,
+and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at a foreign court.
+They, he said, were the author’s of the present regulations, and that
+others were proposed so highly strained, that he absolutely rejected
+them. Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject,
+when the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
+departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had
+been at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and
+the course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion
+had now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any
+particulars not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult
+together, agree on any changes we should think for the better, and
+that he should willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at
+my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that there was too much
+ceremony for the character of our government, and, particularly, that
+the parade of the installation at New York ought not to be copied on the
+present occasion, that the President should desire the Chief Justice to
+attend him at his chambers, that he should administer the oath of office
+to him in the presence of the higher officers of the government, and
+that the certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary
+of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the
+latter vehemently: they thought it not advisable to change any of the
+established forms, and we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to
+the President. As these opinions were divided, and no positive advice
+given as to any change, no change was made. Thus the forms, which I had
+censured in my letter to Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General
+Washington, and were those which he himself but barely tolerated. He had
+furnished me a proper occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my
+opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not have meant any part of the
+censure for him.
+
+Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of ‘the
+men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
+had had their heads shorn by the harlot England’ or, as expressed in
+their re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons
+in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.’ Now
+this expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He
+knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what
+had passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could
+not mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
+establishment, I was a member of the Congress then sitting at Annapolis.
+General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that proposition,
+and the course, if any, which I thought Congress would observe
+respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation of it; that I
+found the members of Congress generally in the same sentiment; that
+I thought they would take no express notice of it, but that in all
+appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently pass by all
+candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to others. On
+his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think was in the
+spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after
+candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, almost
+exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to the
+motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred with
+me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that, if the
+hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps
+be indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had
+actually served; ‘No,’ he said, ‘not a fibre of it ought, to be left, to
+be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line
+of separation between them and their country’: and he left me with a
+determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On
+his return from the meeting, he called on me again, and related to me
+the course the thing had taken. He. said, that, from the beginning,
+he had used every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the
+project altogether, urging the many considerations which would render
+it odious to their fellow-citizens, and disreputable and injurious to
+themselves; that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers
+to reject it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and
+especially the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith
+as particularly intemperate. But that in this state of things, when he
+thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major
+L’Enfant arrived from France with a bundle of eagles, for which he had
+been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served
+in. America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of
+their King permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed
+the face of matters at once, produced an entire revolution of sentiment,
+and turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction, that
+it could be no longer withstood: all he could then obtain, was a
+suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, that it was the French
+applications, and respect for the approbation of the King, which saved
+the establishment in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus
+of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do
+so, he could never suppose that I meant to include him among the Samsons
+in the field, whose object was to draw over us the form, as they
+made the letter say, of the British government, and especially its
+aristocractic member, an hereditary House of Lords. Add to this, that
+the letter saying, ‘that two out of the three branches of legislature
+were against us,’ was an obvious exception of him; it being well known
+that the majorities in the two branches of Senate and Representatives
+were the very instruments which carried, in opposition to the old and
+real republicans, the measures which were the subjects of condemnation
+in this letter. General Washington, then, understanding perfectly what
+and whom I meant to designate, in both phrases, and that they could not
+have any application or view to himself, could find in neither any cause
+of offence to himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any
+explanation of them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know
+very little of General Washington, who should believe to be within the
+laws of his character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to
+him. Be this, however, as it may, the story is infamously false in
+every article of it. My last parting with General Washington was at the
+inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate;
+and I never had any reason to believe any change on his part, as there
+certainly was none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened
+between that and his death, the year following, in my passage to and
+from which, as it happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never
+had another opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence
+observed during that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred
+for epistolary communication, and both of us were too much oppressed
+with letter-writing, to trouble either the other, with a letter about
+nothing.
+
+The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive
+friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink
+his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy
+of republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation
+of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert,
+and the republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
+proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
+republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend
+to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps,
+in its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he
+repeatedly declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair
+chance for success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in
+its support, against any attempt which, might be made to change it from
+its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener, because he
+knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet
+my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he
+considered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of its
+administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever
+been devised by the wit of man; professing, however, at the same time,
+that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that
+it would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that,
+therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the
+principles their constituents had elected.
+
+General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the
+composition of his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which
+was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of
+any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party
+in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the
+republicans; yet were they not imputed, to him, but to the counsellors
+around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course
+and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his
+administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time
+after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views
+into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the
+party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career; separated
+him still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and
+expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not
+loosen their affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary
+aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and
+although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his
+memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion;
+and there it for ever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every
+temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It
+is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify
+his character, by representing him as an enemy to republicans and
+republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were
+so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and
+unbiassed opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the
+people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only
+restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration.
+
+I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter
+or rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr.
+Pickering’s diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do
+not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to
+harass the public with fendings and provings of personal slanders;
+and least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such
+a champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and
+consideration of my fellow-citizens, and have no reason to repent it,
+or to change my course. At this time of life, too, tranquillity is the
+_summum bonum_. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet
+when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so
+much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands
+of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor
+those whom I might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into
+the path of truth. And if of no other value, the present communication
+may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.
+
+I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to
+which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name,
+but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may
+be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close
+it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIII.--TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824
+
+TO EDWARD EVERETT.
+
+Monticello, October 15, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have yet to thank you for your O. B. K. oration, delivered in presence
+of General la Fayette. It is all excellent, much of it sublimely so,
+well worthy of its author and his subject, of whom we may truly say, as
+was said of Germanicus, ‘_Fruitur famâ sui_.’
+
+Your letter of September the 10th gave me the first information that
+mine to Major Cartwright had got into the newspapers; and the first
+notice, indeed, that he had received it. I was a stranger to his person,
+but not to his respectable and patriotic character. I received from him
+a long and interesting letter, and answered it with frankness, going
+without reserve into several subjects, to which his letter had led,
+but on which I did not suppose I was writing for the newspapers. The
+publication of a letter in such a case, without the consent of the
+writer, is not a fair practice.
+
+The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
+They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot’s opinion
+with a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake
+its meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The
+opinions of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or
+memoranda, and not with all the developement which they probably used in
+delivering them. Prisot’s opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus
+paraphrased. ‘To such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and
+preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to
+give credence; for so is, or so says, the common law, or law of the
+land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are
+founded; that is to say, the common law, or the law of the land common
+to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from
+which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate
+branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime,
+law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and
+usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit
+authority in the special or local cases belonging to them. The evidence
+of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books, and
+writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known, the
+text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance
+only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it appears,
+from their ancient books, writings, and records, that the bishop, in
+this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has
+done what an ordinary would have done, in such case, then we should
+adjudge it good, otherwise not.’ To decide this question, they would
+have to turn to the ancient writings and records of the canon law,
+in which they would find evidence of the laws of advowsons, _quare
+impedit_, the duties of bishops and ordinaries, for which terms Prisot
+could never have meant to refer them to the Old or New Testament, _les
+saincts scriptures_, where surely they would not be found. A license
+which should permit ‘ancien scripture’ to be translated ‘holy
+scripture,’ annihilates at once all the evidence of language. With such
+a license, we might reverse the sixth commandment into ‘Thou shalt not
+omit murder.’ It would be the more extraordinary in this case, where
+the mistranslation was to effect the adoption of the whole code of the
+Jewish and Christian laws into the text of our statutes, to convert
+religious offences into temporal crimes, to make the breach of every
+religious precept a subject of indictment, submit the question of
+idolatry, for example, to the trial of a jury, and to a court, its
+punishment, to the third and fourth generation of the offender. Do we
+allow to our judges this lumping legislation?
+
+The term ‘common law,’ although it has more than one meaning, is
+perfectly definite, _secundum subjectam materiem_. Its most probable
+origin was on the conquest of the Heptarchy by Alfred, and the
+amalgamation of their several codes of law into one, which became
+common to them all. The authentic text of these enactments has not been
+preserved; but their substance has been committed to many ancient
+books and writings, so faithfully as to have been deemed genuine from
+generation to generation, and obeyed as such by all. We have some
+fragments of them collected by Lambard, Wilkins, and others, but
+abounding with proofs of their spurious authenticity. Magna Charta
+is the earliest statute, the text of which has come down to us in an
+authentic form, and thence downward we have them entire. We do not know
+exactly when the common law and statute law, the _lex scripta et non
+scripta_, began to be contra-distinguished, so as to give a second
+acceptation to the former term; whether before or after Prisot’s day, at
+which time we know that nearly two centuries and a half of statutes were
+in preservation. In later times, on the introduction of the chancery
+branch of law, the term common law began to be used in a third sense, as
+the correlative of chancery law. This, however, having been long after
+Prisot’s time, could not have been the sense in which he used the term.
+He must have meant the ancient _lex, non scripta_, because, had he used
+it as inclusive of the _lex scripta_, he would have put his finger on
+the statute which had enjoined on the judges a deference to the laws of
+holy church. But no such statute existing, he must have referred to the
+common law in the sense of a _lex non scripta_. Whenever, then, the term
+common law is used in either of these senses, and it is never employed
+in any other, it is readily known in which of them by the context and
+subject matter under consideration; which, in the present case, leave no
+room for doubt. I do not remember the occasion which led me to take up
+this subject, while a practitioner of the law. But I know I went into
+it with all the research which a very copious law library enabled me to
+indulge; and I fear not for the accuracy of any of my quotations.
+The doctrine might be disproved by many other and different topics of
+reasoning; but having satisfied myself of the origin of the forgery, and
+found how, like a rolling snow-ball, it had gathered volume, I leave
+its further pursuit to those who need further proof, and perhaps I have
+already gone further than the feeble doubt you expressed might require,
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 11, 1825
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+We are dreadfully nonplussed here by the non-arrival of our three
+Professors. We apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st of
+February prevails so much abroad (although we have always mentioned
+it doubtfully), as that the students will assemble on that day without
+awaiting the further notice which was promised. To send them away
+will be discouraging, and to open an University without Mathematics or
+Natural Philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. We
+therefore publish an advertisement, stating that on the arrival of these
+Professors, notice will be given of the day of opening the institution.
+
+Governor Barbour writes me hopefully of getting our fifty thousand
+dollars from Congress. The proposition has been originated in the House
+of Representatives, referred to the committee of claims, the chairman
+of which has prepared a very favorable report, and a bill conformable,
+assuming the repayment of all interest which the State has actually
+paid. The legislature will certainly owe to us the recovery of this
+money; for had they not given it in some measure the reverenced
+character of a donation for the promotion of learning, it would never
+have been paid. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the displeasure
+incurred by wringing it from them at the last session, will now give
+way to a contrary feeling, and even place us on a ground of some merit.
+Should this sentiment take place, and the arrival of our Professors, and
+filling our dormitories with students on the 1st of February, encourage
+them to look more favorably towards us, perhaps it might dispose them to
+enlarge somewhat their order on the same fund. You observe the Proctor
+has stated in a letter accompanying our Report, that it will take about
+twenty-five thousand dollars more than we have to finish the Rotunda.
+Besides this, an Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our
+hotels, say about five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school
+of Anatomy. There cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre
+is prepared, giving an advantageous view of the operation to those
+within, and effectually excluding observation from without. Either the
+additional sums, therefore, of twenty-five thousand and five thousand
+dollars will be wanting, or we must be permitted to appropriate a part
+of the fifty thousand to a theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for
+the present. Yet I should think neither of these objects an equivalent
+for renewing the displeasure of the legislature. Unless we can carry
+their hearty patronage with us, the institution can never flourish.
+I would not, therefore, hint at this additional aid, unless it were
+agreeable to our friends generally, and tolerably sure of being carried
+without irritation.
+
+In your letter of December the 31st, you say my ‘hand-writing and my
+letters have great effect there,’ i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my
+dear Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to
+me. But my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from
+the administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that
+I retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in
+office had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation,
+and with acquiescence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have
+embarked so earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition
+of my native State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have
+strengthened good dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within
+our own. The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many
+personal views, and so much ignorance, and I have been considered as
+so particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of
+sentiment towards myself. I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied
+with myself a respectable minority, if not a majority of the House of
+Delegates. I feel it deeply, and very discouragingly. Yet I shall not
+give way. I have ever found in my progress through life, that, acting
+for the public, if we do always what is right, the approbation denied in
+the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from posterity we
+are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are making for their
+service, of time, quiet, and good will. And I fear not the appeal. The
+multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from ignorance, who
+will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of character, and
+station they will be able to attain from the result of our efforts, will
+insure their remembering us with gratitude. We will not, then, be ‘weary
+in well-doing.’ _Usque ad aras amicus tuus_,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXV.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH.
+
+This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be
+in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
+excellent father has requested that I would address to you something
+which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life
+you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that
+course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your
+part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor
+as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true.
+Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life, into which you
+have entered, be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And
+if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world,
+every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.
+
+Monticello, February 21, 1825.
+
+
+_The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, for your
+imitation_.
+
+     Lord, who’s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
+     Not stranger-like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
+     ‘Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
+     Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart
+          disproves.
+     Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor’s fame to wound;
+     Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
+     Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
+     And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
+     Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
+     And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
+     Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
+     Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
+     The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
+     When earth’s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured.
+
+A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.
+
+1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
+
+2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
+
+3. Never spend your money before you have it.
+
+4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear
+to you.
+
+5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
+
+6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
+
+7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
+
+8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
+
+9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
+
+10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, December 24, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have for sometime considered the question of internal improvement as
+desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so strongly in favor
+of it as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even the opposition in
+Congress will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless something can be
+done which may give a gleam of encouragement to our friends, or alarm
+their opponents in their fancied security. I learn from Richmond, that
+those who think with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not
+knowing what to do, or what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative,
+particularly, has written to me in very desponding terms, not disposed
+to yield, indeed, but pressing for opinions and advice on the subject.
+I have no doubt you are pressed in the same way, and I hope you have
+devised and recommended something to them. If you have, stop here and
+read no more, but consider all that follows as _non avenue_. I shall
+be better satisfied to adopt implicitly any thing which you may have
+advised, than any thing occurring to myself. For I have long ceased
+to think on subjects of this kind, and pay little attention to public
+proceedings. But if you have done nothing in it, then I risk for your
+consideration what has occurred to me, and is expressed in the enclosed
+paper. Bailey’s propositions, which came to hand since I wrote the
+paper, and which I suppose to have come from the President himself, show
+a little hesitation in the purposes of his party; and in that state of
+mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest, by its effect on
+the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this moment may be
+accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate sacrifice. I say
+nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The following heads of
+consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
+
+It may intimidate the wavering. It may break the western coalition,
+by offering the same thing in a different form. It will be viewed with
+favor in contrast with the Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening
+that. It will be an example of a temperate mode of opposition in future
+and similar cases. It will delay the measure a year at least. It will
+give us the chance of better times and of intervening accidents; and in
+no way place us in a worse than our present situation. I do not dwell on
+these topics; your mind will develope them.
+
+The first question is, whether you approve of doing any thing of the
+kind. If not, send it back to me, and it shall be suppressed; for I
+would not hazard so important a measure against your opinion, nor even
+without its support. If you think it may be a canvass on which to put
+something good, make what alterations you please, and I will forward it
+to Gordon, under the most sacred injunctions that it shall be so used as
+that not a shadow of suspicion shall fall on you or myself, that it
+has come from either of us. But what you do, do as promptly as your
+convenience will admit, lest it should be anticipated by something
+worse. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+_The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on
+the Principles of the Constitution of the United, States of America, and
+on the Violations of them_.
+
+We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf and in the name of the
+people thereof, do declare as follows.
+
+The States in North America which confederated to establish their
+independence on the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
+one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and, as
+such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such
+form as it thought best.
+
+They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the
+United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single
+government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
+nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified.
+They retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of
+independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
+
+For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint,
+in conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each,
+severally and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each
+for itself, a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, also, for administering the domestic branch of their
+respective governments.
+
+These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute
+thus a whole of government, for each State separately; the powers
+ascribed to the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over
+the whole, the residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable
+exclusively over its particular State, foreign herein, each to the
+others, as they were before the original compact.
+
+To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
+Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
+opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either set
+of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
+
+But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others,
+a right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
+indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this Assembly
+does declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
+branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions
+of it.
+
+They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
+construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
+within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
+several States, which this Assembly does declare has not been given to
+that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State
+among its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself and
+by its domestic authorities alone.
+
+This Assembly does further disavow, and declare to be most false and
+unfounded, the doctrine, that the compact, in authorizing its federal
+branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay
+the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
+United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may
+think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction
+would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation
+of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they
+might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by
+the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and
+by no others.
+
+Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States,
+by not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering
+their condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that
+purpose; since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to
+that branch those which belong to its department, and to the States have
+reserved separately the residue which belong to them separately: and
+thus by the organization of the two branches taken together, have
+completely secured the first object of human association, the full
+improvement of their condition, and reserved to themselves all the
+faculties of multiplying their own blessings.
+
+Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
+States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State
+will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
+disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
+themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
+of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
+themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
+resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
+possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
+difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
+indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
+could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
+submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the
+hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
+forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
+therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly,
+prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the
+federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much,
+under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them
+also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us
+all. In the mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate
+from them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government
+of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our
+federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
+perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable
+of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and
+securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and
+peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice
+shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair
+but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform
+its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and
+restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are
+the objects of this Declaration and Protest.
+
+Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of
+its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals
+should be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more
+likely to be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the
+independent action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from
+respect to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its
+co-States, will consent, in concurrence with them, to make this
+addition, provided it be done regularly by an amendment of the compact,
+in the way established by that instrument, and provided also, it be
+sufficiently guarded against abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices,
+not only of possible, but of probable occurrence.
+
+And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
+Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented
+to by the compact called ‘The Constitution of the United States of
+America,’ (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its
+language, to the common intendment of the time, and of those who framed
+it;) to give also to all parties and authorities, time for reflection
+and for consideration, whether, under a temperate view of the possible
+consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions which an
+equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the
+assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the free will
+of their constituents; and to preserve peace in the mean while, we
+proceed to make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature shall
+otherwise and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts of
+the federal branch of our government which we have declared to be
+usurpations, and against which, in point of right, we do protest as null
+and void, and never to be quoted as precedents of right.
+
+We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
+Virginia, that all citizens of this Commonwealth, and persons and
+authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to
+the acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the
+object of which shall be the construction of post-roads, making canals
+of navigation, and maintaining the same, in any part of the United
+States, in like manner as if the said acts were, _totidem verbis_,
+passed by the legislature of this Commonwealth.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 25, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th was received four days ago. It found me engaged
+in what I could not lay aside till this day.
+
+Far advanced in my eighty-third year, worn down with infirmities which
+have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight
+months past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for
+transactions so far back as that which is the subject of your letter.
+My memory is indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can
+probably be given you than by my solemn protestation, that I have not
+the least recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams
+and myself, in what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the
+slightest trace of it remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the
+exactitude of the statement in your letter. And the less, as I recollect
+the interview with Mr. Adams, to which the previous communications which
+had passed between him and yourself were probably and naturally the
+preliminary. That interview I remember well; not indeed in the very
+words which passed between us, but in their substance, which was of a
+character too awful, too deeply engraved in my mind, and influencing too
+materially the course I had to pursue, ever to be forgotten. Mr. Adams
+called on me pending the embargo, and while endeavors were making to
+obtain its repeal. He made some apologies for the call, on the ground of
+our not being then in the habit of confidential communications, but that
+that which he had then to make, involved too seriously the interest of
+our country not to overrule all other considerations with him, and make
+it his duty to reveal it to myself particularly. I assured him there was
+no occasion for any apology for his visit; that, on the contrary,
+his communications would be thankfully received, and would add a
+confirmation the more to my entire confidence in the rectitude
+and patriotism of his conduct and principles. He spoke then of the
+dissatisfaction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the
+restraints of the embargo then existing, and their restlessness
+under it. That there was nothing which might not be attempted, to rid
+themselves of it. That he had information of the most unquestionable
+certainty, that certain citizens of the Eastern States (I think he
+named Massachusetts particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the
+British government, the object of which was an agreement that the New
+England States should take no further part in the war then going on;
+that, without formally declaring their separation from the Union of the
+States, they should withdraw from all aid and obedience to them,
+that their navigation and commerce should be free from restraint and
+interruption by the British; that they should be considered and treated
+by them as neutrals, and as such might conduct themselves towards both
+parties; and, at the close of the war, be at liberty to rejoin the
+confederacy. He assured me that there was imminent danger that the
+convention would take place; that the temptations were such as might
+debauch many from their fidelity to the Union; and that, to enable
+its friends to make head against it, the repeal of the embargo was
+absolutely necessary. I expressed a just sense of the merit of this
+information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the safety
+and even the salvation of our country: and however reluctant I was to
+abandon the measure (a measure which persevered in a little longer, we
+had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object
+completely), from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw
+the necessity of abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by
+this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then
+recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the
+embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in
+which they could procure a general concurrence.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be
+in the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the
+impression remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are
+too transient and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But
+the substance was too important to be forgotten, not only from the
+revolution of measures it obliged me to adopt, but also from the
+renewals of it in my memory on the frequent occasions I have had of
+doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating this proof of his fidelity to
+his country, and of his superiority over all ordinary considerations
+when the safety of that was brought into question.
+
+With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept
+assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 26, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will be free to make what
+use you please. This will contain matters not intended for the public
+eye. I see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid
+strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing
+towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the
+consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that
+too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their
+power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines
+of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact
+acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too
+evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in
+combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the
+powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions,
+foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume
+indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it
+regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry,
+and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the
+other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to establish
+post-roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the
+construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little
+sophistry on the words ‘general welfare,’ a right to do, not only the
+acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted,
+but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general
+welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the
+constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue
+with the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by
+ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from incorrect views
+of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together,
+to outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or
+three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand
+to our arms, with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last
+resource, not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings.
+If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at
+once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last
+one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with our
+brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection and
+experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by
+the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the
+sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or
+submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between these
+two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation. But
+in the mean while, the States should be watchful to note every material
+usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most
+peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present
+submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents
+of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their
+accumulation shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still
+further, and give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the
+constitution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication
+between the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in
+Congress (log-rolling, &c.), by declaring that the federal proportion
+of each State of the monies so employed, shall be in works within
+the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due _salvo_ of
+jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and best as yet.
+You ask my opinion of the propriety of giving publicity to what is
+stated in your letter, as having passed between Mr. John Q. Adams and
+yourself. Of this no one can judge but yourself. It is one of those
+questions which belong to the forum of feeling. This alone can decide
+on the degree of confidence implied in the disclosure; whether under no
+circumstances it was to be communicated to others. It does not seem to
+be of that character, or at all to wear that aspect. They are historical
+facts, which belong to the present, as well as future times. I
+doubt whether a single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear
+conviction to it, of the correctness of our knowledge of the treasonable
+views of the federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the
+most nefarious and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the
+Hartford Convention was a subsequent chapter: and both of these having
+failed, consolidation becomes the first chapter of the next book of
+their history. But this opens with a vast accession of strength from
+their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or
+principles of ‘76, now look to a single and splendid government of an
+aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations
+under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures,
+commerce, and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman
+and beggared yeomanry. This will be to them a next best blessing to the
+monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping-stone to
+it.
+
+I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving well, and
+that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is one of three
+or four whom I can hear of in the State. We were obliged the last
+year to receive shameful Latinists into the classical school of the
+University; such as we will certainly refuse as soon as we can get from
+better schools a sufficiency of those properly instructed to form a
+class. We must get rid of this Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous
+confusion of long and short syllables, which renders doubtful whether we
+are listening to a reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our
+University has been most fortunate in the five Professors procured from
+England. A finer selection could not have been made. Besides their
+being of a grade of science which has left little superior behind, the
+correctness of their moral character, their accommodating dispositions,
+and zeal for the prosperity of the institution, leave us nothing more
+to wish. I verily believe that as high a degree of, education can now be
+obtained here, as in the country they left. And a finer set of youths I
+never saw assembled for instruction. They committed some irregularities
+at first, until they learned the lawful length of their tether; since
+which it has never been transgressed in the smallest degree. A great
+proportion of them are severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say,
+that within twelve or fifteen years from this time, a majority of the
+rulers of our State will have been educated here. They shall carry hence
+the correct principles of our day, and you may count assuredly that they
+will exhibit their country in a degree of sound respectability it has
+never known, either in our days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot
+live to see it. My joy must only be that of anticipation. But that you
+may see it in full fruition, is the probable consequence of the twenty
+years I am ahead of you in time, and is the sincere prayer of your
+affectionate and constant friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIX.--TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+
+
+TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of December the 31st, and fear, with
+you, all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political
+horizon so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped
+to be very distant, the free principles of our government might change,
+with the change of circumstances, was to be expected. But I certainly
+did not expect that they would not over-live the generation which
+established them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite
+western country was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever
+and fondly cherished the interests of that country, relying on it as a
+barrier against the degeneracy of public opinion from our original and
+free principles. But the bait of local interests, artfully prepared
+for their palate, has decoyed them from their kindred attachments,
+to alliances alien to them. Yet, although I have little hope that the
+torrent of consolidation can be withstood, I should not be for giving up
+the ship without efforts to save her. She lived well through the first
+squall, and may weather the present one. But, Dear Sir, I am not the
+champion called for by our present dangers; _Non tali auxilio, nee
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.’ A waning body, a waning mind,
+and waning memory, with habitual ill health, warn me to withdraw and
+relinquish the arena to younger and abler athletes. I am sensible
+myself, if others are not, that this is my duty. If my distant friends
+know it not, those around me can inform them that they should not, in
+friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing only the decays
+which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and injuring the
+common cause by a senile and puny defence.
+
+I will, however, say one word on the subject. The South Carolina
+resolutions, Van Buren’s motion, and above all Bailey’s propositions,
+show that other States are coming forward on the subject, and better for
+any one to take the lead than Virginia, where opposition is considered
+as common-place, and a mere matter of form and habit. We shall see what
+our co-States propose, and before the close of the session we may shape
+our own course more understandingly.
+
+Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXC.--TO [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826
+
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 15th is received, and I am entirely
+sensible of the kindness of the motives which suggested the caution it
+recommended. But I believe what I have done is the only thing I could
+have done with honor or conscience. Mr. Giles requested me to state a
+fact which he knew himself, and of which he knew me to be possessed.
+What use he intended to make of it I knew not, nor had I a right to
+inquire, or to indicate any suspicion that he would make an unfair one.
+That was his concern, not mine, and his character was sufficient to
+sustain the responsibility for it. I knew, too, that if an uncandid use
+should be made of it, there would be found those who would so prove it.
+Independent of the terms of intimate friendship on which Mr. Giles and
+myself have ever lived together, the world’s respect entitled him to
+the justice of my testimony to any truth he might call for; and how that
+testimony should connect me with whatever he may do or write hereafter,
+and with his whole career, as you apprehend, is not understood by me.
+With his personal controversies I have nothing to do. I never took any
+part in them, or in those of any other person. Add to this, that the
+statement I have given him on the subject of Mr. Adams, is entirely
+honorable to him in every sentiment and fact it contains. There is not
+a word in it which I would wish to recall. It is one which Mr. Adams
+himself might willingly quote, did he need to quote any thing. It was
+simply, that during the continuance of the embargo, Mr. Adams informed
+me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had
+for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. That Mr.
+Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and
+confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his
+patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when
+the safety of his country was endangered. Nor have I kept this honorable
+fact to myself. During the late canvass, particularly, I had more
+than one occasion to quote it to persons who were expressing opinions
+respecting him, of which this was a direct corrective. I have never
+entertained for Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and
+if we have not thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted
+the honesty of his opinions, of which the letter in question, if
+published, will be an additional proof. Still, I recognise your
+friendship in suggesting a review of it, and am glad of this, as of
+every other occasion, of repeating to you the assurance of my constant
+attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCI.--TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, February 17,1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of
+Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the
+University and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to
+stop every thing on hand which could be done without, and to employ all
+his force and funds in finishing the circular room for the books, and
+the Anatomical theatre. These cannot be done without; and for these
+and all our debts, we have funds enough. But I think it prudent then to
+clear the decks thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and what we
+may accomplish further. In the mean time, there have arrived for us in
+different ports of the United States, ten boxes of books, from Paris,
+seven from London, and from Germany I know not how many; in all,
+perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not one of these can be opened until
+the book-room is completely finished, and all the shelves ready to
+receive their charge directly from the boxes, as they shall be opened.
+This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definitive of the three thousand
+dollars duty of which we are asking the remission from Congress. In the
+selection of our Law Professor, we must be rigorously attentive to his
+political principles. You will recollect, that, before the Revolution,
+Coke Littleton was the universal elementary book of law students, and
+a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox
+doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English
+liberties. You remember also that our lawyers were then all whigs. But
+when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of
+fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone became the students’
+hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of our
+Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the young brood
+of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, indeed, to be
+whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or republicanism means.
+It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be kept alive; it is
+thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister States. If we
+are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty years
+a majority of our own legislature will be from our school, and many
+disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their
+several States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. New York has
+taken strong ground in vindication of the constitution; South Carolina
+had already done the same. Although I was against our leading, I am
+equally against omitting to follow in the same line, and backing them
+firmly; and i hope that yourself or some other will mark out the track
+to be pursued by us.
+
+You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the
+legislature, which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had
+become considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of
+property, which would have been little felt, when our friend ---- gave
+me the coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred
+dollars a year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing
+so much of my annual income, as that the maintenance of my family was
+making deep and rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it.
+Still, sales at a fair price would leave me competently provided. Had
+crops and prices for several years been such as to maintain a steady
+competition of substantial bidders at market, all would have been safe.
+But the long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices,
+the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the
+support of manufacturers, &c, with the calamitous fluctuations of
+value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject
+depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking
+up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land-market, while it drew off
+its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character
+of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days
+of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the
+acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than
+from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter or one fifth of its former
+price. Reflecting on these things, the practice occurred to me, of
+selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to
+before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still in constant usage
+in every State for individual as well as corporation purposes. If it is
+permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the mills, he, will pay
+every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If refused, I must
+sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bedford, move thither
+with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into, and
+whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations which,
+under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property. The
+question then with me was, _Utrum horum?_ But why afflict you with
+these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by
+communication with a friend. The friendship which has subsisted between
+us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and
+pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that
+long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the
+University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a
+comfort to leave that institution under your care, and an assurance
+that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to
+believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we
+have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings
+of self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If
+ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a
+single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those
+committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach,
+it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself you have
+been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be
+assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
+     because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
+     led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
+     his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
+     character.]
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
+
+
+It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is
+chance? Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the
+cause, we do not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was
+produced by chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up,
+we know the cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever
+side an unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is
+the effect of chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our
+knowledge or ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side
+of an unloaded die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of
+betting on it, immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then
+every pursuit of human industry is immoral, for there is not a single
+one that is not subject to chance; not one wherein you do not risk a
+loss for the chance of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks
+his ship in the hope (if she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an
+advantageous freight. The merchant risks his cargo to gain a better
+price for it. A landholder builds a house on the risk of indemnifying
+himself by a rent. The hunter hazards his time and trouble in the hope
+of killing game. In all these pursuits, you stake some one thing against
+another which you hope to win. But the greatest of all gamblers is the
+farmer. He risks the seed he puts into the ground, the rent he pays for
+the ground itself, the year’s labor on it, and the wear and tear of his
+cattle and gear, to win a crop, which the chances of too much or too
+little rain, and general uncertainties of weather, insects, waste, &c.
+often make a total or partial loss. These, then, are games of chance.
+Yet so far from being immoral, they are indispensable to the existence
+of man, and every one has a natural right to choose for his pursuit such
+one of them as he thinks most likely to furnish him subsistence. Almost
+all these pursuits of chance produce something useful to society. But
+there are some which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the
+individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are
+games with cards, dice, billiards, &c. And although the pursuit of them
+is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiving the irresistible
+bent of some of its members to pursue them, and the ruin produced by
+them to the families depending on these individuals, consider it as a
+case of insanity, _quoad hoc_, step in to protect the family and the
+party himself, as in other cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c,
+and suppress the pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following
+it. There are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions,
+and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are
+insurances, lotteries, raffles, &tc. These they do not suppress, but
+take their regulation under their own discretion. The insurance of
+ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to
+exercise it therefore is left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful
+debts, the continuance of a particular life, and similar cases. Money is
+wanting for an useful undertaking, as a school, &c. for which a direct
+tax would be disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein
+the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can
+risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility
+of a higher prize. An article of property, insusceptible of division at
+all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so
+large value as that no purchaser can be found, while the owner owes
+debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance
+of obtaining it, but by its sale at a full and fair price. The lottery
+is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small
+risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great
+estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his
+debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would
+have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value,
+and sacrificed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have
+lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very much resorted
+to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The
+legislature Were therefore induced, not to suppress it altogether, but
+to take it under their own special regulation. This they did, for the
+first time, by their act of 1769, c.17., before which time, every person
+exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful
+but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.
+
+Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised
+only under the discretion of the legislature. Let us examine the
+purposes for which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond
+the date of our independence.
+
+1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
+
+1813. c. 1. § 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and
+c. 2. § 10.
+
+1814. Dec. c. 1. § 3. 1814. Feb. c. 1. § 3. 1818. c. 1. § 1. 1819. c. 1.
+1820. c. 1.
+
+This then is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral,
+of which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the
+regular means of supporting the government: the tax on the vender of
+tickets was their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent,
+his could not be criminal.
+
+2. It has been abundantly permitted, to raise money by lottery for the
+purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery
+has been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
+fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied.
+So that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
+received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only, in the form of prizes,
+the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their
+own consent. Examples are.
+
+1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise £2000 for a
+grammar school.
+
+1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, £1000.
+
+1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, £500. c. 74. For the Fredericksburg
+Academy, £4000.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Transylvania Seminary, £500. For the Southampton
+Academy, £300.
+
+1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy.
+
+1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. c» 50. For finishing
+the Strasburg Seminary. c. 58. For William and Mary College. c. 62. For
+the Bannister Academy.c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. c. 82. For the
+Petersburg Academy.
+
+1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. c. 76. For the Stevensburg
+Academy. c.100. For William and Mary College.
+
+1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy.
+
+1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for $30,000
+annually, for seven years.
+
+1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000. Norfolk Female Society,
+$2000. Lancastrian School, $6000.
+
+
+3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth, £400.
+
+1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
+
+1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
+
+1805. c. 42. For a toll-bridge over Cheat River.
+
+1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
+
+
+4. For roads.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, £200. For cutting a road from
+Rockfish gap to Scott’s and Nicholas’s landing, £400. 1796. c. 85. To
+repair certain roads.
+
+1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger’s and Ashby’s gaps. c. 61.
+For opening a road to Brock’s gap. c. 65. For opening a road from the
+town of Monroe to Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
+
+* The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
+
+1803. c. 71. For improving the road to Brock’s gap.
+
+1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg. c. 26. For opening a
+road from Monongalia Glades to Fishing Creek.
+
+1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton’s gap.
+
+
+5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
+
+1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah. c. 84.
+To authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
+
+
+6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
+
+1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not limited.
+
+1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, £1500.
+
+1790. c. 46. do. do. £5000. 1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries
+authorized., c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
+
+1803. c. 12. Woodstock, a lottery authorized c. 48. Fredericksburg,
+for improving its main street. c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its
+streets.
+
+
+7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
+
+1785. c.lll. Completing a church in Winchester. For rebuilding a church
+in the parish of Elizabeth River.
+
+1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
+
+1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, £200. in Halifax,
+£200. in Alexandria, £500. in Petersburg, £750. in Shepherdstown, £250.
+
+
+8. Lotteries for private societies.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, £1000.
+
+1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason’s hall in Charlotte, £750.
+
+
+9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money for
+them.]
+
+1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
+
+1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd’s lottery.
+
+1790. c. 46. To erect a paper-mill in Staunton, £300. To raise £2000 for
+Nathaniel Twining.
+
+1791. c. 13. To raise £4000 for William Tatham, to enable him to
+complete his geographical work. To enable---------to complete a literary
+work.*
+
+* I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been
+able to find it again. But there is such an one.
+
+
+We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
+influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
+admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account, man
+could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural
+right to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
+subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
+productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
+life, others again, such as cards, dice, &ic, are entirely unproductive,
+doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so seducing in
+practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they cannot
+resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in this
+case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &c, it is the duty of
+society to take them under its protection, even against their own acts,
+and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by suppressing
+them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries particularly, which,
+although liable to chance also, are useful for many purposes, and are
+therefore retained and placed under the discretion of the legislature,
+to be permitted or refused according to the circumstances of every
+special case, of which they are to judge: that between the years 1782
+and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed seventy
+case’s, where the permission of them has been found useful by the
+legislature, some of which are in progress at this time. These cases
+relate to the emolument of the whole State, to local benefits of
+education, of navigation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious
+assemblies, private societies, and of individuals under particular
+circumstances which may claim indulgence or favor. The latter is the
+case now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether the
+individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may merit
+that degree of consideration, which will justify the legislature in
+permitting him to avail himself of the mode of selling by lottery, for
+the purpose of paying his debts.
+
+That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and
+in the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known.
+Lands in this State will not now sell for more than a third or fourth of
+what they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time
+of the contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold.
+The low price in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of
+agricultural produce, of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and
+the accumulation of duties on the articles of consumption not produced
+within our State, not only disable the farmer or planter from adding to
+his farm by purchase, but reduce him to sell his own, and remove to the
+western country, glutting the market he leave’s, while he lessens the
+number of bidders. To be protected against this sacrifice is the object
+of the present application, and whether the applicant has any particular
+claim to this protection, is the present question.
+
+Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
+may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
+have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
+of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election
+following I became one of its representatives in the legislature.
+
+I was thence sent to the old Congress.
+
+Then employed two years, with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the
+revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British
+statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
+
+Then elected Governor.
+
+Next to the legislature, and to Congress again.
+
+Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
+
+Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
+
+Elected Vice President, and
+
+President.
+
+And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University.
+
+In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I
+have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far
+greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every
+one knows how inevitably a Virginia estate, goes to ruin, when the owner
+is so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and
+the more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character
+to abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary
+to good, and even to saving management.
+
+If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
+rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
+legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from
+the Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant’s
+Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
+most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion
+of my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal
+principles and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams.
+Their usurpations and violations of the constitution at that period, and
+their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided,
+and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch,
+without being able in the least to check their career, the republican
+leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless
+efforts there, go home, get into their respective legislatures, embody
+whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to
+perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving
+Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the
+Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts,
+and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings and insults by which they
+endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in
+phalanx together, until the legislatures could be brought up to the
+charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if myself
+particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the
+republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post, the republicans
+throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause
+would have been lost for ever. By holding on, we obtained time for the
+legislatures to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia
+and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by their
+celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution, at its last gasp. No
+person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can
+form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we
+had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people
+were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture,
+and other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into
+apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain
+itself.
+
+If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of
+liberality and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws
+in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they
+will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were
+prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported,
+indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House,
+very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as
+leaders.
+
+The prohibition of the further importation of slaves, was the first of
+these measures in time.
+
+This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
+hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
+masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
+into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
+
+But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
+the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish
+the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
+inheritance to sons and daughters which made a part of the revised code.
+
+The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made
+by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries
+for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year,
+and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill
+for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised
+code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the
+efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that
+work was brought forward.
+
+To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of
+our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time,
+as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
+Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me
+the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of
+the general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this
+institution on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country,
+can as yet be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated
+youths, which it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all
+its offices with men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its
+humble state to an eminence among its associates which it has never yet
+known; no, not in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified
+to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State;
+and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind
+encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the
+shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient
+habits. Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable
+happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science
+beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the
+same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be
+kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal affections
+which, nourished by the same alma mater, will knit us to them by the
+indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The good Old Dominion,
+the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her head with pride among
+the nations, will present to them that splendor of genius which she
+has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncultivated
+and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the States whose
+youths she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted.
+
+I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
+whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
+pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And
+what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask
+nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow-citizens. I wish no
+man’s comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the
+services rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
+satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed
+on. My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely
+to pay my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not
+to have it gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves,
+leaving unpaid those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself
+without resource in the last and most helpless stage of life. If
+permitted to sell it in a way which will bring me a fair price, all will
+be honestly and honorably paid, and a competence left for myself, and
+for those who look to me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will
+offend no moral principle, and expose none to risk but the willing, and
+those wishing to be permitted to take the chance of gain. To give me, in
+short, that permission which you often allow to others for purposes not
+more moral.
+
+Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
+precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent
+bring their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case,
+devoted three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to
+the service of their country? Have the times of those services been as
+trying as those which have embraced our Revolution, our transition from
+a colonial to a free structure of government? Have the stations of their
+trial been of equal importance? Has the share they have borne in holding
+their new government to its genuine principles, been equally marked?
+And has the cause of the distress, against which they seek a remedy,
+proceeded, not merely from themselves, but from errors of the public
+authorities, disordering the circulating medium, over which they had
+no control, and which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by
+reducing, in that proportion, the value of the property which was to pay
+them? If all these circumstances, which characterize the present case,
+have taken place in theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured,
+the cases will be so rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to
+settle into an injurious habit. The single feature of a sixty years’
+service, as no other instance of it has yet occurred in our country, so
+it probably never may again. And should it occur, even once and again,
+it will not impoverish your treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and
+asks but a simple permission, by an act of natural right, to do one of
+moral justice.
+
+In the ‘Thoughts on Lotteries,’ the following paper is referred to. It
+is here copied to spare the trouble of seeking for the-book.
+
+
+_Farewell Address To Th: Jefferson, President Of The United States_.
+
+[Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.]
+
+Sir, The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their
+session, without acknowledging your services in the office which you are
+just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate
+farewell.
+
+We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on
+the purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
+patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
+officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that ‘a national debt is a
+national blessing,’ renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of
+our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions
+of acres of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or
+calamities of conquest, a vast and, fertile region added to our country,
+far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with
+it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the
+Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source
+of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
+administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand,
+and teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our
+peace with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
+difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate
+aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
+them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that
+we have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and
+awing them into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the
+historic genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the
+press, preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given
+to man in vain.
+
+In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
+only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
+which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
+first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
+until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
+uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment
+to liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her
+rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
+
+How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
+deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
+rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
+country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
+veneration of your countrymen.
+
+That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
+useful; that our youth may see, in the blissful close of your days, an
+additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout
+and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General
+Assembly of Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCII.--TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, March 30, 1826
+
+
+TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, March 30, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of
+which you have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my
+recollections as to the particular passage of the message to which you
+ask my attention. On the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of
+their right to assume independence, would not condescend to ask its
+acknowledgment from other nations, yet were willing, by some of the
+ordinary international transactions, to receive what would imply that
+acknowledgment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose
+treaties of commerce to the principal nations of Europe. I was then
+a member of Congress, was of the committee appointed to prepare
+instructions for the commissioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman
+of those actually agreed to, and was joined with your father and Doctor
+Franklin to carry them into execution. But the stipulations making
+part of these instructions, which respected privateering, blockades,
+contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions
+of mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor Franklin, in some
+of his papers in possession of the public, and had I think, been
+recommended in some letter of his to Congress I happen only to have
+been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the formal
+sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our treaties,
+containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of Europe.
+But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the
+nations had as yet known nothing of us and had not yet reflected on the
+relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of
+them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve;
+old Frederic alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of
+Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did
+not ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible,
+however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers,
+we thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those
+of less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing
+any other negotiation. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty
+with us, and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce
+with her being no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these
+governments been then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy
+among nations, all, I believe, would have met us promptly and with
+frankness. These principles would then have been established with all,
+and from being the conventional law with us alone, would have slid into
+their engagements with one another, and become general. These are
+the facts within my recollection. They have not yet got into written
+history; but their adoption by our southern brethren will bring them
+into observance, and make them, what they should be, a part of the law
+of the world and of the reformation of principles for which they will be
+indebted to us. I pray you to accept the homage of my friendly and high
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCIII.--TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826
+
+TO MR. WEIGHTMAN.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1826.
+
+Respected Sir,
+
+The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of
+the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration
+on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the
+surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the
+fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the
+honorable accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It
+adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a
+personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence
+is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted
+to control. I should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and
+exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the
+remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in
+the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between
+submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory
+fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and
+prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the
+world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later,
+but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains
+under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them
+to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of
+self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free
+right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All
+eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread
+of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable
+truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on
+their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
+legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others.
+For ourselves, let the annual return of this day for ever refresh our
+recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
+
+I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I
+should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and
+its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
+intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
+public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections,
+as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the
+gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself,
+and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and
+friendly attachments.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+
+
+ANA.--EXPLANATION OF THE THREE VOLUMES BOUND IN MARBLED PAPER
+
+
+_Explanation of the Three Volumes bound in Marbled Paper_.*
+
+In these three volumes will be found copies of the official opinions
+given in writing by me to General Washington, while I was Secretary of
+State, with sometimes the documents belonging to the case. Some of
+these are the rough draughts, some press copies, some fair ones. In the
+earlier part of my acting in that office, I took no other note of the
+passing transactions; but after a while, I saw the importance of doing
+it in aid of my memory. Very often, therefore, I made memorandums on
+loose scraps of paper, taken out of my pocket in the moment, and laid
+by to be copied fair at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were.
+These scraps, therefore, ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they were, I
+had bound with the others by a binder, who came into my cabinet, did it
+under my own eye, and without the opportunity of reading a single paper.
+At this day, after the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their
+dates, I have given to the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of
+the time are passed away, and the reasons of the transactions act alone
+on the judgment. Some of the informations I had recorded, are now cut
+out from the rest, because I have seen that they were incorrect, or
+doubtful, or merely personal or private, with which we have nothing to
+do. I should perhaps have thought the rest not worth preserving, but for
+their testimony against the only history of that period, which pretends
+to have been compiled from authentic and unpublished documents.
+
+*****
+
+[* These are the volumes containing the Ana to the time that the Author
+retired from the office of Secretary of State. The official opinions
+and documents referred to, being very voluminous, are for the most part
+omitted, to make room for the conversations which the same volumes
+comprise.]
+
+
+But a short review of facts ***** will show, that the contests of that
+day were contests of principle between the advocates of republican,
+and those of kingly government, and that, had not the former made the
+efforts they did, our government would have been even at this early day,
+a very different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts
+have made it.
+
+The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation,
+for the purpose of joint defence against the aggressions of Great
+Britain, was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are,
+to enforce compliance with their mutual stipulations; and these, once
+fulfilled, that bond was to expire of itself, and each State to become
+sovereign and independent in all things. Yet, it could not but occur to
+every one, that these separate independencies, like the petty States of
+Greece, would be eternally at war with each other, and would become
+at length the mere partisans and satellites of the leading powers of
+Europe. All, then, must have looked forward to some further bond of
+union, which would insure internal peace, and a political system of our
+own, independent of that of Europe. Whether all should be consolidated
+into a single government, or each remain independent as to internal
+matters, and the whole form a single nation as to what was foreign only,
+and whether that national government should be a monarchy or republic,
+would of course divide opinions, according to the constitutions, the
+habits, and the circumstances of each individual. Some officers of the
+army, as it has always been said and believed, (and Steuben and Knox
+have ever been named as the leading agents,) trained to monarchy by
+military habits, are understood to have proposed to General Washington,
+to decide this great question by the army before its disbandment, and
+to assume himself the crown, on the assurance of their support.
+The indignity with which he is said to have scouted this parricide
+proposition, was equally worthy of his virtue and wisdom. The next
+effort was, (on suggestion of the same individuals, in the moment of
+their separation,) the establishment of an hereditary order, under
+the name of the Cincinnati, ready prepared by that distinction to be
+engrafted into the future frame of government, and placing General
+Washington still at their head. The General wrote to me on this subject,
+while I was in Congress at Annapolis, and an extract from my letter is
+inserted in 5th Marshall’s History, page 28. He afterwards called on me
+at that place, on his way to a meeting of the society, and after a whole
+evening of consultation, he left that place fully determined to use
+all his endeavors for its total suppression. But he found it so firmly
+riveted in the affections of the members, that, strengthened as they
+happened to be by an adventitious occurrence of the moment, he could
+effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary principle. He called
+again on his return, and explained to me fully the opposition which had
+been made, the effect of the occurrence from France, and the difficulty
+with which its duration had been limited to the lives of the present
+members. Further details will be found among my papers, in his and
+my letters, and some in the _Encyclopédic Méthodique et Dictionnaire
+d’Economic Politique_, communicated by myself to M. Meusnier, its
+author, who had made the establishment of this society the ground, in
+that work, of a libel on our country.
+
+The want of some authority which should procure justice to the public
+creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced,
+some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis.
+Although, at this meeting, a difference of opinion was evident on the
+question of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general through
+the States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends
+of the latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and
+delay, to every thing proposed; they hoped, that nothing being done,
+and all things going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be
+usurped, and submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy and
+wars, internal and external, the certain consequences of the present
+want of a general government. The effect of their manoeuvres, with
+the defective attendance of Deputies from the States, resulted in
+the measure of calling a more general convention, to be held at
+Philadelphia. At this the same party exhibited the same practices, and
+with the same views of preventing a government of concord, which they
+foresaw would be republican, and of forcing: through anarchy their way
+to monarchy. But the mass of that convention was too honest, too wise,
+and too steady, to be baffled and misled by their manoeuvres. One of
+these was a form of government proposed by Colonel Hamilton, which would
+have been in fact a compromise between the two parties of royalism and
+republicanism. According to this, the executive and one branch of the
+legislature were to be during good behavior, i.e. for life, and the
+governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent organs.
+This, however, was rejected; on which Hamilton left the convention, as
+desperate, and never returned again until near its final conclusion.
+These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed, of the advocates for
+monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the States generally;
+and this jealousy it was, which excited the strong opposition to the
+conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at last only to
+a general determination to establish certain amendments, as barriers
+against a government either monarchical or consolidated. In what passed
+through the whole period of these conventions, I have gone on the
+information of those who were members of them, being absent myself on my
+mission to France.
+
+I returned from that mission in the first year of the new government,
+having landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to New York
+in March, 1790, to enter on the office of Secretary of State.
+Here, certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had ever
+contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the first
+year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for
+reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be
+heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The
+President received me cordially, and my colleagues and the circle
+of principal citizens, apparently with welcome. The courtesies of
+dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived among them, placed
+me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the wonder
+and mortification with which the table conversations filled me. Politics
+were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government, was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could
+not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself, for the most part, the
+only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among
+the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the
+legislative Houses. Hamilton’s financial system had then passed. It
+had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and
+inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the legislature: for he
+avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one of two motives
+only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this country, was out of
+the question, and the interests, therefore, of the members must be laid
+hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the executive. And with
+grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine was not without
+effect; that even in this, the birth of our government, some members
+were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to their interests, and to
+look after personal rather than public good.
+
+It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
+encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
+fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
+necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
+paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
+individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
+States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
+them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of
+their value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the
+holders, by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they
+would never be paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton
+made no difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent
+purchasers of this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting
+these two classes of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions
+were used to pay the former the full value, and to the latter, the price
+only which they had paid, with interest. But this would have prevented
+the game which was to be played, and for which the minds of greedy
+members were already tutored and prepared. When the trial of strength,
+on these several efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would
+finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and
+especially, than to those who were in distant parts of the Union,
+the base scramble began. Couriers and relay-horses by land, and
+swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in all directions. Active
+partners and agents were associated and employed in every State,
+town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up at five
+shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the
+holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
+par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
+fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough
+before. Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of
+course the chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous
+instruments of all his enterprises.
+
+This game was over, and another was on the carpet at the moment of my
+arrival; and to this I was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold
+the candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known by the name of the
+Assumption. Independently of the debts of Congress, the States had,
+during the war, contracted separate and heavy debts; and Massachusetts
+particularly, in an absurd attempt, absurdly conducted, on the British
+post of Penobscot: and the more debt Hamilton could rake up, the more
+plunder for his mercenaries. This money, whether wisely or foolishly
+spent, was pretended to have been spent for general purposes, and ought,
+therefore, to be paid from the general purse. But it was objected, that
+nobody knew what these debts were, what their amount, or what their
+proofs. No matter; we will guess them to be twenty millions. But of
+these twenty millions, we do not know how much should be reimbursed
+to one State, or how much to another. No matter; we will guess. And so
+another scramble was set on foot among the several States, and some got
+much, some little, some nothing. But the main object was obtained, the
+phalanx of the Treasury was reinforced by additional recruits. This
+measure produced the most bitter and angry contests ever known in
+Congress, before or since the Union of the States. I arrived in the
+midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to the actors on
+it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity with the subject,
+and as yet unaware of its object, I took no concern in it. The great and
+trying question, however, was lost in the House of Representatives.
+So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on its rejection
+business was suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day to day
+without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of temper to
+do business together. The eastern members particularly, who, with
+Smith from South Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes,
+threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I
+was going to the President’s one day, I met him in the street. He walked
+me backwards and forwards before the President’s door for half an hour.
+He painted pathetically the temper into which the legislature had been
+wrought; the disgust of those who were called the creditor States; the
+danger of the secession of their members, and the separation of the
+States. He observed that the members of the administration ought to act
+in concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet a
+common duty should make it a common concern; that the President was the
+centre on which all administrative questions ultimately rested, and
+that all of us should rally around him, and support, with joint efforts,
+measures approved by him; and that the question having been lost by
+a small majority only, it was probable that an appeal from me to the
+judgment and discretion of some of my friends, might effect a change in
+the vote, and the machine of government, now suspended, might be again
+set into motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole
+subject; that not having yet informed myself of the system of finance
+adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; that
+undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our Union at
+this incipient stage, I should deem that the most unfortunate of all
+consequences, to avert which all partial and temporary evils should be
+yielded. I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next day, and I
+would invite another friend or two, bring them into conference together,
+and I thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting together
+coolly, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a
+compromise which was to save the Union. The discussion took place.
+I could take no part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a
+stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally
+agreed, that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of
+this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord among the
+States was more important, and that therefore it would be better that
+the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which, some members
+should change their votes. But it was observed that this pill would
+be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some concomitant
+measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them. There had
+before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
+Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought
+that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown
+permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree
+the ferment which might be excited by the other measure alone. So two
+of the Potomac members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of
+stomach almost convulsive,) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton
+undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence he had
+established over the eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris
+with those of the middle States, effected his side of the engagement;
+and so the Assumption was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided
+among favored States, and thrown in as a pabulum to the stock-jobbing
+herd. This added to the number of votaries to the Treasury, and made its
+chief the master of every vote in the legislature, which might give to
+the government the direction suited to his political views.
+
+I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing like a majority in
+Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a division,
+not very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part of that
+body, between the parties styled republican and federal. The latter
+being monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton of course, as their
+leader in that principle, and this mercenary phalanx added to them,
+insured him always a majority in both Houses: so that the whole action
+of the legislature was now under the direction of the Treasury. Still
+the machine was not complete. The effect of the funding system, and of
+the Assumption, would be temporary; it would be lost with the loss
+of the individual members whom it had enriched, and some engine of
+influence more permanent must be contrived, while these myrmidons were
+yet in place to carry it through all opposition. This engine was the
+Bank of the United States. All that history is known, so I shall say
+nothing about it. While the government remained at Philadelphia, a
+selection of members of both Houses were constantly kept as directors,
+who, on every question interesting to that institution, or to the views
+of the federal head, voted at the will of that head; and, together with
+the stock-holding members, could always make the federal vote that of
+the majority. By this combination, legislative expositions were given
+to the constitution, and all the administrative laws were shaped on
+the model of England and so passed. And from this influence we were
+not relieved, until the removal from the precincts of the bank, to
+Washington. Here then was the real ground of the opposition which was
+made to the course of administration. Its object was to preserve the
+legislature pure and independent of the executive, to restrain, the
+administration to republican forms and principles, and not permit the
+constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be warped, in
+practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their favorite
+English model. Nor was this an opposition to General Washington. He
+was true to the republican charge confided to him; and has solemnly and
+repeatedly protested to me, in our conversations, that he would lose the
+last drop of his blood in support of it; and he did this the oftener and
+with the more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions of Hamilton’s
+designs against it, and wished to quiet them. For he was not aware of
+the drift, or of the effect of Hamilton’s schemes. Unversed in financial
+projects and calculations and budgets, his approbation of them was
+bottomed on his confidence in the man.
+
+But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
+corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, for the truth
+of which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on
+his southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth
+of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury,
+and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise
+during his absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested
+that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only
+occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a
+cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited
+those gentlemen (and the Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to
+dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was
+removed, and our question agreed and dismissed, conversation began
+on other matters, and, by some circumstance, was led to the British
+constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, ‘Purge that constitution
+of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of
+representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever
+devised by the wit of man.’ Hamilton paused and said, ‘Purge it of its
+corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation,
+and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at
+present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect
+government which ever existed.’ And this was assuredly the exact line
+which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
+for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one: the other, for
+an hereditary King, with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted to his
+will, and standing between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a
+singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and
+honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly
+valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the
+British example, as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was
+essential to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally been
+a republican. The glare of royalty and nobility, during his mission to
+England, had made him believe their fascination a necessary ingredient
+in government; and Shays’s rebellion, not sufficiently understood where
+he then was, seemed to prove that the absence of want and oppression,
+was not a sufficient guarantee of order. His book on the American
+Constitutions having made known his political bias, he was taken up by
+the monarchical federalists in his absence, and, on his return to
+the United States, he was by them made to believe that the general
+disposition of our citizens was favorable to monarchy. He here wrote
+his Davila, as a supplement to the former work, and his election to
+the Presidency confirmed him in his errors. Innumerable addresses too,
+artfully and industriously poured in upon him, deceived him into a
+confidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity, when the gulph was
+yawning at his feet, which was to swallow up him and his deceivers. For
+when General Washington was withdrawn, these _energumeni_ of royalism,
+kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his
+patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on the car of
+State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun, drove
+headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding
+any thing but the objects they were driving at; until, displaying these
+fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disbandment of
+them from the public councils took place.
+
+Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the treacheries
+with which he was surrounded during his administration. He has since
+thoroughly seen, that his constituents were devoted to republican
+government, and whether his judgment is resettled on its ancient basis,
+or not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the will of the majority,
+and would now, I am persuaded, maintain its republican structure with
+the zeal and fidelity belonging to his character. For even an enemy has
+said, ‘He is always an honest man, and often a great one.’ But in
+the fervor of the fury and follies of those who made him their
+stalking-horse, no man who did not witness it can form an idea of
+their unbridled madness, and the terrorism with which they surrounded
+themselves. The horrors of the French revolution, then raging, aided
+them mainly, and using that as a raw-head and bloody-bones, they were
+enabled by their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in which ------ was a leading
+mountebank, their tales of tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody-buoys, and
+pulpit-lyings and slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardiners,
+their Osgoods, and Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the firmest
+breasts. Their Attorney General had the impudence to say to a republican
+member, that deportation must be resorted to, of which, said he, ‘you
+republicans have set the example’; thus daring to identify us with the
+murderous Jacobins of France. These transactions, now recollected but
+as dreams of the night, were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us
+from their liberticide effect, but the unyielding opposition of those
+firm spirits who sternly maintained their post in defiance of terror,
+until their fellow-citizens could be aroused to their own danger, and
+rally and rescue the standard of the constitution. This has been happily
+done. Federalism and monarchism have languished from that moment, until
+their treasonable combinations with the enemies of their country during
+the late war, their plots of dismembering the Union, and their Hartford
+Convention, have consigned them to the tomb of the dead: and I fondly
+hope, ‘we may now truly say, We are all republicans, all federalists,’
+and that the motto of the standard to which our country will for ever
+rally, will be, ‘Federal union, and republican government’: and sure I
+am we may say, that we are indebted for the preservation of this point
+of ralliance, to that opposition of which so injurious an idea is so
+artfully insinuated and excited in this history.
+
+Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate
+proofs of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they
+end, of my retiring from the administration, the federalists * got
+unchecked hold of General Washington. His memory was already sensibly
+impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable,
+was beginning to relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor,
+a desire for tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let
+others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he
+was disgusted with atrocities of the French revolution, and was not
+sufficiently aware of the difference between the rabble who were used as
+instruments of their perpetration, and the steady and rational character
+of the American people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The
+opposition too of the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous
+support of the federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of
+theirs, had made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I
+disapproved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by
+a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he
+had become alienated from myself personally, as from the republican body
+generally of his fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams
+and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we
+must for ever weep as monuments of mortal decay.
+
+Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.
+
+* See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,
+
+
+****
+
+
+August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander
+Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter
+received from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
+entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive,
+or introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &c. See his
+letter. Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams’s writings, and
+most particularly Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present
+government, declared in substance as follows: ‘I own it is my own
+opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the
+present government is not that which will answer the ends of society, by
+giving stability and protection to its rights, and that it will probably
+be found expedient to go into the British form. However, since we have
+undertaken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my
+expectations may be. The success, indeed, so far, is greater than I had
+expected, and therefore, at present, success seems more possible than
+it had done heretofore, and there are still other and other stages of
+improvement, which, if the present does not succeed, may be tried, and
+ought to be tried, before we give up the republican form altogether; for
+that mind must be really depraved, which would not prefer the equality
+of political rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if
+it can be obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever by his
+writings disturbs the present order of things, is really blameable,
+however pure his intentions may be, and he was sure Mr. Adams’s were
+pure.’ This is the substance of a declaration made in much more lengthy
+terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for a private
+conversation between two, and as if intended to qualify some less
+guarded expressions which had been dropped on former occasions. Th:
+Jefferson has committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton’s
+leaving the room.
+
+December the 25th, 1791. Colonel Gunn (of Georgia), dining the other day
+with Colonel Hamilton, said to him, with that plain freedom he is known
+to use, ‘I wish, Sir, you would advise your friend King to observe some
+kind of consistency in his votes. There has been scarcely a question
+before the Senate on which he has not voted both ways. On the
+representation bill, for instance, he first voted for the proposition
+of the Representatives, and ultimately voted against it.’ ‘Why,’ says
+Colonel Hamilton, ‘I ‘ll tell you as to that, Colonel Gunn, that it
+never was intended that bill should pass.’ Gunn told this to Butler, who
+told it to Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+*****
+
+
+CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT.
+
+February the 28th, 1792. I was to have been with him long enough before
+three o’clock (which was the hour and day he received visits) to
+have opened to him a proposition for doubling the velocity of the
+post-riders, who now travel about fifty miles a day, and might, without
+difficulty, go one hundred, and for taking measures (by way-bills) to
+know where the delay is, when there is any. I was delayed by business,
+so as to have scarcely time to give him the outlines. I run over them
+rapidly, and observed afterwards, that I had hitherto never spoken
+to him on the subject of the post-office, not knowing whether it was
+considered as a revenue law, or a law for the general accommodation of
+the citizens: that the law just passed seemed to have removed the doubt,
+by declaring that the whole profits of the office should be applied to
+extending the posts, and that even the past profits should be refunded
+by the Treasury for the same purpose: that I therefore conceived it was
+now in the department of the Secretary of State: that I thought it would
+be advantageous so to declare it for another reason, to wit, that the
+department of the Treasury possessed already such an influence as
+to swallow up the whole executive powers, and that even the future
+Presidents (not supported by the weight of character which himself
+possessed) would not be able to make head against this department. That
+in urging this measure I had certainly no personal interest, since, if
+I was supposed to have any appetite for power, yet, as my career would
+certainly be exactly as short as his own, the intervening time was too
+short to be an object. My real wish was to avail the public of every
+occasion, during the residue of the President’s period, to place things
+on a safe footing. He was now called on to attend his company, and he
+desired me to come and breakfast with him the next morning.
+
+February the 29th. I did so; and after breakfast we retired to his
+room, and I unfolded my plan for the post-office, and after such
+an approbation of it as he usually permitted himself on the first
+presentment of any idea, and desiring me to commit it to writing, he,
+during that pause of conversation which follows a business closed, said,
+in an affectionate tone, that he had felt much concern at an expression
+which dropped from me yesterday, and which marked my intention of
+retiring when he should. That as to himself, many motives obliged him to
+it. He had, through the whole course of the war, and most particularly
+at the close of it, uniformly declared his resolution to retire from
+public affairs, and never to act in any public office; that he had
+retired under that firm resolution: that the government however, which
+had been formed, being found evidently too inefficacious, and it being
+supposed that his aid was of some consequence towards bringing the
+people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for their own good, he
+consented to come into the convention, and on the same motive, after
+much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get it under
+way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say, that
+having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them: that
+he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his
+memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of
+his mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself;
+that this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found,
+moreover, his activity lessened, business therefore more irksome,
+and tranquillity and retirement become an irresistible passion. That,
+however he felt himself obliged, for these reasons, to retire from the
+government, yet he should consider it as unfortunate, if that should
+bring on the retirement of the great officers of the government,
+and that this might produce a shock on the public mind of dangerous
+consequence.
+
+I told him that no man had ever had less desire of entering into public
+offices than myself; that the circumstance of a perilous war, which
+brought every thing into danger, and called for all the services
+which every citizen could render, had induced me to undertake the
+administration of the government of Virginia; that I had both before
+and after refused repeated appointments of Congress to go abroad in that
+sort of office, which, if I had consulted my own gratification, would
+always have been the most agreeable to me; that at the end of two
+years, I resigned the government of Virginia, and retired with a firm
+resolution never more to appear in public life; that a domestic loss,
+however, happened, and made me fancy that absence and a change of
+scene for a time might be expedient for me; that I therefore accepted
+a foreign appointment, limited to two years; that at the close of that,
+Doctor Franklin having left France, I was appointed to supply his place,
+which I had accepted, and though I continued in it three or four years,
+it was under the constant idea of remaining only a year or two longer;
+that the revolution in France coming on, I had so interested myself
+in the event of that, that when obliged to bring my family home, I had
+still an idea of returning and awaiting the close of that, to fix the
+era of my final retirement; that on my arrival here I found he had
+appointed me to my present office; that he knew I had not come into
+it without some reluctance; that it was, on my part, a sacrifice of
+inclination to the opinion that I might be more serviceable here than
+in France, and with a firm resolution in my mind, to indulge my constant
+wish for retirement at no very distant day; that when, therefore, I had
+received his letter, written from Mount Vernon, on his way to Carolina
+and Georgia (April the 1st, 1791), and discovered, from an expression
+in that, that he meant to retire from the government ere long, and as to
+the precise epoch there could be no doubt, my mind was immediately made
+up, to make that the epoch of my own retirement from those labors of
+which I was heartily tired. That, however, I did not believe there was
+any idea in either of my brethren in the administration of retiring;
+that on the contrary, I had perceived at a late meeting of the trustees
+of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury had developed
+the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in its view.
+
+He said, that he considered the Treasury department as a much more
+limited one, going only to the single object of revenue, while that
+of the Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the objects of
+administration, was much more important, and the retirement of the
+officer therefore, would be more noticed: that though the government had
+set out with a pretty general good will of the public, yet that symptoms
+of dissatisfaction had lately shown themselves far beyond what he could
+have expected, and to what height these might arise, in case of too
+great a change in the administration, could not be foreseen.
+
+I told him that in my opinion, there was only a single source of these
+discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to spread themselves over
+the War department also, yet I considered that as an overflowing only
+from their real channel, which would never have taken place, if they
+had not first been generated in another department, to wit, that of
+the Treasury. That a system had there been contrived, for deluging the
+States with paper-money instead of gold and silver, for withdrawing our
+citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and
+other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves and their
+capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which
+had introduced its poison into the government itself. That it was a
+fact, as certainly known as that he and I were then conversing, that
+particular members of the legislature, while those laws were on the
+carpet, had feathered their nests with paper, had then voted for the
+laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of their talents, and
+instrumentality of their offices, to the establishment and enlargement
+of this system; that they had chained it about our necks for a great
+length of time, and in order to keep the game in their hands, had, from
+time to time, aided in making such legislative constructions of the
+constitution, as made it a very different thing from what the people
+thought they had submitted to; that they had now brought forward a
+proposition far beyond every one ever yet advanced, and to which the
+eyes of many were turned, as the decision which was to let us know,
+whether we live under a limited or an unlimited government. He asked
+me to what proposition I alluded; I answered, to that in the report
+on manufactures, which, under color of giving bounties for the
+encouragement of particular manufactures, meant to establish the
+doctrine, that the power given by the constitution to collect taxes to
+provide for the general welfare of the United States, permitted Congress
+to take every thing under their management which they should deem for
+the public welfare, and which is susceptible of the application of
+money; consequently, that the subsequent enumeration of their powers
+was not the description to which resort must be had, and did not at all
+constitute the limits of their authority: that this was a very different
+question from that of the bank, which was thought an incident to an
+enumerated power: that, therefore, this decision was expected with
+great anxiety; that, indeed, I hoped the proposition would be rejected,
+believing there was a majority in both Houses against it, and that if it
+should be, it would be considered as a proof that things were returning
+into their true channel: and that, at any rate, I looked forward to the
+broad representation which would shortly take place, for keeping the
+general constitution on its true ground; and that this would remove a
+great deal of the discontent which had shown itself. The conversation
+ended with this last topic. It is here stated nearly as much at length
+as it really was; the expressions preserved where I could recollect
+them, and their substance always faithfully stated.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+March 1, 1792.
+
+
+On the 2nd of January, 1792, Messrs. Fitzsimmons and Gerry (among
+others) dined with me. These two staid, with a Mr. Learned of
+Connecticut, after the company was gone. We got on the subject of
+references by the legislature to the Heads of departments, considering
+their mischief in every direction. Gerry and Fitzsimmons clearly opposed
+to them.
+
+Two days afterwards (January the 4th), Mr. Bourne from Rhode Island
+presented a memorial from his State, complaining of inequality in the
+Assumption, and moved to refer it to the Secretary of the Treasury.
+Fitzsimmons, Gerry, and others opposed it; but it was carried.
+
+
+January the 19th. Fitzsimmons moved, that the President of the United
+States be requested to direct the Secretary of the Treasury, to lay
+before the House information to enable the legislature to judge of
+the additional revenue necessary on the increase of the military
+establishment. The House, on debate, struck out the words, ‘President of
+the United States.’
+
+
+March the 7th. The subject resumed. An animated debate took place on the
+tendency of references to the Heads of departments; and it seemed that
+a great majority would be against it: the House adjourned. Treasury
+greatly alarmed, and much industry supposed to be used before next
+morning, when it was brought on again, and debated through the day, and
+on the question, the Treasury carried it by thirty-one to twenty-seven:
+but deeply wounded, since it was seen that all Pennsylvania, except
+Jacobs, voted against the reference; that Tucker of South Carolina voted
+for it, and Sumpter absented himself, debauched for the moment only,
+because of the connection of the question with a further assumption
+which South Carolina favored; but showing that they never were to be
+counted on among the Treasury votes.
+
+Some others absented themselves. Gerry changed sides. On the whole, it
+showed that Treasury influence was tottering. Committed to writing this
+10th of March, 1792.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Consulted verbally by the President, on whom a
+committee of the Senate (Izard, Morris, and King) are to wait to-morrow
+morning, to know whether he will think it proper to redeem our Algerine
+captives, and make a treaty with the Algerines, on the single vote of
+the Senate, without taking that of the Representatives.
+
+My opinions run on the following heads.
+
+We must go to Algiers with cash in our hands. Where shall we get it? By
+loan? By converting money now in the treasury?
+
+Probably a loan might be obtained on the President’s authority: but as
+this could not be repaid without a subsequent act of legislature,
+the Representatives might refuse it. So if money in the treasury be
+converted, they may refuse to sanction it.
+
+The subsequent approbation of the Senate being necessary to validate a
+treaty, they expect to be consulted beforehand, if the case admits.
+
+So the subsequent act of the Representatives being necessary where money
+is given, why should not they expect to be consulted in like manner,
+when the case admits? A treaty is a law of the land. But prudence will
+point out this difference to be attended to in making them; viz. where
+a treaty contains such articles only as will go into execution of
+themselves, or be carried into execution by the judges, they may be
+safely made; but where there are articles which require a law to be
+passed afterwards by the legislature, great caution is requisite.
+
+For example; the consular convention with France required a very small
+legislative regulation. This convention was unanimously ratified by the
+Senate. Yet the same identical men threw by the law to enforce it at
+the last session, and the Representatives at this session have placed it
+among the laws which they may take up or not, at their own convenience,
+as if that was a higher motive than the public faith.
+
+Therefore, against hazarding this transaction without the sanction of
+both Houses.
+
+The President concurred. The Senate express the motive for this
+proposition, to be a fear that the Representatives would not keep the
+secret. He has no opinion of the secrecy of the Senate. In this very
+case, Mr. Izard made the communication to him, sitting next to him at
+table, on one hand, while a lady (Mrs. McLane) was on his other hand,
+and the French minister next to her; and as Mr. Izard got on with his
+communication, his voice kept rising, and his stutter bolting the words
+out loudly at intervals, so that the minister might hear if he would. He
+said he had a great mind at one time to have got up, in order to put a
+stop to Mr. Izard.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Mr. Sterret tells me that sitting round a fire the
+other day with four or five others, Mr. Smith (of South Carolina) was
+one. Somebody mentioned that the murderers of Hogeboom, sheriff of
+Columbia county, New York, were acquitted. ‘Ay,’ says Smith, ‘this is
+what comes of your damned trial by jury.’
+
+
+1791. Towards the latter end of November, Hamilton had drawn Ternant
+into a conversation on the subject of the treaty of commerce recommended
+by the National Assembly of France to be negotiated with us, and, as
+he had no ready instructions on the subject, he led him into a proposal
+that Ternant should take the thing up as a volunteer with me, that we
+should arrange conditions, and let them go for confirmation or refusal.
+Hamilton communicated this to the President, who came into it, and
+proposed it to me. I disapproved of it, observing, that such a volunteer
+project would be binding on us, and not them; that it would enable them
+to find out how far we would go, and avail themselves of it. However,
+the President thought it worth trying, and I acquiesced. I prepared a
+plan of treaty for exchanging the privileges of native subjects, and
+fixing all duties for ever as they now stood. Hamilton did not like this
+way of fixing the duties, because, he said, many articles here would
+bear to be raised, and therefore, he would prepare a tariff. He did so,
+raising duties for the French, from twenty-five to fifty per cent. So
+they were to give us the privileges of native subjects, and we, as a
+compensation, were to make them pay higher duties. Hamilton, having made
+his arrangements with Hammond to pretend that though he had no powers to
+conclude a treaty of commerce, yet his general commission authorized him
+to enter into the discussion of one, then proposed to the President at
+one of our meetings, that the business should be taken up with Hammond
+in the same informal way. I now discovered the trap which he had laid,
+by first getting the President into the step with Ternant. I opposed
+the thing warmly. Hamilton observed, if we did it with Ternant we should
+also with Hammond. The President thought this reasonable. I desired him
+to recollect, I had been against it with Ternant, and only acquiesced
+under his opinion. So the matter went off as to both. His scheme
+evidently was, to get us engaged first with Ternant, merely that he
+might have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with Hammond,
+taking care, at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, to render
+it impossible we should come to any conclusion with Ternant: probably
+meaning, at the same time, to propose terms so favorable to Great
+Britain, as would attach us to that country by treaty. On one of those
+occasions he asserted, that our commerce with Great Britain and her
+colonies was put on a much more favorable footing than with France and
+her colonies. I therefore prepared the tabular comparative view of the
+footing-of our commerce with those nations, which see among my papers.
+See also my project of a treaty and Hamilton’s tariff. Committed to
+writing March the 11th, 1792.
+
+It was observable, that whenever, at any of our consultations, any
+thing was proposed as to Great Britain, Hamilton had constantly ready
+something which Mr. Hammond had communicated to him, which suited the
+subject and proved the intimacy of their communications; insomuch, that
+I believe he communicated to Hammond all our views, and knew from
+him, in return, the views of the British court. Many evidences of this
+occurred; I will state some. I delivered to the President my report of
+instructions for Carmichael and Short, on the subject of navigation,
+boundary, and commerce, and desired him to submit it to Hamilton.
+Hamilton made several just criticisms on different parts of it. But
+where I asserted that the United States had no right to alienate an inch
+of the territory of any State, he attacked and denied the doctrine.
+See my report, his note, and my answer. A few days after came to hand
+Kirkland’s letter, informing us that the British, at Niagara, expected
+to run a new line between themselves and us; and the reports of Pond
+and Stedman, informing us it was understood at Niagara, that Captain
+Stevenson had been sent here by Simcoe to settle that plan with Hammond.
+Hence Hamilton’s attack of the principle I had laid down, in order to
+prepare the way for this new line. See minute of March the 9th. Another
+proof. At one of our consultations, about the last of December, I
+mentioned that I wished to give in my report on commerce, in which I
+could not avoid recommending a commercial retaliation against Great
+Britain. Hamilton opposed it violently: and among other arguments,
+observed, that it was of more importance to us to have the posts than to
+commence a commercial war; that this, and this alone, would free us from
+the expense of the Indian wars; that it would therefore be the height
+of imprudence in us, while treating for the surrender of the posts, to
+engage in any thing which would irritate them; that if we did so, they
+would naturally say, ‘These people mean war; let us therefore hold what
+we have in our hands.’ This argument, struck me forcibly, and I
+said, ‘If there is a hope of obtaining the posts, I agree it would
+be imprudent to risk that hope by a commercial retaliation. I will,
+therefore, wait till Mr. Hammond gives me in his assignment of breaches,
+and if that gives a glimmering of hope that they mean to surrender the
+posts, I will not give in my report till the next session.’ Now, Hammond
+had received my assignment of breaches on the 15th of December, and
+about the 22nd or 23rd had made me an apology for not having been able
+to send me his counter-assignment of breaches; but in terms which showed
+I might expect it in a few days. From the moment it escaped my lips
+in the presence of Hamilton, that I would not give in my report till I
+should see Hammond’s counter-complaint, and judge if there was a hope
+of the posts, Hammond never said a word to me on any occasion, as to the
+time he should be ready. At length the President got out of patience,
+and insisted I should jog him. This I did on the 21st of February, at
+the President’s assembly: he immediately promised I should have it in a
+few days, and accordingly, on the 5th of March I received it.
+
+Written March the 11th, 1792.
+
+
+March the 12th, 1792. Sent for by the President, and desired to bring
+the letter he had signed to the King of France. Went. He said the House
+of Representatives had, on Saturday, taken up the communication he had
+made of the King’s letter to him, and come to a vote in their own name;
+that he did not expect this when he sent this message and the letter,
+otherwise he would have sent the message without the letter, as I had
+proposed. That he apprehended the legislature would be endeavoring
+to invade the executive. I told him, I had understood the House had
+resolved to request him to join their congratulations to his on the
+completion and acceptance of the constitution; on which part of the
+vote, there were only two dissentients (Barnwell and Benson); that
+the vote was thirty-five to sixteen on the part which expressed an
+approbation of the wisdom of the constitution; that in the letter he had
+signed, I had avoided saying a word in approbation of the constitution,
+not knowing whether the King, in his heart, approved it. ‘Why, indeed,’
+says he,’ I begin to doubt very much of the affairs of France; there are
+papers from London as late as the 10th of January, which represent them
+as going into confusion. He read over the letter he had signed,
+found there was not a word which could commit his judgment about the
+constitution, and gave it to me back again. This is one of many proofs
+I have had, of his want of confidence in the event of the French
+revolution. The fact is, that Gouverneur Morris, a highflying monarchy
+man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against his
+wishes, and believing every thing he desires to be true, has kept the
+President’s mind constantly poisoned with his forebodings. That the
+President wishes the revolution may be established, I believe from
+several indications. I remember, when I received the news of the King’s
+flight and capture, I first told him of it at his assembly. I never saw
+him so much dejected by any event in my life. He expressed clearly, on
+this occasion, his disapprobation of the legislature referring things to
+the Heads of departments.
+
+Written March the 12th.
+
+Eodem die. Ten o’clock, A. M. The preceding was about nine o’clock. The
+President now sends Lear to me, to ask what answer he shall give to
+the committee, and particularly, whether he shall add to it, that, ‘in
+making the communication, it was not his expectation that the House
+should give any answer.’ I told Mr. Lear, that I thought the House had
+a right, independently of legislation, to express sentiments on other
+subjects. That when these subjects did not belong to any other branch
+particularly, they would publish them by their own authority; that in
+the present case, which respected a foreign nation, the President being
+the organ of our nation with other nations, the House would satisfy
+their duty, if, instead of a direct communication, they should pass
+their sentiments through the President: that if expressing a sentiment
+were really an invasion of the executive power, it was so faint a one,
+that it would be difficult to demonstrate it to the public, and to a
+public partial to the French revolution, and not disposed to considered
+the approbation of it from any quarter is improper. That the Senate,
+indeed, had given many indications of their wish to invade the executive
+power: the Representatives had done it in one case, which was indeed
+mischievous and alarming; that of giving orders to the Heads of the
+executive departments, without consulting the President; but that the
+late vote for directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report ways and
+means, though carried, was carried by so small a majority, and with the
+aid of members so notoriously under local influence on that question,
+as to give a hope that the practice would be arrested, and the
+constitutional course be taken up, of asking the President to have
+information laid before them. But that in the present instance, it was
+so far from being clearly an invasion of the executive, and would be
+so little approved by the general voice, that I could not advise the
+President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the House; and I
+gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers. See it.
+
+
+March the 31st. A meeting at the President’s; present, Thomas Jefferson,
+Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was
+the resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to
+appoint a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the
+late expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call
+for such persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist
+their inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original
+letters, instructions, &tc. The President had called us to consult,
+merely because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as
+it should become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
+acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the
+House were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted
+with subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be
+papers of so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We
+were not prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.
+
+
+April the 2nd. Met again at the President’s, on the same subject. We
+had all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was
+an inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it
+might call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
+communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought
+to refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
+consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
+committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
+and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
+should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the
+President. We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons
+in the case of Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler’s Debates. For the first
+point, seepages 161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153,
+173,207; for the third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page
+246. Note: Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the
+power of the House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that
+as to his department, the act constituting it had made it subject to
+Congress, in some points, but he thought himself not so far subject, as
+to be obliged to produce all the papers they might call for. They might
+demand secrets of a very mischievous nature. [Here I thought he began
+to fear they would go to examining how far their own members and other
+persons in the government had been dabbling in stocks, banks, &c. and
+that he probably would choose in this case to deny their power; and,
+in short, he endeavored to place himself subject to the House, when
+the executive should propose what he did not like, and subject to the
+executive, when the House should propose any thing disagreeable.]
+I observed here a difference between the British parliament and our
+Congress; that the former was a legislature, an inquest, and a council
+(S. C. page 91.) for the King. The latter was, by the constitution, a
+legislature and an inquest, but not a council. Finally agreed, to speak
+separately to the members of the committee, and bring them by persuasion
+into the right channel. It was agreed in this case, that there was not
+a paper which might not be properly produced; that copies only should be
+sent, with an assurance, that if they should desire it, a clerk should
+attend with the originals to be verified by themselves. The committee
+were Fitzsimmons, Steele, Mercer, Clarke, Sedgwick, Giles, and Vining.
+
+
+April the 9th, 1792. The President had wished to redeem our captives at
+Algiers, and to make a peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The
+Senate were willing to approve this, but unwilling to have the lower
+House applied to previously to furnish the money; they wished the
+President to take the money from the treasury, or open a loan for it.
+They thought that to consult the Representatives on one occasion,
+would give them a handle always to claim it, and would let them into a
+participation of the power of making treaties, which the constitution
+had given exclusively to the President and Senate. They said, too, that
+if the particular sum was noted by the Representatives, it would not be
+a secret. The President had no confidence in the secrecy of the Senate,
+and did not choose to take money from the treasury or to borrow. But he
+agreed he would enter into provisional treaties with the Algerines,
+not to be binding on us till ratified here. I prepared questions for
+consultation with the Senate, and added, that the Senate were to be
+apprized, that on the return of the provisional treaty, and after they
+should advise the ratification, he would not have the seal put to it
+till the two Houses should vote the money. He asked me, if the treaty
+stipulating a sum and ratified by him, with the advice of the Senate,
+would not be good under the constitution, and obligatory on the
+Representatives to furnish the money. I answered, it certainly would,
+and that it would be the duty of the Representatives to raise the money;
+but that they might decline to do what was their duty, and I thought it
+might be incautious to commit himself by a ratification with a foreign
+nation, where he might be left in the lurch in the execution: it was
+possible too, to conceive a treaty, which it would not be their duty
+to provide for. He said that he did not like throwing too much into
+democratic hands, that if they would not do what the constitution called
+on them to do, the government would be at an end, and must then assume
+another form. He stopped here; and I kept silence to see whether
+he would say any thing more in the same line, or add any qualifying
+expression to soften what he had said: but he did neither. I had
+observed, that wherever the agency of either, or both Houses would be
+requisite subsequent to a treaty, to carry it into effect, it would be
+prudent to consult them previously, if the occasion admitted. That thus
+it was, we were in the habit of consulting the Senate previously, when
+the occasion permitted, because their subsequent ratification would be
+necessary. That there was the same reason for consulting the lower House
+previously, where they were to be called on afterwards, and especially
+in the case of money, as they held the purse-strings, and would be
+jealous of them. However, he desired me to strike out the intimation
+that the seal would not be put till both Houses should have voted the
+money.
+
+
+April the 6th. The President called on me before breakfast, and first
+introduced some other matter, then fell on the representation bill,
+which he had now in his possession for the tenth day. I had before given
+him my opinion in writing, that the method of apportionment was contrary
+to the constitution. He agreed that it was contrary to the common
+understanding of that instrument, and to what was understood at the time
+by the makers of it: that, yet it would bear the construction which the
+bill put, and he observed that the vote for and against the bill was
+perfectly geographical, a northern against a southern vote, and he
+feared he should be thought to be taking side with a southern party. I
+admitted the motive of delicacy, but that it should not induce him to
+do wrong: urged the dangers to which the scramble for the fractionary
+members would always lead. He here expressed his fear that there would,
+ere long, be a separation of the Union; that the public mind seemed
+dissatisfied and tending to this. He went home, sent for Randolph, the
+Attorney General, desired him to get Mr. Madison immediately and come
+to me, and if we three concurred in opinion that he should negative the
+bill, he desired to hear nothing more about it, but that we would draw
+the instrument for him to sign. They came. Our minds had been before
+made up.
+
+We drew the instrument. Randolph carried it to him, and told him we
+all concurred in it. He walked with him to the door, and as if he still
+wished to get off, he said, ‘And you say you approve of this yourself.’
+‘Yes, Sir,’ says Randolph, ‘I do upon my honor.’ He sent it to the House
+of Representatives instantly. A few of the hottest friends of the bill
+expressed passion, but the majority were satisfied, and both in and
+out of doors it gave pleasure to have, at length, an instance of the
+negative being exercised.
+
+Written this the 9th of April.
+
+
+July the 10th, 1792. My letter of ---- to the President, directed to him
+at Mount Vernon, had not found him there, but came to him here. He told
+me of this, and that he would take an occasion of speaking with me on
+the subject. He did so this day. He began by observing that he had put
+it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit, his
+remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
+declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
+again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
+called on to come forward to set the present government in motion,
+it appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a
+change in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all
+would be well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years
+he found some things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he
+thought it was not worth while to disturb the course of things, as
+in one year more his office would expire, and he was decided then to
+retire. Now he was told there would still be danger in it. Certainly,
+if he thought so, he would conquer his longing for retirement. But he
+feared it would be said his former professions of retirement had been
+mere affectation, and that he was like other men, when once in office
+he could not quit it. He was sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing,
+perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it.
+That with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there
+we’re suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a
+great deal too far: there might be desires, but he did not believe there
+were designs to change the form of government into a monarchy: that
+there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life,
+particularly in the great cities; but that the main body of the people
+in the eastern States were as steadily for republicanism as in the
+southern. That the pieces lately published, and particularly in
+Freneau’s paper, seemed to have in view the exciting opposition to
+the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as to the
+excise-law, according to information he had received from General Hand.
+That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most dreadful
+of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy, tended,
+of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He considered
+those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool indeed to
+swallow the little sugar-plumbs here and there thrown out to him. That
+in condemning the administration of the government, they condemned
+him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to his
+sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or
+too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many
+acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put
+his name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That
+as to the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there
+was some infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be
+tolerated. He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat
+of government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and
+Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and
+happy. He wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the
+discontents were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the
+desire that he should remain in the government was not general.
+
+My observations to him tended principally to enforce the topics of my
+letter. I will not, therefore, repeat them, except where they produced
+observations from him. I said, that the two great complaints were, that
+the national debt was unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished
+the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature; that he must
+know, and every body knew, there was a considerable squadron in both,
+whose votes were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest, that
+the names of a weighty number were known, and several others suspected
+on good grounds. That on examining the votes of these men, they would
+be found uniformly for every Treasury measure, and that as most of these
+measures had been carried by small majorities, they were carried by
+these very votes. That, therefore, it was a cause of just uneasiness,
+when we saw a legislature legislating for their own interests, in
+opposition to those of the people. He said not a word on the corruption
+of the legislature, but took up the other point, defended the
+Assumption, and argued that it had not increased the debt, for that all
+of it was honest debt. He justified the excise-law, as one of the best
+laws which could be passed, as nobody would pay the tax who did not
+choose to do it. With respect to the increase of the debt by the
+Assumption, I observed to him, that what was meant and objected to was,
+that it increased the debt of the General Government, and carried
+it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the balances had been
+settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their deficiencies to
+the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and by resources of
+taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by a direct tax
+in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it would
+be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
+argument with him on those points.
+
+
+Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I
+had the following conversation with the President. He opened it by
+expressing his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in
+the letter I had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said,
+that he should be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he
+was in office, and that he could not see where he should find another
+character to fill my office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether
+to retire in March or not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it.
+Nobody disliked more the ceremonies of his office, and he had not the
+least taste or gratification in the execution of its functions. That he
+was happy at home alone, and that his presence there was now peculiarly
+called for by the situation of Major Washington, whom he thought
+irrecoverable, and should he get well, he would remove into another
+part of the country, which might better agree with him. That he did not
+believe his presence necessary; that there were other characters who
+would do the business as well or better. Still, however, if his aid was
+thought necessary to save the cause to which he had devoted his life
+principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer continuance. That
+he therefore reserved himself for future decision, as his declaration
+would be in time if made a month before the day of election. He had
+desired Mr. Lear to find out from conversation, without appearing to
+make the inquiry, whether any other person would be desired by any
+body. He had informed him, he judged from conversations that it was
+the universal desire he should continue, and he believed that those
+who expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language of
+apprehension, and not of desire. But this, says he, is only from the
+north; it may be very different in the south. I thought this meant as
+an opening to me to say what was the sentiment in the south, from which
+quarter I came. I told him, that as far as I knew, there was but one
+voice there, which was for his continuance. That as to myself, I had
+ever preferred the pursuits of private life to those of public,
+which had nothing in them agreeable to me. I explained to him the
+circumstances of the war which had first called me into public life, and
+those following the war, which had called me from a retirement on which
+I had determined. That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home,
+and could no longer refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his
+presence was important; that he was the only man in the United States
+who possessed the confidence of the whole; that government was founded
+in opinion and confidence, and that the longer he remained, the stronger
+would become the habits of the people in submitting to the government,
+and in thinking it a thing to be maintained; that there was no other
+person, who would be thought any thing more than the head of a party. He
+then expressed his concern at the difference which he found to subsist
+between the Secretary of the Treasury and myself, of which he said he
+had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that there was a marked difference
+in our political sentiments, but he had never suspected it had gone so
+far in producing a personal difference, and he wished he could be the
+mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it important to preserve
+the check of my opinions in the administration, in order to keep things
+in their proper channel, and prevent them from going too far. That as
+to the idea of transforming this government into a monarchy, he did
+not believe there were ten men in the United States whose opinions were
+worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him there were
+many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute at
+his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
+Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
+former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
+produce good magistrates as election. I told him, that though the
+people were sound, there were a numerous sect who had monarchy in
+contemplation; that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. That
+I had heard him say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of
+mere milk and water, which could not last, and was only good as a step
+to something better. That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in
+the convention, to make an English constitution of it, and when failing
+in that, we saw all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing,
+it was natural for us to be jealous; and particularly, when we saw that
+these measures had established corruption in the legislature, where
+there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever
+he had directed, and ready to do what he should direct. That if the
+equilibrium of the three great bodies, legislative, executive, and
+judiciary, could be preserved, if the legislature could be kept
+independent, I should never fear the result of such a government;
+but that I could not but be uneasy, when I saw that the executive had
+swallowed up the legislative branch. He said, that as to that interested
+spirit in the legislature, it was what could not be avoided in any
+government, unless we were to exclude particular descriptions of men,
+such as the holders of the funds, from all office. I told him, there was
+great difference between the little accidental schemes of self-interest,
+which would take place in every body of men, and influence their votes,
+and a regular system for forming a corps of interested persons, who
+should be steadily at the orders of the Treasury. He touched on the
+merits of the funding system, observed there was a difference of opinion
+about it, some thinking it very bad, others very good; that experience
+was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would
+decide which opinion was right. That for himself, he had seen our
+affairs desperate and our credit lost, and that this was in a sudden and
+extraordinary degree raised to the highest pitch. I told him, all that
+was ever necessary to establish our credit, was an efficient government
+and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay our debts, laying
+taxes for this purpose, and applying them to it. I avoided going further
+into the subject. He finished by another exhortation to me not to decide
+too positively on retirement, and here we were called to breakfast.
+
+
+October the 31st, 1792. I had sent to the President, Viar and Jaudenes’s
+letter of the 29th instant, whereupon he desired a consultation of
+Hamilton, Knox, E. Randolph, and myself, on these points. 1. What notice
+was to be taken hereof to Spain. 2. Whether it should make part of the
+communication to the legislature. I delivered my opinion, that it ought
+to be communicated to both Houses, because the communications intended
+to be made, being to bring on the question, whether they would declare
+war against any, and which of the nations or parts of the nations of
+Indians to the south, it would be proper this information should be
+before them, that they might know how far such a declaration would lead
+them. There might be some who would be for war against the Indians, if
+it were to stop there, but who would not be for it, if it were to lead
+to a war against Spain. I thought it should be laid before both Houses,
+because it concerned the question of declaring war, which was the
+function equally of both Houses. I thought a simple acknowledgment of
+the receipt of the letter should be made by me to the Spanish Charges,
+expressing that it contained some things very unexpected to us, but that
+we should refer the whole, as they had proposed, to the negotiators
+at Madrid. This would secure to us a continuation of the suspension
+of Indian hostilities, which the Governor of New Orleans said he had
+brought about till the result of the negotiation at Madrid should be
+known; would not commit us as to running or not running the line, or
+imply any admission of doubt about our tentorial right; and would avoid
+a rupture with Spain, which was much to be desired, while we had similar
+points to discuss with Great Britain. Hamilton declared himself the
+advocate for peace. War would derange our affairs greatly; throw us
+back many years in the march towards prosperity; be difficult for us to
+pursue, our countrymen not being disposed to become soldiers; a part
+of the Union feeling no interest in the war, would with difficulty be
+brought to exert itself; and we had no navy. He was for every thing
+which would procrastinate the event. A year, even, was a great gain to a
+nation strengthening as we were. It laid open to us, too, the chapter
+of accidents, which in the present state of Europe, was a very pregnant
+one. That while, however, he was for delaying the event of war, he had
+no doubt it was to take place between us for the object in question:
+that jealousy and perseverance were remarkable features in the character
+of the Spanish government, with respect to their American possessions;
+that so far from receding as to their claims against us, they had
+been strengthening themselves in them. He had no doubt the present
+communication was by authority from the court. Under this impression
+he thought we should be looking forward to the day of rupture, and
+preparing for it. That if we were unequal to the contest ourselves, it
+behoved us to provide allies for our aid. That in this view, but two
+nations could be named, France and England. France was too intimately
+connected with Spain in other points, and of too great mutual value,
+ever to separate for us. Her affairs too, were such, that whatever
+issue they had, she could not be in a situation to make a respectable
+mediation for us. England alone, then, remained. It would not be easy to
+effect it with her; however, he was for trying it, and for sounding them
+on the proposition of a defensive treaty of alliance. The inducements to
+such a treaty, on their part, might be, 1. The desire of breaking up our
+former connections, which we knew they had long wished. 2. A continuance
+of the statu quo in commerce for ten years, which he believed would
+be desirable to them. 3. An admission to some navigable part of the
+Mississippi, by some line drawn from the Lake of the Woods to such
+navigable part. He had not, he said, examined the map to see how such
+a line might be run, so as not to make too great a sacrifice. The
+navigation of the Mississippi being a joint possession, we might
+then take measures in concert for the joint security of it. He was,
+therefore, for immediately sounding them on this subject through our
+minister at London; yet so as to keep ourselves unengaged as long as
+possible, in hopes a favorable issue with Spain might be otherwise
+effected. But he was for sounding immediately, and for not letting slip
+an opportunity of securing our object.
+
+E. Randolph concurred, in general, with me. He objected that such a
+reliance could not be effected without pecuniary consideration probably,
+which he could not give. And what was to be their aid? If men, our
+citizens would see their armies get foothold in the United States, with
+great jealousy; it would be difficult to protect them. Even the French,
+during the distresses of the late war, excited some jealous sentiments,
+
+Hamilton said, money was often but not always demanded, and the aid he
+should propose to stipulate would be in ships. Knox _non dissentiente_.
+
+The President said the remedy would be worse than the disease, and
+stated some of the disagreeable circumstances which would attend our
+making such overtures.
+
+
+November, 1792. Hamilton called on me to speak about our furnishing
+supplies to the French colony of St. Domingo. He expressed his opinion,
+that we ought to be cautious, and not go too far in our application
+of money to their use, lest it should not be recognised by the mother
+country. He did not even think that some kinds of government they
+might establish could give a sufficient sanction.* I observed, that the
+National Convention was now met, and would certainly establish a form
+of government; that as we had recognised the former government because
+established by authority of the nation, so we must recognise any other
+which should be established by the authority of the nation. He said we
+had recognised the former, because it contained an important member of
+the ancient, to wit, the King, and wore the appearance of his consent;
+but if, in any future form, they should omit the King, he did not know
+that we could with safety recognise it, or pay money to its order.
+
+     * There had been a previous consultation at the President’s
+     (about the first week in November) on the expediency of
+     suspending payments to France, under her present situation.
+     I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by
+     the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs
+     surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an
+     integral legislature, and therefore not competent to give a
+     legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought
+     consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate
+     body came into place; and that I should consider the
+     National Convention, called, but not met as we had yet
+     heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it
+     would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should
+     be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on
+     good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
+     and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a
+     convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be
+     competent to do any thing. It ended by agreeing, that I
+     should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment
+     generally, till further orders.
+
+
+November the 19th, 1792. Beckley brings me the pamphlet written by
+Hamilton, before the war, in answer to ‘Common Sense.’ It is entitled
+‘Plain Truth.’ Melancthon Smith sends it to Beckley, and in his letter
+says, it was not printed in New York by Loudon, because prevented by a
+mob, and was printed in Philadelphia, and that he has these facts from
+Loudon.
+
+
+November the 21st, 1792. Mr. Butler tells me, that he dined last winter
+with Mr. Campbell from Denmark, in company with Hamilton, Lawrence, Dr.
+Shippen, T. Shippen, and one other person whom he cannot recollect. That
+after dinner political principles became the subject of conversation;
+that Hamilton declared openly, that ‘there was no stability, no security
+in any kind of government but a monarchy.’ That Lawrence took him
+up, and entered the lists of argument against him; that the dispute
+continued long, and grew warm, remarkably so as between them; that
+Shippen, at length, joined Lawrence in it; and in fine, that it broke up
+the company. Butler recommended to the company, that the dispute having
+probably gone farther than was intended, it ought to be considered as
+confined to the company.
+
+
+Thursday, December the 27th, 1792. I waited on the President on some
+current business. After this was over, he observed to me, that he
+thought it was time to endeavor to effect a stricter connection with
+France, and that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on this subject.
+He went into the circumstances of dissatisfaction between Spain and
+Great Britain, and us, and observed, there was no nation on whom we
+could rely, at all times, but France; and that, if we did not prepare
+in time some support, in the event of rupture with Spain and England,
+we might be charged with a criminal negligence. I was much pleased with
+the tone of these observations. It was the very doctrine which had been
+my polar star, and I did not need the successes of the republican arms
+in France, lately announced to us, to bring me to these sentiments.
+For it is to be noted, that on Saturday last, (the 22nd) I received Mr.
+Short’s letters of October the 9th and 12th, with the Leyden gazettes to
+October the 13th, giving us the first news of the retreat of the Duke of
+Brunswick, and the capture of Spires and Worms by Custine, and that
+of Nice by Anselme. I therefore expressed to the President my cordial
+approbation of these ideas; told him, I had meant on that day (as an
+opportunity of writing by the British packet would occur immediately) to
+take his orders for removing the suspension of payments to France, which
+had been imposed by my last letter to Gouverneur Morris, but was meant,
+as I supposed, only for the interval between the abolition of the late
+constitution by the dethronement of the King, and the meeting of some
+other body, invested by the will of the nation with powers to transact
+their affairs; that I considered the National Convention, then
+assembled, as such a body; and that, therefore, we ought to go on with
+the payments to them, or to any government they should establish; that,
+however, I had learned last night, that some clause in the bill for
+providing reimbursement of the loan made by the bank to the United
+States, had given rise to a question before the House of Representatives
+yesterday, which might affect these payments; a clause in that bill
+proposing, that the money formerly borrowed in Amsterdam, to pay the
+French debt, and appropriated by law (1790, August 4th, c. 34. § 2.) to
+that purpose, lying dead as was suggested, should be taken to pay the
+bank, and the President be authorized to borrow two millions of dollars
+more, out of which it should be replaced: and if this should be done,
+the removal of our suspension of payments, as I had been about to
+propose, would be premature. He expressed his disapprobation of the
+clause above mentioned; thought it highly improper in the legislature to
+change an appropriation once made, and added, that no one could tell in
+what that would end. I concurred, but observed, that on a division of
+the House, the ayes for striking out the clause were twenty-seven, the
+noes twenty-six; whereon the Speaker gave his vote against striking out,
+which divides the House: the clause for the disappropriation remained
+of course. I mentioned suspicions, that the whole of this was a trick
+to serve the bank under a great existing embarrassment; that the debt to
+the bank was to be repaid by instalments; that the first instalment was
+of two hundred thousand dollars only, or rather one hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars, (because forty thousand of the two hundred thousand
+dollars would be the United States’ own dividend of the instalment.) Yet
+here were two millions to be paid them at once, and to be taken from a
+purpose of gratitude and honor, to which it had been appropriated.
+
+
+December the 30th, 1792. I took the occasion furnished by Pinckney’s
+letter of September the 19th, asking instructions how to conduct himself
+as to the French revolution, to lay down the catholic principle of
+republicanism, to wit, that every people may establish what form of
+government they please, and change it as they please; the will of the
+nation being the only thing essential. I was induced to do this, in
+order to extract the President’s opinion on the question which divided
+Hamilton and myself in the conversation of November, 1792, and the
+previous one of the first week of November, on the suspension of
+payments to France: and if favorable to mine, to place the principle on
+record in the letter-books of my office. I therefore wrote the letter
+of December the 30th, to Pinckney, and sent it to the President, and he
+returned me his approbation in writing, in his note of the same date,
+which see.
+
+
+February the 7th, 1793. I waited on the President with letters and
+papers from Lisbon. After going through these, I told him that I had for
+some time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out
+of office, because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with
+foreign nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate, in which case,
+the remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable to
+make it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now passed, I
+was freed from the considerations of propriety which had embarrassed me.
+That &c. [nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T. M. Randolph, of
+a few days ago,] and that I should be willing, if he had taken no
+arrangements to the contrary, to continue somewhat longer, how long I
+could not say, perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He said, so far from
+taking arrangements on the subject, he had never mentioned to any mortal
+the design of retiring which I had expressed to him, till yesterday,
+when having heard that I had given up my house, and that it was rented
+by another, he thereupon mentioned it to Mr. E. Randolph, and asked him,
+as he knew my retirement had been talked of, whether he had heard
+any persons suggested in conversation to succeed me. He expressed his
+satisfaction at my change of purpose and his apprehensions that my
+retirement would be a new source of uneasiness to the public. He
+said Governor Lee had that day informed him of the general discontent
+prevailing in Virginia, of which he never had had any conception,
+much less sound information. That it appeared to him very alarming. He
+proceeded to express his earnest wish that Hamilton and myself could
+coalesce in the measures of the government, and urged here the general
+reasons for it, which he had done to me in two former conversations.
+He said he had proposed the same thing to Hamilton, who expressed
+his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the general
+acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of much less
+importance than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself aloof from all
+cabal and correspondence on the subject with the government, and saw and
+spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr. Hamilton,
+if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his general system
+to the other, it was impossible. We had both, no doubt, formed our
+conclusions after the most mature consideration; and principles
+conscientiously adopted, could not be given up on either side. My wish
+was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested
+in the bank or public stocks: and that a pure legislature being given
+us, I should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations,
+even if contrary to my own opinions; for that I subscribe to the
+principle, that the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should
+give law. I confirmed him in the fact of the great discontents to
+the south; that they were grounded on seeing that their judgments
+and interests were sacrificed to those of the eastern States on every
+occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a corrupt squadron
+of voters in Congress, at the command of the Treasury; and they see that
+if the votes of those members who had any interest distinct from,
+and contrary to the general interest of their constituents, had been
+withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should have been, the laws
+would have been the reverse of what they are on all the great questions.
+I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House of Representatives
+by the Speaker’s vote. On this subject he made no reply. He explained
+his remaining in office to have been the effect of strong solicitations
+after he returned here; declaring that he had never mentioned his
+purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr. Madison; he
+expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in office,
+and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &c.
+and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
+consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of
+the public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
+
+
+February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
+curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New
+York, he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees. At
+length he yielded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle
+the forms. Accordingly, an antechamber and presence-room were provided,
+and when those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President
+set out, preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the antechamber,
+the door of the inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered first,
+calling out with a loud voice, ‘The President of the United States.’ The
+President was so much disconcerted with it, that he did not recover it
+the whole time of the levee, and when the company was gone, he said
+to Humphreys, ‘Well, you have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall
+never take me in a second time.’
+
+There is reason to believe that the rejection of the late additional
+Assumption by the Senate was effected by the President through Lear,
+operating on Langdon. Beckley knows this.
+
+
+February the 26th, 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [See the
+formal opinions given to the President in writing, and signed.]
+
+First question. We were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed
+merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of
+success. I expressed myself strongly, that the event was so unpromising,
+that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on without the
+least relaxation, and that a day should be fixed with the commissioners
+for the treaty, beyond which they should not permit the treaty to be
+protracted, by which day, orders should be given for our forces to enter
+into action. The President took up the thing instantly, after I had said
+this, and declared he was so much in the opinion that the treaty would
+end in nothing, that he then, in the presence of us all, gave orders to
+General Knox, not to slacken the preparations for the campaign in the
+least, but to exert every nerve in preparing for it. Knox said something
+about the ultimate day for continuing the negotiations. I acknowledged
+myself not a judge on what day the campaign should begin, but that
+whatever it was, that day should terminate the treaty. Knox said he
+thought a winter campaign was always the most efficacious against the
+Indians. I was of opinion, since Great Britain insisted on furnishing
+provisions, that we should offer to repay. Hamilton thought we should
+not.
+
+Second question. I considered our right of preemption of the
+Indian lands, not as amounting to any dominion, or jurisdiction, or
+paramountship whatever, but merely in the nature of a remainder after
+the extinguishment of a present right, which gave us no present right
+whatever, but of preventing other nations from taking possession, and so
+defeating our expectancy; that the Indians had the full, undivided, and
+independent sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, and that this
+might be for ever; that as fast as we extend our rights by purchase from
+them, so fast we extend the limits of our society, and as soon as a new
+portion became encircled within our line, it became a fixed limit of
+our society: that the executive, with either or both branches of the
+legislature, could not alien any part of our territory; that by the
+law of nations it was settled, that the unity and indivisibility of
+the society was so fundamental, that it could not be dismembered by the
+constituted authorities, except, 1. where all power was delegated to
+them (as in the case of despotic governments,) or, 2. where it was
+expressly delegated; that neither of these delegations had been made
+to our General Government, and, therefore, that it had no right
+to dismember or alienate any portion of territory once ultimately
+consolidated with us; and that we could no more cede to the Indians
+than to the English or Spaniards, as it might, according to acknowledged
+principles, remain as irrevocably and eternally with the one as the
+other. But I thought, that, as we had a right to sell and settle lands
+once comprehended within our lines, so we might forbear to exercise
+that right, retaining the property, till circumstances should be more
+favorable to the settlement, and this I agreed to do in the present
+instance, if necessary for peace.
+
+Hamilton agreed to the doctrine of the law of nations, as laid down in
+Europe, but that it was founded on the universality of settlement there;
+consequently that no lopping-off of territory could be made without a
+lopping-off of citizens, which required their consent; but that the law
+of nations for us, must be adapted to the circumstance of our unsettled
+country, which he conceived the President and Senate may cede: that
+the power of treaty was given to them by the constitution, without
+restraining it to particular objects; consequently that it was given in
+as plenipotentiary a form as held by any sovereign in any other society.
+Randolph was of opinion, there was a difference between a cession to
+Indians and to any others, because it only restored the ceded part to
+the condition in which it was before we bought it, and consequently,
+that we might buy it again hereafter: therefore, he thought the
+executive and Senate could cede it. Knox joined in the main opinion. The
+President discovered no opinion, but he made some efforts to get us to
+join in some terms which could unite us all, and he seemed to direct
+those efforts more towards me: but the thing could not be done.
+
+Third question. We agreed in idea as to the line to be drawn; to wit, so
+as to retain all lands appropriated, or granted, or reserved.
+
+Fourth question. We all thought, if the Senate should be consulted, and
+consequently apprized of our line, it would become known to Hammond, and
+we should lose all chance of saving any thing more at the treaty than
+our ultimatum.
+
+The President, at this meeting, mentioned the declaration of some
+person, in a paper of Fenno, that he would commence an attack on the
+character of Dr. Franklin. He said, the theme was to him excessively
+disagreeable on other considerations, but most particularly so, as
+the party seemed to do it as a means of defending him (the President)
+against the late attacks on him: that such a mode of defence would be
+peculiarly painful to him, and he wished it could be stopped. Hamilton
+and Randolph undertook to speak to Fenno to suppress it, without
+mentioning it as the President’s wish. Both observed, that they had
+heard this declaration mentioned in many companies, and that it had
+excited universal horror and detestation.
+
+The paper in Fenno must lie between two persons, viz. Adams and Izard,
+because they are the only persons who could know such facts as are there
+promised to be unfolded. Adams is an enemy to both characters, and might
+choose this ground as an effectual position to injure both. Izard hated
+Franklin with unparalleled bitterness, but humbly adores the President,
+because he is in _loco regis_. If the paper proceeds, we shall easily
+discover which of these two gentlemen is the champion. In the mean time,
+the first paper leads our suspicions more towards Izard than Adams, from
+the circumstance of style, and because he is quite booby enough not to
+see the injury he would do to the President by such a mode of defence.
+
+
+February the 28th. Knox, E. Randolph, and myself met at Knox’s, where
+Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time, manner, and place
+of the President’s swearing in. Hamilton had been there before, and
+had left his opinion with Knox; to wit, that the President should ask
+a judge to attend him in his own house to administer the oath, in the
+presence of the Heads of departments; which oath should be deposited in
+the Secretary of State’s office. I concurred in this opinion. Randolph
+was for the President’s going to the Senate chamber to take the oath,
+attended by the marshal of the United States, who should then make
+proclamation, &c. Knox was for this, and for adding the House of
+Representatives to the presence, as they would not yet be departed. Our
+individual opinions were written, to be communicated to the President,
+out of which he might form one. In the course of our conversation,
+Knox, stickling for parade, got into great warmth, and swore that our
+government must either be entirely new modeled, or it would be knocked
+to pieces in less than ten years; and that, as it is at present, he
+would not give a copper for it; that it is the President’s character,
+and not the written constitution which keeps it together.
+
+Same day. Conversation with Lear. He expressed the strongest confidence
+that republicanism was the universal creed of America, except of a very
+few; that a republican administration must of necessity immediately
+overbear the contrary faction; said that he had seen with extreme
+regret, that a number of gentlemen had for a long time been endeavoring
+to instil into the President, that the noise against the administration
+of the government was that of a little faction, which would soon be
+silent, and which was detested by the people, who were contented and
+prosperous: that this very party, however, began to see their error, and
+that the sense of America was bursting forth to their conviction.
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles’s
+resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe,
+that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the
+House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1.
+of bank directors, 2. holders of bank stock, 3. stock-jobbers, 4. blind
+devotees, 5. ignorant persons who did not comprehend them, 6. lazy and
+good-humored persons, who comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were
+too lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure; the persons who
+knew these characters, foresaw, that the three first descriptions making
+one third of the House, the three latter would make one half of the
+residue; and of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of
+two to one. But they thought, that even this rejection would do good, by
+showing the public the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which
+their affairs were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, and nothing
+spared to present them in the fulness of demonstration. There were not
+more than three or four who voted otherwise than had been expected.
+
+
+March the 30th, 1793. At our meeting at the President’s, February the
+25th, in discussing the question, whether we should furnish to France
+the three millions of livres desired, Hamilton, in speaking on the
+subject, used this expression; ‘When Mr. Genet arrives, whether we
+shall receive him or not, will then be a question for discussion’; which
+expression I did not recollect till E. Randolph reminded me of it a few
+days after. Therefore, on the 20th instant, as the President was shortly
+to set out for Mount Vernon, I observed to him, that as Genet might
+arrive in his absence, I wished to know beforehand how I should treat
+him, whether as a person who would or would not be received. He said, he
+could see no ground of doubt, but that he ought to be received. On the
+24th, he asked E. Randolph’s opinion on the subject, saying, he had
+consulted Colonel Hamilton thereon, who went into lengthy considerations
+of doubt and difficulty, and viewing it as a very unfortunate thing,
+that the President should have the decision of so critical a point
+forced on him; but in conclusion, said, since he was brought into that
+situation, he did not see but that he must receive Mr. Genet. Randolph
+told the President, he was clear he should be received, and the
+President said, he had never had any doubt on the subject in his mind.
+Afterwards on the same day, he spoke to me again on it, and said, Mr.
+Genet should unquestionably be received; but he thought not with too
+much warmth or Cordiality, so only as to be satisfactory to him. I
+wondered at first at this restriction: but when Randolph afterwards
+communicated to me his conversation of the 24th, I became satisfied it
+was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.
+
+
+March the 31st. Mr. Beckley tells me, that the merchants’ bonds for
+duties on six months’ credit became due the 1st instant, to a very great
+amount; that Hamilton went to the bank on that day, and directed the
+bank to discount for those merchants all their bonds at thirty days,
+and that he would have the collectors credited for the money at the
+treasury. Hence, the treasury lumping its receipts by the month in its
+printed accounts, these sums will be considered by the public as only
+received on the last day; consequently, the bank makes the month’s
+interest out of it. Beckley had this from a merchant, who had a bond
+discounted, and who supposes a million of dollars were discounted at the
+bank here. Mr. Brown got the same information from another merchant,
+who supposed only six hundred thousand dollars discounted here. But they
+suppose the same orders went to all the branch banks to a great amount.
+
+Eodem die. Mr. Brown tells me he has it from a merchant here, that
+during the last winter, the directors of the bank ordered the freest
+discounts. Every man could obtain it. Money being so flush, the six per
+cents run up to twenty-one and twenty-two shillings. Then the directors
+sold out their private stocks. When the discounted notes were becoming
+due, they stopped discounts, and not a dollar was to be had. This
+reduced six per cents to eighteen shillings and three pence; then the
+same directors bought in again.
+
+
+April the 7th, 1793. Mr. Lear called on me, and introduced of himself a
+conversation on the affairs of the United States. He laughed at the
+cry of prosperity, and the deriving it from the establishment of the
+treasury: he said, that, so far from giving in to this opinion, and that
+we were paying off our national debt, he was clear the debt was growing
+on us: that he had lately expressed this opinion to the President, who
+appeared much astonished at it. I told him I had given the same hint to
+the President last summer, and lately again had suggested, that we
+were even depending for the daily subsistence of government on borrowed
+money. He said, that was certain, and was the only way of accounting for
+what was become of the money drawn over from Holland to this country.
+He regretted that the President was not in the way of hearing full
+information, declared he communicated to him every thing he could learn
+himself; that the men who vaunted the present government so much on some
+occasions, were the very men who at other times declared it was a poor
+thing, and such a one as could not stand, and he was sensible they
+only esteemed it as a stepping-stone to something else, and had availed
+themselves of the first moments of the enthusiasm in favor of it, to
+pervert its principles and make of it what they wanted: and that though
+they raised the cry of anti-federalism against those who censured the
+mode of administration, yet he was satisfied, whenever it should come to
+be tried, that the very men whom they called anti-federalists, were the
+men who would save the government, and he looked to the next Congress
+for much rectification.
+
+
+April the 18th. The President sends a set of questions to be considered,
+and calls a meeting. Though those sent me were in his own hand-writing,
+yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissue and suite,
+that they were not the President’s, that they were raised upon a
+prepared chain of argument, in short, that the language was Hamilton’s,
+and the doubts his alone. They led to a declaration of the executive,
+that our treaty with France is void. E. Randolph, the next day, told me
+that the day before the date of these questions, Hamilton went with him
+through the whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the
+skeleton, and that he recognised them the moment he saw them.
+
+We met. The first question, whether we should receive the French
+minister, Genet, was proposed, and we agreed unanimously that he should
+be received; Hamilton, at the same time, expressing his great regret
+that any accident had happened, which should oblige us to recognise
+the government. The next question was, whether he should be received
+absolutely, or with qualifications. Here Hamilton took up the whole
+subject, and went through it in the order in which the questions sketch
+it. See the chain of his reasoning in my opinion of April the 28th. Knox
+subscribed at once to Hamilton’s opinion that we ought to declare the
+treaty void, acknowledging, at the same time, like a fool as he is,
+that he knew nothing about it. I was clear it remained valid. Randolph
+declared himself of the same opinion, but on Hamilton’s undertaking to
+present to him the authority in Vattel (which we had not present), and
+to prove to him, that if the authority was admitted, the treaty might be
+declared void, Randolph agreed to take further time to consider. It was
+adjourned. We determined unanimously the last question, that Congress
+should not be called. There having been an intimation by Randolph, that
+in so great a question he should choose to give a written opinion, and
+this being approved by the President, I gave in mine April the 28th.
+Hamilton gave in his. I believe Knox’s was never thought worth offering
+or asking for. Randolph gave his May the 6th, concurring with mine.
+The President told me, the same day, he had never had a doubt about the
+validity of the treaty; but that since a question had been suggested,
+he thought it ought to be considered: that this being done, I might
+now issue passports to sea-vessels in the form prescribed by the French
+treaty. I had for a week past only issued the Dutch form; to have issued
+the French, would have been presupposing the treaty to be in existence.
+The President suggested, that he thought it would be as well
+that nothing should be said of such a question having been under
+consideration. Written May the 6th.
+
+
+May the 6th, 1793. When the question was, whether the proclamation of
+April the 22nd should be issued, Randolph observed, that there should
+be a letter written by me to the ministers of the belligerent powers, to
+declare that it should not be taken as conclusive evidence against our
+citizens in foreign courts of admiralty, for contraband goods. Knox
+suddenly adopted the opinion before Hamilton delivered his. Hamilton
+opposed it pretty strongly. I thought it an indifferent thing, but
+rather approved Randolph’s opinion. The President was against it; but
+observed that, as there were three for it, it should go. This was
+the first instance I had seen of an opportunity to decide by a mere
+majority, including his own vote.
+
+
+May the 12th. Lear called on me to-day. Speaking of the lowness of
+stocks (sixteen shillings), I observed it was a pity we had not money to
+buy on public account. He said, yes, and that it was the more provoking,
+as two millions had been borrowed for that purpose, and drawn over here,
+and yet were not here. That he had no doubt those would take notice of
+the circumstance whose duty it was to do so. I suppose he must mean the
+President.
+
+
+May the 23rd. I had sent to the President, yesterday, draughts of a
+letter from him to the Provisory Executive Council of France, and of one
+from myself to Mr. Ternant, both on the occasion of his recall. I called
+on him to-day. He said there was an expression in one of them, which he
+had never before seen in any of our public communications, to wit, ‘our
+republic’ The letter prepared for him to the Council, began thus: ‘The
+Citizen Ternant has delivered to me the letter wherein you inform me,
+that yielding &c. you had determined to recall him from his mission, as
+your Minister Plenipotentiary to our republic.’ He had underscored
+the words our republic. He said that certainly ours was a republican
+government, but yet we had not used that style in this way; that if any
+body wanted to change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it was only
+a few individuals, and that no man in the United States would set his
+face against it more than himself: but that this was not what he was
+afraid of; his fears were from another quarter; that there was more
+danger of anarchy being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau’s
+paper of yesterday; he said he despised all their attacks on him
+personally, but that there never had been an act of the government, not
+meaning in the executive line only, but in any line, which that paper
+had not abused. He had also marked the word republic thus X, where it
+was applied to the French republic. (See the original paper.) He was
+evidently sore and warm, and I took his intention to be, that I should
+interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment
+of translating clerk to my office. But I will not do it. His paper has
+saved our constitution, which was galloping fast into monarchy, and has
+been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper. It is well
+and universally known, that it has been that paper which has checked the
+career of the monocrats; and the President, not sensible of the designs
+of the party, has not, with his usual good sense and _sang froid_,
+looked on the efforts and effects of this free press, and seen that,
+though some bad things have passed through it to the public, yet the
+good have preponderated immensely.
+
+
+June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned from New York within
+a few days, tells me that, while he was there, Sir John Temple, Consul
+General of the northern States for Great Britain showed him a letter
+from Sir Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a borough in
+Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member for twenty-five years, and
+always confidential for the ministers in which he permitted him to read
+particular passages of the following purport: that the government was
+well apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in the United
+States; that they considered Colonel Hamilton, Mr. King, and Mr.
+Smith of South Carolina, as the main supports of that interest; that
+particularly, they considered Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond as
+their effective minister here; that if the anti-federal interest (that
+was his term) at the head of which they considered Mr. Jefferson to be
+should prevail, these gentlemen had secured an asylum to themselves
+in England.’ Beckley could not understand whether they had secured it
+themselves* or whether they were only notified that it was secured
+to them. So that they understand that they may go on boldly in their
+machinations to change the government, and if they should be overset
+and choose to withdraw, they will be secure of a pension in England, as
+Arnold, Deane, &c. had. Sir John read passages of a letter (which he did
+not put into Beckley’s hand, as he did the other) from Lord Grenville,
+saying nearly the same things. This letter mentions Sir John, that
+though they had divided the Consul-Generalship, and given the southern
+department to Bond, yet he Sir John, was to retain his whole salary.
+[By this it would seem, as if, wanting to use Bond, they had covered his
+employment with this cloak.] Mr. Beckley says that Sir John Temple is a
+strong republican. I had a proof of his intimacy with Sir John in this
+circumstance. Sir John received his new commission of Consul General for
+the northern department, and, instead of sending it through Mr. Hammond,
+got Beckley to enclose it to me for his exequatur I wrote to Sir John
+that it must come through Mr Hammond enclosing it back to him. He
+accordingly then sent it to Mr. Hammond.
+
+     [* In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson; ‘Impossible
+     as to Hamilton; he was far above that.]
+
+In conversation with the President to-day, and speaking about General
+Greene, he said that he and General Greene had always differed in
+opinion about the manner of using militia. Greene always placed them
+in his front: himself was of opinion, they should always be used as a
+reserve to improve any advantage, for which purpose they were the finest
+fellows in the world. He said he was on the ground of the battle of
+Guilford, with a person who was in the action, and who explained the
+whole of it to him. That General Greene’s front was behind a fence at
+the edge of a large field, through which the enemy were obliged to pass
+to get at them; and that, in their passage through this, they must have
+been torn all to pieces, if troops had been posted there who would have
+stood their ground; and that the retreat from that position was through
+a thicket, perfectly secure. Instead of this he posted the North
+Carolina militia there who only gave one fire and fell back, so that the
+whole benefit of their position was lost. He thinks that the regulars,
+with their field-pieces, would have hardly let a single man get through
+that field.
+
+Eodem die (June the 7th). Beckley tells me that he has the following
+fact from Governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the present
+General Government, i.e. a little before Hamilton conceived a plan for
+establishing a monarchical government in the United States, he wrote
+a draught of a circular letter, which was to be sent to about
+-------persons, to bring it about. One of these letters in Hamilton’s
+hand-writing, is now in possession of an old militia General up the
+North River, who, at that time, was thought orthodox enough to be
+entrusted in the execution. This General has given notice to Governor
+Clinton, that he has this paper, and that he will deliver it into
+his hands, and no one’s else. Clinton intends, the first interval of
+leisure, to go for it, and he will bring it to Philadelphia. Beckley is
+a man of perfect truth as to what he affirms of his own knowledge, but
+too credulous as to what he hears from others.
+
+
+June the 10th, 1793. Mr. Brown gives me the following specimen of
+the phrenzy which prevailed at New York on the opening of the new
+government. The first public ball which took place after the President’s
+arrival there, Colonel Humphreys, Colonel W. S. Smith, and Mrs. Knox
+were to arrange the ceremonials. These arrangements were as follows:
+a sofa at the head of the room, raised on several steps whereon the
+President and Mrs. Washington were to be seated. The gentlemen were to
+dance in swords. Each one, when going to dance, was to lead his partner
+to the foot of the sofa, make a low obeisance to the President and his
+lady, then go and dance, and when done, bring his partner again to the
+foot of the sofa for new obeisances, and then to retire to their chairs.
+It was to be understood, too, that gentlemen should be dressed in bags.
+Mrs. Knox contrived to come with the President, and to follow him and
+Mrs. Washington to their destination, and she had the design of forcing
+an invitation from the President to a seat on the sofa. She mounted up
+the steps after them unbidden, but unfortunately the wicked sofa was so
+short, that when the President and Mrs. Washington were seated, there
+was not room for a third person; she was obliged therefore to descend in
+the face of the company, and to sit where she could. In other respects
+the ceremony was conducted rigorously according to the arrangements, and
+the President made to pass an evening which his good sense rendered a
+very miserable one to him.
+
+
+June the 12th. Beckley tells me that Klingham has been with him to-day,
+and relates to him the following fact. A certificate of the old Congress
+had been offered at the treasury and refused payment and so endorsed in
+red ink as usual. This certificate came to the hands of Francis, (the
+quondam clerk of the treasury who, on account of his being dipped in
+the infamous case of the Baron Glaubec, Hamilton had been obliged
+to dismiss, to save appearances, but with an assurance of all future
+service, and he accordingly got him established in New York). Francis
+wrote to Hamilton that such a ticket was offered him, but he could not
+buy it unless he would inform him and give him his certificate that it
+was good. Hamilton wrote him a most friendly letter, and sent him
+the certificate. He bought the paper, and came on here and got it
+recognised, whereby he made twenty-five hundred dollars Klingham saw
+both the letter and certificate.
+
+Irving, a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the
+pieces now coming out under the signature of Verita’s and attacking the
+President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the
+fiscal party, to place the President on their side.
+
+July the 18th, 1793. Lear calls on me. I told him that Irving, an
+Irishman, and a writer in the treasury, who, on a former occasion, had
+given the most decisive proofs of his devotion to his principal, was the
+author of the pieces signed Veritas: and I wished he could get at some
+of Irving’s acquaintances and inform himself of the fact, as the person
+who told me of it would not permit the name of his informer to be
+mentioned. [Note. Beckley told me of it, and he had it from Swaine,
+the printer to whom the pieces were delivered]; that I had long before
+suspected this excessive foul play in that party of writing themselves
+in the character of the most exaggerated democrats and incorporating
+with it a great deal of abuse on the President to make him believe it
+was that party who were his enemies, and so throw him entirely into
+the scale of the monocrats. Lear said he no longer ago than yesterday
+expressed to the President his suspicions of the artifices of that party
+to work on him. He mentioned the following fact as a proof of their
+writing in the character of their adversaries; to wit, the day after the
+little incident of Richet’s toasting ‘the man of the people’ (see the
+gazettes), Mrs. Washington was at Mrs. Powel’s, who mentioned to her
+that, when the toast was given, there was a good deal of disapprobation
+appeared in the audience, and that many put on their hats and went out:
+on inquiry, he had not found the fact true, and yet it was put into
+------‘s paper, and written under the character of a republican,
+though he is satisfied it is altogether a slander of the monocrats.
+He mentioned this to the President, but he did not mention to him the
+following fact, which he knows; that in New York, the last summer, when
+the parties of Jay and Clinton were running so high, it was an agreed
+point with the former, that if any circumstances should ever bring it to
+a question, whether to drop Hamilton or the President, they had decided
+to drop the President. He said that lately one of the loudest pretended
+friends to the government, damned it, and said it was good for nothing,
+that it could not support itself, and it was time to put it down and
+set up a better; and yet the same person, in speaking to the President,
+puffed off that party as the only friends to the government. He said
+he really feared, that by their artifices and industry, they would
+aggravate the President so much against the republicans, as to separate
+him from the body of the people. I told him what the same cabals had
+decided to do, if the President had refused his assent to the bank bill;
+also what Brockhurst Livingston said to ------, that Hamilton’s life was
+much more precious to the community than the President’s.
+
+
+August the 1st. Met at the President’s, to consider what was to be
+done with Mr. Genet. All his correspondence with me was read over.
+The following propositions were made. 1. That a full statement of Mr.
+Genet’s conduct be made in a letter to G. Morris, and be sent with his
+correspondence, to be communicated to the Executive Council of France;
+the letter to be so prepared, as to serve for the form of communication
+to the Council. Agreed unanimously. 2. That in that letter his recall be
+required. Agreed by all, though I expressed a preference of expressing
+that desire with great delicacy; the others were for peremptory terms.
+3. To send him off. This was proposed by Knox; but rejected by every
+other. 4. To write a letter to Mr. Genet, the same in substance with
+that written to G. Morris, and let him know we had applied for his
+recall. I was against this, because I thought it would render him
+extremely active in his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was
+overruled by the other three gentlemen and the President. 5. That
+a publication of the whole correspondence, and statement of the
+proceedings should be made by way of appeal to the people. Hamilton
+made a jury speech of three quarters of an hour, as inflammatory and
+declamatory as if he had been speaking to a jury. E. Randolph opposed
+it. I chose to leave the contest between them. Adjourned to next day.
+
+
+August the 2nd. Met again. Hamilton spoke again three quarters of an
+hour. I answered on these topics. Object of the appeal. The democratic
+society; this the great circumstance of alarm; afraid it would extend
+its connections over the continent; chiefly meant for the local object
+of the ensuing election of Governor. If left alone, would die away after
+that is over. If opposed, if proscribed, would give it importance and
+vigor; would give it a new object, and multitudes would join it merely
+to assert the right of voluntary associations. That the measure was
+calculated to make the President assume the station of the head of a
+party, instead of the head of the nation. Plan of the appeal. To consist
+of facts and the decisions of the President. As to facts we are agreed;
+but as to the decisions, there have been great differences of opinion
+among us. Sometimes as many opinions as persons. This proves there will
+be ground to attack the decision. Genet will appeal also; it will become
+a contest between the President and Genet--anonymous writers--will be
+same difference of opinion in public, as in our cabinet--will be
+same difference in Congress, lot it must be laid before them--would,
+therefore, work very unpleasantly at home. How would it work abroad?
+France--unkind--after such proofs of her friendship, should rely on
+that friendship and her justice. Why appeal to the world? Friendly
+nations always negotiate little differences in private. Never appeal to
+the world, but when they appeal to the sword. Confederacy of Pilnitz
+was to overthrow the government of France. The interference of France
+to disturb other governments and excite insurrections, was a measure of
+reprisal. Yet these Princes have been able to make it believed to be the
+system of France. Colonel Hamilton supposes Mr. Genet’s proceedings
+here are in pursuance of that system: and we are so to declare it to
+the world, and to add our testimony to this base calumny of the Princes.
+What a triumph to them to be backed by our testimony. What a fatal
+stroke at the cause of liberty; _Et tu, Brute?_ We indispose the French
+government, and they will retract their offer of the treaty of commerce.
+The President manifestly inclined to the appeal to the people.* Knox, in
+a foolish, incoherent sort of a speech, introduced the pasquinade lately
+printed, called the funeral of George W--n and James W---n, King and
+Judge, &c, where the President was placed on a guillotine. The President
+was much inflamed; got into one of those passions when he cannot command
+himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on
+him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he
+had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives;
+that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of
+resigning his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he
+had rather be in his grave than in his present situation; that he had
+rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world; and yet
+that they were charging him with wanting to be a King. That that rascal
+Freneau sent him three of his papers every day, as if he thought he
+would become the distributor of his papers; that he could see in this,
+nothing but an impudent design to insult him: he ended in this high
+tone. There was a pause. Some difficulty in resuming our question; it
+was, however, after a little while, presented again, and he said there
+seemed to be no necessity for deciding it now; the propositions before
+agreed on might be put into a train of execution, and perhaps events
+would show whether the appeal would be necessary or not. He desired we
+would meet at my office the next day, to consider what should be done
+with the vessels armed in our ports by Mr. Genet, and their prizes.
+
+     * He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him
+     the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into
+     this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the
+     President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and
+     engage for all his connections. The President repeated this
+     twice, and with an air of importance. Now Mr. Morris has no
+     family connections; he engaged then for his political
+     friends. This shows that the President has not confidence
+     enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide
+     in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props
+     necessary.
+
+August the 3rd. We met. The President wrote to take our opinions,
+whether Congress should be called. Knox pronounced at once against it.
+Randolph was against it. Hamilton said his judgment was against it, but
+that if any two were for it, or against it, he would join them to make
+a majority. I was for it. We agreed to give separate opinions to the
+President. Knox said we should have had fine work, if Congress had
+been sitting these two last months. The fool thus let out the secret.
+Hamilton endeavored to patch up the indiscretion of this blabber, by
+saying ‘he did not know; he rather thought they would have strengthened
+the executive arm.’
+
+It is evident they do not wish to lengthen the session of the next
+Congress, and probably they particularly wish it should not meet till
+Genet is gone. At this meeting I received a letter from Mr. Remsen at
+New York, informing me of the event of the combat between the Ambuscade
+and the Boston. Knox broke out into the most unqualified abuse of
+Captain Courtnay. Hamilton, with less fury, but with the deepest
+vexation, loaded him with censures. Both showed the most unequivocal
+mortification at the event.
+
+
+August the 6th, 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
+country, and introduces my letter of July the 31st, announcing that I
+should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
+repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased
+by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had
+counted: that he did not know where he should look to find characters
+to fill up the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the
+department of State, but it required a person conversant in foreign
+affairs, perhaps acquainted with foreign courts; that without this, the
+best talents would be awkward and at a loss. He told me that Colonel
+Hamilton had three or four weeks ago written to him, informing him that
+private as well as public reasons had brought him to the determination
+to retire, and that he should do it towards the close of the next
+session. He said he had often before intimated dispositions to resign,
+but never as decisively before; that he supposed he had fixed on the
+latter part of next session, to give an opportunity to Congress to
+examine into his conduct: that our going out at times so different,
+increased his difficulty; for if he had both places to fill at once, he
+might consult both the particular talents and geographical situation
+of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions at the fermentation
+which seemed to be working in the mind of the public; that many
+descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared to
+be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to
+assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first
+expressions of their sentiment would be important; if I would only stay
+to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.
+
+I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the
+particular uneasiness of my situation in this place, where the laws of
+society oblige me always to move exactly in the circle which I know to
+bear me peculiar hatred; that is to say, the wealthy aristocrats,
+the merchants connected closely with England, the new created paper
+fortunes; that thus surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied,
+misconstrued, and even fabricated and spread abroad to my injury; that
+he saw also, that there was such an opposition of views between myself
+and another part of the administration, as to render it peculiarly
+unpleasing, and to destroy the necessary harmony. Without knowing
+the views of what is called the republican party here, or having any
+communication with them, I could, undertake to assure him, from my
+intimacy with that party in the late Congress, that there was not a view
+in the republican party as spread over the United States, which went
+to the frame of the government; that I believed the next Congress would
+attempt nothing material, but to render their own body independent; that
+that party were firm in their dispositions to support the government;
+that the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet might produce some little
+embarrassment, but that he would be abandoned by the republicans the
+moment they knew the nature of his conduct; and on the whole, no crisis
+existed which threatened any thing.
+
+He said, he believed the views of the republican party were perfectly
+pure, but when men put a machine into motion, it is impossible for them
+to stop it exactly where they would choose, or to say where it will
+stop. That the constitution we have is an excellent one, if we can keep
+it where it is; that it was, indeed, supposed there was a party disposed
+to change it into a monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously
+declare there was not a man in the United States who would set his
+face more decidedly against it than himself. Here I interrupted him by
+saying, ‘No rational man in the United States suspects you of any other
+disposition; but there does not pass a week, in which we cannot prove
+declarations dropping from the monarchical party, that our government is
+good for nothing, is a milk-and-water thing which cannot support itself,
+we must knock it down, and set up something of more energy. He said, if
+that was the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the
+republican spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was
+astonishing how any one could expect to move it.
+
+He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr.
+Madison would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to
+him such a decision against public office, that he could not expect he
+would undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said
+that Mr. Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there
+was also Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed,
+that, name whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be
+called speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to
+mention any characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson
+of Maryland had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man
+of great good sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of
+speculations: but this, says he, is an instance of what I was observing;
+with all these qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of
+familiarity with foreign affairs, would be in them like a fish out of
+water; every thing would be new to him, and he awkward in every thing.
+I confessed to him that I had considered Johnson rather as fit for the
+Treasury department. ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘for that he would be the fittest
+appointment that could be made; he is a man acquainted with figures, and
+having as good a knowledge of the resources of this country as any man.’
+I asked him if Chancellor Livingston had occurred to him. He said yes;
+but he was from New York, and to appoint him while Hamilton was in, and
+before it should be known he was going out, would excite a newspaper
+conflagration, as the ultimate arrangement would not be known. He said
+McLurg had occurred to him as a man of first-rate abilities, but it is
+said that he is a speculator. He asked me what sort of a man Wolcot was.
+I told him I knew nothing of him myself; I had heard him characterized
+as a cunning man. I asked him whether some person could not take my
+office per interim, till he should make an appointment; as Mr. Randolph,
+for instance. ‘Yes,’ says he; ‘but there you would raise the expectation
+of keeping it, and I do not know that he is fit for it, nor what is
+thought of Mr. Randolph.’ I avoided noticing the last observation, and
+he put the question to me directly. I then told him, I went into society
+so little as to be unable to answer it. I knew that the embarrassments
+in his private affairs had obliged him to use expedients, which had
+injured him with the merchants and shop-keepers, and affected his
+character of independence; that these embarrassments were serious, and
+not likely to cease soon. He said, if I would only stay in till the end
+of another quarter (the last of December), it would get us through the
+difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied that the affairs of
+Europe would be settled with this campaign: for that either France would
+be overwhelmed by it, or the confederacy would give up the contest. By
+that time, too, Congress will have manifested its character and views. I
+told him that I had set my private affairs in motion in a line which
+had powerfully called for my presence the last spring, and that they
+had suffered immensely from my not going home; that I had now calculated
+them to my return in the fall, and to fail in going then, would be
+the loss of another year, and prejudicial beyond measure. I asked
+him whether he could not name Governor Johnson to my office, under an
+express arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that
+of the Treasury. He said that men never chose to descend; that being
+once in a higher department, he would not like to go into a lower one.
+He asked me whether I could not arrange my affairs by going home. I told
+him I did not think the public business would admit of it; that there
+never was a day now, in which the absence of the Secretary of State
+would not be inconvenient to the public. And he concluded by desiring
+that I would take two or three days to consider whether I could not stay
+in till the end of another quarter, for that, like a man going, to the
+gallows, he was willing to put it off as long as he could; but if I
+persisted, he must then look about him and make up his mind to do the
+best he could: and so he took leave.
+
+
+November the 5th, 1793. E. Randolph tells me, that Hamilton, in
+conversation with him yesterday, said, ‘Sir, if all the people in
+America were now assembled, and to call on me to say whether I am a
+friend to the French revolution, I would declare that I have it in
+abhorrence?’
+
+
+November the 8th, 1793. At a conference at the President’s, where I read
+several letters of Mr. Genet; on finishing one of them, I asked what
+should be the answer. The President thereupon took occasion to observe,
+that Mr. Genet’s conduct continued to be of so extraordinary a nature,
+that he meant to propose to our serious consideration, whether he
+should not have his functions discontinued, and be ordered away. He
+went lengthily into observations on his conduct, to raise against the
+executive, 1. the people, 2. the State governments, 3. the Congress.
+He showed he felt the venom of Genet’s pen, but declared he would not
+choose his insolence should be regarded any farther, than as might be
+thought to affect the honor of the country. Hamilton and Knox readily
+and zealously argued for dismissing Mr. Genet. Randolph opposed it with
+firmness, and pretty lengthily. The President replied to him lengthily,
+and concluded by saying he did not wish to have the thing hastily
+decided, but that we should consider of it, and give our opinions on his
+return from Reading and Lancaster. Accordingly, November the 18th, we
+met at his house; read new volumes of Genet’s letters, received since
+the President’s departure; then took up the discussion of the subjects
+of communication to Congress. 1. The Proclamation. E. Randolph read the
+statement he had prepared; Hamilton did not like it; said much about his
+own views; that the President had a right to declare his opinion to
+our citizens and foreign nations; that it was not the interest of this
+country to join in the war, and that we were under no obligation to join
+in it; that though the declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet
+the President had a right to give his opinion of it, and he was against
+any explanation in the speech, which should yield that he did not intend
+that foreign nations should consider it as a declaration of neutrality,
+future as well as present; that he understood it as meant to give them
+that sort of assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now,
+would be a deception on them. He was for the President’s using
+such expressions, as should neither affirm his right to make such
+a declaration to foreign nations, nor yield it. Randolph and myself
+opposed the right of the President to declare any thing future on the
+question, Shall there or shall there not be a war? and that no such
+thing was intended; that Hamilton’s construction of the effect of the
+proclamation would have been a determination of the question of the
+guarantee, which we both denied to have intended, and I had at the
+time declared the executive incompetent to. Randolph said he meant that
+foreign nations should understand it as an intimation of the President’s
+opinion, that neutrality would be our interest. I declared my meaning to
+have been, that foreign nations should understand no such thing; that,
+on the contrary, I would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come
+and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the President, having received
+the nation at the close of Congress in a state of peace, was bound to
+preserve them in that state till Congress should meet again, and might
+proclaim any thing which went no farther. The President declared he
+never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or
+that any thing contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first
+day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace;
+he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers,
+and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the
+merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we had not
+objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel Hamilton
+should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it should
+then be considered. We were here called to dinner.
+
+After dinner, the _renvoi_ of Genet was proposed by himself. I opposed
+it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our
+friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced
+where it has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone
+eighty-four days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and
+to be relieved by their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it
+would be eight or ten days before the matter on which the order should
+be founded, could be selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This
+would bring us within four or five days of the meeting of Congress.
+Would it not be better to wait and see how the pulse of that body, new
+as it is, would beat. They are with us now, probably, but such a step as
+this may carry many over to Genet’s side. Genet will not obey the
+order, &c. &c. The President asked me what I would do if Genet sent the
+accusation to us to be communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the
+letter to Moultrie. I said I would not send it to Congress; but either
+put it in the newspapers, or send it back to him to be published if he
+pleased. Other questions and answers were put and returned in a quicker
+altercation than I ever before saw the President use. Hamilton was for
+the _renvoi_; spoke much of the dignity of the nation; that they were
+now to form their character; that our conduct now would tempt or deter
+other foreign ministers from treating us in the same manner; touched on
+the President’s personal feelings; did not believe France would make it
+a cause of war; if she did, we ought to do what was right, and meet the
+consequences, &c. Knox on the same side, and said he thought it very
+possible Mr. Genet would either declare us a department of France, or
+levy troops here and endeavor to reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my
+opinion, and argued chiefly on the resurrection of popularity to Genet,
+which might be produced by this measure. That at present he was dead in
+the public opinion, if we would but leave him so. The President lamented
+there was not unanimity among us; that as it was, we had left him
+exactly where we found him; and so it ended.
+
+
+November the 21st. We met at the President’s. The manner of explaining
+to Congress the intentions of the proclamation, was the matter of
+debate. Randolph produced his way of stating it. This expressed its
+views to have been, 1. to keep our citizens quiet; 2. to intimate to
+foreign nations that it was the President’s opinion, that the interests
+and dispositions of this country were for peace. Hamilton produced his
+statement, in which he declared his intention to be, to say nothing
+which could be laid hold of for any purpose; to leave the proclamation
+to explain itself. He entered pretty fully into all the argumentation
+of Pacificus; he justified the right of the President to declare his
+opinion for a future neutrality, and that there existed no circumstances
+to oblige the United States to enter into the war on account of the
+guarantee; and that in agreeing to the proclamation, he meant it to be
+understood as conveying both those declarations; viz. neutrality, and
+that the _casus foederis_ on the guarantee did not exist. He admitted
+the Congress might declare war, notwithstanding these declarations of
+the President. In like manner, they might declare war in the face of a
+treaty, and in direct infraction of it. Among other positions laid down
+by him, this was with great positiveness; that the constitution having
+given power to the President and Senate to make treaties, they might
+make a treaty of neutrality which should take from Congress the right to
+declare war in that particular case, and that under the form of a treaty
+they might exercise any powers whatever, even those exclusively given by
+the constitution to the House of Representatives. Randolph opposed this
+position, and seemed to think that where they undertook to do acts by
+treaty (as to settle a tariff of duties), which were exclusively given
+to the legislature, that an act of the legislature would be necessary
+to confirm them, as happens in England, when a treaty interferes with
+duties established by law. I insisted that in giving to the President
+and Senate a power to make treaties, the constitution meant only to
+authorize them to carry into effect, by way of treaty, any powers they
+might constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of the weak points in
+this position, but there were still weaker in the other hypothesis; and
+if it be impossible to discover a rational measure of authority to have
+been given by this clause, I would rather suppose that the cases
+which my hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not thought of by the
+convention, or if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were thought
+of and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. Of this
+last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties offensive and
+defensive, &c. In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as
+to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would
+agree to yield, than too broadly, and, indeed, so broadly as to enable
+the executive and Senate to do things which the constitution forbids.
+On the question, which form of explaining the principles of the
+proclamation should be adopted, I declared for Randolph’s, though it
+gave to that instrument more objects than I had contemplated. Knox
+declared for Hamilton’s. The President said he had had but one
+object, the keeping our people quiet till Congress should meet; that
+nevertheless, to declare he did not mean a declaration of neutrality,
+in the technical sense of the phrase, might perhaps be crying _peccavi_
+before he was charged. However, he did not decide between the two
+draughts.
+
+November the 23rd. At the President’s. Present, Knox, Randolph, and Th:
+Jefferson. Subject, the heads of the speech. One was, a proposition to
+Congress to fortify the principal harbors. I opposed the expediency
+of the General Government’s undertaking it, and the expediency of the
+President’s proposing it. It was amended, by substituting a proposition
+to adopt means for enforcing respect to the jurisdiction of the United
+States within its waters. It was proposed to recommend the establishment
+of a military academy. I objected that none of the specified powers
+given by the constitution to Congress, would authorize this. It was,
+therefore, referred for further consideration and inquiry. Knox was for
+both propositions. Randolph against the former, but said nothing as to
+the latter. The President acknowledged he had doubted of the expediency
+of undertaking the former; and as to the latter, though it would be a
+good thing, he did not wish to bring on any thing which might generate
+heat and ill-humor. It was agreed that Randolph should draw the speech
+and the messages.
+
+November the 28th. Met at the President’s. I read over a list of the
+papers copying, to be communicated to Congress on the subject of Mr.
+Genet. It was agreed that Genet’s letter of August the 13th to the
+President, mine of August the 16th, and Genet’s of November to myself
+and the Attorney General, desiring a prosecution of Jay and King,
+should not be sent to the legislature: on a general opinion, that the
+discussion of the fact certified by Jay and King had better be left to
+the channel of the newspapers, and in the private hands in which it now
+is, than for the President to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion
+of it in Congress.
+
+Randolph had prepared a draught of the speech. The clause recommending
+fortifications was left out; but that for a military academy was
+inserted. I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitution. Hamilton
+and Knox approved it without discussion. Randolph was for it, saying
+that the words of the constitution anthorizing Congress to lay taxes,
+&c. for the common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he
+would not choose to recommend any thing against the constitution, but if
+it was doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure,
+that he would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves
+whether the constitution authorized it or not. It was, therefore,
+left in. I was happy to see that Randolph had, by accident, used the
+expression ‘our republic,’ in the speech. The President, however, made
+no objection to it, and so, as much as it had disconcerted him on
+a former occasion with me, it was now put into his own mouth to be
+pronounced to the two Houses of legislature.
+
+No material alterations were proposed or made in any part of the
+draught.
+
+After dinner, I produced the draught of messages on the subject of
+France and England, proposing that that relative to Spain should be
+subsequent and secret.
+
+Hamilton objected to the draught in toto; said that the contrast drawn
+between the conduct of France and England amounted to a declaration of
+war; he denied that France had ever done us favors; that it was mean for
+a nation to acknowledge favors; that the dispositions of the people of
+this country towards France, he considered as a serious calamity; that
+the executive ought not, by an echo of this language, to nourish that
+disposition in the people; that the offers in commerce made us by
+France, were the offspring of the moment, of circumstances which would
+not last, and it was wrong to receive as permanent, things merely
+temporary; that he could demonstrate that Great Britain showed us
+more favors than France. In complaisance to him I whittled down the
+expressions without opposition; struck out that of ‘favors ancient and
+recent’ from France; softened some terms, and omitted some sentiments
+respecting Great Britain. He still was against the whole, but insisted
+that, at any rate, it should be a secret communication, because the
+matters it stated were still depending. These were, 1. the inexecution
+of the treaty; 2. the restraining our commerce to their own ports and
+those of their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every thing. Randolph
+was for the communications; that the documents respecting the first
+should be given in as public; but that those respecting the second
+should not be given to the legislature at all, but kept secret. I began
+to tremble now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. I urged,
+especially, the duty now incumbent on the President, to lay before the
+legislature and the public what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty, since Mr. Hammond’s answer of this month might be considered
+as the last we should ever have; that, therefore, it could no longer
+be considered as a negotiation pending. I urged that the documents
+respecting the stopping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that if
+it should be thought better to withhold them, the restrictions should
+not go to those respecting the treaty; that neither of these subjects
+was more in a state of pendency than the recall of Mr. Genet, on which,
+nevertheless, no scruples had been expressed. The President took up
+the subject with more vehemence than I have seen him show, and decided
+without reserve, that not only what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty should go in as public (in which Hamilton and Knox had divided
+in opinion from Randolph and myself), but also that those respecting the
+stopping our corn should go in as public (wherein Hamilton, Knox, and
+Randolph had been against me.) This was the first instance I had seen of
+his deciding on the opinion of one against that of three others, which
+proved his own to have been very strong.
+
+
+December the 1st, 1793. Beckley tells me he had the following fact from
+Lear. Langdon, Cabot, and some others of the Senate, standing in a knot
+before the fire after the Senate had adjourned, and growling together
+about some measure which they had just lost; ‘Ah!’ said Cabot,
+‘things will never go right till you have a President for life, and an
+hereditary Senate.’ Langdon told this to Lear, who mentioned it to the
+President. The President seemed struck with it, and declared he had not
+supposed there was a man in the United States who could have entertained
+such an idea.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1797. I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as
+Vice-President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who lodged at
+Francis’s, in Fourth street. The next morning he returned my visit
+at Mr. Madison’s, where I lodged. He found me alone in my room, and
+shutting the door himself, he said he was glad to find me alone, for
+that he wished a free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an
+explanation of the situation of our affairs with France, and the
+danger of rupture with that nation, a rupture which would convulse the
+attachments of this country; that he was impressed with the necessity of
+an immediate mission to the Directory; that it would have been the first
+wish of his heart to have got me to go there, but that he supposed it
+was out of the question, as it did not seem justifiable for him to
+send away the person destined to take his place in case of accident to
+himself, nor decent to remove from competition one who was a rival in
+the public favor. That he had, therefore, concluded to send a mission,
+which, by its dignity, should satisfy France, and by its selection from
+the three great divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of
+the United States; in short, that he had determined to join Gerry and
+Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me to consult Mr. Madison for him.
+I told him that, as to myself, I concurred in the opinion of
+the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned me, and that my
+inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross the Atlantic
+again; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. Madison, but I feared
+it was desperate, as he had refused that mission on my leaving it, in
+General Washington’s time, though it was kept open a twelvemonth for
+him. He said that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint
+him, and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madison, who
+declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday the 6th of March, Mr.
+Adams and myself met at dinner at General Washington’s, and we happened,
+in the evening, to rise from table and come away together. As soon as
+we got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr.
+Madison. He immediately said, that, on consultation, some objections to
+that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was
+going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to
+Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street,
+mine off along Fifth, and we took leave: and he never after that said
+one word to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures
+of the government. The opinion I formed at the time on this transaction
+was, that Mr. Adams, in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the
+occasion (his inauguration), forgot party sentiments, and, as he never
+acted on any system, but was always governed by the feeling of the
+moment, he thought, for a moment, to steer impartially between the
+parties; that Monday, the 6th of March, being the first time he had
+met his cabinet, on expressing ideas of this kind, he had been at once
+diverted from them, and returned to his former party views.
+
+
+July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
+Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
+
+
+August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
+Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
+Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, ‘_Mais vraiment, Monsieur
+Hamilton, ce n’est pas Men honnete_, after making the Senate ratify
+the treaty, to advise the President to reject it.’ ‘The treaty,’ says
+Hamilton, ‘is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making
+it; but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the
+President.’ After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the
+President also must ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, ‘Though
+the treaty is a most execrable one, yet when once we have come to a
+determination on it, we must carry it through thick and thin, right or
+wrong.’ Talleyrand told this to Volney, who told it to me.
+
+There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
+dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton.
+He was in Philadelphia at that date.
+
+
+December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election
+of President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
+considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
+occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
+Adams, who gritting his teeth, said, ‘Damn ‘em, damn ‘em, damn ‘em, you
+see that an elective government will not do.’ He also tells me that Mr.
+Adams, in a late conversation,said,’ Republicanism must be disgraced,
+‘Sir.’ The Chevalier Yrujo called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
+French affairs, and Yrujo expressing his belief of their stability, in
+opposition to Mr. Adamses, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger
+at him, said, ‘I’ll tell you what, the French republic will not last
+three months.’ This I had from Yrujo.
+
+Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
+friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of
+their monarch. ‘Then,’ says a by-stander, ‘the best thing we could do,
+I suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the
+United States.’ ‘Qur people,’ says Harper, ‘are not yet ripe for it, but
+it is the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.’ Something
+like this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the
+public papers, though it can be proved by several members.
+
+
+December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton
+went out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his
+last conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their
+differences, ‘For my part,’ says he, ‘I avow myself a monarchist; I have
+no objection to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,’
+&c.
+
+
+January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in
+our history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our
+present government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New
+York and the eastern States, among that description of people who were
+partly monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays’s rebellion
+and the impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had
+actually had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of
+a government, and establishing them by force; had corresponded with
+one another, and had sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his
+co-operation. He refused to join them. The new convention was in the
+mean time proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people believed it
+impossible the States should ever agree on a government, as this must
+include the impost and all the other powers which the States had, a
+thousand times, refused to the general authority. They therefore let the
+proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure, and confiding
+that on its failure would be a still more favorable moment for their
+enterprise. They therefore wished it to fail, and especially, when
+Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his plan of government, failed
+entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust from the convention.
+His associates then took every method to prevent any form of government
+being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased trying, first one
+thing, then another, till they could get something agreed to. The final
+passage and adoption of the constitution completely defeated the
+views of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to establish a
+government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light on the
+conduct of several members from New York and the eastern States in the
+convention of Annapolis, and the grand convention. At that of Annapolis,
+several eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison’s proposition
+for a more general convention, with more general powers. They wished
+things to get more and more into confusion, to justify the violent
+measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by
+reasoning and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project,
+visionary and unexampled.
+
+
+February the 6th, 1798. Mr. Baldwin tells me, that in a conversation
+yesterday with Goodhue, on the state of our affairs, Goodhue said, ‘I’ll
+tell you what, I have made up my mind on this subject; I would rather
+the old ship should go down than not’; (meaning the Union of the
+States.) Mr. Hillhouse coming up, ‘Well,’ says Mr. Baldwin, ‘I’ll tell
+my old friend Hillhouse what you say ‘; and he told him. ‘Well,’ says
+Goodhue, ‘I repeat, that I would rather the old ship should go down,
+if we are to be always kept pumping so.’ ‘Mr. Hillhouse,’ says Baldwin,
+‘you remember when we were learning logic together at school, there was
+the case categorical and the case hypothetical. Mr. Goodhue stated it to
+me first as the case categorical. I am glad to see that he now changes
+it to the case hypothetical, by adding, ‘if we are always to be kept
+pumping so.’ Baldwin went on then to remind Goodhue what an advocate he
+had been for our tonnage duty, wanting to make it one dollar instead
+of fifty cents; and how impatiently he bore the delays of Congress
+in proceeding to retaliate on Great Britain before Mr. Madison’s
+propositions came on. Goodhue acknowledged that his opinions had changed
+since that.
+
+
+February the 15th, 1798. I dined this day with Mr. Adams, (the
+President.) The company was large. After dinner I was sitting next to
+him, and our conversation was first on the enormous price of labor,*
+house rent, and other things. We both concurred in ascribing it
+chiefly to the flood of bank paper now afloat, and in condemning those
+institutions. We then got on the constitution; and in the course of our
+conversation he said, that no republic could ever last which had not a
+Senate, and a Senate deeply and strongly rooted, strong enough to bear
+up against all popular storms and passions; that he thought our
+Senate as well constituted as it could have been, being chosen by the
+legislatures; for if these could not support them, he did not know what
+could do it; that perhaps it might have been as well for them to
+be chosen by the State at large, as that would insure a choice of
+distinguished men, since none but such could be known to a whole people;
+that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not durable enough;
+that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was afraid they
+would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular assembly for
+the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera imaginable;
+they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that he would
+as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety, who made
+the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been observed by
+some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more mischief in
+one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we might say
+with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one night,
+than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or thirty
+years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of the
+constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
+two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
+conduct they pursue.
+
+     * He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
+     fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
+     food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
+     dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
+
+March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for
+the British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower
+House, there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of
+committees of the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want
+of them, he, in his place, called on the committees to report, and
+particularly on Mr. King, who was of most of them. King said that it was
+true the committees kept back their reports, waiting the event of
+the question about appropriation: that if that was not carried, they
+considered legislation as at an end; that they might as well break up
+and consider the Union as dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment
+at these ideas, and called on King to know if he had misapprehended him.
+King rose again and repeated the same words. The next day, Cabot took
+an occasion in debate, and so awkward a one as to show it was a thing
+agreed to be done, to repeat the same sentiments in stronger terms, and
+carried further, by declaring a determination on their side to break up
+and dissolve the government.
+
+
+March the 11th. In conversation with Baldwin and Brown of Kentucky,
+Brown says that in a private company once, consisting of Hamilton, King,
+Madison, himself, and some one else making a fifth, speaking of the
+‘federal government’; ‘Oh!’ says Hamilton, ‘say the federal monarchy;
+let us call things by their right names, for a monarchy it is.’
+
+Baldwin mentions at table the following fact. When the bank bill was
+under discussion in the House of Representatives, Judge Wilson came in,
+and was standing by Baldwin. Baldwin reminded him of the following fact
+which passed in the grand convention. Among the enumerated powers given
+to Congress, was one to erect corporations. It was on debate struck
+out. Several particular powers were then proposed. Among others, Robert
+Morris proposed to give Congress a power to establish a national bank.
+Gouverneur Morris opposed it, observing that it was extremely doubtful
+whether the constitution they were framing could ever be passed at all
+by the people of America; that to give it its best chance, however, they
+should make it as palatable as possible and put nothing into it not
+very essential, which might raise up enemies; that his colleague (Robert
+Morris) well knew that ‘a bank’ was, in their State (Pennsylvania)
+the very watch-word of party; that a bank had been the great bone of
+contention between the two parties of the State, from the establishment
+of their constitution, having been erected, put down, and erected again,
+as either party preponderated; that therefore, to insert this power,
+would instantly enlist against the whole instrument, the whole of the
+anti-bank party in Pennsylvania. Whereupon it was rejected, as was every
+other special power, except that of giving copyrights to authors, and
+patents to inventors; the general power of incorporating being whittled
+down to this shred. Wilson agreed to the fact.
+
+Mr. Hunter of South Carolina, who lodges with Rutledge, [* J. Rutledge,
+junior] tells me, that Rutledge was explaining to him the plan they
+proposed to pursue as to war measures, when Otis came in. Rutledge
+addressed Otis. ‘Now, Sir,’ says he, ‘you must come forward with
+something liberal for the southern States, fortify their harbors and
+build galleys, in order to obtain their concurrence.’ Otis said, ‘We
+insist on convoys for our European trade, and _guarda-costas_, on which
+condition alone, we will give them galleys and fortifications.’ Rutledge
+observed, that in the event of war, McHenry and Pickering must go out;
+Wolcott, he thought, might remain, but the others were incapable of
+conducting a war. Otis said the eastern people would never abandon
+Pickering; he must be retained; McHenry might go. They considered
+together whether General Pinckney would accept the office of
+Secretary of War. They apprehended he would not. It was agreed in this
+conversation, that Sewall had more the ear of the President than any
+other person.
+
+
+March the 12th. When the bill for appropriations was before the
+Senate, Anderson moved to strike out a clause recognising (by way
+of appropriation) the appointment of a committee by the House of
+Representatives, to sit during their recess to collect evidence on
+Blount’s case, denying they had power, but by a law, to authorize a
+committee to sit during recess. Tracy advocated the motion, and said,
+‘We may as well speak out. The committee was appointed by the House of
+Representatives, to take care of the British minister, to take care of
+the Spanish minister, to take care of the Secretary of State, in short,
+to take care of the President of the United States. They were afraid
+the President and Secretary of State would not perform the office of
+collecting evidence faithfully; that there would be collusion, &c.
+Therefore, the House appointed a committee of their own. We shall have
+them next sending a committee to Europe to make a treaty, &c. Suppose
+that the House of Representatives should resolve, that after the
+adjournment of Congress, they should continue to sit as a committee of
+the whole House during the whole recess.’ This shows how the appointment
+of that committee has been viewed by the President’s friends.
+
+
+April the 5th. Doctor Rush tells me he had it from Mrs. Adams, that
+not a scrip of a pen has passed between the late and present President,
+since he came into office.
+
+
+April the 13th. New instructions of the British government to their
+armed ships now appear, which clearly infringe their treaty with us,
+by authorizing them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French
+colonies from those colonies to Europe, and to lake vessels bound to
+a blockaded port. See them in Brown’s paper, of April the 18th, in due
+form.
+
+The President has sent a government brig to France, probably to carry
+despatches. He has chosen as the bearer of these, one Humphreys, the son
+of a ship-carpenter, ignorant, under age, not speaking a word of French,
+most abusive of that nation; whose only merit is, the having mobbed and
+beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted
+and punished by fine.
+
+
+April the 25th. At a dinner given by the bar to the federal judges,
+Chase and Peters, present about twenty-four lawyers, and William
+Tilghman in the chair, this toast was given; ‘Our _King_ in old
+England.’ Observe the double entendre on the word King. Du Ponceau,
+who was one of the bar present, told this to Tench Coxe, who told me
+in presence of H. Tazewell. Dallas was at the dinner; so was Colonel
+Charles Sims of Alexandria, who is here on a law-suit vs. General
+Irving.
+
+
+May the 3rd. The President some time ago appointed Steele, of Virginia,
+a commissioner to the Indians, and recently Secretary of the Mississippi
+Territory. Steele was a Counsellor of Virginia, and was voted out by the
+Assembly because he turned tory. He then offered for Congress, and was
+rejected by the people. Then offered for the Senate of Virginia, and was
+rejected. The President has also appointed Joseph Hopkinson commissioner
+to make a treaty with the Oneida Indians. He is a youth of about
+twenty-two or twenty-three, and has no other claims to such an
+appointment than extreme toryism, and the having made a poor song to the
+tune of the President’s March.
+
+
+October the 13th, 1798. Littlepage, who has been on one or two missions
+from Poland to Spain, said that when Gardoqui returned from America,
+he settled with his court an account of secret service money, of six
+hundred thousand dollars. _Ex relatione_ Colonel Monroe.
+
+
+January, 1799. In a conversation between Doctor Ewen and the President,
+the former said one of his sons was an aristocrat, the other a democrat.
+The President asked if it were not the youngest who was the democrat.
+‘Yes,’ said Ewen. ‘Well,’ said the President, ‘a boy of fifteen who
+is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a
+democrat at twenty.’ Ewen told Hurt, and Hurt told me.
+
+
+January the 14th. Logan tells me that in his conversation with Pickering
+on his arrival, the latter abused Gerry very much; said he was a traitor
+to his country, and had deserted the post to which he was appointed;
+that the French temporized at first with Pinckney, but found him too
+much of a man for their purpose. Logan observing, that, notwithstanding
+the pacific declarations of France, it might still be well to keep up.
+the military ardor of our citizens, and to have the militia in good
+order: ‘The militia,’ said Pickering, ‘the militia never did any good to
+this country, except in the single affair of Bunker’s Hill; that we must
+have a standing army of fifty thousand men, which being stationed in
+different parts of the continent, might serve as rallying points for the
+militia, and so render them of some service.’ In his conversation with
+Mr. Adams, Logan mentioned the willingness of the French to treat with
+Gerry. ‘And do you know why,’ said Mr. Adams. ‘Why, Sir?’ said
+Logan. ‘Because,’ said Mr. Adams, ‘they know him to have been an
+anti-federalist, against the constitution.’
+
+
+January the 2nd, 1800. Information from Tench Coxe. Mr. Liston had sent
+two letters to the Governor of Canada by one Sweezy. He had sent copies
+of them, together with a third, (original) by one Cribs. Sweezy was
+arrested (being an old horse-thief), and his papers examined. T. Coxe
+had a sight of them. As soon as a rumor got out that there were letters
+of Mr. Liston disclosed, but no particulars yet mentioned, Mr. Liston
+suspecting that Cribs had betrayed him, thought it best to bring all
+his three letters, and lay them before Pickering, Secretary of State.
+Pickering thought them all very innocent. In his office they were seen
+by Mr. Hodgen of New Jersey, commissary of military stores, and the
+intimate friend of Pickering. It happens that there is some land
+partnership between Pickering, Hodgen, and Coxe, so that the latter is
+freely and intimately visited by Hodgen, who, moreover, speaks freely
+with him on political subjects. They were talking the news of the day,
+when Mr. Coxe observed that these intercepted letters of Liston were
+serious things; (nothing being yet out but a general rumor.) Hodgen
+asked which he thought the most serious. Coxe said the second; (for he
+knew yet of no other.) Hodgen said he thought little of any of them, but
+that the third was the most exceptionable. This struck Coxe, who, not
+betraying his ignorance of a third letter, asked generally what part of
+that he alluded to. Hodgen said to that wherein he assured the Governor
+of Canada, that if the French invaded Canada, an army would be marched
+from these States to his assistance. After this it became known that it
+was Sweezy who was arrested, and not Cribs; so that Mr. Liston had made
+an unnecessary disclosure of his third letter to Mr. Pickering, who,
+however, keeps his secret for him. In the beginning of the conversation
+between Hodgen and Coxe, Coxe happened to name Sweezy as the bearer of
+the letters. ‘That ‘s not his name,’ says Hodgen, (for he did not know
+that two of the letters had been sent by Sweezy also) ‘his name is
+Cribs.’ This put Coxe on his guard, and set him to fishing for the new
+matter.
+
+
+January the 10th. Doctor Rush tells me, that he had it from Samuel
+Lyman, that during the X. Y. Z. Congress, the federal members held the
+largest caucus they have ever had, at which he was present, and the
+question was proposed and debated, whether they should declare war
+against France, and determined in the negative. Lyman was against it. He
+tells me, that Mr. Adams told him, that when he came on in the fall to
+Trenton, he was there surrounded constantly by the opponents of the late
+mission to France. That Hamilton pressing him to delay it, said, ‘Why,
+Sir, by Christmas, Louis the XVIII. will be seated on his throne.’ Mr.
+A. ‘By whom?’ H. ‘By the coalition.’ Mr. A. ‘Ah! then farewell to the
+independence of Europe. If a coalition, moved by the finger of England,
+is to give a government to France, there is an end to the independence
+of every country.’
+
+
+January the 12th. General Samuel Smith says that Pickering, Wolcott,
+and McHenry, wrote a joint letter from Trenton to the President, then at
+Braintree, dissuading him from the mission to France. Stoddard refused
+to join it. Stoddard says the instructions are such, that if the
+Directory have any disposition to reconciliation, a treaty will be made.
+He observed to him also, that Ellsworth looks beyond this mission to
+the Presidential chair. That with this view, he will endeavor to make
+a treaty, and a good one. That Davie has the same vanity and views. All
+this communicated by Stoddard to S. Smith.
+
+
+January the 13th. Baer and Harrison G. Otis told J. Nicholas, that in
+the caucus mentioned ante 10th, there wanted but five votes to produce a
+declaration of war. Baer was against it.
+
+
+January the 19th. W. C. Nicholas tells me, that in a conversation with
+Dexter three or four days ago, he asked Dexter whether it would not be
+practicable for the States to agree on some uniform mode of choosing
+electors of President. Dexter said, ‘I suppose you would prefer an
+election by districts.’ ‘Yes,’ said Nicholas, ‘I think it would be
+best; but would nevertheless agree to any other consistent with the
+constitution.’ Dexter said he did not know what might be the opinion of
+his State, but his own was, that no mode of election would answer any
+good purpose; that he should prefer one for life. ‘On that reasoning,’
+said Nicholas, ‘you should prefer an hereditary one.’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘we
+are not ripe for that yet. I suppose,’ added he, ‘this doctrine is not
+very popular with you.’ ‘No,’ said Nicholas, ‘it would effectually damn
+any man in my State.’ ‘So it would in mine,’ said Dexter; ‘but I am
+under no inducement to belie my sentiment; I have nothing to ask from
+any body; I had rather be at home than here, therefore I speak my
+sentiments freely.’ Mr. Nicholas, a little before or after this, made
+the same proposition of a uniform election to Rossr who replied that he
+saw no good in any kind of election. ‘Perhaps,’ said he, ‘the present
+one may last a while.’ On the whole, Mr. Nicholas thinks he perceives,
+in that party, a willingness and a wish to let every thing go from bad
+to worse, to amend nothing, in hopes it may bring on confusion, and open
+a door to the kind of government they wish. In a conversation with Gunn,
+who goes with them, but thinks in some degree with us, Gunn told him
+that the very game which the minority of Pennsylvania is now playing
+with McKean (see substitute of minority in lower House, and address
+of Senate in upper), was meditated by the same party in the federal
+government, in case of the election of a republican President; and that
+the eastern States would in that case throw things into confusion,
+and break the Union. That they have in a great degree got rid of their
+paper, so as no longer to be creditors, and the moment they cease to
+enjoy the plunder of the immense appropriations now exclusively theirs,
+they would aim at some other order of things.
+
+
+January the 24th. Mr. Smith, a merchant of Hamburg, gives me the
+following information. The St. Andrew’s Club, of New York, (all
+of Scotch tories,) gave a public dinner lately. Among other guests
+Alexander Hamilton was one. After dinner, the first toast was ‘The
+President of the United States.’ It was drunk without any particular
+approbation. The next was, ‘George the Third.’ Hamilton started up on
+his feet, and insisted on a bumper and three cheers. The whole company
+accordingly rose and gave the cheers. One of them, though a federalist,
+was so disgusted at the partiality shown by Hamilton to a foreign
+sovereign over his own President, that he mentioned it to a Mr.
+Schwart-house, an American merchant of New York, who mentioned it to
+Smith.
+
+Mr. Smith also tells me, that calling one evening on Mr. Evans, then
+Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and asking
+the news, Evans said, Harper had just been there, and speaking of the
+President’s setting out to Braintree, said, ‘he prayed to God that his
+horses might run away with him, or some other accident happen to break
+his neck before he reached Braintree.’ This was in indignation at his
+having named Murray, &c. to negotiate with France. Evans approved of the
+wish.
+
+
+February the 1st. Doctor Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green,
+that when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure
+from the government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had
+never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief
+in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their
+address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a
+Christian or not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was
+too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address
+particularly except that, which he passed over without notice. Rush
+observes, he never did say a word on the subject in any of his public
+papers, except in his valedictory letter to the Governors of the States
+when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of ‘the
+benign influence of the Christian religion.’
+
+I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
+believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
+believed no more of that system than he himself did.
+
+
+March, 1800. Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate, on the motion
+against the Aurora. That there is in every legal body of men a right of
+self-preservation, authorizing them to do whatever is necessary for that
+purpose: by Tracy, Read, and Lawrence. That the common law authorizes
+the proceeding proposed against the Aurora, and is in force here: by
+Read. That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite: by
+Read.
+
+Tracy says, he would not say exactly that the common law of England in
+all its extent is in force here; but common sense reason, and morality,
+which are the foundations of the common law, are in force here, and
+establish a common law. He held himself so nearly half way between the
+common law of England and what every body else has called natural law,
+and not common law, that he could hold to either the one or the other,
+as he should find expedient.
+
+Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
+United States.
+
+Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.
+
+
+March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
+in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life
+had, directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which
+is an absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty
+well ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on
+Davila. This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though
+long and universally understood to be so.
+
+
+March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws
+in his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney’s letters on Robbins’s
+case. Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of
+that place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to
+about one hundred dollars a year.
+
+
+March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that
+Thatcher, on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had
+been for a declaration of war against France, and many others also; but
+that on counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore
+did not attempt it.
+
+
+March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information.
+He and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found
+him keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the
+study of the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator,
+and particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still
+were in concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed
+him there was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the
+government, who were in league with France; that France, by a secret
+article of treaty with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great
+Britain was likely to be our best friend and dependence.
+
+On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
+for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
+General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on
+him, and he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on
+their grievances under the government, and particularly the western
+expedition; that he spoke to him of the advantages that country would
+have in joining France when she should hold Louisiana; showed him a map
+he had drawn of that part of the country; pointed out the passes in the
+mountain, and the facility with which they might hold them against
+the United States, and with which France could support them from New
+Orleans. He says, that in these conversations, Collot let himself out
+without common prudence. He says, Michaux (to whom I, at the request of
+Genet, had given a letter of introduction to the Governor of Kentucky as
+a botanist, which was his real profession,) called on him; that Michaux
+had a commissary’s commission for the expedition, which Genet had
+planned from that quarter against the Spaniards; that ----------,
+the late Spanish commandant of St. Genevieve, with one Powers, an
+Englishman, called on him. That from all these circumstances, together
+with Ross’s stories, he did believe that there was a conspiracy to
+deliver our country, or some part of it at least, to the French; that he
+made notes of what passed between himself and Collot and the others, and
+lent them to Mr. Ross, who gave them to the President, by whom they were
+deposited in the office of the Board of War; that when he complained
+to Ross of this breach of confidence, he endeavored to get off by
+compliments on the utility and importance of his notes. They now cooled
+towards each other; and his opposition to Ross’s election as Governor
+has separated them in truth, though not entirely to appearance.
+
+Doctor Rush tells me, that within a few days he has heard a member
+of Congress lament our separation from Great Britain, and express his
+sincere wishes that we were again dependent on her.
+
+
+December the 25th, 1800. Colonel Hitchburn tells me what Colonel Monroe
+had before told me of, as coming from Hitchburn. He was giving me the
+characters of persons in Massachusetts. Speaking of Lowell, he said he
+was, in the beginning of the Revolution, a timid whig, but as soon as he
+found we were likely to prevail, he became a great office-hunter. And in
+the very breath of speaking of Lowell, he stopped: says he, I will give
+you a piece of information which I do not venture to speak of to others.
+There was a Mr. Hale in Massachusetts, a reputable, worthy man, who
+becoming a little embarrassed in his affairs, I aided him, which
+made him very friendly to me. He went to Canada on some business. The
+Governor there took great notice of him. On his return, he took occasion
+to mention to me that he was authorized by the Governor of Canada
+to give from three to five thousand guineas each to himself and some
+others, to induce them not to do any thing to the injury of their
+country, but to befriend a good connection between England and it.
+Hitchburn said he would think of it, and asked Hale to come and dine
+with him to-morrow. After dinner he drew Hale fully out. He told him he
+had his doubts, but particularly, that he should not like to be alone in
+such a business. On that, Hale named to him four others who were to
+be engaged, two of whom, said Hitchburn, are now dead, and two living.
+Hitchburn, when he had got all he wanted out of Hale, declined in a
+friendly way. But he observed those, four men, from that moment, to
+espouse the interests of England in every point and on every occasion.
+Though he did not name the men to me, yet as the speaking of Lowell was
+what brought into his Read to tell me this anecdote, I concluded he was
+one. From other circumstances respecting Stephen Higginson, of whom he
+spoke, I conjectured him to be the other living one.
+
+
+December the 26th. In another conversation, I mentioned to Colonel
+Hitchburn, that though he had not named names, I had strongly suspected
+Higginson to be one of Hale’s men. He smiled and said, if I had strongly
+suspected any man wrongfully from his information, he would undeceive
+me: that there were no persons he thought more strongly to be suspected
+himself, than Higginson and Lowell. I considered this as saying they
+were the men. Higginson is employed in an important business about our
+navy.
+
+
+February the 12th, 1801. Edward Livingston tells me, that Bayard applied
+to-day or last night to General Samuel Smith, and represented to him
+the expediency of his coming over to the States who vote for Burr, that
+there was nothing in the way of appointment which he might not command,
+and particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. Smith asked
+him if he was authorized to make the offer. He said he was authorized.
+Smith told this to Livingston, and to W. C. Nicholas, who confirms it
+to me. Bayard in like manner tempted Livingston, not by offering
+any particular office, but by representing to him his (Livingston’s)
+intimacy and connection with Burr; that from him he had every thing to
+expect, if he would come over to him. To Doctor Linn of New Jersey, they
+have offered the government of New Jersey. See a paragraph in Martin’s
+Baltimore paper of February the 10th, signed, ‘a looker on,’ staling an
+intimacy of views between Harper and Burr.
+
+
+February the 14th. General Armstrong tells me, that Gouverneur Morris,
+in conversation with him to-day on the scene which is passing, expressed
+himself thus. ‘How comes it,’ says he, ‘that Burr, who is four hundred
+miles off (at Albany), has agents here at work with great activity,
+while Mr. Jefferson, who is on the spot, does nothing?’ This explains
+the ambiguous conduct of himself and his nephew, Lewis Morris, and that
+they were holding themselves free for a price; i.e. some office, either
+to the uncle or nephew.
+
+
+February the 16th. See in the Wilmington Mirror of February the 14th,
+Mr. Bayard’s elaborate argument to prove that the common law, as
+modified by the laws of the respective States at the epoch of the
+ratification of the constitution, attached to the courts of the United
+States.
+
+
+June the 23rd, 1801. Andrew Ellicot tells me, that in a conversation
+last summer with Major William Jackson of Philadelphia, on the subject
+of our intercourse with Spain, Jackson said we had managed our affairs
+badly; that he himself was the author of the papers against the Spanish
+minister signed Americanus; that his object was irritation; that he was
+anxious, if it could have been brought, about, to have plunged us into a
+war with Spain, that the people might have been occupied with that, and
+not with the conduct of the administration, and other things they had no
+business to meddle with.
+
+
+December the 13th, 1803. The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who
+is now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in
+Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this
+enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which
+he meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in
+a civil character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his
+name, he being then President, and the application going only for his
+name, and not for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and
+considering, said, ‘he saw no possibility of continuing the union of
+the States; that their dissolution must necessarily take place; that he
+therefore saw no propriety in recommending to New England men to promote
+a literary institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength
+to those who were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have
+nothing to do with it.’
+
+December the 31st. After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of
+Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed
+the insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the
+Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was
+spoken out which was known; that it would then appear on which side
+there was a bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode
+Island, urging him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words. ‘What is
+it you want, Colonel Lyon? Is it office, is it money? Only say what you
+want, and you shall have it.’
+
+January the 2nd, 1804. Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding
+me of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the
+Presidential election, says he did not therein give the details. That he
+was in company at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and ------ that in the
+course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, ‘We must
+have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.’ ‘How is it to
+be done,’ says Hitchburn; ‘Mr. Jefferson’s friends will not quit him,
+and his enemies are not strong enough to carry another.’ ‘Why,’ says
+Burr, ‘our friends must join the federalists, and give the President.’
+‘The next morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same,
+saying, ‘We cannot be without a President, our friends must join the
+federal vote.’ ‘But,’ says Hitchburn, ‘we shall then be without a
+Vice-President; who is to be our Vice-President?’ Colonel Burr answered,
+‘Mr. Jefferson.’
+
+
+January the 26th. Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the
+evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me.
+He began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a
+stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two
+rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not
+political, and he meddled not. When the crisis, however, of 1800 came
+on, they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the
+people. He lent it without any views of promotion. That his being named
+as a candidate for Vice-President was unexpected by him. He acceded to
+it with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to
+be with me, whose company and conversation had always been fascinating
+to him. That, since, those great families had become hostile to him,
+and had excited the calumnies which I had seen published. That in this
+Hamilton had joined, and had even written some of the pieces against
+him. That his attachment to me had been sincere, and was still
+unchanged, although many little stories had been carried to him, and
+he supposed to me also, which he despised; but that attachments must be
+reciprocal, or cease to exist, and therefore he asked if any change
+had taken place in mine towards him; that he had chosen to have this
+conversation with myself directly, and not through any intermediate
+agent. He reminded me of a letter written to him about the time of
+counting the votes (say February, 1801), mentioning that his election
+had left a chasm in my arrangements; that I had lost him from my list
+in the administration, &c. He observed, he believed it would be for
+the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a
+disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place; but that were he to
+retire, it would be said he shrunk from the public sentence, which he
+never would do; that his enemies were using my name to destroy him,
+and something was necessary from me to prevent and deprive them of that
+weapon, some mark of favor from me which would declare to the world that
+he retired with my confidence.
+
+I answered by recapitulating to him what had been my conduct previous
+to the election of 1800. That I had never interfered directly or
+indirectly, with my friends or any others, to influence the election
+either for him or myself; that I considered it as my duty to be merely
+passive, except that in Virginia I had taken some measures to procure
+for him the unanimous vote of that State, because I thought any failure
+there might be imputed to me. That in the election now coming on, I was
+observing the same conduct, held no councils with any body respecting
+it, nor suffered any one to speak to me on the subject, believing it my
+duty to leave myself to the free discussion of the public; that I do
+not at this moment know, nor have ever heard, who were to be proposed
+as candidates for the public choice, except so far as could be gathered
+from the newspapers. That as to the attack excited against him in the
+newspapers, I had noticed it but as the passing wind; that I had seen
+complaints that Cheetham, employed in publishing the laws, should be
+permitted to eat the public bread and abuse its second officer: that as
+to this, the publishers of the laws were appointed by the Secretary of
+State, without any reference to me; that to make the notice general, it
+was often given to one republican and one federal printer of the same
+place; that these federal printers did not in the least intermit their
+abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the government, and that
+I have never thought it proper to interfere for myself, and consequently
+not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to the letter he referred
+to, I remembered it, and believed he had only mistaken the date at which
+it was written; that I thought it must have been on the first notice of
+the event of the election of South Carolina; and that I had taken that
+occasion to mention to him, that I had intended to have proposed to
+him one of the great offices, if he had not been elected; but that his
+election, in giving him a higher station, had deprived me of his aid in
+the administration. The letter alluded to was, in fact, mine to him of
+December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain to him verbally,
+what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That in General
+Washington’s time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams, the
+Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
+Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams
+was a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts,
+indeed, his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away
+the person who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution
+to take his place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be
+disposing of the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor
+for the public favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I
+recollect rightly, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave
+the same opinions. That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in
+his first interview with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to
+France, and how desirable it would have been to him if he could have got
+me to undertake it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to
+send me away, and assigned the same reasons General Washington had done;
+and therefore, he should appoint Mr. Madison, &c. That I had myself
+contemplated his (Colonel Burr’s) appointment to one of the great
+offices, in case he was not elected Vice-President; but that as soon
+as that election was known, I saw it could not be done, for the good
+reasons which had led General Washington and Mr. Adams to the same
+conclusion; and therefore, in my first letter to Colonel Burr, after the
+issue was known, I had mentioned to him that a chasm in my arrangements
+had been produced by this event. I was thus particular in rectifying the
+date of this letter, because it gave me an opportunity of explaining the
+grounds on which it was written, which were, indirectly, an answer to
+his present hints. He left the matter with me for consideration, and the
+conversation was turned to indifferent subjects. I should here notice,
+that Colonel Burr must have thought I could swallow strong things in
+my own favor, when he founded his acquiescence to the nomination as
+Vice-President, to his desire of promoting my honor, the being with me,
+whose company and conversation had always been fascinating with him, &c.
+I had never seen Colonel Burr till he came as a member of Senate. His
+conduct very soon inspired me with distrust. I habitually cautioned
+Mr. Madison against trusting him too much. I saw afterwards, that under
+General Washington’s and Mr. Adams’s administrations, whenever a great
+military appointment or a diplomatic one was to be made, he came post to
+Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact that he was always at market,
+if they had wanted him. He was indeed told by Dayton in 1800, he
+might be Secretary at War; but this bid was too late! His election as
+Vice-President was then foreseen. With these impressions of Colonel
+Burr, there never had been an intimacy between us, and but little
+association. When I destined him for a high appointment, it was out of
+respect for the favor he had obtained with the republican party, by his
+extraordinary exertions and success in the New York election in 1800.
+
+
+April the 15th, 1806. About a month ago, Colonel Burr called on me, and
+entered into a conversation, in which he mentioned, that a little before
+my coming into office, I had written to him a letter intimating that I
+had destined him for a high employ, had he not been placed by the people
+in a different one; that he had signified his willingness to resign as
+Vice-President, to give aid to the administration in any other place;
+that he had never asked an office, however; he asked aid of nobody, but
+could walk on his own legs and take care of himself; that I had always
+used him with politeness, but nothing more; that he aided in bringing on
+the present order of things; that he had supported the administration;
+and that he could do me much harm: he wished, however, to be
+on different ground: he was now disengaged from all particular
+business--willing to engage in something--should be in town some days,
+if I should have any thing to propose to him. I observed to him, that
+I had always been sensible that he possessed talents which might be
+employed greatly to the advantage of the public, and that, as to myself,
+I had a confidence that if he were employed, he would use his talents
+for the public good: but that he must be sensible the public had
+withdrawn their confidence from him, and that in a government like ours
+it was necessary to embrace in its administration as great a mass of
+public confidence as possible, by employing those who had a character
+with the public, of their own, and not merely a secondary one through
+the executive. He observed, that if we believed a few newspapers, it
+might be supposed he had lost the public confidence, but that I knew how
+easy it was to engage newspapers in any thing. I observed, that I
+did not refer to that kind of evidence of his having lost the public
+confidence, but to the late Presidential election, when, though in
+possession of the office of Vice-President, there was not a single voice
+heard for his retaining it. That as to any harm he could do me, I knew
+no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I feared no
+injury which any man could do me: that I never had done a single act,
+or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully laid
+open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated: that I had never
+done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of any
+friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:
+that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive
+of action with me. He has continued in town to this time; dined with me
+this day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.
+
+I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now,
+because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of
+Mr. Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor
+to any other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to have
+addressed to me, during the pending of the Presidential election in
+February, 1801, through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on
+which my election might be obtained, and that General Smith, after
+conversing with me, gave answers from me. This is absolutely false. No
+proposition of any kind was ever made to me on that occasion by General
+Smith, nor any answer authorized by me. And this fact General Smith
+affirms at this moment.
+
+For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th
+and 14th, 1801, made at the moment. But the following transactions
+took place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential
+election was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at
+the time, they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now
+as fresh, as to their principal circumstances, as if they had happened
+yesterday. Coming out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur
+Morris on the steps. He stopped me, and began a conversation on the
+strange and portentous state of things then existing, and went on to
+observe, that the reasons why the minority of States was so opposed to
+my being elected, were, that they apprehended that, 1. I would turn all
+federalists out of office; 2. put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public
+debt. That I need only to declare, or authorize my friends to declare,
+that I would not take these steps, and instantly the event of the
+election would be fixed. I told him, that I should leave the world
+to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued
+hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the
+present scene; that I should certainly make no terms; should never go
+into the office of President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by
+any conditions which should hinder me from pursuing the measures which
+I should deem for the public good. It was understood that Gouverneur
+Morris had entirely the direction of the vote of Lewis Morris of
+Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would have added another
+vote, and decided the election. About the same time, I called on Mr.
+Adams. We conversed on the state of things. I observed to him, that
+a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to defeat the
+Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the right of
+the Senate to name a President of the Senate, to devolve on him the
+government during any interregnum: that such a measure would probably
+produce resistance by force, and incalculable consequences, which it
+would be in his power to prevent by negativing such an act. He seemed to
+think such an act justifiable, and observed, it was in my power to fix
+the election by a word in an instant, by declaring I would not turn out
+the federal officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national
+debt. Finding his mind made up as to the usurpation of the government by
+the President of the Senate, I urged it no further, observed, the
+world must judge as to myself of the future by the past, and turned the
+conversation to something else. About the same time, Dwight Foster of
+Massachusetts called on me in my room one night, and went into a very
+long conversation on the state of affairs, the drift of which was to let
+me understand, that the fears above mentioned were the only obstacle to
+my election, to all of which I avoided giving any answer the one way
+or the other. From this moment he became most bitterly and personally
+opposed to me, and so has ever continued. I do not recollect that I
+ever had any particular conversation with General Samuel Smith on this
+subject. Very possibly I had, however, as the general subject and
+all its parts were the constant themes of conversation in the private
+tête-à-têtes with our friends. But certain I am, that neither he nor
+any other republican ever uttered the most distant hint to me about
+submitting to any conditions, or giving any assurances to any body;
+and still more certainly, was neither he nor any other person ever
+authorized by me to say what I would or would not do.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+[The following official opinion, though inadvertently omitted in its
+proper place, is deemed of sufficient importance to be inserted here.]
+
+The bill for establishing a National Bank, undertakes, among other
+things,
+
+1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
+
+2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of
+land; and so far, is against the laws of _Mortmain_.*
+
+     * Though the constitution controls the laws of Mortmain, so
+     far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain
+     purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a
+     similar right to other corporate bodies.
+
+3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far, is
+against the laws of Alienage.
+
+4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain
+line of successors; and so far, changes the course of Descents.
+
+5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat; and so
+far, is against the laws of _Forfeiture_ and _Escheat_.
+
+6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain line; and so
+far, is against the laws of Distribution.
+
+7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the
+national authority; and so far, is against the laws of Monopoly.
+
+8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws of
+the States; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution
+from the control of the State legislatures; and so, probably, they will
+be construed.
+
+I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this ground,
+that all powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution
+nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to
+the people.’ (Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond the
+boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to
+take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of
+any definition.
+
+The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill,
+have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the
+constitution.
+
+I. They are not among the powers specially, enumerated. For these are,
+
+1. A power to _lay taxes_ for the purpose of paying the debts of the
+United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were
+it a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it
+by the constitution.
+
+2. To ‘borrow money.’ But this bill neither borrows money, nor insures
+the borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free
+as any other money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to the
+public. The operation proposed in the bill, first to lend them two
+millions, and then borrow them back again cannot change the nature of
+the latter act, which will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by
+what name you please.
+
+3. ‘To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the States, and
+with the Indian tribes.’ To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are
+very different acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject of commerce
+in its bills: so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar
+out of the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce
+thereby. To make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to
+prescribe regulations for buying and selling. Besides, if this were
+an exercise of the power of regulating commerce, it would be void, as
+extending as much to the internal commerce of every State, as to its
+external. For the power given to Congress by the constitution, does not
+extend to the internal regulation, of the commerce of a State (that
+is to say, of the commerce between citizen and citizen), which remains
+exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce
+only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign
+nations, or with the Indian tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not
+propose the measure as a ‘regulation of trade,’ but as ‘productive of
+considerable advantage to trade.’
+
+Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
+enumerations.
+
+II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
+following.
+
+1. ‘To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United
+States’; that is to say, ‘to lay taxes for the purpose of providing
+for the general welfare.’ For the laying of taxes is the power, and
+the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised.
+Congress are not to lay taxes, _ad libitum_, for any purpose they
+please: but only to pay the debts, or provide for the welfare of the
+Union. In like manner, they are not to do any thing they please, to
+provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.
+To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the
+first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they
+please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the
+preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
+It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of
+instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good
+of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good
+or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased. It
+is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either
+of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the
+other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the
+others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given
+them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated
+powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be
+carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed as
+a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which formed the
+constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to
+open parials, and an amendatory one, to empower them to incorporate.
+But the whole was rejected; and one of the reasons of rejection urged
+in debate was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank,
+which would render the great cities, where there were prejudices
+and jealousies on that subject, adverse to the reception of the
+constitution.
+
+2. The second general phrase is, ‘to make all laws necessary and proper
+for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.’ But they can all
+be carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not
+necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase.
+
+It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or
+convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the
+constitution allows only the means which are ‘necessary’ not those which
+are merely ‘convenient’ for effecting the enumerated powers. If such
+a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any
+non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which
+ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to
+some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up
+all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before
+observed. Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them to the
+necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant
+of the power would be nugatory.
+
+But let us examine this ‘convenience,’ and see what it is. The report
+on this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience to be, the
+preventing the transportation and re-transportation of money between the
+States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase of circulating
+medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, according to my ideas of
+paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every State will have to pay a sum
+of tax-money into the treasury; and the treasury will have to pay in
+every State a part of the interest on the public debt, and salaries
+to the officers of government resident in that State. In most of the
+States, there will be still a surplus of tax-money, to come up to the
+seat of government, for the officers residing there. The payments of
+interest and salary in each State, may be made by treasury orders on the
+state collector. This will take up the greater part of the money he has
+collected in his State and consequently prevent the great mass of it
+from being drawn out of the state. If there be a balance of commerce in
+favor of that State, against the one in which the government resides,
+the surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for
+that commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. But if
+there be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the
+banks in the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but in the
+form of money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of exchange, may prevent
+the displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the
+aid of any bank: and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with
+that aid.
+
+Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than
+treasury orders. But a little difference in the degree of convenience,
+cannot constitute the necessity which the constitution makes the ground
+for assuming any non-enumerated power.
+
+Besides; the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into arrangements
+for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a
+competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill delivers us up bound
+to the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangements but on
+their own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal to employ any
+other bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by
+their post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasury, are paid
+by any State collector to whom they are presented. This expedient alone,
+suffices to prevent the existence of that necessity which may justify
+the assumption of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into
+effect an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, and
+well done, without this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that
+degree of necessity which can honestly justify it.
+
+It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency all over
+the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency is limited
+to a single State. So it would be still more convenient, that there
+should be a bank whose bills should have a currency all over the world.
+But it does not follow from this superior conveniency, that there exists
+any where a power to establish such a bank, or that the world may not
+go on very well without it. Can it be thought that the constitution
+intended, that for a shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress
+should be authorized to break down the most ancient and fundamental
+laws of the several States, such as those against mortmain, the laws of
+alienage, the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws
+of escheat and forfeiture, and the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a
+necessity invincible by any other means, can justify such a prostration
+of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of
+jurisprudence. Will Congress be too strait-laced to carry the
+constitution into honest effect, unless they may pass over the
+foundation laws of the State governments, for the slightest convenience
+to theirs?
+
+The negative of the President is the shield provided by the
+constitution, to protect against the invasions of the legislature, 1.
+the rights of the Executive; 2. of the Judiciary; 3. of the States
+and State legislatures. The present is the case of a right remaining
+exclusively with the States, and is, consequently, one of those intended
+by the constitution to be placed under his protection.
+
+It must be added, however, that unless the President’s mind, on a view
+of every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably
+clear that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the pro and the
+con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the
+wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of
+their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by
+error, ambition, or interest, that the constitution has placed a check
+in the negative of the President.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+February 15, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And
+Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies,
+From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Editor: Thomas Jefferson Randolph
+
+Illustrator: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2005 [EBook #16784]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines, 1829 set of Jefferson Papers]
+
+MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS
+JEFFERSON.
+
+Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
+
+
+[Illustration: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage of Volume Three (of four)]
+
+
+VOLUME IV.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, August 30, 1803
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1803.
+
+Deak. Sir,
+
+The enclosed letter came to hand by yesterday�s post. You will be
+sensible of the circumstances which make it improper that I should
+hazard a formal answer, as well as of the desire its friendly aspect
+naturally excites, that those concerned in it should understand that
+the spirit they express is friendly viewed. You can judge also from your
+knowledge of the ground, whether it may be usefully encouraged. I take
+the liberty, therefore, of availing myself of your neighborhood to
+Boston, and of your friendship to me, to request you to say to the
+Captain and others verbally whatever you think would be proper, as
+expressive of my sentiments on the subject. With respect to the day
+on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may be told, that
+disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the
+great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of dividing them
+with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and
+have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform
+answer to every application of the kind.
+
+On further consideration as to the amendment to our constitution
+respecting Louisiana, I have thought it better, instead of enumerating
+the powers which Congress may exercise, to give them the same powers
+they have as to other portions of the Union generally, and to enumerate
+the special exceptions, in some such form as the following.
+
+�Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of
+the United States, its white inhabitants shall be citizens, and stand,
+as to their rights and obligations, on the same footing with other
+citizens of the United States, in analogous situations. Save only that
+as to the portion thereof lying north of an east and west line drawn
+through the mouth of Arkansas river, no new State shall be established,
+nor any grants of land made, other than to Indians, in exchange for
+equivalent portions of land occupied by them, until an amendment of the
+constitution shall be made for these purposes.
+
+�Florida also, whensoever it may be rightfully obtained, shall become
+a part of the United States, its white inhabitants shall thereupon be
+citizens, and shall stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the
+same footing with other citizens of the United States, in analogous
+situations.�
+
+I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is
+said about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will
+be desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence. I find
+but one opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the country for
+some time. We meet in Washington the 25th of September to prepare for
+Congress. Accept my affectionate salutations, and great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.--TO WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803
+
+
+TO WILSON C NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 3rd was delivered me at court; but we were much
+disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison and the Governor being
+here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of
+the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what
+we are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers,
+to believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
+obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
+treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and
+an unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
+State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should
+be done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
+respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of
+the observations you make on the power given by the constitution to
+Congress, to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the
+subject to the territory then constituting the United States. But when I
+consider that the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the
+treaty of 1783, that the constitution expressly declares itself to be
+made for the United States, I cannot help believing the intention was
+not to permit Congress to admit into the Union new States, which should
+be formed out of the territory for which, and under whose authority
+alone, they were then acting. I do not believe it was meant that they
+might receive England, Ireland, Holland, &tc. into it, which would
+be the case on your construction. When an instrument admits two
+constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the
+other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise. I had
+rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found
+necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our
+powers boundless. Our peculiar security is in the possession of a
+written constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
+I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of
+the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no
+constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the
+definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies and
+delineates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives
+all the powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of
+these enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
+whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President and
+Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a judicial
+sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more likely than
+that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case
+of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting it, by adding, by way
+of amendment to the constitution, those powers which time and trial show
+are still wanting. But it has been taken too much for granted, that by
+this rigorous construction the treaty power would be reduced to nothing.
+I had occasion once to examine its effect on the French treaty, made by
+the old Congress, and found that out of thirty odd articles which that
+contained, there were one, two, or three only, which could not now be
+stipulated under our present constitution. I confess, then, I think
+it important, in the present case, to set an example against broad
+construction, by appealing for new power to the people. If, however,
+our friends shall think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with
+satisfaction; confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct
+the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects.
+
+No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the
+contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, and proves to me
+their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their
+sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
+and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that
+due reflection which ought to precede action. I leave this about the
+21st, and shall hope the District Court will give me an opportunity
+of seeing you. Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Washington, October 4, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+No one would more willingly than myself pay the just tribute due to
+the services of Captain Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his
+widow, as you suggest. But when one undertakes to administer justice,
+it must be with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be
+done for every one in equal degree. To what a train of attentions
+would this draw a President? How difficult would it be to draw the line
+between that degree of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and
+that not so entitled? If drawn in a particular case differently from
+what the friends of the deceased would judge right, what offence would
+it give, and of the most tender kind? How much offence would be given
+by accidental inattentions, or want of information? The first step
+into such an undertaking ought to be well weighed. On the death of Dr.
+Franklin, the King and Convention of France went into mourning. So did
+the House of Representatives of the United States: the Senate refused.
+I proposed to General Washington that the executive departments should
+wear mourning; he declined it, because he said he should not know where
+to draw the line, if he once began that ceremony. Mr. Adams was then
+Vice-President, and I thought General Washington had his eye on him,
+whom he certainly did not love. I told him the world had drawn so
+broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on the one side, and the
+residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear mourning for them,
+and the question still remain new and undecided as to all others. He
+thought it best, however, to avoid it. On these considerations alone,
+however well affected to the merit of Commodore Barry, I think
+it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may become
+embarrassing.
+
+Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers?
+With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With
+no partialities certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to
+destroy their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the
+waters, the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.
+
+Affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, November 1, 1803.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
+with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
+so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
+here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
+ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with
+the world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
+difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
+speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
+thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
+having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings
+to unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on
+the globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
+America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
+horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of
+France to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and
+that this may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as
+France there, and the United States here, what she can expect from so
+gross a compound of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the
+book of wisdom. She is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more
+than we are. Our policy will be to form New Orleans and the country on
+both sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all
+above that, to transplant our Indians into it, constituting them a
+Marechaussee to prevent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall
+have filled up all the vacant country on this side. This will secure
+both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for half a century, and we
+may safely trust the provisions for that time to the men who shall live
+in it.
+
+I have communicated with Mr. Gallatin on the subject of using your
+house in any matters of consequence we may have to do at Paris. He
+is impressed with the same desire I feel to give this mark of our
+confidence in you, and the sense we entertain of your friendship and
+fidelity. Mr. Behring informs him that none of the money which will be
+due from us to him, as the assignee of France, will be wanting at Paris.
+Be assured that our dispositions are such as to let no occasion pass
+unimproved, of serving you, where occurrences will permit it.
+
+Present my respects to Madame Dupont, and accept yourself assurances of
+my constant and warm friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.--TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803
+
+TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, November 4,1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A report reaches us this day from Baltimore (on probable, but not
+certain grounds), that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First
+Consul, was yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The
+effect of this measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to
+suppose; but as it might occur to him _prim� facie_, that the executive
+of the United States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it
+advisable to mention the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by
+explanations set that idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all
+persons are free to enter into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age,
+no one having a power to restrain it, not even their parents; and that
+under that age, no one can prevent it but the parent or guardian. The
+lady is under age, and the parents, placed between her affections
+which were strongly fixed, and the considerations opposing the measure,
+yielded with pain and anxiety to the former.
+
+     * November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
+     the 3rd, but will this day.
+
+Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
+man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
+of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
+of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
+society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
+rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
+obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
+against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be
+nothing. The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by
+twenty-four against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in
+the House of Representatives for making provision for its execution,
+was carried by eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority
+of sixty-six, and the necessary bills are going through the Houses
+by greater majorities. Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his
+government, proposed to have added to the ratification a protestation
+against any failure in time or other circumstances of execution, on
+our part. He was told, that in that case we should annex a counter
+protestation, which would leave the thing exactly where it was; that
+this transaction had been conducted from the commencement of the
+negotiation to this stage of it, with a frankness and sincerity
+honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the heart of an honest man
+to review; that to annex to this last chapter of the transaction such an
+evidence of mutual distrust, was to change its aspect dishonorably
+for us both, and contrary to truth as to us; for that we had not the
+smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its part; and I
+assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence in the word of the First
+Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. He saw that we had
+ratified the treaty; that both branches had passed by great majorities
+one of the bills for execution, and would soon pass the other two;
+that no circumstances remained that could leave a doubt of our punctual
+performance; and like an able and an honest minister (which he is in the
+highest degree) he undertook to do, what he knew his employers would do
+themselves, were they here spectators of all the existing circumstances,
+and exchanged the ratification�s purely and simply; so that this
+instrument goes to the world as an evidence of the candor and confidence
+of the nations in each other, which will have the best effects. This was
+the more justifiable, as Mr. Pichon knew that Spain had entered with us
+a protestation against our ratification of the treaty, grounded, first,
+on the assertion that the First Consul had not executed the conditions
+of the treaties of cession, and secondly, that he had broken a solemn
+promise not to alienate the country to any nation. We answered, that
+these were private questions between France and Spain, which they must
+settle together; that we derived our title from the First Consul, and
+did not doubt his guarantee of it: and we, four days ago, sent off
+orders to the Governor of the Mississippi territory and General
+Wilkinson, to move down with the troops at hand to New Orleans, to
+receive the possession from Mr. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to
+carry the order of the Consul into execution, he can probably command a
+volunteer force at New Orleans, and will have the aid of ours also, if
+he desires it, to take the possession and deliver it to us. If he is
+not so disposed, we shall take the possession, and it will rest with the
+government of France, by adopting the act as their own and obtaining the
+confirmation of Spain, to supply the non-execution of their stipulation
+to deliver, and to entitle themselves to the complete execution of our
+part of the agreements. In the mean time, the legislature is passing the
+bills, and we are preparing every thing to be done on our part towards
+execution, and we shall not avail ourselves of the three months� delay
+after possession of the province, allowed by the treaty for the delivery
+of the stock, but shall deliver it the moment that possession is known
+here, which will be on the eighteenth day after it has taken place.
+
+*****
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.--TO DAVID WILLIAMS, November 14, 1803
+
+TO DAVID WILLIAMS.
+
+Washington, November 14, 1803.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received the volume on the claims of literature; which
+you did me the favor to send me through Mr. Monroe: and have read
+with satisfaction the many judicious reflections it contains, on the
+condition of the respectable class of literary men. The efforts for
+their relief, made by a society of private citizens, are truly laudable:
+but they are, as you justly observe, but a palliation of an evil, the
+cure of which calls for all the wisdom and the means of the nation. The
+greatest evils of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring
+from the vicious distribution of its members among the occupations
+called for. I have no doubt that those nations are essentially
+right, which leave this to individual choice, as a better guide to an
+advantageous distribution, than any other which could be devised.
+But when, by a blind concourse, particular occupations are ruinously
+overcharged, and others left in want of hands, the national authorities
+can do much towards restoring the equilibrium. On the revival of
+letters, learning became the universal favorite. And with reason,
+because there was not enough of it existing to manage the affairs of
+a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its individuals to the
+happiness of which they were susceptible, by improvements in their
+minds, their morals, their health, and in those conveniences which
+contribute to the comfort and embellishment of life. All the efforts of
+the society, therefore, were directed to the increase of learning,
+and the inducements of respect, ease, and profit were held up for its
+encouragement. Even the charities of the nation forgot that misery was
+their object, and spent themselves in founding schools to transfer to
+science the hardy sons of the plough. To these incitements were added
+the powerful fascinations of great cities. These circumstances have long
+since produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned
+occupation, and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and
+the more, as their habits of life have disqualified them for re-entering
+into the laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever
+entirely cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it may be
+cured. Doubtless there are many engines which the nation might bring to
+bear on this object. Public opinion and public encouragement are among
+these. The class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is
+the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same
+artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in
+learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its
+primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first
+order. It counts among its handmaids the most respectable sciences,
+such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics
+generally, Natural History, Botany. In every College and University, a
+professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be
+honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with
+this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid
+charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of
+crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers,
+their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling,
+now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools,
+instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present state of
+society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might
+restore them to that branch, qualified to enrich and honor themselves,
+and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them.
+A gradual abolition of the useless offices, so much accumulated in all
+governments, might close this drain also from the labors of the field,
+and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these, and the better means
+which will occur to others, the surcharge of the learned, might in
+time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizenss the sum of
+industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.
+
+Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked
+by exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane
+resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come
+here. Those who can labor do well, for the most part. Of the learned
+class of emigrants, a small portion find employments analogous to their
+talents. But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in
+the scenes where it began. Even here we find too strong a current from
+the country to the towns; and instances beginning to appear of that
+species of misery, which you are so humanely endeavoring to relieve with
+you. Although we have in the old countries of Europe the lesson of their
+experience to warn us, yet I am not satisfied we shall have the firmness
+and wisdom to profit by it. The general desire of men to live by their
+heads rather than their hands, and the strong allurements of great
+cities to those who have any turn for dissipation, threaten to make them
+here, as in Europe, the sinks of voluntary misery. I perceive, however,
+that I have suffered my pen to run into a disquisition, when I had taken
+it up only to thank you for the volume you had been so kind as to send
+me, and to express my approbation of it. After apologizing, therefore,
+for having touched on a subject so much more familiar to you, and better
+understood, I beg leave to assure you of my high consideration and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.--TO JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803
+
+TO JOHN RANDOLH.
+
+Washington, December 1, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The explanations in your letter of yesterday were quite unnecessary to
+me. I have had too satisfactory proofs of your friendly regard, to be
+disposed to suspect any thing of a contrary aspect.
+
+I understood perfectly the expressions stated in the newspaper to
+which you allude, to mean, that �though the proposition came from the
+republican quarter of the House, yet you should not concur with it.� I
+am aware, that in parts of the Union, and even with persons to whom Mr.
+Eppes and Mr. Randolph are unknown, and myself little known, it will be
+presumed from their connection, that what comes from them comes from me.
+No men on earth are more independent in their sentiments than they are,
+nor any one less disposed than I am to influence the opinions of others.
+We rarely speak of politics, or of the proceedings of the House, but
+merely historically; and I carefully avoid expressing an opinion on them
+in their presence, that we may all be at our ease. With other members, I
+have believed that more unreserved communications would be advantageous
+to the public. This has been, perhaps, prevented by mutual delicacy. I
+have been afraid to express opinions unasked, lest I should be suspected
+of wishing to direct the legislative action of members. They have
+avoided asking communications from me, probably, lest they should be
+suspected of wishing to fish out executive secrets. I see too many
+proofs of the imperfection of human reason, to entertain wonder or
+intolerance at any difference of opinion on any subject; and acquiesce
+in that difference as easily as on a difference of feature or form:
+experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices
+of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object,
+and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we cannot do all we
+would wish.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.--TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR. GALLATIN.
+
+The Attorney General having considered and decided, that the
+prescription in the law for establishing a bank, that the officers in
+the subordinate offices of discount and deposit, shall be appointed �on
+the same terms and in the same manner practised in the principal bank,�
+does not extend to them the principle of rotation, established by the
+legislature in the body of directors in the principal bank, it follows
+that the extension of that principle has been merely a voluntary and
+prudential act of the principal bank, from which they are free to
+depart. I think the extension was wise and proper on their part, because
+the legislature having deemed rotation useful in the principal bank
+constituted by them, there would be the same reason for it in the
+subordinate banks to be established by the principal. It breaks in upon
+the _esprit de corps_, so apt to prevail in permanent bodies; it gives
+a chance for the public eye penetrating into the sanctuary of those
+proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the directors may
+introduce for their personal emolument, and which the resentments of
+excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted, might betray
+to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the year, or at
+other periods, of correcting a choice, which, on trial, proves to have
+been unfortunate; an evil of which themselves complain in their distant
+institutions. Whether, however, they have a power to alter this or not,
+the executive has no right to decide; and their consultation with you
+has been merely an act of complaisance, or from a desire to shield so
+important an innovation under the cover of executive sanction. But
+ought we to volunteer our sanction in such a case? Ought we to disarm
+ourselves of any fair right of animadversion, whenever that institution
+shall be a legitimate subject of consideration? I own I think the most
+proper answer would be, that we do not think ourselves authorized to
+give an opinion on the question.
+
+From a passage in the letter of the President, I observe an idea of
+establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This
+institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the
+principles and form of our constitution. The nation is, at this time,
+so strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this
+moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient
+to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet
+a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in
+the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its
+branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may,
+in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe
+which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any
+other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
+What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all
+its branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace
+we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further
+growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile
+we know, 1. from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing
+the body of directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of
+most of the stock-holders: 2. from their opposition to the measures and
+principles of the government, and to the election of those friendly to
+them: and, 3. from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now,
+while we are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our
+constitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination
+under its authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an
+equal footing only with other banks, as to the favors of the government.
+But, in order to be able to meet a general combination of the banks
+against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make a beginning
+towards an independent use of our own money, towards holding our own
+bank in all the deposits where it is received, and letting the Treasurer
+give his draft or note for payment at any particular place, which, in a
+well conducted government, ought to have as much credit as any private
+draft, or bank note, or bill, and would give us the same facilities
+which we derive from the banks? I pray you to turn this subject in your
+mind, and to give it the benefit of your knowledge of details; whereas,
+I have only very general views of the subject. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Washington, December 13, 1803.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.--TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804
+
+
+TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
+letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
+you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
+together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who
+departs in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
+Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have
+also to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your
+Harmony, which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is
+the first I have been able to meet with, which is clear of those long
+repetitions of the same transaction, as if it were a different one
+because related with some different circumstances.
+
+I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
+doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so
+much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and
+better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving,
+as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines,
+extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every
+thing relative to his personal history and character. It would be short
+and precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent
+to Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and
+two English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality, and paste
+them on the leaves of a book, in the manner you describe as having been
+pursued in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by
+better hands.
+
+I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our horizon, which
+was to burst in a tornado; and the public are un-apprized how near this
+catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank and friendly developement of causes
+and effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte to see that
+the train was unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved
+us from that storm. I did not expect he would yield till a war took
+place between France and England, and my hope was to palliate and
+endure, if Messrs. Ross, Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture
+until that event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge
+it came on sooner than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense
+of Bonaparte might not see the course predicted to be necessary and
+unavoidable, even before a war should be imminent, was a chance which
+we thought it our duty to try: but the immediate prospect of rupture
+brought the case to immediate decision. The denouement has been happy:
+and I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a
+government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to
+the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one
+confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I
+believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of
+the western confederacy will be as much our children and descendants
+as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with
+that country, in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a
+separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire
+to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all
+the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within
+my power.
+
+Have you seen the new work of Malthus on Population? It is one of the
+ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate
+the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws
+of England, and other palliations for that evil, several important
+questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are
+treated with a masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have
+been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard
+of. Probably our friends in England will think of you, and give you an
+opportunity of reading it.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Washington, March 3, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Although it is long since I received your favor of October the 27th,
+yet I have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it. In the Middle and
+Southern States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place
+as is perhaps desirable. For as there will always be an opposition, I
+believe it had better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New
+York seems to be in danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly
+with us; Rhode Island with us on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on
+the verge of the republican shore; Connecticut advancing towards it very
+slowly, but with steady step; your State only uncertain of making port
+at all. I had forgotten Delaware, which will be always uncertain
+from the divided character of her citizens. If the amendment of the
+constitution passes Rhode Island (and we expect to hear in a day or
+two), the election for the ensuing four years seems to present nothing
+formidable. I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies of the
+federal party have obliged me to throw myself on the verdict of my
+country for trial, my great desire having been to retire at the end
+of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it was my decided
+purpose when I entered into office. They force my continuance. If we
+can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her course for another four
+years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall be free
+to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my books. That your
+enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I sincerely
+pray, and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI.--TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804
+
+
+TO GIDEON GRANGER.
+
+Monticello, April 16, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of
+forming a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what
+they called the seven eastern States. The idea was new to me, and after
+time for reflection, I had no opportunity of conversing with you again.
+The federalists know that, _eo nomine_, they are gone for ever. Their
+object, therefore, is, how to return into power under some other form.
+Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans,
+join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name.
+I say, join the minority; because the majority of the republicans, not
+needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of
+ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
+must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their
+numbers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they
+must pay in. Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on
+the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when this party
+is formed, who will constitute the majority of it, which majority is
+then to dictate? Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of
+putting themselves into gear with the republican minority, is exactly
+like Roger Sherman�s proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island.
+The idea of forming seven eastern States is moreover clearly to form the
+basis of a separation of the Union. Is it possible that real republicans
+can be gulled by such a bait? And for what? What do they wish, that they
+have not? Federal measures? That is impossible. Republican measures?
+Have they them not? Can any one deny, that in all important questions
+of principle, republicanism prevails? But do they want that their
+individual will shall govern the majority? They may purchase the
+gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price;
+but the federalists must not have the passions of other men, if, after
+getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be
+governed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they
+relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the
+seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the mean time,
+all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them
+a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to eject
+the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power. I
+cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this
+trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass
+of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of
+principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all
+other similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their
+authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict
+and upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others
+should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly
+overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be
+the conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your
+health and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, June 13,1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, June 13,1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to express
+in your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
+awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled
+your kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and
+friendship. I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible
+impression on her mind, and that to the last, on our meetings after long
+separations, whether I had heard lately of you, and how you did, were
+among the earliest of her inquiries. In giving you this assurance, I
+perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same time, am thankful for
+the occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that circumstances
+should have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of separation
+between us. The friendship with which you honored me has ever been
+valued, and fully reciprocated; and although events have been passing
+which might be trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be
+of that kind, nor felt that my own was. Neither my estimate of your
+character, nor the esteem founded in that, has ever been lessened for a
+single moment, although doubts whether it would be acceptable may have
+forbidden manifestations of it.
+
+Mr. Adams�s friendship and mine began at an earlier date. It accompanied
+us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had
+drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to
+lessen mutual esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of
+an honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing
+among our fellow citizens, attached them to the one or the other of us,
+and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We
+never stood in one another�s way. For if either had been withdrawn at
+any time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would
+have sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration
+was sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
+friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can
+say with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams�s life, and one only, ever
+gave me a moment�s personal displeasure. I did consider his last
+appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my
+most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation could
+ever be expected; and laid me under the embarrassment of acting through
+men, whose views were to defeat mine, or to encounter the odium of
+putting others in their places. It seems but common justice to leave a
+successor free to act by instruments of his own choice. If my respect
+for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame to the influence of
+others, it left something for friendship to forgive, and after brooding
+over it for some little time, and not always resisting the expression of
+it, I forgave it cordially, and returned to the same state of esteem
+and respect for him which had so long subsisted. Having come into life
+a little later than Mr. Adams, his career has preceded mine, as mine
+is followed by some other; and it will probably be closed at the same
+distance after him which time originally placed between us. I maintain
+for him, and shall carry into private life, an uniform and high measure
+of respect and good will, and for yourself a sincere attachment.
+
+I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which
+I have long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it
+will be received, I feal[sp.] relief from being unbosomed. And I have
+now only to entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject
+of domestic affliction, to one which seems of a different aspect. But
+though connected with political events, it has been viewed by me most
+strongly in its unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The
+injury these have sustained has been a heavy price for what has never
+given me equal pleasure. That you may both be favored with health,
+tranquillity, and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the
+assurance of his highest consideration and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII.--TO GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR PAGE.
+
+Washington, June 25, 1804.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of
+the goodness of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an
+affectionate concern for the greatness of it. It is great indeed. Others
+may lose of their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half
+of all I had. My evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of
+a single life. Perhaps I maybe destined to see even this last cord of
+parental affection broken! The hope with which I had looked forward
+to the moment, when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to
+retire to that domestic comfort from which the last great step is to be
+taken, is fearfully blighted. When you and I look back on the country
+over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit!
+Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the
+inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of
+war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce
+a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet,
+by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable
+thing to bear up through the heat of the action to witness the death of
+all our companions, and merely be the last victim? I doubt it. We have,
+however, the traveller�s consolation. Every step shortens the distance
+we have to go; the end of our journey is in sight, the bed wherein we
+are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the friends we have lost. �We
+sorrow not, then, as others who have no hope�; but look forward to the
+day which �joins us to the great majority.� But whatever is to be our
+destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we should acquiesce in
+the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in
+the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with us. Of those
+connected by blood, the number does not depend on us. But friends we
+have, if we have merited them. Those of our earliest years stand nearest
+in our affections. But in this too, you and I have been unlucky. Of our
+college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have stood with us in
+the great political questions which have agitated our country: and these
+were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not believe the Lilliputian
+fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so many. Will not Mrs.
+Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a healthier region
+for the months of August and September? And may we not flatter ourselves
+that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not many summers
+to live. While fortune places us then within striking distance, let us
+avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of other times.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
+salutations, and assurances of constant affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, XIV.--TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804
+
+
+TO P. MAZZEI.
+
+Washington, July 18, 1804.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure
+of business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something
+of public importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a
+principle of conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely
+from all private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic;
+I scarcely write a letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another
+consideration has led to this, which is the liability of my letters to
+miscarry, be opened, and made ill use of. Although the great body of our
+country are perfectly returned to their ancient principles, yet there
+remains a phalanx of old tories and monarchists, more envenomed, as all
+their hopes become more desperate. Every word of mine which they can get
+hold of, however innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted, tormented,
+perverted, and, like the words of holy writ, are made to mean every
+thing but what they were intended to mean. I trust little, therefore,
+unnecessarily in their way, and especially on political subjects. I
+shall not, therefore, be free to answer all the several articles of your
+letters.
+
+On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation,
+as far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not
+been renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been
+declined. We believe, that with nations as with individuals, dealings
+may be carried on as anvantageously[sp.], perhaps more so, while their
+continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a
+contract, which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced
+constructions, to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war
+instead of a bond of peace.
+
+We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we
+will prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels, and goods all the
+privileges of the most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily,
+we cannot doubt they will voluntarily do the same for us. Our interests
+against the Barbaresques being also the same, we have little doubt she
+will give us every facility to insure them, which our situation may ask
+and hers admit. It is not, then, from a want of friendship that we do
+not propose a treaty with Naples, but because it is against our system
+to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at
+all with the affairs of Europe. The kind offices we receive from that
+government are more sensibly felt, as such, than they would be, if
+rendered only as due to us by treaty.
+
+Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli,
+which, in addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the
+credit which Commodore Morris�s two years� sleep lost us, and for which
+he has been broke. I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they
+mistake their interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should
+she have declared war, as we expect, and almost wish.
+
+Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
+dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge
+it in twelve years more. That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen
+millions of dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay
+the expenses of any war we may be forced into, without new taxes or
+loans. The spirit of republicanism is now in almost all its ancient
+vigor, five sixths of the people being with us. Fourteen of the
+seventeen States are completely with us, and two of the other three will
+be in one year. We have now got back to the ground on which you left us.
+I should have retired at the end of the first four years, but that the
+immense load of tory calumnies which have been manufactured respecting
+me, and have filled the European market, have obliged me to appeal once
+more to my country for a justification. I have no fear but that I shall
+receive honorable testimony by their verdict on those calumnies. At the
+end of the next four years I shall certainly retire. Age, inclination,
+and principle all dictate this. My health, which at one time threatened
+an unfavorable turn, is now firm. The acquisition of Louisiana, besides
+doubling our extent, and trebling our quantity of fertile country, is
+of incalculable value, as relieving us from the danger of war. It has
+enabled us to do a handsome thing for Fayette. He had received a grant
+of between eleven and twelve thousand acres north of the Ohio, worth,
+perhaps, a dollar an acre. We have obtained permission of Congress to
+locate it in Louisiana. Locations can be found adjacent to the city of
+New Orleans, in the island of New Orleans and in its vicinity, the value
+of which cannot be calculated. I hope it will induce him to come over
+and settle there with his family. Mr. Livingston having asked leave to
+return, General Armstrong, his brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is
+of the first order of talents.
+
+Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
+Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson
+Andrews. To these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of
+my youngest daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has
+left two children. My eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six
+children. This loss has increased my anxiety to retire, while it has
+dreadfully lessened the comfort of doing it. Wythe, Dickinson, and
+Charles Thomson are all living, and are firm republicans. You informed
+me formerly of your marriage, and your having a daughter, but have said
+nothing in you late letters on that subject. Yet whatever concerns your
+happiness is sincerely interesting to me, and is a subject of anxiety,
+retaining, as I do, cordial sentiments of esteem and affection for you.
+Accept, I pray you, my sincere assurances of this, with my most friendly
+salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.--TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, July 22, 1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not again
+have intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to
+have been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to
+Callendar are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I
+think, as 1796, I was told in Philadelphia, that Callendar, the author
+of the �Political Progress of Britain,� was in that city, a fugitive
+from persecution for having written that book, and in distress. I
+had read and approved the book; I considered him as a man of genius,
+unjustly persecuted. I knew nothing of his private character, and
+immediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his relief, and to
+serve him. It was a considerable time after, that, on application from
+a person who thought of him as I did, I contributed to his relief, and
+afterwards repeated the contribution. Himself I did not see till long
+after, nor ever more than two or three times. When he first began to
+write, he told some useful truths in his coarse way; but nobody sooner
+disapproved of his writing than I did, or wished more that he would be
+silent. My charities to him were no more meant as encouragements to his
+scurrilities, than those I give to the beggar at my door are meant
+as rewards for the vices of his life, and to make them chargeable to
+myself. In truth, they would have been greater to him, had he never
+written a word after the work for which he fled from Britain. With
+respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and printers at
+large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping to any
+concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those of
+Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who published volumes against me for
+every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I never
+supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these
+editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable of that base warfare,
+and believed him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I may have thought
+of the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne
+testimony to Mr. Adams�s personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my
+presence, without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed
+that any person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us
+meddled in that dirty work. But another fact is, that I �liberated a
+wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.� I do not know
+who was the particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every person
+under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I
+considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and
+as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a
+golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution
+in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery
+furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship
+the image. It was accordingly done in every instance, without asking
+what the offenders had done, or against whom they had offended, but
+whether the pains they were suffering were inflicted under the pretended
+sedition law. It was certainly possible that my motives for contributing
+to the relief of Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition
+law might have been to protect, encourage, and reward slander; but they
+may also have been those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of
+distress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect
+the constitution, violated by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which of
+these were my motives, must be decided by a regard to the general tenor
+of my life. On this I am not afraid to appeal to the nation at large,
+to posterity, and still less to that Being who sees himself our motives,
+who will judge us from his own knowledge of them, and not on the
+testimony of Porcupine or Fenno.
+
+You observe, there has been one other act of my administration
+personally unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me. I
+declare on my honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act is
+alluded to. I never did a single one with an unkind intention. My sole
+object in this letter being to place before your attention, that the
+acts imputed to me are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might
+flow from good as well as bad motives, I shall make no other addition,
+than the assurances of my continued wishes for the health and happiness
+of yourself and Mr. Adams.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
+received it only by that day�s post. I return you Monroe�s letter, which
+is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
+contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
+surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the
+greater wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes
+on their enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France
+and England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and
+deadly hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that
+England should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get
+footing on our continent, and that France should willingly see the
+United States re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons
+should be replaced on their throne and agree to any terms of
+restitution, is possible: but that they and England joined, could
+recover us to British dominion, is impossible. If these things are
+not so, then human reason is of no aid in conjecturing the conduct of
+nations. Still, however, it is our unquestionable interest and duty to
+conduct ourselves with such sincere friendship and impartiality towards
+both nations, as that each may see unequivocally, what is unquestionably
+true, that we may be very possibly driven into her scale by unjust
+conduct in the other. I am so much impressed with the expediency of
+putting a termination to the right of France to patronize the rights of
+Louisiana, which will cease with their complete adoption as citizens of
+the United States, that I hope to see that take place on the meeting
+of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from a newspaper respecting St.
+Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I conceive the British insults
+in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot be respected by France as a
+neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves as an independent one,
+if we do not take effectual measures to support, at every risk, our
+authority in our own harbors. I shall write to Mr. Wagner directly
+(that a post may not be lost by passing through you) to send us blank
+commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to be filled up,
+signed, and forwarded by us. Affectionate salutations and constant
+esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII.--TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till now
+the general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans.
+Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions. Among these is one
+for yourself as Governor. With respect to this I will enter into frank
+explanations. This office was originally destined for a person * whose
+great services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly
+acceptable to the nation at large. Circumstances, however, exist,
+which do not now permit his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time
+hereafter. That, therefore, being suspended, and entirely contingent,
+your services have been so much approved, as to leave no desire to
+look elsewhere to fill the office. Should the doubts you have sometimes
+expressed, whether it would be eligible for you to continue, still exist
+in your mind, the acceptance of the commission gives you time to satisfy
+yourself by further experience, and to make the time and manner of
+withdrawing, should you ultimately determine on that, agreeable to
+yourself. Be assured, that whether you continue or retire, it will be
+with every disposition on my part to be just and friendly to you.
+
+*****
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [* In the margin is written by the author, �La Fayette.�]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, September 11, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 11, 1804,
+
+Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received,
+but a press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps,
+indeed, I may have already trespassed too far on your attention. With
+those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly
+indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only
+truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive. The act of personal
+unkindness alluded to in your former letter, is said in your last to
+have been the removal of your eldest son from some office to which
+the judges had appointed him. I conclude, then, he must have been a
+commissioner of bankruptcy. But I declare to you, on my honor, that
+this is the first knowledge I have ever had that he was so. It may be
+thought, perhaps, that I ought to have inquired who were such, before
+I appointed others. But it is to be observed, that the former law
+permitted the judges to name commissioners occasionally only, for every
+case as it arose, and not to make them permanent officers. Nobody,
+therefore, being in office, there could be no removal. The judges, you
+well know, have been considered as highly federal; and it was noted
+that they confined their nominations exclusively to federalists. The
+legislature, dissatisfied with this, transferred the nomination to the
+President, and made the offices permanent. The very object in passing
+the law was, that he should correct, not confirm, what was deemed the
+partiality of the judges. I thought it therefore proper to inquire,
+not whom they had employed, but whom I ought to appoint to fulfil
+the intentions of the law. In making these appointments, I put in a
+proportion of federalists, equal, I believe, to the proportion they bear
+in numbers through the Union generally. Had I known that your son had
+acted, it would have been a real pleasure to me to have preferred him
+to some who were named in Boston, in what was deemed the same line
+of politics. To this I should have been led by my knowledge of his
+integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards yourself and Mr.
+Adams.
+
+You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of
+the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right
+to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for
+them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action
+assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a
+right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was
+placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing
+the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;
+because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That
+instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each
+other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide
+what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in
+their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also
+in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch. Nor does
+the opinion of the unconstitutionality, and consequent nullity of that
+law, remove all restraint from the overwhelming torrent of slander,
+which is confounding all vice and virtue, all truth and falsehood,
+in the United States. The power to do that is fully possessed by the
+several State legislatures. It was reserved to them, and was denied
+to the General Government, by the constitution, according to our
+construction of it. While we deny that Congress have a right to control
+the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the right of the States,
+and their exclusive right, to do so. They have, accordingly, all of them
+made provisions for punishing slander, which those who have time and
+inclination resort to for the vindication of their characters. In
+general, the State laws appear to have made the presses responsible for
+slander as far as is consistent with its useful freedom. In those States
+where they do not admit even the truth of allegations to protect the
+printer, they have gone too far.
+
+The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to
+possess, has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention once
+more to those circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be
+judged. I hope you will see these intrusions on your time to be, what
+they really are, proofs of my great, respect for you. I tolerate with
+the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion,
+without imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and
+uncertainty of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both
+of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree
+conscientiously in the same object, the public good: but they differ
+essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side
+believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the
+other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people;
+the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is
+right, time and experience will prove. We think that one side of this
+experiment has been long enough tried, and proved not to promote
+the good of the many: and that the other has not been fairly and
+sufficiently tried. Our opponents think the reverse. With whichever
+opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must prevail. My anxieties
+on this subject will never carry me beyond the use of fair and honorable
+means of truth and reason; nor have they ever lessened my esteem for
+moral worth, nor alienated my affections from a single friend, who did
+not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has happened, I confess I have
+not been insensible to it: yet have ever kept myself open to a return
+of their justice. I conclude with sincere prayers for your health and
+happiness, that yourself and Mr. Adams may long enjoy the tranquillity
+you desire and merit, and see in the prosperity of your family what is
+the consummation of the last and warmest of human wishes,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.--TO MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. NICHOLSON.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of yesterday,
+asking information on the subject of the gun-boats proposed to be built.
+I lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting
+them, premising a few words on the system of fortifications. Considering
+the harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to
+defence, and the estimates we have seen of the fortifications planned
+for some of them, this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale
+for less than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of war with
+less than fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. And when
+done, they avail little; because all military men agree, that wherever a
+vessel may pass a fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case
+at all our sea-port towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according
+to the advantages of the position, but can never be prevented. Our
+own experience during the war proved this on different occasions. Our
+predecessors have, nevertheless, proposed to go into this system, and
+had commenced it. But, no law requiring us to proceed, we have suspended
+it.
+
+If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn
+our attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to,
+before a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in
+aid of each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages, which may be
+moved to any point on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging
+the vessel. A sufficient number of these should be lent to each sea-port
+town, and their militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to
+do this; it has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more
+competently.
+
+2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so
+stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her
+after entering to depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the United
+States, which ought to be in a state of substantial defence. The whole
+of these would require, according to the best opinions, two hundred
+and forty gun-boats. Their cost was estimated by Captain Rogers at two
+thousand dollars each; but we had better say four thousand dollars. The
+whole would cost one million of dollars. But we should allow ourselves
+ten years to complete it, unless circumstances should force it sooner.
+There are three situations in which the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up
+under a shed, in readiness to be launched and manned by the seamen and
+militia of the town on short notice. In this situation she costs nothing
+but an enclosure, or a centinel to see that no mischief is done to her.
+2. Afloat, and with men enough to navigate her in harbor and take care
+of her, but depending on receiving her crew from the town on short
+warning. In this situation, her annual expense is about two thousand
+dollars, as by an official estimate at the end of this letter. 3. Fully
+manned for action. Her annual expense in this situation is about eight
+thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined. �When there is general
+peace, we should probably keep about six or seven afloat in the second
+situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen thousand dollars; the
+rest all hauled up. When France and England are at war, we should keep,
+at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation, their annual expense
+fifty thousand dollars. When we should be at war ourselves, some of them
+would probably be kept in the third situation, at an annual expense of
+eight thousand dollars; but how many, must depend on the circumstances
+of the war. We now possess ten, built and building. It is the opinion of
+those consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to put every harbor
+under our view into a respectable condition; and that this should limit
+the views of the present year. This would require an appropriation of
+sixty thousand dollars, and I suppose that the best way of limiting it,
+without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would build more. I
+should think it best not to give a detailed report, which exposes our
+policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, will suffice for the
+information of the House. I do not know whether General Wilkinson would
+approve the printing his paper. If he would, it would be useful. Accept
+affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.--TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. VOLNEY.
+
+Washington, February 8, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the books
+some time after, which were all distributed according to direction.
+The copy for the East Indies went immediately by a safe conveyance. The
+letter of April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying
+that, did not come to hand till August. That copy was deposited in the
+Congressional library. It was not till my return here from my autumnal
+visit to Monticello, that I had an opportunity of reading your work. I
+have read it, and with great satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a
+judge than most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton,
+so as to know any thing of the face of the country; nor much indulged
+myself in geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep
+scratches, which we can make or find on the surface of the earth, do not
+repay our time with as certain and useful deductions, as our pursuits in
+some other branches. The subject of our winds is more familiar to me.
+On that, the views you have taken are always great, supported in their
+outlines by your facts; and though more extensive observations, and
+longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will probably
+take their place in this first great canvass which you have sketched. In
+no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or judgment more than
+in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in his sleigh and snow,
+the very idea of which gives me the shivers. The comparison of climate
+between Europe and North America, taking together its corresponding
+parts, hangs chiefly on three great points. 1. The changes between heat
+and cold in America are greater and more frequent, and the extremes
+comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer in America than in Europe.
+Habit, however, prevents these from affecting us more than the smaller
+changes of Europe affect the European. But he is greatly affected by
+ours. 2. Our sky is always clear; that of Europe always cloudy. Hence a
+greater accumulation of heat here than there, in the same parallel. 3.
+The changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and sudden in
+Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls in half
+the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate of the
+United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It
+is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all
+disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited
+from our English ancestors. During a residence of between six and seven
+years in Paris, I never but once saw the sun shine through a whole day,
+without being obscured by a cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the
+moment, in which, viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could
+say there was not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at
+Monticello, on my return from France, in January, and during only two
+months� stay there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to
+France, that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of
+a cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an European
+should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our taste in
+this, as in most other cases.
+
+The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to what
+we then knew of it. Further experience has developed more and more
+its peculiar character. Facts appear to have established, that it is
+originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never generated but
+in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large cities, in the
+neighborhood of the water; and that, to catch the disease, you must
+enter the local atmosphere. Persons having taken the disease in the
+infected quarter, and going into the country, are nursed and buried by
+their friends, without an example of communicating it. A vessel going
+from the infected quarter, and carrying its atmosphere in its hold into
+another State, has given the disease to every person who there entered
+her. These have died in the arms of their families, without a single
+communication of the disease. It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic,
+not a contagious disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode
+of purifying the vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if
+ventilation be found insufficient. In the long scale of bilious fevers,
+graduated by many shades, this is probably the last and most mortal
+term. It seizes the native of the place equally with strangers. It has
+not been long known in any part of the United States. The shade
+next above it, called the stranger�s fever, has been coeval with the
+settlement of the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit, Norfolk,
+Charleston, New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the months
+of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine
+yellow fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them
+some time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
+respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger�s
+fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black vomit,
+that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear of yellow
+fever on the Allegany mountains, in Kentucky, &c. This is a matter
+of definition only: but it leads into error those who do not know how
+loosely and how interestedly some physicians think and speak. So far
+as we have yet seen, I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow
+fever, which seizes on all indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of
+bilious fever, never known in the United States till lately, nor farther
+south, as yet, than Alexandria, and that what they have recently called
+the yellow fever in New Orleans, Charleston, and Norfolk, is what has
+always been known in those places as confined chiefly to strangers, and
+nearly as mortal to them, as the other is to all its subjects. But both
+grades are local: the stranger�s fever less so, as it sometimes extends
+a little into the neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so,
+confined within narrow and well defined limits, and not communicable
+out of those limits. Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite
+to originate this disease as is generated only in low, close, and
+ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have supposed it practicable to prevent
+its generation by building our cities on a more open plan. Take, for
+instance, the chequer-board for a plan. Let the black squares only be
+building squares, and the white ones be left open, in turf and trees.
+Every square of houses will be surrounded by four open squares, and
+every house will front an open square. The atmosphere of such a town
+would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the miasmata which
+produce yellow fever. I have accordingly proposed that the enlargements
+of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be
+on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of
+cities to be built, that his means of prevention can be employed.
+
+The _genus irritabile vatum_ could not let the author of the Ruins
+publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of discrediting that
+puzzling composition. Some one of those holy calumniators has selected
+from your new work every scrap of a sentence, which, detached from its
+context, could displease an American reader. A cento has been made of
+these, which has run through a particular description of newspapers, and
+excited a disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the
+reading of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
+error.
+
+Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, that
+they have little time to write or invent. A good invention here,
+therefore, is such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the acceptance
+of a friend. A Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, has invented
+a machine, which he calls a polygraph, and which carries two, three, or
+four pens. That of two pens, with which I am now writing, is best;
+and is so perfect that I have laid aside the copying-press, for a
+twelvemonth past, and write always with the polygraph. I have directed
+one to be made, of which I ask your acceptance. By what conveyance I
+shall send it while Havre is blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you
+will be pleased with it, and will use it habitually as I do; because it
+requires only that degree of mechanical attention which I know you to
+possess. I am glad to hear that M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the
+reformation of medicine. It needs the hand of a reformer, and cannot
+be in better hands than his. Will you permit my respects to him and the
+Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
+
+A word now on our political state. The two parties which prevailed with
+so much violence when you were here, are almost wholly melted into
+one. At the late Presidential election I have received one hundred and
+sixty-two votes against fourteen only. Connecticut is still federal by a
+small majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she has been since 1775, and
+will be till Anglomany with her yields to Americanism. Connecticut will
+be with us in a short time. Though the people in mass have joined us,
+their leaders had committed themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps
+them hostile; they brood over their angry passions, and give them vent
+in the newspapers which they maintain. They still make as much noise as
+if they were the whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile
+papers, published chiefly in the seaports, are the only ones which find
+their way to Europe, and make very false impressions there. I am happy
+to hear that the late derangement of your health is going off, and that
+you are reestablished. I sincerely pray for the continuance of that
+blessing, and with my affectionate salutations, tender you assurances of
+great respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying-pen of the
+polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.--TO JUDGE TYLER, March 29, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, March 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 17th found me on a short visit to this place, and I
+observe in it with great pleasure a continuance of your approbation
+of the course we are pursuing, and particularly the satisfaction you
+express with the last inaugural address. The first was, from the nature
+of the case, all profession and promise. Performance, therefore, seemed
+to be the proper office of the second. But the occasion restricted me to
+mention only the most prominent heads, and the strongest justification
+of these in the fewest words possible. The crusade preached against
+philosophy by the modern disciples of steady habits, induced me to dwell
+more in showing its effect with the Indians than the subject otherwise
+justified.
+
+The war with Tripoli stands on two grounds of fact. 1st. It is made
+known to us by our agents with the three other Barbary States, that they
+only wait to see the event of this, to shape their conduct accordingly.
+If the war is ended by additional tribute, they mean to offer us the
+same alternative. 2ndly. If peace was made, we should still, and shall
+ever, be obliged to keep a frigate in the Mediterranean to overawe
+rupture, or we must abandon that market. Our intention in sending Morris
+with a respectable force, was to try whether peace could be forced by
+a coercive enterprise on their town. His inexecution of orders baffled
+that effort. Having broke him, we try the same experiment under a better
+commander. If in the course of the summer they cannot produce peace, we
+shall recall our force, except one frigate and two small vessels, which
+will keep up a perpetual blockade. Such a blockade will cost us no more
+than a state of peace, and will save us from increased tributes, and
+the disgrace attached to them. There is reason to believe the example
+we have set, begins already to work on the dispositions of the powers
+of Europe to emancipate themselves from that degrading yoke. Should we
+produce such a revolution there, we shall be amply rewarded for what
+we have done. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.--TO DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
+
+Washington, May 11, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among
+our friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place
+in other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their
+good intentions will produce great public evil. The minority,
+whichever section shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the
+federalists, and some compromise of principle; because these will not
+sell their aid for nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism
+gain, some portion of that ground which we thought we had rescued to
+good government. I do not express my sense of our misfortunes from any
+idea that they are remediable. I know that the passions of men will take
+their course, that they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and
+that this melancholy truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an
+upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing
+of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of
+both parties. The war _ad internecionem_ which we have waged against
+federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and unhappiness. We
+have met it, with pain indeed, but with firmness, because we believed it
+the last convulsive effort of that Hydra, which in earlier times we had
+conquered in the field. But if any degeneracy of principle should ever
+render it necessary to give ascendancy to one of the rising sections
+over the other, I thank my God it will fall to some other to perform
+that operation. The only cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is
+the undivided good will of all those with whom I have acted.
+
+Present me affectionately to Mrs. Logan, and accept my salutations, and
+assurances of constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.--TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, May 21, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An accumulation of business, which I found on my return here from a
+short visit to Monticello, has prevented till now my acknowledgment of
+your favor of the 14th _ultimo_. This delay has given time to see the
+result of the contest in your State, and I cannot but congratulate you
+on the advance it manifests, and the certain prospect it offers that
+another year restores Massachusetts to the general body of the nation.
+You have indeed received the federal unction of lying and slandering.
+But who has not? Who will ever again come into eminent office,
+unanointed with this chrism? It seems to be fixed that falsehood and
+calumny are to be their ordinary engines of opposition; engines which
+will not be entirely without effect. The circle of characters equal
+to the first stations is not too large, and will be lessened by the
+voluntary retreat of those whose sensibilities are stronger than their
+confidence in the justice of public opinion. I certainly have known, and
+still know, characters eminently qualified for the most exalted trusts,
+who could not bear up against the brutal hackings and hewings of these
+heroes of Billingsgate. I may say, from intimate knowledge, that we
+should have lost the services of the greatest character of our country,
+had he been assailed with the degree of abandoned licentiousness now
+practised. The torture he felt under rare and slight attacks, proved
+that under those of which the federal bands have shown themselves
+capable, he would have thrown up the helm in a burst of indignation.
+Yet this effect of sensibility must not be yielded to. If we suffer
+ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the enemy
+will use that weapon; for what one so cheap to those of whose system of
+politics morality makes no part? The patriot, like the Christian, must
+learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty;
+and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more
+requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But
+that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are
+repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good
+example. To the other falsehoods they have brought forward, should they
+add, as you expect, insinuations of want of confidence in you from the
+administration generally, or myself particularly, it will, like their
+other falsehoods, produce in the public mind a contrary inference.
+
+*********
+
+I tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.--TO THOMAS PAINE, June 5, 1805
+
+
+TO THOMAS PAINE.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
+received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to
+your farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
+attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
+answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which
+it will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian
+blinds, can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you
+propose will have advantages. You know it has been practised on the
+cloth market at Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs
+in his book, to which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a
+dome, being one hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in
+the capitol we unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all
+framed in De Lorme�s manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has
+it been tried and persevered in by any workman?
+
+France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
+truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become
+a mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however,
+expressed satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the
+subject of that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners,
+you know I can do nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a
+question in Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which
+the constitution authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would
+cover an expenditure for importing settlers to Orleans. The letter of
+the revolutionary sergeant was attended to by General Dearborn, who
+wrote to him informing him how to proceed to obtain his land.
+
+Doctor Eustis�s observation to you, that �certain paragraphs in the
+National Intelligencer,� respecting my letter to you, �supposed to be
+under Mr. Jefferson�s direction, had embarrassed Mr. Jefferson�s friends
+in Massachusetts; that they appeared like a half denial of the letter,
+or as if there was something in it not proper to be owned, or that
+needed an apology,� is one of those mysterious half confidences
+difficult to be understood. That tory printers should think it
+advantageous to identify me with that paper, the Aurora, &c. in order to
+obtain ground for abusing me, is perhaps fair warfare. But that any one
+who knows me personally should listen one moment to such an insinuation,
+is what I did not expect. I neither have, nor ever had, any more
+connection with those papers than our antipodes have; nor know what is
+to be in them until I see it in them, except proclamations and other
+documents sent for publication. The friends in Massachusetts who could
+be embarrassed by so weak a weapon as this, must be feeble friends
+indeed. With respect to the letter, I never hesitated to avow and to
+justify it in conversation. In no other way do I trouble myself to
+contradict any thing which is said. At that time, however, there were
+certain anomalies in the motions of some of our friends, which events
+have at length reduced to regularity.
+
+It seems very difficult to find out what turn things are to take in
+Europe. I suppose it depends on Austria, which knowing it is to stand in
+the way of receiving the first hard blows, is cautious of entering into
+a coalition. As to France and England we can have but one wish, that
+they may disable one another from injuring others.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+[The following, in the hand-writing of the Author, is inserted in his
+MS. of this period. Whether it was published, or where, is not stated.]
+
+Richmond, 1780, December 31. At 8 A. M. the Governor receives the first
+intelligence that twenty-seven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay,
+and were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby�s point (the
+southern cape of James river); their destination unknown.
+
+
+1781, January 2. At 10 A. M. information received that they had entered
+James river, their advance being at Warrasqueak bay. Orders were
+immediately given for calling in the militia, one fourth from some,
+and one half from other counties. The members of the legislature,
+which rises this day, are the bearers of the orders to their respective
+counties. The Governor directs the removal of the records into the
+country, and the transportation of the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham (on the river seven miles above); there to be carried across the
+river.
+
+
+January 3. At 8 P. M. the enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown;
+convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.
+
+
+January 4. At 5 A. M. information is received that they had passed
+Kennon�s and Hood�s the evening before, with a strong; easterly wind,
+which determines their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The
+Governor now calls in the whole militia from the adjacent counties.
+
+
+At 5 P. M. information, that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up
+at Westover (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
+Richmond); and consequently Richmond their destination. Orders are
+now given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham, and to throw them across the river directly at Richmond.
+
+The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the
+night, then rode up to the foundery (one mile below Westham), ordered
+Captains Boush and Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to continue all night wagoning
+to Westham the arms and stores still at the foundery, to be thrown
+across the river at Westham, then proceeded to Westham to urge the
+pressing the transportation there across the river, and thence went to
+Tuckahoe (eight miles above and on the same side of the river) to see
+after his family, which he had sent that far in the course of the day.
+He arrived there at 1 o�clock in the night.
+
+
+January 5. Early in the morning, he carried his family across the river
+there, and sending them to Fine Creek (eight miles higher up) went
+himself to Britton�s on the south side of the river, (opposite to
+Westham). Finding the arms, &c. in a heap near the shore, and exposed
+to be destroyed by cannon from the north bank, he had them removed under
+cover of a point of land near by. He proceeded to Manchester (opposite
+to Richmond). The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1 P. M. Having found
+that nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond, he set out
+for Chetwood�s to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that
+place as a rendezvous and head-quarters; but not finding him there,
+and understanding he would be at Colonel Fleming�s (six miles above
+Britton�s), he proceeded thither. The enemy had now a detachment
+at Westham, and sent a deputation from the city of Richmond to the
+Governor, at Colonel Fleming�s, to propose terms for ransoming the
+safety of the city, which terms he rejected.
+
+
+January 6. The Governor returned to Britton�s, had measures taken more
+effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy, having
+burnt some houses and stores, left Richmond after twenty-four hours�
+stay there, and encamped at Four Mile Creek (eight or ten miles below);
+and the Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.
+
+
+January 7. He returned to Britton�s to see further to the arms there,
+exposed on the ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before,
+and thence proceeded to Manchester and lodged there. The enemy encamped
+at Westover.
+
+
+January 8. At half after 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and
+resumed his residence there. The enemy are still retained in their
+encampment at Westover by an easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has
+now three hundred militia at the Forest (six miles off from Westover);
+General Nelson, two hundred at Charles City Court-House (eight miles
+below Westover); Gibson, one thousand, and Baron Steuben, eight hundred,
+on the south side of the river.
+
+
+January 9. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.
+
+
+January 10. At 1 P. M. they embark: and the wind having shifted a little
+to the north of west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
+Steuben marches for Hood�s, where their passage may be checked. He
+reaches Bland�s mills in the evening, within nine miles of Hood�s.
+
+
+January 11. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they make good
+their retreat.
+
+
+During this period, time and place have been minutely cited, in order
+that those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the
+Governor, may lay their finger on the point, and say, when and where it
+was. Hereafter, less detail will suffice.
+
+Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold with a
+reinforcement of two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg,
+and about the last of April to Manchester. The Governor had remained
+constantly in and about Richmond, exerting all his powers for collecting
+militia, and providing such means for the defence of the State as its
+exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, and with only the
+river between him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within
+four, five, or six miles of them.
+
+M. de la Fayette about this time arrived at Richmond with some
+continental troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued
+to occupy that place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips
+and Arnold held Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis,
+about the middle of May, joining them with the main southern army, M.
+de la Fayette was obliged to retire. The enemy crossed the river, and
+advanced up into the country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles
+of Charlottesville, at which place the legislature being to meet in
+June, the Governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or three
+miles from it. His office was now near expiring, the country under
+invasion by a powerful army, no services but military of any avail;
+unprepared by his line of life and education for the command of armies,
+he believed it right not to stand in the way of talents better fitted
+than his own to the circumstances under which the country was placed.
+He therefore himself proposed to his friends in the legislature, that
+General Nelson, who commanded the militia of the State, should be
+appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the union of the civil and
+military power in the same hands, at this time, would greatly facilitate
+military measures. This appointment accordingly took place on the 12th
+of June, 1781.
+
+This was the state of things, when, his office having actually expired,
+and no successor yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment, of
+horse, was detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson
+(whom they thought still in office) and the legislature now sitting in
+Charlottesville. The Speakers of the two Houses, and some other members
+of the legislature, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello.
+Tarleton, early in the morning, (June 23, I believe,) when within ten
+miles of that place, detached a company of horse to secure him and
+his guests, and proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to
+Charlottesville, where he hoped to find the legislature unapprized of
+his movement. Notice of it, however, had been brought both to Monticello
+and Charlottesville about sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues,
+returned to Charlottesville, and, with the other members of the
+legislature, had barely time to get out of his way. Mr. Jefferson sent
+off his family, to secure them from danger, and was himself still at
+Monticello, making arrangements for his own departure, when Lieutenant
+Hudson arrived there at half speed, and informed him the enemy were then
+ascending the hill of Monticello. He departed immediately, and knowing
+that he would be pursued if he took the high road, he plunged into the
+woods of the adjoining mountain, where, being at once safe, he proceeded
+to overtake his family. This is the famous adventure of Carter�s
+Mountain, which has been so often resounded through the slanderous
+chronicles of Federalism. But they have taken care never to detail the
+facts, lest these should show that this favorite charge amounted to
+nothing more, than that he did not remain in his house, and there singly
+fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be taken prisoner.
+Having accompanied his family one day�s journey, he returned to
+Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours� stay in
+Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded
+with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest,
+where, riding in his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse,
+and disabled from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr.
+Turner finds it more convenient to give him this fall in his retreat
+before Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof that
+he withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which Don Quixote
+would not have practised.
+
+The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place,
+are taken from the notes made by the writer hereof, for his own
+satisfaction, at the time: the others are from memory, but so well
+recollected, that he is satisfied there is no material fact misstated.
+Should any person undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence
+which may at all merit the public respect, the writer will take the
+trouble (though not at all in the best situation for it) to produce the
+proofs in support of it. He finds, indeed, that, of the persons whom he
+recollects to have been present on these occasions, few have survived
+the intermediate lapse of four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that
+some, as well as himself, are yet among the living; and he is positively
+certain, that no man can falsify any material fact here stated. He well
+remembers, indeed, that there were then, as there are at all times,
+some who blamed every thing done contrary to their own opinion, although
+their opinions were formed on a very partial knowledge of facts. The
+censures, which have been hazarded by such men as Mr. Turner, are
+nothing but revivals of these half-informed opinions. Mr. George
+Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very honest one, was
+prompted by these persons to bring specific charges against Mr.
+Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were communicated through a
+mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also the
+heads of justification on each of them. I well remember this paper, and
+believe the original of it still exists; and though framed when every
+real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabricated
+flight from Richmond was not among the charges stated in this paper, nor
+any charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting, singly, the troop of
+horse. Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House
+of Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable sentence of
+entire approbation of Mr. Jefferson�s conduct, and so much the more
+honorable, as themselves had been witnesses to it. And Mr. George
+Nicholas took a conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will,
+and when the matter was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the
+erroneous opinions he had been led into on that occasion, and to make
+just reparation by a candid acknowledgment of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.--TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806
+
+
+TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1806.
+
+Gentlemen,
+
+I have received the favor of your letter of February the 2nd, and read
+with thankfulness its obliging expressions respecting myself. I regret
+that the object of a letter from persons whom I so much esteem, and
+patronized by so many other respectable names, should be beyond the
+law which a mature consideration of circumstances has prescribed for my
+conduct. I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of
+his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to
+see it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This
+I believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
+inquiry and information, the subjects of distress to whose relief his
+contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
+life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it
+would leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind
+from different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far
+beyond any resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in the
+East Indies, the object of the present application, is but one of many
+items. However disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our means
+having limits, we are necessarily circumscribed by them. They are too
+narrow to relieve even the distresses under our own eye: and to desert
+these for others which we neither see nor know, is to omit doing a
+certain good for one which is uncertain. I know, indeed, there have
+been splendid associations for effecting benevolent purposes in remote
+regions of the earth. But no experience of their effect has proved that
+more good would not have been done by the same means employed nearer
+home. In explaining, however, my own motives of action, I must not be
+understood as impeaching those of others. Their views are those of
+an expanded liberality. Mine may be too much restrained by the law of
+usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with minds like yours, will be
+felt as a justification. With this apology, I pray you to accept my
+salutations, and assurances of high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.--TO MR. DUANE, March 22, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. DUANE.
+
+Washington, March 22, 1806.
+
+I thank you, my good Sir, cordially, for your letter of the 12th; which,
+however, I did not receive till the 20th. It is a proof of sincerity,
+which I value above all things; as, between those who practise it,
+falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. There is an enemy
+somewhere endeavoring to sow discord among us. Instead of listening
+first, then doubting, and lastly believing anile tales handed round
+without an atom of evidence, if my friends will address themselves to
+me directly, as you have done, they shall be informed with frankness
+and thankfulness. There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would
+disguise. But secret slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are
+secret. Although you desire no answer, I shall give you one to those
+articles admitting a short answer, reserving those which require more
+explanation than the compass of a letter admits, to conversation on your
+arrival here. And as I write this for your personal satisfaction, I
+rely that my letter will, under no circumstances, be communicated to any
+mortal, because you well know how every syllable from me is distorted by
+the ingenuity of political enemies.
+
+In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or
+indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever
+had before. This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from
+design. And if there be any coolness between those of the south and
+myself, it has not been from me towards them. Certainly there has been
+no other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among
+our friends. That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is
+sufficiently known. We were not disposed to join in league with Britain,
+under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind,
+and to enter into war with Spain, and consequently France. The House of
+Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.�s
+resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western
+service. We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if
+it can be effected honorably. This, perhaps, is not the only ground
+of his alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of
+eighty-seven to eleven republicans may satisfy you: but you will better
+satisfy yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things
+can be known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied
+on all essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.
+
+That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is
+totally unfounded. There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial
+administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise. And while
+differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm,
+that as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my
+message to Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was
+not a unanimity of concurrence in the members of the administration. The
+fact is, that in ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me
+on those of his department, and where any thing arises too difficult or
+important to be decided between us, the consultation becomes general.
+
+That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public
+profession and concealed counteraction, is false.
+
+That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and
+declared I would appoint none but those called moderates of both
+parties, and that I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those
+called the third party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.
+
+That the expedition of Miranda was countenanced by me is an absolute
+falsehood, let it have gone from whom it might; and I am satisfied it is
+equally so as to Mr. Madison. To know as much of it as we could was our
+duty, but not to encourage it.
+
+Our situation is difficult; and whatever we do, is liable to the
+criticisms of those who wish to represent it awry. If we recommend
+measures in a public message, it may be said that members are not sent
+here to obey the mandates of the President, or to register the edicts
+of a sovereign. If we express opinions in conversation, we have then our
+Charles Jenkinsons, and back-door counsellors. If we say nothing, �we
+have no opinions, no plans, no cabinet.� In truth, it is the fable of
+the old man, his son, and ass, over again.
+
+These are short facts, which may suffice to inspire you with caution,
+until you can come here and examine for yourself. No other information
+can give you a true insight into the state of things; but you will have
+no difficulty in understanding them when on the spot. In the mean time,
+accept my friendly salutations and cordial good wishes.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.--[Confidential.]
+
+Washington, March 24,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed to be made
+at Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose, General
+Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint
+commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
+Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
+stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add
+a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
+confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
+Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be
+a southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated
+are almost entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet
+ultimately decided on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted.
+Under this expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake
+it, I give you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may
+be preparing both your mind and your measures for the mission. The
+departure would be required to be very prompt; though the absence,
+I think, will not be long, Bonaparte not being in the practice of
+procrastination. This particular consideration will, I hope, reconcile
+the voyage to your affairs and your feelings. The allowance to an extra
+mission, is salary from the day of leaving home, and expenses to
+the place of destination, or in lieu of the latter, and to avoid
+settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For the return, a
+continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment of the
+commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as possible,
+and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure as proposed
+provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal until we
+see it proper. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, April 13, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause for your
+not acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe. My only
+hope had been, that they could have gone on one summer without you.
+An unjust hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid,
+show itself whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for
+ratification. I wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a
+person who would have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General
+Smith was so prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be
+impossible for them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave
+the matter with Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish
+sincerely you were back in the Senate; and that you would take the
+necessary measures to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you
+should go to our legislature. Giles�s absence has been a most serious
+misfortune. A majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard
+are too dexterous for them, and have very much influenced their
+proceedings. Tracy has been of nearly every committee during the
+session, and for the most part the chairman, and of course drawer of the
+reports. Seven federalists voting always in phalanx, and joined by some
+discontented republicans, some oblique ones, some capricious, have so
+often made a majority, as to produce very serious embarrassment to the
+public operations; and very much do I dread the submitting to them, at
+the next session, any treaty which can be made with either England or
+Spain, when I consider that five joining the federalists, can defeat a
+friendly settlement of our affairs. The House of Representatives is as
+well disposed as I ever saw one. The defection of so prominent a leader
+threw them into dismay and confusion for a moment; but they soon rallied
+to their own principles, and let him go off with five or six followers
+only. One half of these are from Virginia. His late declaration of
+perpetual opposition to this administration, drew off a few others, who
+at first had joined him, supposing his opposition occasional only,
+and not systematic. The alarm the House has had from this schism, has
+produced a rallying together, and a harmony, which carelessness and
+security had begun to endanger. On the whole, this little trial of the
+firmness of our representatives in their principles, and that of the
+people also, which is declaring itself in support of their public
+functionaries, has added much to my confidence in the stability of our
+government; and to my conviction, that should things go wrong at any
+time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of
+their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this schism,
+its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation; and
+must be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably
+be about the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there.
+Congress has agreed to rise on Monday the 21st.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.--TO MR. HARRIS, April 18, 1806
+
+TO MR. HARRIS.
+
+Washington, April 18, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+It is now some time since I received from you, through the house of
+Smith and Buchanan, at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander,
+for which I have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial,
+because of the value the bust derives from the great estimation in which
+its original is held by the world, and by none more than by myself.
+It will constitute one of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am
+preparing for myself at my native home. Accept, at the same time, my
+acknowledgments for the elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the
+customs of the Russians. I had laid it down as a law for my conduct
+while in office, and hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no
+present beyond a book, a pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value;
+as well to avoid imputations on my motives of action, as to shut out
+a practice susceptible of such abuse. But my particular esteem for the
+character of the Emperor places his image in my mind above the scope of
+law. I receive it, therefore, and shall cherish it with affection. It
+nourishes the contemplation of all the good placed in his power, and of
+his disposition to do it.
+
+A little before Dr. Priestley�s death, he informed me that he had
+received intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the
+Emperor entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have
+therefore selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which
+I pray you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to
+occupy his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to
+be made by others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the
+compass of the time which his higher callings can yield to such an
+object.
+
+At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
+aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there
+had ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia,
+traces of it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore
+availed myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain
+vocabularies of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding
+to a list then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I
+have made such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give
+to the public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a
+report of Mr. Volney�s to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas,
+entitled _Vocabulaires Compar�s des Langues de toute la Terre_; with
+a list of one hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is
+limited. I find that seventy-three of these words are common to that
+and to my vocabulary, and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of
+language, to make the inquiry so long desired, as to the probability
+of a common origin between the people of color of the two continents. I
+have to ask the favor of you to procure me a copy of the above work of
+Pallas, to inform me of the cost, and permit me to pay it here to your
+use; for I presume you have some mercantile correspondent here, to whom
+a payment can be made for you. A want of knowledge what the book may
+cost, as well as of the means of making so small a remittance, obliges
+me to make this proposition, and to restrain it to the sole condition
+that I be permitted to reimburse it here.
+
+I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
+have delivered: it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
+State will explain to you.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.--TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
+
+
+TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
+
+Washington, April 19, 1806.
+
+I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty, of the great
+satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,
+and sincere expressions of the respect and veneration I entertain for
+your character. It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts
+of my life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a
+portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign,
+whose ruling passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity
+of his people; and not of his own people only, but who can extend his
+eye and his good will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its
+course, unambitious in its views.
+
+The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
+observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of
+their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect
+that your Majesty�s interposition in them has been disinterested and
+generous, and having in view only the general good of the great
+European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is to
+re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead
+you to think of the general intercourse of nations, and to make that
+provision for its future maintenance, which, in times past, it has so
+much needed. The northern nations of Europe, at the head of which your
+Majesty is distinguished, are habitually peaceable. The United States
+of America, like them, are attached to peace. We have then with them
+a common interest in the neutral rights. Every nation, indeed, on the
+continent of Europe, belligerent as well as neutral, is interested in
+maintaining these rights, in liberalizing them progressively with the
+progress of science and refinement of morality, and in relieving
+them from restrictions which the extension of the arts has long since
+rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
+
+Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their
+power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
+nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
+correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such
+a definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent,
+would give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them
+with an authority, which would protect them in an important degree
+against future violation; and should any further sanction be necessary,
+that of an exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse
+with all the others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to
+the offence, more easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The
+essential articles of these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily
+to be defined.
+
+Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
+no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
+in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that
+they are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond
+the narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of
+his equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a
+happy concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step
+can now and then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the
+present occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty�s character will not be
+wanting to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may
+your life become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and
+may He who called it into being for the good of the human family, give
+it length of days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, May 4, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected
+to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar
+confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying
+trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does not find it
+convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_, which you
+have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney�s pursuits having been confined
+to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what has
+passed here, which the public possess. He has a just view of things so
+far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time
+ago, at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from
+the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.
+Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state
+of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
+Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
+has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
+weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
+demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
+eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
+of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph�s popular eloquence gave him
+such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
+and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
+and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
+them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
+himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
+momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
+good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and, without any
+leader, pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
+by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
+questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
+voting with him, has been from four to six or eight, against from
+ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with
+ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal opposition to this
+administration, and consequently associated with them in his votes, he
+will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from this is that
+there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the body of the
+nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and
+to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and
+that no _ignis faiuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the
+present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have
+yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence to the
+administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal
+ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
+Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
+carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
+this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than
+him who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground
+of opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
+advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
+among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support
+of you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
+former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would
+lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be
+embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You must not commit
+yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand such details
+as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time before the
+fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by that time
+the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish you were
+here at present, to take your choice of the two governments of Orleans
+and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you; and I verily
+believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much withdrawn
+from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should be known.
+The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two thousand
+dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter at St.
+Louis, where there is good society, both French and American, a healthy
+climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring
+property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there
+in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are
+established there. As I think you can within four months inform me what
+you say to this, I will keep things in their present state till the last
+day of August, for your answer.
+
+The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
+settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox,
+personally, I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it
+is founded in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had
+opportunities of knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he
+shall be in the administration, my reliance on that government will be
+solid. We had committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to
+meet Mr. Pitt�s policy and hostility, before we heard of his death,
+which self-respect did not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late
+unparalleled outrage on us at New York excited such sentiments in the
+public at large, as did not permit us to do less than has been done. It
+ought not to be viewed by the ministry as looking towards them at all,
+but merely as the consequences of the measures of their predecessors,
+which their nation has called on them to correct. I hope, therefore,
+they will come to just arrangements. No two countries upon earth have so
+many points of common interest and friendship; and their rulers must
+be great bunglers indeed, if, with such dispositions, they break them
+asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is on the ocean. England
+may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that element a little, but
+nothing she can do will retard us there one year�s growth. We shall be
+supported there by other nations, and thrown into their scale to make a
+part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on the other hand, she
+is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the sentiment of family
+feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the security of both.
+We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the line, and half
+that number of frigates, and were France to give us the money, and
+England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to England
+serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
+school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
+immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
+state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
+England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us
+on the sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent
+of Europe, might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these
+scenes. We ask for peace and justice from all nations, and we will
+remain uprightly neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the
+opinion that an English ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than
+that of France. We begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole
+Gulf Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to
+be frowned on for the present, and prohibited so soon as either consent
+or force will permit us. We shall never permit another privateer to
+cruise within it, and shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers.
+This is essential for our tranquillity and commerce. Be so good as to
+have the enclosed letters delivered, to present me to your family, and
+be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
+
+For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
+name.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII.--TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
+
+
+TO GENERAL SMITH.
+
+Washington, May 4,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I
+have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper
+I see overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a
+single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have
+made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle
+I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
+authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
+lodging together at Conrad�s, he was pressed on me to be made Governor
+of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very
+principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that
+ground, I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the
+appointment to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own
+principle, because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely
+a military station. The legislature had sanctioned that idea by the
+establishment of the office of Commandant, in which were completely
+blended the civil and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the
+Governor should be in suit with them. I observed too, that the House of
+Representatives, on the very day they passed the stricture on this union
+of authorities, passed a bill making the Governor of Michigan, commander
+of the regular troops which should at any time be within his government.
+However, on the subject of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation
+at this time. We shall see what turn things take at home and abroad in
+the course of the summer. Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr.
+Fox, which gives me hopes that we shall have an amicable arrangement
+with that government. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of
+great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII.--TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
+
+Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and
+sends him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the
+latter part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to
+see, is in them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on
+the fourth of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of
+the day which divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a
+dollar in the pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from
+all the ruin of Mr. Pitt�s administration. We, too, shall encounter
+follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light:
+and the vigor of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt�s
+follies have been great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with
+age, and exhausted by excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV.--TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BIDWELL.
+
+Washington, July 5, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
+heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons
+are proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under
+circumstances of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between
+them. But it shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on
+the triumph of republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism
+has now lost all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow
+Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a
+mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but
+always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
+
+Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an
+accommodation there on both the points of �accustomed commerce and
+impressment.� In this there must probably be some mutual concession,
+because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing. But
+I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of the
+Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some time
+before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the efforts made
+here, and made professedly to assassinate that negotiation in embryo, if
+the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail over his temper, the present
+state of things in Europe may induce him to require of Spain, that she
+should do us justice at least. That he should require her to sell us
+East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there are not wanting
+considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent foundation for
+peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall be, our old
+enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find enough to carp
+at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error where they
+found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point
+is �war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain�:
+and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be
+fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There
+one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
+
+I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
+part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than
+all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say,
+there never was a time when the services of those who possess talents,
+integrity, firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress.
+Some one of that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in
+the House of Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as
+his own business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it,
+and carry it through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing
+his own judgment, should implicitly support all the measures of the
+administration; but that, where he does not disapprove of them, he
+should not suffer them to go off in sleep, but bring them to the
+attention of the House, and give them a fair chance. Where he
+disapproves, he will of course leave them to be brought forward by those
+who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain my idea by an example? The
+classification of the militia was communicated to General Varnum and
+yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you approved, it was trusted
+you would support. I knew, indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to
+any thing which might break up the present organization of the militia:
+but when so modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps,
+be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your
+sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but using the same
+freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere.
+It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail: but a
+militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
+Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
+composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
+them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
+public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
+shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
+while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
+the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
+respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
+important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
+to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all
+other information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it
+becomes a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one
+of those artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual
+arms; and men of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this
+order. The last session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time:
+but as soon as the members penetrated into the views of those who were
+taking a new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have
+ever seen act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better
+dispositions.
+
+*****
+
+Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it
+proceeds from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness.
+Opportunities of candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I
+must not lose them when they occur. The information I receive from your
+quarter agrees with that from the south; that the late schism has made
+not the smallest impression on the public, and that the seceders are
+obliged to give to it other grounds than those which we know to be the
+true ones. All we have to wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every
+one may take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect
+nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is not
+true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among other
+things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no one of
+which has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the suggestions
+of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to
+perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
+not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
+with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or
+exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present
+age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will
+never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was
+invented by a Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in
+England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit
+of writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to
+your daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful
+machines. I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its
+perfection I have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction
+to find it the best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two
+years� daily use of them, I have had opportunities of trying several.
+As a secretary, which copies for us what we write without the power
+of revealing it, I find it a most precious possession to a man in
+public-business. I enclose directions for unpacking and using the
+machine when you receive it; but the machine itself must await a special
+and sure conveyance under the care of some person going to Paris. It is
+ready packed, and shall go by the first proper conveyance.
+
+As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet
+at L�Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first
+impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,
+and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.
+It will secure to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a
+long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with
+them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of Congress,
+drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its members,
+is universally reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I
+have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally
+so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the
+opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the resource
+of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the
+inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies.
+
+We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
+truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
+for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded
+from all the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by
+securing for her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan
+or colonial, while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may,
+therefore, be employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more
+useful friends to France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope
+they will be sensible of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of
+future misunderstanding to another age, enable you to present us such
+an arrangement, as will insure to our fellow-citizens long and permanent
+peace and friendship with them. With respect to our western boundary,
+your instructions will be your guide. I will only add, as a comment
+to them, that we are attached to the retaining the Bay of St. Bernard,
+because it was the first establishment of the unfortunate La Sale, was
+the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly covered and conveyed to
+us by France, under that name, than any other spot in the country. This
+will be secured to us by taking for our western boundary the Guadaloupe,
+and from its head around the sources of all waters eastward of it,
+to the highlands embracing the waters running into the Mississippi.
+However, all these things I presume will be settled before you receive
+this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and satisfaction to us all.
+
+Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
+nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did
+little injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want
+of rain; and even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many
+chances to run.
+
+This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
+order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will
+so provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be _hors
+d�insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
+to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
+competent.
+
+I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.--TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
+
+
+TO W. A. BURWELL.
+
+Monticello, September 17, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands till the
+9th instant. About the same time, I received the Enquirer in which
+Decius was so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper observed,
+that the matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly, of
+inferences from these facts: that he was not well enough informed to
+affirm or deny his facts, and he therefore examines his inferences,
+and in a very masterly manner shows that even were his facts true, the
+reasonable inferences from them are very different from those drawn by
+Decius. But his facts are far from truth, and should be corrected. It
+happened that Mr. Madison and General Dearborn were here when I received
+your letter. I therefore, with them, took up Decius and read him
+deliberately; and our memories aided one another in correcting his bold
+and unauthorized assertions. I shall note the most material of them in
+the order of the paper.
+
+1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note,
+had proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish
+spoliations, or even for French. Their instructions were to make no
+treaty in which Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although
+they were permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into
+Spanish ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is
+not true that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as
+our western boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their
+instructions. Although we considered our title good as far as the
+Rio Bravo, yet in proportion to what they could obtain east of the
+Mississippi, they were to relinquish to the westward, and successive
+sacrifices were marked out, of which even the Colorado was not the last.
+3. It is not true that the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great
+Britain should consider our supplying her enemies with money as a breach
+of neutrality. After the very words of the treaty were finally agreed
+to, it took some time, perhaps some days, to make out all the copies in
+the very splendid manner of Bonaparte�s treaties. Whether the 30th of
+April, 1803, the date expressed, was the day of the actual compact, or
+that on which it was signed, our memories do not enable us to say. If
+the former, then it is strictly conformable to the day of the compact;
+if the latter, then it was postdated, instead of being antedated. The
+motive assigned, too, is as incorrect as the fact. It was so far from
+being thought, by any party, a breach of neutrality, that the British
+minister congratulated Mr. King on the acquisition, and declared that
+the King had learned it with great pleasure: and when Baring, the
+British banker, asked leave of the minister to purchase the debt and
+furnish the money to France, the minister declared to him, that so far
+from throwing obstacles in the way, if there were any difficulty in the
+payment of the money, it was the interest of Great Britain to aid it.
+4. He speaks of a double set of opinions and principles; the one
+ostensible, to go on the journals and before the public, the other
+efficient, and the real motives to action. But where are these double
+opinions and principles? The executive informed the legislature of the
+wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be made to repel them, by
+force, if necessary. But as it might still be possible to negotiate
+a settlement, they asked such means as might enable them to meet the
+negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first part of this system
+was communicated publicly, the second, privately; but both were equally
+official, equally involved the responsibility of the executive, and were
+equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase of the Floridas was
+in direct opposition to the views of the executive, as expressed in the
+President�s official communication. It was not in opposition even to the
+public part of the communication, which did not recommend war, but only
+to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized with the private part,
+which asked the means of negotiation in such terms as covered the
+purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak it out. He
+speaks of secret communications between the executive and members, of
+backstairs influence, &tc.. But he never spoke of this while he and
+Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it almost solely. But when he differed from the
+executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting to
+him, expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit,
+for the purchase of Florida), which he acknowledges they expressed to
+him, then he roars out upon backstairs influence. 6. The committee, he
+says, forbore to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not
+they recommend the raising ------- regiments? Besides, if it was proper
+for the committee to forbear recommending offensive measures, was it
+not proper for the executive and legislature to exercise the same
+forbearance? 7. He says Monroe�s letter had a most important bearing on
+our Spanish relations. Monroe�s letter related, almost entirely, to our
+British relations. Of those with Spain he knew nothing particular since
+he left that country. Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed
+an opinion on our affairs with Spain, of which he knew we had better
+information than he could possess. His opinion was no more than that
+of any other sensible man; and his letter was proper to be communicated
+with the English papers, and with them only. That the executive did not
+hold it up on account of any bearing on Spanish affairs, is evident from
+the fact, that it was communicated when the Senate had not yet entered
+on the Spanish affairs, and had not yet received the papers relating to
+them from the other House. The moment the Representatives were ready to
+enter on the British affairs, Monroe�s letter, which peculiarly related
+to them, and was official solely as to them, was communicated to both
+Houses, the Senate being then about entering on the Spanish affairs.
+
+*****
+
+These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any
+use of them you think best, without letting your source of information
+be known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber-tree?
+Accept affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Washington, October 12, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You witnessed, in the earlier part of the administration, the malignant
+and long continued efforts which the federalists exerted in their
+newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and myself.
+These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made, through
+other channels, to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn and
+myself, but with no more success. The machinations of the last session
+to put you at cross questions with us all, were so obvious as to be seen
+at the first glance of every eye. In order to destroy one member of the
+administration, the whole were to be set to loggerheads to destroy one
+another. I observe in the papers lately, new attempts to revive this
+stale artifice, and that they squint more directly towards you and
+myself. I cannot, therefore, be satisfied, till I declare to you
+explicitly, that my affections and confidence in you are nothing
+impaired, and that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the
+notice of candid and honorable minds. I make the declaration, that no
+doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts they fear, may find a
+moment�s harbor in either of our minds. I have so much reliance on the
+superior good sense and candor of all those associated with me, as to be
+satisfied they will not suffer either friend or foe to sow tares among
+us. Our administration now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime
+pleasure in believing it will be distinguished as much by having placed
+itself above all the passions which could disturb its harmony, as by the
+great operations by which it will have advanced the well-being of the
+nation.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
+unalterable respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII.--TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN DICKINSON.
+
+Washington, January 13, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 1st instant, and am ever thankful
+for communications which may guide me in the duties which I wish to
+perform as well as I am able. It is but too true, that great discontents
+exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have
+for their sources, 1. the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be
+partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the
+other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger. 2.
+The administration of justice in our forms, principles, and language,
+with all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more abhorrent,
+because of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption
+of bankrupt and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the United
+States and engrossed the practice. 3. The call on them by the land
+commissioners to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this
+is really to record and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on
+rights so ancient that the title papers are lost, they expect the
+land is to be taken from them wherever they cannot produce a regular
+deduction of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the
+final result, which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the
+government towards them. Among the American inhabitants it is the old
+division of federalists and republicans. The former, are as hostile
+there as they are every where, and are the most numerous and wealthy.
+They have been long endeavoring to batter down the Governor, who has
+always been a firm republican. There were characters superior to him,
+whom I wished to appoint, but they refused the office: I know no better
+man who would accept of it, and it would not be right to turn him out
+for one not better. But it is the second cause, above mentioned, which
+is deep seated and permanent. The French members of the legislature,
+being the majority in both Houses, lately passed an act, declaring
+that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of their land, and
+enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in Latin, as the depositories of
+these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of the Houses thereupon
+passed a vote for self-dissolution of the legislature as a useless body,
+which failed in the other House by a single vote only. They separated,
+however, and have disseminated all the discontent they could. I propose
+to the members of Congress in conversation, the enlisting thirty
+thousand volunteers, Americans by birth, to be carried at the public
+expense, and settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred and
+sixty acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on the
+condition of giving two years of military service, if that country
+should be attacked within seven years. The defence of the country would
+thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number would entitle the
+territory to become a State, would make the majority American, and make
+it an American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten the
+pill to the French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to
+our own good as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both
+will be promoted by whatever will amalgamate us together.
+
+I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will
+end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired
+of an office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be
+glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but
+unceasing drudgery, and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming
+vacant, every appointment made, _me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis_.
+My only consolation is in the belief, that my fellow-citizens at large
+give me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit
+the continuance of that good will which follows well intended actions,
+and their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into
+retirement.
+
+God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and
+happy years.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX,--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, February 28,1807
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, February 28,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But such has
+been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of my power
+to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond the
+extent of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello,
+it can then be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however,
+generally, that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so
+acceptable a favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts
+and opinions. I have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it;
+indeed, both self-love and the desire to do what is best strongly invite
+unreserved communication. There is one subject which will not admit a
+delay till I see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to
+retire from Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here,
+that you should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more
+loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists,
+who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who
+will be three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of
+Representatives is as well disposed a body of men as I ever saw
+collected. But there is no one whose talents and standing, taken
+together, have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is,
+that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and
+it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would rally round you in an
+instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for the public good.
+Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery in the House. There are
+enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying point is all that is
+wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself. You never will have
+it so much in your power again to render such eminent service.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.--TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807
+
+
+TO JAMES MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine�s hands
+on the last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately
+communicated to us; and since that, Mr. Purviance has arrived with
+an original. On the subject of it you will receive a letter from
+the Secretary of State, of about this date, and one more in detail
+hereafter. I should not have written, but that I perceive uncommon
+efforts, and with uncommon wickedness, are making by the federal papers
+to produce mischief between myself, personally, and our negotiators; and
+also to irritate the British government, by putting a thousand speeches
+into my mouth, not one word of which I ever uttered. I have, therefore,
+thought it safe to guard you, by stating the view which we have given
+out on the subject of the treaty, in conversation and otherwise; for
+ours, as you know, is a government which will not tolerate the being
+kept entirely in the dark, and especially on a subject so interesting
+as this treaty. We immediately stated in conversation, to the members
+of the legislature and others, that having, by a letter received in
+January, perceived that our ministers might sign a treaty not providing
+satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3rd
+of February, informed you, that should such an one have been forwarded,
+it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore, that you should
+resume negotiations for inserting an article to that effect; that we
+should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn from you the
+result of our instructions, which probably would not be till summer,
+and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We observed, too,
+that a written declaration of the British commissioners, given in at
+the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the
+acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us bound by
+the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement we
+have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
+made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as
+a hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to
+have screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every
+thing, and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil
+of all the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to
+expunge the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we
+may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present
+hostilities. If peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the
+benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years,
+to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any
+other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the
+British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the
+treaty cannot be put into an acceptable form, then the next best thing
+is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting that die
+away insensibly; but, in the mean time, agreeing informally, that both
+parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve
+that friendly understanding which we so sincerely desire, until the one
+or the other may be disposed to yield the points which divide us. This
+will leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see
+that the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of
+continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to Mr. Pinckney, who, by
+procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us time, the most
+precious of all things to us. The government of New Orleans is still
+without such a head as I wish. The salary of five thousand dollars
+is too small; but I am assured the Orleans legislature would make it
+adequate, would you accept it. It is the second office in the United
+States in importance, and I am still in hopes you will accept it. It is
+impossible to let you stay at home while the public has so much need
+of talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of periodical
+headache, without scarcely command enough of my mind to know what
+I write. As a part of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as
+yourself, be so good as to communicate so much of it to him; and with
+my best respects to him, to Mrs. Monroe, and your daughter, be assured
+yourself, in all cases, of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI.--M. LE COMTE DIODATI, March 29, 1807
+
+
+M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
+
+Washington, March 29, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Antient Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 29th reached me the 18th of February. It
+enclosed a duplicate of that written from Brunswick five years before,
+but which I never received, or had notice of, but by this duplicate. Be
+assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such negligence towards
+you, as a failure to answer it would have implied. It would illy have
+accorded with those sentiments of friendship I entertained for you at
+Paris, and which neither time nor distance has lessened. I often pass in
+review the many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati and yourself on
+the banks of the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count them among
+the most pleasing I enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days of
+tranquillity and happiness. They had begun to cloud a little before I
+left you; but I had no apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the
+beginning, was to spread over such an extent of space and time. I have
+often thought of you with anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered
+the storm, and into what port you had retired. The letters now received
+give me the first information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your
+safe and quiet retreat. Were I in Europe, _pax et panis_ would certainly
+be my motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history
+with more matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of
+happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition
+for my own country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed now upwards of
+twenty years, while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption. I
+again, my friend, repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming
+torrent of its lava.
+
+At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
+propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
+of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed
+uniform health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy
+for me, and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my
+farms, and my family. Having performed my _quadragena stipendia_, I
+am entitled to my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others
+should be sooner sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have,
+therefore, requested my fellow-citizens to think of a successor for
+me, to whom I shall deliver the public concerns with greater joy than I
+received them. I have the consolation too of having added nothing to my
+private fortune, during my public service, and of retiring with hands
+as clean as they are empty. Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever
+excusable, are so when writing to a friend to whom our concerns are
+not uninteresting. I shall always be glad to hear of your health and
+happiness, and having been out of the way of hearing of any of our
+cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_ at Paris, any details of their
+subsequent history, which you will favor me with, will be thankfully
+received. I pray you to make my friendly respects acceptable to Madame
+la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my continued esteem,
+and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, April 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
+the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
+fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
+to go under cover of the Secretary of State�s despatches by any vessel
+going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned
+for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that the United
+States� armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is to touch
+at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London, and at Brest,
+with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
+
+You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
+between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received in
+January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up
+their minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
+impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received
+in the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators,
+assuring them of the discretion with which impressments should be
+conducted, which could be construed into a covenant only by inferences,
+against which its omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in
+its terms totally unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3rd, they
+were immediately informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory
+article on that head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the
+negotiations on that point. The treaty having come to as actually in the
+inadmissible shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know
+the result of the instructions of February the 3rd. I have but little
+expectation that the British government will retire from their habitual
+wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without
+that we will never tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing
+a non-importation or non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to
+become just. This may bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To
+show, however, the sincerity of our desire for conciliation, I have
+suspended the non-importation act. This state of things should be
+understood at Paris, and every effort used on your part to accommodate
+our differences with Spain, under the auspices of France, with whom
+it is all-important that we should stand in terms of the strictest
+cordiality. In fact, we are to depend on her and Russia for the
+establishment of neutral rights by the treaty of peace, among which
+should be that of taking no persons by a belligerent out of a neutral
+ship, unless they be the soldiers of an enemy. Never did a nation
+act towards another with more perfidy and injustice than Spain has
+constantly practised against us: and if we have kept our hands off of
+her till now, it has been purely out of respect to France, and from the
+value we set on the friendship of France. We expect, therefore, from
+the friendship of the Emperor, that he will either compel Spain to do us
+justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be in possession
+of the city of Mexico.
+
+No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have
+been given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense
+incurred, in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against
+Mexico. Although at first he proposed a separation of the western
+country, and on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo,
+according to the usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very
+early saw that the fidelity of the western country was not to be
+shaken, and turned himself wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an
+enterprise on that country in this, that we had only to lie still, and
+he would have had followers enough to have been in the city of Mexico
+in six weeks. You have doubtless seen my several messages to Congress,
+which gave a faithful narrative of that conspiracy. Burr himself, after
+being disarmed by our endeavors of all his followers, escaped from the
+custody of the court of Mississippi, but was taken near Fort Stoddart,
+making his way to Mobile, by some country people, who brought him on
+as a prisoner to Richmond, where he is now under a course for trial.
+Hitherto we have believed our law to be, that suspicion on probable
+grounds was sufficient cause to commit a person for trial, allowing time
+to collect witnesses till the trial. But the judges here have decided,
+that conclusive evidence of guilt must be ready in the moment of arrest,
+or they will discharge the malefactor. If this is still insisted on,
+Burr will be discharged; because his crimes having been sown from Maine,
+through the whole line of the western waters, to New Orleans, we cannot
+bring the witnesses here under four months. The fact is, that the
+federalists make Burr�s cause their own, and exert their whole influence
+to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents of Miranda. And
+it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominent in our judiciary
+department, which is consequently in opposition to the legislative and
+executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures often.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr�s offences, was
+received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety and doubt in
+the public mind, in the present defective state of the proof, is not
+wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the
+judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,
+dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans.
+The federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr�s cause their
+own, mortified only that he did not separate the union or overturn the
+government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they
+would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy,
+as they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them
+of this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.
+
+The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
+administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The
+present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,
+so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I
+believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,
+we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on
+foot an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the
+scene of these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they
+will give time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress,
+what the real facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to
+appeal to the patriotism of particular persons in different places, of
+whom we have requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on
+such information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process
+or facilities from the federal courts, but frowned on by their new-born
+zeal for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow
+the liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the
+accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the
+judges have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What
+loop-hole they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot
+foresee. Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not
+name, will satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr�s guilt. And I
+do suppose the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment
+of men, in a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round
+Blannerhassett�s island, when they expected Governor Tiffin�s men to be
+on them _modo guerrino arraiati_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his
+men at the mouth of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of
+Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation,
+regularly signed with the aid of the Governor, as between two
+independent and hostile commanders.
+
+But a moment�s calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
+collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
+when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
+inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
+�More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme
+Court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they
+exist. Why are they not proved.� In what terms of decency can we
+speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of
+Cumberland, and return in five weeks, to do which has never taken less
+than twelve. Again, �If, in November or December last, a body of
+troops had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the
+affidavits, establishing the fact, could not have been obtained by the
+last of March.� But I ask the Judge, where they should have been lodged?
+At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New
+Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension and examination.
+It was not known at Washington till the 26th of March, that Burr would
+escape from the western tribunals, be retaken and brought to an eastern
+one: and in five days after (neither five months nor five weeks, as the
+Judge calculated) he says, it is �impossible to suppose the affidavits
+could not have been obtained.� Where? At Richmond he certainly meant,
+or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his audience. But all the
+principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on the
+favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this odious republic. �I
+understand,� says the Judge, �probable cause of guilt to be a case
+made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,� &c. Speaking as a
+lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at least. But this
+is confounding probability and proof. We had always before understood
+that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender
+must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the
+Judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters
+of information in Mr. Rodney�s hands, the letters and facts published in
+the local newspapers, Burr�s flight, and the universal belief or rumor
+of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of enlistment,
+military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or capitulation, so as
+to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the United States who
+does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt acts to have taken
+place?
+
+If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
+administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to
+condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged
+them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work
+well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.
+If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never
+far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then, and
+amend the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent
+of the nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches
+of the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and
+to the common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class
+of offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are
+themselves protected in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment
+is a farce which will not be tried again. If their protection of Burr
+produces this amendment, it will do more good than his condemnation
+would have done. Against Burr, personally, I never had one hostile
+sentiment. I never, indeed, thought him an honest, frank-dealing man,
+but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose
+aim or shot you could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the
+confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their
+confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it: and if his punishment
+can be commuted now for an useful amendment of the constitution, I shall
+rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to
+offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 2, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While Burr�s case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from
+time to time with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury
+v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the
+threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be
+law. 1. Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed all cognizance of
+the case; although they then went on to say what would have been their
+opinion, had they had cognizance of it. This then was confessedly an
+extra-judicial opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2. Because, had
+it been judicially pronounced, it would have been against law; for to
+a commission, a deed, a bond, delivery is essential to give validity.
+Until, therefore, the commission is delivered out of the hands of the
+executive and his agents, it is not his deed. He may withhold or cancel
+it at pleasure, as he might his private deed in the same situation. The
+constitution intended that the three great branches of the government
+should be co-ordinate, and independent of each other. As to acts,
+therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no control to
+another branch. A judge, I presume, cannot sit on a bench without a
+commission, or a record of a commission: and the constitution having
+given to the judiciary branch no means of compelling the executive
+either to deliver a commission, or to make a record of it, shows it did
+not intend to give the judiciary that control over the executive, but
+that it should remain in the power of the latter to do it or not. Where
+different branches have to act in their respective lines, finally
+and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it different and
+opposite constructions. Thus in the case of William Smith, the House of
+Representatives determined he was a citizen, and in the case of William
+Duane (precisely the same in every material circumstance) the judges
+determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callender and others, the
+judges determined the sedition act was valid under the constitution,
+and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
+imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was
+a nullity under the constitution, and exercised his regular power of
+prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing
+the real law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these
+different constructions of the same act by different branches, less
+mischief arises, than from giving to any one of them a control over the
+others. The executive and Senate act on the construction, that until
+delivery from the executive department, a commission is in their
+possession, and within their rightful power; and in cases of commissions
+not revocable at will, where, after the Senate�s approbation and the
+President�s signing and sealing, new information of the unfitness of
+the person has come to hand before the delivery of the commission,
+new nominations have been made and approved, and new commissions have
+issued.
+
+On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act,
+and maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control
+which may be attempted by the judges in subversion of the independence
+of the executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
+therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the constitution
+the supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
+constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was
+_coram non judice_, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried
+into effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the
+gratuitous opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, and
+denounced as not law: and I think the present a fortunate one, because
+it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad,
+therefore, if, in noticing that case, you could take occasion to express
+the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were
+given extra-judicially and against law, and that their reverse will be
+the rule of action with the executive. If this opinion should not
+be your own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the
+executive. If it is your own also, you would of course give to the
+arguments such a developement, as a case, incidental only, might render
+proper.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines,
+than that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the
+faulty classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with
+attention, and according to the best information I possess, classing
+them more rigorously. I am persuaded, that were the duty on cheap wines
+put on the same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge
+the field of those who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The
+introduction of a very cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood,
+within two years past, has quadrupled in that time the number of those
+who keep wine, and will ere long increase them tenfold. This would be a
+great gain to the treasury, and to the sobriety of our country. I will
+here add my tariff, wherein you will be able to choose any rate of duty
+you please; and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be
+proper for legislative attention. Affectionate salutations.
+
+[Illustration: page77]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think it will be
+fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of the present
+scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller: though the same
+views of protecting the offender may again reduce the number to sixteen,
+in order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur. It is
+understood, that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not choose to
+embark in his projects, unless approved by their government, he asserted
+that he had that approbation. Most of them took his word for it, but
+it is said that with those who would not, the following stratagem was
+practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from General Dearborn,
+was made to express his approbation, and to say that I was absent
+at Monticello, but that there was no doubt that, on my return, my
+approbation of his enterprises would be given. This letter was spread
+open on his table, so as to invite the eye of whoever entered his room;
+and he contrived occasions of sending up into his room, those whom he
+wished to become witnesses of his acting under sanction. By this means,
+he avoided committing himself to any liability to prosecution for
+forgery, and gave another proof of being a great man in little things,
+while he is really small in great ones. I must add General Dearborn�s
+declaration, that he never wrote a letter to Burr in his life, except
+that when here, once in a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of
+invitation to dine. The only object of sending you the enclosed letters
+is to possess you of the fact, that you may know how to pursue it,
+if any of your witnesses should know any thing of it. My intention in
+writing to you several times, has been to convey facts or observations
+occurring in the absence of the Attorney General, and not to make to
+the dreadful drudgery you are going through the unnecessary addition of
+writing me letters in answer, which I beg you to relieve yourself from,
+except when some necessity calls for it.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVII.--TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN, June 10, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
+
+Washington, June 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
+capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to yourself,
+I may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided to
+others, on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of
+making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it
+has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence
+of my fellow-citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards
+excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me.
+However, I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may
+be satisfied, that, in selecting persons for the management of their
+affairs, I am influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and
+especially, that the field of public office will not be perverted by
+me into a family property. On this subject, I had the benefit of useful
+lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be
+imitated and what avoided. But, in truth, the nature of our government
+is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the
+people, in their Chief Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing
+which can strengthen him with that confidence.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVIII.--TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807
+
+TO JOHN NORVELL.
+
+Washington, June 11, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
+proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
+occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
+not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society
+into civil government: I mean a work which presents in one full
+and comprehensive view the system of principles on which such an
+organization should be founded, according to the rights of nature. For
+want of a single work of that character, I should recommend Locke
+on Government, Sidney, Priestley�s Essay on the First Principles of
+Government, Chipman�s Principles of Government, and the Federalist.
+Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, because of the
+demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch of the subject.
+If your views of political inquiry go further, to the subjects of money
+and commerce, Smith�s Wealth of Nations is the best book to be read,
+unless Say�s Political Economy can be had, which treats the same
+subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass, and more
+lucid manner. But I believe this work has not been translated into our
+language.
+
+History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
+have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in
+the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history
+becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general
+history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of
+Hume seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the
+government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner,
+as to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary
+readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the
+text of Hume as his ground-work, abridging it by the omission of some
+details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to
+mislead, by either the suppression of a truth, or by giving it a false
+coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we
+may properly call it Hume�s history republicanized. He has, moreover,
+continued the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it,
+to the year 1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is
+republican; and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a
+single quarto volume. Adding to this Ludlow�s Memoirs, Mrs. Macaulay�s
+and Belknap�s histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free
+principles of the English constitution.
+
+To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should
+be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, �by restraining
+it to true, facts and sound principles only.� Yet I fear such a paper
+would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression
+of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its
+benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.
+Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself
+becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real
+extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in
+situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of
+the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my
+fellow-citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief,
+that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
+their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just
+as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
+except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
+General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
+now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
+subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
+can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a
+newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he
+who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with
+falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
+facts, and the details are all false.
+
+Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
+Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
+Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
+very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
+information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk
+his own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a
+mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude
+to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little
+than too much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers
+who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they
+would occupy.
+
+Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
+practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
+depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation
+is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the
+morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those
+who do not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance
+to their auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which
+should fill a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility
+that some may believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to
+escape them, that it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing
+a slander, who is its real author.
+
+These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
+request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
+intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
+enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their
+own wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty
+communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public
+papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoided putting
+myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer
+away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties
+will permit me to enjoy.
+
+I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIX.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, June 12, 1807
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+******
+
+The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to
+our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,
+and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
+therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
+For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
+unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a
+very different thing in practice. The minor business in each department
+is done by the Head of the department, on consultation with the
+President alone. But all matters of importance or difficulty are
+submitted to all the Heads of departments composing the cabinet;
+sometimes by the President�s consulting them separately and
+successively, as they happen to call on him; but in the greatest cases,
+by calling them together, discussing the subject maturely, and finally
+taking the vote, in which the President counts himself but as one. So
+that in all important cases the executive is, in fact, a directory,
+which certainly the President might control: but of this there was never
+an example either in the first or the present administration. I have
+heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes decided things against his
+council.
+
+*****
+
+I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
+opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of
+a third negotiator was not at this time advisable. For the present,
+therefore, the question must rest. Mr. Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to
+come home, and is detained only by the delicacy of not deserting his
+post. In the existing temper between him and his colleague, it would
+certainly be better that one of them should make an opening for
+re-composing the commission more harmoniously. I salute you with
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER L.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving the necessary
+right of the President of the United States to decide, independently of
+all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public
+interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I assure you of
+my readiness, under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish, on all
+occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But the letter
+of General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the defence
+of Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges against
+him, which were in my possession when the Attorney General went on to
+Richmond in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken for
+granted he left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains
+the order in which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter
+desired, under the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th: but
+lest the Attorney General should not have left those papers with you,
+I this day write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty
+whether he is at Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce
+delay in his receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be
+apprized. But, as I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter,
+I must beg leave to devolve on you the exercise of that discretion
+which it would be my right and duty to exercise, by withholding the
+communication of any parts of the letter, which are not directly
+material for the purposes of justice.
+
+With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
+practicable. But when the request goes to �copies of the orders issued
+in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.
+by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,� it seems to cover
+a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil
+and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying
+open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to
+examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be
+able to judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with
+the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular
+order, which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then
+he must know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer
+can be given. If the object had been specified, we might then have had
+some guide for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records
+might be useful to him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is
+right, we are without the indications which may enable us to do it. If
+the researches of the Secretary at War should produce any thing proper
+for communication, and pertinent to any point we can conceive in the
+defence before the court, it shall be forwarded to you. I salute you
+with respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 17, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication of
+one to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed
+you in mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers
+respecting the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General,
+when he went to Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in
+your possession, but would immediately write to him, if he had not, to
+forward that particular letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly
+on the same day, but having no answer, I know not whether he has
+forwarded the letter. I stated in the same letter, that I had desired
+the Secretary at War, to examine his office, in order to comply with
+your further request, to furnish copies of the orders which had been
+given respecting Aaron Burr and his property; and in a subsequent letter
+of the same day, I forwarded to you copies of two letters from the
+Secretary at War, which appeared to be within the description expressed
+in your letter. The order from the Secretary of the Navy, you said, you
+were in possession of. The receipt of these papers had, I presume, so
+far anticipated, and others this day forwarded will have substantially
+fulfilled, the object of a subpoena from the District Court of Richmond,
+requiring that those officers and myself should attend the Court in
+Richmond, with the letter of General Wilkinson, the answer to that
+letter, and the orders of the departments of War and the Navy, therein
+generally described. No answer to General Wilkinson�s letter, other
+than a mere acknowledgment of its receipt, in a letter written for a
+different purpose, was ever written by myself or any other. To these
+communications of papers, I will add, that if the defendant supposes
+there are any facts within the knowledge of the Heads of departments, or
+of myself, which can be useful for his defence, from a desire of doing
+any thing our situation will permit in furtherance of justice, we shall
+be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of deposition, through
+any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our testimony at
+this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by consent of
+parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the part of
+the United States. Mr. Burr�s consent will be given of course, if he
+supposes the testimony useful.
+
+As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court
+is sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
+obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
+should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
+and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
+and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
+seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
+without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood
+to be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
+constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then
+mean that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate
+authority.
+
+With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private
+side to our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for
+inventions, certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent
+in their nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All
+nations have found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of
+their affairs, some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known
+to their executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of
+the case, must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests
+will permit publication. Hence, under our constitution, in requests of
+papers, from the legislative to the executive branch, an exception is
+carefully expressed, as to those which he may deem the public welfare
+may require not to be disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed
+resolution of the House of Representatives, which produced the message
+of January 22nd, respecting this case. The respect mutually due between
+the constituted authorities, in their official intercourse, as well
+as sincere dispositions to do for every one what is just, will always
+insure from the executive, in exercising the duty of discrimination
+confided to him, the same candor and integrity to which the nation has
+in like manner trusted in the disposal of its judiciary authorities.
+Considering you as the organ for communicating these sentiments to
+the Court, I address them to you for that purpose, and salute you with
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LII.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 19,1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 19,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons had been
+(as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and I have
+desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask what is to
+be done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge decides
+it to have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason or
+misdemeanor, as you think the evidence will support; let the court
+decide where he shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have
+the marshal aided in his transportation, with the executive means. And
+we think it proper, further, that when Burr shall have been convicted of
+either treason or misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed all
+those persons against whom you should find evidence sufficient, whose
+agency has been so prominent as to mark them as proper objects of
+punishment, and especially where their boldness has betrayed an
+inveteracy of criminal disposition. As to obscure offenders and
+repenting ones, let them lie for consideration.
+
+I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
+singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
+was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore,
+of the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
+implicitly as any man�s for whatever he affirms. The letter-writer,
+also, is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for
+more than a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally,
+that Burr was engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther
+Martin knew all about it. We think you should immediately despatch a
+subpoena for Graybell; and while that is on the road, you will have time
+to consider in what form you will use his testimony; e.g. shall Luther
+Martin be summoned as a witness against Burr, and Graybell held ready
+to confront him? It may be doubted whether we could examine a witness
+to discredit our own witness. Besides, the lawyers say that they are
+privileged from being forced to breaches of confidence, and that
+no others are. Shall we move to commit Luther Martin, as _particeps
+criminis_ with Burr? Graybell will fix upon him misprision of treason at
+least. And at any rate, his evidence will put down this unprincipled and
+impudent federal bull-dog, and add another proof that the most clamorous
+defenders of Burr are all his accomplices. It will explain why Luther
+Martin flew so hastily to the aid of �his honorable friend,� abandoning
+his clients and their property during a session of a principal court
+in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with the clamors and ruin of his
+clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as a witness. He will prove
+that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage several thousand men,
+chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the habit of employing in
+the works he directs, under pretence of a canal opposite Louisville,
+or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he could with that force
+alone have carried every thing before him, and would not have been where
+he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr, Bollman, Yrujo,
+and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him not the less in
+our view.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpoenas?
+
+Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
+it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were to
+work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses
+will some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and
+that consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from
+the men themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of
+to-morrow evening, and be with you Monday evening. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIII.--TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807
+
+TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, June 19, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3rd instant, I avail
+myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to Mr.
+Lincoln, and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late happy
+event of the election of a republican executive to preside over its
+councils. The harmony it has introduced between the legislative and
+executive branches, between the people and both of them, and between
+all and the General Government, are so many steps towards securing that
+union of action and effort in all its parts, without which no nation can
+be happy or safe. The just respect, with which all the States have ever
+looked to Massachusetts, could leave none of them without anxiety while
+she was in a state of alienation from her family and friends. Your
+opinion of the propriety and advantage of a more intimate correspondence
+between the executives of the several States, and that of the Union, as
+a central point, is precisely that which I have ever entertained; and
+on coming into office I felt the advantages which would result from that
+harmony. I had it even in contemplation, after the annual recommendation
+to Congress of those measures called for by the times, which the
+constitution had placed under their power, to make communications in
+like manner to the executives of the States, as to any parts of them
+to which their legislatures might be alone competent. For many are the
+exercises of power reserved to the States, wherein an uniformity of
+proceeding would be advantageous to all. Such are quarantines, health
+laws, regulations of the press, banking institutions, training militia,
+&c. &c. But you know what was the state of the several governments when
+I came into office. That a great proportion of them were federal, and
+would have been delighted with such opportunities of proclaiming their
+contempt, and of opposing republican men and measures. Opportunities so
+furnished and used by some of the State governments, would have produced
+an ill effect, and would have insured the failure of the object of
+uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured even now (Connecticut and
+Delaware being still hostile) it must be on some greater occasion than
+is likely to arise within my time. I look to it, therefore, as a course
+which will probably be to be left to the consideration of my successor.
+
+I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and
+never more to take the field under their own banners. They will now
+reserve themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to
+earn favors from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over
+their more numerous antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely
+accept their votes, no great harm will be done; because it will only
+place in power one shade of republicanism, instead of another. But
+when they purchase the votes of the federalists, by giving them
+a participation of office, trust, and power, it is a proof that
+anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion. I do not think that the
+republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen into this heresy, nor
+that there are in your State materials of which a minority can be made
+who will fall into it.
+
+With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
+should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
+course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military,
+the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
+affections of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of
+precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
+claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
+as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present.
+I confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
+parading himself through the several States as an object of public gaze,
+and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable, should be purely
+voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
+of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
+of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland,
+I must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have
+never yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me
+to be so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have
+no reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office.
+A journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen,
+would much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and,
+founded in curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I
+should see my friends, too, more at our mutual ease, and be left more
+exclusively to their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring
+I have made up no opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a
+question for future consideration and advice.
+
+In the mean time, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
+esteem,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His presence here
+is with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred and fifty
+workmen require his constant directions on various public works of
+pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon as
+possible. How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I
+know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and
+his principal accomplices should come fully out, and judicially, as they
+will establish the just complaints we have against his nation.
+
+I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the _subpoena
+duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the question there as
+_coram non judice_, I did not read his argument with much attention.
+Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual, where an opinion is to be
+supported, right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and
+passes over those which are solid. Laying down the position generally,
+that all persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no exception
+unless it can be produced in his law books. But if the constitution
+enjoins on a particular officer to be always engaged in a particular
+set of duties imposed on him, does not this supersede the general law,
+subjecting him to minor duties inconsistent with these? The constitution
+enjoins his constant agency in the concerns of six millions of people.
+Is the law paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single
+one? Let us apply the Judge�s own doctrine to the case of himself and
+his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to
+quell a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the
+general law, a part of the posse of the State sheriff. Would the Judge
+abandon major duties to perform lesser ones? Again; the court of Orleans
+or Maine commands, by subpoenas, the attendance of all the judges of
+the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts as judges, and the
+interests of millions committed to them, to serve the purposes of a
+single individual? The leading principle of our constitution is the
+independence of the legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each
+other, and none are more jealous of this than the judiciary. But would
+the executive be independent of the judiciary, if he were subject to
+the commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for disobedience; if the
+several courts could bandy him from pillar to post, keep him constantly
+trudging from north to south, and east to west, and withdraw him
+entirely from his constitutional duties? The intention of the
+constitution, that each branch should be independent of the others, is
+further manifested by the means it has furnished to each, to protect
+itself from enterprises of force attempted on them by the others, and
+to none has it given more effectual or diversified means than to the
+executive. Again; because ministers can go into a court in London,
+as witnesses, without interruption to their executive duties, it is
+inferred that they would go to a court one thousand or one thousand five
+hundred miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans
+by every criminal who will swear that their testimony �may be of use to
+him.� The Judge says, �it is apparent that the President�s duties,
+as chief magistrate, do not demand his whole time, and are not
+unremitting.� If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat
+of government, during the sickly season, he should be told that such
+arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at and
+between the several stations we take, that it goes on as unremittingly
+there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass more hours in
+public business at Monticello than I do here, every day; and it is much
+more laborious, because all must be done in writing. Our stations being
+known, all communications come to them regularly, as to fixed points.
+It would be very different were we always on the road, or placed in the
+noisy and crowded taverns where courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected
+here every hour, having been kept away by a sick child. I salute you
+with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LV.--TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June 21, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
+
+Washington, June 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen years of
+age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
+
+*****
+
+I am not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they
+acquire there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the
+happiness of their after life. But there are particular branches of
+science, which are not so advantageously taught any where else in
+the United States as in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for
+Botany, Mr. Peale�s Museum for Natural History, your Medical School for
+Anatomy, and the able professors in all of them, give advantages not to
+be found elsewhere. We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia
+to attend the schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps
+Surgery; but not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask?
+Being led to the subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express
+my opinions on that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to
+finish first with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask
+of you, and which is the object of this letter.
+
+*****
+
+This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
+further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
+most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
+less enlightened.
+
+We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its
+organs and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and
+tending to its destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature
+providing for the re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary
+evacuation of the morbific matter, or by some other operation which
+escapes our imperfect senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by
+stools, vomiting, sweat, urine, expectoration, bleeding, &c, which, for
+the most part, ends in the restoration of healthy action. Experience has
+taught us also, that there are certain substances, by which, applied to
+the living body, internally or externally, we can at will produce these
+same evacuations, and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but
+slowly, and do effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength
+to accomplish. Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized
+by specific signs or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural
+evacuation or process, whenever that disease recurs under the same
+appearances, we may reasonably count on producing a solution of it, by
+the use of such substances as we have found produce the same evacuation
+or movement. Thus, fulness of the stomach we can relieve by emetics;
+diseases of the bowels, by purgatives; inflammatory cases, by bleeding;
+intermittents, by the Peruvian bark; syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness,
+by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the utility of medicine. It goes to the
+well defined forms of disease, and happily, to those the most frequent.
+But the disorders of the animal body, and the symptoms indicating
+them, are as various as the elements of which the body is composed. The
+combinations, too, of these symptoms are so infinitely diversified,
+that many associations of them appear too rarely to establish a definite
+disease: and to an unknown disease, there cannot be a known remedy.
+Here, then, the judicious, the moral, the humane physician should stop.
+Having been so often a witness to the salutary efforts which nature
+makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he should rather trust
+to their action, than hazard the interruption of that, and a greater
+derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a machine so
+complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject so sacred
+as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be necessary to
+keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be of the most
+innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I have ever
+known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored
+water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put
+together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous physician
+goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the scanty
+field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region of what
+is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory of
+corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of
+stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the
+lancet, and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which
+lets him into all nature�s secrets at short hand. On the principle which
+he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases
+into families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all
+the cases he has thus arbitrarily marshaled together. I have lived
+myself to see the disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown,
+succeed one another like the shifting figures of a magic-lanthern, and
+their fancies like the dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris,
+becoming, from their novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to
+the next novelty their ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the
+fashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The
+medicine therefore restored him, and the young doctor receives new
+courage to proceed in his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow
+creatures. I believe we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced and
+presumptuous band of medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys
+more of human life in one year, than all the Robin-hoods, Cartouches,
+and Macheaths do in a century. It is in this part of medicine that I
+wish to see a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the
+first degree of value set on clinical observation, and the lowest on
+visionary theories. I would wish the young practitioner, especially, to
+have deeply impressed on his mind the real limits of his art, and that
+when the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office is to be a
+watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving them
+fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they can
+derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient.
+I have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
+transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I
+would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than
+hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my
+hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge
+of the human body, and observation on the effects of medicinal
+substances on that. The anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are
+those in which the young physician should be formed. If he enters with
+innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely possible he
+should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong indeed,
+if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity
+against the authority of his instructers, and the bewitching delusions
+of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion of
+instruction, which our medical students derive from your labors; and,
+associating with it one of the chairs which my old and able friend,
+Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them as the two fundamental
+pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an opinion of the talents
+of the professors in the other branches which constitute the school of
+medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that it is from this side
+of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so many other things,
+will at length be led into sound principles in this branch of science,
+the most important of all others, being that to which we commit the care
+of health and life.
+
+I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
+heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
+presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
+credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology
+I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too,
+to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so
+familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give
+a confession of my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps,
+at times, to him as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine,
+without defining its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted
+me, for a moment, to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste
+of politics, into which I have been impressed by the times on which I
+happened, and to indulge in the rich fields of nature, where alone I
+should have served as a volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations
+and partialities.
+
+I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVI.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806; but supposing, from your not
+acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried, I sent
+a duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2nd. These having gone
+by the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours
+of May the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
+department of State, carried by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what
+a critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by
+their armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them
+two-deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority
+under which this aggression is committed, their minister here is
+unapprized. You will see by the proclamation of July the 2nd, that
+(while we are not omitting such measures of force as are immediately
+necessary) we propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal
+and reparation, and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or
+other measures, uncommitted, to the legislature. This country has never
+been in such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In
+this state of things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at
+least with Spain, become more interesting. You know the circumstances
+respecting this last power, which have rendered it ineligible that you
+should have proceeded heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle
+is now removed by their recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another
+minister, and, in the mean time, of a _charg� des affaires_, who has
+been received. The way being now open for taking your station at Madrid,
+it is certainly our wish you should do so, and that this may be more
+agreeable to you than your return home, as is solicited in yours of May
+the 1st. It is with real unwillingness we should relinquish the benefit
+of your services. Nevertheless, if your mind is decidedly bent on that,
+we shall regret, but not oppose your return. The choice, therefore,
+remains with yourself. In the mean time, your place in the joint
+commission being vacated by either event, we shall take the measures
+rendered necessary by that. We have seen, with real grief, the
+misunderstanding which has taken place between yourself and General
+Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to form an opinion
+between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt by persons,
+both of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have not been
+without fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has seemed,
+however, that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little to be
+done, in matters so distant from them.
+
+The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
+No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it
+probable this will continue very much the case till we get an answer
+from England. Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is
+now secured south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Washington, July 14, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+I received last night your letters of February the 20th and April the
+29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to
+acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I receive
+whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate esteem
+for yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the state of
+Madame de la Fayette�s health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of
+learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give great
+confidence to that hope.
+
+Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of
+yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established on this
+side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
+found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
+been formed from infancy. Certainly had you been, as I wished, at the
+head of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one
+moment�s uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious
+of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the
+western States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their
+head, establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus
+provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom.
+The man who could expect to effect this, with American materials, must
+be a fit subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however,
+demands more serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the
+United States who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of
+our laws in favor of the accused against the accuser, that I question
+if he is convicted. Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to
+select the twelve who are to try him, and if there be any one who will
+not concur in finding him guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry
+to tell you that Bollman was Burr�s right hand man in all his guilty
+schemes. On being brought to prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison
+and myself the whole of the plans, always, however, apologetically for
+Burr as far as they would bear. But his subsequent tergiversations
+have proved him conspicuously base. I gave him a pardon, however, which
+covers him from every thing but infamy. I was the more astonished at his
+engaging in this business, from the peculiar motives he should have
+felt for fidelity. When I came into the government, I sought him out on
+account of the services he has rendered you, cherished him, offered
+him two different appointments of value, which, after keeping them long
+under consideration, he declined for commercial views, and would have
+given him any thing for which he was fit. Be assured he is unworthy of
+ever occupying again the care of any honest man. Nothing has ever so
+strongly proved the innate force of our form of government, as this
+conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men to follow his
+fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by
+assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation
+was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty
+desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was or was
+suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in
+one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of
+the military but to take care of their respective stations. His first
+enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed
+would powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door
+of Mexico. It is with pleasure I inform you that not a single native
+Creole, and but one American of those settled there before we received
+the place, took any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants
+from the United States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt,
+and adventurers and speculators of all descriptions.
+
+I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing
+on which we stand, at present, with England. Never, since the battle of
+Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation
+as at present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The
+federalists themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they
+will return to their old trade of condemning every step we take towards
+obtaining it. �Reparation for the past, and security for the future,� is
+our motto. Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort
+to non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near
+two thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast,
+and cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
+
+I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve
+Madame de Tesse in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &c. which I
+sent her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England,
+and discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit, for that
+season. Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has,
+I fear, been equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will
+persevere in my endeavors.
+
+Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tesse, Madame de la Fayette, and
+your family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVIII.--TO JOHN PAGE, July 17, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN PAGE.
+
+Washington, July 17, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public offices of mere
+profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or
+second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments
+on that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen that
+confidence so necessary to enable the executive to direct the whole
+public force to the best, advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Boiling
+Robertson�s talents and integrity I have long been apprized, and would
+gladly use them where talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought
+of him for the vacant place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but
+supposing the salary of two thousand dollars not more than he makes
+by his profession, and while remaining with his friends, I have, in
+despair, not proposed it to him. If he would accept it, I should name
+him instantly with the greatest satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform
+me on this point.
+
+With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some
+casual conversation, it was said that the most conspicuous accomplices
+of Burr were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on
+me, that neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this
+subject, I have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a
+wish they might be understood by the federalists in office. I have never
+removed a man merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished
+them to give a vote at an election, but according to their own wishes.
+But as no government could discharge its duties to the best advantage
+of its citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting
+instead of executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage
+and influence of their offices against the government and its measures,
+I have only requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe: and
+if their conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in
+opposition, it ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they
+could not conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed
+in them; and on failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say,
+those who maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government.
+Nothing which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger
+from these principles.
+
+I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the
+late British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the
+demand of reparation for the past, and security for the future, that is
+to say, an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest
+should produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war: but if they
+are refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and
+property, and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean,
+and who may man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these
+to us would be worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile
+and Trafalgar. The mean time may also be importantly employed in
+preparations to enable us to give quick and deep blows.
+
+Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and
+respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIX.--TO WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Washington, July 20, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications, yet
+I merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which they
+are susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others will
+be considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us to
+hear every thing, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all
+their confidence that every thing is doing which can be done, and when
+our greatest praise shall be, that we appear to be doing nothing. The
+law for detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation
+for it, and that for fortifications, enable us to do every thing for
+land service, as well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters,
+their opinion is known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our
+merchants a precious interval to call in their property and our seamen,
+and the postponing the summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give
+too quick an alarm to the adversary. They will be called, however,
+in good time. Although we demand of England what is merely of right,
+reparation for the past, security for the future, yet as their pride
+will possibly, nay probably, prevent their yielding them to the extent
+we shall require, my opinion is, that the public mind, which I believe
+is made up for war, should maintain itself at that point. They have
+often enough, God knows, given us cause of war before; but it has been
+on points which would not have united the nation. But now they have
+touched a chord which vibrates in every heart. Now then is the time to
+settle the old and the new.
+
+I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the
+subject of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I
+suspect you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe,
+does not exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better
+the condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to
+it, as a monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse.
+He is not of the very first order of understanding, but he is of a
+high one. He has taken a peculiar affection to this country and its
+government, of which he has given me public as well as personal proofs.
+Our nation being like his, habitually neutral, our interests as to
+neutral rights, and our sentiments, agree. And whenever conferences
+for peace shall take place, we are assured of a friend in him. In fact,
+although in questions of restitution he will be with England, in those
+of neutral rights he will be with Bonaparte and every other power in
+the world, except England: and I do presume that England will never have
+peace until she subscribes to a just code of marine law. I have gone
+into this subject, because I am confident that Russia (while her present
+monarch lives) is the most cordially friendly to us of any power on
+earth, will go furthest to serve us, and is most worthy of conciliation.
+And although the source of this information must be a matter of
+confidence with you, yet it is desirable that the sentiments should
+become those of the nation. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LX.--TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, August 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the post-office
+had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury Burr�s conduct would
+convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be offered against
+him. But to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings in
+those who administer it? Why do not Blannerhasset, Dayton, &c.
+demand private and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal
+application of law to every condition of man is fundamental, how could
+it be denied to them? How can it ever be denied to the most degraded
+malefactor? The enclosed letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of
+one from Alston to Blannerhasset, came to hand yesterday. I enclose
+them, because it is proper all these papers should be in one deposite,
+and because you should know the case and all its bearings, that you may
+understand whatever turns up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the
+letter-writer is sound, may be doubted. For however these, and other
+circumstances which have come to us, may induce us to believe that the
+bouncing letter he published, and the insolent one he wrote to me, were
+intended as blinds, yet they are not sufficient for legal conviction.
+Blannerhasset and his wife could possibly tell us enough. I commiserate
+the sufferings you have to go through in such a season, and salute you
+with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXI.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 4, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been ------
+that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from
+ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place.
+It is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single
+witness be paid or permitted to depart, until his testimony has been
+committed to writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by
+yourself in the presence of any of Burr�s counsel, who may choose to
+attend to cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before
+Congress, that they may decide, whether the defect has been in the
+evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of the law, and
+that they may provide the proper remedy for the past and the future. I
+must pray you also to have an authentic copy of the record made out
+(without saying for what) and to send it to me: if the Judge�s opinions
+make not a part of it, then I must ask a copy of them, either under his
+hand, if he delivers one signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
+
+This criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
+disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the
+pivot on which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign
+governments may wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted
+of the misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some
+short confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short.
+Be assured yourself, and communicate the same assurances to your
+colleagues, that your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed
+in this affair to my entire satisfaction and your own honor.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXII.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now
+re-enclose you the subpoena. As I do not believe that the district
+courts have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon
+superior duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am
+unwilling, by any notice of the subpoena, to set a precedent which
+might sanction a proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a
+letter, public and for the court, covering substantially all they ought
+to desire. If the papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson�s letter may,
+in your judgment, be communicated without injury, you will be pleased to
+communicate them. I return you the original letter.
+
+I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison�s counsel on this
+occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of
+opinion, that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should
+proceed at Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the
+head of the Judge: if successful, it will give time to see whether a
+prosecution for treason against him can be instituted in any, and
+what other court. But, we incline to think, it may be best to send
+Blannerhasset and Smith (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the
+treason and misdemeanor. The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well
+go on at Richmond.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIII.--TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+
+
+TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR,
+
+Washington, January 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 18th, and am thankful to you
+for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to
+refuse what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider
+the government of the United States as interdicted by the constitution
+from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
+discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that
+no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of
+religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers
+not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any
+religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has
+been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the
+States, as far as it can be in any human authority. But it is only
+proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and
+prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an
+authority over religious exercises, which the constitution has directly
+precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is
+to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those
+who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some
+degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does the change
+in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less a law of
+conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for
+the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct
+its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious
+societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power
+of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and
+prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline.
+Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times
+for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their
+own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their
+own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
+
+I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I
+have ever believed, that the example of State executives led to the
+assumption of that authority by the General Government, without due
+examination, which would have discovered that what might be a right in a
+State government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another.
+Be this as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his
+own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given
+to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the
+religious exercises of his constituents.
+
+I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give
+me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which
+I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a
+public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, February 18, 1808.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as to bring
+for me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage, and you
+wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the
+favor of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them
+to Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must intreat you
+to send me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be
+enabled to reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between
+us, against which this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my
+recollection or knowledge, there were any thing, I pray that that may
+be left to be settled by itself. If I could have known the amount
+beforehand, I should have remitted it, and asked the advance only
+under the idea that it should be the same as ready money to you on your
+arrival. I must again, therefore, beseech you to let me know its amount.
+
+I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and
+another, who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I
+sincerely pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you;
+with me I confidently trust they will not. For independently of the
+dictates of public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere
+friendship for you both will insure its sacred observance. I suffer no
+one to converse with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend
+Clinton estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him,
+as they will be to the other two candidates, under forms, which, however
+false he can scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to
+him also, never to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest
+is a fair and honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no
+doubt the personal conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no
+ground of dissatisfaction with each other. But your friends will not be
+as delicate. I know too well from experience the progress of political
+controversy, and the exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates,
+not to fear for the continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing
+thing said, draws on another, that a third, and always with increasing
+acrimony, until all restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult
+for yourselves to keep clear of the toils in which your friends will
+endeavor to interlace you, and to avoid the participation in their
+passions which they will endeavor to produce. A candid recollection of
+what you know of each other will be the true corrective. With respect
+to myself, I hope they will spare me. My longings for retirement are
+so strong, that I with difficulty encounter the daily drudgeries of my
+duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not stronger than that of
+carrying into it the affections of all my friends. I have ever viewed
+Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of my happiness.
+Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among the greatest
+calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I have great
+confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will guard
+me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
+weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
+
+Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
+assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
+have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had
+never entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds,
+because explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1.
+You consider the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been
+in some way injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself,
+I might say in its justification, that it has been the regular and
+habitual practice of the United States to do this, under every form
+in which their government has existed. I need not recapitulate the
+multiplied instances, because you will readily recollect them. I went as
+an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, yourself as an adjunct first
+to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr. Pinckney, and I really believe
+there has scarcely been a great occasion which has not produced an
+extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is well known, that I was
+strongly opposed to it in the case of which you complain. A committee of
+the Senate called on me with two resolutions of that body on the subject
+of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain, and requesting that
+I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the resolutions, the
+committee entered into free conversation, and observed, that although
+the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary mission,
+yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them on the
+measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave them
+so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
+end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set
+upon me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as
+myself, and represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain
+redress would throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the
+opinion of nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary,
+at length, to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national
+council, and it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from
+any want of confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an
+extraordinary mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating
+the degree of importance which this country attached to the rights which
+we considered as infracted.
+
+2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
+was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment�s credit
+to the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public
+papers, or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word
+of which I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of
+the views to mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my
+confidence was firm, that neither yourself nor the British government,
+equally outraged by them, would believe me capable of making the editors
+of newspapers the confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact
+was this. The treaty was communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day
+Congress was to rise. Two of the Senators inquired of me in the evening,
+whether it was my purpose to detain them on account of the treaty. My
+answer was, �that it was not: that the treaty containing no provision
+against the impressment of our seamen, and being accompanied by a
+kind of protestation of the British ministers, which would leave that
+government free to consider it as a treaty or no treaty, according
+to their own convenience, I should not give them the trouble of
+deliberating on it.� This was substantially, and almost verbally, what
+I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never failed when the occasion
+would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing
+my conviction, that it was all that could be obtained from the British
+government; that you had told their commissioners that your government
+could not be pledged to ratify, because it was contrary to their
+instructions; of course, that it should be considered but as a projet;
+and in this light I stated it publicly in my message to Congress on the
+opening of the session. Not a single article of the treaty was ever made
+known beyond the members of the administration, nor would an article of
+it be known at this day, but for its publication in the newspapers,
+as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as we have always
+understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as the most sacred
+of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your reputation and
+favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to justify your
+failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably unattainable.
+Reviewing, therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you will become
+sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground. I cannot,
+indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you; and
+that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find,
+my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us,
+that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If
+you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs
+of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren
+and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without
+ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that
+the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are
+brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated
+so positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the
+narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view
+of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge
+of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any
+affirmative which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own
+ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you
+will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing
+passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not
+then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the
+ocean of slander, of falsehood, and of malice, on which our credulous
+friends are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did,
+said, or thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me
+injury as causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in
+which you are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no
+sentiment. Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the
+nation, I know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and
+as far as my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially
+supported,
+
+For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve
+in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and
+to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and
+friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor
+myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be
+in their place) those who are still buffeting the storm, uncertain
+of their fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it
+may continue with entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that
+friendship which I have ever borne you, and of which I now assure you,
+with the tender of my high respect and affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson,
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVI.--TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
+for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I
+cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to
+express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
+approbation of my fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
+am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them: and
+never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest
+of my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with
+so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish
+between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to
+the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose,
+indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any
+decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must
+always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse
+principles. But I came to the government under circumstances calculated
+to generate peculiar acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession
+of a political sect, who wished to transform it ultimately into the
+shape of their darling model, the English government; and in the mean
+time, to familiarize the public mind to the change, by administering it
+on English principles, and in English forms. The elective interposition
+of the people had blown all their designs, and they found themselves and
+their fortresses of power and profit put in a moment into the hands of
+other trustees. Lamentations and invective were all that remained to
+them. This last was naturally directed against the agent selected to
+execute the multiplied reformations, which their heresies had rendered
+necessary. I became of course the butt of every thing which reason,
+ridicule, malice, and falsehood could supply. They have concentrated all
+their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded themselves, that I
+am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I hope, therefore, that
+my retirement will abate some of their disaffection to the government of
+their country, and that my successor will enter on a calmer sea than
+I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the hands of his
+friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without even the hope
+of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed, retain their
+rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated with us
+in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow-citizens, now solidly
+republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation
+of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a
+degeneracy in our government.
+
+*****
+
+I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVII.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, March 23, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand. You know
+our principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not employ
+their influence in opposing the government, but only give their own vote
+according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well with
+those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
+
+We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
+denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
+beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
+flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
+punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination
+of Mr. Rose�s mission, _re infect�_, put it in my power to communicate
+to Congress yesterday, every thing respecting our relations with England
+and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his
+worthy coadjutor Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really
+their persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The
+embargo appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter
+except yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact,
+it is the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does
+not take place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent
+to withdraw the operation of their decrees and orders from us, when
+Congress shall meet in December, they will have to consider at what
+point of time the embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I
+am inclined to believe, we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare
+for the defence of our sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the
+works of defence will be completed, which have been provided for by the
+legislature. I think Congress will rise within three weeks. I salute you
+with great affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVIII.--TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808
+
+TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
+
+Washington, March 30, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I proceed to state
+to you my views of the present state and prospect of foreign affairs,
+under the confidence that you will use them for your own government and
+opinions only, and by no means let them get out as from me. With France
+we are in no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible
+to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England,
+is postponed for this year. This is effected by the embargo, as the
+question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain time,
+perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to our
+citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would
+come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the
+embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In
+the mean time, we have good information, that a negotiation for peace
+between France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria.
+The way for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France
+(through the Moniteur, which is their government paper), that herself
+and her allies will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her
+maritime principles; nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be
+said about them in the treaty, and both sides will be left in the next
+war to act on their own. No doubt the meaning of this is, that all
+the Continental powers of Europe will form themselves into an armed
+neutrality, to enforce their own principles. Should peace be made, we
+shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and prosperity. If we have
+any thing to fear, it will be after that. Nothing should be spared from
+this moment in putting our militia into the best condition possible,
+and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer, we shall get our whole
+sea-ports put into that state of defence, which Congress has thought
+proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say, put
+_hors d�insulte_ from a maritime attack, by a moderate squadron. If
+armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be provided,
+but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven regiments only
+for the present year, depending always on our militia for the operations
+of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be obliged always
+to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn in about three
+weeks. I hope Captain McComb is going on well with your defensive works.
+We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient number of
+gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessels which can cross the
+bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
+complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
+shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
+ten good seamen. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIX.--TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LEIB.
+
+Washington, June 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the
+Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the
+favorable sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will
+so much sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the
+knowledge that I carry with me the good will and approbation of my
+republican fellow-citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison
+with whom I have so long acted. With respect to the federalists, I
+believe we think alike; for when speaking of them, we never mean to
+include a worthy portion of our fellow-citizens, who consider themselves
+as in duty bound to support the constituted authorities of every branch,
+and to reserve their opposition to the period of election. These having
+acquired the appellation of federalists, while a federal administration
+was in place, have not cared about throwing off their name, but,
+adhering to their principle, are the supporters of the present order
+of things. The other branch of the federalists, those who are so in
+principle as well as in name, disapprove of the republican principles
+and features of our constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any
+public calamity (war with England excepted) which might lessen the
+confidence of our country in those principles and forms. I have
+generally considered them rather as subjects for a madhouse. But they
+are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without perhaps
+being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince England,
+that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and that, if they will
+but hold out a while, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come
+when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders
+of council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not
+distant, when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the
+embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be
+taken under these orders, without making reprisal. Yet this is the very
+state of things which these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring
+about; and in this it is but too possible they may succeed. But the
+fact is, that if we have war with England, it will be solely produced by
+their manoeuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what
+will be the issue. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXX.--TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808
+
+
+TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, October 15, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of September the 22nd waited here for my return, and it is
+not till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation
+of his principles, given you by the French Emperor, in conversation,
+is correct as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with
+England, knowing we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay
+to England the tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders
+of council, would be to aid her in the war against him, and would give
+him just ground to declare war with us. He concludes, therefore,
+as every rational man must, that the embargo, the only remaining
+alternative, was a wise measure. These are acknowledged principles, and
+should circumstances arise, which may offer advantage to our country in
+making them public, we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not
+usual nor agreeable to governments to bring their conversations before
+the public, I think it would be well to consider this on your part as
+confidential, leaving to the government to retain or make it public,
+as the general good may require. Had the Emperor gone further, and said
+that he condemned our vessels going voluntarily into his ports in breach
+of his municipal laws, we might have admitted it rigorously legal,
+though not friendly. But his condemnation of vessels taken on the high
+seas by his privateers, and carried involuntarily into his ports, is
+justifiable by no law, is piracy, and this is the wrong we complain of
+against him.
+
+Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
+dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
+friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston.
+
+I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXI.--TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
+
+Washington, October 27, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You will wonder that your letter of June the 3rd should not be
+acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the
+12th, and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business
+I found here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever
+participated in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one
+moment believed. I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise
+against Mexico was of a very different character, I had supposed what I
+heard on that subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for
+me, and I for ever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend
+my belief of innocence to a very different description of men in New
+Orleans; but I think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a
+set of foreign adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur
+in any enterprise to separate that country from this. I did wish to
+see these people get what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law
+itself, that _inter arma silent leges_, that in an encampment expecting
+daily attack from a powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to
+all law, I expected that instead of invoking the forms of the law to
+cover traitors, all good citizens would have concurred in securing them.
+Should we have ever gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by
+manacles of the law, not only in the beginning, but in any part of the
+revolutionary conflict? There are extreme cases where the laws become
+inadequate even to their own preservation, and where the universal
+resource is a dictator, or martial law. Was New Orleans in that
+situation? Although we knew here that the force destined against it was
+suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this unknown at New Orleans at
+the time that Burr�s accomplices were calling in the aid of the law to
+enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that it was reasonable,
+according to the state of information there, to act on the expectation
+of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
+
+Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
+offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
+rebellion as big as an handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
+this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
+it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
+periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment�s fear. My
+long and intimate knowledge of my countrymen satisfied and satisfies me,
+that, let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law,
+and the world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array
+themselves in opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have
+indeed thought it a duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful,
+that of a Bonaparte, for instance, by the only means competent, that of
+a classification of the militia, and placing the junior classes at the
+public disposal: but the lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all
+apprehensions from my mind. If, in a peninsula, the neck of which is
+adjacent to him, and at his command, where he can march any army without
+the possibility of interception or obstruction from any foreign power,
+he finds it necessary to begin with an army of three hundred thousand
+men, to subdue a nation of five millions, brutalized by ignorance, and
+enervated by long peace, and should find constant reinforcements of
+thousands after thousands necessary to effect at last a conquest as
+doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be necessary against eight
+millions of free Americans, spread over such an extent of country
+as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of food, autumnal
+diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how reinforced, across an
+ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a bitter enemy, whose
+peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than momentary? And for
+what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese Creoles would but
+contemplate these truths, they would cling to the American Union, soul
+and body, as their first affection, and we should be as safe there as
+we are every where else. I have no doubt of their attachment to us in
+preference of the English.
+
+I salute you with sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXII.--TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808
+
+
+TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, November 13, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision.
+Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in
+smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away
+what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to
+bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State
+encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are
+made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I
+presume there can be no want in Massachusetts, as yet, as I am informed
+that Governor Sullivan�s permits are openly bought and sold here and
+in Alexandria, and at other markets. The Congressional campaign is just
+opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2.
+War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will
+not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
+first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
+most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
+the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
+general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their
+edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores
+peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On
+this occasion, I think it fair to leave to those who are to act on them,
+the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should
+not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute
+them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been
+pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
+impracticable. I salute you with sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIII.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24, 1808
+
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, November 24, 1808.
+
+My Dear Jefferson,
+
+Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but
+give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you,
+by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
+recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers
+which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers,
+without a friend or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so
+little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your
+safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is
+wrong, prudence, and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the
+estimation of the world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age,
+the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely,
+without a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and
+recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from
+time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and
+become as worthless to society as they were. I had the good fortune to
+become acquainted very early with some characters of very high standing,
+and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become what they were.
+Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr.
+Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course
+in it will insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode
+of deciding on my conduct, tended more to its correctness than any
+reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they
+pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two courses would
+be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through
+a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I
+should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I
+was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players,
+fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and
+many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the
+death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question
+eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation,
+well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a
+horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an orator? or the honest advocate of my
+country�s rights? Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that these little
+returns into ourselves, this self-catechizing habit, is not trifling,
+nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of
+what is right.
+
+I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
+tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
+imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes
+an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial
+good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering
+habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the
+practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little
+conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of
+nothing worth a moment�s consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and
+flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and
+make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for
+the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said
+by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects
+him in the most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good
+nature, in the eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for
+our government in society I must not omit the important one of never
+entering into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an
+instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I
+have seen many, of their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one
+another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning,
+either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what
+we hear from others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was
+one of the rules, which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most
+amiable of men in society, �never to contradict any body.� If he was
+urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as
+if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express
+an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his
+opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no
+injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of
+argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is
+gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the
+gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I will
+give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, and
+shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him, and say nothing.
+It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two classes
+of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of
+young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view
+of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications
+which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other
+consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up
+a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce
+into mixed society a question on which they foresee there will be a
+difference of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my
+dear Jefferson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of
+yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among
+the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be
+a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with
+yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered
+state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set
+one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They
+are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on
+which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry
+bull: it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an
+animal. You will be more exposed than others to have these animals
+shaking their horns at you, because of the relation in which you stand
+with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me and to hate me
+as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be to them what
+the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation.
+Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom
+you can administer only occasional ease. My character is not within
+their power. It is in the hands of my fellow-citizens at large, and will
+be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican mass of
+our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what
+their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these
+puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show,
+that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of
+public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you
+to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself
+to, avoid taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons
+generally; for it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and
+you will find your path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper
+warn me that it is time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing the same to
+Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
+mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIV.--TO DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
+
+Washington, January 14, 1809.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
+December the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens
+of Boston, of the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient
+character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord
+with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully
+through the revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national
+government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for
+its protection the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these
+united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe,
+seems likely to be pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce
+with nearly the whole world. They have declared it shall be carried on
+with such places, in such articles, and in such measure only, as they
+shall dictate; thus prostrating all the principles of right, which
+have hitherto protected it. After exhausting the cup of forbearance
+and conciliation to its dregs, we found it necessary, on behalf of that
+commerce, to take time to call it home into a state of safety, to put
+the towns and harbors which carry it on into a condition of defence, and
+to make further preparation for enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and
+restoring it to its rightful freedom. This required a certain measure of
+time, which, although not admitting specific limitation, must, from its
+avowed objects, have been obvious to all: and the progress actually made
+towards the accomplishment of these objects, proves it now to be near
+its term.
+
+While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
+commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary
+and necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended
+for its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so
+kind as to enclose me, show that those who have concurred in them, have
+judged with more candor the intentions of their government, and
+are sufficiently aware of the tendency of the excitements and
+misrepresentations which have been practised on this occasion. And such,
+I am persuaded, will be the disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts
+at large, whenever truth can reach them. Associated with her sister
+States in a common government, the fundamental principle of which is,
+that the will of the majority is to prevail, sensible, that in the
+present difficulty, that will has been governed by no local interests
+or jealousies, that to save permanent rights, temporary sacrifices
+were necessary, that these have fallen as impartially on all, as in a
+situation so peculiar they could be made to do, she will see, in the
+existing measures, a legitimate and honest exercise of the will and
+wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful to themselves and
+their associates, will not, to avoid a transient pressure, yield to the
+seductions of enemies to their independence, foreign or domestic, and
+take a course equally subversive of their well-being, as of that of
+their brethren.
+
+The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
+Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
+consoling to its members: and, encouraged by the declaration of the
+continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
+they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according
+to the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to
+the good of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of
+tendering you personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, January 28, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer has been
+delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation of your
+absence from Richmond.
+
+The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
+entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the
+former, and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect
+as an extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all
+minds revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives
+a few days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another,
+but rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very
+generally in conversation by all others: and I am satisfied such a
+proposition would get no vote in the Senate. The course the legislature
+means to pursue, may be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting
+in May, and a proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June,
+and then resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation.
+There will be considerable opposition to this last proposition, not
+only from the federalists, old and new, who oppose every thing, but from
+sound members of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good
+majority, and that it is the only proposition which can be devised
+that could obtain a majority of any kind. Final propositions, will,
+therefore, be soon despatched to both the belligerents through the
+resident ministers, so that their answers will be received before the
+meeting in May, and will decide what is to be done. This last trial for
+peace is not thought desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should
+be successful in Spain, however every virtuous and liberal sentiment
+revolts at it, it may induce both powers to be more accommodating
+with us. England will see here the only asylum for her commerce
+and manufactures, worth more to her than her orders of council. And
+Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look immediately to the
+Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply purchased by a repeal
+of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps the Floridas thrown
+into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of affairs in Europe
+produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and prosperity may
+be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take the tented
+field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
+
+There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
+endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is
+probable there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear
+we may renounce for ever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt.
+If we can keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from
+debt, will be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our
+position and increasing strength will put us _hors d�insulte_ from any
+nation. I am now so near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in
+affairs beyond the expression of an opinion. I think it fair, that
+my successor should now originate those measures of which he will be
+charged with the execution and responsibility, and that it is my duty to
+clothe them with the forms of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me
+from a drudgery to which I am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene
+of tranquillity, amidst my family and friends, more congenial to my
+age and natural inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a
+pleasure to me to see you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVI.--TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809
+
+
+TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, February 7, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing
+their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable
+revolution of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New
+England and New York members, and in a kind of panic, they voted the 4th
+of March for removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave
+all reason to believe, they would not agree either to war or
+non-intercourse. This, too, was after we had become satisfied, that
+the Essex Junto had found their expectation desperate, of inducing the
+people there to either separation or forcible opposition. The majority
+of Congress, however, has now rallied to the removing the embargo on the
+4th of March, non-intercourse with France and Great Britain, trade every
+where else, and continuing war preparations. The further details are not
+yet settled, but I believe it is perfectly certain that the embargo
+will be taken off the 4th of March. Present my warmest affections to my
+dearest Martha, and the young ones, and accept the assurances of them to
+yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVII.--TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLLINS.
+
+Washington, February 19, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one as I ever entered into,
+and where an improper construction was never less expected, is making
+some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain it to you,
+because I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the Agricultural
+Society of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough presented
+to them, which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal work
+with half the force of their best ploughs, they thought it would be a
+benefit to mankind to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me,
+with a view to its being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke
+of Bedford also, who is one of their members, to be made use of for
+England, although the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now
+going to France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware
+and New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which
+they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a
+very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool, and flax equally. The
+last spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the cotton of
+the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished to try also
+that of our southern States. I immediately got a friend to have two
+tierces of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to Messrs. Falls
+and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it being given me, I immediately
+wrote to them to re-ship them to New York, to be sent by the Mentor.
+Their first object was to make a show of my letter, as something very
+criminal, and to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like
+request, some time ago (but before the embargo), from the President of
+the Board of Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send
+them some of the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or
+three barrels of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the
+same Society the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had
+carried over from France to England, and I have since received from a
+member of it the seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known
+here. I mention these things, to show the nature of the correspondence
+which is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent
+purpose of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is
+discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace,
+however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters,
+they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and their
+correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. Vaccination
+has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal diffusion of a
+blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it is mortifying, to be
+obliged to note these things, which are known to every one who knows any
+thing, and felt with approbation by every one who has any feeling. But
+we have a faction to whose hostile passions the torture even of right
+into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their malice I have long
+learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise. But I observe,
+that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are receiving
+liberally from others) that this small return should be made. They will
+think more justly at another day: but, in the mean time, I wish to avoid
+offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so good,
+under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed from
+Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &c. which
+I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed, when
+received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted with
+a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
+I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
+should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
+it, I know nothing.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVIII.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
+May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
+and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are
+read with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.
+
+After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being
+entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The
+edicts of the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean,
+we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships,
+and property, to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state
+of defence. We have now taken off the embargo, except as to France
+and England and their territories, because fifty millions of exports
+annually sacrificed, are the treble of what war would cost us; besides,
+that by war we should take something, and lose less than at present. But
+to give you a true description of the state of things here, I must
+refer you to Mr. Coles, the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy,
+intelligent, and well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your
+notice, and conversation on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity
+may be relied on. I expect he will find you with Spain at your feet,
+but England still afloat, and a barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all
+these concerns I am now leaving to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison.
+Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having
+gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting
+the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner,
+released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off
+the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of
+science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the
+times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting
+them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political
+passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without
+censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public
+approbation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so able to take
+care of them, that if we are destined to meet misfortunes, it will
+be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the
+United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit
+of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and delight; hailing
+you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations, and assurances
+of constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred
+shepherd�s dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now
+beginning to pay great attention to the raising sheep.
+
+T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIX.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my departure from
+Washington, I found from their signatures that they were from literary
+characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset
+that it was private, and that his public communications were in the
+letter to the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however, on
+reading his letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a passage
+of some length, proper to be communicated to you, and which I have
+therefore extracted.
+
+I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
+although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better
+to be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable
+a snow storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the
+expedition but fatigue, I have more confidence in my _vis vit�_ than I
+had before entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats
+sown, not much tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has
+suffered considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple,
+weeping-willow, and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at
+Richmond, and all produce is hurrying down.
+
+I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
+months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have
+a smooth administration. I know no government which would be so
+embarrassing in war as ours. This would proceed very much from the
+lying and licentious character of our papers; but much, also, from the
+wonderful credulity of the members of Congress in the floating lies of
+the day. And in this no experience seems to correct them. I have never
+seen a Congress during the last eight years, a great majority of which
+I would not implicitly have relied on in any question, could their minds
+have been purged of all errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly
+with the protraction of the session, and I apprehend, in case of war,
+their session would have a tendency to become permanent. It is much,
+therefore, to be desired that war may be avoided, if circumstances will
+admit. Nor in the present maniac state of Europe, should I estimate
+the point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we shall, on the
+contrary, have credit with the world, for having made the avoidance
+of being engaged in the present unexampled war, our first object. War,
+however, may become a less losing business than unresisted depredation.
+With every wish that events may be propitious to your administration, I
+salute you with sincere affection and every sympathy of the heart.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXX.--TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809
+
+
+TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA,
+
+Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society
+of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
+receive, fellow-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure,
+the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties
+which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to
+them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office, have
+drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of
+private life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with
+you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which
+nature has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I
+gladly lay down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my
+fellow-citizens, repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors,
+and perplexities of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express
+to administer to my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness;
+and the measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in
+the several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained
+for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life, has been before them; and to their sentence I
+submit it: but the testimony of my native county, of the individuals who
+have known me in private life, to my conduct in its various duties and
+relations, is the more grateful, as proceeding from eye-witnesses and
+observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I
+may ask, in the face of the world, �Whose ox have I taken, or whom have
+I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received
+a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?� On your verdict I rest with
+conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness are received with
+just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+April 3, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXI.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, June 13, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you
+had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed in the debates of
+Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations
+more fully in conversation, which I will now do by abridgment in
+writing. Mr. Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain prosecutions
+at common law in Connecticut, for libels on the government, and not only
+himself, but others have stated them with such affected caution, and
+such hints at the same time, as to leave on every mind the impression
+that they had been instituted either by my direction, or with my
+acquiescence, at least. This has not been denied by my friends, because
+probably the fact is unknown to them. I shall state it for their
+satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed of as they think best.
+
+I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the
+time exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
+obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
+time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
+prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies
+uttered from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote
+to Mr. Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating
+that I had laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the
+thousand calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my
+own conduct, and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that
+I had found no reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I
+was unwilling it should be broke through by others as to any matter
+concerning me; and I therefore requested him to desire the district
+attorney to dismiss the prosecution. Some time after this, 1 heard of
+subpoenas being served on General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as
+witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first time, conjectured
+the subject of the libel. I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to
+require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The answer of Mr.
+Huntington, the district attorney, was, that these subpoenas had been
+issued by the defendant without his knowledge, that it had been his
+intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first meeting of the
+court, and to accompany it with an avowal of his opinion, that they
+could not be maintained, because the federal court had no jurisdiction
+over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till then know that
+there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now know what
+were their subjects. But all went off together; and I afterwards saw, in
+the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the clergyman, disavowing
+any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never
+uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either showed me, or said
+there were affidavits of at least half a dozen respectable men who were
+present at the sermon, and swore no such expressions were uttered, and
+as many equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the clergyman
+expressed his gratification at the dismission of the prosecution. I
+write all this from memory, and after too long an interval of time to be
+certain of the exactness of all the details; but I am sure there is no
+variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small lapses of
+memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that the
+prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
+without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
+and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground
+on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and
+others; to wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null,
+and that my obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not
+suffering rights secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no
+law. I always understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if
+not instituted, by Judge Edwards, and the marshal, being republican,
+had summoned a grand jury partly or wholly republican: but that Mr.
+Huntington declared from the beginning against the jurisdiction of the
+court, and had determined to enter _nolle-prosequis_ before he received
+my directions.
+
+I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
+goes to those to me only, not those from me. The bill had got to its
+passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana),
+and the house under too much pressure of business near the close of the
+session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was given
+to the letters from as well as to both my predecessors, I suppose
+no reason exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive a
+correspondence as I am subject to, and still considerably on public
+matters, it would be a sensible convenience to myself, as well as those
+who have occasion to receive letters from me. It happens, too, as I was
+told at the time (for I have never looked into it myself), that it was
+done by two distinct acts on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I
+think, mentioned this to me. I know from the Post Master General, that
+Mr. Adams franks all his letters. I state this matter to you as being my
+representative, which must apologize for the trouble of it. We have been
+seasonable since you left us. Yesterday evening and this morning we have
+had refreshing showers, which will close and confirm the business of
+planting. Affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, August 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen, on whatsoever measures
+you should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am
+satisfied that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has
+been sanctioned by universal approbation; and although it was not
+literally the case foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper
+extension of their provision to a case similar, though not the same.
+It proved to the whole world our desire of accommodation, and must have
+satisfied every candid federalist on that head. It was not only proper
+on the well-grounded confidence that the arrangement would be honestly
+executed, but ought to have taken place even had the perfidy of England
+been foreseen. Their dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our
+placing them so shamefully in the wrong, and by the union it must
+produce among ourselves. The last proclamation admits of quibbles, of
+which advantage will doubtless be endeavored to be taken, by those to
+whom gain is their god, and their country nothing. But it is soundly
+defensible. The British minister assured us, that the orders of council
+would be revoked before the 10th of June. The executive, trusting in
+that assurance, declared by proclamation that the revocation was to take
+place, and that on that event the law was to be suspended. But the event
+did not take place, and the consequence, of course, could not follow.
+This view is derived from the former non-intercourse law only, having
+never read the latter one. I had doubted whether Congress must not be
+called; but that arose from another doubt, whether their second law had
+not changed the ground, so as to require their agency to give operation
+to the law. Should Bonaparte have the wisdom to correct his injustice
+towards us, I consider war with England as inevitable. Our ships will
+go to France and its dependencies, and they will take them. This will
+be war on their part, and leaves no alternative but reprisal. I have no
+doubt you will think it safe to act on this hypothesis, and with energy.
+The moment that open war shall be apprehended from them, we should take
+possession of Baton Rouge. If we do not, they will, and New Orleans
+becomes irrecoverable, and the western country blockaded during the war.
+It would be justifiable towards Spain on this ground, and equally so on
+that of title to West Florida, and reprisal extended to East Florida.
+Whatever turn our present difficulty may take, I look upon all cordial
+conciliation with England as desperate during the life of the present
+King. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify himself. My
+confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in the ------
+of Canning. I consider the present as the most shameless ministry which
+ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will immortalize their infamy. In
+general their administrations are so changeable, and they are obliged
+to descend to such tricks to keep themselves in place, that nothing like
+honor or morality can ever be counted on in transactions with them. I
+salute you with all possible affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIII.--TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BARTON.
+
+Monticello, September 21, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with all
+possible pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole of the
+Indian vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable misfortune
+has deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing myself of
+every possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same
+set of words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur
+again to any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty,
+and had digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have
+printed them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet
+digested Captain Lewis�s collection, nor having leisure then to do it,
+I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as
+originals, were packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water
+with about thirty other packages of my effects, from Washington, and
+while ascending James river, this package, on account of its weight and
+presumed precious contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being
+disappointed on opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of
+which he thought he could make no use. Among these were the whole of the
+vocabularies. Some leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud;
+but these were very few, and so defaced by the mud and water, that no
+general use can ever be made of them. On the receipt of your letter I
+turned to them, and was very happy to find, that the only morsel of
+an original vocabulary among them, was Captain Lewis�s of the Pani
+language, of which you say you have not one word. I therefore enclose it
+to you as it is, and a little fragment of some other, which I see is in
+his hand-writing, but no indication remains on it of what language it
+is. It is a specimen of the condition of the little which was recovered.
+I am the more concerned at this accident, as of the two hundred and
+fifty words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty words of
+the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the other quarters of
+the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and would have furnished
+materials for a comparison, from which something might have resulted.
+Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the wrecks of my
+loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary when you are done
+with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect, although I am
+too old to expect to make much progress in it.
+
+I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the
+astronomy of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or
+modern and rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most
+interesting countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
+
+I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
+perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
+and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
+that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a
+greater adept in the language than I am.
+
+Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIV.--TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809
+
+
+TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
+
+Monticello, October 4, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding month, and
+have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I have read it with
+pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would probably be as free
+as is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has one feature
+which I like much; that which provides that when the three co-ordinate
+branches differ in their construction of the constitution, the opinion
+of two branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not
+sufficiently solved this difficulty.
+
+Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
+official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal
+worth marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish
+to select for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the
+present occasion, of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with
+your merit and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a
+particular respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a
+great comfort to have to do business with frank and honorable minds.
+And here give me leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present
+retirement, there can be no motive but a regard for truth.
+Your predecessor, soured on a question of etiquette against the
+administration of this country, wished to impute wrong to them in all
+their actions, even where he did not believe it himself. In this spirit,
+he wished it to be believed that we were in unjustifiable co-operation
+in Miranda�s expedition. I solemnly, and on my personal truth and honor,
+declare to you, that this was entirely without foundation, and that
+there was neither co-operation nor connivance on our part. He informed
+us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native country from
+bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance at least. He was
+at once informed, that, although we had great cause of complaint against
+Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think proper to act as
+her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that our hostility
+should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no suspicion that
+he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase military stores.
+Against this there was no law, nor consequently any authority for us to
+interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it improper to
+betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain. Although his
+measures were many days in preparation at New York, we never had the
+least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his enterprise,
+until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his proceedings kept
+them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at Philadelphia, and
+the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of them gave us any
+information of the enlistment of men, until it was too late for any
+measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure. The officer
+in the Customs, who participated in this transaction with Miranda,
+we immediately removed, and should have had him and others further
+punished, had it not been for the protection given them by private
+citizens at New York, in opposition to the government, who, by their
+impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able to overbear the minds of
+the jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could induce me, at this
+time, to make this declaration so gratuitously, were it not founded in
+sacred truth: and I will add further, that I never did, or countenanced,
+in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith;
+having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and
+another for a private man.
+
+I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
+breathe through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
+sincere with which I now salute you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, October 11, 1809.
+
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the
+enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of
+whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me
+to place it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right,
+neither more nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three
+lines, in such form as I may forward him by way of answer.
+
+I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions
+which has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
+arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It
+would be, indeed, a great public calamity, were it to fix you in the
+purpose which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of
+our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment
+of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we
+shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it
+in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt
+should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge
+will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of
+debt, corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge
+of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and
+it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another
+President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects
+subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
+great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix
+on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our
+country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary
+considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never
+can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated
+by our fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to
+admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was,
+that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress
+than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel
+your aid to be still as important for the future, as it has been for the
+past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of
+Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the
+most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope,
+then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that
+you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political
+career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement,
+as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In
+addition to the common interest in this question, I feel particularly
+for myself the considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you
+for your valuable aid during my administration of the public affairs,
+a just sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was
+earned by your labors, and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship
+and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to promote the
+common good; and of which I pray you now to accept the most cordial and
+respectful assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVI.--TO C�SAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810
+
+
+TO C�SAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, February 10, 1810.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
+received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that
+the portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a
+share in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has
+never before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice
+we have observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit
+their esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise,
+would have preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence
+of all other nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which
+is now blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the
+mounds of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any
+other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a
+moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection
+which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his
+interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men,
+have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if
+it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that others could be
+honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when is this state
+of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the
+first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and
+might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order
+and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
+stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are
+ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the
+tyrant of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become
+the principle of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest
+minister, were accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their
+system of lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with
+you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity you.
+
+It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
+kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
+to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain
+their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
+functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go straight
+forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can
+lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or
+passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock
+of our safety. In times of peace the people look most to their
+representatives; but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that
+their confidence is even now veering in that direction; that they are
+looking to the executive to give the proper direction to their affairs,
+with a confidence as auspicious as it is well founded.
+
+I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
+all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
+faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for
+the valuable aids I received from you. Though separated from my
+fellow-laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all,
+and I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVII.*--TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
+
+Monticello, February 19,1810.
+
+     [* This letter is endorsed, �not sent.�]
+
+Sir,
+
+Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet
+enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
+and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time
+elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
+before his principles were departed from by those who professed to
+be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving
+mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that
+the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been
+adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere
+contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men
+not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force
+them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while
+themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real
+doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.
+
+You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices
+which the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
+administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends
+are men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
+principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
+neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of
+their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions
+are no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
+administration conducted the government on principles professed by the
+Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians,
+as to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with
+their professions. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them,
+and in this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle
+in this, to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the
+professions of religious sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is
+a very obvious one. The mother society is in England. Its members are
+English by birth and residence, devoted to their own country, as good
+citizens ought to be. The Quakers of these States are colonies or
+filiations from the mother society, to whom that society sends its
+yearly lessons. On these the filiated societies model their opinions,
+their conduct, their passions, and attachments. A Quaker is, essentially
+an Englishman, in whatever part of the earth he is born or lives. The
+outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce have kept us in
+perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against
+their own government; not on their profession of peace, for they saw
+that peace was our object also; but from devotion to the views of the
+mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an administration sought war with
+France, the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of
+peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to
+the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original became
+treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old
+leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress,
+against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of
+Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration. He
+accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must
+not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more effect on the
+society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled among
+us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. I know
+individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
+
+I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
+in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVIII.--TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+
+
+TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
+
+Monticello, February 26, 1810.
+
+My Dear General and Friend,
+
+I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and
+avoiding every thing political, lest coming from one in the station I
+then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps
+even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry.
+Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and
+avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended, what I say is
+from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.
+
+The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
+justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
+devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
+worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
+and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which
+might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not
+been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment
+that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent,
+every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may
+venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree,
+prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the
+necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them
+among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than
+will ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly
+added, of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from
+Europe; heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of
+field-pieces, several founderies casting one every other day each; a
+military school of about fifty students, which has been in operation a
+dozen years; and the manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding
+forty thousand young soldiers to our force every year that the war is
+deferred: at all our sea-port towns of the least consequence we have
+erected works of defence, and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or
+two heavy pieces, either eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders,
+sufficient in the smallest harbors to repel the predatory attacks of
+privateers or single armed ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors
+to such more serious attacks as they may probably be exposed to. All
+these were nearly completed, and their gunboats in readiness, when
+I retired from the government. The works of New York and New Orleans
+alone, being on a much larger scale, are not yet completed. The former
+will be finished this summer, mounting four hundred and thirty-eight
+guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one hundred gunboats, will
+be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which will ever be trusted
+across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are less advanced. These
+are our preparations. They are very different from what you will be told
+by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But it is not to them
+the government communicates the public condition. Ask one of them if
+he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you will find
+probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes from. You
+will ask, perhaps, where are the proofs of these preparations for
+one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
+authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
+authorized, they would be executed.
+
+Two measures have not been adopted which I pressed on Congress
+repeatedly at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted
+territory of Orleans, by donations of land to able bodied young men, to
+be engaged and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute
+a force always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was,
+to class the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all
+those from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into
+service at a moment�s warning. This would have given us a force of three
+hundred thousand young men, prepared, by proper training, for service in
+any part of the United States; while those who had passed through that
+period would remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent
+States. These two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary
+for the entire security of our country. They would have given me, on
+my retirement from the government of the nation, the consolatory
+reflection, that having found, when I was called to it, not a single
+sea-port town in a condition to repel a levy of contribution by a single
+privateer or pirate, I had left every harbor so prepared by works
+and gun-boats, as to be in a reasonable state of security against any
+probable attack; the territory of Orleans acquired, and planted with an
+internal force sufficient for its protection; and the whole territory of
+the United States organized by such a classification of its male force,
+as would give it the benefit of all its young population for active
+service, and that of a middle and advanced age for stationary defence.
+But these measures will, I hope, be completed by my successor, who,
+to the purest principles of republican patriotism, adds a wisdom and
+foresight second to no man on earth.
+
+So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
+Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my
+books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My
+mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am
+in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to
+dark, I give to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends;
+and from candle-light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect;
+and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course
+I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near
+sixty-seven years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and
+harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose,
+with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at
+length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without
+being responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and
+by no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such
+young men as ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring village,
+and have the use of my library and counsel, and make a part of my
+society. In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor to keep
+their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom
+and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils
+and government of their country, they will keep ever in view the sole
+objects of all legitimate government.
+
+*****
+
+Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
+independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my
+limited views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of
+mind never before known to me. Except, for this, my happiness would have
+been perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may
+enjoy as many years of life, health, and ease as yourself shall wish, is
+the sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIX.--TO DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JONES.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with
+all antient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned,
+with real sorrow, that circumstances have risen among our executive
+counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were friends.
+To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and
+therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both
+parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient: but to the
+nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to
+believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out.
+That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States: but I hope
+that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no
+cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done
+by consultation between the President and the Head of the department
+alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a
+consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled, or
+by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing. The
+latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because the
+President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an
+opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it
+is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This
+was General Washington�s practice for the first two or three years of
+his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened
+to embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In
+these discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet
+like two cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the
+majority, which of course was three to one, the President decided.
+The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no
+inconvenience. I practised this last method, because the harmony was so
+cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual
+views of the subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I
+think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any case of
+consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into a
+directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is
+better calculated, too, to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure
+it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place.
+It is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present case, and will
+doubtless be resorted to.
+
+Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But
+when viewed in comparison with those of Europe, they are the joys of
+Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed
+our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no
+other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but
+one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over
+the earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin
+over the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses.
+And the system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst this
+wreck of the world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be
+sure, our petty squabbles and heart-burnings, and we have something of
+the blue devils at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are
+eating up other nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim,
+nor the Leviathan move on dry land: and if we will keep out of their
+way, they cannot get at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves
+within the scope of their tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the
+tail, may be our fortune. Our business certainly was to be still. But
+a part of our nation chose to declare against this, in such a way as to
+control the wisdom of the government. I yielded with others, to avoid
+a greater evil. But from that moment, I have seen no system which could
+keep us entirely aloof from these agents of destruction. If there be
+any, I am certain that you, my friends, now charged with the care of us
+all, will see and pursue it. I give myself, therefore, no trouble with
+thinking or puzzling about it. Being confident in my watchmen, I sleep
+soundly. God bless you all, and send you a safe deliverance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XC.--TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810
+
+TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the
+refreshing dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient as
+well as recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty
+years we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these
+have passed away, and so I trust will those of the present day. The
+toryism with which we struggled in �77, differed but in name from the
+federalism of �99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism, of
+1808, against which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still,
+in another form. It is a longing for a King, and an English King, rather
+than any other. This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
+
+The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is
+too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
+Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
+never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear;
+and especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the
+embers, merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two
+subdued (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England
+alone a short work), ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of
+Alexander, his prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the
+world, would glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged
+forests. Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more
+than half a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria,
+you know, he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come �Pontus and
+Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,� the fine countries on the
+Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis,
+which bounded the glories of his Macedonian rival; with the invitations
+of his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after
+receiving under his protection the mother country, he cannot refuse to
+visit. When all this is done and settled, and nothing of the old world
+remains unsubdued, he may turn to the new one. But will he attack us
+first, from whom he will get but hard knocks, and no money? Or will
+he first lay hold of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, and
+the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from his affection to
+republics, independent of motives of expediency, must grant to ours the
+Cyclops� boon of being the last devoured. While all this is doing, we
+are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that nothing can
+happen to cut short or disturb his enterprises.
+
+But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence, than
+all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
+first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
+Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
+the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided
+by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now
+to destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
+alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be
+our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
+separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith
+of a nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the
+friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
+chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
+that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
+morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But,
+in addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of
+itself, reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been
+the least faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since
+the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her
+commerce and corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and
+Brunswick. To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her
+Methuin treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable
+to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits
+England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her
+King is a cipher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
+to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument
+of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the
+government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The
+nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once,
+the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this
+purpose they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs,
+so equal in weight, that a small matter turns the balance. To keep
+themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
+every artifice used, which may flatter the pride, the passions, or power
+of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of
+keeping themselves in place. The question, whether a measure is moral,
+is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
+merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other
+effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements,
+however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they
+were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse
+every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true
+character of the English government in practice, however different
+its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the
+individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
+duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
+whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In
+an absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties.
+The despot is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition,
+maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted,
+therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith;
+and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.
+
+When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did
+not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that
+throne. The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings,
+has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of
+animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a
+stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their
+sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions,
+let every thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
+think, and in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and
+this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the
+constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the
+animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
+Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe,
+I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
+reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own
+knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial.
+The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their
+lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand
+miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding
+days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The
+Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was
+the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of
+government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was
+a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph
+of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know was in a
+straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine, who
+had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
+state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
+lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind
+and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
+generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an
+exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third
+generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of
+Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us and have you, my friend, and
+all such good men and true, in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCI.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, July 16,1810
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, July 16,1810.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in
+congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles
+in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of
+these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The
+federalists, during their short-lived ascendancy, have, nevertheless,
+by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which
+can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to
+cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came
+on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days;
+long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who giving in to
+his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to
+his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress.
+They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced
+the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our
+present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the
+world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be
+made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the
+embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of
+our enemies; and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise
+and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove
+genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they,
+too, are gone: and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first
+breeze of success which England shall feel: for it has now been some
+years, that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim
+the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it,
+but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy
+as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself
+out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in
+no situation done any thing which might amount to an acknowledged
+relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid
+a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war
+itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable
+means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced
+her, had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that
+occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country, as to
+control the will of its government and three fourths of its people,
+and oblige the three fourths to submit to one fourth, is to me the most
+mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of
+our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence,
+is in her own conduct, and not from any thing in our power. Radically
+hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she
+will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture,
+not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her
+conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not
+injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing
+out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.
+
+But these are views which concern the present and future generation,
+among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in
+our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
+effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving
+her to agriculture, manufactures, and emigration, will lessen her
+happiness. But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs.
+Dearborn do? How do you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself
+with a garden, a farm, or what? That your pursuits, whatever they
+be, may make you both easy, healthy, and happy, is the prayer of your
+sincere friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCII.--TO J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810
+
+TO J. B. COLVIN.
+
+Monticello, September 20, 1810.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you
+for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it.
+If I have left in the breasts of my fellow-citizens a sentiment of
+satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it
+will soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.
+
+The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
+which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
+beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
+embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws, is
+doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the
+highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
+country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by
+a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself,
+with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with
+us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle
+of Germantown, General Washington�s army was annoyed from Chew�s
+house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although
+the property of a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the
+suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the
+safety of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of
+Virginia took horses, carriages, provisions, and even men, by force, to
+enable that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy;
+and he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions,
+meets another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of
+self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by
+force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of
+self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
+_meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state an
+hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the executive of
+the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for
+a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated
+by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might
+appropriate it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he,
+for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself by
+transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage
+offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense: but a reverence
+for law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally
+accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons
+against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph
+would find means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the
+ensuing spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind
+of the other party. Ought the executive, in that case, and with that
+foreknowledge, to have secured the good to his country, and to have
+trusted to their justice for the transgression of the law? I think he
+ought, and that the act would have been approved. After the affair of
+the Chesapeake, we thought war a very possible result. Our magazines
+were illy provided with some necessary articles, nor had any
+appropriations been made for their purchase. We ventured, however, to
+provide them, and to place our country in safety; and stating the case
+to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
+
+To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
+Wilkinson�s situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
+to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which
+he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British
+fleet from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within
+the city. Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1. In seizing
+notorious conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of
+the guilty and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men.
+2. In sending them to the seat of government, when the written law gave
+them a right to trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of
+their continuing their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of
+the law, apathy of the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of
+lawyers, unknown disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the
+enemy, salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have
+been convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these
+constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the
+_salus populi_ supreme over the written law. The officer who is called
+to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice
+of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes
+it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and
+his fellow-citizens generally, are bound to judge according to the
+circumstances under which he acted. They are not to transfer the
+information of this place or moment to the time and place of his action;
+but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that there never
+was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr�s band was
+crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson�s
+information was very different, and he could act on no other.
+
+From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
+question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
+petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for
+a legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the
+written law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of
+greater evil than a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is
+incumbent on those only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves
+on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of its very
+high interests are at stake.
+
+An officer is bound to obey orders: yet he would be a bad one who should
+do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the
+most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases
+may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his
+own peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country, and the
+rectitude of his motives.
+
+I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that
+they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the
+hands of news-writers. I met their scurrilities without concern, while
+in pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my
+present retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
+
+Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIII.--TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811
+
+TO MR. LAW.
+
+Monticello, January 15, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner
+acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet,
+which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which
+I know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22nd
+is also received.
+
+Mr. Wagner�s malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
+printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
+When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
+mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
+than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as
+to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I
+felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to
+England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of
+the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
+circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that
+if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our
+connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both
+our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them,
+and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and
+intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship
+with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington,
+I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that
+government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
+administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
+their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox�s power.
+But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally
+wanton in their injuries and insults, and has manifested equal hatred
+and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose
+principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have
+adopted the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying
+themselves with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and
+unprincipled, and which never can come into power while republicanism is
+the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such
+a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require
+centuries. Whereas, the good will of the government itself would give
+them, and immediately, every benefit which reason or justice would
+permit it to give. With respect to myself, I saw great reason to believe
+their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a
+supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. This wretched party
+imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a
+personal injury, other than in open war, and for numerous individuals
+there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I must have had a
+mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national
+partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. My
+affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all
+mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in
+the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the
+war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. The
+war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of their
+population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers
+wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a powerful
+opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the
+expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial interest,
+and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be
+neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so
+infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,
+and the well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the
+English constitution, renders a dependance on that government very
+unsafe. The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us,
+have added another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This
+obstacle to friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and
+I verily believe the successor will come in with fairer and wiser
+dispositions towards us; perhaps on that event their conduct may be
+changed. But what England is to become on the crush of her internal
+structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her monied
+interest, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless
+mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear
+with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing,
+her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by
+permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute
+on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
+relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And
+yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to
+take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element,
+would be the desire of every nation.
+
+I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
+myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
+Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
+Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
+which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person,
+should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIV.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Monticello, January 16, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a
+letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received
+your welcome favor of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the
+heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with
+your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because
+I knew that condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and
+still think, this is one of the cases wherein we should �not sorrow,
+even as others who have no hope.�
+
+*****
+
+You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. �My present course of life
+admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest,
+to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other
+concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the
+few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences;
+not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange
+sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their
+own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and
+approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of
+good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of retirement
+will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may at
+length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but
+revolutionary duties would ever have called me.
+
+I shall receive your proposed publication, and read it with the pleasure
+which every thing gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in
+the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
+
+I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
+friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern
+you take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from
+me, nor from the want of sincere desire, and of effort on my part, to
+renew our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and
+of action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high
+degree of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself.
+Certainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those
+principles of rational republicanism, which, after the necessity of
+throwing off our monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment
+of a new government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the
+principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on
+that account. While he was Vice-President, and I Secretary of State,
+I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon,
+desiring me to call together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr.
+Adams to join us (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being
+done) in order to determine on some measure which required despatch; and
+he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him.
+I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine,
+having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a
+collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton,
+on the merits of the British Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his
+opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it
+would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by
+man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices,
+it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed;
+and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable
+government. And this you may be assured was the real line of difference
+between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another
+incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate
+Hamilton�s political principles. The room being hung around with a
+collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of
+Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they were. I told
+him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever
+produced, naming them. He paused for some time: �The greatest man,�
+said he, �that ever lived, was Julius Caesar.� Mr. Adams was honest as
+a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
+politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
+govern men.
+
+You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about
+that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our
+constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to
+bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to
+homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know,
+was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often
+by the pen of the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced by them into some open
+indications of his new principles of government, and in fact, was so
+elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards
+me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly
+flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and
+the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to
+bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial
+satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the
+political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr.
+Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia
+the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide
+the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called
+on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly affected,
+and accosted me with these words. �Well, I understand that you are to
+beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will be as faithful
+a subject as any you will have.� �Mr. Adams,� said I, �this is no
+personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles on the
+subject of government divide our fellow-citizens into two parties. With
+one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on
+the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be
+more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name
+at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two
+other names would be in the place of ours, without any change in the
+motion of the machine. Its motion is from its principle, not from you
+or myself.� �I believe you are right,� said he, �that we are but passive
+instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal
+dispositions.� But he did not long retain this just view of the
+subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which
+the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
+ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
+intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
+myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
+to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
+called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
+by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence
+he had not used towards me before, �Sir, the event of the election is
+within your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to
+the public creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding
+offices, and the government will instantly be put into your hands. We
+know it is the wish of the people it should be so.� �Mr. Adams,� said I,
+�I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or private life,
+can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements.
+I say, however, I will not come into the government by capitulation. I
+will not enter on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates
+of my own judgment.� I had before given the same answer to the same
+intimation from Gouverneur Morris. �Then,� said he, �things must take
+their course.� I turned the conversation to something else, and soon
+took my leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted
+with any thing like dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of
+midnight appointment, which have been condemned by all men. The last day
+of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the midnight,
+were employed in filling all offices and especially permanent ones, with
+the bitterest federalists, and providing for me the alternative, either
+to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it would be
+to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such
+numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A little time and
+reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and
+passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first
+wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means in my power;
+for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some republican
+members of the delegation from his State, the giving him, either
+directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State,
+and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it
+affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the
+offer; and, moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such
+a step in the outset, as auguring very ill of the course I meant to
+pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for
+some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
+
+Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
+between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment,
+she made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the
+tenderest expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a
+single one of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with
+the wishes �of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your
+friend, Abigail Adams.� Unpromising as was the complexion of this
+letter, I determined to make an effort towards removing the clouds from
+between us. This brought on a correspondence which I now enclose for
+your perusal, after which be so good as to return it to me, as I have
+never communicated it to any mortal breathing, before. I send it to you,
+to convince you I have not been wanting either in the desire, or the
+endeavor to remove this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly
+disgraceful to us both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to
+prevent a public competition from affecting our personal friendship. I
+soon found from the correspondence that conciliation was desperate,
+and yielding to an intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further
+explanation. I have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had.
+I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a
+powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from
+me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering
+purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the
+occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly
+passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but
+no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever
+misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence without my asserting his just
+character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved
+of the principles and practices of his administration. This was
+unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury.
+Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had
+not: and I am satisfied Mr. Adams�s conduct was equally honorable
+towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play
+in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
+suspicions.
+
+I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know
+every thing which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of
+the state of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they
+admit a revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
+solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in any thing on my part
+which may second your efforts; which will be the easier with me,
+inasmuch as I do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression
+of which could give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to
+yourself, with the assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship
+and respect for yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCV.--TO M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811
+
+TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
+
+Monticello, January 26, 1811.
+
+Sir,
+
+The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way
+to me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed
+very much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which
+accompanied it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I
+received from its perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu�s
+a work of much merit; but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of
+paradox, of false principle, and misapplied fact, as to render its value
+equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at
+its errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a great
+desideratum. This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought,
+precision; of idea, of language, and of logic, which will force
+conviction into every mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of
+truth and sincerity, that I consider it the most precious gift the
+present age has received. But what would it have been, had the author,
+or would the author, take up the whole scheme of Montesquieu�s work, and
+following the correct analysis he has here developed, fill up all its
+parts according to his sound views of them. Montesquieu�s celebrity
+would be but a small portion of that which would immortalize the author.
+And with whom? With the rational and high-minded spirits of the present
+and all future ages. With those whose approbation is both incitement
+and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope desperate? To what
+object can the occupation of his future life be devoted so usefully to
+the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to others who have
+higher claims on his attention, to press these considerations.
+
+My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to
+the object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is
+the least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists
+any enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following
+the receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its
+execution. The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me
+by post, from time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by
+the original, I could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however,
+it is substantially correct, without being an adequate representation
+of the excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I
+found it impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition
+in our language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the
+author towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view,
+propose to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy
+of the work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret
+of the author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint
+lives; and those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death will
+be equally worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his
+living consent shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both
+his and my papers will furnish the evidence. In the mean time, the many
+important truths the works so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it
+the political rudiment of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
+
+One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
+executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
+government was first established, we had many doubts on this question,
+and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that
+at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France,
+while the single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions
+and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety
+proportioned to the importance of a. choice between them. The experiment
+in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstance
+peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and
+dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in
+power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We
+had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of
+the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to
+exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They
+fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so
+inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable:
+they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it
+continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This
+was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise
+ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory,
+and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form
+of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men
+constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady
+tenor of our single executive, during a course of twenty-two years of
+the most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented,
+gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved.
+Aided by the counsels of a cabinet of Heads of departments, originally
+four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or
+all together, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings
+their views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and
+direction in all the branches of the government. The excellence of this
+construction of the executive power has already manifested itself here
+under very opposite circumstances. During the administration of our
+first President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided, by as
+marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism and republicanism could
+bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a directory, like positive
+and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing wills would have
+balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute inaction. But the
+President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided
+the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it,
+unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the
+cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their account; because they
+knew also they had provided a regulating power, which would keep the
+machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate knowledge of these
+scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of others of a character entirely
+opposite. The third administration, which was of eight years, presented
+an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to which perhaps
+history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during the whole
+time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the members.
+We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed,
+by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other�s ideas, as to
+produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
+were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
+equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
+departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and
+strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of
+designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the divisions
+of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced persevering
+oppositions. But the power of decision in the President left no object
+for internal dissension, and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by
+the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they
+could foment would change the course of the executive power. I am not
+conscious that my participations in executive authority have produced
+any bias in favor of the single executive; because the parts I have
+acted have been in the subordinate, as well as superior stations, and
+because, if I know myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I
+know that I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power
+from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to
+conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
+the exercise of power over others.
+
+I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that,
+to insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be
+subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without
+suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of
+government. You apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of
+talent, and destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by
+usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes
+as many examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a
+plurality, as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered
+permanent by usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger
+is lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly
+increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from
+feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you propose
+might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in
+a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check
+on the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to
+this idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our
+State governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by
+man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us
+possessed. Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their
+foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal
+administration, regularly organized with a legislature and governor
+resting on the choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press,
+can never be so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit
+voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any
+force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which
+it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of
+two thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for
+deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their
+governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State,
+that is to say, of every man in it, able to bear arms; and that militia,
+too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into infantry,
+cavalry, and artillery, trained under officers general and subordinate,
+legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they are already
+in habits of obedience. The republican government of France was lost
+without a struggle, because the party of �_un et indivisible_� had
+prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to which the people
+might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were
+virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out
+of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But
+with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular
+organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by their
+Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention, present
+such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the first
+conception of that object.
+
+Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
+perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
+wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
+attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would
+be befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that
+local discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face
+the sound parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach
+the majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the
+ascendancy in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by
+laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which
+local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would
+be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into
+which we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at
+liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities
+of their individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential
+to preserve the purity of the government, by the censorship which these
+parties habitually exercise over each other.
+
+You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the
+grounds on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from
+yours. They prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my
+own, which have forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion
+questioned by you. Permit me now to render my portion of the general
+debt of gratitude, by acknowledgments in advance for the singular
+benefaction which is the subject of this letter, to tender my wishes
+for the continuance of a life so usefully employed, and to add the
+assurances of my perfect esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
+Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
+sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
+councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those
+whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
+Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that
+the dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
+occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
+affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony
+and affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our
+country than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of
+their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers
+and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the
+latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible:
+but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government,
+they will be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have
+been the theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting
+after war, some against France, and some against England. But the people
+wish for peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become
+the reformers of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and
+sword, a return to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more
+losing than war, they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes
+are clamoring for on false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by
+these clamors, as the re-election of their legislators shows, and they
+are firm to their executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
+
+We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
+lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton
+this year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market.
+This is the case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears
+alarmingly in our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want
+of rain.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances
+of my constant and affectionate esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVII.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+*****
+
+I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will
+long continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the
+way. I sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and
+because it multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have
+been able to judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against
+the government. Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now;
+but the mass of our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an
+incident, another proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of
+self-government, and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The
+spirit, indeed, which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter,
+although I believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down
+in peaceable times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the
+determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of
+the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force
+a war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between
+her and your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce.
+Pickering here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate
+this. Such a lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit
+theirs to a majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse
+with the rest of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they
+would propose to themselves, even for the moment. The defection would
+certainly disconcert the other States, but it could not ultimately
+endanger their safety. They are adequate, in all points, to a defensive
+war. However, I hope your majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will
+save us from this trial, to which I think it possible we are advancing.
+The death of George may come to our relief; but I fear the dominion
+of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also. Perhaps, if some
+stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from the Mammoth of
+the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people of England
+might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again. Tell my
+old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping with
+which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice
+and protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
+pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
+assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust
+can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem
+it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it
+flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to
+come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the
+more gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now
+_hors de combat_ myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack
+of rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not
+very long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in
+the focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue
+out of all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long
+health, and friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVIII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that
+I can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as
+I have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
+therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams
+and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I
+communicated to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and
+myself, in proof that I could not give friendship in exchange for such
+sentiments as she had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and
+maintained in her letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of
+these could admit a reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in
+proportion as the return to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In
+these jaundiced sentiments of hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing
+the weight which her opinions had with him, and notwithstanding she
+declared in her letters that they were not communicated to him. A late
+incident has satisfied me that I wronged him as well as her in not
+yielding entire confidence to this assurance on her part. Two of the Mr.
+------, my neighbors and friends, took a tour to the northward during
+the last summer. In Boston they fell into company with Mr. Adams, and by
+his invitation passed a day with him at Braintree. He spoke out to
+them every thing which came uppermost, and as it occurred to his mind,
+without any reserve, and seemed most disposed to dwell on those things
+which happened during his own administration. He spoke of his masters,
+as he called his Heads of departments, as acting above his control, and
+often against his opinions. Among many other topics, he adverted to
+the unprincipled licentiousness of the press against myself, adding, �I
+always loved Jefferson, and still love him.�
+
+This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards
+him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives.
+Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin�s character of him, I
+knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes
+incorrect and precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who
+have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice
+myself, and defended him when assailed by others, with the single
+exception as to his political opinions. But with a man possessing so
+many other estimable qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere
+differences of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any
+thing else. His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different
+views of the same subject are the result of a difference in our
+organization and experience. I never withdrew from the society of any
+man on this account, although many have done it from me; much less
+should I do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand and
+heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite
+occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There
+is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so
+long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call for a
+letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which
+I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion
+of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
+necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you can,
+perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and knowing this,
+should an occasion of writing first present itself to him, he will
+perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first occur
+to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give fair
+play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
+in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
+greatest intimacy with him.
+
+I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
+kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
+which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God
+ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens
+of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not
+their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things
+in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse
+and middling goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a
+manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within
+itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and
+household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as
+sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax,
+which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on your
+northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company
+establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning
+jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family; but
+nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting from
+our household manufactures are such that they will never again be laid
+aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened than the
+British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures. Restore free
+intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have totally
+changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from them
+will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
+
+A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It
+carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers,
+we were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most
+valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the
+same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet
+passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the
+storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not
+expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First
+the detention of the western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz,
+outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the
+outlawry. In your day, French depredations: in mine, English, and the
+Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the English orders of council, and
+the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will be the
+impressment of our seamen, or something else: and so we have gone on,
+and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in
+the history of man. And I do believe we shall continue to growl, to
+multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise,
+and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men. As for France and
+England, with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of
+robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science produces no better
+fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of national
+morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
+and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
+garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave.
+I think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in
+exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I
+find myself much the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former
+occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers,
+who have fallen before us. Of the signers of the Declaration of
+Independence, I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side
+of the Potomac, and on this side, myself alone. You and I have
+been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarkable health, and a
+considerable activity of body and mind. I am on horseback three or four
+hours of every day; visit three or four times a year a possession I have
+ninety miles distant, performing the winter journey on horseback. I walk
+little, however, a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the
+midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a
+great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good
+health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I
+would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a letter
+like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits,
+occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure of knowing, that
+in the race of life, you do not keep, in its physical decline, the
+same distance ahead of me, which you have done in political honors and
+achievements. No circumstances have lessened the interest I feel in
+these particulars respecting yourself; none have suspended for one
+moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you with unchanged
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER C.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for
+that I received from you. Not of the fine texture, or delicate character
+of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that
+display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles Lettres,
+but a mere sober, dry, and formal piece of logic. _Ornari res ipsa
+negat_. Yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading,
+to cast an eye over some of the questions it discusses. At any rate,
+accept it as the offering of esteem and friendship.
+
+You wish to know something of the Richmond and Wabash prophets. Of
+Nimrod Hews I never before heard. Christopher Macpherson I have known
+for twenty years. He is a man of color, brought up as a book-keeper by a
+merchant, his master, and afterwards enfranchised. He had understanding
+enough to post up his leger from his journal, but not enough to bear
+up against hypochrondriac affections, and the gloomy forebodings they
+inspire. He became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and
+rhapsodizing what neither himself nor any one else could understand.
+I think he told me he had visited you personally while you were in the
+administration, and wrote you letters, which you have probably forgotten
+in the mass of the correspondences of that crazy class, of whose
+complaints, and terrors, and mysticisms, the several Presidents have
+been the regular depositories. Macpherson was too honest to be molested
+by any body, and too inoffensive to be a subject for the mad-house;
+although, I believe, we are told in the old book, that �every man that
+is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, thou shouldst put him in prison
+and in the stocks.�
+
+The Wabash prophet is a very different character, more rogue than fool,
+if to be a rogue is not the greatest of all follies. He arose to notice
+while I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper
+subject of inquiry for me. The inquiry was made with diligence. His
+declared object was the reformation of his red brethren, and their
+return to their pristine manner of living. He pretended to be in
+constant communication with the Great Spirit; that he was instructed by
+him to make known to the Indians that they were created by him distinct
+from the whites, of different natures, for different purposes, and
+placed under different circumstances, adapted to their nature and
+destinies; that they must return from all the ways of the whites to the
+habits and opinions of their forefathers; they must not eat the flesh
+of hogs, of bullocks, of sheep, &c. the deer and buffalo having been
+created for their food; they must not make bread of wheat, but of Indian
+corn; they must not wear linen nor woollen, but dress like their fathers
+in the skins and furs of animals; they must not drink ardent spirits:
+and I do not remember whether he extended his inhibitions to the gun and
+gunpowder, in favor of the bow and arrow. I concluded from all this that
+he was a visionary, enveloped in the clouds of their antiquities, and
+vainly endeavoring to lead back his brethren to the fancied beatitudes
+of their golden age. I thought there was little danger of his making
+many proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the
+whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm
+if he did. We let him go on, therefore, unmolested. But his followers
+increased till the English thought him worth corruption, and found him
+corruptible. I suppose his views were then changed; but his proceedings
+in consequence of them were after I left the administration, and are,
+therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been informed what were the
+particular acts on his part, which produced, an actual commencement
+of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that his subsequent
+proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord
+Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
+
+Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
+embargo, and communicated it to me. But he had learned nothing of the
+particular agent, although, of his workings, the information he had
+obtained appears now to have been correct. He stated a particular which
+Henry has not distinctly brought forward, which was, that the eastern
+States were not to be required to make a formal act of separation from
+the Union, and to take a part in the war against it; a measure deemed
+much too strong for their people: but to declare themselves in a state
+of neutrality, in consideration of which they were to have peace and
+free commerce, the lure most likely to insure popular acquiescence.
+Having no indications of Henry as the intermediate in this negotiation
+of the Essex junto, suspicions fell on Pickering, and his nephew
+Williams in London. If he was wronged in this, the ground of the
+suspicion is to be found in his known practices and avowed opinions,
+as that of his accomplices in the sameness of sentiment and of language
+with Henry, and subsequently by the fluttering of the wounded pigeons.
+
+This letter, with what it encloses, has given you enough, I presume, of
+law and the prophets. I will only add to it, therefore, the homage of my
+respects to Mrs. Adams, and to yourself the assurances of affectionate
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CI.--TO JAMES MAURY, April 25, 1812
+
+
+TO JAMES MAURY.
+
+Monticello, April 25, 1812.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend and Classmate,
+
+Often has my heart smote me for delaying acknowledgments to you,
+receiving, as I do, such frequent proofs of your kind recollection in
+the transmission of papers to me. But instead of acting on the good old
+maxim of not putting off to to-morrow what we can do to-day, we are too
+apt to reverse it, and not to do today what we can put off to to-morrow.
+But this duty can be no longer put off. To-day we are at peace;
+to-morrow war. The curtain of separation is drawing between us, and
+probably will not be withdrawn till one, if not both of us, will be at
+rest with our fathers. Let me now, then, while I may, renew to you the
+declarations of my warm attachment, which in no period of life has ever
+been weakened, and seems to become stronger as the remaining objects of
+our youthful affections are fewer.
+
+Our two countries are to be at war, but not you and I. And why should
+our two countries be at war, when by peace we can be so much more useful
+to one another? Surely the world will acquit our government of having
+sought it. Never before has there been an instance of a nation�s bearing
+so much as we have borne. Two items alone in our catalogue of wrongs
+will for ever acquit us of being the aggressors; the impressment of our
+seamen, and the excluding us from the ocean. The first foundations of
+the social compact would be broken up, were we definitively to refuse to
+its members the protection of their persons and property, while in their
+lawful pursuits. I think the war will not be short, because the object
+of England, long obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain, and to
+exact transit duties from every vessel traversing it. This is the sum of
+her orders of council, which were only a step in this bold experiment,
+never meant to be retracted if it could be permanently maintained. And
+this object must continue her in war with all the world. To this I
+see no termination, until her exaggerated efforts, so much beyond her
+natural strength and resources, shall have exhausted her to bankruptcy.
+The approach of this crisis is, I think, visible in the departure of her
+precious metals, and depreciation of her paper medium. We, who have gone
+through that operation, know its symptoms, its course, and consequences.
+In England they will be more serious than elsewhere, because half the
+wealth of her people is now in that medium, the private revenue of her
+money-holders, or rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe, greater
+than that of her land-holders. Such a proportion of property, imaginary
+and baseless as it is, cannot be reduced to vapor, but with great
+explosion. She will rise out of its ruins, however, because her lands,
+her houses, her arts, will remain, and the greater part of her men. And
+these will give her again that place among nations which is proportioned
+to her natural means, and which we all wish her to hold. We believe that
+the just standing of all nations is the health and security of all. We
+consider the overwhelming power of England on the ocean, and of France
+on the land, as destructive of the prosperity and happiness of the
+world, and wish both to be reduced only to the necessity of observing
+moral duties. We believe no more in Bonaparte�s fighting merely for the
+liberty of the seas, than in Great Britain�s fighting for the liberties
+of mankind. The object of both is the same, to draw to themselves the
+power, the wealth, and the resources of other nations. We resist the
+enterprises of England first, because they first come vitally home to
+us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing the lash of George the
+III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future day. When the wrongs
+of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall resist them
+also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice to the
+champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
+
+The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I
+am not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If
+I could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct
+of England would have permitted them to be directed towards her,
+they would have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr.
+Addington, I discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even
+friendship and respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing
+these dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will.
+But we had then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe
+himself, and to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his
+subsequent conduct has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English
+minister here, had learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions,
+without head enough to distinguish when they were misplaced. Mr.
+Addington and Mr. Fox passed away too soon to avail the two countries
+of their dispositions. Had I been personally hostile to England,
+and biassed in favor of either the character or views of her great
+antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand. I had
+only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if ever I was gratified
+with the possession of power, and of the confidence of those who had
+entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was enabled to
+use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion
+here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another person in
+the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could have
+resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments and
+orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer is,
+that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
+other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
+England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
+Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
+our neighborhood.
+
+I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics,
+to possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes
+which are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself
+from all political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life
+with what have been the passions of every portion of it, books, science,
+my farms, my family, and friends.
+
+To these every hour of the day is now devoted. I retain a good activity
+of mind, not quite as much of body, but uninterrupted health. Still the
+hand of age is upon me. All my old friends are nearly gone. Of those in
+my neighborhood, Mr. Divers and Mr. Lindsay alone remain. If you could
+make it a _partie quarr�e_, it would be a comfort indeed. We would
+beguile our lingering hours with talking over our youthful exploits, our
+hunts on Peter�s Mountain, with a long train of _et cetera_ in addition,
+and feel, by recollection at least, a momentary flash of youth.
+Reviewing the course of a long and sufficiently successful life, I find
+in no portion of it happier moments than those were. I think the old
+hulk in which you are, is near her wreck, and that like a prudent rat,
+you should escape in time. However, here, there, and every where, in
+peace or in war, you will have my sincere affections, and prayers for
+your life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, May 30, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Another communication is enclosed, and the letter of the applicant is
+the only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember
+such a person as the secretary of Mr. Adams, and messenger to the Senate
+while I was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding
+to it a strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the
+Anglomen and malcontents; in other words, the federalists and quids. Yet
+it would reconcile neither. It would only change the topic of abuse
+with the former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter. It
+would prevent our eastern capitalists and seamen from employment in
+privateering, take away the only chance of conciliating them, and keep
+them at home, idle, to swell the discontents; it would completely disarm
+us of the most powerful weapon we can employ against Great Britain, by
+shutting every port to our prizes, and yet would not add a single
+vessel to their number; it would shut every market to our agricultural
+productions, and engender impatience and discontent with that class
+which, in fact, composes the nation; it would insulate us in general
+negotiations for peace, making all the parties our opposers, and very
+indifferent about peace with us, if they have it with the rest of the
+world; and would exhibit a solecism worthy of Don Quixotte only, that
+of a choice to fight two enemies at a time, rather than to take them
+by succession. And the only motive for all this is a sublimated
+impartiality, at which the world will laugh, and our own people will
+turn upon us in mass as soon as it is explained to them, as it will be
+by the very persons who are now laying that snare. These are the hasty
+views of one who rarely thinks on these subjects. Your own will
+be better, and I pray to them every success, and to yourself every
+felicity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIII.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812
+
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It has given me great pleasure to receive a letter from you. It seems as
+if, our ancient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections
+of the heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our
+acquaintance commenced in 1764, both then just of age. We happened to
+take lodgings in the same house in New York. Our next meeting was in
+the Congress of 1775, and at various times afterwards in the exercise of
+that and other public functions, until your mission to Europe. Since we
+have ceased to meet, we have still thought and acted together, �_et idem
+velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum amicitia est_.� Of this harmony of
+principle, the papers you enclosed me are proof sufficient. I do not
+condole with you on your release from your government. The vote of your
+opponents is the most honorable mark by which the soundness of your
+conduct could be stamped. I claim the same honorable testimonial. There
+was but a single act of my whole administration of which that party
+approved. That was the proclamation on the attack of the Chesapeake.
+And when I found they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to
+apprehend I had done wrong, and to exclaim with the Psalmist, �Lord,
+what have I done, that the wicked should praise me!�
+
+What, then, does this English faction with you mean? Their newspapers
+say rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we
+will permit them to govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their
+anti-republican spirit, it ought to be met at once. But a government
+like ours should be slow in believing this, should put forth its whole
+might when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
+reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the
+vindictive passions of the petty incorporations of Greece. I rather
+suspect that the principal office of the other seventeen States will be
+to moderate and restrain the local excitement of our friends with you,
+when they (with the aid of their brethren of the other States, if they
+need it) shall have brought the rebellious to their feet. They count on
+British aid. But what can that avail them by land? They would separate
+from their friends, who alone furnish employment for their navigation,
+to unite with their only rival for that employment. When interdicted
+the harbors of their quondam brethren, they will go, I suppose, to ask
+a share in the carrying-trade of their rivals, and a dispensation with
+their navigation act. They think they will be happier in an association
+under the rulers of Ireland, the East and West Indies, than in an
+independent government, where they are obliged to put up with their
+proportional share only in the direction of its affairs. But I trust
+that such perverseness will not be that of the honest and well meaning
+mass of the federalists of Massachusetts; and that when the questions
+of separation and rebellion shall be nakedly proposed to them, the Gores
+and the Pickerings will find their levees crowded with silk-stocking
+gentry, but no yeomanry; an army of officers without soldiers. I hope,
+then, all will still end well: the Anglomen will consent to make peace
+with their bread and butter, and you and I shall sink to rest, without
+having been actors or spectators in another civil war.
+
+How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count; but I
+you in that of our grand-children. We have not timed these things well
+together, or we might have begun a re-alliance between Massachusetts
+and the Old Dominion, faithful companions in the war of Independence,
+peculiarly tallied in interests, by each wanting exactly what the other
+has to spare; and estranged to each other, in latter times, only by the
+practices of a third nation, the common enemy of both. Let us live only
+to see this re-union, and I will say with old Simeon, �Lord, now
+lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy
+salvation.� In that peace may you long remain, my friend, and depart
+only in the fulness of years, all passed in health and prosperity. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. June 13. I did not condole with you on the reprobation of your
+opponents, because it proved your orthodoxy. Yesterday�s post brought
+me the resolution of the republicans of Congress, to propose you as
+Vice-President. On this I sincerely congratulate you. It is a stamp of
+double proof. It is a notification to the factionaries that their nay is
+the yea of truth, and its best test. We shall be almost within striking
+distance of each other. Who knows but you may fill up some short recess
+of Congress with a visit to Monticello, where a numerous family will
+hail you with a hearty country welcome. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIV.--TO JUDGE TYLER, June 17,1812
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, June 17,1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+On the other subject of your letter, the application of the common law
+to our present situation, I deride with you the ordinary doctrine,
+that we brought with us from England the common law rights. This narrow
+notion was a favorite in the first moment of rallying to our rights
+against Great Britain. But it was that of men who felt their rights
+before they had thought of their explanation. The truth is, that we
+brought with us the rights of men; of expatriated men. On our arrival
+here, the question would at once arise, by what law will we govern
+ourselves? The resolution seems to have been, by that system with which
+we are familiar, to be altered by ourselves occasionally, and adapted to
+our new situation. The proofs of this resolution are to be found in
+the form of the oaths of the judges, 1 Hening�s Stat. 169, 187; of the
+Governor, ib. 504; in the act for a provisional government, ib. 372; in
+the preamble to the laws of 1661-2; the uniform current of opinions and
+decisions; and in the general recognition of all our statutes framed
+on that basis. But the state of the English law at the date of
+our emigration, constituted the system adopted here. We may doubt,
+therefore, the propriety of quoting in our courts English authorities
+subsequent to that adoption; still more, the admission of authorities
+posterior to the Declaration of Independence, or rather to the accession
+of that King, whose reign, _ab initio_, was that very tissue of wrongs
+which rendered the Declaration at length necessary. The reason for it
+had inception at least as far back as the commencement of his reign.
+This relation to the beginning of his reign, would add the advantage of
+getting us rid of all Mansfield�s innovations, or civilizations of the
+common law. For however I admit the superiority of the civil, over the
+common law code, as a system of perfect justice, yet an incorporation of
+the two would be like Nebuchadnezzar�s image of metals and clay, a thing
+without cohesion of parts. The only natural improvement of the common
+law, is through its homogeneous ally, the chancery, in which new
+principles are to be examined, concocted, and digested. But when,
+by repeated decisions and modifications, they are rendered pure and
+certain, they should be transferred by statute to the courts of common
+law, and placed within the pale of juries. The exclusion from the courts
+of the malign influence of all authorities after the _Georgium sidus_
+became ascendant, would uncanonize Blackstone, whose book, although the
+most elegant and best digested of our law catalogue, has been perverted
+more than all others to the degeneracy of legal science. A student finds
+there a smattering of every thing, and his indolence easily persuades
+him, that if he understands that book, he is master of the whole body
+of the law. The distinction between these and those who have drawn their
+stores from the deep and rich mines of Coke�s Littleton, seems
+well understood even by the unlettered common people, who apply the
+appellation of Blackstone-lawyers to these ephemeral insects of the law.
+
+Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and
+so much of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a
+question of transcendant difficulty. It was discussed at the first
+meeting of the committee of the revised code, in 1776, and decided
+in the negative, by the opinions of Wythe, Mason, and myself, against
+Pendleton and Thomas Lee. Pendleton proposed to take Blackstone for that
+text, only purging him of what was inapplicable, or unsuitable to us. In
+that case, the meaning of every word of Blackstone would have become
+a source of litigation, until it had been settled by repeated legal
+decisions. And to come at that meaning, we should have had produced, on
+all occasions, that very pile of authorities from which it would be said
+he drew his conclusion, and which, of course, would explain it, and
+the terms in which it is couched. Thus we should have retained the same
+chaos of law-lore from which we wished to be emancipated, added to the
+evils of the uncertainty which a new text and new phrases would have
+generated. An example of this may be found in the old statutes, and
+commentaries on them, in Coke�s second institute; but more remarkably,
+in the institute of Justinian, and the vast masses, explanatory or
+supplementary of that, which fill the libraries of the civilians. We
+were deterred from the attempt by these considerations, added to which,
+the bustle of the times did not permit leisure for such an undertaking.
+
+Your request of my opinion on this subject has given you the trouble of
+these observations. If your firmer mind in encountering difficulties,
+would have added your vote to the minority of the committee, you would
+have had on your side one of the greatest men of our age, and, like him,
+have detracted nothing from the sentiments of esteem and respect which I
+bore to him, and tender with sincerity the assurance of to yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CV.--TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812
+
+
+TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Monticello, October 1, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of September the 20th has been duly received, and I cannot
+but be gratified by the assurance it expresses, that my aid in the
+councils of our government would increase the public confidence in them;
+because it admits an inference that they have approved of the course
+pursued, when I heretofore bore a part in those councils. I profess,
+too, so much of the Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the
+general of yesterday to act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be
+useful to his country; holding that to be false pride, which postpones
+the public good to any private or personal considerations. But I am
+past service. The hand of age is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties
+apprizes me that those of the mind cannot be unimpaired, had I not still
+better proofs. Every year counts by increased debility, and departing
+faculties keep the score. The last year it was the sight, this it is the
+hearing, the next something else will be going, until all is gone.
+Of all this I was sensible before I left Washington, and probably my
+fellow-laborers saw it before I did. The decay of memory was obvious:
+it is now become distressing. But the mind, too, is weakened. When I
+was young, mathematics was the passion of my life. The same passion has
+returned upon me, but with unequal powers. Processes which I then read
+off with the facility of common discourse, now cost me labor, and time,
+and slow investigation. When I offered this, therefore, as one of the
+reasons deciding my retirement from office, it was offered in sincerity
+and a consciousness of its truth. And I think it a great blessing that
+I retain understanding enough to be sensible how much of it I have lost,
+and to avoid exposing myself as a spectacle for the pity of my friends;
+that I have surmounted the difficult point of knowing when to retire. As
+a compensation for faculties departed, nature gives me good health, and
+a perfect resignation to the laws of decay which she has prescribed to
+all the forms and combinations of matter.
+
+The detestable treason of Hull has, indeed, excited a deep anxiety
+in all breasts. The depression was in the first moment gloomy and
+portentous. But it has been succeeded by a revived animation, and a
+determination to meet the occurrence with increased efforts; and I have
+so much confidence in the vigorous minds and bodies of our countrymen,
+as to be fearless as to the final issue. The treachery of Hull, like
+that of Arnold, cannot be matter of blame on our government. His
+character, as an officer of skill and bravery, was established on the
+trials of the last war, and no previous act of his life had led to doubt
+his fidelity. Whether the Head of the war department is equal to his
+charge, I am not qualified to decide. I knew him only as a pleasant,
+gentlemanly man in society; and the indecision of his character rather
+added to the amenity of his conversation. But when translated from
+the colloquial circle to the great stage of national concerns, and the
+direction of the extensive operations of war, whether he has been able
+to seize at one glance the long line of defenceless border presented by
+our enemy, the masses of strength which we hold on different points of
+it, the facility this gave us of attacking him, on the same day, on
+all his points, from the extremity of the lakes to the neighborhood
+of Quebec, and the perfect indifference with which this last place,
+impregnable as it is, might be left in the hands of the enemy to fall
+of itself; whether, I say, he could see and prepare vigorously for
+all this, or merely wrapped himself in the cloak of cold defence, I
+am uninformed. I clearly think with you on the competence of Monroe
+to embrace great views of action. The decision of his character, his
+enterprise, firmness, industry, and unceasing vigilance, would, I
+believe, secure, as I am sure they would merit, the public confidence,
+and give us all the success which our means can accomplish. If our
+operations have suffered or languished from any want of energy in the
+present head which directs them, I have so much confidence in the wisdom
+and conscientious integrity of Mr. Madison, as to be satisfied, that,
+however torturing to his feelings, he will fulfil his duty to the public
+and to his own reputation, by making the necessary change. Perhaps he
+may be preparing it while we are talking about it: for of all these
+things I am uninformed. I fear that Hull�s surrender has been more than
+the mere loss of a year to us. Besides bringing on us the whole mass of
+savage nations, whom fear and not affection had kept in quiet, there is
+danger that in giving time to an enemy who can send reinforcements of
+regulars faster than we can raise them, they may strengthen Canada and
+Halifax beyond the assailment of our lax and divided powers. Perhaps,
+however, the patriotic efforts from Kentucky and Ohio, by recalling
+the British force to its upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to
+strike a blow below. Effectual possession of the river from Montreal to
+the Chaudiere, which is practicable, would give us the upper country
+at our leisure, and close for ever the scenes of the tomahawk and
+scalping-knife.
+
+But these things are for others to plan and achieve. The only succor
+from the old, must lie in their prayers. These I offer up with sincere
+devotion; and in my concern for the great public, I do not overlook my
+friends, but supplicate for them, as I do for yourself, a long course of
+freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVI.--TO MR. MELISH, January 13, 1813
+
+
+TO MR. MELISH.
+
+Monticello, January 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of December the 15th, and with it the copies
+of your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. The
+book I have read with extreme satisfaction and information. As to the
+western States, particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the
+actual condition of that interesting portion of our country, I had not
+an adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the
+condition of the maritime States. I had no conception that manufactures
+had made such progress there, and particularly of the number of carding
+and spinning machines dispersed through the whole country. We are
+but beginning here to have them in our private families. Small
+spinning-jennies of from half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon,
+however, make their way into the humblest cottages, as well as the
+richest houses; and nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and
+middling clothing for our families, will for ever hereafter continue to
+be made within ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on
+foreign manufactures: but I have now thirty-five spindles a going, a
+hand carding-machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply
+of my own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The
+continuance of the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the
+evils of impressment and of the orders of council, a great blessing
+for us will grow. I have not formerly been an advocate for great
+manufactories. I doubted whether our labor, employed in agriculture,
+and aided by the spontaneous energies of the earth, would not procure
+us more than we could make ourselves of other necessaries. But other
+considerations entering into the question, have settled my doubts.
+
+The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition of our
+citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and English
+travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners and habits
+of their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed every thing
+differing from that test as boorish and barbarous, that your work will
+be read here extensively, and operate great good.
+
+Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other part of
+the work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to
+bring to what I think the correct one; and, on a point so interesting,
+I value your opinion too highly not to ambition its concurrence with
+my own. Stating in volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of
+difference between the two great political parties here, you conclude
+it to be, �whether the controlling power shall be vested in this or that
+set of men.� That each party endeavors to get into the administration of
+the government, and to exclude the other from power, is true, and may
+be stated as a motive of action: but this is only secondary; the primary
+motive being a real and radical difference of political principle. I
+sincerely wish our differences were but personally who should govern
+and that the principles of our constitution were those of both parties.
+Unfortunately, it is otherwise; and the question of preference between
+monarchy and republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere,
+threatens a permanent division here.
+
+Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
+shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
+compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
+perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
+corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton�s opinion,
+which others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that
+a correction of what are called its vices, would render the English
+an impracticable government.. This government they wished to have
+established here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the
+present constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of
+their favorite model. This party has therefore always clung to England,
+as their prototype, and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this
+change. A weighty minority, however, of these leaders, considering the
+voluntary conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant,
+if not desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment,
+as being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a
+commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other States
+may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to the
+desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is
+the last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being of all
+the most dependant on the others. Not raising bread for the sustenance
+her own inhabitants, not having a stick of timber for the construction
+of vessels, her principal occupation, nor an article to export in them,
+where would she be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and
+thrown into dependance on England, her direct and natural, but now
+insidious, rival? At the head of this minority is what is called the
+Essex Junto of Massachusetts. But the majority of these leaders do not
+aim at separation. In this they adhere to the known principle of
+General Hamilton, never, under any views, to break the Union. Anglomany,
+monarchy, and separation, then, are the principles of the Essex
+federalists; Anglomany and monarchy, those of the Hamiltonians,
+and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among the people who call
+themselves federalists. These last are as good republicans as the
+brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in the devotion
+to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from their
+leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
+separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
+popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
+standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
+thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
+
+The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
+constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to
+it they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have
+any ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further,
+by shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
+responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment.
+They esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest
+the governing powers of both.
+
+This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
+councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which
+they are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for
+power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over
+his fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
+conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
+legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
+refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient
+that power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the
+primary principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that
+on which I have acted; and had it been a mere contest who should
+be permitted to administer the government according to its genuine
+republican principles, there has never been a moment of my life, in
+which I should not have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family,
+my farm, my friends, and books.
+
+You expected to discover the difference of our party principles in
+General Washington�s Valedictory, and my Inaugural Address. Not at all.
+General Washington did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was
+neither an Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished
+the people to have as much self-government as they were competent to
+exercise themselves. The only point in which he and I ever differed
+in opinion, was, that I had more confidence than he had in the natural
+integrity and discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to
+which they might trust themselves with a control over their government.
+He has asseverated to me a thousand times his determination that the
+existing government should have a fair trial, and that in support of
+it he would spend the last drop of his blood. He did this the more
+repeatedly, because he knew General Hamilton�s political bias, and
+my apprehensions from it. It is a mere calumny, therefore, in the
+monarchists, to associate General Washington with their principles.
+But that may have happened in this case which has been often seen in
+ordinary cases, that, by often repeating an untruth, men come to
+believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this party, to bolster
+themselves up on the revered name of that first of our worthies. If
+I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, it proves the
+estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and my desire of
+placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I am certain I risk
+no use of the communication which may draw me into contention before the
+public. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of a _Septag�naire_.
+
+To return to the merits of your work; I consider it as so lively a
+picture of the real state of our country, that if I can possibly obtain
+opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy to a friend in
+France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will translate
+and circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations of former
+travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political faith may
+have on your general opinion, a part of my object will be obtained, if
+it satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, and of the high
+respect and consideration with which I tender you my salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVII.--TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818
+
+
+TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.
+
+United States of America,
+
+May 24, 1818.
+
+I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your letter
+of November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely gratified by the
+occasion it gives me of expressing to you the sentiments of high respect
+and esteem which I entertain for you. It recalls to my remembrance a
+happy portion of my life, passed in your native city; then the seat
+of the most amiable and polished society of the world, and of which
+yourself and your venerable father were such distinguished members. But
+of what scenes has it since been the theatre, and with what havoc has
+it overspread the earth! Robespierre met the fate, and his memory
+the execration, he so justly merited. The rich were his victims, and
+perished by thousands. It is by millions that Bonaparte destroys
+the poor, and he is eulogized and deified by the sycophants--even of
+science. These merit more than the mere oblivion to which they will
+be consigned; and the day will come when a just posterity will give to
+their hero the only pre-eminence he has earned, that of having been the
+greatest of the destroyers of the human race. What year of his military
+life has not consigned a million of human beings to death, to poverty,
+and wretchedness? What field in Europe may not raise a monument of the
+murders, the burnings, the desolations, the famines, and miseries, it
+has witnessed from him! And all this to acquire a reputation, which
+Cartouche attained with less injury to mankind, of being fearless of God
+or man.
+
+To complete and universalize the desolation of the globe, it has been
+the will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a tyrant as
+unprincipled and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in the poor maniac
+George, but in his government and nation. Bonaparte will die, and his
+tyrannies with him. But a nation never dies. The English government and
+its piratical principles and practices, have no fixed term of duration.
+Europe feels, and is writhing under the scorpion whips of Bonaparte. We
+are assailed by those of England. The one continent thus placed under
+the gripe of England, and the other of Bonaparte, each has to grapple
+with the enemy immediately pressing on itself. We must extinguish the
+fire kindled in our own house, and leave to our friends beyond the water
+that which is consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one
+thousand of our ships, and impressed into her service more than six
+thousand of our citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of
+her Prince Regent, that she would not repeal her aggressive orders as to
+us, until Bonaparte should have repealed his as to all nations; till her
+minister, in formal conference with ours, declared, that no proposition
+for protecting our seamen from being impressed, under color of taking
+their own, was practicable or admissible; that, the door to justice and
+to all amicable arrangement being closed, and negotiation become both
+desperate and dishonorable, we concluded that the war she had been for
+years waging against us, might as well become a war on both sides. She
+takes fewer vessels from us since the declaration of war than before,
+because they venture more cautiously; and we now make full reprisals
+where before we made none. England is, in principle, the enemy of all
+maritime nations, as Bonaparte is of the continental; and I place in
+the same line of insult to the human understanding, the pretension
+of conquering the ocean, to establish continental rights, as that of
+conquering the continent, to restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam;
+the object of England is the permanent dominion of the ocean, and the
+monopoly of the trade of the world. To secure this, she must keep a
+larger fleet than her own resources will maintain. The resources of
+other nations, then, must be impressed to supply the deficiency of her
+own. This is sufficiently developed and evidenced by her successive
+strides towards the usurpation of the sea. Mark them, from her first war
+after William Pitt, the little, came into her administration. She first
+forbade to neutrals all trade with her enemies in time of war, which
+they had not in time of peace. This deprived them of their trade from
+port to port of the same nation. Then she forbade them to trade from
+the port of one nation to that of any other at war with her, although a
+right fully exercised in time of peace. Next, instead of taking vessels
+only entering a blockaded port, she took them over the whole ocean, if
+destined to that port, although ignorant of the blockade, and without
+intention to violate it. Then she took them returning from that port,
+as if infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came her paper
+blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without sending
+a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they must, of
+course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her orders of
+council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other, without
+coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute to
+her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed to
+the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
+the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could
+not send a vessel from St. Mary�s to St. Augustine, distant six hour�s
+sail, on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice
+with the outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this
+too daring and outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain
+articles of commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute
+important branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no
+longer rest on inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in
+open parliament, that the object of the present war is a monopoly of
+commerce.
+
+In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
+speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
+execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
+with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might retaliate
+on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each other. To
+make war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, therefore, to
+single out an enemy, we offered to both, that if either would revoke
+its hostile decrees, and the other should refuse, we would interdict all
+intercourse whatever with that other; which would be war of course, as
+being an avowed departure from neutrality. France accepted the offer,
+and revoked her decrees as to us. England not only refused, but declared
+by a solemn proclamation of her Prince Regent, that she would not revoke
+her orders even as to us, until those of France should be annulled as to
+the whole world. We thereon declared war, and with abundant additional
+cause.
+
+In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the ruinous
+effects of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing them to the
+nation and to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial proclamation,
+suspending the orders on certain conditions, but claiming to renew them
+at pleasure, as a matter of right. Even this might have prevented the
+war, if done and known here before its declaration. But the sword being
+once drawn, the expense of arming incurred, and hostilities in full
+course, it would have been unwise to discontinue them, until effectual
+provision should be agreed to by England, for protecting our citizens on
+the high seas from impressment by her naval commanders, through, error,
+voluntary or involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers,
+entering our ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen,
+(which they have no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which
+they neither do, nor ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and
+which no nation ever before pretended to do in any case), entering
+our ships, I say, under pretext of searching for and taking out their
+seamen, they took ours, native as well as naturalized, knowing them to
+be ours, merely because they wanted them; insomuch, that no American
+could safely cross the ocean, or venture to pass by sea from one to
+another of our own ports. It is not long since they impressed at sea two
+nephews of General Washington, returning from Europe, and put them,
+as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of their ships of war.
+There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between England and us;
+but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirit of conciliation on
+both sides would not permit to continue them at war. The sword, however,
+can never again be sheathed, until the personal safety of an American
+on the ocean, among the most important and most vital of the rights we
+possess, is completely provided for.
+
+As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of council, we
+offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, if she would
+suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements for securing our
+citizens against them. She refused to do it, because impracticable by
+any arrangement, as she pretends; but, in truth, because a body of sixty
+to eighty thousand of the finest seamen in the world, which we possess,
+is too great a resource for manning her exaggerated navy, to be
+relinquished, as long as she can keep it open. Peace is in her hand,
+whenever she will renounce the practice of aggression on the persons of
+our citizens. If she thinks it worth eternal war, eternal war we
+must have. She alleges that the sameness of language, of manners, of
+appearance, renders it impossible to distinguish us from her subjects.
+But because we speak English, and look like them, are we to be punished?
+Are free and independent men to be submitted to their bondage?
+
+England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the war. She
+has called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of her orders
+of council. She knows there has never been a moment of suspension of our
+reclamations against it, from General Washington�s time inclusive, to
+the present day: and that it is distinctly stated in our declaration of
+war, as one of its principal causes. She has pretended we have entered
+into the war, to establish the principle of �free bottoms, free goods,�
+or to protect her seamen against her own right over them. We contend for
+neither of these. She pretends we are partial to France; that we have
+observed a fraudulent and unfaithful neutrality between her and her
+enemy. She knows this to be false, and that if there has been any
+inequality in our proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in
+her favor. Her ministers are in possession of full proofs of this.
+Our accepting at once, and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous
+Alexander, their greatest friend, and the most aggravated enemy of
+Bonaparte, sufficiently proves whether we have partialities on the side
+of her enemy. I sincerely pray that this mediation may produce a just
+peace. It will prove that the immortal character, which has first
+stopped by war the career of the destroyer of mankind, is the friend of
+peace, of justice, of human happiness, and the patron of unoffending
+and injured nations. He is too honest and impartial to countenance
+propositions of peace derogatory to the freedom of the seas.
+
+Shall I apologize to you, my dear Madam, for this long political letter?
+But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings must plead for the
+unreserved expression of them; and they have been the less reserved,
+as being from a private citizen, retired from all connection with
+the government of his country, and whose ideas, expressed without
+communication with any one, are neither known, nor imputable to them.
+
+The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities of
+interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name to
+this letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference to the
+date of time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in answer to
+that. This omission must not lessen in your view the assurances of my
+great esteem, of my sincere sympathies for the share which you bear in
+the afflictions of your country, and the deprivations to which a lawless
+will has subjected you. In return, you enjoy the dignified satisfaction
+of having met them, rather than be yoked, with the abject, to his car;
+and that, in withdrawing from oppression, you have followed the virtuous
+example of a father, whose name will ever be dear to your country and
+to mankind. With my prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may
+see it re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does
+not infer either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of
+prosperity which would be the consequence of such a government, in
+that, in short, which the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, if
+wisdom could have stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent zeal of
+men, who did not know the character of their own countrymen, and that
+you may long live in health and happiness under it, and leave to the
+world a well educated and virtuous representative and descendant of
+your honored father, is the ardent prayer of the sincere and respectful
+friend who writes this letter.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 27, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 27, 1813.
+
+Another of our friends of seventy-six is gone, my Dear Sir, another of
+the co-signers of the Independence of our country. And a better man than
+Rush could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer
+genius, or more honest. We too must go; and that ere long. I believe
+we are under half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the
+Declaration. Yourself, Gerry, Carroll, and myself, are all I know to be
+living. I am the only one south of the Potomac. Is Robert Treat Paine,
+or Floyd living? It is long since I heard of them, and yet I do not
+recollect to have heard of their deaths.
+
+Moreton�s deduction of the origin of our Indians from the fugitive
+Trojans, stated in your letter of January the 26th, and his manner
+of accounting for the sprinkling of their Latin with Greeks is really
+amusing. Adair makes them talk Hebrew. Reinold Foster derives them from
+the soldiers sent by Kouli Khan to conquer Japan. Brerewood, from the
+Tartars, as well as our bears, wolves, foxes, &c. which, he says, �must
+of necessity fetch their beginning from Noah�s ark, which rested after
+the deluge, in Asia, seeing they could not proceed by the course
+of nature, as the imperfect sort of living creatures do, from
+putrefaction.� Bernard Romans is of opinion that God created an original
+man and woman in this part of the globe. Doctor Barton thinks they are
+not specifically different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a
+broader range, he thinks, �that in all the vast countries of America,
+there is but one language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered
+highly probable, that all the languages of the earth bear some affinity
+together.� This reduces it to a question of definition, in which every
+one is free to use his own: to wit, What constitutes identity, or
+difference in two things, in the common acceptation of sameness? All
+languages may be called the same, as being all made up of the same
+primitive sounds, expressed by the letters of the different alphabets.
+But, in this sense, all things on earth are the same, as consisting of
+matter. This gives up the useful distribution into genera and species,
+which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief of our imperfect
+memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian tribes descended,
+some have gone into their religion, their morals, their manners,
+customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be learnedly
+proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended from
+those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
+draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves
+in spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of
+winter, he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe,
+because our wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard,
+&c. But when, for convenience, we distribute languages, according to
+common understanding, into classes originally different, as we choose
+to consider them, as the Hebrew, the Greek, the Celtic, the Gothic; and
+these again into genera, or families, as the Icelandic, German, Swedish,
+Danish, English; and these last into species, or dialects, as English,
+Scotch, Irish, we then ascribe other meanings to the terms, �same� and
+�different.� In some one of these senses, Barton, and Adair, and Foster,
+and Brerewood, and Moreton, may be right, every one according to his
+own definition of what constitutes �identity.� Romans, indeed, takes a
+higher stand, and supposes a separate creation. On the same unscriptural
+ground, he had but to mount one step higher, to suppose no creation at
+all, but that all things have existed without beginning in time, as
+they now exist, and may for ever exist, producing and reproducing in a
+circle, without end. This would very summarily dispose of Mr. Moreton�s
+learning, and show that the question of Indian origin, like many others,
+pushed to a certain height, must receive the same answer, �Ignoro.� You
+ask if the usage of hunting in circles has ever been known among any of
+our tribes of Indians? It has been practised by them all; and is to this
+day, by those still remote from the settlements of the whites. But their
+numbers not enabling them, like Genghis Khan�s seven hundred thousand,
+to form themselves into circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make
+their circle by firing the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually
+forcing the animals to a centre, they there slaughter them with arrows,
+darts, and other missiles. This is called fire-hunting, and has been
+practised in this State within my time, by the white inhabitants. This
+is the most probable cause of the origin and extension of the vast
+prairies in the western country, where the grass having been of
+extraordinary luxuriance, has made a conflagration sufficient to kill
+even the old as well as the young timber.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
+must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the
+early and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with
+you on this ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing
+that we cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall
+into the same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but
+even those of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these
+can be resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that
+we can turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In
+the mean time, one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is
+necessary; these being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel
+with us. But I respect too much the weighty opinions of others to be
+unyielding on this point, and acquiesce with the prayer, �_quod
+felix faustumque sit_�; adding ever a sincere one for your health and
+happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 15, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
+about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of
+May. Of Lindsay�s Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed
+of himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters
+of mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his
+editor was new to me, and certainly presents itself for the first time
+under unfavorable circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of
+his book; and that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the
+world in the very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing
+private letters which passed between two friends, with no views to their
+ever being made public, is an instance of inconsistency as well as of
+infidelity, of which I would rather be the victim than the author.
+
+By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters, I have been
+enabled to turn to them. They had completely vanished from my memory.
+The last is on the subject of religion, and by its publication will
+gratify the priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations
+against me. They wish it to be believed, that he can have no religion
+who advocates its freedom. This was not the doctrine of Priestley; and I
+honored him for the example of liberality he set to his order. The
+first letter is political. It recalls to our recollection the gloomy
+transactions of the times, the doctrines they witnessed, and the
+sensibilities they excited. It was a confidential communication of
+reflections on these from one friend to another, deposited in his bosom,
+and never meant to trouble the public mind. Whether the character of
+the times is justly portrayed or not, posterity will decide. But on one
+feature of them, they can never decide, the sensations excited in free
+yet firm minds by the terrorism of the day. None can conceive who did
+not witness them, and they were felt by one party only. This letter
+exhibits their side of the medal. The federalists, no doubt, have
+presented the other, in their private correspondences, as well as open
+action. If these correspondences should ever be laid open to the public
+eye, they will probably be found not models of comity towards their
+adversaries. The readers of my letter should be cautioned not to confine
+its view to this country alone. England and its alarmists were equally
+under consideration. Still less must they consider it as looking
+personally towards you. You happen, indeed, to be quoted, because you
+happened to express more pithily than had been done by themselves, one
+of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer to the address of
+the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of Patriotic Addresses,
+page 198.] One of the questions, you know, on which our parties took
+different sides, was on the improvability of the human mind, in science,
+in ethics, in government, &c. Those who advocated reformation of
+institutions, _pari passu_ with the progress of science, maintained that
+no definite limits could be assigned to that progress. The enemies of
+reform, on the other hand, denied improvement, and advocated steady
+adherence to the principles, practices, and institutions of our fathers,
+which they represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of
+excellence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. Although in
+the passage of your answer alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish
+to influence the freedom of inquiry, you predict that that will produce
+nothing more worthy of transmission to posterity than the principles,
+institutions, and systems of education received from their ancestors.
+I do not consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess yourself
+too much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained
+and unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before
+our ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an
+expression lent to the prejudices of your friends; and although I
+happened to cite it from you, the whole letter shows I had them only
+in view. In truth, my dear Sir, we were far from considering you as
+the author of all the measures we blamed. They were placed under the
+protection of your name, but we were satisfied they wanted much of your
+approbation. We ascribed them to their real authors, the Pickerings, the
+Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks, _et id genus omne_, with whom we
+supposed you in a state of _duresse_. I well remember a conversation
+with you in the morning of the day on which you nominated to the Senate
+a substitute for Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience
+under �the legacy of Secretaries which General Washington had left you,�
+and whom you seemed, therefore, to consider as under public protection.
+Many other incidents showed how differently you would have acted with
+less impassioned advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your
+minds were not together. You would do me great injustice, therefore, by
+taking to yourself what was intended for men who were then your secret,
+as they are now your open enemies. Should you write on the subject, as
+you propose, I am sure we shall see you place yourself farther from them
+than from us.
+
+As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave others to
+judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
+shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
+others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
+sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
+reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
+the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
+in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
+truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should
+be different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
+indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
+sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
+tender you the assurance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CX.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
+myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
+suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
+the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
+that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
+trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.
+
+It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed
+to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it
+within the limits of its faculties, �never to borrow a dollar without
+laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and
+the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged
+to the creditors on the public faith.� On such a pledge as this,
+sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable
+interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the
+necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and
+their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable
+consequence, revolution. But the term of redemption must be moderate,
+and, at any rate, within the limits of their rightful powers. But what
+limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is
+to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I
+answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and
+the power of man expire with his life, by nature�s law. Some societies
+give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry;
+some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians.
+The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations.
+Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its
+continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the
+succeeding generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively,
+from one generation to another for ever. We may consider each generation
+as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind
+themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than
+the inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the
+ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for his
+debts, during the continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, the
+reversioner (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated from
+all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is
+determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in
+different climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation.
+I turn, for instance, to Buffon�s tables, of twenty-three thousand nine
+hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at which they happened, and
+I find that of the numbers of all ages living at one moment, half will
+be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. Bat (leaving out minors,
+who have not the power of self-government) of the adults (of twenty-one
+years of age) living at one moment, a majority of whom act for the
+society, one half will be dead in eighteen years and eight months. At
+nineteen years then from the date of a contract, the majority of the
+contractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let this general
+theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual births of
+the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred and
+ninety-four: the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon,
+will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of
+all ages. Of these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine
+thousand two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and
+forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last,
+one hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a
+majority. Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had
+borrowed a sum of money equal to the fee simple value of the State, and
+to have consumed it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day;
+or, if you please, in quarrelling and fighting with their unoffending
+neighbors. Within eighteen years and eight months, one half of the adult
+citizens were dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully
+levy the interest of their debt annually on themselves and their
+fellow-revellers, or fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this
+moment, a new majority have come into place, in their own right, and
+not under the rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are
+they bound to acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation
+as having had a right to eat up the whole soil of their country in
+the course of a life, to alienate it from them (for it would be an
+alienation to the creditors), and would they think themselves either
+legally or morally bound to give up their country, and emigrate to
+another for subsistence? Every one will say no: that the soil is the
+gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the deceased
+generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation on them to
+pay this debt. And although, like some other natural rights, this has
+not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no less a law, and
+ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the same time,
+a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the
+modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with
+blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever accumulating.
+Had this principle been declared in the British bill of rights, England
+would have been placed under the happy disability of waging eternal war,
+and of contracting her thousand millions of public debt. In seeking,
+then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our debts, let us rally
+to this principle, and provide for their payment within the term of
+nineteen years, at the farthest. Our government has not, as yet, begun
+to act on the rule, of loans and taxation going hand in hand. Had any
+loan taken place in my time, I should have strongly urged a redeeming
+tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of
+Congress, we should now set the example of appropriating some particular
+tax, sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within
+a fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your
+committee will render the immortal service of introducing this practice.
+Not that it is expected that Congress should formally declare such a
+principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But
+they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits.
+
+I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet,
+even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. We are an
+agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or
+improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly
+that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and
+that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in
+view. In such a nation there is one and one only resource for loans,
+sufficient to carry them through the expense of a war; and that will
+always be sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual
+in the preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of
+circulating coin. Every one knows, that, although not literally, it is
+nearly true, that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from
+the circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments
+with bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out
+of circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the
+vendor, receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his
+purchases or payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may
+continue to issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits
+of the circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend
+with us, at present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum
+than would be necessary for any war. But this, the only resource
+which the government could command with certainty, the States have
+unfortunately fooled away, nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and
+shavers, under the cover of private banks. Say, too, as an additional
+evil, that the disposable funds of individuals, to this great amount,
+have thus been withdrawn from improvement and useful enterprise, and
+employed in the useless, usurious, and demoralizing practices of bank
+directors and their accomplices. In the war of 1755, our State availed
+itself of this fund by issuing a paper money, bottomed on a specific tax
+for its redemption, and, to insure its credit, bearing an interest of
+five per cent. Within a very short time, not a bill of this emission was
+to be found in circulation. It was locked up in the chests of executors,
+guardians, widows, farmers, &tc. We then issued bills, bottomed on a
+redeeming tax, but bearing no interest. These were readily received, and
+never depreciated a single farthing. In the revolutionary war, the old
+Congress and the States issued bills without interest, and without
+tax. They occupied the channels of circulation very freely, till
+those channels were overflowed by an excess beyond all the calls of
+circulation. But although we have so improvidently suffered the field of
+circulating medium to be filched from us by private individuals, yet I
+think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole, if the States
+will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a tax
+appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure
+preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of
+six per cent., there is no one who would not take them in preference
+to the bank-paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as
+interest: and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private
+hoards to a considerable amount. Their credit once established, others
+might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest: and
+if ever their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills
+alone should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund,
+would reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an
+equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which,
+in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their
+possession of the circulation: but a steady and judicious alternation of
+emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going
+on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right
+to the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer
+the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, _in
+perpetuum_, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of
+charter rights. I believe that every State west and south of Connecticut
+river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would
+follow in time.
+
+Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind
+up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters
+expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they
+would supply with their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate
+tax, and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public
+pulse should indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills
+would make their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks,
+by their solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their
+receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to
+curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering
+up their paper, and running it constantly on them. The national paper
+might thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I
+am not without a hope, that this great, this sole resource for loans
+in an agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the
+nation during war: and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be
+sufficient to carry us through any war; provided, that, in the interval
+between war and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in,
+coin be permitted to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation
+until another war should require its yielding place again to the
+national medium.
+
+But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and
+others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found
+so convenient? I answer, let us have banks: but let them be such as are
+alone to be found in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There
+is not a bank of discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was
+not one when I was there), which offers any thing but cash in exchange
+for discounted bills. No one has a natural right to the trade of a
+money-lender, but he who has the money to lend. Let those then among us,
+who have a monied capital, and who prefer employing it in loans rather
+than otherwise, set up banks, and give cash or national bills for the
+notes they discount. Perhaps, to encourage them, a larger interest than
+is legal in the other cases might be allowed them, on the condition of
+their lending for short periods only. It is from Great Britain we copy
+the idea of giving paper in exchange for discounted bills: and while we
+have derived from that country some good principles of government and
+legislation, we unfortunately run into the most servile imitation of all
+her practices, ruinous as they prove to her, and with the gulph yawning
+before us into which those very practices are precipitating her. The
+unlimited emission of bank-paper has banished all her specie, and is
+now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own statesmen, carrying her
+rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did us, and will do us
+again, and every country permitting paper to be circulated, other than
+that by public authority, rigorously limited to the just measure for
+circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation,
+are at the mercy of those self-created money-lenders, and are prostrated
+by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.
+He who lent his money to the public or to an individual, before the
+institution of the United States bank, twenty years ago, when wheat was
+well sold at a dollar the bushel, and receives now his nominal sum when
+it sells at two dollars, is cheated of half his fortune: and by whom? By
+the banks, which, since that, have thrown into circulation ten dollars
+of their nominal money where there was one at that time.
+
+Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as they
+appear to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point out a
+resource ample enough, without overwhelming war-taxes, for the expense
+of the war, and possibly still recoverable; and that they hold up to
+all future time a resource within ourselves, ever at the command of
+government, and competent to any wars into which we may be forced. Nor
+is it a slight object to equalize taxes through peace and war.
+
+*****
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 21, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 21, 1813.
+
+
+[Illustration: page201]
+
+
+And I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where
+to begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions,
+and contentions which have occurred in our day. I should say with
+Theocritus,
+
+[Illustration: page201a]
+
+But I shall not do it. The _summum bonum_ with me is now truly
+epicurean, ease of body and tranquillity of mind; and to these I wish
+to consign my remaining days. Men have differed in opinion, and been
+divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of
+societies; and in all governments, where they have been permitted freely
+to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the
+United States, have existed through all time. Whether the power of the
+people, or that of the
+
+[Illustration: page202]
+
+should prevail, were questions which kept the States of Greece and Rome
+in eternal convulsions; as they now schismatize every people whose minds
+and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. And in fact, the
+terms of whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil
+history. They denote the temper and constitution of mind of different
+individuals. To come to our own country, and to the times when you and
+I became first acquainted: we well remember the violent parties which
+agitated the old Congress, and their bitter contests. There you and
+I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other
+anti-independents were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy
+of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present
+government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how
+bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and I were
+together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic
+from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should
+confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others hold
+off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should
+be made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
+Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
+delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and
+all were reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into
+motion, the line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties,
+each wishing to give the government a different direction; the one
+to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent
+branches, and to extend their permanence. Here you and I separated for
+the first time: and as we had been longer than most others on the public
+theatre, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen,
+the party which considered you as thinking with them, placed your
+name at their head; the other, for the same reason, selected mine. But
+neither decency nor inclination permitted us to become the advocates
+of ourselves, or to take part personally in the violent contests which
+followed. We suffered ourselves, as you so well expressed it, to be
+passive subjects of public discussion. And these discussions, whether
+relating to men, measures, or opinions, were conducted by the parties
+with an animosity, a bitterness, and an indecency, which had never been
+exceeded. All the resources of reason and of wrath were exhausted
+by each party in support of its own, and to prostrate the adversary
+opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the anti-federalists, the
+other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom. Of this acrimony,
+the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in the debates
+of Congress, of State legislatures, of stump-orators, in addresses,
+answers, and newspaper essays; and to these, without question, may be
+added the private correspondences of individuals; and the less guarded
+in these, because not meant for the public eye, not restrained by the
+respect due to that, but poured forth from the overflowings of the heart
+into the bosom of a friend, as a momentary easement of our feelings.
+In this way and in answers to addresses, you and I could indulge
+ourselves. We have probably done it, sometimes with warmth, often with
+prejudice, but always, as we believed, adhering to truth. I have not
+examined my letters of that day. I have no stomach to revive the memory
+of its feelings. But one of these letters, it seems, has got before the
+public, by accident and infidelity, by the death of one friend to whom
+it was written, and of his friend to whom it had been communicated,
+and by the malice and treachery of a third person, of whom I had never
+before heard, merely to make mischief, and in the same Satanic spirit,
+in which the same enemy had intercepted and published, in 1776, your
+letter animadverting on Dickinson�s character. How it happened that I
+quoted you in my letter to Doctor Priestley, and for whom, and not for
+yourself, the strictures were meant, has been explained to you in my
+letter of the 15th, which had been committed to the post eight days
+before I received yours of the 10th, 11th, and 14th. That gave you the
+reference which these asked to the particular answer alluded to in the
+one to Priestley. The renewal of these old discussions, my friend, would
+be equally useless and irksome. To the volumes then written on these
+subjects, human ingenuity can add nothing new, and the rather, as lapse
+of time has obliterated many of the facts. And shall you and I, my Dear
+Sir, at our age, like Priam of old, gird on the
+
+[Illustration: page203]
+
+Shall we, at our age, become the athletes of party, and exhibit
+ourselves, as gladiators, in the arena of the newspapers? Nothing in the
+universe could induce me to it. My mind has been long fixed to bow to
+the judgment of the world, who will judge by my acts, and will never
+take counsel from me as to what that judgment shall be. If your objects
+and opinions have been misunderstood, if the measures and principles of
+others have been wrongfully imputed to you, as I believe they have been,
+that you should leave an explanation of them, would be an set of justice
+to yourself. I will add, that it has been hoped that you would leave such
+explanations as would place every saddle on its right horse, and replace
+on the shoulders of others the burdens they shifted to yours.
+
+But all this, my friend, is offered merely for your consideration and
+judgment, without presuming to anticipate what you alone are qualified
+to decide for yourself. I mean to express my own purpose only, and the
+reflections which have led to it. To me, then, it appears, that there
+have been differences of opinion and party differences, from the
+first establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same
+question which now divides our own country: that these will continue
+through all future time: that every one takes his side in favor of
+the many, or of the few, according to his constitution, and the
+circumstances in which he is placed: that opinions, which are equally
+honest on both sides, should not affect personal esteem or social
+intercourse: that as we judge between the Claudii and the Gracchi, the
+Wentworths and the Hampdens of past ages, so, of those among us whose
+names may happen to be remembered for a while, the next generations
+will judge, favorably or unfavorably, according to the complexion of
+individual minds, and the side they shall themselves have taken: that
+nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by others,
+and will be said in every age in support of the conflicting opinions on
+government: and that wisdom and duty dictate an humble resignation to
+the verdict of our future peers. I doing this myself, I shall certainly
+not suffer moot questions to affect the sentiments of sincere friendship
+and respect, consecrated to you by so long a course of time, and of
+which I now repeat sincere assurances,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 22, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since my letter of June the 27th, I am in your debt for many; all of
+which I have read with infinite delight. They open a wide field for
+reflection, and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen
+indefinitely. I must follow the good example you have set; and when
+I have not time to take up every subject, take up a single one. Your
+approbation of my outline to Dr. Priestley is a great gratification to
+me; and I very much suspect that if thinking men would have the courage
+to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found
+they do not differ in religious opinions, as much as is supposed. I
+remember to have heard Dr. Priestley say, that if all England would
+candidly examine themselves, and confess, they would find that
+Unitarianism was really the religion of all: and I observe a bill is now
+depending in parliament for the relief of Anti-Trinitarians. It is too
+late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the
+Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that
+the one is not three, and the three are not one: to divide mankind by a
+single letter into
+
+[Illustration: page205]
+
+But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the
+priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and
+they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers,
+live without an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the
+oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand,
+nor therefore believe; for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind
+to an intelligible proposition.
+
+It is with great pleasure I can inform you, that Priestley finished the
+comparative view of the doctrines of the philosophers of antiquity, and
+of Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after. And with
+still greater pleasure, that I can have a copy of his work forwarded
+from Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your
+acceptance, by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after.
+The branch of the work which the title announces, is executed with
+learning and candor, as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a
+little hastily; for he felt himself pressed by the hand of death. The
+Abbe Batteux had, in fact, laid the foundation of this part in his
+�Causes Premieres�; with which he has given us the originals of Ocellus
+and Timzeus, who first committed the doctrines of Pythagoras to writing:
+and Enfield, to whom the Doctor refers, had done it more copiously. But
+he has omitted the important branch, which, in your letter of August the
+9th, you say you have never seen executed, a comparison of the morality
+of the Old Testament with that of the New. And yet, no two things were
+ever more unlike. I ought not to have asked him to give it. He dared
+not. He would have been eaten alive by his intolerant brethren, the
+Cannibal priests. And yet, this was really the most interesting branch
+of the work.
+
+Very soon after my letter to Doctor Priestley, the subject being still
+in my mind, I had leisure, during an abstraction from business for a day
+or two, while on the road, to think a little more on it, and to sketch
+more fully than I had done to him, a syllabus of the matter which I
+thought should enter into the work. I wrote it to Doctor Rush; and there
+ended all my labor on the subject; himself and Doctor Priestley being
+the only depositories of my secret. The fate of my letter to Priestley,
+after his death, was a warning to me on that of Doctor Rush; and at my
+request, his family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original
+letter and syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much interest I
+take in keeping myself clear of religious disputes before the public;
+and especially of seeing my syllabus disembowelled by the Aruspices of
+the modern Paganism. Yet I enclose it to you with entire confidence,
+free to be perused by yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and
+to be returned to me.
+
+You are right in supposing, in one of yours, that I had not read much of
+Priestley�s Predestination, his no-soul system, or his controversy with
+Horsley. But I have read his Corruptions of Christianity, and Early
+Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them, and
+on Middleton�s writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to
+Waterland, as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been
+answered, nor can be answered by quoting historical proofs, as they have
+done. For these facts, therefore, I cling to their learning, so much
+superior to my own.
+
+I now fly off in a tangent to another subject. Marshall, in the first
+volume of his history, chapter 3, p. 180, ascribes the petition to the
+King, of 1774, (1 Journ. Cong. 67) to the pen of Richard Henry Lee. I
+think myself certain, it was not written by him, as well from what I
+recollect to have heard, as from the internal evidence of style. He
+was loose, vague, frothy, rhetorical. He was a poorer writer than his
+brother Arthur; and Arthur�s standing may be seen in his Monitor�s
+Letters, to insure the sale of which, they took the precaution of
+tacking to them a new edition of the Farmer�s Letters; like Mezentius,
+who �_mortua jungebat corpora vivis_.� You were of the committee, and
+can tell me who wrote this petition; and who wrote the Address to the
+Inhabitants of the Colonies, ib. 45. Of the papers of July 1775, I
+recollect well that Mr. Dickinson drew the petition to the King, ib.
+149; I think Robert R. Livingston drew the Address to the Inhabitants of
+Great Britain, ib. 152. Am I right in this? And who drew the Address to
+the People of Ireland, ib. 180? On these questions, I ask of your memory
+to help mine. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIII.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, November 6, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance;
+but since the date of my last, I have received from Mr. Law a letter
+covering a memorial on that subject, which, from its tenor, I conjecture
+must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. This paper
+contains two propositions; the one for issuing treasury notes, bearing
+interest, and to be circulated as money; the other for the establishment
+of a national bank. The first was considered in my former letter; and
+the second shall be the subject of the present.
+
+The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank, suppose of
+thirty millions capital, of which they shall contribute ten millions in
+new six per cent, stock, the States ten millions, and individuals ten
+millions, one half of the two last contributions to be of similar stock,
+for which the parties are to give cash to Congress: the whole, however,
+to be under the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who
+are to name all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having
+any power of interference in its administration. Discounts are to be
+at five per cent., but the profits are expected to be seven per cent.
+Congress then will be paying six per cent, on twenty millions, and
+receiving seven per cent, on ten millions, being its third of the
+institution: so that on the ten millions cash which they receive from
+the States and individuals, they will, in fact, have to pay but five
+per cent, interest. This is the bait. The charter is proposed to be for
+forty or fifty years, and if any future augmentations should take place,
+the individual proprietors are to have the privilege of being the sole
+subscribers for that. Congress are further allowed to issue to the
+amount of three millions of notes, bearing interest, which they are to
+receive back in payment for lands at a premium of five or ten per
+cent., or as subscriptions for canals, roads, and bridges, in which
+undertakings they are, of course, to be engaged. This is a summary
+of the scheme, as I understand it: but it is very possible I may
+not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made
+Unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them. The advantages
+and disadvantages shall be noted promiscuously as they occur; leaving
+out the speculation of canals, &c. which, being an episode only in the
+scheme, may be omitted, to disentangle it as much as we can.
+
+1. Congress are to receive five millions from the States (if they will
+enter into this partnership, which few probably will), and five millions
+from the individual subscribers, in exchange for ten millions of six per
+cent, stock, one per cent, of which, however, they will make on their
+ten millions of stock remaining in bank, and so reduce it, in effect, to
+a loan of ten millions at five per cent, interest. This is good: but
+
+2. They authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions
+of dollars, (three times the capital), which increases our circulating
+medium fifty per cent., depreciates proportionably the present value
+of the dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same
+proportion.
+
+3. This loan of ten millions at five per cent., is to be once for all,
+only. Neither the terms of the scheme, nor their own prudence could ever
+permit them to add to the circulation in the same, or any other way, for
+the supplies of the succeeding years of the war. These succeeding years
+then are to be left unprovided for, and the means of doing it in a great
+measure precluded.
+
+4. The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash
+to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging
+to Congress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to
+themselves, say twenty millions, with which, as no one has a right ever
+to see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time
+for running away, after adding to their booty the proceeds of as much of
+their own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation.
+
+5. The subscribers may be one, two, or three, or more individuals, (many
+single individuals being able to pay in the five millions,) whereupon
+this bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions
+of dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the
+influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it
+will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England herself
+may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal
+and sole subscriber.
+
+6. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of
+relief, for forty or fifty years. That is to say, the eight millions
+of people now existing, for the sake of receiving one dollar and
+twenty-five cents apiece at five per cent, interest, are to subject the
+fifty millions of people who are to succeed them within that term, to
+the payment of forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest,
+which will be payable in the course of the fifty years.
+
+7. But the great and national advantage is to be the relief of the
+present scarcity of money, which is produced and proved by,
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+the troops, ammunition, he.
+
+2. By the cash sent to the frontiers, and the vacuum occasioned in the
+trading towns by that.
+
+3. By the late loans.
+
+4. By the necessity of recurring to shavers with good paper, which the
+existing banks are not able to take up; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications for bank charters, showing that an
+increase of circulating medium is wanting.
+
+Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of an increase of
+medium, one by one.
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+troops, ammunition, &c. Now I had always supposed that war produced
+a diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from
+industrious pursuits, for employment in arms &c. which are totally
+unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of
+ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from
+other branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it
+is but a shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.
+
+2. The cash sent to the frontiers occasions a vacuum in the trading
+towns, which requires a new supply. Let us examine what are the calls
+for money to the frontiers. Not for clothing, tents, ammunition, arms,
+which are all bought in the trading towns. Not for provisions; for
+although these are bought partly in the intermediate country, bank-bills
+are more acceptable there than even in the trading towns. The pay of
+the army calls for some cash; but not a great deal, as bank-notes are as
+acceptable with the military men, perhaps more so; and what cash is sent
+must find its way back again, in exchange for the wants of the upper
+from the lower country. For we are not to suppose that cash stays
+accumulating there for ever.
+
+3. This scarcity has been occasioned by the late loans. But does the
+government borrow money to keep it in their coffers? Is it not instantly
+restored to circulation by payment for its necessary supplies? And are
+we to restore a vacuum of twenty millions of dollars by an emission of
+ninety millions?
+
+4. The want of medium is proved by the recurrence of individuals with
+good paper to brokers at exorbitant interest; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications to the State governments for additional
+banks; New York wanting eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions,
+&c. But say more correctly, the speculators and spendthrifts of New York
+and Pennsylvania, but never consider them as being the States of New
+York and Pennsylvania. These two items shall be considered together.
+
+It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather
+than of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and
+of English writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an
+evil; and excepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is
+not a nation existing, I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation.
+The experiment is going on, however, desperately in England, pretty
+boldly with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which
+opinion experience approves: for I believe it to be one of those cases
+where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by
+ruin. In the mean time, however, let us reason on this new call for a
+national bank.
+
+After the solemn decision of Congress against the renewal of the charter
+of the bank of the United States, and the grounds of that decision (the
+want of constitutional power), I had imagined that question at rest, and
+that no more applications would be made to them for the incorporation
+of banks. The opposition on that ground to its first establishment, the
+small majority by which it was overborne, and the means practised
+for obtaining it, cannot be already forgotten. The law having passed,
+however, by a majority, its opponents, true to the sacred principle
+of submission to a majority, suffered the law to flow through its term
+without obstruction. During this, the nation had time to consider
+the constitutional question, and when the renewal was proposed, they
+condemned it, not by their representatives in Congress only, but by
+express instructions from different organs of their will. Here then
+we might stop, and consider the memorial as answered. But, setting
+authority apart, we will examine whether the legislature ought to comply
+with it, even if they had the power.
+
+Proceeding to reason on this subject, some principles must be premised
+as forming its basis. The adequate price of a thing depends on the
+capital and labor necessary to produce it. (In the term capital, I mean
+to include science, because capital as well as labor has been employed
+to acquire it.) Two things requiring the same capital and labor should
+be of the same price. If a gallon of wine requires for its production
+the same capital and labor with a bushel of wheat, they should be
+expressed by the same price, derived from the application of a common
+measure to them. The comparative prices of things being thus to be
+estimated, and expressed by a common measure, we may proceed to observe,
+that were a country so insulated as to have no commercial intercourse
+with any other, to confine the interchange of all its wants and supplies
+within itself, the amount of circulating medium, as a common measure
+for adjusting these exchanges, would be quite immaterial. If their
+circulation, for instance, were of a million of dollars, and the annual
+produce of their industry equivalent to ten millions of bushels of
+wheat, the price of a bushel of wheat might be one dollar. If, then, by
+a progressive coinage, their medium should be doubled, the price of a
+bushel of wheat might become progressively two dollars, and without,
+inconvenience. Whatever be the proportion of the circulating medium to
+the value of the annual produce of industry, it may be considered as the
+representative of that industry. In the first case, a bushel of wheat
+will be represented by one dollar; in the second, by two dollars. This
+is well explained by Hume, and seems admitted by Adam Smith, (B. 2. c.
+2. 436, 441, 490.) But where a nation is in a full course of interchange
+of wants and supplies with all others, the proportion of its medium
+to its produce is no longer indifferent, (lb. 441.) To trade on equal
+terms, the common measure of values should be as nearly as possible on
+a par with that of its corresponding nations, whose medium is in a
+sound state; that is to say, not in an accidental state of excess or
+deficiency. Now, one of the great advantages of specie as a medium is,
+that being of universal value, it will keep itself at a general level,
+flowing out from where it is too high into parts where it is lower.
+Whereas, if the medium be of local value only, as paper-money, if too
+little, indeed, gold and silver will flow in to supply the deficiency;
+but if too much, it accumulates, banishes the gold and silver not locked
+up in vaults and hoards, and depreciates itself; that is to say, its
+proportion to the annual produce of industry being raised, more of it
+is required to represent any particular article of produce than in
+the other countries. This is agreed by Smith (B. 2. c. 2. 437.), the
+principal advocate for a paper circulation; but advocating it on the
+sole condition that it be strictly regulated. He admits, nevertheless,
+that �the commerce and industry of a country cannot be so secure when
+suspended on the Daedalian wings of paper-money, as on the solid ground
+of gold and silver; and that in time of war the insecurity is greatly
+increased, and great confusion possible where the circulation is for the
+greater part in paper.�(B. 2. c. 2. 484.) But in a country where loans
+are uncertain, and a specie circulation the only sure resource for them,
+the preference of that circulation assumes a far different degree of
+importance, as is explained in my former letters.
+
+The only advantage which Smith proposes by substituting paper in the
+room of gold and silver money (B. 2. c. 2. 434.), is, �to replace an
+expensive instrument with one much less costly, and sometimes equally
+convenient�; that is to say, (page 437,) to allow the gold and silver
+to be sent abroad and converted into foreign goods,� and to substitute
+paper as being a cheaper measure. But this makes no addition to the
+stock or capital of the nation. The coin sent out was worth as much,
+while in the country, as the goods imported and taking its place. It
+is only, then, a change of form in a part of the national capital, from
+that of gold and silver to other goods. He admits, too, that while a
+part of the goods received in exchange for the coin exported, may be
+materials, tools, and provisions for the employment of an additional
+industry, a part also may be taken back in foreign wines, silks, &c.
+to be consumed by idle people who produce nothing; and so far the
+substitution promotes prodigality, increases expense and consumption,
+without increasing production. So far also, then, it lessens the capital
+of the nation. What may be the amount which the conversion of the part
+exchanged for productive goods, may add to the former productive mass,
+it is not easy to ascertain, because, as he says, (page 441,) �It is
+impossible to determine what is the proportion which the circulating
+money of any country bears to the whole value of the annual produce. It
+has been computed by different authors, from a fifth* to a thirtieth of
+that value.�
+
+     * The real cash or money necessary to carry on the
+     circulation and barter of a State, is nearly one third part
+     of all the annual rents of the proprietors of the said
+     State; that is, one ninth of the whole produce of the land.
+     Sir William Petty supposes one tenth part of the value of
+     the whole produce sufficient. Postlethwayt, _voce_, Cash.
+
+In the United States it must be less than in any other part of the
+commercial world; because the great mass of their inhabitants being
+in responsible circumstances, the great mass of their exchanges in the
+country is effected on credit, in their merchant�s ledger, who supplies
+all their wants through the year, and at the end of it receives the
+produce of their farms, or other articles of their industry. It is a
+fact, that a farmer, with a revenue of ten thousand dollars a year, may
+obtain all his supplies from his merchant, and liquidate them at the end
+of the year, by the sale of his produce to him, without the intervention
+of a single dollar of cash. This, then, is merely barter, and in this
+way of barter a great portion of the annual produce of the United States
+is exchanged without the intermediation of cash. We might safely,
+then, state our medium at the minimum of one thirtieth. But what is
+one thirtieth of the value of the annual produce of the industry of the
+United States? Or what is the whole value of the annual produce of the
+United States? An able writer and competent judge of the subject, in
+1799, on as good grounds as probably could be taken, estimated it, on
+the then population of four and a half millions of inhabitants, to
+be thirty-seven and a half millions sterling, or one hundred and
+sixty-eight and three fourths millions of dollars. See Cooper�s
+Political Arithmetic, page 47. According to the same estimate, for our
+present population it will be three hundred millions of dollars, one
+thirtieth of which, Smith�s minimum, would be ten millions, and
+one fifth, his maximum, would be sixty millions for the quantum of
+circulation. But suppose, that, instead of our needing the least
+circulating medium of any nation, from the circumstance before
+mentioned, we should place ourselves in the middle term of the
+calculation, to wit, at thirty-five millions. One fifth of this, at
+the least, Smith thinks should be retained in specie, which would leave
+twenty-eight millions of specie to be exported in exchange for other
+commodities; and if fifteen millions of that should be returned in
+productive goods, and not in articles of prodigality, that would be the
+amount of capital which this operation would add to the existing mass.
+But to what mass? Not that of the three hundred millions, which is only
+its gross annual produce; but to that capital of which the three hundred
+millions are but the annual produce. But this being gross, we may infer
+from it the value of the capital by considering that the rent of lands
+is generally fixed at one third of the gross produce, and is deemed its
+nett profit, and twenty times that its fee simple value. The profits on
+landed capital may, with accuracy enough for our purpose, be supposed
+on a par with those of other capital. This would give us then for
+the United States, a capital of two thousand millions, all in active
+employment, and exclusive of unimproved lands lying in a great degree
+dormant. Of this, fifteen millions would be the hundred and thirty-third
+part. And it is for this petty addition to the capital of the nation,
+this minimum of one dollar, added to one hundred and thirty-three and a
+third, or three fourths per cent., that we are to give up our gold and
+silver medium, its intrinsic solidity, its universal value, and its
+saving powers in time of war, and to substitute for it paper, with all
+its train of evils, moral, political, and physical, which I will not
+pretend to enumerate.
+
+There is another authority to which we may appeal for the proper
+quantity of circulating medium for the United States. The old Congress,
+when we were estimated at about two millions of people, on a long and
+able discussion, June the 22nd, 1775, decided the sufficient quantity to
+be two millions of dollars, which sum they then emitted.* According to
+this, it should be eight millions, now that we are eight millions of
+people. This differs little from Smith�s minimum of ten millions, and
+strengthens our respect for that estimate.
+
+     * Within five months after this they were compelled, by the
+     necessities of the war, to abandon the idea of emitting only
+     an adequate circulation, and to make those necessities the
+     sole measure of their emissions.
+
+There is, indeed, a convenience in paper; its easy transmission from one
+place to another. But this may be mainly supplied by bills of exchange,
+so as to prevent any great displacement of actual coin. Two places
+trading together balance their dealings, for the most part, by their
+mutual supplies, and the debtor individuals of either may, instead of
+cash, remit the bills of those who are creditors in the same dealings;
+or may obtain them through some third place with which both have
+dealings. The cases would be rare where such bills could not be
+obtained, either directly or circuitously, and too unimportant to the
+nation to overweigh the train of evils flowing from paper circulation.
+
+From eight to thirty-five millions then being our proper circulation,
+and two hundred millions the actual one, the memorial proposes to issue
+ninety millions more, because, it says, a great scarcity of money is
+proved by the numerous applications for banks; to wit, New York for
+eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions, &c. The answer to this
+shall be quoted, from Adam Smith (B. 2, c. 2, page 462), where speaking
+of the complaints of the traders against the Scotch bankers, who had
+already gone too far in their issues of paper, he says, �Those traders
+and other undertakers having got so much assistance from banks, wished
+to get still more. The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend
+their credits to whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any
+other expense besides that of a few reams of paper. They complained
+of the contracted views and dastardly spirit of the directors of those
+banks, which did not, they said, extend their credits in proportion to
+the extension of the trade of the country; meaning, no doubt, by the
+extension of that trade, the extension of their own projects beyond what
+they could carry on, either with their own capital, or with what they
+had credit to borrow of private people in the usual way of bond or
+mortgage. The banks, they seem to have thought, were in honor bound to
+supply the deficiency, and to provide them with all the capital
+which they wanted to trade with.� And again (page 470): �When bankers
+discovered that certain projectors were trading, not with any capital
+of their own, but with that which they advanced them, they endeavored
+to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and greater difficulties
+about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and enraged in the highest
+degree those projectors. Their own distress, of which this prudent and
+necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the immediate occasion, they
+called the distress of the country; and this distress of the country,
+they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity, and bad
+conduct of the banks, which did not give a sufficiently liberal aid to
+the spirited undertakings of those who exerted themselves in order to
+beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was the duty of the banks,
+they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time, and to as great an
+extent, as they might wish to borrow.� It is, probably, the good paper
+of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks being unable to
+discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the risk of this
+good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal interest, to
+the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had rather try
+trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other laborious
+calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) �That the industry of Scotland
+languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the famous
+Mr. Law. By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which he seems to
+have imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of all
+the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money. It
+was afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the Duke of Orleans, at
+that time Regent of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying
+paper to almost any extent, was the real foundation of what is called
+the Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project both of banking and
+stockjobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw. The principles upon
+which it was founded are explained by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse
+concerning money and trade, which he published in Scotland when he first
+proposed his project. The splendid but visionary ideas which are set
+forth in that and some other works upon the same principles, still
+continue to make an impression upon many people, and have perhaps,
+in part, contributed to that excess of banking which has of late been
+complained of both in Scotland and in other places.� The Mississippi
+scheme, it is well known, ended in France in the bankruptcy of the
+public treasury, the crush of thousands and thousands of private
+fortunes, and scenes of desolation and distress equal to those of an
+invading army, burning and laying waste all before it.
+
+At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about �a
+public debt being a public blessing�; that the stock representing it was
+a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers
+in dreams, and the gulls of that size entered _bon� fide_ into it. But
+the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It
+is established on the principle, that �private debts are a public
+blessing;� that the evidences of those private debts, called bank-notes,
+become active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for
+instance, who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our
+debt about two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they
+are, where they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when
+called on; nay, who have made us so sensible of the blessings of
+letting them run in our debt, that we have exempted them by law from the
+repayment of these debts beyond a given proportion, (generally estimated
+at one third.) And to fill up the measure of blessing, instead of
+paying, they receive an interest on what they owe from those to whom
+they owe; for all the notes, or evidences of what they owe, which we
+see in circulation, have been lent to somebody on an interest which is
+levied again on us through the medium of commerce. And they are so ready
+still to deal out their liberalities to us, that they are now willing to
+let themselves run in our debt ninety millions more, on our paying them
+the same premium of six or eight per cent, interest, and on the same
+legal exemption from the repayment of more than thirty millions of the
+debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look at this principle
+in its original form, and its copy will then be equally understood.
+�A public debt is a public blessing.� That our debt was juggled from
+forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount, according
+to this opinion, was a great public blessing, because the evidences of
+it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into active capital,
+and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active capital was
+created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in commerce the
+money due them from the public, and make from it an annual profit of
+five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that the
+public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the
+same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to
+either party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in
+the state of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from
+the public, of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on
+which he is receiving an annual interest. He wishes, however, to have
+the money itself, and to go into business with it. B has an equal sum of
+money in business, but wishes now to retire, and live on the interest.
+He therefore gives it to A, in exchange for A�s certificates of public
+stock. Now, then, A has the money to employ in business, which B so
+employed before. B has the money on interest to live on, which A lived
+on before: and the public pays the interest to B, which they paid to
+A before. Here is no new creation of capital, no additional money
+employed, nor even a change in the employment of a single dollar.
+The only change is of place between A and B, in which we discover no
+creation of capital, nor public blessing. Suppose, again, the public to
+owe nothing. Then A not having lent his money to the public, would be
+in possession of it himself, and would go into business without the
+previous operation of selling stock. Here again, the same quantity of
+capital is employed as in the former case, though no public debt exists.
+In neither case is there any creation of active capital, nor other
+difference than that there is a public debt in the first case, and none
+in the last; and we may safely ask which of the two situations is most
+truly a public blessing? If, then, a public debt be no public blessing,
+we may pronounce _a fortiori_, that a private one cannot be so. If the
+debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to any body, it is to
+themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of eight or ten
+per cent, on it. As to the public, these companies have banished all our
+gold and silver medium, which, before their institution, we had without
+interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and would have
+been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of which, they have
+given us two hundred millions of froth and bubble, on which we are to
+pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air, as Morris�s
+notes did. We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody on the
+principle of �a public debt being a public blessing,� and its mutation
+into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as ridiculous
+as the original principle itself. In both cases, the truth is, that
+capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy: but
+jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with
+paper. I have called the actual circulation of bank paper in the United
+States, two hundred millions of dollars. I do not recollect where I have
+seen this estimate; but I retain the impression that I thought it just
+at the time. It may be tested, however, by a list of the banks now in
+the United States, and the amount of their capital. I have no means of
+recurring to such a list for the present day: but I turn to two lists in
+my possession for the years of 1803 and 1804.
+
+In 1803, there were thirty-four banks, whose capital was $28,902,000
+
+In 1804, there were sixty-six, consequently thirty-two additional ones.
+Their capital is not stated, but at the average of the others (excluding
+the highest, that of the United States, which was of ten millions)
+they would be of six hundred thousand dollars each, and
+add.........19,200,000
+
+Making a total of........ $48,102,000
+
+or say, of fifty millions in round numbers. Now every one knows the
+immense multiplication of these institutions since 1804. If they have
+only doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if
+trebled, as I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty
+millions, on which they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount.
+I should sooner, therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below
+than above the actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary
+document, (see Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other
+public papers of about that date) it appears that six years ago, the
+bank of England had twelve millions of pounds sterling in circulation,
+which had increased to forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and
+eighty-nine millions of dollars. What proportion all the other banks may
+add to this, I do not know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal
+it, this would give a circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight
+millions, or the double of ours on a double population. But that nation
+is essentially commercial, ours essentially agricultural, and needing,
+therefore, less circulating medium, because the produce of the
+husbandman comes but once a year, and is then partly consumed at home,
+partly exchanged by barter. The dollar, which was of four shillings and
+six pence sterling, was, by the same document, stated to be then six
+shillings and nine pence, a depreciation of exactly fifty per cent. The
+average price of wheat on the continent of Europe, at the commencement
+of its present war with England, was about a French crown, of one
+hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it was one hundred cents, and
+consequently we could send it there in competition with their own.
+That ordinary price has now doubled with us, and more than doubled in
+England; and although a part of this augmentation may proceed from the
+war demand, yet from the extraordinary nominal rise in the prices of
+land and labor here, both of which have nearly doubled in that period,
+and are still rising with every new bank, it is evident that were
+a general peace to take place to-morrow, and time allowed for the
+re-establishment of commerce, justice, and order, we could not afford
+to raise wheat for much less than two dollars, while the continent of
+Europe, having no paper circulation, and that of its specie not being
+augmented, would raise it at their former price of one hundred and ten
+cents. It follows, then, that with our redundancy of paper, we cannot,
+after peace, send a bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary
+circumstances double its price in particular places, and that then the
+exporting countries of Europe could undersell us. It is said our paper
+is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank
+where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have
+it: but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave
+a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form.
+It is a fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants of the
+banking cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of
+the vaults would hold out; but distance puts it out of the power of the
+country to do this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston
+bank, distant hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash.
+And while these calls are impracticable for the country, the banks have
+no fear of their being made from the towns; because their inhabitants
+are mostly on their books, and there on sufferance only and during good
+behavior.
+
+In this state of things, we are called on to add ninety millions more
+to the circulation. Proceeding in this career, it is infallible, that we
+must end where the revolutionary paper ended. Two hundred millions was
+the whole amount of all the emissions of the old Congress, at which
+point their bills ceased to circulate. We are now at that sum; but with
+treble the population, and of course a longer tether. Our depreciation
+is, as yet, but at about two for one. Owing to the support its credit
+receives from the small reservoirs of specie in the vaults of the banks,
+it is impossible to say at what point their notes will stop. Nothing
+is necessary to effect it but a general alarm; and that may take
+place whenever the public shall begin to reflect on, and perceive, the
+impossibility that the banks should repay this sum. At present, caution
+is inspired no farther than to keep prudent men from selling property
+on long payments. Let us suppose the panic to arise at three hundred
+millions, a point to which every session of the legislatures hastens
+us by long strides. Nobody dreams that they would have three hundred
+millions of specie to satisfy the holders of their notes. Were they even
+to stop now, no one supposes they have two hundred millions in cash, or
+even the sixty-six and two-thirds millions, to which amount alone the
+law obliges them to repay. One hundred and thirty-three and one-third
+millions of loss, then, is thrown on the public by law; and as to the
+sixty-six and two-thirds, which they are legally bound to pay, and ought
+to have in their vaults, every one knows there is no such amount of cash
+in the United States, and what would be the course with what they really
+have there? Their notes are refused. Cash is called for. The inhabitants
+of the banking towns will get what is in the vaults, until a few banks
+declare their insolvency; when, the general crush becoming evident, the
+others will withdraw even the cash they have, declare their bankruptcy
+at once, and leave an empty house and empty coffers for the holders of
+their notes. In this scramble of creditors, the country gets nothing,
+the towns but little. What are they to do? Bring suits? A million of
+creditors bring a million of suits against John Nokes and Robert Styles,
+wheresoever to be found? All nonsense. The loss is total. And a sum is
+thus swindled from our citizens, of seven times the amount of the real
+debt, and four times that of the factitious one of the United States,
+at the close of the war. All this they will justly charge on their
+legislatures; but this will be poor satisfaction for the two or three
+hundred millions they will have lost. It is time, then, for the public
+functionaries to look to this. Perhaps it may not be too late. Perhaps,
+by giving time to the banks, they may call in and pay off their paper
+by degrees. But no remedy is ever to be expected while it rests with
+the State legislatures. Personal motives can be excited through so many
+avenues to their will, that, in their hands, it will continue to go on
+from bad to worse, until the catastrophe overwhelms us. I still
+believe, however, that on proper representations of the subject, a great
+proportion of these legislatures would cede to Congress their power of
+establishing banks, saving the charter rights already granted. And this
+should be asked, not by way of amendment to the constitution, because
+until three fourths should consent, nothing could be done; but accepted
+from them one by one, singly, as their consent might be obtained. Any
+single State, even if no other should come into the measure, would find
+its interest in arresting foreign bank-paper immediately, and its own
+by degrees. Specie would flow in on them as paper disappeared. Their
+own banks would call in and pay off their notes gradually, and their
+constituents would thus be saved from the general wreck. Should the
+greater part of the States concede, as is expected, their power over
+banks to Congress, besides insuring their own safety, the paper of
+the non-conceding States might be so checked and circumscribed, by
+prohibiting its receipt in any of the conceding States, and even in the
+non-conceding as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other demands of the
+United States, or of the citizens of other States, that it would
+soon die of itself, and the medium of gold and silver be universally
+restored. This is what ought to be done. But it will not be done.
+_Carthago non delebitur_. The overbearing clamor of merchants,
+speculators, and projectors, will drive us before them with our eyes
+open, until, as in France, under the Mississippi bubble, our citizens
+will be overtaken by the crash of this baseless fabric, without
+other satisfaction than that of execrations on the heads of those
+functionaries, who, from ignorance, pusillanimity, or corruption, have
+betrayed the fruits of their industry into the hands of projectors and
+swindlers.
+
+When I speak comparatively of the paper emissions of the old Congress
+and the present banks, let it not be imagined that I cover them under
+the same mantle. The object of the former was a holy one; for if ever
+there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us
+independence. The object of the latter, is to enrich swindlers at the
+expense of the honest and industrious part of the nation.
+
+The sum of what has been said is, that pretermitting the constitutional
+question on the authority of Congress, and considering this application
+on the grounds of reason alone, it would be best that our medium should
+be so proportioned to our produce, as to be on a par with that of the
+countries with which we trade, and whose medium is in a sound state:
+that specie is the most perfect medium, because it will preserve its own
+level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die
+in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of
+war: that the trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its
+convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the
+advantages of the precious metals: that it is liable to be abused, has
+been, is, and for ever will be abused, in every country in which it is
+permitted; that it is already at a term of abuse in these States, which
+has never been reached by any other nation, France excepted, whose
+dreadful catastrophe should be a warning against the instrument which
+produced it: that we are already at ten or twenty times the due quantity
+of medium; insomuch, that no man knows what his property is now worth,
+because it is bloating while he is calculating; and still less what
+it will be worth when the medium shall be relieved from its present
+dropsical state: and that it is a palpable falsehood to say we can have
+specie for our paper whenever demanded. Instead, then, of yielding to
+the cries of scarcity of medium set up by speculators, projectors, and
+commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be spared to begin the work of
+reducing it by such gradual means as may give time to private fortunes
+to preserve their poise, and settle down with the subsiding medium; and
+that, for this purpose, the States should be urged to concede to the
+General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive
+power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
+
+To the existence of banks of discount for cash, as on the continent of
+Europe, there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of
+abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals.
+I think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than
+legal, interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion
+as the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those
+of a year or more. Even banks of deposite, where cash should be lodged,
+and a paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled
+to a return of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances,
+travelling persons, he. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered
+and robbed, and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued
+without deposite, it would require skilful and strict regulation. This
+would differ from the bank of Amsterdam, in the circumstance that the
+cash could be re-demanded on returning the note.
+
+When I commenced this letter to you, my dear Sir, on Mr. Law�s memorial,
+I expected a short one would have answered that. But as I advanced, the
+subject branched itself before me into so many collateral questions,
+that even the rapid views I have taken of each have swelled the volume
+of my letter beyond my expectations, and, I fear, beyond your patience.
+Yet on a revisal of it, I find no part which has not so much bearing on
+the subject as to be worth merely the time of perusal. I leave it
+then as it is; and will add only the assurances of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 13, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of August the 22nd, I have received your favors of August the
+16th, September the 2nd, 14th, 15th, and, and Mrs. Adams�s, of September
+the 20th. I now send you, according to your request, a copy of the
+syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with
+nerves, muscles, and flesh, is really beyond my time and information.
+Whoever could undertake it, would find great aid in Enfield�s judicious
+abridgment of Brucker�s History of Philosophy, in which he has reduced
+five or six quarto volumes, of one thousand pages each of Latin closely
+printed, to two moderate octavos of English open type.
+
+To compare the morals of the Old, with those of the New Testament, would
+require an attentive study of the former, a search through all its books
+for its precepts, and through all its history for its practices, and the
+principles they prove. As commentaries, too, on these, the philosophy of
+the Hebrews must be inquired into, their Mishna, their Gemara,
+Cabbala, Jezirah, Sonar, Cosri, and their Talmud, must be examined and
+understood, in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it would seem,
+has gone deeply into these repositories of their ethics, and Enfield his
+epitomizer, concludes in these words. �Ethics were so little understood
+among the Jews, that, in their whole compilation called the Talmud,
+there is only one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of morals
+chiefly consisted in a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of
+Moses were deduced six hundred and thirteen precepts, which were divided
+into two classes, affirmative and negative, two hundred and forty-eight
+in the former, and three hundred and sixty-five in the latter. It may
+serve to give the reader some idea of the low state of moral philosophy
+among the Jews in the middle age, to add, that of the two hundred
+and forty-eight affirmative precepts, only three were considered as
+obligatory upon women; and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was
+judged sufficient to fulfil any one single law in the hour of death;
+the observance of the rest being deemed necessary, only to increase the
+felicity of the future life. What a wretched depravity of sentiment
+and manners must have prevailed, before such corrupt maxims could have
+obtained credit! It is impossible to collect from these writings a
+consistent series of moral doctrine. (Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.) It
+was the reformation of this wretched depravity of morals which Jesus
+undertook. In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should
+have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been
+muffled by priests who have travestied them into various forms, as
+instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the
+Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the
+Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations,
+their Logos and Demiurgos, �ons, and Daemons, male and female, with a
+long train of &c. &c. &c. or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must
+reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the
+very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphiboligisms into which
+they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had
+fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta,
+and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood
+themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and
+benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have
+performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out
+of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his,
+and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds, in a dunghill. The
+result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated
+doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the unlettered
+Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians, of the first
+century. Their Platonizing successors, indeed, in after times, in order
+to legitimate the corruptions which they had incorporated into the
+doctrines of Jesus, found it necessary to disavow the primitive
+Christians, who had taken their principles from the mouth of Jesus
+himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers cotemporary with them. They
+excommunicated their followers as heretics, branding them with the
+opprobrious name of Ebionites and Beggars. For a comparison of the
+Grecian philosophy with that of Jesus, materials might be largely drawn
+from the same source. Enfield gives a history and detailed account of
+the opinions and principles of the different sects. These relate to
+the Gods, their natures, grades, places, and powers; the demi-Gods and
+Demons, and their agency with man; the universe, its structure, extent,
+and duration; the origin of things from the elements of fire, water,
+air, and earth; the human soul, its essence and derivation; the _summum
+bonum_, and _finis bonorum_; with a thousand idle dreams and fancies on
+these and other subjects, the knowledge of which is withheld from man;
+leaving but a short chapter for his moral duties, and the principal
+section of that given to what he owes himself, to precepts for
+rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the evils of life, and for
+preserving his mind in a state of constant serenity.
+
+Such a canvass is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of
+one whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life.
+We must leave, therefore, to others, younger and more learned than
+we are, to prepare this euthanasia for Platonic Christianity, and its
+restoration to the primitive simplicity of its founder. I think you give
+a just outline of the theism of the three religions, when you say that
+the principle of the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and
+of the Christian the love of God.
+
+An expression in your letter of September the 14th, that �the human
+understanding is a revelation from its maker,� gives the best solution
+that I believe can be given of the question, �What did Socrates mean by
+his Daemon?� He was too wise to believe, and too honest to pretend, that
+he had real and familiar converse with a superior and invisible being.
+He probably considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason,
+as revelations, or inspirations from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on
+important occasions, by a special superintending providence.
+
+I acknowledge all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which
+you ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct
+imagination can permit itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being
+so superlative, the hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be
+followed with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation
+in giving him the palm over all the hymnists of every language, and of
+every time. Turn to the 148th psalm in Brady and Tate�s version. Have
+such conceptions been ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th
+psalm is more to be esteemed for its pithiness than its poetry. Even
+Sternhold, the leaden Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the
+sublimity of his original, and expresses the majesty of God descending
+on the earth, in terms not unworthy of the subject.
+
+[Illustration: page225]
+
+The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are but
+mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
+
+The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian dissenters
+of Liverpool, in their printed form of prayer; but they are not always
+the best versions. Indeed, bad is the best of the English versions; not
+a ray of poetical genius having ever been employed on them. And how much
+depends on this, may be seen by comparing Brady and Tate�s 15th psalm
+with Blacklock�s _Justum et tenacem propositi virum_ of Horace, quoted
+in Hume�s History, Car. 2. ch. 66. A translation of David in this style,
+or in that of Pompei�s Cleanthes, might give us some idea of the merit
+of the original. The character, too, of the poetry of these hymns is
+singular to us; written in monostichs, each divided into strophe
+and antistrophe, the sentiment of the first member responded with
+amplification or antithesis in the second.
+
+On the subject of the Postscript of yours of August the 16th and of Mrs.
+Adams�s letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has
+caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there
+is no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us,
+which experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time
+and silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can
+suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings
+up, until recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 28, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the
+subjects of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of
+August the 16th and September the 2nd.
+
+The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than
+a political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
+
+[Illustration: page226]
+
+and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who,
+while with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by
+employing always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement
+of his own race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the
+old, for considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with
+the principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by
+Ocellus in another form;
+
+[Illustration: page226a
+
+which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus
+translated; �Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it
+shall be, in a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and
+sanctity, conjointly, this is what I think right. First, to lay it down
+that we do not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation
+of children. For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have
+not been given by God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the
+procreation of the race. For as it were incongruous for a mortal born
+to partake of divine life, the immortality of the race being taken away,
+God fulfilled the purpose by making the generations uninterrupted
+and continuous. This, therefore, we are especially to lay down as a
+principle, that coition is not for the sake of pleasure.� But nature,
+not trusting to this moral and abstract motive, seems to have provided
+more securely for the perpetuation of the species, by making it the
+effect of the _oestrum_ implanted in the constitution of both sexes.
+And not only has the commerce of love been indulged on this unhallowed
+impulse, but made subservient also to wealth and ambition by marriages,
+without regard to the beauty, the healthiness, the understanding, or
+virtue of the subject from which we are to breed. The selecting the best
+male for a Haram of well chosen females, also, which Theognis seems
+to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless
+improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of
+veritable
+
+[Illustration: page227].
+
+For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
+whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father
+to son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against
+this privileged Solomon and his Haram, and oblige us to continue
+acquiescence under the
+
+[Illustration: page227a],
+
+which Theognis complains of, and to content ourselves with the
+accidental _aristoi_ produced by the fortuitous concourse of breeders.
+For I agree with you, that there is a natural aristocracy among men.
+The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly, bodily powers
+gave place among the _aristoi_. But since the invention of gunpowder
+has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death,
+bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness, and other
+accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction.
+There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth,
+without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the
+first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious
+gift of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of
+society. And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to
+have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue
+and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even
+say, that that form of government is the best, which provides the most
+effectually for a pure selection of these natural _aristoi_ into the
+offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous
+ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its
+ascendancy. On the question, what is the best provision, you and I
+differ; but we differ as rational friends, using the free exercise of
+our own reason, and mutually indulging its errors. You think it best
+to put the pseudo-aristoi into a separate chamber of legislation, where
+they may be hindered from doing mischief by their co-ordinate branches,
+and where, also, they may be a protection to wealth against the Agrarian
+and plundering enterprises of the majority of the people. I think that
+to give them power in order to prevent them from doing mischief, is
+arming them for it, and increasing instead of remedying the evil. For
+if the co-ordinate branches can arrest their action, so may they that of
+the co-ordinates. Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively.
+Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the United States has furnished many
+proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy;
+because enough of these will find their way into every branch of the
+legislation, to protect themselves. From fifteen to twenty legislatures
+of our own, in action for thirty years past, have proved that no fears
+of an equalization of property are to be apprehended from them. I think
+the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our constitutions, to
+leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the _aristoi_
+from the _pseudo-aristoi_, of the wheat from the chaff. In general,
+they will elect the really good and wise. In some instances, wealth may
+corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient degree to endanger
+the society.
+
+It is probable that our difference of opinion may, in some measure, be
+produced by a difference of character in those among whom we live. From
+what I have seen of Massachusetts and Connecticut myself, and still
+more from what I have heard, and the character given of the former by
+yourself, (Vol. I, page 111,) who know them so much better, there seems
+to be in those two States a traditionary reverence for certain families,
+which has rendered the offices of government nearly hereditary in those
+families. I presume that from an early period of your history, members
+of these families happening to possess virtue and talents, have honestly
+exercised them for the good of the people, and by their services have
+endeared their names to them. In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean
+it politically only, not morally. For having made the Bible the common
+law of their land, they seem to have modeled their morality on the story
+of Jacob and Laban. But although this hereditary succession to office
+with you may, in some degree, be founded in real family merit, yet in a
+much higher degree, it has proceeded from your strict alliance of Church
+and State. These families are canonized in the eyes of the people on the
+common principle, �You tickle me, and I will tickle you.� In Virginia,
+we have nothing of this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having been
+secured against rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give themselves the
+trouble of acquiring influence over the people. Of wealth, there were
+great accumulations in particular families, handed down from generation
+to generation, under the English law of entails. But the only object
+of ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the King�s Council. All their
+court then was paid to the crown and its creatures; and they Philipized
+in all collisions between the King and the people. Hence they were
+unpopular; and that unpopularity continues attached to their names. A
+Randolph, a Carter, or a Burwell must have great personal superiority
+over a common competitor, to be elected by the people, even at this
+day. At the first session of our legislature after the Declaration of
+Independence, we passed a law abolishing entails. And this was followed
+by one abolishing the privilege of primogeniture, and dividing the
+lands of intestates equally among all their children, or other
+representatives. These laws, drawn by myself, laid the axe to the root
+of pseudo-aristocracy. And had another which I prepared been adopted by
+the legislature, our work would have been complete. It was a bill for
+the more general diffusion of learning. This proposed to divide every
+county into wards of five or six miles square, like your townships; to
+establish in each ward a free school for reading, writing, and common
+arithmetic; to provide for the annual selection of the best subjects
+from these schools, who might receive, at the public expense, a higher
+degree of education at a district school; and from these district
+schools to select a certain number of the most promising subjects, to
+be completed at an University, where all the useful sciences should
+be taught. Worth and genius would thus have been sought out from every
+condition of life, and completely prepared by education for defeating
+the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts. My proposition
+had, for a further object, to impart to these wards those portions of
+self-government for which they are best qualified, by confiding to them
+the care of their poor, their roads, police, elections, the nomination
+of jurors, administration of justice in small cases, elementary
+exercises of militia; in short, to have made them little republics, with
+a warden at the head of each, for all those concerns which, being under
+their eye, they would better manage than the larger republics of the
+county or State. A general call of ward-meetings by their wardens on the
+same day through the State, would at any time produce the genuine sense
+of the people on any required point, and would enable the State to act
+in mass, as your people have so often done, and with so much effect, by
+their town-meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made a part of
+this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and restored
+to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails and
+descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on
+education would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground
+of moral respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly
+government; and would have completed the great object of qualifying them
+to select the veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, to the
+exclusion of the pseudalists: and the same Theognis, who has furnished
+the epigraphs of your two letters, assures us that
+
+[Illustration: page229]
+
+Although this law has not yet been acted on but in a small and
+inefficient degree, it is still considered as before the legislature,
+with other bills of the revised code, not yet taken up, and I have great
+hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment, call it up,
+and make it the key-stone of the arch of our government.
+
+With respect to aristocracy, we should further consider, that before the
+establishment of the American States, nothing was known to history
+but the man of the old world, crowded within limits either small or
+overcharged, and steeped in the vices which that situation generates. A
+government adapted to such men would be one thing; but a very different
+one, that for the man of these States. Here every one may have land to
+labor for himself, if he chooses; or, preferring the exercise of any
+other industry, may exact for it such compensation as not only to afford
+a comfortable subsistence, but wherewith to provide for a cessation
+from labor in old age. Every one, by his property or by his satisfactory
+situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men
+may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control
+over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands
+of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted
+to the demolition and destruction of every thing public and private. The
+history of the last twenty-five years of France, and of the last forty
+years in America, nay, of its last two hundred years, proves the truth
+of both parts of this observation.
+
+But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man.
+Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and
+the American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
+insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents, and courage,
+against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed
+in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used
+for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could
+not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from
+the panic of this first catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents
+and enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of
+the country, a more governable power from their principles and
+subordination; and rank and birth and tinsel-aristocracy will finally
+shrink into insignificance, even there. This, however, we have no right
+to meddle with. It suffices for us, if the moral and physical condition
+of our own citizens qualifies them to select the able and good for the
+direction of their government, with a recurrence of elections at such
+short periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful servant,
+before the mischief he meditates may be irremediable, I have thus
+stated my opinion on a point on which we differ, not with a view to
+controversy, for we are both too old to change opinions which are the
+result of a long life of inquiry and reflection; but on the suggestion
+of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to die before we have
+explained ourselves to each other. We acted in perfect harmony,
+through a long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence.
+A constitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us thinks
+perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens
+the happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone. If we do
+not think exactly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to
+our country, which, after devoting to it long lives of disinterested
+labor we have delivered over to our successors in life, who will be able
+to take care of it and of themselves.
+
+Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or who may be
+its author, I have heard nothing but through your letter. If the person
+you suspect, it may be known from the quaint, mystical, and hyperbolical
+ideas, involved in affected, newfangled, and pedantic terms, which stamp
+his writings. Whatever it be, I hope your quiet is not to be affected at
+this day by the rudeness or intemperance of scribblers; but that you may
+continue in tranquillity to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of
+our country, until it shall be your own wish to take your seat among the
+_aristoi_ who have gone before you.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVI.--TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814
+
+
+TO THOMAS LIEPER.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had hoped, when I retired from the business of the world, that I
+should have been permitted to pass the evening of life in tranquillity,
+undisturbed by the peltings and passions of which the public papers
+are the vehicles. I see, however, that I have been dragged into the
+newspapers by the infidelity of one with whom I was formerly intimate,
+but who has abandoned the American principles out of which that intimacy
+grew, and become the bigoted partisan of England, and malcontent of his
+own government. In a letter which he wrote me, he earnestly besought me
+to avail our country of the good understanding which subsisted between
+the executive and myself, by recommending an offer of such terms to
+our enemy as might produce a peace, towards which he was confident that
+enemy was disposed. In my answer, I stated the aggressions, the insults,
+and injuries which England had been heaping on us for years, our long
+forbearance in the hope she might be led by time and reflection to a
+sounder view of her own interests, and of their connection with justice
+to us, the repeated propositions for accommodation made by us, and
+rejected by her, and at length her Prince Regent�s solemn proclamation
+to the world, that he would never repeal the orders in council as to
+us, until France should have revoked her illegal decrees as to all
+the world, and her minister�s declaration to ours, that no admissible
+precaution against the impressment of our seamen could be proposed: that
+the unavoidable declaration of war which followed these was accompanied
+by advances for peace, on terms which no American could dispense with,
+made through various channels, and unnoticed and unanswered through
+any: but that if he could suggest any other conditions which we ought
+to accept, and which had not been repeatedly offered and rejected, I was
+ready to be the channel of their conveyance to the government: and, to
+show him that neither that attachment to Bonaparte nor French influence,
+which they allege eternally without believing it, themselves, affected
+my mind, I threw in the two little sentences, of the printed extract
+enclosed in your friendly favor of the 9th ultimo, and exactly these two
+little sentences, from a letter of two or three pages, he has thought
+proper to publish, naked, alone, and with my name, although other parts
+of the letter would have shown that I wished such limits only to the
+successes of Bonaparte, as should not prevent his completely closing
+Europe against British manufactures and commerce; and thereby reducing
+her to just terms of peace with us.
+
+Thus am I situated. I receive letters from all quarters, some from known
+friends, some from those who write like friends, on various subjects.
+What am I to do? Am I to button myself up in Jesuitical reserve, rudely
+declining any answer, or answering in terms so unmeaning, as only
+to prove my distrust? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of
+sentiment with the world? I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits
+and temper. I cannot act as if all men were unfaithful, because some are
+so; nor believe that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather
+be the victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general
+confidence in the honesty of man.
+
+So far as to the breach of confidence which has brought me into the
+newspapers, with a view to embroil me with my friends, by a supposed
+separation in opinion and principle from them. But it is impossible
+there can be any difference of opinion among us on the two propositions
+contained in these two little sentences, when explained, as they were
+explained in the context from which they were insulated. That Bonaparte
+is an unprincipled tyrant, who is deluging the continent of Europe with
+blood, there is not a human being, not even the wife of his bosom, who
+does not see: nor can there, I think, be a doubt as to the line we ought
+to wish drawn between his successes and those of Alexander. Surely none
+of us wish to see Bonaparte conquer Russia, and lay thus at his feet the
+whole continent of Europe. This done, England would be but a breakfast:
+and although I am free from the visionary fears which the votaries of
+England have affected to entertain, because I believe he cannot effect
+the conquest of Europe; yet put all Europe into his hands, and he might
+spare such a force, to be sent in British ships, as I would as lieve
+not have to encounter, when I see how much trouble a handful of British
+soldiers in Canada has given us. No. It cannot be our interest that all
+Europe should be reduced to a single monarchy. The true line of
+interest for us is, that Bonaparte should be able to effect the complete
+exclusion of England from the whole continent of Europe, in order, as
+the same letter said, �by this peaceable engine of constraint, to make
+her renounce her views of dominion over the ocean, of permitting no
+other nation to navigate it but with her license, and on tribute to her,
+and her aggressions on the persons of our citizens who may choose to
+exercise their right of passing over that element.� And this would be
+effected by Bonaparte�s succeeding so far as to close the Baltic against
+her. This success I wished him the last year, this I wish him this
+year; but were he again advanced to Moscow, I should again wish him
+such disasters as would prevent his reaching Petersburg. And were the
+consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war, I would
+rather meet them, than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a single
+hand.
+
+I have gone into this explanation, my friend, because I know you will
+not carry my letter to the newspapers, and because I am willing
+to entrust to your discretion the explaining me to our honest
+fellow-laborers, and the bringing them to pause and reflect, if any of
+them have not sufficiently reflected on the extent of the success we
+ought to wish to Bonaparte, with a view to our own interests only; and
+even were we not men, to whom nothing human should be indifferent. But
+is our particular interest to make us insensible to all sentiments of
+morality? Is it then become criminal, the moral wish that the torrents
+of blood this man is shedding in Europe, the sufferings of so many human
+beings, good as ourselves, on whose necks he is trampling, the burnings
+of ancient cities, devastations of great countries, the destruction of
+law and order, and demoralization of the world, should be arrested, even
+if it should place our peace a little further distant? No. You and
+I cannot differ in wishing that Russia, and Sweden, and Denmark, and
+Germany, and Spain, and Portugal, and Italy, and even England, may
+retain their independence. And if we differ in our opinions about Towers
+and his four beasts and ten kingdoms, we differ as friends, indulging
+mutual errors, and doing justice to mutual sincerity and honesty. In
+this spirit of sincere confidence and affection, I pray God to bless you
+here and hereafter.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVII.--TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES.
+
+Monticello, January 2,1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of November the 25th reached this place December the 21st,
+having been near a month on the way. How this could happen I know not,
+as we have two mails a week both from Fredericksburg and Richmond. It
+found me just returned from a long journey and absence, during which
+so much business had accumulated, commanding the first attentions, that
+another week has been added to the delay.
+
+I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have
+passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
+who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of
+a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which
+we are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and
+lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and
+a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by
+forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been
+produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with
+you; and I have read with great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on
+that subject, which I now return. It is at the same time a perfect model
+of the style of discussion which candor and decency should observe,
+of the tone which renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a
+succinct, correct, and dispassionate history of the origin and progress
+of party among us. It might be incorporated, as it stands, and without
+changing a word, into the history of the present epoch, and would give
+to posterity a fairer view of the times than they will probably derive
+from other sources. In reading it, with great satisfaction, there was
+but a single passage where I wished a little more developement of a very
+sound and catholic idea; a single intercalation to rest it solidly on
+true bottom. It is near the end of the first page, where you make a
+statement of genuine republican maxims; saying, �that the people ought
+to possess as much political power as can possibly consist with the
+order and security of society.� Instead of this, I would say, �that
+the people, being the only safe depository of power, should exercise in
+person every function which their qualifications enable them to exercise
+consistently with the order and security of society; that we now find
+them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
+their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the
+judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that the range of their
+powers ought to be enlarged,� &c. This gives both the reason and
+exemplification of the maxim you express, �that they ought to possess as
+much political power,� &c. I see nothing to correct either in your facts
+or principles.
+
+You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him
+harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic.
+I do not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of
+his mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
+seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think I knew
+General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to
+delineate his character, it should be in terms like these.
+
+His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order;
+his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon,
+or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was
+slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but
+sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of
+the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all
+suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no General
+ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the
+course of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden
+circumstances, he was slow in a re-adjustment. The consequence was, that
+he often failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as
+at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers
+with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his
+character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every
+consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but,
+when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles
+opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I
+have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship
+or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every
+sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was
+naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had
+obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it
+broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he
+was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised
+utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all
+unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections;
+but he exactly calculated every man�s value, and gave him a solid esteem
+proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
+what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best
+horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that could be seen
+on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might
+be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
+his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
+copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on
+for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he
+wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This
+he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education
+was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added
+surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly,
+reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His
+correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing
+his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within
+doors. On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing
+bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did
+nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to
+place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited
+from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny
+and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an
+arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting
+its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and
+principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train;
+and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career,
+civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other
+example. How, then, can it be perilous for you to take such a man on
+your shoulders? I am satisfied the great body of republicans think of
+him as I do. We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on his ratification
+of the British treaty. But this was short-lived. We knew his honesty,
+the wiles with which he was encompassed, and that age had already begun
+to relax the firmness of his purposes; and I am convinced he is more
+deeply seated in the love and gratitude of the republicans, than in the
+Pharisaical homage of the federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist
+from preference of his judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct
+views of the rights of man, and his severe justice devoted him to them.
+He has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as
+an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with
+what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he was
+determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose
+the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these declarations he
+repeated to me the oftener and the more pointedly, because he knew my
+suspicions of Colonel Hamilton�s views, and probably had heard from
+him the same declarations which I had, to wit, �that the British
+constitution, with its unequal representation, corruption, and other
+existing abuses, was the most perfect government which had ever been
+established on earth, and that a reformation of these abuses would make
+it an impracticable government.� I do believe that General Washington
+had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government. He was
+naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions:
+and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at length end in
+something like a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption
+of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress,
+and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us
+gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on
+with as little shock as might be to the public mind.
+
+These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the
+judgment-seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty
+years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the
+Revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us
+to take command of the army. During the war and after it we corresponded
+Occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office
+of Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and
+cordial. After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains
+were taken by our federal monarchists, and not entirely without
+effect, to make him view me as a theorist, holding French principles of
+government, which would lead infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy.
+And to this he listened the more easily, from my known disapprobation
+of the British treaty. I never saw him afterwards, or these malignant
+insinuations should have been dissipated before his just judgment, as
+mists before the sun. I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that
+�verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.�
+
+More time and recollection would enable me to add many other traits of
+his character; but why add them to you, who knew him well? And I cannot
+justify to myself a longer detention of your paper.
+
+_Vale, proprieque tuum me esse tibi persuadeas_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 23d is received. Say had come to hand safely. But I
+regretted having asked the return of him; for I did not find in him one
+new idea on the subject I had been contemplating; nothing more than a
+succinct, judicious digest of the tedious pages of Smith.
+
+You ask my opinion on the question, whether the States can add any
+qualifications to those which the constitution has prescribed for their
+members of Congress? It is a question I had never before reflected on;
+yet had taken up an off-hand opinion, agreeing with your first,
+that they could not: that to add new qualifications to those of the
+constitution, would be as much an alteration, as to detract from them.
+And so I think the House of Representatives of Congress decided in some
+case; I believe that of a member from Baltimore. But your letter having
+induced me to look into the constitution, and to consider the question
+a little, I am again in your predicament, of doubting the correctness of
+my first opinion. Had the constitution been silent, nobody can doubt but
+that the right to prescribe all the qualifications and disqualifications
+of those they would send to represent them, would have belonged to the
+State. So also the constitution might have prescribed the whole, and
+excluded all others. It seems to have preferred the middle way. It has
+exercised the power in part, by declaring some disqualifications, to
+wit, those of not being twenty-five years of age, of not having been a
+citizen seven years, and of not being an inhabitant of the State at the
+time of election. But it does not declare, itself, that the member shall
+not be a lunatic, a pauper, a convict of treason, of murder, of felony,
+or other infamous crime, or a non-resident of his district; nor does
+it prohibit to the State the power of declaring these, or any other
+disqualifications which its particular circumstances may call for: and
+these may be different in different States. Of course, then, by the
+tenth amendment, the power is reserved to the State. If, wherever the
+constitution assumes a single power out of many which belong to the same
+subject, we should consider it as assuming the whole, it would vest
+the General Government with a mass of powers never contemplated. On the
+contrary, the assumption of particular powers seems an exclusion of all
+not assumed. This reasoning appears to me to be sound; but, on so recent
+a change of view, caution requires us not to be too confident, and that
+we admit this to be one of the doubtful questions on which honest men
+may differ with the purest motives; and the more readily, as we find we
+have differed from ourselves on it.
+
+I have always thought, that where the line of demarcation between
+the powers of the General and State governments was doubtfully or
+indistinctly drawn, it would be prudent and praiseworthy in both
+parties, never to approach it but under the most urgent necessity.
+Is the necessity now urgent, to declare that no non-resident of his
+district shall be eligible as a member of Congress? It seems to me that,
+in practice, the partialities of the people are a sufficient security
+against such an election; and that if, in any instance, they should
+ever choose a non-resident, it must be in one of such eminent merit and
+qualifications, as would make it a good, rather than an evil; and that,
+in any event, the examples will be so rare, as never to amount to a
+serious evil. If the case then be neither clear nor urgent, would it not
+be better to let it lie undisturbed? Perhaps its decision may never
+be called for. But if it be indispensable to establish this
+disqualification now, would it not look better to declare such others,
+at the same time, as may be proper? I frankly confide to yourself these
+opinions, or rather no-opinions, of mine; but would not wish to have
+them go any farther. I want to be quiet: and although some circumstances
+now and then excite me to notice them, I feel safe, and happier in
+leaving events to those whose turn it is to take care of them; and, in
+general, to let it be understood, that I meddle little or not at all
+with public affairs. There are two subjects, indeed, which I shall claim
+a right to further as long as I breathe, the public education and the
+subdivision of the counties into wards. I consider the continuance of
+republican government as absolutely hanging on these two hooks. Of the
+first, you will, I am sure, be an advocate, as having already
+reflected on it, and of the last, when you shall have reflected. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 5, 1814
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 5, 1814
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of January the 24th, yours of March the 14th has been
+received. It was not acknowledged in the short one of May the 18th, by
+Mr. Rives, the only object of that having been to enable one of our most
+promising young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. I
+learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned in your letter;
+and I hope Mr. Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored.
+But our machines have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we
+must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now
+a pinion, next a spring, will be giving way; and however we may tinker
+them up for a while, all will at length surcease motion. Our watches,
+with works of brass and steel, wear out within that period. Shall you
+and I last to see the course the seven-fold wonders of the times will
+take? The Attila of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of
+ten millions of the human race, whose thirst for blood appeared
+unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights and liberties of
+the world, shut up within the circuit of a little island of the
+Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and degraded
+pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. How miserably, how
+meanly, has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of the bathos
+will his history present! He should have perished on the swords of his
+enemies, under the walls of Paris.
+
+[Illustration: page240]
+
+But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a
+cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no
+statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil
+government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed
+him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly _des Cinq Cens_,
+eighteenth _Brumaire_ (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as
+a great scoundrel only. To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add
+that of a Czar of Muscovy, dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all
+the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the balance in which the
+fortunes of this new world are suspended. I own, that while I rejoice,
+for the good of mankind, in the deliverance of Europe from the havoc
+which would have never ceased while Bonaparte should have lived in
+power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the ocean remaining in vigor,
+and even participating in the merit of crushing his brother tyrant.
+While the world is thus turned upside down, on which side of it are
+we? All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of peace; the
+interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and even the
+interests of England. Her passions alone are opposed to it. Peace would
+seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed. Her
+orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers,
+and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I
+fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public
+papers, of demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will
+Massachusetts say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered
+as speaking through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of
+its will. She chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens,
+in which we were all interested, and with them her obligations to the
+co-States, rather than war with England. Will she now sacrifice the
+fisheries to the same partialities? This question is interesting to her
+alone; for to the middle, the southern, and western States, they are
+of no direct concern; of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and
+cotton to Massachusetts. I am really at a loss to conjecture what our
+refractory sister will say on this occasion. I know what, as a citizen
+of the Union, I would say to her. �Take this question ad referendum. It
+concerns you alone. If you would rather, give up the fisheries than war
+with England, we give them up. If you had rather fight for them, we will
+defend your interests to the last drop of our blood, choosing rather to
+set a good example than follow a bad one.� And I hope she will determine
+to fight for them. With this, however, you and I shall have nothing
+to do; ours being truly the case wherein �_Non tali auxilio, nec
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.� Quitting this subject, therefore, I
+will turn over another leaf.
+
+I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my
+other home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than here for
+reading, I amused myself with reading seriously Plato�s Republic. I
+am wrong, however, in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest
+task-work I ever went through. I had occasionally before taken up some
+of his other works, but scarcely ever had patience to go through a
+whole dialogue. While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and
+unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself,
+how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to
+give reputation to such nonsense as this. How the soi-disant Christian
+world, indeed, should have done it, is a piece of historical curiosity.
+But how could the Roman good sense do it? And particularly, how could
+Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? Although Cicero did not wield
+the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he was able, learned, laborious,
+practised in the business of the world and honest. He could not be the
+dupe of mere style, of which he was himself the first master in the
+world. With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and
+authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their
+profession, have an interest in the reputation and the dreams of Plato.
+They give the tone while at school, and few in their after years have
+occasion to revise their college opinions. But fashion and authority
+apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his
+sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In
+truth, he is one of the race of genuine sophists, who has escaped the
+oblivion of his brethren, first, by the elegance of his diction, but
+chiefly by the adoption and incorporation of his whimsies into the body
+of artificial Christianity. His foggy mind is for ever presenting the
+semblances of objects which, half seen through a mist, can be defined
+neither in form nor dimension. Yet this, which should have consigned
+him to early oblivion, really procured him immortality of fame and
+reverence. The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ
+levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw
+in the mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up
+an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit
+everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce
+it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from
+the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but
+thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on
+them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained.
+Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and it is
+now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle of
+Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
+of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
+arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
+it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
+the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
+living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts
+of the field or forest. Yet �Plato is a great philosopher,� said La
+Fontaine. But, says Fontenelle, �Do you find his ideas very clear.� �Oh,
+no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.� �Do you not find him full
+of contradictions?� �Certainly,� replied La Fontaine, �he is but a
+sophist.� Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, �Oh, Plato was a
+great philosopher.� Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
+misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
+Socrates.
+
+But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I
+am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not
+receive them as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth
+are born under happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all
+learning in their mother�s womb, and bring it into the world ready made.
+The information of books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which
+is not innate is in contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must
+run its round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning and
+self-sufficiency; of rejecting the knowledge acquired in past ages, and
+starting on the new ground of intuition. When sobered by experience,
+I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of
+education. I mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the
+petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every
+neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, and sometimes
+Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of Euclid,
+imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They commit their
+pupils to the theatre of the world, with just taste enough of learning
+to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not enough to do service
+in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions, indeed. I presented
+one to you lately, and we have some others. But the terms I use are
+general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be seen of
+establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch of
+science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have
+you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I
+mean to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in
+human affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many
+professors only, as might bring them within the views of a just but
+enlightened economy? I should be happy in a communication of your ideas
+on this problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my being run
+away with by another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of
+the present letter, I will here present to Mrs. Adams and yourself, the
+assurance of my constant and sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXX.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been
+received with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the
+ocean of newspaper lies, serves like headlands to correct our course.
+Indeed, my scepticism as to every thing I see in a newspaper, makes me
+indifferent whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in
+August last, I expected would be great in any state of things; but they
+proved greater than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the
+President were wise and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1.
+To the insubordinate temper of Armstrong: and, 2. To the indecision of
+Winder. However, it ends well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check,
+perhaps, the silly boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the
+feelings of the world on our side: and the advantage of public opinion
+is like that of the weather-gage in a naval action. In Europe, the
+transient possession of our Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every
+Capital there was in possession of its enemy some often and long. But
+diabolical as they paint that enemy, he burnt neither public edifices
+nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show that
+Bonaparte, in atrocity, was an infant to their ministers and their
+generals. They are taking his place in the eyes of Europe, and have
+turned into our channel all its good will. This will be worth the
+million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost us.
+I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to
+counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English
+papers, the government will make it a standing instruction to
+their ministers at foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of
+occurrences here, by publishing in their papers the naked truth always,
+whether favorable or unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we
+candidly tell them the bad also.
+
+But you have two more serious causes of uneasiness; the want of men and
+money. For the former, nothing more wise or efficient could have been
+imagined than what you proposed. It would have filled our ranks with
+regulars, and that, too, by throwing a just share of the burthen on the
+purses of those whose persons are exempt either by age or office; and it
+would have rendered our militia, like those of the Greeks and Romans,
+a nation of warriors. But the go-by seems to have been given to your
+proposition, and longer sufferance is necessary to force us to what is
+best. We seem equally incorrigible in our financial course. Although a
+century of British experience has proved to what a wonderful extent the
+funding on specific redeeming taxes enables a nation to anticipitate
+in war the resources of peace, and although the other nations of Europe
+have tried and trodden every path of force or folly in fruitless quest
+of the same object, yet we still expect to find, in juggling tricks and
+banking dreams, that money can be made out of nothing, and in sufficient
+quantity to meet the expenses of a heavy war by sea and land. It is
+said, indeed, that money cannot be borrowed from our merchants as from
+those of England. But it can be borrowed from our people. They will give
+you all the necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt
+trash they now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will
+give them a paper-promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for
+common circulation. But you say the merchants will not take this paper.
+What the people take the merchants must take, or sell nothing. All these
+doubts and fears prove only the extent of the dominion which the
+banking institutions have obtained over the minds of our citizens, and
+especially of those inhabiting cities or other banking places; and this
+dominion must be broken, or it will break us. But here, as in the other
+case, we must make up our mind to suffer yet longer before we can
+get right. The misfortune is, that in the mean time, we shall plunge
+ourselves into inextinguishable debt, and entail on our posterity an
+inheritance of eternal taxes, which will bring our government and people
+into the condition of those of England, a nation of pikes and gudgeons,
+the latter bred merely as food for the former. But, however these two
+difficulties of men and money may be disposed of, it is fortunate that
+neither of them will affect our war by sea. Privateers will find their
+own men and money. Let nothing be spared to encourage them. They are the
+dagger which strikes at the heart of the enemy, their commerce. Frigates
+and seventy-fours are a sacrifice we must make, heavy as it is, to the
+prejudices of a part of our citizens. They have, indeed, rendered a
+great moral service, which has delighted me as much as any one in the
+United States. But they have had no physical effect sensible to the
+enemy; and now, while we must fortify them in our harbors, and keep
+armies to defend them, our privateers are bearding and blockading the
+enemy in their own sea-ports. Encourage them to burn all their prizes,
+and let the public pay for them. They will cheat us enormously. No
+matter; they will make the merchants of England feel, and squeal, and
+cry out for peace.
+
+I much regretted your acceptance of the war department. Not that I know
+a person who I think would better conduct it. But, conduct it ever so
+wisely, it will be a sacrifice of yourself. Were an angel from Heaven
+to undertake that office, all our miscarriages would be ascribed to
+him. Raw troops, no troops, insubordinate militia, want of arms, want of
+money, want of provisions, all will be charged to want of management in
+you. I speak from experience, when I was Governor of Virginia. Without a
+regular in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of
+the militia, invaded by two armies, Arnold�s from the sea-board, and
+Cornwallis�s from the southward,--when we were driven from Richmond and
+Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it
+was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them,
+which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.
+It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not
+till means were brought us by General Washington�s army, and the French
+fleet and army. And although the legislature, who were personally
+intimate with both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and
+thanks, yet General Lee has put all those imputations among the
+romances of his historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and
+uninquisitive readers. Not that I have seen the least disposition to
+censure you. On the contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington
+has met the praises of every one, and your plan for regulars and
+militia, their approbation. But no campaign is as yet opened. No
+generals have yet an interest in shifting their own incompetence on you,
+no army agents, their rogueries. I sincerely pray you may never meet
+censure where you will deserve most praise, and that your own happiness
+and prosperity may be the result of your patriotic services.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, February 14, 1815.
+
+Mr Dear Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and
+again, with extraordinary pleasure. It is the first glimpse which has
+been furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but
+fortunate revolution of your country. The newspapers told us only that
+the great beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted,
+and what the egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were
+awake to their own interests only, the hireling scribblers of the
+English press said little, and knew less. I see now the mortifying
+alternative under which the patriot there is placed, of being either
+silent, or disgraced by an association in opposition with the remains
+of Bonaparteism. A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to
+be expected by your nation; nor am I confident they are prepared
+to preserve it. More than a generation will be requisite, under the
+administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in
+the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent
+security of person and property, before they will be capable of
+estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence
+to the principles on which it rests for preservation. Instead of that
+liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if
+recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes, with an unprepared
+people, a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one. Possibly you
+may remember, at the date of the _jeu de paume_, how earnestly I urged
+yourself and the patriots of my acquaintance to enter then into a
+compact with the King, securing freedom of religion, freedom of the
+press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and a national legislature, all of
+which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and let these work
+on the amelioration of the condition of the people, until they should
+have rendered them capable of more, when occasions would not fail to
+arise for communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought
+them able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought
+otherwise, and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you were
+right; for subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitution
+of 1791. Unfortunately, some of the most honest and enlightened of our
+patriotic friends (but closet politicians merely, unpractised in the
+knowledge of man) thought more could still be obtained and borne. They
+did not weigh the hazards of a transition from one form of government to
+another, the value of what they had already rescued from those hazards,
+and might hold in security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving
+up the certainty of such a degree of liberty, under a limited monarch,
+for the uncertainty of a little more under the form of a republic. You
+differed from them. You were for stopping there, and for securing the
+constitution which the National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you
+were right; and from this fatal error of the republicans, from their
+separation from yourself and the constitutionalists, in their councils,
+flowed all the subsequent sufferings and crimes of the French nation.
+The hazards of a second change fell upon them by the way. The foreigner
+gained time to anarchize by gold the government he could not overthrow
+by arms, to crush in their own councils the genuine republicans, by the
+fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hired pretenders, and to turn the
+machine of Jacobinism from the change to the destruction of order: and,
+in the end, the limited monarchy they had secured was exchanged for
+the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of Robespierre, and the equally
+unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte. You are now rid of him,
+and I sincerely wish you may continue so. But this may depend on the
+wisdom and moderation of the restored dynasty. It is for them now to
+read a lesson in the fatal errors of the republicans; to be contented
+with a certain portion of power, secured by formal compact with the
+nation, rather than, grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty, and
+risk meeting the fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own
+exile. We are just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true,
+their most profound contemplation. The gazettes say, that Ferdinand of
+Spain is dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their
+new constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that
+although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their whole
+length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken place, yet
+that men have by no means fallen back to their former passiveness; but
+on the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a restlessness to
+obtain them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, and, if not quieted
+by reasonable relaxations of power, will break out like a volcano on
+the first occasion, and overwhelm every thing again in its way. I always
+thought the present King an honest and moderate man: and having
+no issue, he is under a motive the less for yielding to personal
+considerations. I cannot, therefore, but hope, that the patriots in and
+out of your legislature, acting in phalanx, but temperately and wisely,
+pressing unremittingly the principles omitted in the late capitulation
+of the King, and watching the occasions which the course of events will
+create, may get those principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by
+the solemnity of a national act.
+
+With us the affairs of war have taken the more favorable turn which
+was to be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, or
+superannuated, all our revolutionary officers of experience and grade;
+and our first draught in the lottery of untried characters had been
+most unfortunate. The delivery of the fort and army of Detroit, by the
+traitor Hull; the disgrace at Queenstown, under Van Rensellaer; the
+massacre at Frenchtown, under Winchester; and surrender of Boerstler
+in an open field to one third of his own numbers, were the inauspicious
+beginnings of the first year of our warfare. The second witnessed but
+the single miscarriage occasioned by the disagreement of Wilkinson and
+Hampton, mentioned in my letter to you of November the 30th, 1813; while
+it gave us the capture of York by Dearborn and Pike; the capture of Fort
+George by Dearborn also; the capture of Proctor�s army on the Thames by
+Harrison, Shelby, and Johnson; and that of the whole British fleet
+on Lake Erie by Perry. The third year has been a continued series of
+victories; to wit, of Brown and Scott at Chippeway; of the same at
+Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie; that of Brown over
+Drummond at the same place; the capture of another fleet on Lake
+Champlain by M�Donough; the entire defeat of their army under Prevost,
+on the same day, by M�Comb, and recently their defeats at New Orleans by
+Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four thousand men out of
+nine thousand and six hundred, with their two Generals, Packingham and
+Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded, mortally, as is said.
+
+This series of successes has been tarnished only by the conflagrations
+at Washington, a _coup de main_ differing from that at Richmond, which
+you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the circumstance only, that
+we had, in that case, but forty-eight hour�s notice that an enemy had
+arrived within our capes; whereas at Washington there was abundant
+previous notice. The force designated by the President was the double of
+what was necessary; but failed, as is the general opinion, through
+the insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack
+intended until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder
+before the occasion, and his indecision during it. Still, in the end,
+the transaction has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general
+indignation of our country, and by marking to the world of Europe the
+Vandalism and brutal character of the English government. It has merely
+served to immortalize their infamy. And add further, that through the
+whole period of the war, we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and
+so thoroughly established our superiority over them with equal force,
+that they retire from that kind of contest, and never suffer their
+frigates to cruise singly. The Endymion would never have engaged the
+frigate President, but knowing herself backed by three frigates and
+a razee, who, though somewhat slower sailors, would get up before she
+could be taken. The disclosure to the world of the fatal secret that
+they can be beaten at sea with an equal force, the evidence furnished by
+the military operations of the last year that experience is rearing us
+officers, who, when our means shall be fully under way, will plant our
+standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax, their recent and signal
+disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of their hopes from the
+Hartford Convention, will probably raise a clamor in the British nation,
+which will force their ministry into peace. I say force them; because,
+willingly, they would never be at peace. The British ministers find in
+a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the various contractors,
+and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of the war supplies,
+that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new ones, and therefore
+will not make peace, as long as by any delusions they can keep the
+temper of the nation up to the war point. They found some hopes on
+the state of our finances. It is true, that the excess of our banking
+institutions, and their present discredit, have shut us out from the
+best source of credit we could ever command with certainty. But the
+foundations of credit still remain to us, and need but skill, which
+experience will soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may
+carry us through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their
+Hartford Convention. Their fears of republican France being now done
+away, they are directed to republican America, and they are playing the
+same game for disorganization here, which they played in your country.
+The Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in
+the same pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to
+anarchize us, that their prototypes in France did there.
+
+I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same motives of
+money: nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, and wish to
+be Ins; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of their own party
+passions; while the Maratists alone are in the real secret: but they
+have very different materials to work on. The yeomanry of the United
+States are not the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them leave to
+go through the United States recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied
+they could not raise one single regiment (gambling merchants and
+silk-stocking clerks excepted), who would support them in any effort to
+separate from the Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood
+of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government
+established on so immovable a basis. Let them, in any State, even in
+Massachusetts itself, raise the standard of separation, and its citizens
+will rise in mass, and do justice themselves on their own incendiaries.
+If they could have induced the government to some effort of suppression,
+or even to enter into discussion with them, it would have given them
+some importance, have brought them into some notice. But they have not
+been able to make themselves even a subject of conversation, either of
+public or private societies. A silent contempt has been the sole notice
+they could excite; consoled, indeed, some of them, by the palpable
+favors of Philip. Have then no fears for us, my friend. The grounds
+of these exist only in English newspapers, endited or endowed by the
+Castlereaghs or the Cannings, or some other such models of pure and
+uncorrupted virtue. Their military heroes, by land and sea, may sink our
+oyster-boats, rob our hen-roosts, burn our negro-huts, and run off. But
+a campaign or two more will relieve them from further trouble or expense
+in defending their American possessions.
+
+You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in Virginia, in
+1781, which I must have lent to some one of the undertakers to write
+the history of the revolutionary war, and forgot to reclaim. I conclude
+this, because it is no longer among my papers, which I have very
+diligently searched for it, but in vain. An author of real ability
+is now writing that part of the history of Virginia. He does it in my
+neighborhood, and I lay open to him all my papers. But I possess none,
+nor has he any, which can enable him to do justice to your faithful and
+able services in that campaign. If you could be so good as to send me
+another copy, by the very first vessel bound to any port of the United
+States, it might be here in time; for although he expects to begin
+to print within a month or two, yet you know the delays of these
+undertakings. At any rate, it might be got in as a supplement. The old
+Count Rochambeau gave me also his memoire of the operations at York,
+which is gone the same way, and I have no means of applying to his
+family for it. Perhaps you could render them as well as us, the service
+of procuring another copy.
+
+I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Tesse.
+They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I have
+sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris once
+more, for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I never
+permitted myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of seventy-three
+at the loss of friends, may be the less, as the time is shorter within
+which we are to meet again, according to the creed of our education.
+
+This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young gentleman of
+Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and preparation for
+a life of distinction, in his own country. He passed a few days with
+me here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams and others, and
+appeared in every respect to merit them. He is well worthy of those
+attentions which you so kindly bestow on our countrymen, and for those
+he may receive I shall join him in acknowledging personal obligations.
+
+I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th; Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. February 26. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I received
+news of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we closed our
+war with the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I consider it as an
+armistice only, because no security is provided against the impressment
+of our seamen. While this is unsettled we are in hostility of mind with
+England, although actual deeds of arms may be suspended by a truce. If
+she thinks the exercise of this outrage is worth eternal war, eternal
+war it must be, or extermination of the one or the other party. The
+first act of impressment she commits on an American, will be answered
+by reprisal, or by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be
+merely a state of preparation for it. In this we have much to do,
+in further fortifying our seaport towns, providing military stores,
+classing and disciplining our militia, arranging our financial, system,
+and above all, pushing our domestic manufactures, which have taken such
+root as never again can be shaken. Once more, God bless you. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXII.*--TO MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. WENDOVER.
+
+Monticello, March 13, 1815.
+
+     [* This is endorsed;� not sent.�]
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 30th was received after long delay on the
+road, and I have to thank you for the volume of Discourses which you
+have been so kind as to send me. I have gone over them with great
+satisfaction, and concur with the able preacher in his estimate of
+the character of the belligerents in our late war, and lawfulness of
+defensive war. I consider the war, with him, as �made on good advice,�
+that is, for just causes, and its dispensation as providential,
+inasmuch, as it has exercised our patriotism and submission to order,
+has planted and invigorated among us arts of urgent necessity, has
+manifested the strong and the weak parts of our republican institutions,
+and the excellence of a representative democracy compared with the
+misrule of Kings, has rallied the opinions of mankind to the natural
+rights of expatriation, and of a common property in the ocean, and
+raised us to that grade in the scale of nations which the bravery and
+liberality of our citizen soldiers, by land and by sea, the wisdom of
+our institutions and their observance of justice, entitled us to in the
+eyes of the world. All this Mr. McLeod has well proved, and from those
+sources of argument particularly which belong to his profession. On one
+question only I differ from him, and it is that which constitutes the
+subject of his first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs
+in the pulpit. I add the last words, because I admit the right in
+general conversation and in writing; in which last form it has been
+exercised in the valuable book you have now favored me with.
+
+The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the field of
+knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
+extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
+less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
+necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each
+of which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and
+attention of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages,
+teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of
+Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government, &c. Religion, too, is a
+separate department, and happens to be the only one deemed requisite
+for all men, however high or low. Collections of men associate together,
+under the name of congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the
+particular sect of opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute
+to make up a stipend as a compensation for the trouble of delivering
+them, at such periods as they agree on, lessons in the religion they
+profess. If they want instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply
+to other instructers; and this is generally the business of early life.
+But I suppose there is not an instance of a single congregation which
+has employed their preacher for the mixt purpose of lecturing them
+from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in Medicine, in Law, in the science and
+principles of Government, or in any thing but Religion exclusively.
+Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of a lesson in religion,
+put them off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical
+affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or
+conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving
+their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and
+giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if wanted, would
+rather seek from better sources in that particular art or science. In
+choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications, without
+inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we mean to
+have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which may
+twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
+they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example,
+it is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
+religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know
+how to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors:
+the preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
+understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
+religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and
+give us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And
+so ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the
+branches of science into any one of them, and the physician who is
+paid to visit the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and
+the merchant to whom money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief
+instead of it. But not withstanding this possible confusion of all
+sciences into one, common sense draws lines between them sufficiently
+distinct for the general purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to
+understand that a recipe in medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in
+geometry, is not a lesson in religion. I do not deny that a congregation
+may, if they please, agree with their preacher that he shall instruct
+them in Medicine also, or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these,
+from the pulpit, become not only a matter of right, but of duty also.
+But this must be with the consent of every individual; because the
+association being voluntary, the mere majority has no right to apply the
+contributions of the minority to purposes unspecified in the agreement
+of the congregation. I agree, too, that on all other occasions the
+preacher has the right, equally with every other citizen, to express his
+sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the subjects of Medicine, Law,
+Politics, he, his leisure time being his own, and his congregation not
+obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read his writings; and no
+one would have regretted more than myself, had any scruple as to this
+right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which have led to the
+expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the right. I feel
+my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the distinguished
+learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had proved that
+religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those principles
+on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted.
+
+These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those
+of the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
+doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry
+to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us
+both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
+constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
+ourselves.
+
+Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
+have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
+present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this
+mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly
+expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations
+not intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
+happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
+While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not
+wish to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres
+of the priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners
+of Massachusetts.
+
+I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIII.--TO C�SAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
+
+
+TO C�SAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, March 16, 1815.
+
+My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
+
+Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
+pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
+harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
+during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed,
+the affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
+recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
+Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
+public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen;
+and he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out
+a hope of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your
+visits together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or
+as you can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a
+month�s notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession
+ninety miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
+mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
+absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
+enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
+friendships.
+
+Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
+have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
+of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
+unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
+original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where
+it ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the
+tyrant of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his
+power still stalking over the deep. �_Quem deus vult perdere, prius
+dementat_.� The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course
+impending. Are we to be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a
+reasonable conduct on their part, might make us the main pillar of their
+prosperity and existence. But their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to
+be the means which Providence permits to lead them to their final
+catastrophe. �_Nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem
+populum, nomini Romano_, said the General who erased Capua from the list
+of powers. What nourishment and support would not England receive from
+an hundred millions of industrious descendants, whom some of her people
+now born will live to see here. What their energies are, she has lately
+tried. And what has she not to fear from an hundred millions of such
+men, if she continues her maniac course of hatred and hostility to them.
+I hope in God she will change. There is not a nation on the globe
+with whom I have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal
+conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friendship to
+any. I know that their creatures represent me as personally an enemy to
+England. But fools only can believe this, or those who think me a
+fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the
+flagitious principles of her administration, and to those which govern
+her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to morality some
+place in her political code, and especially would she exercise decency,
+and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a
+people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friendship.
+They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other nation; and in
+peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us internally.
+Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our own are
+chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven with the
+whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war with
+her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
+experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have
+been able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and
+had the war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to
+command a single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay
+their own paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to
+avail themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
+circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
+for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
+rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government,
+I say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have
+even countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
+establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
+citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and
+which we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that
+of Britain.
+
+*****
+
+Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you
+with sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIV.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1815.
+
+My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
+
+I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great
+pleasure, and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events.
+Peace was indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome
+without the successes of New Orleans. These last have established
+truths too important not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are
+sincerely attached to the Union; that their city can be defended; that
+the western States make its defence their peculiar concern; that the
+militia are brave; that their deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring
+skill of their enemy; that we have officers of natural genius now
+starting forward from the mass; and that, putting together all our
+conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by land, with equal
+numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the pacification of
+Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable arrangement
+against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of peace, and not
+a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the principle of the
+war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will we forget your
+services. After the disasters produced by the treason or the cowardice,
+or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your capture of York
+and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our favor; and the
+subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces of the
+first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only, your
+resolution to retire from all public business could not but be approved.
+But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public counsels
+too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish their
+claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own State.
+Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your apostacy!
+Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote was
+my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
+standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
+counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
+promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
+usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to
+be nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected.
+But should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we
+shall receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among
+the crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold
+what their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look
+forward, then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her
+venal traitors, shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the
+principles of her brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give
+her modesty enough to suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on
+a par with her in wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery,
+and even in honesty, although not in psalm-singing, she will more
+justly estimate her own relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient
+principles, she would really be great, if she did not think herself the
+whole. I should be pleased to hear that you go into her councils,
+and assist in bringing her back to those principles, and to a sober
+satisfaction with her proportionable share in the direction of our
+affairs.
+
+Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
+assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXV.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 23,1815.
+
+Deak Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
+causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it
+with great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be
+published. The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it
+are so easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between
+them. 1. We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character.
+Accustomed to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting,
+they will see in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under
+wrong, to a certain degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and
+that peace and happiness are preferable to that false honor, which,
+by eternal wars, keeps their people in eternal labor, want, and
+wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the people of England, who have
+been deceived as to the causes and conduct of the war, and do not
+entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and wicked on our part,
+and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it will
+tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to the peace and
+prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own people, who,
+although they have known the details as they went along, yet have been
+so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists, that some
+impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be said
+that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
+character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
+Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
+things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
+every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
+show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative
+will present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its
+moderation, as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed
+at. Rubbing down these roughnesses (and they are neither many nor
+prominent), and preserving the original date, might, I think, remove all
+the offensiveness, and give more effect to the publication. Indeed,
+I think that a soothing postscript, addressed to the interests,
+the prospects, and the sober reason of both nations, would make it
+acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of reprinting it ought not
+to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have it translated into
+French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without either avowal or
+disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of an appendix,
+containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in libraries,
+and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history, the
+acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
+eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was
+fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends,
+and will powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of
+Europe. It will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and
+count no odds when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared
+to the pride of England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of
+impressment in an article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention
+for relinquishing it. Without this, she must understand that the present
+is but a truce, determinable on the first act of impressment of an
+American citizen, committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be
+better that this convention should be a separate act, unconnected with
+any treaty of commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all
+other treaty? If blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the
+price of injurious concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without
+such treaties with any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves
+from the European system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too
+sedulously cultivate an American system, essentially pacific. But if we
+go into commercial treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same
+time, with whom we have important commercial relations. France, Spain,
+Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed _pari
+passu_. Our ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and
+intercommunicating freely, each will be supported by the weight of the
+whole mass, and the facility with which the other nations will agree to
+equal terms of intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of
+England, or justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them
+it would be best to have but the single article _gentis amicissim�_,
+leaving every thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized
+nations. But all these things will occur to yourself, with their counter
+considerations.
+
+Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
+particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
+that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
+carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to
+a wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
+receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
+strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in
+its place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue,
+and shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ
+me a considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to
+attend, and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on
+the shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds.
+This would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty�s
+business would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose
+you a letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not
+cost more than eight or ten days� reasonable compensation. This is
+necessary for my safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for
+the public. You know there are persons, both in and out of the public
+councils, who will seize every occasion of imputation on either of us,
+the more difficult to be repelled in this case, in which a negative
+could not be proved. If you approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am
+through the review, I will give notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other
+person whom you will name, to come on immediately. Indeed it would be
+well worth while to add to his duty, that of covering the books with a
+little paper (the good bindings at least), and filling the vacancies
+of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought from Washington. This
+would add little more to the time, as he could carry on both operations
+at once.
+
+Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+respect,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
+have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In
+the first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all
+again into a course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the
+Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions
+of the station they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has
+clothed him with the semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity
+should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation,
+he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient
+dynasties that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the
+maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. But it is
+not possible he should love us; and of that our commerce had sufficient
+proofs during his power. Our military achievements, indeed, which he
+is capable of estimating, may in some degree moderate the effect of his
+aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that we are to become the natural
+enemies of England, as England herself has so steadily endeavored to
+make us, and as some of our own over-zealous patriots would be willing
+to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a cold toleration of some
+intercourse and commerce between the two nations. He has certainly
+had time to see the folly of turning the industry of France from the
+cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to those of sugar,
+cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power has given to
+other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the passions of his
+tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue from motives
+of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil happiness
+and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for human
+blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us. And if
+again some great man could arise in England, who could see and correct
+the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by exercising
+justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of temperate
+and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the place we
+ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded to the
+condition of mere partisans of either.
+
+A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper
+limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on
+the other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to
+attempt the forcing on the French, a ruler and government which they
+refuse; whether they will risk their own thrones to re-establish that
+of the Bourbons. If this is attempted, and the European world again
+committed to war, will the jealousy of England at the commerce which
+neutrality will give us, induce her again to add us to the number of
+her enemies, rather than see us prosper in the pursuit of peace and
+industry? And have our commercial citizens merited from their country
+its encountering another war to protect their gambling enterprises?
+That the persons of our citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the
+ocean, that the transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels,
+to the markets of our choice, and the return to us of the articles we
+want for our own use, shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental, and
+that the gauntlet must be for ever hurled at him who questions it. But
+whether we shall engage in every war of Europe, to protect the mere
+agency of our merchants and shipowners in carrying on the commerce of
+other nations, even were those merchants and ship-owners to take the
+side of their country in the contest, instead of that of the enemy, is a
+question of deep and serious consideration, with which, however, you and
+I shall have nothing to do; so we will leave it to those whom it will
+concern.
+
+I thank you for making known to me Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Gray. They are
+fine young men, indeed, and if Massachusetts can raise a few more such,
+it is probable she would be better counselled as to social rights and
+social duties. Mr. Ticknor is, particularly, the best bibliograph I
+have met with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of
+reprocuring some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded
+to Congress, to replace the devastations of British Vandalism at
+Washington. I cannot live without books. But fewer will suffice, where
+amusement, and not use, is the only future object. I am about sending
+him a catalogue, to which less than his critical knowledge of books
+would hardly be adequate.
+
+Present my high respects to Mrs. Adams, and accept yourself the
+assurances of my affectionate attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVII.--TO MR. LEIPER, June 12, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. LEIPER.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A journey soon after the receipt of your favor of April the 17th and
+an absence from home of some continuance, have prevented my earlier
+acknowledgment of it. In that came safely my letter of January the 2nd,
+1814. In our principles of government we differ not at all; nor in the
+general object and tenor of political measures. We concur in considering
+the government of England as totally without morality, insolent beyond
+bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive
+dominion of the sea, lost in corruption, of deep-rooted hatred towards
+us, hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and
+the eternal disturber of the peace of the world. In our estimate of
+Bonaparte, I suspect we differ. I view him as a political engine only,
+and a very wicked one; you, I believe, as both political and religious,
+and obeying, as an instrument, an unseen hand. I still deprecate his
+becoming sole lord of the continent of Europe, which he would have been,
+had he reached in triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment in
+our day of another Roman. empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over
+the face of the globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of Heaven.
+Nor does the return of Bonaparte give me pleasure unmixed; I see in his
+expulsion of the Bourbons, a valuable lesson to the world, as showing
+that its ancient dynasties may be changed for their misrule. Should the
+allied powers presume to dictate a ruler and government to France, and
+follow the example he had set of parcelling and usurping to themselves
+their neighbor nations, I hope he will give them another lesson in
+vindication of the rights of independence and self-government, which
+himself had heretofore so much abused, and that in this contest he
+will wear down the maritime power of England to limitable and safe
+dimensions. So far, good. It cannot be denied, on the other hand, that
+his successful perversion of the force (committed to him for vindicating
+the rights and liberties of his country) to usurp its government, and
+to enchain it under an hereditary despotism, is of baneful effect in
+encouraging future usurpations, and deterring those under oppression
+from rising to redress themselves. His restless spirit leaves no hope of
+peace to the world; and his hatred of us is only a little less than that
+he bears to England, and England to us. Our form of government is odious
+to him, as a standing contrast between republican and despotic rule; and
+as much from that hatred, as from ignorance in political economy, he had
+excluded intercourse between us and his people, by prohibiting the only
+articles they wanted from us, that is, cotton and tobacco. Whether the
+war we have had with England, the achievements of that war, and the hope
+that we may become his instruments and partisans against that enemy, may
+induce him, in future, to tolerate our commercial intercourse with his
+people, is still to be seen. For my part, I wish that all nations may
+recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown
+may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance
+may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce, and
+friendship may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our business to
+manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep all markets open for
+what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the amities
+or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no distant
+one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the
+stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our
+power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will
+be.
+
+The federal misrepresentation of my sentiments, which occasioned my
+former letter to you, was gross enough; but that and all others are
+exceeded by the impudence and falsehood of the printed extract you sent
+me from Ralph�s paper. That a continuance of the embargo for two months
+longer would have prevented our war; that the non-importation law
+which succeeded it was a wise and powerful measure, I have constantly
+maintained. My friendship for Mr. Madison, my confidence in his wisdom
+and virtue, and my approbation of all his measures, and especially of
+his taking up at length the gauntlet against England, is known to all
+with whom I have ever conversed or corresponded on these measures. The
+word federal, or its synonyme &c., may therefore be written under every
+word of Mr. Ralph�s paragraph. I have ransacked my memory to recollect
+any incident which might have given countenance to any particle of it,
+but I find none. For if you will except the bringing into power
+and importance those who were enemies to himself as well as to the
+principles of republican government, I do not recollect a single measure
+of the President which I have not approved. Of those under him, and
+of some very near him, there have been many acts of which we have all
+disapproved, and he more than we. We have at times dissented from the
+measures, and lamented the dilatoriness of Congress. I recollect an
+instance the first winter of the war, when, from sloth of proceedings,
+an embargo was permitted to run through the winter, while the enemy
+could not cruise, nor consequently restrain the exportation of our whole
+produce, and was taken off in the spring, as soon as they could resume
+their stations. But this procrastination is unavoidable. How can
+expedition be expected from a body which we have saddled with an hundred
+lawyers, whose trade is talking? But lies, to sow divisions among
+us, are so stale an artifice of the federal prints, and are so well
+understood, that they need neither contradiction nor explanation. As to
+myself, my confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the administration
+is so entire, that I scarcely notice what is passing, and have almost
+ceased to read newspapers. Mine remain in our post-office a week or ten
+days, sometimes, unasked for. I find more amusement in studies to which
+I was always more attached, and from which I was dragged by the events
+of the times in which I have happened to live.
+
+I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In
+that of the Revolution, we had France, Spain, and Holland on our side,
+and the credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion,
+unprepared and unexpecting war, we were compelled to declare it, and to
+receive the attack of England, just issuing from a general war, fully
+armed, and freed from all other enemies, and have not only made her
+sick of it, but glad to prevent, by a peace, the capture of her adjacent
+possessions, which one or two campaigns more would infallibly have made
+ours. She has found that we can do her more injury than any other enemy
+on earth, and henceforward will better estimate the value of our peace.
+But whether her government has power, in opposition to the aristocracy
+of her navy, to restrain their piracies within the limits of national
+rights, may well be doubted. I pray, therefore, for peace, as best for
+all the world, best for us, and best for me, who have already lived to
+see three wars, and now pant for nothing more than to be permitted to
+depart in peace. That you also, who have longer to live, may continue to
+enjoy this blessing with health and prosperity, through as long a life
+as you desire, is the prayer of yours affectionately.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. June the 14th. Before I had sent my letter to the post-office, I
+received the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French
+nation shall not have Bonaparte, and shall have Louis XVIII for their
+ruler. They are all then as great rascals, as Bonaparte himself. While
+he was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would
+answer our purposes, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in
+the right, he shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may
+dethrone every man of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been remarkable on
+several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or state of
+the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on
+our mutual recollections. I had sat down to answer your letters of June
+the 19th, 20th, and 22nds with pen, ink, and paper, before me, when I
+received from our mail that of July the 30th. You ask information on
+the subject of Camus. All I recollect of him is, that he was one of the
+deputies sent to arrest Dumourier at the head of his army, who were,
+however, themselves arrested by Dumourier, and long detained as
+prisoners. I presume, therefore, he was a Jacobin. You will find his
+character in the most excellent revolutionary history of Toulongeon. I
+believe also, he may be the same person who has given us a translation
+of Aristotle�s Natural History, from the Greek into French. Of his
+report to the National Institute on the subject of the Bollandists, your
+letter gives me the first information. I had supposed them defunct
+with the society of Jesuits, of which they were: and that their works,
+although above ground, were, from their bulk and insignificance, as
+effectually entombed on their shelves, as if in the graves of their
+authors. Fifty-two volumes in folio, of the _acta sanctorum_, in
+dog-Latin, would be a formidable enterprise to the most laborious
+German. I expect, with you, they are the most enormous mass of lies,
+frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture, that ever was heaped together on this
+globe. By what chemical process M. Camus supposed that an extract of
+truth could be obtained from such a farrago of falsehood, I must leave
+to the chemists and moralists of the age to divine.
+
+On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who
+shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it?
+Nobody; except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
+discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
+member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which
+are the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as
+you observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths
+of persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such
+speeches. In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made
+their great men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style,
+and in that of the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one,
+more judicious, more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the
+party diatribe of Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too
+much from him. I possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable
+portions of it, although I never read it through. But a very judicious
+and well informed neighbor of mine went through it with great attention,
+and spoke very highly of it. I have said that no member of the old
+Congress, as far as I knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not
+knew of the speeches you mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on
+the questions of Independence, and on the two articles of Confederation
+respecting taxes and voting, I took minutes of the heads of the
+arguments. On the first, I threw all into one mass, without ascribing
+to the speakers their respective arguments; pretty much in the manner of
+Hume�s summary digests of the reasonings in parliament for and against
+a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of arguments used by each
+speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question of Independence does
+not occupy more than five pages, such as of this letter: and on the
+other questions, two such sheets. They have never been communicated to
+any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the ablest work
+of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the constitutional
+convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every thing said and
+done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and exactness
+beyond comprehension.
+
+I presume that our correspondence has been observed at the post-offices,
+and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe, that a printer has had
+the effrontery to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people
+think they have a right to every thing, however secret or sacred. I had
+not before heard of the Boston pamphlet with Priestley�s Letters and
+mine.
+
+At length Bonaparte has got on the right side of a question. From the
+time of his entering the legislative hall to his retreat to Elba, no man
+has execrated him more than myself. I will not except even the members
+of the Essex Junto; although for very different reasons; I, because he
+was warring against the liberty of his own country, and independence
+of others; they, because he was the enemy of England, the Pope, and the
+Inquisition. But at length, and as far as we can judge, he seems to have
+become the choice of his nation. At least, he is defending the cause
+of his nation, and that of all mankind, the rights of every people to
+independence and self-government. He and the allies have now changed
+sides. They are parcelling out among themselves Poland, Belgium, Saxony,
+Italy, dictating a ruler and government to France, and looking askance
+at our republic, the splendid libel on their governments, and he is
+fighting for the principles of national independence, of which his whole
+life hitherto has been a continued violation. He has promised a free
+government to his own country, and to respect the rights of others; and
+although his former conduct inspires little confidence in his promises,
+yet we had better take the chance of his word for doing right, than the
+certainty of the wrong which his adversaries are doing and avowing. If
+they succeed, ours is only the boon of the Cyclops to Ulysses, of being
+the last devoured.
+
+Present me affectionately and respectfully to Mrs. Adams, and Heaven
+give you both as much more of life as you wish, and bless it with health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. August the 11th. I had finished my letter yesterday, and this
+morning receive the news of Bonaparte�s second abdication. Very
+well. For him personally, I have no feeling but reprobation. The
+representatives of the nation have deposed him. They have taken the
+allies at their word, that they had no object in the war but his
+removal. The nation is now free to give itself a good government, either
+with or without a Bourbon; and France unsubdued, will still be a bridle
+on the enterprises of the combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIX.--TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816
+
+
+TO DABNEY CARR.
+
+Monticello, January 19, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
+since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
+been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been
+able to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in
+this neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke�s History, I had
+suggested to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee
+of correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who
+introduced it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the
+press. My books, journals of the times, &c. being all gone, I have
+nothing now but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular
+statement you wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find
+that I remember old things better than new. The transaction took place
+in the session of Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry
+Lee, Frank Lee, your father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening,
+about the close of the session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on
+the measures which the circumstances of the times seemed to call for.
+We agreed, in result, that concert in the operations of the several
+Colonies was indispensable; and that to produce this, some channel of
+correspondence between them must be opened: that, therefore, we would
+propose to our House the appointment of a committee of correspondence,
+which should be authorized and instructed to write to the Speakers of
+the House of Representatives of the several Colonies, recommending the
+appointment of similar committees on their part, who, by a communication
+of sentiment on the transactions threatening us all, might promote
+a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the substance, not
+pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution, and your
+father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day, March
+the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by
+the reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was
+developed. It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some
+of us who proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed
+of the committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to
+the Speakers of all the other Assemblies. I remember that Mr. Carr and
+myself, returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the
+way, concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably
+beget the meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for
+the purpose of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the
+maintenance of our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm
+that we did it in consequence of no such proposition from any other
+Colony. No doubt, the resolution itself, and the journals of the day,
+will show that ours was original, and not merely responsive to one from
+any other quarter. Yet, I am certain I remember also, that a similar
+proposition, and nearly cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and
+that our northern messenger passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be
+settled by recurrence to the records of Massachusetts. The proposition
+was generally acceded to by the other Colonies, and the first effect,
+as expected, was the meeting of a Congress at New York the ensuing year.
+The committee of correspondence appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by
+you from Marshall, under the date of 1770, must have been for a special
+purpose, and _functus officio_ before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts
+herself would not then have proposed another. Records should be examined
+to settle this accurately. I well remember the pleasure expressed in the
+countenance and conversation of the members generally, on this _d�but_
+of Mr. Carr, and the hopes they conceived as well from the talents as
+the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two months after, and
+in him we lost a powerful fellow-laborer. His character was of a high
+order. A spotless integrity, sound judgment, handsome imagination,
+enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in his conceptions,
+of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with the
+sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible
+in whatever he thought was right: but when no moral principle stood
+in the way, never had man more of the milk of human kindness, of
+indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The
+number of his friends, and the warmth of their affection, were proofs of
+his worth, and of their estimate of it. To give to those now living,
+an idea of the affliction produced by his death in the minds of all who
+knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by themselves on the death of
+his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all his endowments and moral
+qualities, and whose recollection can never recur without a deep-drawn
+sigh from the bosom of any one who knew him. You mention that I showed
+you an inscription I had proposed for the tomb-stone of your father. Did
+I leave it in your hands to be copied? I ask the question, not that I
+have any such recollection, but that I find it no longer in the place of
+its deposite, and think I never took it out but on that occasion. Ever
+and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 8, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 8, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th and March the
+2nd, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and regret
+that distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation would be
+worth a volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.
+
+You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three
+years over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you that it is
+a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of
+benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are,
+indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants
+of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the
+future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may
+happen. To these I say, how much pain have cost us the evils which have
+never happened! My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in
+the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not
+oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge,
+even in the happiest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs
+against the opposite page of the account. I have often wondered for
+what good end the sensations of grief could be intended. All our
+other passions, within proper bounds, have an useful object. And the
+perfection of the moral character is, not in a stoical apathy, so
+hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because impossible, but in a
+just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the pathologists then would
+tell us what is the use of grief in the economy, and of what good it is
+the cause, proximate or remote.
+
+Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the
+pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while I
+was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning, and egoism.
+No heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak
+its language: his forte was Belles-lettres, painting, and sculpture.
+In these he was the oracle of the society, and as such, was the
+Empress Catharine�s private correspondent and factor, in all things not
+diplomatic. It was through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to
+go to Kamschatka, and cross over thence to the western coast of America,
+in order to penetrate across our continent in the opposite direction
+to that afterwards adopted for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she
+withdrew after he had got within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had
+him seized, brought back, and set down in Poland. Although I never heard
+Grimm express the opinion directly, yet I always supposed him to be
+of the school of Diderot, D�Alembert, D�Holbach; the first of whom
+committed his system of atheism to writing in �_Le Bon Sens_,� and the
+last in his �_Systeme de la Nature_? It was a numerous school in
+the Catholic countries, while the infidelity of the Protestant took
+generally the form of theism. The former always insisted that it was
+a mere question of definition between them, the hypostasis of which on
+both sides, was �_Nature_,� or �the _Universe_�: that both agreed in the
+order of the existing system, but the one supposed it from eternity,
+the other as having begun in time. And when the atheist descanted on
+the unceasing motion and circulation of matter through the animal,
+vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated,
+always changing form, and under all forms gifted with the power of
+reproduction; the theist pointing �to the heavens above, and to the
+earth beneath, and to the waters under the earth,� asked, if these did
+not proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence and power; power
+in the production, and intelligence in the design, and constant
+preservation of the system; urged the palpable existence of final
+causes; that the eye was made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that
+we see because we have eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer
+obvious to the senses, as that of walking across the room, was to
+the philosopher demonstrating the non-existence of motion. It was in
+D�Holbach�s conventicles that Rousseau imagined all the machinations
+against him were contrived and he left, in his Confessions, the most
+biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after I left France; but I
+have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by them, that he kept
+his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of Grimm. Their
+volume has kept them out of our market.
+
+I have been lately amusing myself with Levi�s book, in answer to Dr.
+Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and
+incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy
+enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his
+two resurrections: the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body
+as well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of
+perfect obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal
+punishment for the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he
+explains this resurrection of bodies to be only of the original stamen
+of Leibnitz, or the human _calus in semine masculino_, considering that
+as a mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The
+second resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to
+enjoy divine glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that
+the Jews alone preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God
+would be deemed a very indifferent man with us: and it was to correct
+their anamorphosis of the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to
+establish the doctrine of a future state. However, Levi insists, that
+that was taught in the Old Testament, and even by Moses himself and the
+prophets. He agrees that an anointed prince was prophesied and promised:
+but denies that the character and history of Jesus had any analogy with
+that of the person promised. He must be fearfully embarrassing to the
+Hierophants of fabricated Christianity; because it is their own armor in
+which he clothes himself for the attack. For example, he takes passages
+of scripture from their context (which would give them a very different
+meaning), strings them together, and makes them point towards what
+object he pleases; he interprets them figuratively, typically,
+analogically, hyperbolically; he calls in the aid of emendation,
+transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and every other figure of rhetoric;
+the name of one man is taken for another, one place for another, days
+and weeks for months and years; and finally he avails himself of all his
+advantage over his adversaries by his superior knowledge of the Hebrew,
+speaking in the very language of the divine communication, while they
+can only fumble on with conflicting and disputed translations. Such is
+this war of giants. And how can such pigmies as you and I decide
+between them? For myself, I confess, that my head is not formed _tantas
+componere lites_. And as you began yours of March the 2nd, with a
+declaration, that you were about to write me the most frivolous letter I
+had ever read, so I will close mine by saying, I have written you a full
+match for it, and by adding my affectionate respects to Mrs. Adams, and
+the assurance of my constant attachment and consideration for yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, May 28,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from home,
+I found here the copy of your �Enquiry into the Principles of our
+Government,� which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I
+pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in
+our situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had
+prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated
+during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted
+me to give to the whole a thorough reading: yet certain that you and I
+could not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government,
+I was impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the
+writing-table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.
+
+I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should
+confirm our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our
+constitution, and fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The
+sixth section on the good moral principles of our government, I found
+so interesting and replete with sound principles, as to postpone my
+letter-writing to its thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much
+other good matter, it settles unanswerably the right of instructing
+representatives, and their duty to obey. The system of banking we have
+both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all
+our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction,
+which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping
+away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I
+consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the
+lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation
+coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free
+possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unincumbered by
+their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life. You have
+successfully and completely pulverized Mr. Adams�s system of orders,
+and his opening the mantle of republicanism to every government of
+laws, whether consistent or not with natural right. Indeed, it must be
+acknowledged, that the term republic is of very vague application
+in every language. Witness the self-styled republics of Holland,
+Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to assign to this term a
+precise and definite idea, I would say, that, purely and simply,
+it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and
+personally, according to rules established by the majority: and that
+every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it
+has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct
+action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to
+very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be
+practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first
+shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot
+sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government,
+being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen by the
+citizens either _pro hac vice_, or for such short terms as should render
+secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. This I
+should consider as the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is
+practicable on a large scale of country or population. And we have
+examples of it in some of our State constitutions, which, if not
+poisoned by priestcraft, would prove its excellence over all mixtures
+with other elements; and, with only equal doses of poison, would still
+be the best. Other shades of republicanism may be found in other
+forms of government, where the executive, judiciary, and legislative
+functions, and the different branches of the latter, are chosen by the
+people more or less directly, for longer terms of years, or for life,
+or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities, some
+dependent on, and others independent of the peopje. The further the
+departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has
+the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none
+where the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &c. or
+self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion as
+the life continues in being after the act of election.
+
+The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the
+House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less
+the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by
+the people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because
+for life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military
+leaders, irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious
+constitution of our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive
+administration, the taxation, police, the military appointments of the
+county, and nearly all our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed,
+self-continued, holding their authorities for life, and with an
+impossibility of breaking in on the perpetual succession of any faction
+once possessed of the bench. They are, in truth, the executive, the
+judiciary, and the military of their respective counties, and the sum
+of the counties makes the State. And add, also, that one half of our
+brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the
+rights of representation, as if society were instituted for the soil,
+and not for the men inhabiting it; or one half of these could dispose of
+the rights and the will of the other half, without their consent.
+
+     What constitutes a State?
+     Not high-raised battlements, or lahor�d mound,
+     Thick wall, or moated gate;
+     Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown�d;
+     No: men, high-minded men;
+     Men, who their duties know;
+     But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
+     These constitute a State.�
+
+In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
+republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
+directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
+Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
+election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
+assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also,
+a principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
+judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
+found nugatory.
+
+If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government
+be the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other
+measure), it must be agreed that our governments have much less of
+republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the
+people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights
+and their interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of
+republican dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to
+a submission of true principle to European authorities, to speculators
+on government, whose fears of the people have been inspired by the
+populace of their own great cities, and were unjustly entertained
+against the independent, the happy, and therefore orderly citizens of
+the United States. Much I apprehend that the golden moment is past
+for reforming these heresies. The functionaries of public power rarely
+strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it, and an unorganized
+call for timely amendment is not likely to prevail against an organized
+opposition to it. We are always told that things are going on well; why
+change them? �_Chi sta bene, non si muova_,� says the Italian, �Let him
+who stands well, stand still.� This is true; and I verily believe they
+would go on well with us under an absolute monarch, while our
+present character remains, of order, industry, and love of peace, and
+restrained, as he would be, by the proper spirit of the people. But it
+is while it remains such, we should provide against the consequences of
+its deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it will yet be done,
+and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never happen.
+
+On this view of the import of the term republic, instead of saying, as
+has been said, �that it may mean any thing or nothing,� we may say with
+truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as
+they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in
+their composition: and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens
+is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the
+evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than
+those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition
+of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I
+sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more
+dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money
+to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling
+futurity on a large scale.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXII.--TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816
+
+
+TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
+
+Monticello, June 7,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received a few-days ago from Mr. Dupont the enclosed manuscript, with
+permission to read it, and a request, when read, to forward it to
+you, in expectation that you would translate it. It is well worthy of
+publication for the instruction of our citizens, being profound, sound,
+and short. Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful
+limits of their powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce
+only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.
+No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights
+of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him:
+every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities
+of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him: and, no
+man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another,
+it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third.
+When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled
+their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into
+society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one
+of these texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and
+lighten equally our municipal codes. There is a work of the first
+order of merit now in the press at Washington, by Destutt Tracy, on the
+subject of political economy, which he brings into the compass of three
+hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary discourse on the origin of the
+right of property, he coincides much with the principles of the present
+manuscript; but is more developed, more demonstrative. He promises a
+future work on morals, in which I lament to see, that he will adopt the
+principles of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature; that the sense of
+justice and injustice is not derived from our natural organization,
+but founded on convention only. I lament this the more, as he is
+unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract subjects. Assuming
+the fact, that the earth has been created in time, and consequently the
+dogma of final causes, we yield, of course, to this short syllogism.
+Man was created for social intercourse; but social intercourse cannot be
+maintained without a sense of justice; then man must have been created
+with a sense of justice. There is an error into which most of the
+speculators on government have fallen, and which the well known state
+of society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In
+their hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have
+commenced in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are
+evidently in that state of nature which has passed the association of a
+single family; and not yet submitted to the authority of positive laws,
+or of any acknowledged magistrate. Every man, with them, is perfectly
+free to follow his own inclinations. But if, in doing this, he violates
+the rights of another, if the case be slight, he is punished by the
+disesteem of his society, or, as we say, by public opinion; if serious,
+he is tomahawked as a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by
+the influence of their character only; and they follow, or not, as they
+please, him of whose character for wisdom or war they have the highest
+opinion. Hence the origin of the parties among them adhering to
+different leaders, and governed by their advice, not by their
+command. The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the
+establishment of regular laws, magistrates, and government, propose
+a government of representatives, elected from every town. But of all
+things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will of one
+man. This, the only instance of actual fact within our knowledge, will
+be then a beginning by republican, and not by patriarchal or monarchical
+government, as speculative writers have generally conjectured.
+
+We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment of our
+friend Correa, to be Minister or Envoy of Portugal, here. This, I hope,
+will give him to us, for life. Nor will it at all interfere with
+his botanical rambles or journeys. The government of Portugal is so
+peaceable and inoffensive, that it has never any altercations with its
+friends. If their minister abroad writes them once a quarter that all is
+well, they desire no more. I learn (though not from Correa himself) that
+he thinks of paying us a visit as soon as he is through his course
+of lectures. Not to lose this happiness again by my absence, I have
+informed him I shall set out for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and
+be back the first week of July. I wish you and he could concert
+your movements so as to meet here, and that you would make this your
+headquarters. It is a good central point from which to visit your
+connections; and you know our practice of placing our guests at their
+ease, by showing them we are so ourselves, and that we follow our
+necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging unremittingly
+on their shoulders.
+
+I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIII.*--TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816
+
+
+TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1816.
+
+     [* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
+     inserted out of its regular order.]
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.
+
+Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are
+entirely just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we
+have reason to suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate
+termination. There is still an awful void between the present, and what
+is to be the last chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled
+with abominations, as frightful as those which have already disgraced
+it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate force,
+intelligence, and elasticity, to remain quiet under its present
+compression. Samson will arise in his strength, and probably will ere
+long burst asunder the cords and the webs of the Philistines. But what
+are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and how widely they may spread
+between the brethren of one family, our ignorance of the interior feuds
+and antipathies of the country places beyond our view. Whatever may be
+the convulsions, we cannot but indulge the pleasing hope, they will
+end in the permanent establishment of a representative government;
+a government in which the will of the people will be an effective
+ingredient. This important element has taken root in the European mind,
+and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of this, are already
+offering this modification of their governments, under the plausible
+pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part. Had Bonaparte
+used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment and support
+of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity and rest,
+and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every nation in
+Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the will
+of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper conduct,
+however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
+object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
+accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of
+man. What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and
+how faithfully should they cherish the parent tree at home. Chagrin and
+mortification are the punishments our enemies receive.
+
+You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence
+on England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so
+quoted with more candor. But within the thirty years which have since
+elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We were then in peace; our
+independent place among nations was acknowledged. A commerce which
+offered the raw material, in exchange for the same material after
+receiving the last touch of industry, was worthy of welcome to all
+nations. It was expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing
+industry was important, would cherish the friendship of such customers
+by every favor, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act
+of justice and friendship. Under this prospect, the question seemed
+legitimate, whether, with such an immensity of unimproved land,
+courting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that of
+manufactures, would add most to the national wealth. And the doubt
+on the utility of the American manufactures was entertained on this
+consideration, chiefly, that to the labor of the husbandman a vast
+addition is made by the spontaneous energies of the earth on which it
+is employed. For one grain of wheat committed to the earth, she renders
+twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold; whereas to the labor of the
+manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of flax, in his hands, on the
+contrary, yield but penny weights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious
+as it might seem, what a field did it promise for the occupation of the
+ocean; what a nursery for that class of citizens who were to exercise
+and maintain our equal rights on that element! This was the state of
+things in 1785, when the Notes on Virginia were first published; when,
+the ocean being open to all nations, and their common right in it
+acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the assent
+and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some
+consideration.
+
+But who, in 1785, could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render
+the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man? Who could
+have imagined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations,
+for science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from
+that honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws
+established by the Author of Nature between nation and nation, as
+between man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and
+piracies, merely because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity,
+and that under this disbandment of nations from social order, we should
+have been despoiled of a thousand ships, and have thousands of our
+citizens reduced to Algerine slavery. Yet all this has taken place. The
+British interdicted to our vessels all harbors of the globe, without
+having first proceeded to some one of hers, there paid a tribute
+proportioned to the cargo, and obtained her license to proceed to the
+port of destination. The French declared them to be lawful prize if they
+had touched at the port, or been visited by a ship of the enemy nation.
+Thus were we completely excluded from the ocean. Compare this state
+of things with that of �85, and say whether an opinion founded in
+the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to those of the
+present. We have experienced, what we did not then believe, that there
+exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of
+interchange with other nations. That to be independent for the comforts
+of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the
+manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former question
+is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry now is,
+Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a
+foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture,
+must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation,
+or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens
+and caverns. I am not one of these. Experience has taught me that
+manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort;
+and if those who quote me as of a different opinion, will keep pace with
+me in purchasing nothing foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric
+can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, it will not be
+our fault if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand,
+and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has so long
+wantonly wielded it. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own
+supply, the question of �85 will then recur, Will our surplus labor be
+then more beneficially employed, in the culture of the earth, or in the
+fabrications of art? We have time yet for consideration, before that
+question will press upon us; and the axiom to be applied will depend
+on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in so complicated a
+science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and
+expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to this is what
+has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered
+unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those who
+use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their disloyal
+propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly
+people.
+
+I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIV.--TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.
+
+Monticello, June 20, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to
+the drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt
+of your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot,
+however, deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I
+have received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris,
+in yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had
+not before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the
+perusal of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the
+subject of drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted
+into ours from the British system, by a man whose mind was really
+powerful, but chained by native partialities to every thing English; who
+had formed exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English
+constitution, the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely
+believed it for the good of this country to make them their model in
+every thing; without considering that what might be wise and good for a
+nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse
+with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one
+essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from the abusive
+governments of the old world.
+
+The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice
+to exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
+whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it
+is the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry
+on the business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with
+the other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute
+its distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to
+that, is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the
+mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every society
+has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and
+to say to all individuals, that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond
+the limits of these principles, and involving dangers which the society
+chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that
+we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on
+such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons
+infected with disease. Such is the situation of our country. We have
+most abundant resources of happiness within ourselves, which we may
+enjoy in peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected
+with the mania of rambling and gambling, to bring danger on the great
+mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home. In your letter to
+Fisk, you have fairly stated the alternatives between which we are to
+choose: 1. licentious commerce and gambling speculations for a few, with
+eternal war for the many; or, 2. restricted commerce, peace, and steady
+occupations for all. If any State in the Union will declare that it
+prefers separation with the first alternative, to a continuance in union
+without it, I have no hesitation in saying, �Let us separate.� I would
+rather the States should withdraw, which are for unlimited commerce
+and war, and confederate with those alone which are for peace and
+agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe would join in sincere
+amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm�s length, by
+jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations, and war. No earthly
+consideration could induce my consent to contract such a debt as England
+has by her wars for commerce, to reduce our citizens by taxes to such
+wretchedness, as that laboring sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they
+are still unable to afford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much
+oatmeal or potatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this
+to feed the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up
+one thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial
+speculations. I returned from Europe after our government had got under
+way, and had adopted from the British code the law of drawbacks. I early
+saw its effects in the jealousies and vexations of Britain; and that,
+retaining it, we must become, like her, an essentially warring nation,
+and meet, in the end, the catastrophe impending over her. No one can
+doubt that this alone produced the orders of council, the depredations
+which preceded, and the war which followed them. Had we carried but our
+own produce, and brought back but our own wants, no nation would have
+troubled us. Our commercial dashers, then, have already cost us so many
+thousand lives, so many millions of dollars, more than their persons
+and all their commerce were worth. When war was declared, and especially
+after Massachusetts, who had produced it, took side with the enemy
+waging it, I pressed on some confidential friends in Congress to avail
+us of the happy opportunity of repealing the drawback; and I do rejoice
+to find that you are in that sentiment. You are young, and may be in the
+way of bringing it into effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and change of
+tone (for there are symptoms of that in Massachusetts), may not have
+obliterated altogether the sense of our late feelings and sufferings;
+may not have induced oblivion of the friends we have lost, the
+depredations and conflagrations we have suffered, and the debts we have
+incurred, and to have to labor for through the lives of the present
+generation. The earlier the repeal is proposed, the more it will be
+befriended by all these recollections and considerations. This is one of
+three great measures necessary to insure us permanent prosperity. This
+preserves our peace. A second should enable us to meet any war, by
+adopting the report of the war department, for placing the force of
+the nation at effectual command: and a third should insure resources
+of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during peace, and
+licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic medium of
+which we should be possessed at the commencement of a war, would be
+a sufficient fund for all the loans we should need through its
+continuance; and if the national bills issued, be bottomed (as is
+indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for their redemption
+within certain and moderate epochs, and be of proper denominations for
+circulation, no interest on them would be necessary or just, because
+they would answer to every one the purposes of the metallic money
+withdrawn and replaced by them. But possibly these may be the dreams of
+an old man, or that the occasions of realizing them may have passed away
+without return. A government regulating itself by what is wise and just
+for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few
+who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it
+existed, for a moment, at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix
+the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a
+greater degree than any where else; and for its growth and continuance,
+as well as for your personal health and happiness, I offer sincere
+prayers, with the homage of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXV.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816
+
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, July 12, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the copy of the
+letters on the calling a convention, on which you are pleased to ask
+my opinion. I have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any
+subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. On
+the contrary, while in public service especially, I thought the public
+entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they employed. But
+I am now retired: I resign myself, as a passenger, with confidence to
+those at present at the helm, and ask but for rest, peace, and good
+will. The question you propose, on equal representation, has become a
+party one, in which I wish to take no public share. Yet, if it be asked
+for your own satisfaction only, and not to be quoted before the public,
+I have no motive to withhold it, and the less from you, as it coincides
+with your own. At the birth of our republic, I committed that opinion
+to the world, in the draught of a constitution annexed to the Notes
+on Virginia, in which a provision was inserted for a representation
+permanently equal. The infancy of the subject at that moment, and our
+inexperience of self-government, occasioned gross departures in that
+draught from genuine republican canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy
+had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that we
+imagined every thing republican which was not monarchy. We had not yet
+penetrated to the mother principle, that �governments are republican
+only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute
+it.� Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principle in
+them. But experience and reflection have but more and more confirmed me
+in the particular importance of the equal representation then proposed.
+On that point, then, I am entirely in sentiment with your letters; and
+only lament that a copyright of your pamphlet prevents their appearance
+in the newspapers, where alone they would be generally read, and produce
+general effect. The present vacancy too, of other matter, would give
+them place in every paper, and bring the question home to every man�s
+conscience.
+
+But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legislature, is
+not the only republican heresy in this first essay of our revolutionary
+patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be agreed that a
+government is republican in proportion as every member composing it has
+his equal voice in the direction of its concerns, (not indeed in person,
+which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a city, or small
+township, but) by representatives chosen by himself, and responsible to
+him at short periods, and let us bring to the test of this canon every
+branch of our constitution.
+
+In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than
+half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose.
+The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of
+irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent
+of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally
+so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the
+judges of the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves.
+In England, where judges were named and removable at the will of an
+hereditary executive, from which branch most misrule was feared, and has
+flowed, it was a great point gained, by fixing them for life, to make
+them independent of that executive. But in a government founded on
+the public will, this principle operates in an opposite direction,
+and against that will. There, too, they were still removable on a
+concurrence of the executive and legislative branches. But we have made
+them independent of the nation itself. They are irremovable, but by
+their own body, for any depravities of conduct, and even by their own
+body for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the inferior
+courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own body in
+succession for ever, so that a faction once possessing themselves of
+the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county in
+chains, for ever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real executive
+as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
+tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all
+the executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military
+leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The
+juries, our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are
+not selected by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an
+officer named by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up
+by the sheriff from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing
+respectable has retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be
+found? Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of
+our people. That would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly.
+Owing to this spirit, and to nothing in the form of our constitution,
+all things have gone well. But this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by
+the enemies of reformation, is not the fruit of our constitution, but
+has prevailed in spite of it. Our functionaries have done well, because
+generally honest men. If any were not so, they feared to show it.
+
+But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I
+do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down
+true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened
+into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of
+wealth against the ascendancy of the people. If experience be called
+for, appeal to that of our fifteen or twenty governments for forty
+years, and show me where the people have done half the mischief in these
+forty years, that a single despot would have done in a single year;
+or show half the riots and rebellions, the crimes and the punishments,
+which have taken place in any single nation, under Kingly government,
+during the same period. The true foundation of republican government
+is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and
+in their management. Try by this, as a tally, every provision of our
+constitution, and see if it hangs directly on the will of the people.
+Reduce your legislature to a convenient number for full, but orderly
+discussion. Let every man who fights or pays, exercise his just and
+equal right in their election. Submit them to approbation or rejection
+at short intervals. Let the executive be chosen in the same way, and for
+the same term, by those whose agent he is to be; and leave no screen of
+a council behind which to skulk from responsibility. It has been thought
+that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law.
+But I do not know that this is true, and if doubtful, we should follow
+principle. In this, as in many other elections, they would be guided by
+reputation, which would not err oftener, perhaps, than the present mode
+of appointment. In one State of the Union, at least, it has been long
+tried, and with the most satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut
+have been chosen by the people every six months, for nearly two
+centuries, and I believe there has hardly ever been an instance
+of change; so powerful is the curb of incessant responsibility. If
+prejudice, however, derived from a monarchical institution, is still
+to prevail against the vital elective principle of our own, and if the
+existing example among ourselves of periodical election of judges by
+the people be still mistrusted, let us at least not adopt the evil, and
+reject the good, of the English precedent; let us retain a movability
+on the concurrence of the executive and legislative branches, and
+nomination by the executive alone. Nomination to office is an executive
+function. To give it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of
+the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves the members from
+correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office themselves, and to
+a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility by dividing it
+among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper place, among
+executive functions, the principle of the distribution of power is
+preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest force on a single
+head.
+
+The organization of our county administrations may be thought more
+difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. Divide the
+counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can attend when
+called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the government of their
+wards in all things relating to themselves exclusively. A justice,
+chosen by themselves, in each, a constable, a military company, a
+patrol, a school, the care of their own poor, their own portion of the
+public roads, the choice of one or more jurors to serve in some court,
+and the delivery, within their own wards, of their own votes for
+all elective officers of higher sphere, will relieve the county
+administration of nearly all its business, will have it better done, and
+by making every citizen an acting member of the government, and in the
+offices nearest and most interesting to him, will attach him by
+his strongest feelings to the independence of his country, and its
+republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by every ward, would
+constitute the county court, would do its judiciary business, direct
+roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates, and administer all the
+matters of common interest to the whole county. These wards, called
+townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments,
+and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the
+wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its
+preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1. The general
+federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2. That of the
+State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; 3. The county
+republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; and, 4. The ward
+republics, for the small, and yet numerous and interesting concerns of
+the neighborhood: and in government, as well as in every other business
+of life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all
+matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole
+is cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the
+administration of the public affairs.
+
+The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2. Equal
+representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the people.
+4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and sheriffs
+elective. 6. Ward divisions. And, 7. Periodical amendments of the
+constitution.
+
+I have thrown out these, as loose heads of amendment, for consideration
+and correction: and their object is to secure self-government by the
+republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the
+people; and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those
+who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for
+continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not
+let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election
+between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into
+such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in
+our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for
+our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people,
+like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the
+earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily
+expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we
+must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to
+think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to
+obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the
+necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our land-holders, too, like theirs,
+retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs,
+but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in
+foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and
+the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson
+that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well as by private
+extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A
+departure from principle in one instance, becomes a precedent for a
+second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society
+is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities
+left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the _bellum
+omnium in omnia_, which some philosophers observing to be so general
+in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive
+state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
+Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
+
+Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem
+them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They
+ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and
+suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I
+belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country.
+It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present;
+and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of
+book-reading: and this they would say themselves, were they to rise
+from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried
+changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had
+better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves
+to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But
+I know, also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with
+the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more
+enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed,
+and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances,
+institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might
+as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a
+boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their
+barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately
+deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding
+to the gradual changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive
+accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses,
+entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects
+to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous innovations, which,
+had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected
+wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary
+forms. Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one
+generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of
+ordering its own affairs. Let us, as our sister States have done, avail
+ourselves of our reason and experience, to correct the crude essays of
+our first and unexperienced, although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning
+councils. And, lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its
+revision at stated periods. What these periods should be, nature herself
+indicates. By the European tables of mortality, of the adults living at
+any one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years.
+At the end of that period, then, a new majority is come into place; or,
+in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent of
+the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. It has,
+then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government
+it believes most promotive of its own happiness; consequently, to
+accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds itself, that received
+from its predecessors: and it is for the peace and good of mankind,
+that a solemn opportunity of doing this every nineteen or twenty years,
+should be provided by the constitution; so that it may be handed on,
+with periodical repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of
+time, if any thing human can so long endure. It is now forty years since
+the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same tables inform us,
+that, within that period, two thirds of the adults then living are now
+dead. Have then the remaining third, even if they had the wish, the
+right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws heretofore made
+by them, the other two thirds, who, with themselves, compose the present
+mass of adults? If they have not, who has? The dead? But the dead have
+no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where
+there is no substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe,
+and every thing upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants,
+during their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is the
+concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of that direction:
+and this declaration can only be made by their majority. That majority,
+then, has a right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make
+the constitution what they think will be best for themselves. But how
+collect their voice? This is the real difficulty. If invited by private
+authority to county or district meetings, these divisions are so large,
+that few will attend; and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely
+pronounced. Here, then, would be one of the advantages of the ward
+divisions I have proposed. The mayor of every ward, on a question like
+the present, would call his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of
+its members, convey these to the county court, who would hand on those
+of all its wards to the proper general authority; and the voice of
+the whole people would be thus fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed,
+discussed, and decided by the common reason of the society. If this
+avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard
+through that of force, and we shall go on, as other nations are doing,
+in the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and
+oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and so on, for ever.
+
+These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among men, and of
+the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from falling into
+the same dreadful track. I have given them at greater length than your
+letter called for. But I cannot say things by halves; and I confide them
+to your honor, so to use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the
+public papers. If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done
+that of equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them
+to yourself as the effusions of withered age, and useless time. I
+shall, with not the Less truth, assure you of my great respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, July 21, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to acknowledge a copious
+supply of the turnip-seed requested. Besides taking care myself, I
+shall endeavor again to commit it to the depository of the neighborhood,
+generally found to be the best precaution against losing a good thing.
+I will add a word on the political part of our letters. I believe we do
+not differ on either of the points you suppose. On education certainly
+not; of which the proofs are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge,
+proposed near forty years ago, and my uniform endeavors, to this day,
+to get our counties divided into wards, one of the principal objects of
+which is, the establishment of a primary school in each. But education
+not being a branch of municipal government, but, like the other arts
+and sciences, an accident only, I did not place it, with election, as a
+fundamental member in the structure of government. Nor, I believe, do
+we differ as to the county courts. I acknowledge the value of this
+institution; that it is in truth our principal executive and judiciary,
+and that it does much for little pecuniary reward. It is their
+self-appointment I wish to correct; to find some means of breaking up
+a cabal, when such a one gets possession of the bench. When this takes
+place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies, because its powers
+are so various, and exercised on every thing most immediately around
+us. And how many instances have you and I known of these monopolies of
+county administration! I knew a county in which a particular family (a
+numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a whole generation.
+never admitted a man on it who was not of its clan or connection. 1 know
+a county now of one thousand and five hundred militia, of which sixty
+are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom twenty are
+federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large and populous
+districts in it without a justice, because without a federalist
+for appointment: the militia are as disproportionably under federal
+officers. And there is no authority on earth which can break up this
+junto, short of a general convention. The remaining one thousand four
+hundred and forty, free, fighting, and paying citizens, are governed
+by men neither of their choice nor confidence, and without a hope
+of relief. They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free
+government for life, and indefinitely, for aught the constitution has
+provided. This solecism may be called any thing but republican, and
+ought undoubtedly to be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVII.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, September 5, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That which I wrote to
+you under the address of H. Tompkinson, was intended for the author
+of the pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and therefore, in your
+hands, found its true destination. But I must beseech you, Sir, not to
+admit a possibility of its being published. Many good people will revolt
+from its doctrines, and my wish is to offend nobody; to leave to those
+who are to live under it, the settlement of their own constitution, and
+to pass in peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions are sound,
+they will occur to others, and will prevail by their own weight,
+without the aid of names. I am glad to see that the Staunton meeting has
+rejected the idea of a limited convention. The article, however, nearest
+my heart, is the division of the counties into wards. These will be pure
+and elementary republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes
+the State, and will make of the whole a true democracy as to the
+business of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern.
+The affairs of the larger sections, of counties, of States, and of
+the Union, not admitting personal transaction by the people, will be
+delegated to agents elected by themselves; and representation will thus
+be substituted, where personal action becomes impracticable. Yet,
+even over these representative organs, should they become corrupt and
+perverted, the division into wards constituting the people, in their
+wards, a regularly organized power, enables them by that organization
+to crush, regularly and peaceably, the usurpations of their unfaithful
+agents, and rescues them from the dreadful necessity of doing it
+insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as republican as a large
+society can be; and secure the continuance of purity in our government,
+by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the people. No other
+depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did not end in
+converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their
+charge. George the III., in execution of the trust confided to him, has,
+within his own day, loaded the inhabitants of Great Britain with debts
+equal to the whole fee-simple value of their island, and under pretext
+of governing it, has alienated its whole soil to creditors who could
+lend money to be lavished on priests, pensions, plunder, and perpetual
+war. This would not have been so, had the people retained organized
+means of acting on their agents. In this example, then, let us read a
+lesson for ourselves, and not �go, and do likewise.�
+
+Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told, that on the
+question of equal representation, our fellow-citizens in some sections
+of the State claim peremptorily a right of representation for their
+slaves. Principle will, in this, as in most other cases, open the way
+for us to correct conclusion. Were our State a pure democracy, in which
+all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all their business,
+there would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until
+arrived at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation
+of morals, and ambiguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously in the
+public meetings of men. 3, Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of
+things with us takes away the rights of will and of property. Those,
+then, who have no will, could be permitted to exercise none in the
+popular assembly; and of course could delegate none to an agent in a
+representative assembly. The business, in the first case, would be done
+by qualified citizens only; and, in the second, by the representatives
+of qualified citizens only. It is true, that in the general
+constitution, our State is allowed a larger representation on account
+of its slaves. But every one knows, that that constitution was a
+matter of compromise; a capitulation between conflicting interests
+and opinions. In truth, the condition of different descriptions of
+inhabitants in any country is a matter of municipal arrangement, of
+which no foreign country has a right to take notice. All its inhabitants
+are men as to them. Thus, in the New England States, none have the
+powers of citizens but those whom they call freemen; and none are
+freemen Until admitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the
+General Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum of
+representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no powers as
+citizens; yet, in representation in the General Government, they count
+in the proportion of three to five; and so also in taxation. Whether
+this is equal, is not here the question. It is a capitulation of
+discordant sentiments and circumstances, and is obligatory on that
+ground. But this view shows there is no inconsistency in claiming
+representation for them from the other States, and refusing it within
+our own.
+
+Accept the renewal of assurances of my respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, October 14, 1816.
+
+Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well explained the
+uses of grief. That of September the 3rd, with equal truth, adduces
+instances of its abuse; and when we put into the same scale these
+abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even the uses of grief cost
+us, we may consider its value in the economy of the human being, as
+equivocal at least. Those afflictions cloud too great a portion of
+life, to find a counterpoise in any benefits derived from its uses. For
+setting aside its paroxyms on the occasions of special bereavements, all
+the latter years of aged men are overshadowed with its gloom. Whither,
+for instance, can you and I look without seeing the graves of those we
+have known? And whom can we call up, of our early companions, who has
+not left us to regret his loss? This, indeed, may be one of the salutary
+effects of grief; inasmuch as it prepares us to loose ourselves also
+without repugnance. Doctor Freeman�s instances of female levity cured by
+grief, are certainly to the point, and constitute an item of credit in
+the account we examine. I was much mortified by the loss of the Doctor�s
+visit, by my absence from home. To have shown how much I feel indebted
+to you for making good people known to me, would have been one pleasure;
+and to have enjoyed that of his conversation, and the benefits of
+his information, so favorably reported by my family, would have been
+another. I returned home on the third day after his departure. The loss
+of such visits is among the sacrifices which my divided residence costs
+me.
+
+Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism
+to which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. I have been
+contented with the humble achievement of reading the analysis of his
+work by Destutt Tracy, in two hundred pages, octavo. I believe I should
+have ventured on his own abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume,
+had it ever come to my hands; but the marrow of it in Tracy has
+satisfied my appetite: and even in that, the preliminary discourse of
+the analyzer himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than
+the body of the work. For the object of that seems to be to smother all
+history under the mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as those
+of Hercules and Jesus, can, by a fertile imagination and allegorical
+interpretations, be brought to the same tally, no line of distinction
+remains between fact and fancy. As this pithy morsel will not
+overburthen the mail in passing and repassing between Quincy and
+Monticello, I send it for your perusal. Perhaps it will satisfy you, as
+it has me; and may save you the labor of reading twenty-four times its
+volume. I have said to you that it was written by Tracy; and I had so
+entered it on the title-page, as I usually do on anonymous works whose
+authors are known to me. But Tracy requested me not to betray his
+anonyme, for reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have ceased to weigh. I
+am bound, then, to make the same reserve with you. Destutt-Tracy is, in
+my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual subjects, or the
+operations of the understanding. His three octavo volumes on Ideology,
+which constitute the foundation of what he has since written, I have not
+entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely abstract,
+and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte, with his
+repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has by
+this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without
+principle. The next work Tracy wrote was the Commentary on Montesquieu,
+never published in the original, because not safe; but translated and
+published in Philadelphia, yet without the author�s name. He has since
+permitted his name to be mentioned. Although called a Commentary, it is,
+in truth, an elementary work on the principles of government, comprised
+in about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a third
+work on Political Economy, comprising the whole subject within about
+the same compass; in which all its principles are demonstrated with
+the severity of Euclid, and, like him, without ever using a superfluous
+word. I have procured this to be translated, and have been four years
+endeavoring to get it printed: but, as yet, without success. In the mean
+time, the author has published the original in France, which he thought
+unsafe while Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet
+reached this country. He has his fourth and last work now in the press
+at Paris, closing, as he conceives, the circle of metaphysical sciences.
+This work, which is on Ethics, I have not seen, but suspect I shall
+differ from it in its foundation, although not in its deductions. I
+gather from his other works that he adopts the principle of Hobbes,
+that justice is founded in contract solely, and does not result from the
+constitution of man. I believe, on the contrary, that it is instinct and
+innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as
+that of feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise creator must have seen to
+be necessary in an animal destined to live in society: that every human
+mind feels pleasure in doing good to another: that the non-existence of
+justice is not to be inferred from the fact that the same act is deemed
+virtuous and right in one society which is held vicious and wrong
+in another; because, as the circumstances and opinions of different
+societies vary, so the acts which may do them right or wrong must vary
+also; for virtue does not consist in the act we do, but in the end it
+is to effect. If it is to effect the happiness of him to whom it
+is directed, it is virtuous, while, in a society under different
+circumstances and opinions, the same act might produce pain, and would
+be vicious. The essence of virtue is in doing good to others, while what
+is good may be one thing in one society, and its contrary in another.
+Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of morals (and as
+many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on the subject
+nearly), so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound system of
+morals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers, setting out
+from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same conclusions.
+This looks as if they were guided unconsciously, by the unerring-hand of
+instinct.
+
+Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
+description is it to be inquired for?
+
+What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
+great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has
+been foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from
+mortal prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist
+which render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is
+now equal to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor
+of the island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those
+who labor. Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other
+countries, and the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him
+to cover his back and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now
+almost general, are of the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted
+but by food and raiment. But where are the means of feeding and clothing
+them? The landholder has nothing of his own to give; he is but the
+fiduciary of those who have lent him money; the lender is so taxed in
+his meat, drink, and clothing, that he has but a bare subsistence left.
+The landholder, then, must give up his land, or the lender his debt,
+or they must compromise by giving up each one half. But will either
+consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of property? Or must it not
+be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably compromised, will they agree
+to risk another ruin under the same government unreformed? I think not;
+but I would rather know what you think; because you have lived with
+John Bull, and know better than I do the character of his herd. I salute
+Mrs. Adams and yourself with every sentiment of affectionate cordiality
+and respect;
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear
+Sir, how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as
+much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long
+hours from my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by
+that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o�clock, and often
+from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this
+to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part
+enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is
+the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must
+get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the
+subject of his book; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I
+constantly refuse; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a
+word for him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely
+my sufferings from this source; hoping it would have the effect of an
+indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others, who,
+in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their concerns,
+their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and speculations, political,
+moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical, &c. &c. &c.
+I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to,
+exercise and enjoy correspondence with the friends I love, and on
+subjects which they, or my own inclinations, present. In that case, your
+letters shall not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they
+have been to my great mortification.
+
+To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
+Tracy�s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
+original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
+years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now
+be had, I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
+Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
+under the word �Ideology� all the subjects which the French term
+_Morale_, as the correlative to _Physique_, His works on Logic,
+Government, Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up
+the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the
+scope of the understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies
+exactly the ground of Locke�s work on the Understanding. The translation
+of that on Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation
+of mine. I have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very
+laborious. _Le premier jet_ having been by some one who understood
+neither French nor English, it was impossible to make it more than
+faithful. But it is a valuable work.
+
+The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four
+words, �Be just and good,� is that in which all our inquiries must end;
+as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, �_Ubi panis, ibi
+deus_.� What all agree in, is probably right; what no two agree in, most
+probably wrong. One of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small
+men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too,
+whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much
+spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had
+been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom
+I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was, �Say
+nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its
+evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been
+honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it
+cannot be a bad one.� Affectionately adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Absences and avocations had prevented my acknowledging your favor of
+February the 2nd, when that of April the 19th arrived. I had not the
+pleasure of receiving the former by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business
+probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, and
+distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities.
+Your recommendations are always welcome, for, indeed, the subjects of
+them always merit that welcome, and some of them in an extraordinary
+degree. They make us acquainted with what there is excellent in our
+ancient sister State of Massachusetts, once venerated and beloved,
+and still hanging on our hopes, for what need we despair of after the
+resurrection of Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that
+the last retreat of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those
+advances of the mind which had carried the other States a century ahead
+of them. They seemed still to be exactly where their forefathers were
+when they schismatized from the covenant of works, and to consider as
+dangerous heresies all innovations good or bad. I join you, therefore,
+in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length
+broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the
+American history and character. If by religion, we are to understand
+sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation
+on that hypothesis is just, �that this would be the best of all possible
+worlds, if there were no religion in it.� But if the moral precepts,
+innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution, as
+necessary for a social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism
+and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute
+true religion, then, without it, this would be, as you again say,
+�something not fit to be named, even indeed, a hell.�
+
+You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the malice of
+Pickering could say of you. Were such things to be answered, our lives
+would be wasted in the filth of fendings and provings, instead of
+being employed in promoting the happiness and prosperity of our
+fellow-citizens. The tenor of your life is the proper and sufficient
+answer. It is fortunate for those in public trust, that posterity will
+judge them by their works, and not by the malignant vituperations and
+invectives of the Pickerings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men
+of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides
+to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with
+effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion
+as they feel that effect. Thus, in the Revolution, Hancock and the
+Adamses were the raw-head and bloody bones of tories and traitors; who
+yet knew nothing of you personally but what was good. I do not entertain
+your apprehensions for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state
+of retirement. Such a mind as his, fraught with information and with
+matter for reflection, can never know _ennui_. Besides, there will
+always be work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness
+to his country. For example, he and Monroe (the President) are now
+here on the work of a collegiate institution to be established in our
+neighborhood, of which they and myself are three of six Visitors. This,
+if it succeeds, will raise up children for Mr. Madison to employ his
+attention through life. I say, if it succeeds; for we have two very
+essential wants in our way: 1. means to compass our views; and 2. men
+qualified to fulfil them. And these you will agree are essential wants
+indeed.
+
+I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his is a field
+familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His work is highly
+praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been occupied and delighted
+with reading another work, the title of which did not promise much
+useful information or amusement, �_L�Italia avanti il Dominio del
+Romani, dal Micali_. It has often, you know, been a subject of regret
+that Carthage had no writer to give her side of her own history,
+while her wealth, power, and splendor prove she must have had a very
+distinguished policy and government. Micali has given the counterpart
+of the Roman history, for the nations over which they extended their
+dominion. For this he has gleaned up matter from every quarter, and
+furnished materials for reflection and digestion to those who, thinking
+as they read, have perceived that there was a great deal of matter
+behind the curtain, could that be fully withdrawn. He certainly gives
+new views of a nation whose splendor has masked and palliated their
+barbarous ambition. I am now reading Botta�s History of our own
+Revolution. Bating the ancient practice which he has adopted, of putting
+speeches into mouths which never made them, and fancying motives of
+action which we never felt, he has given that history with more detail,
+precision, and candor, than any writer I have yet met with. It is, to be
+sure, compiled from those writers; but it is a good secretion of their
+matter, the pure from the impure, and presented in a just sense of
+right, in opposition to usurpation.
+
+Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affectionate esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLI.--TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817
+
+
+TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, May 14, 1817.
+
+Although, Dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling little in
+its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute at times
+my old friends, were it only to say and to know that �all�s well.�
+Our hobby has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so
+desperate, that little matter is furnished us for active attention. With
+you too, it has long been forbidden ground, and therefore imprudent
+for a foreign friend to tread, in writing to you. But although our
+speculations might be intrusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable,
+and mine are sincerely offered for the well-being of France. What
+government she can bear, depends not on the state of science, however
+exalted, in a select band of enlightened men, but on the condition of
+the general mind. That, I am sure, is advanced and will advance, and
+the last change of government was fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be
+less obstructive to the effects of that advancement. For I consider your
+foreign military oppression as an ephemeral obstacle only.
+
+Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but that is
+a cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment of the
+necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our government is
+solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even to civil schism,
+are precious facts for us; and of these the strongest proofs were
+furnished, when, with four eastern States tied to us, as dead to living
+bodies, all doubt was removed as to the achievements of the war, had
+it continued. But its best effect has been the complete suppression of
+party. The federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was
+so, have separated from their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are
+received with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut,
+as a State, and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which
+were essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen
+a republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts indeed
+still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide crimes and
+treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh
+advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut
+as the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my
+attention. That is essentially a Quaker State, the fragment of a
+religious sect which, there, in the other States, in England, are a
+homogeneous mass, acting with one mind, and that directed by the mother
+society in England. Dispersed, as the Jews, they still form, as those
+do, one nation, foreign to the land they live in. They are Protestant
+Jesuits, implicitly devoted to the will of their superior, and
+forgetting all duties to their country in the execution of the policy
+of their order. When war is proposed with England, they have religious
+scruples; but when with France, these are laid by, and they become
+clamorous for it. They are, however, silent, passive, and give no other
+trouble than of whipping them along. Nor is the election of Monroe an
+inefficient circumstance in our felicities. Four and twenty years,
+which he will accomplish, of administration in republican forms and
+principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people as
+to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition of party
+dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened society beyond
+imagination. The war then has done us all this good, and the further one
+of assuring the world, that although attached to peace from a sense of
+its blessings, we will meet war when it is made necessary.
+
+I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The
+achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. But
+it is a very serious one, what will then become of them. Ignorance and
+bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government. They
+will fall under military despotisms, and become the murderous tools of
+the ambition of their respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be
+for their greater happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to
+judge. No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind
+exercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the
+question is not what we wish, but what is practicable. As their sincere
+friend and brother, then, I do believe the best thing for them, would be
+for themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under the guarantee
+of France, Russia, Holland, and the United States, allowing to Spain
+a nominal supremacy, with authority only to keep the peace among them,
+leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government, until
+their experience in them, their emancipation from their priests,
+and advancement in information, shall prepare them for complete
+independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because her
+selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
+disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
+revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
+permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension
+of her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
+Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
+send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
+wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
+led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
+sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
+are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have still
+many years to be a spectator of these events. That these years may
+indeed be many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate
+friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 16, 1817
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, June 16, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The importance that the enclosed letters should safely reach their
+destination, impels me to avail myself of the protection of your cover.
+This is an inconvenience to which your situation exposes you, while it
+adds to the opportunities of exercising yourself in works of charity.
+
+According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before your
+departure, we have had almost an entire change in the body of Congress.
+The unpopularity of the compensation law was completed, by the manner of
+repealing it as to all the world except themselves. In some States, it
+is said, every member is changed; in all, many. What opposition there
+was to the original law, was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of
+those have been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I
+have never known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation; and what
+is remarkable, is, that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost
+entirely silent, and the people not only unled by their leaders, but in
+opposition to them. I confess I was highly pleased with this proof
+of the innate good sense, the vigilance, and the determination of the
+people to act for themselves.
+
+Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note: a navigation
+act, particularly, applicable to those nations only who have navigation
+acts; pinching one of them especially, not only in the general way, but
+in the intercourse with her foreign possessions. This part may re-act
+on us, and it remains for trial which may bear longest. A law respecting
+our conduct as a neutral between Spain and her contending colonies,
+was passed by a majority of one only, I believe, and against the
+very general sentiment of our country. It is thought to strain our
+complaisance to Spain beyond her right or merit, and almost against the
+right of the other party, and certainly against the claims they have to
+our good wishes and neighborly relations. That we should wish to see
+the people of other countries free, is as natural, and at least as
+justifiable, as that one King should wish to see the Kings of other
+countries maintained in their despotism. Right to both parties, innocent
+favor to the juster cause, is our proper sentiment.
+
+You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after
+passing both houses, was negatived by the President. The act was
+founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution,
+which authorizes Congress �to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide
+for the general welfare,� was an extension of the powers specifically
+enumerated to whatever would promote the general welfare; and this,
+you know, was the federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet ever was,
+and, indeed, it is almost the only land-mark which now divides the
+federalists from the republicans, that Congress had not unlimited
+powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those
+specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should
+provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers,
+so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes
+which the enumeration did not place under their action: consequently,
+that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for
+which they may raise money. I think the passage and rejection of this
+bill a fortunate incident. Every State will certainly concede the power;
+and this will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal to
+them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a
+mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
+claim of universal power. For in the phrase, �to lay taxes, to pay the
+debts and provide for the general welfare,� it is a mere question of
+syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first, or
+are distinct and co-ordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided
+by the exact definition of powers immediately following. It is fortunate
+for another reason, as the States, in conceding the power, will modify
+it, either by requiring the federal ratio of expense in each State, or
+otherwise, so as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this
+caution, intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
+habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have the
+appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called �logging,� the
+term of the farmers for their exchanges of aid in rolling together the
+logs of their newly cleared grounds. Three of our papers have presented
+us the copy of an act of the legislature of New York, which, if it has
+really passed, will carry us back to the times of the darkest bigotry
+and barbarism to find a parallel. Its purport is, that all those who
+shall hereafter join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking
+Quakers, shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and
+all their children and property taken out of their hands. This act being
+published nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any
+history of the circumstances of its passage, I am not without a hope it
+may have been a mere abortive attempt. It contrasts singularly with a
+cotemporary vote of the Pennsylvania legislature, who, on a proposition
+to make the belief in a God a necessary qualification for office,
+rejected it by a great majority, although assuredly there was not a
+single atheist in their body. And you remember to have heard, that, when
+the act for religious freedom was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion
+to insert the name of Jesus Christ before the phrase, �the author of our
+holy religion,� which stood in the bill, was rejected, although that was
+the creed of a great majority of them.
+
+I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now produces
+scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison�s election there was little, on
+Monroe�s all but none. In Mr. Adams�s time and mine, parties were so
+nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful for our peace. But since
+the decided ascendancy of the republican body, federalism has looked
+on with silent but unresisting anguish. In the middle, southern, and
+western States, it is as low as it ever can be; for nature has made some
+men monarchists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course,
+there always will be.
+
+*****
+
+We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in Maine, the
+mercury was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit, which is
+sixteen degrees lower than it was in Paris in 1788-9. Here it was at six
+degrees above zero, which is our greatest degree of cold.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my constant
+and affectionate friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 17, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mr. Holly�s own hand your
+favor of January the 28th, being then at my other home. He dined only
+with my family, and left them with an impression which has filled me
+with regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them.
+I am glad he is gone to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more
+rapidly there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are, and
+bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though neither you
+nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary people to them. Our
+greediness for wealth, and fantastical expense have degraded, and will
+degrade, the minds of our maritime citizens. These are the peculiar
+vices of commerce.
+
+I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of you
+through a letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to reclaim against
+an expression of Mr. Wirt�s, as to the commencement of motion in
+the revolutionary ball. The lawyers say that words are always to be
+expounded _secundum subjectam materiem_, which, in Mr. Wirt�s case, was
+Virginia. It would, moreover, be as difficult to say at what moment
+the Revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the
+moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him
+a beginning. But the most agreeable part of his letter was that which
+informed me of your health, your activity, and strength of memory;
+and the most wonderful, that which assured me that you retained your
+industry and promptness in epistolary correspondence. Here you have
+entire advantage over me. My repugnance to the writing-table becomes
+daily and hourly more deadly and insurmountable. In place of this has
+come on a canine appetite for reading. And I indulge it, because I see
+in it a relief against the _t�dium senectutis_; a lamp to lighten my
+path through the dreary wilderness of time before me, whose bourne I see
+not. Losing daily all interest in the things around us, something else
+is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which occupies the
+mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own stock.
+
+I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of South
+America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is
+within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their
+minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it
+would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that
+would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to
+take charge of themselves understanding; with more certainty, if, in
+the mean time, under so much control as may keep them at peace with
+one another. Surely, it is our duty to wish them independence and
+self-government, because they wish it themselves, and they have the
+right, and we none, to choose for themselves: and I wish, moreover, that
+our ideas may be erroneous, and theirs prove well-founded. But these are
+speculations, my friend, which we may as well deliver over to those who
+are to see their developement. We shall only be lookers on, from the
+clouds above, as now we look down on the labors, the hurry, and bustle
+of the ants and bees. Perhaps, in that super-mundane region, we may
+be amused with seeing the fallacy of our own guesses, and even the
+nothingness of those labors which have filled and agitated our own time
+here.
+
+_En attendant_, with sincere affections to Mrs. Adams and yourself, I
+salute you both cordially.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, November 13, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 13, 1818.
+
+The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which
+your letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding.
+Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of
+connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what
+you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to
+endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable,
+time and silence are the only medicine. I will not, therefore, by
+useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor,
+although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more
+where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that
+the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same
+cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to
+an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we
+shall still love, and never lose again. God bless you, and support you
+under your heavy affliction.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLV.--TO ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818
+
+
+TO ROBERT WALSH.
+
+Monticello, December 4, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of November the 8th has been some time received; but it is in my
+power to give little satisfaction as to its inquiries. Dr. Franklin had
+many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision
+enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on
+the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in
+Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of
+the proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
+Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which,
+spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr.
+Lee was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides
+enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the
+agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into
+that State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor�s enemy
+also, but from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges
+against him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also,
+ever maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he
+would have waived the formal recognition of our independence, I never
+heard on any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was
+urgent to retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe, that
+had they been ultimately made a _sine qua non_, our commissioners (Mr.
+Adams excepted) would have relinquished them, rather than have broken
+off the treaty. To Mr. Adams�s perseverance alone, on that point, I
+have always understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the
+charge of subservience to France, besides the evidence of his friendly
+colleagues before named, two years of my own service with him at Paris,
+daily visits, and the most friendly and confidential conversations,
+convince me it had not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the
+confidence of that government in the highest degree, insomuch, that
+it may truly be said, that they were more under his influence, than
+he under theirs. The fact is, that his temper was so amiable and
+conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or
+even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate
+and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his
+enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that reasonable disposition,
+which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding
+what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality
+and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual influence,
+and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the government
+of France.
+
+I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too
+much in detail for the scale of Delaplaine�s work, but which may find a
+cadre in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is
+in a great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
+recollections and assurances of respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVI.--TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818
+
+
+TO M. DE NEUVILLE.
+
+Monticello, December 13, 1818.
+
+I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
+of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
+no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
+Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
+much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from
+the incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from
+her slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her
+central position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than
+she ever was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future
+day, remind of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most
+eagerly. I hope, however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk
+no new troubles. Her constitution, as now amended, gives as much of
+self-government as perhaps she can yet bear, and will give more, when
+the habits of order shall have prepared her to receive more. Besides the
+gratitude which every American owes her, as our sole ally during the
+war of independence, I am additionally affectioned by the friendships
+I contracted there, by the good dispositions I witnessed, and by the
+courtesies I received.
+
+I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties
+on wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on
+that liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use
+to the middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to
+the poison of whiskey, which is desolating their houses. No nation is
+drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine
+substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the
+only antidote to the bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of
+other merchandise, and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog:
+and who will not prefer it? Its extended use will carry health and
+comfort to a much enlarged circle. Every one in easy circumstances (as
+the bulk of our citizens are) will prefer it to the poison to which they
+are now driven by their government. And the treasury itself will find
+that a penny a piece from a dozen, is more than a groat from a single
+one. This reformation, however, will require time. Our merchants know
+nothing of the infinite variety of cheap and good wines to be had in
+Europe; and particularly in France, in Italy, and the Grecian islands:
+as they know little, also, of the variety of excellent manufactures and
+comforts to be had any where out of England. Nor will these things be
+known, nor of course called for here, until the native merchants of
+those countries, to whom they are known, shall bring them forward,
+exhibit, and vend them at the moderate profits they can afford. This
+alone will procure them familiarity with us, and the preference they
+merit in competition with corresponding articles now in use.
+
+Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your kind visit
+to Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assurances of the
+gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem and respectful
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVII.--TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY, March 21, 1819
+
+
+TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY.
+
+Monticello, March 21, 1819.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and
+the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me
+not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied
+it, of Doctor Rush�s answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like
+other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my
+own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little
+animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the
+vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the
+Doctor�s glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend;
+but halve its effect by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I
+cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors
+and cider are my table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of
+my friend, is of tea and coffee. I have been blest with organs of
+digestion, which accept and concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever
+the palate chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth
+by age. I was a hard student until I entered on the business of life,
+the duties of which leave no idle time to those disposed to fulfil
+them; and now, retired, and at the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard
+student. Indeed my fondness for reading and study revolts me from the
+drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist, the consequence of an
+early dislocation, makes writing both slow and painful. I am not so
+regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was, devoting to it from
+five to eight hours, according as my company or the book I am reading
+interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or half hour�s
+previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the
+intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise
+with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the
+day, unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular
+conversation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
+unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate than
+my friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have
+not had one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight or ten years
+through life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of bathing my
+feet in cold water every morning for sixty years past. A fever of more
+than twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my
+life. A periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps,
+in six or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time, which seems
+now to have left me; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I
+enjoy good health; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without
+fatigue six or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may
+end these egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has
+been so much like that of other people, that I might say with Horace,
+to every one, �_Nomine mutato, narratur fabula de te_.� I must not end,
+however, without due thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are
+so good as to express towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for
+these, be pleased to accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 9, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June
+the 22nd. The first, delivered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the
+gratification of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is, to
+be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as
+I found Mr. Greenwood to be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams
+Wells, shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to
+his advantage.
+
+But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg
+county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Register, which you
+were so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you
+seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very
+unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us
+as having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago,
+in that part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of
+Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise locality. If this paper
+be really taken from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should
+have escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the
+bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, too, which is
+edited by a North-Carolinian: and that the fire should blaze out all at
+once in Essex, one thousand miles from where the spark is said to
+have fallen. But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is the
+narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious as the
+paper itself? It appeals, too, to an original book, which is burnt, to
+Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hughes, and
+Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent
+to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect,
+in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step
+of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his history of
+Marion, whose scene of action was the country bordering On Mecklenburg.
+Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent
+States, all silent. When Mr. Henry�s resolutions, far short of
+independence, flew like lightning through every paper, and kindled both
+sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of the same date, of the
+independence of Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, absolving it from
+the British allegiance, and abjuring all political connection with that
+nation, although sent to Congress, too, is never heard of. It is not
+known even a twelvemonth after, when a similar proposition is first made
+in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not you have addressed
+our timid brethren in peals of thunder, on their tardy fears? Would
+not every advocate of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg
+county, in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting Dickinson and
+others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example of independent
+Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper
+speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delegation (Caswell,
+Hooper, Hughes,) �in the cause of liberty and independence.� Now, you
+remember as well as I do, that we had not a greater tory in Congress
+than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes
+feeble, according as the day was clear or cloudy; that Caswell, indeed,
+was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was
+present; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then
+uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes, and the vote of the State.
+I must not be understood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State
+of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm,
+positively, that this paper is a fabrication: because the proof of a
+negative can only be presumptive. But I shall believe it such until
+positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced. And if
+the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs
+a vindication by the production of such proof. For the present, I must
+be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
+
+I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his friends;
+but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship
+in our University, which we should have offered him in form. Mr.
+Bowditch, too, refuses us; so fascinating is the _vinculum_ of the
+_dulce natale solum_. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can be
+found, like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement in
+their respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to
+natives of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our
+Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are.
+
+I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance
+of which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary
+communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there,
+here, and every where, I am and shall always be, affectionately and
+respectfully yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIX.--TO JUDGE ROANE, September 6,1819
+
+
+TO JUDGE ROANE.
+
+Poplar Forest, September 6,1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces
+signed Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation in
+the copies you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every
+tittle of them. They contain the true principles of the revolution
+of 1800, for that was as real a revolution in the principles of our
+government as that of 1776 was in its form; not effected indeed by the
+sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform,
+the suffrage of the people. The nation declared its will by dismissing
+functionaries of one principle, and electing those of another, in the
+two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election.
+Over the judiciary department, the constitution had deprived them of
+their control. That, therefore, has continued the reprobated system: and
+although new matter has been occasionally incorporated into the old, yet
+the leaven of the old mass seems to assimilate to itself the new; and
+after twenty years� confirmation of the federated system by the voice
+of the nation, declared through the medium of elections, we find the
+judiciary, on every occasion, still driving us into consolidation.
+
+In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
+constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your
+quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that �the judiciary is the
+last resort in relation _to the other departments of the government_,
+but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under
+which the judiciary is derived.� If this opinion be sound, then indeed
+is our constitution a complete _felo de se_. For intending to establish
+three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check
+and balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one
+of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the
+others, and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of
+the nation. For experience has already shown that the impeachment it
+has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one
+you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not
+belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally
+the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line
+they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have
+excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted
+with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing
+of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape
+into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of
+eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is
+independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the
+spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.
+Independence can be trusted no where but with the people in mass. They
+are inherently independent of all but moral law. My construction of
+the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each
+department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to
+decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases
+submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately
+and without appeal. I will explain myself by examples, which, having
+occurred while I was in office, are better known to me, and the
+principles which governed them.
+
+A legislature had passed the sedition-law. The federal courts
+had subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and
+imprisonment. On coming into office, I released these individuals by the
+power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could never be
+more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering without the
+authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorized
+by the constitution, and therefore null. In the case of Marbury and
+Madison, the federal judges declared that commissions, signed and sealed
+by the President, were valid, although not delivered. I deemed delivery
+essential to complete a deed, which, as long as it remains in the hands
+of the party, is as yet no deed, it is in posse only, but not in
+esse, and I withheld delivery of the commissions. They cannot issue a
+mandamus* to the President or legislature, or to any of their officers.
+When the British treaty of 180- arrived, without any provision against
+the impressment of our seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The Senate
+thought I should ask their advice. I thought that would be a mockery of
+them, when I was predetermined against following it, should they advise
+its ratification. The constitution had made their advice necessary to
+confirm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some;
+but I have never doubted its soundness. In the cases of two persons,
+antenati, under exactly similar circumstances, the federal court had
+determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen; the House of
+Representatives nevertheless determined that the other (Smith of South
+Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him to his seat in their body.
+Duane was a republican, and Smith a federalist, and these decisions were
+during the federal ascendancy.
+
+     * The constitution controlling the common law in this
+     particular.
+
+These are examples of my position, that each of the three departments
+has equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the
+constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided
+for themselves under a similar question. But you intimate a wish that my
+opinion should be known on this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw
+from all contests of opinion, and resign every thing cheerfully to
+the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, and their
+successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive advance of
+science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of age. I wish, therefore,
+to offend no man�s opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions
+on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with a firm and
+fearless step. But, loving mankind in my individual relations with
+them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace; and like the
+superannuated soldier, �_quadragenis stipendiis emeritis_� to hang my
+arms on the post. I have unwisely, I fear, embarked in an enterprise of
+great public concern, but not to be accomplished within my term, without
+their liberal and prompt support. A severe illness the last year and
+another from which I am just emerged, admonish me that repetitions may
+be expected, against which a declining frame cannot long bear up. I am
+anxious therefore to get our University so far advanced as may encourage
+the public to persevere to its final accomplishment. That secured, I
+shall sing my _Nunc demittas_. I hope your labors will be long continued
+in the spirit in which they have always been exercised, in maintenance
+of those principles on which I verily believe the future happiness of
+our country essentially depends. I salute you with affectionate and
+great respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, December 10, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of November the 23rd.
+The banks, bankrupt-law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing.
+These are occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will pass under
+the ship. But the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the
+Missouri country by revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the
+battle of Bunker�s Hill to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous
+a question. It even damps the joy with which I hear of your high health,
+and welcomes to me the consequences of my want of it. I thank God that I
+shall not live to witness its issue. _Sed h�c hactenus_.
+
+I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters
+of Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effusions of an exalted
+patriot, while the parricide Caesar is lost in odious contrast. When the
+enthusiasm, however, kindled by Cicero�s pen and principles, subsides
+into cool reflection, I ask myself, What was that government which the
+virtues of Cicero were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar
+to subvert? And if Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and
+sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power,
+have done to lead his fellow-citizens into good government? I do not say
+to restore it, because they never had it, from the rape of the Sabines
+to the ravages of the Caesars. If their people indeed had been, like
+ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be
+obvious. �Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve
+Italy from the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a
+nation entitled to self-government, and do its will.� But steeped in
+corruption, vice, and venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody
+had done more than Caesar to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero, Cato,
+Brutus, have done, had it been referred to them to establish a
+good government for their country? They had no ideas of government
+themselves, but of their degenerate Senate, nor the people of liberty,
+but of the factious opposition of their tribunes. They had afterwards
+their Tituses, their Trajans, and Antoninuses, who had the will to make
+them happy, and the power to mould their government into a good and
+permanent form. But it would seem as if they could not see their way
+clearly to do it. No government can continue good, but under the control
+of the people; and their people were so demoralized and depraved, as to
+be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their reformation then
+was to be taken up _ab incunabulis_. Their minds were to be informed by
+education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of
+virtue, and deterred from those of vice, by the dread of punishments,
+proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth
+as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one
+false consequence after another, in endless succession. These are
+the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the
+structure of order and good government. But this would have been an
+operation of a generation or two, at least, within which period would
+have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have quashed the
+whole process. I confess then, I can neither see what Cicero, Cato, and
+Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could have devised to lead their people
+into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved, nor how further
+shown why it has been the fate of that delightful country never to have
+known, to this day, and through a course of five and twenty hundred
+years, the history of which we possess, one single day of free and
+rational government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient, middle,
+and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in the science of
+government at this time, will enable you, if any body, to go back with
+our principles and opinions to the limes of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus,
+and tell us by what process these great and virtuous men could have led
+so unenlightened and vitiated a people into freedom and good government,
+_et eris mihi magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas
+carissimum te mihi esse_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLI.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, April 13, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of March the 27th is received, and, as you request, a copy of
+the syllabus is now enclosed. It was originally written to Dr. Rush. On
+his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of
+it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied
+with. At the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent
+it to his friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it appeared
+in the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that repository is
+scarcely known in this country; and the syllabus, therefore, is still a
+secret, and in your hands I am sure it will continue so.
+
+But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its
+true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the
+Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with
+him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of
+Spiritualism: he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness
+of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, &c. &c. It
+is the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral
+precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues
+in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed,
+needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be
+founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the
+sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many
+passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely
+benevolence; and others again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity,
+so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it
+impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same
+being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him
+the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery
+of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul
+was the great Coryph�us, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.
+These palpable interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me
+to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that
+his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been
+given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of his doctrine, not
+all of mine: I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern
+moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent.
+
+I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal
+improvement prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever expressed
+of the advantages of a western communication through the James River, I
+still entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links
+of communication.
+
+The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the ten
+pavilions destined for the Professors, and about thirty dormitories,
+will be completed this year, and three others, with six hotels for
+boarding, and seventy other dormitories, will be completed the next
+year, and the whole be in readiness then to receive those who are to
+occupy them. But means to bring these into place, and to set the machine
+into motion, must come from the legislature. An opposition, in the mean
+time, has been got up. That of our alma mater, William and Mary, is not
+of much weight. She must descend into the secondary rank of academies of
+preparation for the University. The serious enemies are the priests of
+the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind
+its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits are now resounding with
+denunciations against the appointment of Doctor Cooper, whom they charge
+as a monotheist in opposition to their tritheism. Hostile as these sects
+are, in every other point, to one another, they unite in maintaining
+their mystical theogony against those who believe there is one God only.
+The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most intolerant of all sects,
+the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the word of the lawgiver, if
+such a word could be now obtained, to put the torch to the pile, and
+to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere the flames in which their oracle
+Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because, he could not find in his
+Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three are one, and
+one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that magistrates have
+a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic creed. They pant to
+re-establish, by law, that holy inquisition, which they can now only
+infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to the
+hierophants of our particular superstition the direction of public
+opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and
+privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering
+their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as
+wax in the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations
+against endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason
+of the people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of
+this State will support this institution, and give fair play to the
+cultivation of reason. Can you ever find a more eligible occasion of
+visiting once more your native country, than that of accompanying Mr.
+Correa, and of seeing with him this beautiful and hopeful institution
+_in ovo_.
+
+Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or
+even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore
+had ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused
+and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican
+threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them
+together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked
+principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once
+conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that
+it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irritations, until
+it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation
+preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in
+believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much,
+and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of
+this question: not by the line which has been so confidently counted on;
+the laws of nature control this; but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri,
+or more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My
+only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this; and I
+envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of
+their fathers� sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate
+the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of
+self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize their
+epoch in future history, as the counterpart of the medal of their
+predecessors.
+
+You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it immediately
+threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down mechanically, by
+bandages from the toe to the knee. These I have worn for six months. But
+the tendency to turgidity may proceed from debility alone. I can walk
+the round of my garden; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day
+without fatigue. I shall set out for Poplar Forest within three or four
+days; a journey from which my physician augurs much good.
+
+I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLII.--TO JOHN HOLMES, April 22, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLMES.
+
+Monticello, April 22, 1820.
+
+I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send
+me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is
+a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read
+newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were
+in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore
+from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, like a
+fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered
+it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for
+the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is not a man on
+earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this
+heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The cession of that kind of
+property (for so it is misnamed) is a bagatelle which would not cost
+me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and
+expatriation could be effected: and, gradually, and with due sacrifices,
+I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we
+can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale,
+and self-preservation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as
+the passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a
+slave of a single human being who would not be so without it, so their
+diffusion over a greater surface would make them individually happier,
+and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation,
+by dividing the burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An
+abstinence, too, from this act of power, would remove the jealousy
+excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the
+different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the
+exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the constitution has
+taken from them, and given to the General Government. Could Congress,
+for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen,
+or that they shall not emigrate into any other State?
+
+I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice
+of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government
+and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and
+unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be,
+that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh
+the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more
+likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before
+they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason
+against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
+the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIII.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, August 4, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, which was received
+in due time; and there being no subject of the day, of particular
+interest, I will make this a supplement to mine of April the 13th. My
+aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions
+of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of
+being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced
+the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers
+father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and
+theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter
+ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he
+was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions
+and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter
+asked only what is granted in reading every other historian. When
+Livy and Siculus, for example, tell us things which coincide with our
+experience of the order of nature, we credit them on their word, and
+place their narrations among the records of credible history. But when
+they tell us of calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other
+things against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not
+belonging to history. In like manner, when an historian, speaking of a
+character well known and established on satisfactory testimony, imputes
+to it things incompatible with that character, we reject them without
+hesitation, and assent to that only of which we have better evidence.
+Had Plutarch informed us that C�sar and Cicero passed their whole lives
+in religious exercises, and abstinence from the affairs of the world,
+we should reject what was so inconsistent with their established
+characters, still crediting what he relates in conformity with our ideas
+of them. So again, the superlative wisdom of Socrates is testified
+by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be questioned. When,
+therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on
+words, and sophisms, as a school-boy would be ashamed of, we conclude
+they were the whimsies of Plato�s own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates
+of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking of Plato, I will add,
+that no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with more
+_ignes fatui_, than this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in Politics,
+and Physics. In the latter, to specify a single example, compare his
+views of the animal economy, in his Timasus, with those of Mrs. Bryan in
+her Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized
+philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But Plato�s
+visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mystical theology,
+and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian saint. It is surely
+time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of
+names so artificially magnified. But to return from this parenthesis.) I
+say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication
+of the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers
+matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a ground-work of vulgar
+ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and
+fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the
+Supreme Being, aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morality and
+benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity
+of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors,
+with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed.
+These could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them.
+They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. They show that
+there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid
+conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their
+hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, and ascribing
+each to its genuine author? The difference is obvious to the eye and
+to the understanding, and we may read as we run to each his part; and I
+will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have done, will undertake to
+winnow this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a moment�s
+consideration. The parts fall asunder of themselves, as would those of
+an image of metal and clay.
+
+There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we
+may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence
+from the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the
+reformation of some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by
+Moses. That sect had presented for the object of their worship, a being
+of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus,
+taking for his type the best qualities of the human head and heart,
+wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of
+these, but in infinite perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him
+really worthy of their adoration. Moses had either not believed in
+a future state of existence, or had not thought it essential to be
+explicitly taught to his people. Jesus inculcated that doctrine
+with emphasis and precision. Moses had bound the Jews to many idle
+ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no effect towards producing
+the social utilities which constitute the essence of virtue; Jesus
+exposed their futility and insignificance. The one instilled into his
+people the most anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other
+preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence. The office
+of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus
+had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step
+to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of
+the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the
+being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac,
+and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying
+snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He was
+justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by
+misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and
+in defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, _ad
+homines_, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind
+as the Son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the
+writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he might
+conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very possible.
+The whole religion of the Jews, inculcated on him from his infancy,
+was founded in the belief of divine inspiration. The fumes of the
+most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code,
+as special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen
+that, in the course of ages events would now and then turn up to which
+some of these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of
+allegories, figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not
+only preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times,
+but are the foundation of much of the religions of those who have
+schismatized from them. Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure
+heart, conscious of the high strains of an eloquence which had not been
+taught him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of his own fine
+genius for inspirations of an higher order. This belief, carried,
+therefore, no more personal imputation, than the belief of Socrates,
+that himself was under the care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon.
+And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these
+inspirations, while perfectly sane on all other subjects. Excusing,
+therefore, on these considerations, those passages in the gospels which
+seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing to him what alone is
+consistent with the great and pure character of which the same writings
+furnish proofs, and to their proper authors their own trivialities
+and imbecilities, I think myself authorized to conclude the purity and
+distinction of his character, in opposition to the impostures which
+those authors would fix upon him; and that the postulate of my former
+letter is no more than is granted in all other historical works.
+
+Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been much
+pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some
+valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good
+in his new country; the public instruction there, as I understand,
+being within the department destined for him. He is not without
+dissatisfaction, and reasonable dissatisfaction, too, with the piracies
+of Baltimore; but his justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure,
+distinguish between the iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound
+principles of our country at large, and of our government especially.
+From many conversations with him, I hope he sees, and will promote, in
+his new situation, the advantages of a cordial fraternization among
+all the American nations, and the importance of their coalescing in an
+American system of policy, totally independent of, and unconnected with
+that of Europe. The day is not distant, when we may formally require
+a meridian of partition through the ocean which separates the two
+hemispheres, on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be
+heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the
+eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our regions, shall
+lie down together in peace. The excess of population in Europe, and
+want of room, render war, in their opinion, necessary to keep down that
+excess of numbers. Here, room is abundant, population scanty, and peace
+the necessary means for producing men, to whom the redundant soil is
+offering the means of life and happiness. The principles of society
+there and here, then, are radically different, and I hope no American
+patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in
+the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary
+contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I am earnest for
+an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning them the task
+of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the cannibalisms of
+the African coasts, and, to us, the suppression of the same enormities
+within our seas: and for this purpose, I should rejoice to see the
+fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren of
+the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be
+of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the
+invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be
+preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval
+collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and respect for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1820.
+
+I am a great defaulter, my Dear Sir, in our correspondence, but
+prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and when it does, matters
+of business imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however,
+slowly, swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I
+believe, proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I
+ride six or eight miles a day without fatigue; and within a few days,
+I shall endeavor to visit my other home, after a twelvemonth�s absence
+from it. Our University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise,
+and the oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and
+it is becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have lately
+had an opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your
+North American Review of January last, having been not without anxiety
+to see what that able work would say of us: and I was relieved on
+finding in it much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms
+where indulged, I found they would have been obviated had the
+developements of our plan been fuller. But these were restrained by the
+character of the paper reviewed, being merely a report of outlines,
+not a detailed treatise, and addressed to a legislative body, not to
+a learned academy. For example, as an inducement to introduce the
+Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it would reward amply
+the few weeks of attention which alone would be requisite for its
+attainment; leaving both term and degree under an indefinite expression,
+because I know that not much time is necessary to attain it to an useful
+degree, sufficient to give such instruction in the etymologies of our
+language as may satisfy ordinary students, while more time would be
+requisite for those who should propose to attain a critical knowledge
+of it. In a letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts who sent
+you, I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the English
+and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary he
+meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for
+simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and
+difficulties presented by it�s rude alphabet, and unformed orthography.
+But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond
+the bounds of a report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts died, I believe,
+before any progress was made in the work he had projected.
+
+The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our placing
+military and naval architecture in the department of pure mathematics.
+Military architecture embraces fortification and field works, which,
+with their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts, &c. are based on a
+technical combination of lines and angles. These are adapted to offence
+and defence, with and against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades,
+he. But lines and angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch
+of pure mathematics: and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other
+projectiles, the necessary appendages of military works, although no
+part of their architecture, belong to the conic sections, a branch of
+transcendental geometry. Diderot and D�Alembert, therefore, in their
+_Arbor scienci�_, have placed military architecture in the department
+of elementary geometry. Naval architecture teaches the best form and
+construction of vessels; for which best form it has recourse to the
+question of the solid of least resistance; a problem of transcendental
+geometry. And its appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch as
+in the preceding case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of
+the water on the rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may
+be placed in the department of mechanics, as Diderot and D�Alembert
+have done; but belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in its
+military character to military architecture, it simplified our plan to
+place both under the same head. These views are so obvious, that I am
+sure they would have required but a second thought to reconcile the
+reviewer to their location under the head of pure mathematics. For
+this word location, see Bailey, Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, &c. But if
+dictionaries are to be the arbiters of language, in which of them shall
+we find neologism? No matter. It is a good word, well sounding, obvious,
+and expresses an idea, which would otherwise require circumlocution. The
+reviewer was justifiable, therefore, in using it; although he noted
+at the same time, as unauthoritative, _centrality, grade, sparse_; all
+which have been long used in common speech and writing. I am a friend
+to neology. It is the only way to give to a language copiousness and
+euphony. Without it we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred
+or of Ulphilas; and held to their state of science also: for I am
+sure they had no words which could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen,
+cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism, electricity, hyaline, and thousands of
+others expressing ideas not then existing, nor of possible communication
+in the state of their language. What a language has the French become
+since the date of their revolution, by the free introduction of new
+words! The most copious and eloquent in the living world; and equal to
+the Greek, had not that been regularly modifiable almost _ad infinitum_.
+Their rule was, that whenever their language furnished or adopted a
+root, all its branches in every part of speech, were legitimated by
+giving them their appropriate terminations:
+
+[Illustration: page331]
+
+And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the
+adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity,
+fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize,
+fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root,
+and it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist,
+neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical;
+its verb, neologize; and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but
+the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the
+work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses
+a new word, if ill formed, it is rejected in society, if well formed,
+adopted, and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries.
+And if, in this process of sound neologization, our trans-Atlantic
+brethren shall not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after
+the Ionians, a second example of a colonial dialect improving on its
+primitive.
+
+But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of May the
+12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &c. Its crowd of scepticisms kept me
+from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid it down,
+again and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur
+ultimately to my habitual anodyne, �I feel, therefore I exist.� I feel
+bodies which are not myself: there are other existences then. I call
+them matter. I feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where
+there is an absence of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial
+space. On the basis of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect
+the fabric of all the certainties we can have or need. I can conceive
+thought to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed
+for that purpose by its creator, as well as that attraction is an action
+of matter, or magnetism of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator
+the power of endowing matter with the mode of action called thinking,
+shall show how he could endow the sun with the mode of action called
+attraction, which reins the planets in the track of their orbits, or how
+an absence of matter can have a will, and by that will put matter into
+motion, then the Materialist may be lawfully required to explain the
+process by which matter exercises the faculty of thinking. When once we
+quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial
+existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels,
+God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no
+God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am
+supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys, and
+the Stewarts. At what age* of the Christian church this heresy of
+immaterialism, or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a
+heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He told us, indeed,
+that �God is a spirit,� but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor
+said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, of the
+three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and thin indeed, an
+ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. �_Deus reapse corporalis
+est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus_.� Tertullian,�
+_Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?_� And again, �_Quis negabit Deum esse
+corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est, sui generis in
+sua effigie_. St. Justin Martyr,
+
+[Illustration: 332]
+
+And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, �_Quamvis enim subtilia
+sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturas
+eorum, corpora sunt tenuia_.� And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius,
+Tatian, Athenagoras, and others, with whose writings I pretend not a
+familiarity, are said by those who are better acquainted with them,
+to deliver the same doctrine. (Enfield x. 3. 1.) Turn to your Ocellus
+d�Argens, 97, 105. and to his Timseus 17. for these quotations. In
+England, these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2.
+when the writ _de h�retico comburendo_ was abolished; and here until the
+Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies being
+now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing
+from the material atheist only in their belief, that �nothing made
+something,� and from the material deist, who believes that matter alone
+can operate on matter.
+
+     [* That of Athanasius and the Council of Nicasa, anno 324]
+
+Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses, I rid
+myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations
+hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and disquiet the
+mind. A single sense may indeed be sometimes deceived, but rarely; and
+never all our senses together, with their faculty of reasoning. They
+evidence realities, and there are enough of these for all the purposes
+of life, without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and
+phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things
+which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may
+indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. I am sure that I really know
+many, many things, and none more surely than that I love you with all
+my heart, and pray for the continuance of your life until you shall be
+tired of it yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, November 28, 1820
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor, with a
+request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary Board in time to
+lay it before the legislature on the second day of their session. It
+was enclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. If delivered
+before the crowd of other business presses on them, they may act on
+it immediately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly
+combinations and manoeuvres by the enemies of the institution. I enclose
+you now a paper presenting some views which may be useful to you in
+conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution
+is to cost, and reproaches of deceptive estimates. One hundred and
+sixty-two thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars will be about
+the cost of the whole establishment, when completed. Not an office
+at Washington has cost less. The single building of the courthouse of
+Henrico has cost nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of
+bricks of William and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
+
+Surely Governor Clinton�s display of the gigantic efforts of New York
+towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate the pride as well
+as the patriotism of our legislature, to look to the reputation and
+safety of their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of
+becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our
+own negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the
+hands of the other States, what our indigenous predecessors were when
+invaded by the science and arts of Europe. The mass of education in
+Virginia, before the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her
+sister colonies. What is her education now? Where is it? The little
+we have, we import, like beggars, from other States; or import their
+beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to
+restore us to our station among our confederates? Not more money from
+the people. Enough has been raised by them, and appropriated to this
+very object. It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for
+their greatest good. That good requires, that while they are instructed
+in general, competently to the common business of life, others should
+employ their genius with necessary information to the useful arts, to
+inventions for saving labor and increasing our comforts, to nourishing
+our health, to civil government, military science, &c.
+
+Would it not have a good effect for the friends of the University
+to take the lead in proposing and effecting a practical scheme of
+elementary schools? to assume the character of the friends, rather than
+the opponents of that object? The present plan has appropriated to the
+primary schools forty-five thousand dollars for three years, making one
+hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. I should be glad to know if
+this sum has educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children? I doubt
+it much. And if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a
+piece for what might have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the
+literary revenue to be sixty thousand dollars, I think it demonstrable,
+that this sum, equally divided between the two objects, would amply
+suffice for both. One hundred counties, divided into about twelve wards
+each, on an average, and a school in each ward of perhaps ten
+children, would be one thousand and two hundred schools, distributed
+proportionably over the surface of the State. The inhabitants of each
+ward, meeting together (as when they work on the roads), building
+good log-houses for their school and teacher, and contributing for his
+provisions, rations of pork, beef, and corn, in the proportion, each of
+his other taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without feeling it;
+and those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of their own
+children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the tuition
+fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would still be fed and
+lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten dollars, and three
+hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an average (more or less duly
+proportioned), would there be thirty such paupers for every county? I
+think not. The truth is, that the want of common education with us is
+not from our poverty, but from want of an orderly system. More money is
+now paid for the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the
+whole, if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in New
+York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one
+hundred and sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty
+established academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen
+pupils; and five colleges, with seven hundred and eighteen students;
+to which last classes of institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand
+dollars have been given; and the whole appropriations for education
+estimated at two and a half millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is
+Virginia become, with a population almost equal to that of New York!
+And whence this difference? From the difference their rulers set on
+the value of knowledge, and the prosperity it produces. But still, if a
+pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may do. If among fifty children in each
+of the six thousand schools of New York, there are only paupers enough
+to employ twenty-five dollars of public money to each school, surely
+among the ten children of each of our one thousand and two hundred
+schools, the same sum of twenty-five dollars to each school will teach
+its paupers (five times as much as to the same number in New York), and
+will amount for the whole to thirty thousand dollars a year, the one
+half only of our literary revenue.
+
+Do then, Dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take in
+hand the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the elementary
+schools, and none are more warmly so than myself, lighten the
+difficulties of the University, and promote in every order of men the
+degree of instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their
+views in life. It will combine with the mass of our force, a wise
+direction of it, which will insure to our country its future prosperity
+and safety. I had formerly thought that visitors of the schools might
+be chosen by the county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward,
+and to superintend them. I now think it would be better for every ward
+to choose its own resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a
+teacher in the ward, to superintend the school, and to call meetings of
+the ward for all purposes relating to it: their accounts to be settled,
+and wards laid off by the courts. I think ward elections better for
+many reasons, one of which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary
+education out of the hands of fanaticizing preachers, who, in county
+elections, would be universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the
+county would possess itself of all its schools.
+
+A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the effect of
+age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with me. I cannot,
+therefore, present these views by separate letters to each of our
+colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to communicate them to
+Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge, and to request them to
+consider this as equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon, being the local
+representative of the University and among its most zealous friends,
+would be a more useful second to General Breckenridge in the House of
+Delegates, by a free communication of what concerns the University, with
+which he has had little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So also,
+would it be as to Mr. Rives, who would be a friendly advocate.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVI.--TO THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820
+
+TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
+
+Monticello, December, 25, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return home after a long absence, I find here your favor of
+November the 23rd, with Colonel Taylor�s �Construction Construed,� which
+you have been so kind as to send me, in the name of the author as well
+as yourself. Permit me, if you please, to use the same channel
+for conveying to him the thanks I render you also for this mark of
+attention. I shall read it, I know, with edification, as I did his
+Enquiry, to which I acknowledge myself indebted for many valuable ideas,
+and for the correction of some errors of early opinion, never seen in
+a correct light until presented to me in that work. That the present
+volume is equally orthodox I know before reading it, because I know
+that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any
+political principle of importance. Every act of his life, and every word
+he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to the two Presidents,
+late and now in office, I know them both to be of principles as truly
+republican as any men living. If there be any thing amiss, therefore,
+in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable deficit lately
+unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress
+to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the public
+contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss
+for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the
+treasury. I had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my
+old fellow-laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
+minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries,
+the people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
+Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it,
+will, I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
+
+But it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. Taxes
+and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary of the United
+States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working
+under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric.
+They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general
+and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay
+all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to
+forget the maxim, �_Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem._� We shall
+see if they are bold enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers
+have lately taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book in his
+address to the public, I will say, that against this every man should
+raise his voice, and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this
+admirable address? Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one
+which can be changed but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay bare
+these wounds of our constitution, expose these _decisions seriatim_,
+and arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to these bold
+speculators on its patience. Having found, from experience, that
+impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider
+themselves secure for life; they skulk from responsibility to public
+opinion, the only remaining hold on them, under a practice first
+introduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in
+conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as if unanimous and
+with the silent acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty
+chief judge, who sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his
+own reasoning. A judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General
+to Congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion _seriatim_ and
+openly, and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the
+record. A judiciary independent of a King or executive alone, is a good
+thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at
+least in a republican government.
+
+But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the work you
+send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a
+point of declining (one or two instances only excepted). Complimentary
+thanks to writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me
+sometimes before the public, without my consent having been asked. But
+I am far from presuming to direct the reading of my fellow-citizens, who
+are good enough judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I am,
+also, too desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention.
+Against this I am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be
+unaccompanied by corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet
+sensible sufficiently to be unwilling to trust myself before the public,
+and when I cease to be so, I hope that my friends will be too careful
+of me to draw me forth and present me, like a Priam in armor, as a
+spectacle for public compassion. I hope our political bark will ride
+through all its dangers; but I can in future be but an inert passenger.
+
+I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 22, 1821.
+
+I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and spirits
+enough to take part in the late convention of your State, for revising
+its constitution, and to bear your share in its debates and labors.
+The amendments of which we have as yet heard, prove the advance of
+liberalism in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the
+human mind will some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand
+years ago. This country, which has given to the world the example of
+physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet
+it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms,
+in practice, the freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
+
+Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question, what
+does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the
+Missouri question? And this, by the bye, is but the name of the case, it
+is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. The real question,
+as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate population,
+is, Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and a dagger? For if
+Congress has the power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of
+the States, within the States, it will be but another exercise of that
+power, to declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again
+Athenian and Laced�monian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian
+war to settle the ascendancy between them? Or is this the tocsin of
+merely a servile war? That remains to be seen: but not, I hope, by you
+or me. Surely, they will parley awhile, and give us time to get out
+of the way. What a Bedlamite is man? But let us turn from our own
+uneasiness to the miseries of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo,
+it seems, have come to a parley, with dispositions at length to stop
+the useless effusion of human blood in that quarter. I feared from the
+beginning, that these people were not yet sufficiently enlightened for
+self-government; and that after wading through blood and slaughter,
+they would end in military tyrannies, more or less numerous. Yet as they
+wished to try the experiment, I wished them success in it: they have
+now tried it, and will possibly find that their safest road will be an
+accommodation with the mother country, which shall hold them together
+by the single link of the same chief magistrate, leaving to him power
+enough to keep them in peace with one another, and to themselves the
+essential power of self-government and self-improvement, until they
+shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of freedom,
+to walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
+functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
+security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the press,
+habeas corpus, and trial by jury, would make a good beginning. This
+last would be the school in which their people might begin to learn the
+exercise of civic duties as well as rights. For freedom of religion they
+are not yet prepared. The scales of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen
+from their eyes, to accept it for themselves individually, much less to
+trust others with it. But that will come in time, as well as a general
+ripeness to break entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir,
+how easily we prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while
+we cannot cure our own. We must leave both, I believe, to Heaven, and
+wrap ourselves up in the mantle of resignation, and of that friendship
+of which I tender to you the most sincere assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, January 31, 1821
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together, three days ago. They
+fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards
+the University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened. As
+to what had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust
+with entire confidence to what yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr.
+Johnson shall think best. You will see what is practicable, and give it
+such shape as you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think
+sixty thousand dollars will be necessary, including the library.
+Its instalments cannot begin until those of the former loan are
+accomplished; and they should not begin later, nor be less than thirteen
+thousand dollars a year. (I think it safe to retain two thousand dollars
+a year for care of the buildings, improvement of the grounds, and
+unavoidable contingencies.) To extinguish the second loan, will require
+between five and six instalments, which will carry us to the end of
+1833, or thirteen years from this time. My individual opinion is, that
+we had better not open the institution until the buildings, library, and
+all, are finished, and our funds cleared of incumbrance. These buildings
+once erected, will secure the full object infallibly at the end of
+thirteen years, and as much earlier as the legislature shall choose. And
+if we were to begin sooner, with half funds only, it would satisfy the
+common mind, prevent their aid beyond that point, and our institution,
+remaining at that for ever, would be no more than the paltry academies
+we now have. Even with the whole funds we shall be reduced to six
+Professors. While Harvard will still prime it over us with her twenty
+Professors. How many of our youths she now has, learning the lessons of
+anti-Missourianism, I know not; but a gentleman lately from Princeton
+told me he saw there the list of the students at that place, and that
+more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt,
+deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of
+restrictionists.
+
+But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best
+friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the
+necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you say, will
+explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself
+they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that yourself, General
+Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at your posts in the
+legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened.
+If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
+our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed
+at all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your
+country, and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or
+later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal
+to this? What object of our lives can we propose so important? What
+interest of our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health,
+time, labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us, can
+these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? The
+exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If
+any member of our college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from
+this sacred duty, it would be myself, who _quadragenis stipendiis
+jamdudum peractis_, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep
+the field: but I will die in the last ditch, and so I hope you will,
+my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr.
+Johnson and General Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life
+wherein to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear and very
+dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but view the sacrifices which
+seem to stand in your way, as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be
+postponed to this, the greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy
+labors, until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old
+Simeon, �_Nunc dimittas, Domine_. Under all circumstances, however, of
+praise or blame, I shall be affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIX.--TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821
+
+
+TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
+
+Monticello, February 15, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I learn with deep affliction, that nothing is likely to be done for our
+University this year. So near as it is to the shore that one shove more
+would land it there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
+open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our
+country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections
+that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they
+should be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to
+deliver over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for
+them, we secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling
+this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of
+seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high
+promise; these are considerations which will occur to all; but all, I
+fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a
+tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between
+different portions of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear,
+be obliterated, and we are now trusting to those who are against us
+in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds
+and affections of our youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three
+hundred thousand dollars a year to the northern seminaries, for the
+instruction of our own sons, then we must have there five hundred of our
+sons, imbibing opinions and principles in discord with those of their
+own country. This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and
+if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy. We are now certainly
+furnishing recruits to their school. If it be asked what are we to do,
+or said we cannot give the last lift to the University without stopping
+our primary schools, and these we think most important; I answer, I know
+their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction
+of the people. Who first started that idea? I may surely say, Myself.
+Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew more than forty
+years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the education of the
+people, generally, had never been suggested in this State. There you
+will see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of general
+education we are now urging and acting on: and it is well known to those
+With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never have proposed a
+sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us
+keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we cannot do every
+thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary schools need
+no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a considerable
+expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year or two on
+the primary schools, and an application of the whole income, during that
+time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the University,
+would enable us then to start both institutions at the same time. The
+intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private classical
+schools, for the middle grade, may hereafter receive any necessary aids
+when the funds shall become competent. In the mean time, they are going
+on sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the private expense
+of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are competent to
+their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I presume, left
+no doubt, that the present plan of primary schools, of putting money
+into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing, and under
+no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other must be thought
+of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, the whole revenue
+of that year, with that of the last three years which has not been
+already thrown away, would place our University in readiness to start
+with a better organization of primary schools, and both may then go on,
+hand in hand, for ever. No diminution of the capital will in this way
+have been incurred; a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A
+relinquishment of interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars,
+would so far, also, forward the University without lessening the
+capital.
+
+But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to yourself and
+your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I do the conditions
+of the literary fund and its wisest application; and I shall acquiesce
+with perfect resignation to their will. I have brooded, perhaps with
+fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to me the hope of
+continuing to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed that
+the course and circumstances of my life had placed within my power some
+services favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be
+egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my
+colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the legislature
+shall enable them to do.
+
+I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxieties,
+freely to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a different light. I
+am sure that all act conscientiously, and that all will be done honestly
+and wisely which can be done. I yield the concerns of the world with
+cheerfulness to those who are appointed in the order of nature to
+succeed to them; and for yourself, for our colleagues, and for all in
+charge of our country�s future fame and fortune, I offer up sincere
+prayers.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLX.--TO --------- NICHOLAS, December 11,1821
+
+
+TO --------- NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, December 11,1821,
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of December the 19th places me under a dilemma, which I
+cannot solve but by an exposition of the naked truth. I would have
+wished this rather to have remained as hitherto, without inquiry; but
+your inquiries have a right to be answered. I will do it as exactly
+as the great lapse of time and a waning memory will enable me. I may
+misremember indifferent circumstances, but can be right in substance.
+
+At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed at
+the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the
+executive and the judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious
+consideration how head could be made against their enterprises on the
+constitution. The leading republicans in Congress found themselves of
+no use there, browbeaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelming
+majority. They concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in the
+State legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The
+alien and sedition laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy
+between Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately
+confidential, than between any other two States of republican policy.
+Mr. Madison came into the Virginia legislature. 1 was then in the
+Vice-Presidency, and could not leave my station. But your father,
+Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and myself happening to be together, the
+engaging the co-operation of Kentucky in an energetic protestation
+against the constitutionality of those laws, became a subject of
+consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions
+for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce them to that
+legislature, with a solemn assurance, which I strictly required, that
+it should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered
+them to him, and, in keeping their origin secret, he fulfilled his
+pledge of honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas asked me if
+I would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn them.
+I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
+intimated it before to any one, I know not: but I afterwards observed in
+the papers repeated imputations of them to me; on which, as has been my
+practice on all occasions of imputation, I have observed entire silence.
+The question, indeed, has never before been put to me, nor should I
+answer it to any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed
+by it, and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be
+withdrawn from public notice. Your father�s zeal and talents were too
+well known, to derive any additional distinction from the penning these
+resolutions. That circumstance, surely, was of far less merit than the,
+proposing and carrying them through the legislature of his State. The
+only fact in this statement, on which my memory is not distinct, is
+the time and occasion of the consultation with your father and Colonel
+Nicholas. It took place here I know; but whether any other person was
+present, or communicated with, is my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was
+either with us, or consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to minute
+details.
+
+I fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this
+difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in
+the present assaults on the constitution. But its assaults are more sure
+and deadly, as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you
+and your cotemporaries meet them with the same determination and effect,
+as your father and his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve
+inviolate a constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and
+purity, will prove in the end a blessing to all the nations of the
+earth. With these prayers, accept those for your own happiness and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXI.--TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822
+
+
+TO JEDIDIAH MORSE.
+
+Monticello, March 6, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, and have now to
+express my sense of the honorable station proposed to my ex-brethren
+and myself, in the constitution of the society for the civilization and
+improvement of the Indian tribes. The object, too, expressed, as that of
+the association, is one which I have ever had much at heart, and never
+omitted an occasion of promoting, while I have been in situations to
+do it with effect, and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and
+retirement, would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable
+plan of raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state
+of physical and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by
+circumstances foreign to them. That the plan now proposed is entitled
+to unmixed approbation, I am not prepared to say, after mature
+consideration, and with all the partialities which its professed object
+would rightfully claim from me.
+
+I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private
+associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose
+magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government.
+Yet such a line does exist. I have seen the days, they were those which
+preceded the Revolution, when even this last and perilous engine became
+necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second
+time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government
+had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of
+correction remained to them, but to organize a collateral power, which,
+with their support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But
+such is not the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral
+power, which, by a change of its original views, and assumption of
+others we know not how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready
+organized, and in force sufficient to shake the established foundations
+of society, and endanger its peace and the principles on which it is
+based. Is not the machine now proposed of this gigantic stature? It
+is to consist of the ex-Presidents of the United States, the
+Vice-President, the Heads of all the executive departments, the members
+of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the several States and
+Territories, all the members of both Houses of Congress, all the general
+officers of the army, the commissioners of the navy, all Presidents and
+Professors of colleges and theological seminaries, all the clergy of
+the United States, the. Presidents and Secretaries of all associations
+having relation to Indians, all commanding officers within or near
+Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and agents; all these ex
+officio; and as many private individuals as will pay a certain price
+for membership. Observe, too, that the clergy will constitute * nineteen
+twentieths of this association, and, by the law of the majority, may
+command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the high authorities
+of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted and wielded
+by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both as to purpose and
+process. . Can this formidable array be reviewed without dismay?
+
+     * The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated
+     at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four
+     hundred; but if the former number be halved, the reasoning
+     will be the same.
+
+It will be said, that in this association will be all the confidential
+officers of the government; the choice of the people themselves. No man
+on earth has more implicit confidence than myself in the integrity
+and discretion of this chosen band of servants. But is confidence or
+discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our constitution? It
+will comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries of the government: but
+seceded from their consitutional stations as guardians of the nation,
+and acting not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary
+society, having no limit to their purposes but the same will which
+constitutes their existence. It will be the authorities of the people,
+and all influential characters from among them, arrayed on one side, and
+on the other, the people themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a
+fearful array. It will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know
+they are so at present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of
+our choice and unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against
+the adored principles of our constitution, as for gravity to change
+its direction, and gravid bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed
+imaginary: but the example is real. Under its authority, as a precedent,
+future associations will arise with objects at which we should
+shudder at this time. The society of Jacobins, in another country,
+was instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever kindled the
+hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their purposes which
+extended their association to the limits of the nation, and rendered
+their power within it boundless; and it was this power which degenerated
+their principles and practices to such enormities, as never before could
+have been imagined. Yet these were men; and we and our descendants
+will be no more. The present is a case where, if ever, we are to guard
+against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be;
+for who can now imagine what we may become under circumstances not now
+imaginable? The object, too, of this institution, seems to require
+so hazardous an example as little as any which could be proposed. The
+government is, at this time, going on with the process of civilizing
+the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any one of us is able
+to devise, and with resources more competent than we could expect to
+command by voluntary taxation. Is it that the new characters called into
+association with those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it
+that a plan originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better
+than that prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not
+self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is it
+that there is no danger that a new authority, marching independently
+along side of the government, in the same line and to the same object,
+may not produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct the operations of
+the government, or wrest the object entirely from their hands? Might we
+not as well appoint a committee for each department of the government,
+to counsel and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to
+counsel and direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well
+for their foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian
+affairs? And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we
+expect to see spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate
+themselves in this and that of its functions? In a word, why not take
+the government out of its constitutional hands, associate them indeed
+with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are theirs, but insuring
+them to be our own by allowing them a minor vote only?
+
+These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so
+irrresistible, that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, without
+which I should not have obtruded an opinion) I have not been able to
+withhold the expression of them. Not knowing the individuals who have
+proposed this plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining personal
+disrespect for them. On the contrary, I see in the printed list persons
+for whom I cherish sentiments of sincere friendship; and others, for
+whose opinions and purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet
+thinking, as I do, that this association is unnecessary; that the
+government is proceeding to the same object under control of the law;
+that they are competent to it in wisdom, in means, and inclination; that
+this association, this wheel within a wheel, is more likely to produce
+collision than aid; and that it is, in its magnitude, of dangerous
+example; I am bound to say, that, as a dutiful citizen, I cannot in
+conscience become a member of this society, possessing as it does my
+entire confidence in the integrity of its views. I feel with awe the
+weight of opinion to which I may be opposed, and that, for myself, I
+have need to ask the indulgence of a belief, that the opinion I have
+given is the best result I can deduce from my own reason and experience,
+and that it is sincerely conscientious. Repeating, therefore, my just
+acknowledgments for the honor proposed to me, I beg leave to add the
+assurances to the society and yourself of my highest confidence and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, June 26, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your
+denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in
+its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will
+find it is as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the
+sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there
+is but one God. I wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn
+from you that the latter, at least, is making progress, and the more
+rapidly in proportion as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and
+noise about it. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the
+happiness of man.
+
+1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
+
+2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
+
+3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is
+the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored
+to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the
+demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
+
+1. That there are three Gods.
+
+2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
+
+3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the
+proposition, the more merit in its faith.
+
+4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
+
+5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be
+saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former
+can damn them; no virtues of the latter, save.
+
+Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who
+believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus; or the impious
+dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false
+shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but
+to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian
+name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy
+imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their
+blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too
+hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so
+falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always
+as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would
+now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free
+inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience
+to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is
+reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the
+United States, who will not die an Unitarian.
+
+But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its
+votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of
+creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the
+religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they
+will give up morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser
+are the Quakers, who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the
+Gospel, schismatize about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale
+of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any
+more than of feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the
+wisdom of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its
+charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love their
+neighbor! I conclude my sermon with sincere assurances of my friendly
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 27, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great satisfaction. For
+although I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily
+on you, as on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the
+degree of that pressure. Much reflection, too, has been produced by
+your suggestion of lending my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have
+generally great aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public
+papers; because of my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be
+exhibited in scene on the public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the
+precept of Horace, �_Solve senescentem, mature sanus, equum, ne
+peccet ad extremum ridendus_.� In the present case, however, I see a
+possibility that this might aid in producing the very quiet after
+which I pant. I do not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under the
+persecution of letters, of which every mail brings a fresh load.
+They are letters of inquiry, for the most part, always of good will,
+sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much oftener from persons
+whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and civilly, and to
+which, therefore, civility requires answers. Perhaps, the better known
+failure of your hand in its function of writing, may shield you in
+greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the misfortune of
+its disability. I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, and
+a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single year. It
+was the year before the last. I found the number to be one thousand two
+hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate
+research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration.
+Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I will repeat
+the question suggested by other considerations in mine of the 1st. Is
+this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no
+end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is
+paradise. It occurs, then, that my condition of existence, truly stated
+in that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions
+which are so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a
+relief would, to me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the 11th,
+equally interesting and affecting, should accompany that to which it is
+an answer. The two, taken together, would excite a joint interest, and
+place before our fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient
+servants, who, having faithfully performed their forty or fifty
+campaigns, _stipendiis omnibus expletis_, have a reasonable claim
+to repose from all disturbance in the sanctuary of invalids and
+superannuates. But some device should be thought of for their getting
+before the public otherwise than by our own publication. Your printer,
+perhaps, could frame something plausible, ------�s name, should be left
+blank, as his picture, should it meet his eye, might give him pain. I
+consign, however, the whole subject to your consideration, to do in it
+whatever your own judgment shall approve, and repeat always, with truth,
+the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIV.--TO WILLIAM T. BARRY, July 2, 1822
+
+
+TO WILLIAM T. BARRY.
+
+Monticello, July 2, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am very thankful for
+the kindness of its expressions respecting myself. But it ascribes to me
+merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause
+of independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for
+its success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition.
+So also in the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious
+were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government
+to its republican tack. To preserve it in that will require unremitting
+vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into
+our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to
+our objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of
+republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider
+the party division of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist
+in any government, and well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those
+of a more dangerous character. We already see the power, installed
+for life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a
+scare-crow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great
+object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid by
+their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights,
+and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing*
+power of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever this
+vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the
+most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care
+over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will
+have to choose between reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit
+of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the canker
+is become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the body
+politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied. Let the
+future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and renewable
+by the President and Senate. This will bring their conduct, at regular
+periods, under revision and probation, and may keep them in equipoise
+between the general and special governments. We have erred in this
+point, by copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to have
+the judges independent of the King. But we have omitted to copy their
+caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address of
+both legislative Houses. That there should be public functionaries
+independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism
+in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency.
+
+To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my
+power to give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated, and now
+stiffened wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that I am obliged
+to decline every thing possible requiring writing. An act of our
+legislature will inform you of our plan of primary schools, and the
+annual reports show that it is becoming completely abortive, and must
+be abandoned very shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and
+eighty thousand dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars
+a year more until it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has
+received the elements of common education, it must be in some part of
+the country not known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed the
+early predictions of its fate. But on this subject I must refer you
+to others more able than I am to go into the necessary details; and I
+conclude with the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXV.--TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, July 19, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist, makes writing an
+operation so slow and painful to me, that I should not so soon have
+troubled you with an acknowledgment of your favor of the 8th, but for
+the request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter
+of June the 26th. No, my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest
+of hornets would it thrust my head! the _genus irritabile vatum_, on
+whom argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in
+matters of religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily
+wrongs of the world, but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an
+enterprise more than Quixotic. I should as soon undertake to bring the
+crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound understanding, as inculcate reason into
+that of an Athanasian. I am old, and tranquillity is now my _summum
+bonum_. Keep me, therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his
+victim Servetus. Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive
+Christianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off
+the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mycologists
+of the middle and modern ages. I am not aware of the peculiar resistance
+to Unitarianism, which you ascribe to Pennsylvania. When I lived in
+Philadelphia there was a respectable congregation of that sect, with a
+meeting-house and regular service which I attended, and in which Doctor
+Priestley officiated to numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two
+churches, and their pastor, author of an inestimable book on this
+subject, was elected chaplain to the late Congress. That doctrine has
+not yet been preached to us: but the breeze begins to be felt which
+precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all in a bustle, shutting its
+doors and windows to keep it out. But it will come, and drive before it
+the foggy mists of Platonism which have so long obscured our atmosphere.
+I am in hopes that some of the disciples of your institution will become
+missionaries to us, of these doctrines truly evangelical, and open our
+eyes to what has been so long hidden from them. A bold and eloquent
+preacher would be no where listened to with more freedom than in this
+State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might need a preparatory
+discourse on the text of �Prove all things, hold fast that which is
+good,� in order to unlearn the lesson that reason is an unlawful guide
+in religion. They might startle on being first awaked from the dreams of
+the night, but they would rub their eyes at once, and look the spectres
+boldly in the face. The preacher might be excluded by our hierophants
+from their churches and meeting-houses, but would be attended in
+the fields by whole acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from
+Cambridge would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the
+tritheistical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be my
+welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem and respect
+for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 1, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to
+answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th; but to little
+purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only.
+I know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our
+seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
+treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the
+opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a
+naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this
+subject we communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to
+the United States and took part in the administration under General
+Washington, I constantly maintained that opinion; and in December, 1790,
+took advantage of a reference to me from the first Congress which met
+after I was in office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for
+the protection of our Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them
+an accurate statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private.
+I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to that
+extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colonel Hamilton�s
+opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your recollections on that
+subject are certainly corroborated by his known anxieties for a close
+connection with Great Britain, to which he might apprehend danger from
+collisions between their vessels and ours. Randolph was then Attorney
+General; but his opinion on the question I also entirely forget. Some
+vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into the Mediterranean.
+The additions to these in your time, I need not note to you, who
+are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
+of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
+Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that
+the public safety might require some additional vessels of strength,
+to be prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided
+they could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept
+in the water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this
+view I proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level
+of the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that
+places for these docks should be selected where there was a command of
+water on a high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which
+the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the
+majority of the legislature was against any addition to the navy,
+and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against it on a
+principle of opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to
+remain on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be
+launched and finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour�s
+notice. On this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
+
+This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That
+of the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations.
+Yet a navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or
+twelve years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs
+as much as would build a new one: and that a nation who could count on
+twelve or fifteen years� of peace, would gain by burning its navy and
+building a new one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by
+circumstances. Since my proposition for a force adequate to the piracies
+of the Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in our own seas
+for considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I wish we could have
+a convention with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down
+the pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of
+Africa, and for us to perform the same duties for the society of nations
+in our seas. In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the
+vessels of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
+weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The annexed is the letter to which the foregoing is a reply.]
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+Montezillo, October 15, 1822. Dear Sir,
+
+I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon a
+subject of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last.
+
+You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built, and the
+four captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry,
+&c, to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
+Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to you; for several
+reasons. First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we
+were at Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers.
+Secondly, because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only
+indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of
+the Navy; only four Heads of department. You were Secretary of State;
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and I
+believe Bradford was Attorney General. I have always suspected that you
+and Knox were in favor of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was
+clear. But Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment.
+But his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your opinion, for I
+know he had a great regard for you, might induce him to decide in favor
+of you and Knox, even though Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition
+to you. That Hamilton was averse to the measure, I have personal
+evidence; for while it was pending, he came in a hurry and a fit of
+impatience to make a visit to me. He said, he was likely to be called
+upon for a large sum of money to build ships of war, to fight the
+Algerines, and he asked my opinion of the measure. I answered him that
+I was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of opinion, from the
+commencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most powerful, the
+safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country. My advice,
+therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly be
+spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. The
+conversation was of some length, but it was manifest in his looks and in
+his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
+that I had expressed.
+
+Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, requesting
+him to procure a commision for her son, in the navy; �that navy,� says
+her ladyship, �of which his father was the parent.� �For,� says she, �I
+have frequently heard General Washington say to my husband, the navy was
+your child.� I have always believed it to be Jefferson�s child, though
+Knox may have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton�s hobby
+was the army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof
+from his own lips, in many different conversations, some of them of
+length, in which he always insisted that it was only building and
+arming ships for the English. �_Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus
+imperii; si non, his utere mecum_.�
+
+If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble servant.
+
+John Adams.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVII.--TO DOCTOR COOPER, November 2, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR COOPER.
+
+Monticello, November 2, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere
+of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of
+fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy
+in all. I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of
+toleration and freedom of religion, it could have arisen to the height
+you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism.
+The blasphemy and absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the
+impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of
+reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation. In Boston, however, and
+its neighborhood, Unitarianism has advanced to so great strength, as now
+to humble this haughtiest of all religious sects; insomuch, that they
+condescend to interchange with them and the other sects, the civilities
+of preaching freely and frequently in each other�s meeting-houses. In
+Rhode Island, on the other hand, no sectarian preacher will permit an
+Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our Richmond there is much fanaticism,
+but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and praying
+parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked
+husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms
+as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use to a
+mere earthly lover. In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good
+degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four
+sects, but without either church or meeting-house. The court-house is
+the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian
+and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in
+hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others�
+preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony. It is not so in
+the districts where Presbyterianism prevails undividedly. Their ambition
+and tyranny would tolerate no rival, if they had power. Systematical
+in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects, they aim, like the
+Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile to
+every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at seeing others
+begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of instruction, to
+which there is now so growing an attention, will be the remote remedy
+to this fever of fanaticism; while the more proximate one will be the
+progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the religion of
+the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
+
+In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A
+handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is
+an institution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion.
+Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward
+an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds
+of some honest friends to the institution. In our annual report to the
+legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public
+establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of
+encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself,
+a professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the University,
+so near as that the students may attend the lectures there, and have
+the free use our own library, and every other accommodation we can give
+them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of each other.
+This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution
+professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. I think the
+invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions,
+and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects
+together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall
+soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and
+make the general religion, a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
+
+The time of opening our University is still as uncertain as ever. All
+the pavilions, boarding-houses, and dormitories are done. Nothing is
+now wanting but the central building for a library and other general
+purposes. For this we have no funds, and the last legislature refused
+all aid. We have better hopes of the next. But all is uncertain. I have
+heard with regret of disturbances on the part of the students in your
+seminary. The article of discipline is the most difficult in American
+education. Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by
+parents, beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle
+to science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the
+Revolution. I look to it with dismay in our institution, as a breaker
+ahead, which I am far from being confident we shall be able to weather.
+The advance of age, and tardy pace of the public patronage, may probably
+spare me the pain of witnessing consequences.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVIII.--TO JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822
+
+
+TO JAMES SMITH.
+
+Monticello, December 8, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject of Unitarianism,
+and to express my gratification with your efforts for the revival of
+primitive Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is better
+established, than that the doctrine of one God, pure and uncompounded,
+was that of the early ages of Christianity; and was amoung the
+efficacious doctrines which gave it triumph over the polytheism of the
+ancients, sickened with the absurdities of their own theology. Nor was
+the unity of the Supreme Being ousted from the Christian creed by the
+force of reason, but by the sword of civil government, wielded at the
+will of the fanatic Athanasius. The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like
+another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and
+growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs. And a strong
+proof of the solidity of the primitive faith, is its restoration,
+as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to itself the freedom of
+religious opinion, and its external divorce from the civil authority.
+The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe, is now all
+but ascendant in the eastern States; it is dawning in the west, and
+advancing towards the south; and I confidently expect that the present
+generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the
+United States. The eastern presses are giving us many excellent pieces
+on the subject, and Priestley�s learned writings on it are, or should
+be, in every hand. In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three,
+and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no
+candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what
+presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He
+proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining
+guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without
+rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullability,
+which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the
+mind becomes a wreck.
+
+I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in
+one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of
+believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that
+is the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual
+freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought
+in question before the public on this or any other subject, and I
+pray you to consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part
+in controversies, religious or political. At the age of eighty,
+tranquillity is the greatest good of life, and the strongest of our
+desires that of dying in the good-will of all mankind. And with the
+assurances of all my good-will to Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and
+Tory, accept for yourself that of my entire respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, CLXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, February 25, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, in due time, your two favors of December the 2nd and
+February the 10th, and have to acknowledge for the ladies of my native
+State their obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind
+as to bestow on them. They certainly claim no advantages over those of
+their sister States, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances
+existing with many of them, and happily availed, which our situation
+does not offer. But the paper respecting Monticello, to which you
+allude, was not written by a Virginian, but a visitant from another
+State; and written by memory at least a dozen years after the visit.
+This has occasioned some lapses of recollection, and a confusion of some
+things in the mind of our friend, and particularly as to the volume of
+slanders supposed to have been cut out of newspapers and preserved. It
+would not, indeed, have been a single volume, but an Encyclopaedia in
+bulk. But I never had such a volume; indeed, I rarely thought those
+libels worth reading, much less preserving and remembering. At the end
+of every year, I generally sorted all my pamphlets, and had them bound
+according to their subjects. One of these volumes consisted of personal
+altercations between individuals, and calumnies on each other. This
+was lettered on the back, �Personalities,� and is now in the library of
+Congress. I was in the habit, also, while living apart from my family,
+of cutting out of the newspapers such morsels of poetry, or tales, as
+I thought would please, and of sending them to my grandchildren, who
+pasted them on leaves of blank paper and formed them into a book. These
+two volumes have been confounded into one in the recollection of our
+friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has heightened the scenes she
+visited, as well as the merits of the inhabitants, to whom her society
+was a delightful gratification.
+
+I have just finished reading O�Meara�s Bonaparte. It places him in a
+higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him. I had thought him
+the greatest of all military captains, but an indifferent statesman, and
+misled by unworthy passions. The flashes, however, which escaped
+from him in these conversations with O�Meara, prove a mind of great
+expansion, although not of distinct developement and reasoning. He
+seizes results with rapidity and penetration, but never explains
+logically the process of reasoning by which he arrives at them. This
+book, too, makes us forget his atrocities for a moment, in commiseration
+of his sufferings. I will not say that the authorities of the world,
+charged with the care of their country and people, had not a right
+to confine him for life, as a lion or tiger, on the principles of
+self-preservation. There was no safety to nations while he was permitted
+to roam at large. But the putting him to death in cold blood, by
+lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults, and deprivations, was
+a degree of inhumanity to which the poisonings and assassinations of the
+school of Borgia and the den of Marat never attained. The book proves,
+also, that nature had denied him the moral sense, the first excellence
+of well-organized man. If he could seriously and repeatedly affirm, that
+he had raised himself to power without ever having committed a crime, it
+proves that he wanted totally the sense of right and wrong. If he could
+consider the millions of human lives which he had destroyed or caused to
+be destroyed, the desolations of countries by plunderings, burnings,
+and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of the world without the
+consent of their constituents, to place his brothers and sisters on
+their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of men and
+jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the demolition
+of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their rights and
+amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train of his
+other enormities; the man, I say, who could consider all these as no
+crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
+have been lifted to slay him.
+
+You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of my arm is
+well knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a discouraging condition,
+kept entirely useless by an oedematous swelling of slow amendment.
+
+God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 11, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may continue in life and
+health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of, �_Mon
+Dieu! jusqu�a quand?_� would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin
+in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be;
+or rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false
+God, he did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom
+you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of
+the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable
+to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious
+attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives
+a great handle to atheism by their general dogma, that, without a
+revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God.
+Now one sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians: the
+other five sixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian
+revelation, are without a knowledge of the existence of a God! This
+gives completely a _gain de cause_ to the disciples of Ocellus, Timasus,
+Spinosa, Diderot, and D�Holbach. The argument which they rest on as
+triumphant and unanswerable is, that in every hypothesis of cosmogony,
+you must admit an eternal pre-existence of something; and according to
+the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to employ two principles to
+solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They say then, that it is more
+simple to believe at once in the eternal pre-existence of the world,
+as it is now going on, and may for ever go on by the principle of
+reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe in the eternal
+pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the world, a being
+whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and mode, or
+place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no power of the
+mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. On the contrary, I hold
+(without appeal to revelation), that when we take a view of the
+universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the
+human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate
+skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The
+movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by
+the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our
+earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters, and atmosphere;
+animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles;
+insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or
+mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses; it is
+impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is
+in all this, design, cause, and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a
+fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and
+regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their
+regenerator into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of
+the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in
+its course and order. Stars, well known, have disappeared, new ones have
+come into view; comets, in their incalculable courses, may run foul of
+suns and planets, and require renovation under other laws; certain races
+of animals are become extinct; and were there no restoring power, all
+existences might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should
+be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are these evidences of
+an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men
+who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion
+of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal
+pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of a self-existent
+universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more probable,
+than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early Christians,
+indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of both the
+creator and the world, without changing their relation of cause and
+effect. That this was the opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by
+Cardinal Toleta, in these words; �_Deus ab terno fuit jam omnipotens,
+si cut cum produxit mundum. Ah aternopotuit producers mundum. Si sol ah
+czterno esset, lumen ah �terno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium.
+At lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficients solis et pedis; potuit
+ergo cum causa �terna effectus coaternus esse. Cujus sententia, est S.
+Thomas, theologorum primus_.�--Cardinal Toleta.
+
+[Illustration: page364]
+
+[Illustration: page365]
+
+Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us, that �God
+is a spirit� (John iv. 24.), but without defining what a spirit is:
+[Greek phrase] Down to the third century, we know that it was still
+deemed material but of a lighter, subtler matter than our gross bodies.
+So says Origen; _Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Originem,
+reapte corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum
+incorporeus_.� These are the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen.
+Origen himself says, [Greek and Latin phrase]
+
+These two fathers were of the third century. Calvin�s character of
+this Supreme Being seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the
+reformation of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those
+more worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of
+Jesus in his discourses to the Jews: and his doctrine of the cosmogony
+of the world is very clearly laid down in the three first verses of
+the first chapter of John, in these words: [Greek phrase] Which, truly
+translated, means, �In the beginning God existed, and reason [or mind]
+was with God, and that mind was God. This was in the beginning with God.
+All things were created by it, and without it was made not one thing
+which was made.� Yet this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of
+Jesus, that the world was created by the supreme intelligent being, has
+been perverted by modern Christians to build up a second person of their
+tritheism, by a mistranslation of the word _Xoyog_. One of its legitimate
+meanings, indeed, is �a word.� But in that sense it makes an unmeaning
+jargon: while the other meaning, �reason,� equally legitimate, explains
+rationally the eternal pre-existence of God, and his creation of, the
+world. Knowing how incomprehensible it was that �a word,� the mere
+action or articulation of the organs of speech could create a world,
+they undertook to make of this articulation a second pre-existing being,
+and ascribe to him, and not to God, the creation of the universe. The
+atheist here plumes himself on the uselessness of such a God, and the
+simpler hypothesis of a self-existent universe. The truth is, that the
+greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves
+the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a
+system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation
+in his genuine words. And the day will come, when the mystical
+generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of
+a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva
+in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason,
+and freedom of thought, in these United States, will do away all this
+artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine
+doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
+
+So much for your quotation of Calvin�s �_Mon Dieu! jusqu�a quand_� in
+which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I join you
+cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness than
+reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our ancient
+colleagues, and receive with them the seal of approbation, �Well done,
+good and faithful servants.�
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a twelvemonth before,
+I thought myself singularly unfortunate in so timing my journey, as
+to have been absent exactly at the moment of your late visit to our
+neighborhood. The loss, indeed, was all my own; for in these short
+interviews with you. I generally get my political compass rectified,
+learn from you whereabouts we are, and correct my course again. In
+exchange for this, I can give you but newspaper ideas, and little indeed
+of these, for I read but a single paper, and that hastily. I find Horace
+and Tacitus so much better writers than the champions of the gazettes,
+that I lay those down, to take up these, with great reluctance. And on
+the question you propose, whether we can, in any form, take a bolder
+attitude than formerly in favor of liberty, I can give you but
+commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow�s mite, and offered only
+because requested. The matter which now embroils Europe, the presumption
+of dictating to an independent nation the form of its government, is so
+arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as well as moral sentiment,
+enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our
+equal execrations against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all
+nations do not owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their
+sympathies with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of
+the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and indeed, for
+the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or draw
+on ourselves the power, of this formidable confederacy. I have ever
+deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take active
+part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely
+distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power,
+their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government,
+are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their
+energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and
+lives of their people. On our part, never had a people so favorable
+a chance of trying the opposite system, of peace and fraternity with
+mankind, and the direction of all our means and faculties to the
+purposes of improvement instead of destruction. With Europe we have
+few occasions of collision, and these, with a little prudence and
+forbearance, may be generally accommodated. Of the brethren of our own
+hemisphere, none are yet, or for an age to come will be, in a shape,
+condition, or disposition to war against us. And the foothold, which the
+nations of Europe had in either America, is slipping from under them,
+so that we shall soon be rid of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at
+present to hold up a speck of war to us. Its possession by Great Britain
+would indeed be a great calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us
+in guarantying its independence against all the world, except Spain, it
+would be nearly as valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she
+take it, I would not immediately go to war for it; because the first war
+on other accounts will give it to us; or the island will give itself to
+us, when, able to do so. While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take
+part in the present war of Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in
+reward for doing nothing, peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and
+interest. We may gratify ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial
+to Spain as would be justifiable without giving cause of war to her
+adversary; we might and ought to avail ourselves of the happy occasion
+of procuring and cementing a cordial reconciliation with her, by
+giving assurance of every friendly office which neutrality admits, and
+especially, against all apprehension of our intermeddling in the quarrel
+with her colonies. And I expect daily and confidently to hear of a spark
+kindled in France, which will employ her at home, and relieve Spain from
+all further apprehensions of danger.
+
+That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her
+government is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to look
+back a little on past events. During the ascendancy of Bonaparte, the
+word among the herd of Kings was, �_Sauve qui peut_.� Each shifted
+for himself, and left his brethren to squander and do the same as they
+could. After the battle of Waterloo, and the military possession of
+France, they rallied and combined in common cause, to maintain each
+other against any similar and future danger. And in this alliance,
+Louis, now avowedly, and George, secretly but solidly, were of the
+contracting parties; and there can be no doubt that the allies are bound
+by treaty to aid England with their armies, should insurrection take
+place among her people. The coquetry she is now playing off between
+her people and her allies is perfectly understood by the latter,
+and accordingly gives no apprehensions to France, to whom it is all
+explained. The diplomatic correspondence she is now displaying, these
+double papers fabricated merely for exhibition, in which she makes
+herself talk of morals and principle, as if her qualms of conscience
+would not permit her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies, are all to
+gull her own people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the five powers
+are the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the dupes. Playing
+thus so dextrously into each other�s hands, and their own persons
+seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
+These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This war is
+evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England
+is also acting her part. �Save but the Nobles, and there shall be no
+war,� says she, masking her measures at the same time under the form of
+friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party, offering
+herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not permitted openly to
+oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will
+get from her. And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks
+at it rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
+
+But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage of carrying
+coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude and uninformed notions
+of things beyond my cognizance, only be so good as to remember that it
+is at your request, and with as little confidence on my part as profit
+on yours. You will do what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act
+their follies and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith
+the paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are willingly
+resigned, with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXII.--TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Our correspondence is of that accommodating character, which admits of
+suspension at the convenience of either party, without inconvenience to
+the other. Hence this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the
+11th. I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on
+continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in
+preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet
+I hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry
+explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine
+monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what
+they endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on
+principle, but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the
+formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions
+on European writings and practices, believing the experience of old
+countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer
+guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in
+numerous associations cannot be restrained within the limits of order
+and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over them by
+authorities independent of their will. Hence their organization of
+kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still further to constrain the
+brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by
+hard labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees,
+so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary
+to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable
+life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders
+in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and
+excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of
+superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths of
+opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And in
+the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw
+the cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the
+dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to
+subject to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of
+maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention
+had deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover,
+therefore, in practice, the powers which the nation had refused, and to
+warp to their own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of
+the federal party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will
+of the majority of the convention, and of the people themselves. We
+believed, with them, that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature
+with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could
+be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers,
+confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties
+by dependence on his own will. We believed that the complicated
+organization of kings, nobles, and priests, was not the wisest nor best
+to effect the happiness of associated man; that wisdom and virtue were
+not hereditary; that the trappings of such a machinery consumed, by
+their expense, those earnings of industry they were meant to protect,
+and, by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance.
+We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of
+their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of
+law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their
+reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed, than
+with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in Europe,
+by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment of the people
+then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the other
+party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of the
+country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and order
+than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong holds of federalism.
+And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our
+constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
+order, and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort
+truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at
+justification of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will
+the opening scenes of our present government be seen in their true
+aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in private hoards, shall
+be broken up and laid open to public view. What a treasure will be found
+in General Washington�s cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of
+as candid a friend to truth as he was himself! When no longer, like
+Caesar�s notes and memorandums in the hands of Anthony, it shall be open
+to the high priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so much, and
+no more, as suits their views.
+
+With respect to his Farewell Address, to the authorship of which, it
+seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you some facts. He
+had determined to decline a re-election at the end of his first term,
+and so far determined, that he had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for
+him something valedictory, to be addressed to his constituents on his
+retirement. This was done: but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce
+in a second election, to which no one more strenuously pressed him than
+myself, from a conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer
+habit, the respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his
+character only could effect. When, at the end of this second term, his
+Valedictory came out, Mr. Madison recognised in it several passages of
+his draught; several others we were both satisfied were from the pen
+of Hamilton, and others from that of the President himself. These he
+probably put into the hands of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence
+it may all appear in Hamilton�s hand-writing, as if it were all of his
+composition.
+
+I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists were,
+1. To warp our government more to the form and principles of monarchy,
+and 2. To weaken the barriers of the State governments as co-ordinate
+powers. In the first they have been so completely foiled by the
+universal spirit of the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise,
+shrunk from the odium of their old appellation, taken to themselves a
+participation of ours, and under the pseudo-republican mask, are now
+aiming at their second object, and strengthened by unsuspecting
+or apostate recruits from our ranks, are advancing fast towards an
+ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that a prevalence of the
+doctrines of consolidation would one day call for reformation or
+revolution. I answer by asking, if a single State of the Union would
+have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers to the General
+Government? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from the
+jealousy and fear of every State, of being subjected to the other
+States, in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe
+the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general
+surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government,
+one and undivided?
+
+You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether the
+Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and
+trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, my
+dear Sir, because I am unable. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on
+it, have disqualified me from investigations so severe, and researches
+so laborious. And it is the less necessary in this case, as having been
+already done by others with a logic and learning to which I could
+add nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of
+Virginia, in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821,
+Judge Roane, under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for the
+Enquirer, a series of papers on the law of that case. I considered these
+papers maturely as they came out, and confess, that they appeared to me
+to pulverize every word which had been delivered by Judge Marshall,
+of the extra-judicial part of his opinion; and all was extra-judicial,
+except the decision that the act of Congress had not purported to
+give to the corporation of Washington the authority claimed by their
+lottery-law, of controlling the laws of the States within the States
+themselves. But unable to claim that case, he could not let it go
+entirely, but went on gratuitously to prove, that notwithstanding the
+eleventh amendment of the constitution, a State could be brought, as
+a defendant, to the bar of his court; and again, that Congress might
+authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise legislation within
+a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I cite the sum and
+result only of his doctrines, according to the impression made on my
+mind at the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate in
+circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely
+refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human reason
+as a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us.
+And I mention this particular case as one only of several, because it
+gave occasion to that thorough examination of the constitutional limits
+between the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for.
+There were two other writers in the same paper, under the signatures of
+Fletcher of Saltoun, and Somers, who in a few essays presented some very
+luminous and striking views of the question. And there was a particular
+paper which recapitulated all the cases in which it was thought the
+federal court had usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will
+be found in the Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th.
+It is not in my present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can
+furnish them, I will procure and forward them. If they had been read in
+the other States, as they were here, I think they would have left, there
+as here, no dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken up
+by our legislature of 1821-22, and two draughts of remonstrances were
+prepared and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference
+of opinion as to the matter of right; but there was as to the expediency
+of a remonstrance at that time, the general mind of the States being
+then under extraordinary excitement by the Missouri question; and it
+was dropped on that consideration. But this case is not dead; it only
+sleepeth. The Indian Chief said, he did not go to war for every petty
+injury by itself, but put it into his pouch, and when that was full,
+he then made war. Thank Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and
+rational mode of redress.
+
+This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case to
+prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the court, is
+very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect another instance, and
+the more particularly, perhaps, because it in some measure bore on
+myself. Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions
+to some federal justices of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed
+and sealed by him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the
+department of State, on my entrance into office, and 1 forbade their
+delivery. Marbury, named in one of them, applied to the Supreme Court
+for a Mandamus to the Secretary of State (Mr. Madison), to deliver the
+commission intended for him. The Court determined at once, that being an
+original process, they had no cognizance of it; and there the question
+before them was ended. But the Chief Justice went on to lay down what
+the law would be, had they jurisdiction of the case; to wit, that they
+should command the delivery.
+
+The object was clearly to instruct any other court having the
+jurisdiction, what they should do, if Marbury should apply to them.
+Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could any thing
+exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle of law never
+yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to
+the validity of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it
+remains in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is
+not a deed, and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of a
+third person it may be made an escrow. But whatever is in the executive
+offices is certainly deemed to be in the hands of the President; and, in
+this case, was actually in my hands, because, when I countermanded them,
+there was as yet no Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and
+Madison is continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were
+settled law, without any animadversion on its being merely an obiter
+dissertation of the Chief Justice.
+
+It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of words which
+shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, this limit of
+jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will guide us safely in
+most of the cases. 1. The capital and leading object of the constitution
+was, to leave with the States all authorities which respected their
+own citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which
+respected citizens of foreign or other States: to make us several as
+to ourselves, but one as to all others. In the latter case, then,
+constructions should lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will
+bear it; and in favor of the States in the former, if possible to be so
+construed. And indeed, between citizens and citizens of the same
+State, and under their own laws, I know but a single case in which a
+jurisdiction is given to the General Government. That is, where any
+thing but gold or silver is made a lawful tender, or the obligation of
+contracts is any otherwise impaired. The separate legislatures had so
+often abused that power, that the citizens themselves chose to trust
+it to the general, rather than to their own special authorities. 2. On
+every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when
+the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the
+debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the
+text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it
+was passed. Let us try Cohen�s case by these canons only, referring
+always however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
+
+1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law of his
+State. It was a domestic case therefore, and not a foreign one.
+
+2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing against
+the General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, the States
+meant to surrender the authority of preserving order, of enforcing moral
+duties, and restraining vice, within their own territory? And this is
+the present case, that of Cohen being under the ancient and general law
+of gaming. Can any good be effected, by taking from the States the moral
+rule of their citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority,
+or to one of their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning
+of words, hunting after possible constructions, and hanging inference on
+inference, from heaven to earth, like Jacob�s ladder? Such an intention
+was impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference,
+if exercised by, both governments, as may be done with equal right,
+would equally authorize both to claim all powers, general and
+particular, and break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made for
+men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by
+the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought
+for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make any thing mean every
+thing or nothing, at pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms of
+advocates, whose trade it is, to prove that a defendant is a plaintiff,
+though dragged into court, torto collo, like Bonaparte�s volunteers into
+the field in chains, or that a power has been given, because it ought
+to have been given, et alia talia. The States supposed, that, by their
+tenth amendment, they had secured themselves against constructive
+powers. They were not lessoned yet by Cohen�s case, nor aware of the
+slipperiness of the eels of the law. I ask for no straining of words
+against the General Government nor yet against the States. I believe the
+States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government
+our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome
+distribution of powers, established by the constitution for the
+limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to
+Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they
+may more secretly be bought and sold, as at market.
+
+But the Chief Justice says, �there must be an ultimate arbiter
+somewhere.� True, there must; but does that prove it is either party?
+The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their
+deputies in convention, at the call of Congress, or of two thirds of the
+States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed
+by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity
+of our constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that
+of other nations is at once to force.
+
+I rejoice in the example you set of _seriatim_ opinions. I have heard it
+often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some of your brethren
+will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in time, it may be
+felt by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the primitive court
+be again restored. Why should not every judge be asked his opinion, and
+give it from the bench, if only by yea or nay? Besides ascertaining the
+fact of his opinion, which the public have a right to know, in order
+to judge whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the
+opinions were unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly the weight
+of their authority.
+
+The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to relieve
+you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
+accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
+my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond
+the sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with
+me in principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
+consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in
+every feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the
+republican form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the
+salutary distribution of powers which that has established. These are
+the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be
+in danger of foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I
+add those for the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness
+to your country.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 30,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
+after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
+and to be returned then to him.
+
+You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering�s fourth of July observations
+on the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
+personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
+quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
+should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams�s memory
+has led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
+forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
+wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage
+of that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it
+not supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the
+spot. He says, �The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin,
+Sherman, Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and
+then appointed him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a
+sub-committee, met, and after the urgencies of each on the other, I
+consented to undertake the task; that, the draught being made, we, the
+sub-committee, met, and conned the paper over, and he does not remember
+that he made or suggested a single alteration.� Now these details
+are quite incorrect. The committee of five met; no such thing as a
+sub-committee was proposed, but they unanimously pressed on myself alone
+to undertake the draught. I consented; I drew it: but before I reported
+it to the committee, I communicated it separately to Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections, because they were the two
+members of whose judgments and amendments I wished most to have the
+benefit, before presenting it to the committee: and you have seen the
+original paper now in my hands, with the corrections of Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams interlined in their own hand-writings. Their alterations
+were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy,
+reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress.
+This personal communication and consultation with Mr. Adams, he
+has misremembered into the actings of a sub-committee. Pickering�s
+observations, and Mr. Adams�s in addition, �that it contained no new
+ideas, that it is a common-place compilation, its sentiments hacknied
+in Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis�s
+pamphlet,� may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard
+Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke�s Treatise on Government.
+Otis�s pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from
+reading or reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to
+neither book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as
+any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no
+sentiment which had ever been expressed before. Had Mr. Adams been
+so restrained, Congress would have lost the benefit of his bold and
+impressive advocations of the rights of Revolution. For no man�s
+confident and fervid addresses, more than Mr. Adams�s, encouraged and
+supported us through the difficulties surrounding us, which, like the
+ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night and by day. Yet, on
+the same ground, we may ask what of these elevated thoughts was new, or
+can be affirmed never before to have entered the conceptions of man?
+
+Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons for
+declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, had been
+hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of July, �76, or this
+dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of memory, let history
+say. This, however, I will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the
+Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of
+it. As to myself, I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive
+auditor of the opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could
+be, of its merits or demerits. During the debate I was sitting by
+Doctor Franklin, and he observed that I was writhing a little under
+the acrimonious criticisms on some of its parts; and it was on that
+occasion, that by way of comfort, he told me the story of John Thomson,
+the hatter, and his new sign.
+
+Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of it
+expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other three
+fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only one he
+approves), which recommends friendship to his dear England, whenever she
+is willing to be at peace with us. His insinuations are, that although
+�the high tone of the instrument was in unison with the warm feelings of
+the times, this sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never
+be forgotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne
+in mind on every celebration of this anniversary.� In other words, that
+the Declaration, as being a libel on the government of England, composed
+in times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare
+the feelings of our English friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. But it
+is not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind; but to cherish the
+principles of the instrument in the besoms of our own citizens: and it
+is a heavenly comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly
+felt, as to render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of
+memory of Mr. Adams�s, worthy of being solemnly announced and supported
+at an anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-day. In
+opposition, however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that these principles
+may be eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for
+yourself of long life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 15th was received in due time, and with the
+welcome of every thing which comes from you. With its opinions on the
+difficulties of revolutions from despotism to freedom, I very much
+concur. The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.
+Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body fend mind
+to their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on,
+to think and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their
+ignorance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the
+Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This
+is the present situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is
+not desperate. The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of
+printing, has eminently changed the condition of the world. As yet, that
+light has dawned on the middling classes only of the men in Europe.
+The kings and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet received its
+rays; but it continues to spread, and while printing is preserved, it
+can no more recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt to
+recover the right of self-government may fail, so may a second, a third,
+&c. But as a younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment
+becomes more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some
+subsequent one of the ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed.
+In France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the second by
+Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII., and his holy allies; another is
+yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and
+all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. This
+is now well understood to be a necessary check on Kings, whom they will
+probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, than to exterminate.
+To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of
+desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years
+of desolation. For what inheritance so valuable, can man leave to his
+posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred
+to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that he will never submit, but
+finally defeat this atrocious violation of the laws of God and man,
+under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes,
+afford reasonable hope, that that nation will settle down in a temperate
+representative government, with an executive properly subordinated to
+that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece, will follow suit. You
+and I shall look down from another world on these glorious achievements
+to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.
+
+I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein you say that
+the omission of his signature to the Declaration of Independence was by
+accident. Our impressions as to this fact being different, I shall
+be glad to have mine corrected, if wrong. Jay, you know, had been in
+constant opposition to our laboring majority. Our estimate at the time
+was, that he, Dickinson, and Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity,
+perseverance, and partiality to our English connection, had constantly
+kept us a year behind where we ought to have been, in our preparations
+and proceedings. From about the date of the Virginia instructions of May
+the 15th, 1776, to declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented himself from
+Congress, and never came there again until December, 1778. Of course,
+he had no part in the discussions or decision of that question. The
+instructions to their Delegates by the convention of New York, then
+sitting, to sign the Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th
+of July only, and on that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay,
+by a letter received from him, as they had done as early as the 29th
+of May, by another letter. And I think he had been omitted by the
+convention on a new election of Delegates, when they changed their
+instructions. Of this last fact, however, having no evidence but an
+ancient impression, I shall not affirm it. But whether so or not, no
+agency of accident appears in the case. This error of fact, however,
+whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to the public. But
+truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it for our own
+satisfaction.
+
+I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
+month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
+supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious.
+But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the
+recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out
+of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we
+can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid
+of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all
+at once. Against this _tedium vita_, however, I am fortunately mounted
+on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty
+or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give
+exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment
+of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more
+healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles
+have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness
+with which such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall
+live to see it go into action.
+
+Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this
+letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now
+attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new
+affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, dark
+hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a
+friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was
+to be made public by that friend or his representative. And now it is
+said to be actually published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts
+have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of
+separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that
+of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence,
+whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this
+would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that
+aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy
+and insensibility. With me, however, no such armor is needed. The
+circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the
+partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state
+of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also:
+and there might, not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by
+filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous
+phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name,
+to me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things
+concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had
+been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper
+to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of
+each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men,
+who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen
+the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and
+motives of others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time and
+reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring
+to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would
+be strange, indeed, if, at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt
+up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so
+sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I
+am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now
+made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to
+sow tares between friends who have been such for near half a century.
+Beseeching you, then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this
+wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among
+the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my
+unabated and constant attachment, friendship, and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, October 24,1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, October 24,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most
+momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of
+Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass, and points
+the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on
+us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious.
+Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves
+in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to
+intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a
+set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own.
+
+She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from
+that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of
+despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of
+freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit;
+she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
+proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty
+weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at
+one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.
+Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one,
+or all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole
+world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial
+friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our affections, than to
+be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would
+purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the
+war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its
+consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and
+establish the American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign
+powers, of never permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the
+affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to
+depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can effect a division
+in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its
+most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr.
+Canning�s opinion, that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With
+Great Britain withdrawn from their scale, and shifted into that of our
+two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war. For
+how would they propose to get at either enemy without superior fleets?
+Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of
+declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights
+of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of
+another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the
+equally lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy.
+
+But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to
+our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly
+confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting
+addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control
+which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of
+Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as
+all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our
+political well-being. Yet, as I am sensible that this can never be
+obtained, even with her own consent, but by war; and its independence,
+which is our second interest (and especially its independence of
+England), can be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning
+my first wish to future chances, and accepting its independence, with
+peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association, at the
+expense of war and her enmity.
+
+I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we
+aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not
+stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother
+country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible
+interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under
+any other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any
+power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should
+think it, therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the
+British government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in
+these letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as
+his authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of
+which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them
+for consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable
+aspect in which it is seen by himself.
+
+I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long
+ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not
+qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the
+question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so
+decisive of our future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I
+have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce me to the hazard
+of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still my mite
+towards any thing which may be useful to our country. And praying you to
+accept it at only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant
+and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, November 4, 1823.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so
+slow and laborious, as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all
+correspondence: not, however, from yours, while I can make a stroke with
+a pen. We have gone through too many trying scenes together, to forget
+the sympathies and affections they nourished.
+
+Your trials have indeed been long and severe. When they will end, is yet
+unknown, but where they will end, cannot be doubted. Alliances, Holy or
+Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell
+the rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the
+scene, and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that
+Spain will prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines
+not to be so, and that her success will be the turning of the tide of
+liberty, no more to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of
+society in Europe can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know
+when with you, and I do now. A hereditary chief, strictly limited, the
+right of war vested in the legislative body, a rigid economy of the
+public contributions, and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses,
+will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.
+But the only security o� all, is in a free press. The force of public
+opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The
+agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the
+waters pure.
+
+We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful country. For
+in peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is
+to be the next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My
+opinion on that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter.
+The question will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and
+southernmost candidates. The former will get every federal vote in the
+Union, and many republicans; the latter, all those denominated of
+the old school; for you are not to believe that these two parties are
+amalgamated, that the lion and the lamb are lying down together.
+The Hartford convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent,
+prostrated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned it through
+shame and mortification; and now call themselves republicans. But the
+name alone is changed, the principles are the same. For in truth,
+the parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature. They exist in all
+countries, whether called by these names, or by those of Aristocrats and
+Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles
+and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the people, and is
+a tory by nature. The healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes them, and is
+formed a whig by nature. On the eclipse of federalism with us, although
+not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the
+false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view
+of producing a geographical division of parties, which might insure
+them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold into the
+snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral and
+laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead of
+aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used, merely
+as tools for electioneering purposes; and that trick of hypocrisy then
+fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now succeeding a
+distinction, which, like that of republican and federal, or whig and
+tory, being equally intermixed through every State, threatens none of
+those geographical schisms which go immediately to a separation. The
+line of division now is the preservation of State rights as reserved in
+the constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument,
+to merge all into a consolidated government. The tories are for
+strengthening the executive and General Government; the whigs cherish
+the representative branch, and the rights reserved by the States, as the
+bulwark against consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy.
+And although this division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists,
+is well understood, and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing
+election, with the reflecting men of both parties.
+
+I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr.
+Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of
+her American work: but her �Few Days in Athens,� was entirely new, and
+has been a treat to me of the highest order. The matter and manner
+of the dialogue is strictly ancient; the principles of the sects are
+beautifully and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and
+portraiture of the interlocutors are of higher finish than any thing in
+that line left us by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it
+is equal to the best morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance,
+that Herculaneum is likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of
+ancient genius; and may we not hope more from the same pen?
+
+After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disabled arm, I
+am again in tolerable health, but extremely debilitated, so as to be
+scarcely able to walk into my garden. The hebitude of age too, and
+extinguishment of interest in the things around me, are weaning me from
+them, and dispose me with cheerfulness to resign them to the existing
+generation, satisfied that the daily advance of science will enable them
+to administer the commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still
+many valuable years to give to your country, and with my prayers that,
+they may be years of health and happiness, and especially that they may
+see the establishment of the principles of government which you have
+cherished through life, accept the assurance of my affectionate and
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, February 3, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and
+am glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
+satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
+nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
+equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a�a = 0.
+Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
+do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
+ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue,
+to set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and
+if foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our
+legislature, no harm will have been done by the provisos.
+
+You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
+legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
+the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act
+was expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that
+a re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday,
+the 29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
+meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
+there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
+fourth, &c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give it
+certainty enough.
+
+You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
+apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
+dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text
+and reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
+Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
+competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
+whole sum at once.
+
+I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
+for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
+certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
+every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have
+all, from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our
+Professors, as the only means by which we can give to our institution
+splendor and pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only
+question, therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate,
+will be, Is he the most highly qualified? The college of Philadelphia
+has lost its character of primacy by indulging motives of favoritism and
+nepotism, and by conferring the appointments as if the professorships
+were entrusted to them as provisions for their friends. And even that
+of Edinburgh, you know, is also much lowered from the same cause. We are
+next to observe, that a man is not qualified for a Professor, knowing
+nothing but merely his own profession. He should be otherwise well
+educated as to the sciences generally; able to converse understandingly
+with the scientific men with whom he is associated, and to assist in the
+councils of the Faculty on any subject of science on which they may have
+occasion to deliberate. Without this, he will incur their contempt,
+and bring disreputation on the institution. With respect to the
+professorship you mention, I scarcely know any of our judges personally;
+but I will name, for example, the late Judge Roane, who, I believe, was
+generally admitted to be among the ablest of them. His knowledge was
+confined to the common law chiefly, which does not constitute one half
+of the qualification of a really learned lawyer, much less that of a
+Professor of law for an University. And as to any other branches
+of science, he must have stood mute in the presence of his literary
+associates, or of any learned strangers or others visiting the
+University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we propose to take?
+
+In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of
+appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I
+never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I
+never saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better
+qualified; and I have the most unlimited confidence, that in the
+appointment of Professors to our nursling institution, every individual
+of my associates will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its
+character, and adopt, as our sacred motto, �_Detur digniori_? In this
+way it will honor us, and bless our country.
+
+I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities
+beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let
+them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely
+to the present case.
+
+Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself
+of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIX.--TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824
+
+
+TO JARED SPARKS.
+
+Monticello, February 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of
+the North American Review. This has anticipated the one I should receive
+in course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new
+series. The article on the African colonization of the people of color,
+to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration.
+It is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more,
+too, than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of
+that colony.
+
+In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational
+objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. The establishment of a colony
+on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the
+arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science.
+By doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course
+of injuries we have been committing on their population. And considering
+that these blessings will descend to the �_nati natorum, et qui
+nascentur ab illis_,� we shall in the long run have rendered them
+perhaps more good than evil. To fulfil this object, the colony of
+Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of
+success. Under this view, the Colonization Society is to be considered
+as a missionary society, having in view, however, objects more humane,
+more justifiable, and less aggressive on the peace of other nations,
+than the others of that appellation.
+
+The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to
+our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to
+provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that
+population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and
+protection, as a separate, free, and independent people, in some country
+and climate friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the
+coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed
+entirely impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which
+have been urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit
+no controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate,
+yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are
+in the United States a million and a half of people of color in
+slavery. To send off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be
+practicable for us, or expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years
+for its accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their
+estimated value as property, in the first place, (for actual property
+has been lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from
+the possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and
+old, would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must be paid
+or lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their transportation
+by land and sea to Mesurado, a year�s provision of food and clothing,
+implements of husbandry and of their trades, which will amount to three
+hundred millions more, making thirty-six millions of dollars a year
+for twenty-five years, with insurance of peace all that time, and it is
+impossible to look at the question a second time. I am aware that at
+the end of about sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will
+commence, from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during
+the remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still
+impossible to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say this to
+induce an inference that the getting rid of them is for ever impossible.
+For that is neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be
+done in this way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that
+is, by emancipating the after born, leaving them, on due compensation,
+with their mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance,
+and then putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for
+deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject five
+and forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to conceive any
+other practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on Virginia, under
+the fourteenth query. The estimated value of the new-born infant is
+so low (say twelve dollars and fifty cents), that it would probably
+be yielded by the owner gratis, and would thus reduce the six hundred
+millions of dollars, the first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions
+and a half: leaving only the expenses of nourishment while with the
+mother, and of transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to
+be furnished? Why not from that of the lands which have been ceded by
+the very States now needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration,
+for the most part, but that of the general good of the whole. These
+cessions already constitute one fourth of the States of the Union. It
+may be said that these lands have been sold; are now the property of
+the citizens composing those States; and the money long ago received and
+expended. But an equivalent of lands in the territories since acquired
+may be appropriated to that object, or so much at least, as may be
+sufficient; and the object, although more important to the slave States,
+is highly so to the others also, if they were serious in their arguments
+on the Missouri question. The slave States, too, if more interested,
+would also contribute more by their gratuitous liberation, thus taking
+on themselves alone the first and heaviest item of expense.
+
+In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular place
+of asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that in the
+revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might open to us
+some one within practicable distance. This has now happened. St. Domingo
+has become independent, and with a population of that color only; and
+if the public papers are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay
+their passage, to receive them as free citizens, and to provide them
+employment. This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense
+but of nurture with the mother a few years, and would call, of course,
+for a very moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole
+annual increase to be of sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels,
+of four hundred tons burthen each, constantly employed in that short
+run, would carry off the increase of every year, and the old stock
+would die off in the ordinary course of nature, lessening from the
+commencement until its final disappearance. In this way no violation of
+private rights is proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in
+as fast as the means to be provided for their care would be competent
+to it. Looking at my own State only, (and I presume not to speak for
+the others,) I verily believe that this surrender of property would
+not amount to more, annually, than half our present direct taxes, to be
+continued fully about twenty or twenty-five years, and then gradually
+diminishing for as many more until their final extinction; and even this
+half tax would not be paid in cash, but by the delivery of an object
+which they have never yet known or counted as part of their property:
+and those not possessing the object will be called on for nothing. I
+do not go into all the details of the burthens and benefits of this
+operation. And who could estimate its blessed effects? I leave this
+to those who will live to see their accomplishment, and to enjoy a
+beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave it with this admonition, to
+rise and be doing. A million and a half are within their control;
+but six millions (which a majority of those now living will see them
+attain), and one million of these fighting men, will say, �We will not
+go.�
+
+I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scruples.
+But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and
+an amendment of the constitution, the whole length necessary. The
+separation of infants from their mothers, too, would produce some
+scruples of humanity. But this would be straining at a gnat, and
+swallowing a camel.
+
+I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of the duty
+on imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against it, until
+those in power shall become sensible of this stain on our legislation
+and shall wipe it from their code, and from the remembrance of man, if
+possible.
+
+I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson�
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXX.--TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824
+
+
+TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
+
+Monticello, April 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It was with great pleasure I learned that the good people of New Orleans
+had restored you again to the councils of our country. I did not doubt
+the aid it would bring to the remains of our old school in Congress, in
+which your early labors had been so useful. You will find, I suppose,
+on revisiting our maritime States, the names of things more changed than
+the things themselves; that though our old opponents have given up their
+appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned their views, and
+that they are as strong nearly as they ever were. These cares, however,
+are no longer mine. I resign myself cheerfully to the managers of the
+ship, and the more contentedly, as I am near the end of my voyage. I
+have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason,
+and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical
+idea of the character of the constitution of our government, which I
+have adopted as a key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the
+whole field of government is divided into two departments, domestic and
+foreign, (the States in their mutual relations being of the latter) that
+the former department is reserved exclusively to the respective States
+within their own limits, and the latter assigned to a separate set of
+functionaries, constituting what may be called the, foreign branch,
+which, instead of a federal basis, is established as a distinct
+government _quo ad hoc_, acting as the domestic branch does on the
+citizens directly and coercively; that these departments have distinct
+directories, co-ordinate, and equally independent and supreme, each
+within its own sphere of action. Whenever a doubt arises to which of
+these branches a power belongs, I try it by this test. I recollect no
+case where a question simply between citizens of the same State has been
+transferred to the foreign department, except that of inhibiting tenders
+but of metallic money, and _ex post facto_ legislation. The causes of
+these singularities are well remembered.
+
+I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of national
+improvement, which I have read with great pleasure, and recognise in it
+those powers of reasoning and persuasion of which I had formerly seen
+from you so many proofs. Yet, in candor, I must say it has not removed,
+in my mind, all the difficulties of the question. And I should really be
+alarmed at a difference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own,
+were it not that I have, as companions in sentiment, the Madisons, the
+Monroes, the Randolphs, the Macons, all good men and true, of primitive
+principles. In one sentiment of the speech I particularly concur. �If we
+have a doubt relative to any power, we ought not to exercise it.� When
+we consider the extensive and deep-seated opposition to this assumption,
+the conviction entertained by so many, that this deduction of powers by
+elaborate construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the
+difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise;
+that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and
+forwards, so that no undertaking under it will be safe; that there is
+not a State in the Union which would not give the power willingly, by
+way of amendment, with some little guard, perhaps, against abuse; I
+cannot but think it would be the wisest course to ask an express grant
+of the power. A government held together by the bands of reason only,
+requires much compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should
+not be crammed down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when
+they may be put into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great
+deal of indulgence is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and
+fraternity. In such a case, it seems to me it would be safer and wiser
+to ask an express grant of the power. This would render its exercise
+smooth and acceptable to all, and insure to it all the facilities which
+the could contribute, to prevent that kind of abuse which all will fear,
+because all know it is so much practised in public bodies, I mean the
+bartering of votes. It would reconcile every one, if limited by the
+proviso, that the federal proportion of each State should be expended
+within the State. With this single security against partiality and
+corrupt bargaining, I suppose there is not a State, perhaps not a man
+in the Union, who would not consent to add this to the powers of the
+General Government. But age has weaned me from questions of this kind.
+My delight is now in the passive occupation of reading; and it is
+with great reluctance I permit my mind ever to encounter subjects of
+difficult investigation. You have many years yet to come of vigorous
+activity, and I confidently trust they will be employed in cherishing
+every measure which may foster our brotherly union, and perpetuate a
+constitution of government destined to be the primitive and precious
+model of what is to change the condition of man over the globe. With
+this confidence, equally strong in your powers and purposes, I pray you
+to accept the assurance of my cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXI.--TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824
+
+
+TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT.
+
+Monticello, June 5,1824.
+
+Dear and Venerable Sir,
+
+I am much indebted for your kind letter of February the 29th, and for
+your valuable volume on the English constitution. I have, read this with
+pleasure and much approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution
+of the English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon, it is
+really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed
+in their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that
+Paine, who thought more than he read, should have credited the great
+authorities who have declared, that the will of Parliament is the
+constitution of England. So Marbois, before the French revolution,
+observed to me, that the Almanac Royal was the constitution of France.
+Your derivation of it from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on
+legitimate principles. Having driven out the former inhabitants of that
+part of the island called England, they became aborigines as to you, and
+your lineal ancestors. They doubtless had a constitution; and although
+they have not left it in a written formula, to the precise text of which
+you may always appeal, yet they have left fragments of their history
+and laws, from which it may be inferred with considerable certainty.
+Whatever their history and laws show to have been practised with
+approbation, we may presume was permitted by their constitution;
+whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And although this
+constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force, yet force
+cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the nation, by
+their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws; which shows
+they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the pullings
+and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation, and its kings
+of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was sometimes
+gain, and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their rights
+from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the
+thread of pretended inheritance extinguished all regal usurpations, and
+the nation reentered into all its rights; and although in their bill of
+rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the
+others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also,
+whenever occasion should occur. The new King received no rights or
+powers, but those expressly granted to him. It has ever appeared to me,
+that the difference between the whig and the tory of England is, that
+the whig deduces his rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory
+from the Norman. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says in so many
+words, (note AA to chapter 42,) that, in the reign of the Stuarts, �it
+was the people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who
+attempted, as is pretended, to usurp upon the people.� This supposes the
+Norman usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,)
+�the Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and
+seems specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the
+people are the origin of all just power.� And where else will this
+degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the
+origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be
+in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?
+
+Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
+album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
+to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
+investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
+appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet
+we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
+never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
+it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
+little into our former education. We established however some, although
+not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our
+States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may
+exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves
+competent (as in electing their functionaries, executive and
+legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all
+judiciary cases in which any fact is involved), or they may act by
+representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and
+duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of
+person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the
+press. In the structure of our legislatures, we think experience has
+proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two separate bodies of
+deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right has been mistaken,
+some making one of these bodies, and some both, the representatives of
+property instead of persons; whereas the double deliberation might be
+as well obtained without any violation of true principle, either by
+requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by electing a proper
+number of representatives of persons, dividing them by lots into two
+chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals, in order
+to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am myself a native and
+resident, was not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
+say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men
+peaceably together to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to
+writing, and place it among their archives, where every one should be
+free to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other
+States, as they proceeded successively to the same work, made
+successive improvements; and several of them, still further corrected
+by experience, have, by conventions, still further amended their first
+forms. My own State has gone on so far with its _premi�re �bauch_; but
+it is now proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other
+improvements, I hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties
+into wards. The former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four
+miles square; the latter should be about six miles square each, and
+would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these
+might be, 1. An elementary school. 2. A company of militia, with its
+officers. 3. A justice of the peace and constable. 4. Each ward should
+take care of their own poor. 5. Their own roads. 6. Their own police.
+7. Elect within themselves one or more jurors to attend the courts
+of justice. And, 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes for all
+functionaries reserved to their election. Each ward would thus be a
+small republic within itself, and every man in the State would thus
+become an acting member of the common government, transacting in person
+a great portion of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet
+important and entirely within his competence. The wit of man cannot
+devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and well-administered
+republic.
+
+With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their
+relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose
+the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are
+co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State
+governments, are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs
+which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government
+is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States;
+these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the
+other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control
+over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two
+exceptions only to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two
+departments should claim each the same subject of power, where is the
+common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little
+importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them
+aloof from the questionable ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor
+compromised, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe the
+doubtful power to that department which they may think best. You will
+perceive by these details, that we have not yet so far perfected our
+constitutions as to venture to make them unchangeable. But still, in
+their present state, we consider them not otherwise changeable than by
+the authority of the people, on a special election of representatives
+for that purpose expressly: they are until then the _lex legum_.
+
+But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind another, and
+all others, in succession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made
+the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powrers can only
+belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with
+will. The dead are not even things. The particles of matter which
+composed their bodies, make part now of the bodies of other animals,
+vegetables, or minerals, of a thousand forms. To what then are attached
+the rights and powers they held while in the form of men? A generation
+may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life; when that
+has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights
+and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and
+institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the
+inherent and unalienable rights of man.
+
+I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of
+the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
+usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of
+the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced,
+is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
+Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard
+the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever
+existed. But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means,
+they stole this law in upon us. In a case of _quare impedit_ in the
+Year-book, 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far
+the ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court. And
+Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his opinion in these words. �_A tiel leis
+qu�ils de seint eglise ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner
+credence; car ceo common ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes.
+Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise:
+et semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si
+poit apperer or a nous que Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en
+tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy_,� &c.
+See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his
+first book, c. 3. is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and
+mistakes it thus. �To such laws of the church as have warrant in holy
+scripture, our law giveth credence.� And cites Prisot; mistranslating
+�ancien scripture� into �holy scripture.� Whereas, Prisot palpably says,
+�to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writing, it is
+proper for us to give credence;� to wit, to their ancient written laws.
+This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot.
+Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the
+common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max.
+3. and Sheppard, title, �Religion,� in 1675, copies the same
+mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses
+it in these words; �Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.� 1
+Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings
+and re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in
+1728, that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court
+would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity
+was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore,
+409, ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy
+and profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra.
+Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that
+�Christianity is part of the laws of England,� citing Ventris and
+Strange. And finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in
+Evans�s case, in 1767, says, that �the essential principles of revealed
+religion are part of the common law.� Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament,
+and all into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we
+find this chain of authorities hanging link by link, one upon another,
+and all ultimately on one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation
+of the words �ancien scripture,� used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot;
+Wingate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate.
+Hale cites nobody. The court, in Woolston�s case, cite Hale. Wood cites
+Woolston�s case. Blackstone quotes Woolston�s case and Hale. And Lord
+Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might
+defy the best read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this
+judiciary forgery; and I might go on further to show, how some of the
+Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred�s laws, the
+20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts
+of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead
+my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this, between Church
+and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara,
+rogues all!
+
+I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowledgments
+for your good wishes to the University we are now establishing in this
+State. There are some novelties in it. Of that of a professorship of
+the principles of government, you express your approbation. They will be
+founded in the rights of man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will
+approve: and that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us
+in that type and dialect, must be the text-books of the reading of the
+learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles
+of government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be
+placed in the library of the University. Having at this time in England
+a person sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr.
+Gilmer of my neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage,
+counsel, and guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the
+deceptions of partial and false recommendations, in the selection
+of characters. He is a gentleman of great worth and correctness, my
+particular friend, well educated in various branches of science, and
+worthy of entire confidence.
+
+Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us a speedy
+meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and
+evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have.both witnessed; and
+in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration
+and esteem for your person and character.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXII.--TO MARTIN VAN BUREN, June 29, 1824
+
+
+TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.
+
+Monticello, June 29, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering�s elaborate philippic against Mr.
+Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the acknowledgment
+until I could read it and make some observations on it.
+
+I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such a period
+of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and
+viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been
+industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he
+had marked for his hatred; some of whom certainly, if enmities towards
+him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the
+grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing
+personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party
+sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as
+himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an
+enmity which I had never felt, and that with respect to myself, as well
+as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every direction, to
+get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, where he could
+not, certificates and journals, catching at every gossipping story he
+could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions what he could find
+no where else, and then arguing on this motley farrago, as if
+established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his wonder,
+�at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. Adams should not
+have cooled �; that on the contrary, �they had acquired the mastery of
+his soul,� (p. 100 ;) that �where these were enlisted, no reliance
+could be placed on his statements,� (p. 104 ;) the facility and little
+truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning
+persons who were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that �he is
+capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached
+facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable
+inferences,� if suited to his purpose at the instant,� (p. 174;) while
+making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his �_ecce homo_,�
+(p. 100;) how justly might we say to him, �_Mutato nomine, de te fabula
+narratur_.� For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his
+benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to
+his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter.
+104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146,150,151,153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr.
+Adams�s strictures on him, written and pointed, should have excited some
+notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the
+sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more
+questionable. He says, (p. 4) �of Mr. Jefferson I should have said
+nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October the 12th, 1823.�
+Now the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend,
+wounded by a publication which I thought an �outrage on private
+confidence.� Not a word or allusion in it respecting Mr. Pickering, nor
+was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of
+this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his
+pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.
+
+He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions, and my motives. The very
+actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great
+majority of my fellow-citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr.
+Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect.
+My motives he chooses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a
+passion for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It
+is no office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted
+my actions and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates,
+letters, journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary
+them. Nor shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to
+them these antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded,
+as if they had not been already a thousand times repeated, refuted, and
+adjudged against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed
+virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there
+never was a virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Savior
+himself. But he has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to
+leave motives to him who can alone see into them.
+
+But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the
+thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than
+a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of
+his which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the
+other myself. He observes, that my letter of October the 12th, 1823,
+acknowledges the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September the 18th,
+which, having been written a few days after Cunningham�s publication, he
+says was no doubt written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches
+he had uttered against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham.
+And thus having �no doubt� of his conjecture, he considers it as proven,
+goes on to suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place
+Mr. Adams at my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it,
+as an undoubted fact. Now I do most solemnly declare, that so far from
+being a letter of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes,
+there was not a word or allusion in it respecting Cunningham�s
+publication.
+
+The other allegation respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34,
+he quotes Doctor Stuart, as having, twenty years ago, informed him that
+General Washington, �when he became a private citizen,� called me to
+account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of
+unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, �in
+what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment
+of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death, the
+correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period
+of his Presidency was also missing.� The diary being of transactions
+during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some
+time after he became a private citizen, and the pretended correspondence
+of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and supposed
+correspondence are brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy
+of the letter itself. The correspondence could not be found, indeed,
+because it had never existed. I do affirm, that there never passed
+a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between General
+Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would never have
+degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation in that
+letter on the �Samsons in combat.� The whole story is a fabrication, and
+I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a
+pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or any other
+evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, suppositions, and
+presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted for it. With
+Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him to be an
+honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. Pickering,
+very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and, under the
+dominion of these, readily welcoming fancies for facts. But, come the
+story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood.
+
+This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for
+federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted
+a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our
+country. In this information there was not one word which would not
+then have been, or would not now be approved by every republican in
+the United States, looking back to those times, as you will see by a
+faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on
+the subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph,
+extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the
+persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and
+their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. �To
+them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire
+paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with
+ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter
+respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this
+country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burden of
+federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject
+of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by Mr.
+Pickering, (page 33,) as if it were genuine, and really written by me.
+And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the
+ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this
+forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, �A letter from
+Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and
+republished in the Moniteur, with very severe strictures on the conduct
+of the United States.� And instead of the letter itself, he copies
+what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an exaggerated
+commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently leaves to
+his reader to make the ready inference that these were the sentiments of
+the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A negative cannot
+be possibly proved. But, in defect of impossible proof of what was not
+in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in my possession. It
+has been shown to several, and is open to any one who wishes to see it.
+I have presumed only that the interpolation was done in Paris. But I
+never saw the letter in either its Italian or French dress, and it may
+have been done here, with the commentary handed down to posterity by the
+judge. The genuine paragraph, re-translated through Italian and French
+into English, as it appeared here in a federal paper, besides the
+mutilated hue which these translations and re-translations of it
+produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which
+entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of
+misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of
+an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung
+up since he had left us, states their object to be �to draw over us
+the substance, as they had already done the forms of the British
+government.� Now the �forms� here meant, were the levees, birth-days,
+the pompous cavalcade to the State House on the meeting of Congress, the
+formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to
+re-echo the speech in an answer, &c. &c. But the translator here, by
+substituting form in the singular number, for forms in the plural, made
+it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its form of
+legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities, co-ordinate and
+independent: to which form it was to be inferred that I was an enemy. In
+this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering still
+quotes, it (pages 34, 35, 38), and countenances the inference. Now
+General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms,
+as they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my
+return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York,
+I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established
+of royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected
+phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly
+maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the
+government, executive and judiciary (General Washington alone excepted),
+and by a great part of the legislature, save only some members who had
+been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent introduction. I
+took occasion, at various times, of expressing to General Washington my
+disappointment at these symptoms of a change of principle, and that
+I thought them encouraged by the forms and ceremonies, which I found
+prevailing, not at all in character with the simplicity of republican
+government, and looking as if wishfully to those of European courts.
+His general explanations to me were, that when he arrived at New York
+to enter on the executive administration of the new government, he
+observed to those who were to assist him, that placed as he was in an
+office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms and ceremonies
+of other governments, still less apprized of those which might be
+properly established here, and himself perfectly indifferent to all
+forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what they should be; and
+the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, a man of parade,
+and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at a foreign court.
+They, he said, were the author�s of the present regulations, and that
+others were proposed so highly strained, that he absolutely rejected
+them. Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject,
+when the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
+departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had
+been at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and
+the course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion
+had now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any
+particulars not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult
+together, agree on any changes we should think for the better, and
+that he should willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at
+my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that there was too much
+ceremony for the character of our government, and, particularly, that
+the parade of the installation at New York ought not to be copied on the
+present occasion, that the President should desire the Chief Justice to
+attend him at his chambers, that he should administer the oath of office
+to him in the presence of the higher officers of the government, and
+that the certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary
+of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the
+latter vehemently: they thought it not advisable to change any of the
+established forms, and we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to
+the President. As these opinions were divided, and no positive advice
+given as to any change, no change was made. Thus the forms, which I had
+censured in my letter to Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General
+Washington, and were those which he himself but barely tolerated. He had
+furnished me a proper occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my
+opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not have meant any part of the
+censure for him.
+
+Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of �the
+men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
+had had their heads shorn by the harlot England� or, as expressed in
+their re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons
+in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.� Now
+this expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He
+knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what
+had passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could
+not mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
+establishment, I was a member of the Congress then sitting at Annapolis.
+General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that proposition,
+and the course, if any, which I thought Congress would observe
+respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation of it; that I
+found the members of Congress generally in the same sentiment; that
+I thought they would take no express notice of it, but that in all
+appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently pass by all
+candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to others. On
+his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think was in the
+spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after
+candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, almost
+exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to the
+motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred with
+me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that, if the
+hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps
+be indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had
+actually served; �No,� he said, �not a fibre of it ought, to be left, to
+be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line
+of separation between them and their country�: and he left me with a
+determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On
+his return from the meeting, he called on me again, and related to me
+the course the thing had taken. He. said, that, from the beginning,
+he had used every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the
+project altogether, urging the many considerations which would render
+it odious to their fellow-citizens, and disreputable and injurious to
+themselves; that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers
+to reject it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and
+especially the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith
+as particularly intemperate. But that in this state of things, when he
+thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major
+L�Enfant arrived from France with a bundle of eagles, for which he had
+been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served
+in. America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of
+their King permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed
+the face of matters at once, produced an entire revolution of sentiment,
+and turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction, that
+it could be no longer withstood: all he could then obtain, was a
+suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, that it was the French
+applications, and respect for the approbation of the King, which saved
+the establishment in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus
+of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do
+so, he could never suppose that I meant to include him among the Samsons
+in the field, whose object was to draw over us the form, as they
+made the letter say, of the British government, and especially its
+aristocractic member, an hereditary House of Lords. Add to this, that
+the letter saying, �that two out of the three branches of legislature
+were against us,� was an obvious exception of him; it being well known
+that the majorities in the two branches of Senate and Representatives
+were the very instruments which carried, in opposition to the old and
+real republicans, the measures which were the subjects of condemnation
+in this letter. General Washington, then, understanding perfectly what
+and whom I meant to designate, in both phrases, and that they could not
+have any application or view to himself, could find in neither any cause
+of offence to himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any
+explanation of them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know
+very little of General Washington, who should believe to be within the
+laws of his character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to
+him. Be this, however, as it may, the story is infamously false in
+every article of it. My last parting with General Washington was at the
+inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate;
+and I never had any reason to believe any change on his part, as there
+certainly was none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened
+between that and his death, the year following, in my passage to and
+from which, as it happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never
+had another opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence
+observed during that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred
+for epistolary communication, and both of us were too much oppressed
+with letter-writing, to trouble either the other, with a letter about
+nothing.
+
+The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive
+friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink
+his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy
+of republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation
+of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert,
+and the republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
+proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
+republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend
+to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps,
+in its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he
+repeatedly declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair
+chance for success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in
+its support, against any attempt which, might be made to change it from
+its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener, because he
+knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet
+my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he
+considered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of its
+administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever
+been devised by the wit of man; professing, however, at the same time,
+that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that
+it would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that,
+therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the
+principles their constituents had elected.
+
+General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the
+composition of his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which
+was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of
+any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party
+in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the
+republicans; yet were they not imputed, to him, but to the counsellors
+around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course
+and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his
+administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time
+after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views
+into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the
+party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career; separated
+him still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and
+expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not
+loosen their affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary
+aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and
+although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his
+memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion;
+and there it for ever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every
+temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It
+is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify
+his character, by representing him as an enemy to republicans and
+republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were
+so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and
+unbiassed opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the
+people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only
+restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration.
+
+I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter
+or rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr.
+Pickering�s diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do
+not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to
+harass the public with fendings and provings of personal slanders;
+and least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such
+a champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and
+consideration of my fellow-citizens, and have no reason to repent it,
+or to change my course. At this time of life, too, tranquillity is the
+_summum bonum_. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet
+when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so
+much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands
+of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor
+those whom I might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into
+the path of truth. And if of no other value, the present communication
+may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.
+
+I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to
+which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name,
+but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may
+be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close
+it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIII.--TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824
+
+TO EDWARD EVERETT.
+
+Monticello, October 15, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have yet to thank you for your O. B. K. oration, delivered in presence
+of General la Fayette. It is all excellent, much of it sublimely so,
+well worthy of its author and his subject, of whom we may truly say, as
+was said of Germanicus, �_Fruitur fam� sui_.�
+
+Your letter of September the 10th gave me the first information that
+mine to Major Cartwright had got into the newspapers; and the first
+notice, indeed, that he had received it. I was a stranger to his person,
+but not to his respectable and patriotic character. I received from him
+a long and interesting letter, and answered it with frankness, going
+without reserve into several subjects, to which his letter had led,
+but on which I did not suppose I was writing for the newspapers. The
+publication of a letter in such a case, without the consent of the
+writer, is not a fair practice.
+
+The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
+They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot�s opinion
+with a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake
+its meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The
+opinions of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or
+memoranda, and not with all the developement which they probably used in
+delivering them. Prisot�s opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus
+paraphrased. �To such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and
+preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to
+give credence; for so is, or so says, the common law, or law of the
+land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are
+founded; that is to say, the common law, or the law of the land common
+to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from
+which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate
+branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime,
+law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and
+usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit
+authority in the special or local cases belonging to them. The evidence
+of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books, and
+writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known, the
+text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance
+only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it appears,
+from their ancient books, writings, and records, that the bishop, in
+this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has
+done what an ordinary would have done, in such case, then we should
+adjudge it good, otherwise not.� To decide this question, they would
+have to turn to the ancient writings and records of the canon law,
+in which they would find evidence of the laws of advowsons, _quare
+impedit_, the duties of bishops and ordinaries, for which terms Prisot
+could never have meant to refer them to the Old or New Testament, _les
+saincts scriptures_, where surely they would not be found. A license
+which should permit �ancien scripture� to be translated �holy
+scripture,� annihilates at once all the evidence of language. With such
+a license, we might reverse the sixth commandment into �Thou shalt not
+omit murder.� It would be the more extraordinary in this case, where
+the mistranslation was to effect the adoption of the whole code of the
+Jewish and Christian laws into the text of our statutes, to convert
+religious offences into temporal crimes, to make the breach of every
+religious precept a subject of indictment, submit the question of
+idolatry, for example, to the trial of a jury, and to a court, its
+punishment, to the third and fourth generation of the offender. Do we
+allow to our judges this lumping legislation?
+
+The term �common law,� although it has more than one meaning, is
+perfectly definite, _secundum subjectam materiem_. Its most probable
+origin was on the conquest of the Heptarchy by Alfred, and the
+amalgamation of their several codes of law into one, which became
+common to them all. The authentic text of these enactments has not been
+preserved; but their substance has been committed to many ancient
+books and writings, so faithfully as to have been deemed genuine from
+generation to generation, and obeyed as such by all. We have some
+fragments of them collected by Lambard, Wilkins, and others, but
+abounding with proofs of their spurious authenticity. Magna Charta
+is the earliest statute, the text of which has come down to us in an
+authentic form, and thence downward we have them entire. We do not know
+exactly when the common law and statute law, the _lex scripta et non
+scripta_, began to be contra-distinguished, so as to give a second
+acceptation to the former term; whether before or after Prisot�s day, at
+which time we know that nearly two centuries and a half of statutes were
+in preservation. In later times, on the introduction of the chancery
+branch of law, the term common law began to be used in a third sense, as
+the correlative of chancery law. This, however, having been long after
+Prisot�s time, could not have been the sense in which he used the term.
+He must have meant the ancient _lex, non scripta_, because, had he used
+it as inclusive of the _lex scripta_, he would have put his finger on
+the statute which had enjoined on the judges a deference to the laws of
+holy church. But no such statute existing, he must have referred to the
+common law in the sense of a _lex non scripta_. Whenever, then, the term
+common law is used in either of these senses, and it is never employed
+in any other, it is readily known in which of them by the context and
+subject matter under consideration; which, in the present case, leave no
+room for doubt. I do not remember the occasion which led me to take up
+this subject, while a practitioner of the law. But I know I went into
+it with all the research which a very copious law library enabled me to
+indulge; and I fear not for the accuracy of any of my quotations.
+The doctrine might be disproved by many other and different topics of
+reasoning; but having satisfied myself of the origin of the forgery, and
+found how, like a rolling snow-ball, it had gathered volume, I leave
+its further pursuit to those who need further proof, and perhaps I have
+already gone further than the feeble doubt you expressed might require,
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 11, 1825
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+We are dreadfully nonplussed here by the non-arrival of our three
+Professors. We apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st of
+February prevails so much abroad (although we have always mentioned
+it doubtfully), as that the students will assemble on that day without
+awaiting the further notice which was promised. To send them away
+will be discouraging, and to open an University without Mathematics or
+Natural Philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. We
+therefore publish an advertisement, stating that on the arrival of these
+Professors, notice will be given of the day of opening the institution.
+
+Governor Barbour writes me hopefully of getting our fifty thousand
+dollars from Congress. The proposition has been originated in the House
+of Representatives, referred to the committee of claims, the chairman
+of which has prepared a very favorable report, and a bill conformable,
+assuming the repayment of all interest which the State has actually
+paid. The legislature will certainly owe to us the recovery of this
+money; for had they not given it in some measure the reverenced
+character of a donation for the promotion of learning, it would never
+have been paid. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the displeasure
+incurred by wringing it from them at the last session, will now give
+way to a contrary feeling, and even place us on a ground of some merit.
+Should this sentiment take place, and the arrival of our Professors, and
+filling our dormitories with students on the 1st of February, encourage
+them to look more favorably towards us, perhaps it might dispose them to
+enlarge somewhat their order on the same fund. You observe the Proctor
+has stated in a letter accompanying our Report, that it will take about
+twenty-five thousand dollars more than we have to finish the Rotunda.
+Besides this, an Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our
+hotels, say about five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school
+of Anatomy. There cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre
+is prepared, giving an advantageous view of the operation to those
+within, and effectually excluding observation from without. Either the
+additional sums, therefore, of twenty-five thousand and five thousand
+dollars will be wanting, or we must be permitted to appropriate a part
+of the fifty thousand to a theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for
+the present. Yet I should think neither of these objects an equivalent
+for renewing the displeasure of the legislature. Unless we can carry
+their hearty patronage with us, the institution can never flourish.
+I would not, therefore, hint at this additional aid, unless it were
+agreeable to our friends generally, and tolerably sure of being carried
+without irritation.
+
+In your letter of December the 31st, you say my �hand-writing and my
+letters have great effect there,� i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my
+dear Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to
+me. But my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from
+the administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that
+I retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in
+office had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation,
+and with acquiescence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have
+embarked so earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition
+of my native State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have
+strengthened good dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within
+our own. The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many
+personal views, and so much ignorance, and I have been considered as
+so particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of
+sentiment towards myself. I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied
+with myself a respectable minority, if not a majority of the House of
+Delegates. I feel it deeply, and very discouragingly. Yet I shall not
+give way. I have ever found in my progress through life, that, acting
+for the public, if we do always what is right, the approbation denied in
+the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from posterity we
+are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are making for their
+service, of time, quiet, and good will. And I fear not the appeal. The
+multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from ignorance, who
+will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of character, and
+station they will be able to attain from the result of our efforts, will
+insure their remembering us with gratitude. We will not, then, be �weary
+in well-doing.� _Usque ad aras amicus tuus_,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXV.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH.
+
+This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be
+in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
+excellent father has requested that I would address to you something
+which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life
+you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that
+course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your
+part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor
+as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true.
+Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life, into which you
+have entered, be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And
+if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world,
+every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.
+
+Monticello, February 21, 1825.
+
+
+_The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, for your
+imitation_.
+
+     Lord, who�s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
+     Not stranger-like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
+     �Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
+     Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart
+          disproves.
+     Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor�s fame to wound;
+     Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
+     Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
+     And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
+     Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
+     And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
+     Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
+     Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
+     The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
+     When earth�s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured.
+
+A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.
+
+1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
+
+2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
+
+3. Never spend your money before you have it.
+
+4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear
+to you.
+
+5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
+
+6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
+
+7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
+
+8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
+
+9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
+
+10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, December 24, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have for sometime considered the question of internal improvement as
+desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so strongly in favor
+of it as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even the opposition in
+Congress will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless something can be
+done which may give a gleam of encouragement to our friends, or alarm
+their opponents in their fancied security. I learn from Richmond, that
+those who think with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not
+knowing what to do, or what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative,
+particularly, has written to me in very desponding terms, not disposed
+to yield, indeed, but pressing for opinions and advice on the subject.
+I have no doubt you are pressed in the same way, and I hope you have
+devised and recommended something to them. If you have, stop here and
+read no more, but consider all that follows as _non avenue_. I shall
+be better satisfied to adopt implicitly any thing which you may have
+advised, than any thing occurring to myself. For I have long ceased
+to think on subjects of this kind, and pay little attention to public
+proceedings. But if you have done nothing in it, then I risk for your
+consideration what has occurred to me, and is expressed in the enclosed
+paper. Bailey�s propositions, which came to hand since I wrote the
+paper, and which I suppose to have come from the President himself, show
+a little hesitation in the purposes of his party; and in that state of
+mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest, by its effect on
+the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this moment may be
+accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate sacrifice. I say
+nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The following heads of
+consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
+
+It may intimidate the wavering. It may break the western coalition,
+by offering the same thing in a different form. It will be viewed with
+favor in contrast with the Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening
+that. It will be an example of a temperate mode of opposition in future
+and similar cases. It will delay the measure a year at least. It will
+give us the chance of better times and of intervening accidents; and in
+no way place us in a worse than our present situation. I do not dwell on
+these topics; your mind will develope them.
+
+The first question is, whether you approve of doing any thing of the
+kind. If not, send it back to me, and it shall be suppressed; for I
+would not hazard so important a measure against your opinion, nor even
+without its support. If you think it may be a canvass on which to put
+something good, make what alterations you please, and I will forward it
+to Gordon, under the most sacred injunctions that it shall be so used as
+that not a shadow of suspicion shall fall on you or myself, that it
+has come from either of us. But what you do, do as promptly as your
+convenience will admit, lest it should be anticipated by something
+worse. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+_The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on
+the Principles of the Constitution of the United, States of America, and
+on the Violations of them_.
+
+We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf and in the name of the
+people thereof, do declare as follows.
+
+The States in North America which confederated to establish their
+independence on the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
+one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and, as
+such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such
+form as it thought best.
+
+They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the
+United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single
+government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
+nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified.
+They retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of
+independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
+
+For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint,
+in conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each,
+severally and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each
+for itself, a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, also, for administering the domestic branch of their
+respective governments.
+
+These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute
+thus a whole of government, for each State separately; the powers
+ascribed to the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over
+the whole, the residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable
+exclusively over its particular State, foreign herein, each to the
+others, as they were before the original compact.
+
+To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
+Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
+opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either set
+of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
+
+But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others,
+a right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
+indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this Assembly
+does declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
+branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions
+of it.
+
+They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
+construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
+within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
+several States, which this Assembly does declare has not been given to
+that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State
+among its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself and
+by its domestic authorities alone.
+
+This Assembly does further disavow, and declare to be most false and
+unfounded, the doctrine, that the compact, in authorizing its federal
+branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay
+the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
+United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may
+think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction
+would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation
+of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they
+might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by
+the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and
+by no others.
+
+Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States,
+by not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering
+their condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that
+purpose; since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to
+that branch those which belong to its department, and to the States have
+reserved separately the residue which belong to them separately: and
+thus by the organization of the two branches taken together, have
+completely secured the first object of human association, the full
+improvement of their condition, and reserved to themselves all the
+faculties of multiplying their own blessings.
+
+Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
+States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State
+will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
+disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
+themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
+of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
+themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
+resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
+possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
+difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
+indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
+could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
+submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the
+hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
+forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
+therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly,
+prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the
+federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much,
+under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them
+also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us
+all. In the mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate
+from them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government
+of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our
+federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
+perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable
+of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and
+securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and
+peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice
+shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair
+but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform
+its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and
+restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are
+the objects of this Declaration and Protest.
+
+Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of
+its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals
+should be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more
+likely to be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the
+independent action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from
+respect to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its
+co-States, will consent, in concurrence with them, to make this
+addition, provided it be done regularly by an amendment of the compact,
+in the way established by that instrument, and provided also, it be
+sufficiently guarded against abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices,
+not only of possible, but of probable occurrence.
+
+And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
+Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented
+to by the compact called �The Constitution of the United States of
+America,� (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its
+language, to the common intendment of the time, and of those who framed
+it;) to give also to all parties and authorities, time for reflection
+and for consideration, whether, under a temperate view of the possible
+consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions which an
+equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the
+assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the free will
+of their constituents; and to preserve peace in the mean while, we
+proceed to make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature shall
+otherwise and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts of
+the federal branch of our government which we have declared to be
+usurpations, and against which, in point of right, we do protest as null
+and void, and never to be quoted as precedents of right.
+
+We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
+Virginia, that all citizens of this Commonwealth, and persons and
+authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to
+the acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the
+object of which shall be the construction of post-roads, making canals
+of navigation, and maintaining the same, in any part of the United
+States, in like manner as if the said acts were, _totidem verbis_,
+passed by the legislature of this Commonwealth.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 25, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th was received four days ago. It found me engaged
+in what I could not lay aside till this day.
+
+Far advanced in my eighty-third year, worn down with infirmities which
+have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight
+months past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for
+transactions so far back as that which is the subject of your letter.
+My memory is indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can
+probably be given you than by my solemn protestation, that I have not
+the least recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams
+and myself, in what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the
+slightest trace of it remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the
+exactitude of the statement in your letter. And the less, as I recollect
+the interview with Mr. Adams, to which the previous communications which
+had passed between him and yourself were probably and naturally the
+preliminary. That interview I remember well; not indeed in the very
+words which passed between us, but in their substance, which was of a
+character too awful, too deeply engraved in my mind, and influencing too
+materially the course I had to pursue, ever to be forgotten. Mr. Adams
+called on me pending the embargo, and while endeavors were making to
+obtain its repeal. He made some apologies for the call, on the ground of
+our not being then in the habit of confidential communications, but that
+that which he had then to make, involved too seriously the interest of
+our country not to overrule all other considerations with him, and make
+it his duty to reveal it to myself particularly. I assured him there was
+no occasion for any apology for his visit; that, on the contrary,
+his communications would be thankfully received, and would add a
+confirmation the more to my entire confidence in the rectitude
+and patriotism of his conduct and principles. He spoke then of the
+dissatisfaction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the
+restraints of the embargo then existing, and their restlessness
+under it. That there was nothing which might not be attempted, to rid
+themselves of it. That he had information of the most unquestionable
+certainty, that certain citizens of the Eastern States (I think he
+named Massachusetts particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the
+British government, the object of which was an agreement that the New
+England States should take no further part in the war then going on;
+that, without formally declaring their separation from the Union of the
+States, they should withdraw from all aid and obedience to them,
+that their navigation and commerce should be free from restraint and
+interruption by the British; that they should be considered and treated
+by them as neutrals, and as such might conduct themselves towards both
+parties; and, at the close of the war, be at liberty to rejoin the
+confederacy. He assured me that there was imminent danger that the
+convention would take place; that the temptations were such as might
+debauch many from their fidelity to the Union; and that, to enable
+its friends to make head against it, the repeal of the embargo was
+absolutely necessary. I expressed a just sense of the merit of this
+information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the safety
+and even the salvation of our country: and however reluctant I was to
+abandon the measure (a measure which persevered in a little longer, we
+had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object
+completely), from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw
+the necessity of abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by
+this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then
+recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the
+embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in
+which they could procure a general concurrence.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be
+in the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the
+impression remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are
+too transient and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But
+the substance was too important to be forgotten, not only from the
+revolution of measures it obliged me to adopt, but also from the
+renewals of it in my memory on the frequent occasions I have had of
+doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating this proof of his fidelity to
+his country, and of his superiority over all ordinary considerations
+when the safety of that was brought into question.
+
+With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept
+assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 26, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will be free to make what
+use you please. This will contain matters not intended for the public
+eye. I see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid
+strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing
+towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the
+consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that
+too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their
+power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines
+of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact
+acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too
+evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in
+combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the
+powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions,
+foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume
+indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it
+regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry,
+and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the
+other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to establish
+post-roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the
+construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little
+sophistry on the words �general welfare,� a right to do, not only the
+acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted,
+but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general
+welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the
+constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue
+with the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by
+ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from incorrect views
+of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together,
+to outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or
+three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand
+to our arms, with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last
+resource, not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings.
+If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at
+once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last
+one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with our
+brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection and
+experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by
+the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the
+sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or
+submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between these
+two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation. But
+in the mean while, the States should be watchful to note every material
+usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most
+peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present
+submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents
+of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their
+accumulation shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still
+further, and give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the
+constitution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication
+between the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in
+Congress (log-rolling, &c.), by declaring that the federal proportion
+of each State of the monies so employed, shall be in works within
+the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due _salvo_ of
+jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and best as yet.
+You ask my opinion of the propriety of giving publicity to what is
+stated in your letter, as having passed between Mr. John Q. Adams and
+yourself. Of this no one can judge but yourself. It is one of those
+questions which belong to the forum of feeling. This alone can decide
+on the degree of confidence implied in the disclosure; whether under no
+circumstances it was to be communicated to others. It does not seem to
+be of that character, or at all to wear that aspect. They are historical
+facts, which belong to the present, as well as future times. I
+doubt whether a single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear
+conviction to it, of the correctness of our knowledge of the treasonable
+views of the federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the
+most nefarious and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the
+Hartford Convention was a subsequent chapter: and both of these having
+failed, consolidation becomes the first chapter of the next book of
+their history. But this opens with a vast accession of strength from
+their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or
+principles of �76, now look to a single and splendid government of an
+aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations
+under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures,
+commerce, and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman
+and beggared yeomanry. This will be to them a next best blessing to the
+monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping-stone to
+it.
+
+I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving well, and
+that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is one of three
+or four whom I can hear of in the State. We were obliged the last
+year to receive shameful Latinists into the classical school of the
+University; such as we will certainly refuse as soon as we can get from
+better schools a sufficiency of those properly instructed to form a
+class. We must get rid of this Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous
+confusion of long and short syllables, which renders doubtful whether we
+are listening to a reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our
+University has been most fortunate in the five Professors procured from
+England. A finer selection could not have been made. Besides their
+being of a grade of science which has left little superior behind, the
+correctness of their moral character, their accommodating dispositions,
+and zeal for the prosperity of the institution, leave us nothing more
+to wish. I verily believe that as high a degree of, education can now be
+obtained here, as in the country they left. And a finer set of youths I
+never saw assembled for instruction. They committed some irregularities
+at first, until they learned the lawful length of their tether; since
+which it has never been transgressed in the smallest degree. A great
+proportion of them are severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say,
+that within twelve or fifteen years from this time, a majority of the
+rulers of our State will have been educated here. They shall carry hence
+the correct principles of our day, and you may count assuredly that they
+will exhibit their country in a degree of sound respectability it has
+never known, either in our days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot
+live to see it. My joy must only be that of anticipation. But that you
+may see it in full fruition, is the probable consequence of the twenty
+years I am ahead of you in time, and is the sincere prayer of your
+affectionate and constant friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIX.--TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+
+
+TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of December the 31st, and fear, with
+you, all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political
+horizon so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped
+to be very distant, the free principles of our government might change,
+with the change of circumstances, was to be expected. But I certainly
+did not expect that they would not over-live the generation which
+established them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite
+western country was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever
+and fondly cherished the interests of that country, relying on it as a
+barrier against the degeneracy of public opinion from our original and
+free principles. But the bait of local interests, artfully prepared
+for their palate, has decoyed them from their kindred attachments,
+to alliances alien to them. Yet, although I have little hope that the
+torrent of consolidation can be withstood, I should not be for giving up
+the ship without efforts to save her. She lived well through the first
+squall, and may weather the present one. But, Dear Sir, I am not the
+champion called for by our present dangers; _Non tali auxilio, nee
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.� A waning body, a waning mind,
+and waning memory, with habitual ill health, warn me to withdraw and
+relinquish the arena to younger and abler athletes. I am sensible
+myself, if others are not, that this is my duty. If my distant friends
+know it not, those around me can inform them that they should not, in
+friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing only the decays
+which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and injuring the
+common cause by a senile and puny defence.
+
+I will, however, say one word on the subject. The South Carolina
+resolutions, Van Buren�s motion, and above all Bailey�s propositions,
+show that other States are coming forward on the subject, and better for
+any one to take the lead than Virginia, where opposition is considered
+as common-place, and a mere matter of form and habit. We shall see what
+our co-States propose, and before the close of the session we may shape
+our own course more understandingly.
+
+Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXC.--TO [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826
+
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 15th is received, and I am entirely
+sensible of the kindness of the motives which suggested the caution it
+recommended. But I believe what I have done is the only thing I could
+have done with honor or conscience. Mr. Giles requested me to state a
+fact which he knew himself, and of which he knew me to be possessed.
+What use he intended to make of it I knew not, nor had I a right to
+inquire, or to indicate any suspicion that he would make an unfair one.
+That was his concern, not mine, and his character was sufficient to
+sustain the responsibility for it. I knew, too, that if an uncandid use
+should be made of it, there would be found those who would so prove it.
+Independent of the terms of intimate friendship on which Mr. Giles and
+myself have ever lived together, the world�s respect entitled him to
+the justice of my testimony to any truth he might call for; and how that
+testimony should connect me with whatever he may do or write hereafter,
+and with his whole career, as you apprehend, is not understood by me.
+With his personal controversies I have nothing to do. I never took any
+part in them, or in those of any other person. Add to this, that the
+statement I have given him on the subject of Mr. Adams, is entirely
+honorable to him in every sentiment and fact it contains. There is not
+a word in it which I would wish to recall. It is one which Mr. Adams
+himself might willingly quote, did he need to quote any thing. It was
+simply, that during the continuance of the embargo, Mr. Adams informed
+me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had
+for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. That Mr.
+Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and
+confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his
+patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when
+the safety of his country was endangered. Nor have I kept this honorable
+fact to myself. During the late canvass, particularly, I had more
+than one occasion to quote it to persons who were expressing opinions
+respecting him, of which this was a direct corrective. I have never
+entertained for Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and
+if we have not thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted
+the honesty of his opinions, of which the letter in question, if
+published, will be an additional proof. Still, I recognise your
+friendship in suggesting a review of it, and am glad of this, as of
+every other occasion, of repeating to you the assurance of my constant
+attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCI.--TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, February 17,1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of
+Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the
+University and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to
+stop every thing on hand which could be done without, and to employ all
+his force and funds in finishing the circular room for the books, and
+the Anatomical theatre. These cannot be done without; and for these
+and all our debts, we have funds enough. But I think it prudent then to
+clear the decks thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and what we
+may accomplish further. In the mean time, there have arrived for us in
+different ports of the United States, ten boxes of books, from Paris,
+seven from London, and from Germany I know not how many; in all,
+perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not one of these can be opened until
+the book-room is completely finished, and all the shelves ready to
+receive their charge directly from the boxes, as they shall be opened.
+This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definitive of the three thousand
+dollars duty of which we are asking the remission from Congress. In the
+selection of our Law Professor, we must be rigorously attentive to his
+political principles. You will recollect, that, before the Revolution,
+Coke Littleton was the universal elementary book of law students, and
+a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox
+doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English
+liberties. You remember also that our lawyers were then all whigs. But
+when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of
+fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone became the students�
+hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of our
+Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the young brood
+of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, indeed, to be
+whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or republicanism means.
+It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be kept alive; it is
+thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister States. If we
+are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty years
+a majority of our own legislature will be from our school, and many
+disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their
+several States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. New York has
+taken strong ground in vindication of the constitution; South Carolina
+had already done the same. Although I was against our leading, I am
+equally against omitting to follow in the same line, and backing them
+firmly; and i hope that yourself or some other will mark out the track
+to be pursued by us.
+
+You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the
+legislature, which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had
+become considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of
+property, which would have been little felt, when our friend ---- gave
+me the coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred
+dollars a year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing
+so much of my annual income, as that the maintenance of my family was
+making deep and rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it.
+Still, sales at a fair price would leave me competently provided. Had
+crops and prices for several years been such as to maintain a steady
+competition of substantial bidders at market, all would have been safe.
+But the long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices,
+the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the
+support of manufacturers, &c, with the calamitous fluctuations of
+value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject
+depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking
+up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land-market, while it drew off
+its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character
+of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days
+of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the
+acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than
+from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter or one fifth of its former
+price. Reflecting on these things, the practice occurred to me, of
+selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to
+before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still in constant usage
+in every State for individual as well as corporation purposes. If it is
+permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the mills, he, will pay
+every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If refused, I must
+sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bedford, move thither
+with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into, and
+whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations which,
+under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property. The
+question then with me was, _Utrum horum?_ But why afflict you with
+these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by
+communication with a friend. The friendship which has subsisted between
+us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and
+pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that
+long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the
+University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a
+comfort to leave that institution under your care, and an assurance
+that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to
+believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we
+have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings
+of self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If
+ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a
+single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those
+committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach,
+it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself you have
+been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be
+assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
+     because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
+     led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
+     his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
+     character.]
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
+
+
+It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is
+chance? Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the
+cause, we do not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was
+produced by chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up,
+we know the cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever
+side an unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is
+the effect of chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our
+knowledge or ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side
+of an unloaded die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of
+betting on it, immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then
+every pursuit of human industry is immoral, for there is not a single
+one that is not subject to chance; not one wherein you do not risk a
+loss for the chance of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks
+his ship in the hope (if she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an
+advantageous freight. The merchant risks his cargo to gain a better
+price for it. A landholder builds a house on the risk of indemnifying
+himself by a rent. The hunter hazards his time and trouble in the hope
+of killing game. In all these pursuits, you stake some one thing against
+another which you hope to win. But the greatest of all gamblers is the
+farmer. He risks the seed he puts into the ground, the rent he pays for
+the ground itself, the year�s labor on it, and the wear and tear of his
+cattle and gear, to win a crop, which the chances of too much or too
+little rain, and general uncertainties of weather, insects, waste, &c.
+often make a total or partial loss. These, then, are games of chance.
+Yet so far from being immoral, they are indispensable to the existence
+of man, and every one has a natural right to choose for his pursuit such
+one of them as he thinks most likely to furnish him subsistence. Almost
+all these pursuits of chance produce something useful to society. But
+there are some which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the
+individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are
+games with cards, dice, billiards, &c. And although the pursuit of them
+is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiving the irresistible
+bent of some of its members to pursue them, and the ruin produced by
+them to the families depending on these individuals, consider it as a
+case of insanity, _quoad hoc_, step in to protect the family and the
+party himself, as in other cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c,
+and suppress the pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following
+it. There are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions,
+and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are
+insurances, lotteries, raffles, &tc. These they do not suppress, but
+take their regulation under their own discretion. The insurance of
+ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to
+exercise it therefore is left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful
+debts, the continuance of a particular life, and similar cases. Money is
+wanting for an useful undertaking, as a school, &c. for which a direct
+tax would be disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein
+the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can
+risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility
+of a higher prize. An article of property, insusceptible of division at
+all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so
+large value as that no purchaser can be found, while the owner owes
+debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance
+of obtaining it, but by its sale at a full and fair price. The lottery
+is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small
+risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great
+estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his
+debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would
+have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value,
+and sacrificed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have
+lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very much resorted
+to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The
+legislature Were therefore induced, not to suppress it altogether, but
+to take it under their own special regulation. This they did, for the
+first time, by their act of 1769, c.17., before which time, every person
+exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful
+but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.
+
+Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised
+only under the discretion of the legislature. Let us examine the
+purposes for which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond
+the date of our independence.
+
+1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
+
+1813. c. 1. � 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and
+c. 2. � 10.
+
+1814. Dec. c. 1. � 3. 1814. Feb. c. 1. � 3. 1818. c. 1. � 1. 1819. c. 1.
+1820. c. 1.
+
+This then is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral,
+of which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the
+regular means of supporting the government: the tax on the vender of
+tickets was their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent,
+his could not be criminal.
+
+2. It has been abundantly permitted, to raise money by lottery for the
+purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery
+has been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
+fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied.
+So that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
+received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only, in the form of prizes,
+the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their
+own consent. Examples are.
+
+1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise �2000 for a
+grammar school.
+
+1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, �1000.
+
+1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, �500. c. 74. For the Fredericksburg
+Academy, �4000.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Transylvania Seminary, �500. For the Southampton
+Academy, �300.
+
+1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy.
+
+1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. c� 50. For finishing
+the Strasburg Seminary. c. 58. For William and Mary College. c. 62. For
+the Bannister Academy.c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. c. 82. For the
+Petersburg Academy.
+
+1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. c. 76. For the Stevensburg
+Academy. c.100. For William and Mary College.
+
+1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy.
+
+1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for $30,000
+annually, for seven years.
+
+1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000. Norfolk Female Society,
+$2000. Lancastrian School, $6000.
+
+
+3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth, �400.
+
+1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
+
+1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
+
+1805. c. 42. For a toll-bridge over Cheat River.
+
+1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
+
+
+4. For roads.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, �200. For cutting a road from
+Rockfish gap to Scott�s and Nicholas�s landing, �400. 1796. c. 85. To
+repair certain roads.
+
+1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger�s and Ashby�s gaps. c. 61.
+For opening a road to Brock�s gap. c. 65. For opening a road from the
+town of Monroe to Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
+
+* The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
+
+1803. c. 71. For improving the road to Brock�s gap.
+
+1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg. c. 26. For opening a
+road from Monongalia Glades to Fishing Creek.
+
+1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton�s gap.
+
+
+5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
+
+1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah. c. 84.
+To authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
+
+
+6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
+
+1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not limited.
+
+1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, �1500.
+
+1790. c. 46. do. do. �5000. 1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries
+authorized., c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
+
+1803. c. 12. Woodstock, a lottery authorized c. 48. Fredericksburg,
+for improving its main street. c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its
+streets.
+
+
+7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
+
+1785. c.lll. Completing a church in Winchester. For rebuilding a church
+in the parish of Elizabeth River.
+
+1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
+
+1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, �200. in Halifax,
+�200. in Alexandria, �500. in Petersburg, �750. in Shepherdstown, �250.
+
+
+8. Lotteries for private societies.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, �1000.
+
+1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason�s hall in Charlotte, �750.
+
+
+9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money for
+them.]
+
+1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
+
+1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd�s lottery.
+
+1790. c. 46. To erect a paper-mill in Staunton, �300. To raise �2000 for
+Nathaniel Twining.
+
+1791. c. 13. To raise �4000 for William Tatham, to enable him to
+complete his geographical work. To enable---------to complete a literary
+work.*
+
+* I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been
+able to find it again. But there is such an one.
+
+
+We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
+influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
+admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account, man
+could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural
+right to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
+subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
+productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
+life, others again, such as cards, dice, &ic, are entirely unproductive,
+doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so seducing in
+practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they cannot
+resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in this
+case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &c, it is the duty of
+society to take them under its protection, even against their own acts,
+and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by suppressing
+them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries particularly, which,
+although liable to chance also, are useful for many purposes, and are
+therefore retained and placed under the discretion of the legislature,
+to be permitted or refused according to the circumstances of every
+special case, of which they are to judge: that between the years 1782
+and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed seventy
+case�s, where the permission of them has been found useful by the
+legislature, some of which are in progress at this time. These cases
+relate to the emolument of the whole State, to local benefits of
+education, of navigation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious
+assemblies, private societies, and of individuals under particular
+circumstances which may claim indulgence or favor. The latter is the
+case now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether the
+individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may merit
+that degree of consideration, which will justify the legislature in
+permitting him to avail himself of the mode of selling by lottery, for
+the purpose of paying his debts.
+
+That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and
+in the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known.
+Lands in this State will not now sell for more than a third or fourth of
+what they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time
+of the contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold.
+The low price in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of
+agricultural produce, of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and
+the accumulation of duties on the articles of consumption not produced
+within our State, not only disable the farmer or planter from adding to
+his farm by purchase, but reduce him to sell his own, and remove to the
+western country, glutting the market he leave�s, while he lessens the
+number of bidders. To be protected against this sacrifice is the object
+of the present application, and whether the applicant has any particular
+claim to this protection, is the present question.
+
+Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
+may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
+have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
+of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election
+following I became one of its representatives in the legislature.
+
+I was thence sent to the old Congress.
+
+Then employed two years, with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the
+revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British
+statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
+
+Then elected Governor.
+
+Next to the legislature, and to Congress again.
+
+Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
+
+Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
+
+Elected Vice President, and
+
+President.
+
+And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University.
+
+In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I
+have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far
+greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every
+one knows how inevitably a Virginia estate, goes to ruin, when the owner
+is so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and
+the more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character
+to abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary
+to good, and even to saving management.
+
+If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
+rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
+legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from
+the Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant�s
+Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
+most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion
+of my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal
+principles and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams.
+Their usurpations and violations of the constitution at that period, and
+their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided,
+and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch,
+without being able in the least to check their career, the republican
+leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless
+efforts there, go home, get into their respective legislatures, embody
+whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to
+perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving
+Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the
+Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts,
+and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings and insults by which they
+endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in
+phalanx together, until the legislatures could be brought up to the
+charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if myself
+particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the
+republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post, the republicans
+throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause
+would have been lost for ever. By holding on, we obtained time for the
+legislatures to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia
+and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by their
+celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution, at its last gasp. No
+person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can
+form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we
+had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people
+were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture,
+and other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into
+apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain
+itself.
+
+If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of
+liberality and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws
+in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they
+will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were
+prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported,
+indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House,
+very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as
+leaders.
+
+The prohibition of the further importation of slaves, was the first of
+these measures in time.
+
+This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
+hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
+masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
+into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
+
+But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
+the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish
+the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
+inheritance to sons and daughters which made a part of the revised code.
+
+The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made
+by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries
+for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year,
+and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill
+for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised
+code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the
+efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that
+work was brought forward.
+
+To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of
+our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time,
+as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
+Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me
+the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of
+the general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this
+institution on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country,
+can as yet be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated
+youths, which it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all
+its offices with men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its
+humble state to an eminence among its associates which it has never yet
+known; no, not in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified
+to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State;
+and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind
+encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the
+shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient
+habits. Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable
+happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science
+beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the
+same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be
+kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal affections
+which, nourished by the same alma mater, will knit us to them by the
+indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The good Old Dominion,
+the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her head with pride among
+the nations, will present to them that splendor of genius which she
+has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncultivated
+and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the States whose
+youths she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted.
+
+I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
+whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
+pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And
+what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask
+nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow-citizens. I wish no
+man�s comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the
+services rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
+satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed
+on. My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely
+to pay my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not
+to have it gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves,
+leaving unpaid those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself
+without resource in the last and most helpless stage of life. If
+permitted to sell it in a way which will bring me a fair price, all will
+be honestly and honorably paid, and a competence left for myself, and
+for those who look to me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will
+offend no moral principle, and expose none to risk but the willing, and
+those wishing to be permitted to take the chance of gain. To give me, in
+short, that permission which you often allow to others for purposes not
+more moral.
+
+Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
+precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent
+bring their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case,
+devoted three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to
+the service of their country? Have the times of those services been as
+trying as those which have embraced our Revolution, our transition from
+a colonial to a free structure of government? Have the stations of their
+trial been of equal importance? Has the share they have borne in holding
+their new government to its genuine principles, been equally marked?
+And has the cause of the distress, against which they seek a remedy,
+proceeded, not merely from themselves, but from errors of the public
+authorities, disordering the circulating medium, over which they had
+no control, and which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by
+reducing, in that proportion, the value of the property which was to pay
+them? If all these circumstances, which characterize the present case,
+have taken place in theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured,
+the cases will be so rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to
+settle into an injurious habit. The single feature of a sixty years�
+service, as no other instance of it has yet occurred in our country, so
+it probably never may again. And should it occur, even once and again,
+it will not impoverish your treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and
+asks but a simple permission, by an act of natural right, to do one of
+moral justice.
+
+In the �Thoughts on Lotteries,� the following paper is referred to. It
+is here copied to spare the trouble of seeking for the-book.
+
+
+_Farewell Address To Th: Jefferson, President Of The United States_.
+
+[Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.]
+
+Sir, The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their
+session, without acknowledging your services in the office which you are
+just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate
+farewell.
+
+We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on
+the purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
+patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
+officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that �a national debt is a
+national blessing,� renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of
+our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions
+of acres of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or
+calamities of conquest, a vast and, fertile region added to our country,
+far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with
+it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the
+Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source
+of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
+administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand,
+and teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our
+peace with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
+difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate
+aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
+them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that
+we have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and
+awing them into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the
+historic genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the
+press, preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given
+to man in vain.
+
+In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
+only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
+which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
+first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
+until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
+uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment
+to liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her
+rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
+
+How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
+deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
+rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
+country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
+veneration of your countrymen.
+
+That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
+useful; that our youth may see, in the blissful close of your days, an
+additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout
+and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General
+Assembly of Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCII.--TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, March 30, 1826
+
+
+TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, March 30, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of
+which you have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my
+recollections as to the particular passage of the message to which you
+ask my attention. On the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of
+their right to assume independence, would not condescend to ask its
+acknowledgment from other nations, yet were willing, by some of the
+ordinary international transactions, to receive what would imply that
+acknowledgment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose
+treaties of commerce to the principal nations of Europe. I was then
+a member of Congress, was of the committee appointed to prepare
+instructions for the commissioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman
+of those actually agreed to, and was joined with your father and Doctor
+Franklin to carry them into execution. But the stipulations making
+part of these instructions, which respected privateering, blockades,
+contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions
+of mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor Franklin, in some
+of his papers in possession of the public, and had I think, been
+recommended in some letter of his to Congress I happen only to have
+been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the formal
+sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our treaties,
+containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of Europe.
+But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the
+nations had as yet known nothing of us and had not yet reflected on the
+relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of
+them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve;
+old Frederic alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of
+Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did
+not ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible,
+however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers,
+we thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those
+of less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing
+any other negotiation. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty
+with us, and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce
+with her being no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these
+governments been then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy
+among nations, all, I believe, would have met us promptly and with
+frankness. These principles would then have been established with all,
+and from being the conventional law with us alone, would have slid into
+their engagements with one another, and become general. These are
+the facts within my recollection. They have not yet got into written
+history; but their adoption by our southern brethren will bring them
+into observance, and make them, what they should be, a part of the law
+of the world and of the reformation of principles for which they will be
+indebted to us. I pray you to accept the homage of my friendly and high
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCIII.--TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826
+
+TO MR. WEIGHTMAN.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1826.
+
+Respected Sir,
+
+The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of
+the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration
+on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the
+surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the
+fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the
+honorable accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It
+adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a
+personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence
+is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted
+to control. I should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and
+exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the
+remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in
+the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between
+submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory
+fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and
+prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the
+world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later,
+but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains
+under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them
+to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of
+self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free
+right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All
+eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread
+of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable
+truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on
+their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
+legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others.
+For ourselves, let the annual return of this day for ever refresh our
+recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
+
+I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I
+should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and
+its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
+intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
+public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections,
+as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the
+gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself,
+and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and
+friendly attachments.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+
+
+ANA.--EXPLANATION OF THE THREE VOLUMES BOUND IN MARBLED PAPER
+
+
+_Explanation of the Three Volumes bound in Marbled Paper_.*
+
+In these three volumes will be found copies of the official opinions
+given in writing by me to General Washington, while I was Secretary of
+State, with sometimes the documents belonging to the case. Some of
+these are the rough draughts, some press copies, some fair ones. In the
+earlier part of my acting in that office, I took no other note of the
+passing transactions; but after a while, I saw the importance of doing
+it in aid of my memory. Very often, therefore, I made memorandums on
+loose scraps of paper, taken out of my pocket in the moment, and laid
+by to be copied fair at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were.
+These scraps, therefore, ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they were, I
+had bound with the others by a binder, who came into my cabinet, did it
+under my own eye, and without the opportunity of reading a single paper.
+At this day, after the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their
+dates, I have given to the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of
+the time are passed away, and the reasons of the transactions act alone
+on the judgment. Some of the informations I had recorded, are now cut
+out from the rest, because I have seen that they were incorrect, or
+doubtful, or merely personal or private, with which we have nothing to
+do. I should perhaps have thought the rest not worth preserving, but for
+their testimony against the only history of that period, which pretends
+to have been compiled from authentic and unpublished documents.
+
+*****
+
+[* These are the volumes containing the Ana to the time that the Author
+retired from the office of Secretary of State. The official opinions
+and documents referred to, being very voluminous, are for the most part
+omitted, to make room for the conversations which the same volumes
+comprise.]
+
+
+But a short review of facts ***** will show, that the contests of that
+day were contests of principle between the advocates of republican,
+and those of kingly government, and that, had not the former made the
+efforts they did, our government would have been even at this early day,
+a very different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts
+have made it.
+
+The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation,
+for the purpose of joint defence against the aggressions of Great
+Britain, was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are,
+to enforce compliance with their mutual stipulations; and these, once
+fulfilled, that bond was to expire of itself, and each State to become
+sovereign and independent in all things. Yet, it could not but occur to
+every one, that these separate independencies, like the petty States of
+Greece, would be eternally at war with each other, and would become
+at length the mere partisans and satellites of the leading powers of
+Europe. All, then, must have looked forward to some further bond of
+union, which would insure internal peace, and a political system of our
+own, independent of that of Europe. Whether all should be consolidated
+into a single government, or each remain independent as to internal
+matters, and the whole form a single nation as to what was foreign only,
+and whether that national government should be a monarchy or republic,
+would of course divide opinions, according to the constitutions, the
+habits, and the circumstances of each individual. Some officers of the
+army, as it has always been said and believed, (and Steuben and Knox
+have ever been named as the leading agents,) trained to monarchy by
+military habits, are understood to have proposed to General Washington,
+to decide this great question by the army before its disbandment, and
+to assume himself the crown, on the assurance of their support.
+The indignity with which he is said to have scouted this parricide
+proposition, was equally worthy of his virtue and wisdom. The next
+effort was, (on suggestion of the same individuals, in the moment of
+their separation,) the establishment of an hereditary order, under
+the name of the Cincinnati, ready prepared by that distinction to be
+engrafted into the future frame of government, and placing General
+Washington still at their head. The General wrote to me on this subject,
+while I was in Congress at Annapolis, and an extract from my letter is
+inserted in 5th Marshall�s History, page 28. He afterwards called on me
+at that place, on his way to a meeting of the society, and after a whole
+evening of consultation, he left that place fully determined to use
+all his endeavors for its total suppression. But he found it so firmly
+riveted in the affections of the members, that, strengthened as they
+happened to be by an adventitious occurrence of the moment, he could
+effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary principle. He called
+again on his return, and explained to me fully the opposition which had
+been made, the effect of the occurrence from France, and the difficulty
+with which its duration had been limited to the lives of the present
+members. Further details will be found among my papers, in his and
+my letters, and some in the _Encyclop�dic M�thodique et Dictionnaire
+d�Economic Politique_, communicated by myself to M. Meusnier, its
+author, who had made the establishment of this society the ground, in
+that work, of a libel on our country.
+
+The want of some authority which should procure justice to the public
+creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced,
+some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis.
+Although, at this meeting, a difference of opinion was evident on the
+question of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general through
+the States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends
+of the latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and
+delay, to every thing proposed; they hoped, that nothing being done,
+and all things going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be
+usurped, and submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy and
+wars, internal and external, the certain consequences of the present
+want of a general government. The effect of their manoeuvres, with
+the defective attendance of Deputies from the States, resulted in
+the measure of calling a more general convention, to be held at
+Philadelphia. At this the same party exhibited the same practices, and
+with the same views of preventing a government of concord, which they
+foresaw would be republican, and of forcing: through anarchy their way
+to monarchy. But the mass of that convention was too honest, too wise,
+and too steady, to be baffled and misled by their manoeuvres. One of
+these was a form of government proposed by Colonel Hamilton, which would
+have been in fact a compromise between the two parties of royalism and
+republicanism. According to this, the executive and one branch of the
+legislature were to be during good behavior, i.e. for life, and the
+governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent organs.
+This, however, was rejected; on which Hamilton left the convention, as
+desperate, and never returned again until near its final conclusion.
+These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed, of the advocates for
+monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the States generally;
+and this jealousy it was, which excited the strong opposition to the
+conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at last only to
+a general determination to establish certain amendments, as barriers
+against a government either monarchical or consolidated. In what passed
+through the whole period of these conventions, I have gone on the
+information of those who were members of them, being absent myself on my
+mission to France.
+
+I returned from that mission in the first year of the new government,
+having landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to New York
+in March, 1790, to enter on the office of Secretary of State.
+Here, certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had ever
+contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the first
+year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for
+reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be
+heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The
+President received me cordially, and my colleagues and the circle
+of principal citizens, apparently with welcome. The courtesies of
+dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived among them, placed
+me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the wonder
+and mortification with which the table conversations filled me. Politics
+were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government, was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could
+not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself, for the most part, the
+only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among
+the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the
+legislative Houses. Hamilton�s financial system had then passed. It
+had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and
+inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the legislature: for he
+avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one of two motives
+only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this country, was out of
+the question, and the interests, therefore, of the members must be laid
+hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the executive. And with
+grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine was not without
+effect; that even in this, the birth of our government, some members
+were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to their interests, and to
+look after personal rather than public good.
+
+It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
+encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
+fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
+necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
+paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
+individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
+States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
+them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of
+their value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the
+holders, by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they
+would never be paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton
+made no difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent
+purchasers of this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting
+these two classes of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions
+were used to pay the former the full value, and to the latter, the price
+only which they had paid, with interest. But this would have prevented
+the game which was to be played, and for which the minds of greedy
+members were already tutored and prepared. When the trial of strength,
+on these several efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would
+finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and
+especially, than to those who were in distant parts of the Union,
+the base scramble began. Couriers and relay-horses by land, and
+swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in all directions. Active
+partners and agents were associated and employed in every State,
+town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up at five
+shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the
+holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
+par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
+fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough
+before. Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of
+course the chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous
+instruments of all his enterprises.
+
+This game was over, and another was on the carpet at the moment of my
+arrival; and to this I was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold
+the candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known by the name of the
+Assumption. Independently of the debts of Congress, the States had,
+during the war, contracted separate and heavy debts; and Massachusetts
+particularly, in an absurd attempt, absurdly conducted, on the British
+post of Penobscot: and the more debt Hamilton could rake up, the more
+plunder for his mercenaries. This money, whether wisely or foolishly
+spent, was pretended to have been spent for general purposes, and ought,
+therefore, to be paid from the general purse. But it was objected, that
+nobody knew what these debts were, what their amount, or what their
+proofs. No matter; we will guess them to be twenty millions. But of
+these twenty millions, we do not know how much should be reimbursed
+to one State, or how much to another. No matter; we will guess. And so
+another scramble was set on foot among the several States, and some got
+much, some little, some nothing. But the main object was obtained, the
+phalanx of the Treasury was reinforced by additional recruits. This
+measure produced the most bitter and angry contests ever known in
+Congress, before or since the Union of the States. I arrived in the
+midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to the actors on
+it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity with the subject,
+and as yet unaware of its object, I took no concern in it. The great and
+trying question, however, was lost in the House of Representatives.
+So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on its rejection
+business was suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day to day
+without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of temper to
+do business together. The eastern members particularly, who, with
+Smith from South Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes,
+threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I
+was going to the President�s one day, I met him in the street. He walked
+me backwards and forwards before the President�s door for half an hour.
+He painted pathetically the temper into which the legislature had been
+wrought; the disgust of those who were called the creditor States; the
+danger of the secession of their members, and the separation of the
+States. He observed that the members of the administration ought to act
+in concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet a
+common duty should make it a common concern; that the President was the
+centre on which all administrative questions ultimately rested, and
+that all of us should rally around him, and support, with joint efforts,
+measures approved by him; and that the question having been lost by
+a small majority only, it was probable that an appeal from me to the
+judgment and discretion of some of my friends, might effect a change in
+the vote, and the machine of government, now suspended, might be again
+set into motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole
+subject; that not having yet informed myself of the system of finance
+adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; that
+undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our Union at
+this incipient stage, I should deem that the most unfortunate of all
+consequences, to avert which all partial and temporary evils should be
+yielded. I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next day, and I
+would invite another friend or two, bring them into conference together,
+and I thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting together
+coolly, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a
+compromise which was to save the Union. The discussion took place.
+I could take no part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a
+stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally
+agreed, that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of
+this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord among the
+States was more important, and that therefore it would be better that
+the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which, some members
+should change their votes. But it was observed that this pill would
+be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some concomitant
+measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them. There had
+before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
+Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought
+that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown
+permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree
+the ferment which might be excited by the other measure alone. So two
+of the Potomac members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of
+stomach almost convulsive,) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton
+undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence he had
+established over the eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris
+with those of the middle States, effected his side of the engagement;
+and so the Assumption was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided
+among favored States, and thrown in as a pabulum to the stock-jobbing
+herd. This added to the number of votaries to the Treasury, and made its
+chief the master of every vote in the legislature, which might give to
+the government the direction suited to his political views.
+
+I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing like a majority in
+Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a division,
+not very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part of that
+body, between the parties styled republican and federal. The latter
+being monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton of course, as their
+leader in that principle, and this mercenary phalanx added to them,
+insured him always a majority in both Houses: so that the whole action
+of the legislature was now under the direction of the Treasury. Still
+the machine was not complete. The effect of the funding system, and of
+the Assumption, would be temporary; it would be lost with the loss
+of the individual members whom it had enriched, and some engine of
+influence more permanent must be contrived, while these myrmidons were
+yet in place to carry it through all opposition. This engine was the
+Bank of the United States. All that history is known, so I shall say
+nothing about it. While the government remained at Philadelphia, a
+selection of members of both Houses were constantly kept as directors,
+who, on every question interesting to that institution, or to the views
+of the federal head, voted at the will of that head; and, together with
+the stock-holding members, could always make the federal vote that of
+the majority. By this combination, legislative expositions were given
+to the constitution, and all the administrative laws were shaped on
+the model of England and so passed. And from this influence we were
+not relieved, until the removal from the precincts of the bank, to
+Washington. Here then was the real ground of the opposition which was
+made to the course of administration. Its object was to preserve the
+legislature pure and independent of the executive, to restrain, the
+administration to republican forms and principles, and not permit the
+constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be warped, in
+practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their favorite
+English model. Nor was this an opposition to General Washington. He
+was true to the republican charge confided to him; and has solemnly and
+repeatedly protested to me, in our conversations, that he would lose the
+last drop of his blood in support of it; and he did this the oftener and
+with the more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions of Hamilton�s
+designs against it, and wished to quiet them. For he was not aware of
+the drift, or of the effect of Hamilton�s schemes. Unversed in financial
+projects and calculations and budgets, his approbation of them was
+bottomed on his confidence in the man.
+
+But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
+corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, for the truth
+of which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on
+his southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth
+of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury,
+and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise
+during his absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested
+that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only
+occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a
+cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited
+those gentlemen (and the Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to
+dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was
+removed, and our question agreed and dismissed, conversation began
+on other matters, and, by some circumstance, was led to the British
+constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, �Purge that constitution
+of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of
+representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever
+devised by the wit of man.� Hamilton paused and said, �Purge it of its
+corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation,
+and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at
+present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect
+government which ever existed.� And this was assuredly the exact line
+which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
+for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one: the other, for
+an hereditary King, with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted to his
+will, and standing between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a
+singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and
+honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly
+valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the
+British example, as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was
+essential to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally been
+a republican. The glare of royalty and nobility, during his mission to
+England, had made him believe their fascination a necessary ingredient
+in government; and Shays�s rebellion, not sufficiently understood where
+he then was, seemed to prove that the absence of want and oppression,
+was not a sufficient guarantee of order. His book on the American
+Constitutions having made known his political bias, he was taken up by
+the monarchical federalists in his absence, and, on his return to
+the United States, he was by them made to believe that the general
+disposition of our citizens was favorable to monarchy. He here wrote
+his Davila, as a supplement to the former work, and his election to
+the Presidency confirmed him in his errors. Innumerable addresses too,
+artfully and industriously poured in upon him, deceived him into a
+confidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity, when the gulph was
+yawning at his feet, which was to swallow up him and his deceivers. For
+when General Washington was withdrawn, these _energumeni_ of royalism,
+kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his
+patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on the car of
+State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun, drove
+headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding
+any thing but the objects they were driving at; until, displaying these
+fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disbandment of
+them from the public councils took place.
+
+Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the treacheries
+with which he was surrounded during his administration. He has since
+thoroughly seen, that his constituents were devoted to republican
+government, and whether his judgment is resettled on its ancient basis,
+or not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the will of the majority,
+and would now, I am persuaded, maintain its republican structure with
+the zeal and fidelity belonging to his character. For even an enemy has
+said, �He is always an honest man, and often a great one.� But in
+the fervor of the fury and follies of those who made him their
+stalking-horse, no man who did not witness it can form an idea of
+their unbridled madness, and the terrorism with which they surrounded
+themselves. The horrors of the French revolution, then raging, aided
+them mainly, and using that as a raw-head and bloody-bones, they were
+enabled by their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in which ------ was a leading
+mountebank, their tales of tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody-buoys, and
+pulpit-lyings and slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardiners,
+their Osgoods, and Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the firmest
+breasts. Their Attorney General had the impudence to say to a republican
+member, that deportation must be resorted to, of which, said he, �you
+republicans have set the example�; thus daring to identify us with the
+murderous Jacobins of France. These transactions, now recollected but
+as dreams of the night, were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us
+from their liberticide effect, but the unyielding opposition of those
+firm spirits who sternly maintained their post in defiance of terror,
+until their fellow-citizens could be aroused to their own danger, and
+rally and rescue the standard of the constitution. This has been happily
+done. Federalism and monarchism have languished from that moment, until
+their treasonable combinations with the enemies of their country during
+the late war, their plots of dismembering the Union, and their Hartford
+Convention, have consigned them to the tomb of the dead: and I fondly
+hope, �we may now truly say, We are all republicans, all federalists,�
+and that the motto of the standard to which our country will for ever
+rally, will be, �Federal union, and republican government�: and sure I
+am we may say, that we are indebted for the preservation of this point
+of ralliance, to that opposition of which so injurious an idea is so
+artfully insinuated and excited in this history.
+
+Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate
+proofs of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they
+end, of my retiring from the administration, the federalists * got
+unchecked hold of General Washington. His memory was already sensibly
+impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable,
+was beginning to relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor,
+a desire for tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let
+others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he
+was disgusted with atrocities of the French revolution, and was not
+sufficiently aware of the difference between the rabble who were used as
+instruments of their perpetration, and the steady and rational character
+of the American people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The
+opposition too of the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous
+support of the federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of
+theirs, had made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I
+disapproved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by
+a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he
+had become alienated from myself personally, as from the republican body
+generally of his fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams
+and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we
+must for ever weep as monuments of mortal decay.
+
+Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.
+
+* See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,
+
+
+****
+
+
+August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander
+Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter
+received from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
+entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive,
+or introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &c. See his
+letter. Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams�s writings, and
+most particularly Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present
+government, declared in substance as follows: �I own it is my own
+opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the
+present government is not that which will answer the ends of society, by
+giving stability and protection to its rights, and that it will probably
+be found expedient to go into the British form. However, since we have
+undertaken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my
+expectations may be. The success, indeed, so far, is greater than I had
+expected, and therefore, at present, success seems more possible than
+it had done heretofore, and there are still other and other stages of
+improvement, which, if the present does not succeed, may be tried, and
+ought to be tried, before we give up the republican form altogether; for
+that mind must be really depraved, which would not prefer the equality
+of political rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if
+it can be obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever by his
+writings disturbs the present order of things, is really blameable,
+however pure his intentions may be, and he was sure Mr. Adams�s were
+pure.� This is the substance of a declaration made in much more lengthy
+terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for a private
+conversation between two, and as if intended to qualify some less
+guarded expressions which had been dropped on former occasions. Th:
+Jefferson has committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton�s
+leaving the room.
+
+December the 25th, 1791. Colonel Gunn (of Georgia), dining the other day
+with Colonel Hamilton, said to him, with that plain freedom he is known
+to use, �I wish, Sir, you would advise your friend King to observe some
+kind of consistency in his votes. There has been scarcely a question
+before the Senate on which he has not voted both ways. On the
+representation bill, for instance, he first voted for the proposition
+of the Representatives, and ultimately voted against it.� �Why,� says
+Colonel Hamilton, �I �ll tell you as to that, Colonel Gunn, that it
+never was intended that bill should pass.� Gunn told this to Butler, who
+told it to Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+*****
+
+
+CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT.
+
+February the 28th, 1792. I was to have been with him long enough before
+three o�clock (which was the hour and day he received visits) to
+have opened to him a proposition for doubling the velocity of the
+post-riders, who now travel about fifty miles a day, and might, without
+difficulty, go one hundred, and for taking measures (by way-bills) to
+know where the delay is, when there is any. I was delayed by business,
+so as to have scarcely time to give him the outlines. I run over them
+rapidly, and observed afterwards, that I had hitherto never spoken
+to him on the subject of the post-office, not knowing whether it was
+considered as a revenue law, or a law for the general accommodation of
+the citizens: that the law just passed seemed to have removed the doubt,
+by declaring that the whole profits of the office should be applied to
+extending the posts, and that even the past profits should be refunded
+by the Treasury for the same purpose: that I therefore conceived it was
+now in the department of the Secretary of State: that I thought it would
+be advantageous so to declare it for another reason, to wit, that the
+department of the Treasury possessed already such an influence as
+to swallow up the whole executive powers, and that even the future
+Presidents (not supported by the weight of character which himself
+possessed) would not be able to make head against this department. That
+in urging this measure I had certainly no personal interest, since, if
+I was supposed to have any appetite for power, yet, as my career would
+certainly be exactly as short as his own, the intervening time was too
+short to be an object. My real wish was to avail the public of every
+occasion, during the residue of the President�s period, to place things
+on a safe footing. He was now called on to attend his company, and he
+desired me to come and breakfast with him the next morning.
+
+February the 29th. I did so; and after breakfast we retired to his
+room, and I unfolded my plan for the post-office, and after such
+an approbation of it as he usually permitted himself on the first
+presentment of any idea, and desiring me to commit it to writing, he,
+during that pause of conversation which follows a business closed, said,
+in an affectionate tone, that he had felt much concern at an expression
+which dropped from me yesterday, and which marked my intention of
+retiring when he should. That as to himself, many motives obliged him to
+it. He had, through the whole course of the war, and most particularly
+at the close of it, uniformly declared his resolution to retire from
+public affairs, and never to act in any public office; that he had
+retired under that firm resolution: that the government however, which
+had been formed, being found evidently too inefficacious, and it being
+supposed that his aid was of some consequence towards bringing the
+people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for their own good, he
+consented to come into the convention, and on the same motive, after
+much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get it under
+way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say, that
+having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them: that
+he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his
+memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of
+his mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself;
+that this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found,
+moreover, his activity lessened, business therefore more irksome,
+and tranquillity and retirement become an irresistible passion. That,
+however he felt himself obliged, for these reasons, to retire from the
+government, yet he should consider it as unfortunate, if that should
+bring on the retirement of the great officers of the government,
+and that this might produce a shock on the public mind of dangerous
+consequence.
+
+I told him that no man had ever had less desire of entering into public
+offices than myself; that the circumstance of a perilous war, which
+brought every thing into danger, and called for all the services
+which every citizen could render, had induced me to undertake the
+administration of the government of Virginia; that I had both before
+and after refused repeated appointments of Congress to go abroad in that
+sort of office, which, if I had consulted my own gratification, would
+always have been the most agreeable to me; that at the end of two
+years, I resigned the government of Virginia, and retired with a firm
+resolution never more to appear in public life; that a domestic loss,
+however, happened, and made me fancy that absence and a change of
+scene for a time might be expedient for me; that I therefore accepted
+a foreign appointment, limited to two years; that at the close of that,
+Doctor Franklin having left France, I was appointed to supply his place,
+which I had accepted, and though I continued in it three or four years,
+it was under the constant idea of remaining only a year or two longer;
+that the revolution in France coming on, I had so interested myself
+in the event of that, that when obliged to bring my family home, I had
+still an idea of returning and awaiting the close of that, to fix the
+era of my final retirement; that on my arrival here I found he had
+appointed me to my present office; that he knew I had not come into
+it without some reluctance; that it was, on my part, a sacrifice of
+inclination to the opinion that I might be more serviceable here than
+in France, and with a firm resolution in my mind, to indulge my constant
+wish for retirement at no very distant day; that when, therefore, I had
+received his letter, written from Mount Vernon, on his way to Carolina
+and Georgia (April the 1st, 1791), and discovered, from an expression
+in that, that he meant to retire from the government ere long, and as to
+the precise epoch there could be no doubt, my mind was immediately made
+up, to make that the epoch of my own retirement from those labors of
+which I was heartily tired. That, however, I did not believe there was
+any idea in either of my brethren in the administration of retiring;
+that on the contrary, I had perceived at a late meeting of the trustees
+of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury had developed
+the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in its view.
+
+He said, that he considered the Treasury department as a much more
+limited one, going only to the single object of revenue, while that
+of the Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the objects of
+administration, was much more important, and the retirement of the
+officer therefore, would be more noticed: that though the government had
+set out with a pretty general good will of the public, yet that symptoms
+of dissatisfaction had lately shown themselves far beyond what he could
+have expected, and to what height these might arise, in case of too
+great a change in the administration, could not be foreseen.
+
+I told him that in my opinion, there was only a single source of these
+discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to spread themselves over
+the War department also, yet I considered that as an overflowing only
+from their real channel, which would never have taken place, if they
+had not first been generated in another department, to wit, that of
+the Treasury. That a system had there been contrived, for deluging the
+States with paper-money instead of gold and silver, for withdrawing our
+citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and
+other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves and their
+capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which
+had introduced its poison into the government itself. That it was a
+fact, as certainly known as that he and I were then conversing, that
+particular members of the legislature, while those laws were on the
+carpet, had feathered their nests with paper, had then voted for the
+laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of their talents, and
+instrumentality of their offices, to the establishment and enlargement
+of this system; that they had chained it about our necks for a great
+length of time, and in order to keep the game in their hands, had, from
+time to time, aided in making such legislative constructions of the
+constitution, as made it a very different thing from what the people
+thought they had submitted to; that they had now brought forward a
+proposition far beyond every one ever yet advanced, and to which the
+eyes of many were turned, as the decision which was to let us know,
+whether we live under a limited or an unlimited government. He asked
+me to what proposition I alluded; I answered, to that in the report
+on manufactures, which, under color of giving bounties for the
+encouragement of particular manufactures, meant to establish the
+doctrine, that the power given by the constitution to collect taxes to
+provide for the general welfare of the United States, permitted Congress
+to take every thing under their management which they should deem for
+the public welfare, and which is susceptible of the application of
+money; consequently, that the subsequent enumeration of their powers
+was not the description to which resort must be had, and did not at all
+constitute the limits of their authority: that this was a very different
+question from that of the bank, which was thought an incident to an
+enumerated power: that, therefore, this decision was expected with
+great anxiety; that, indeed, I hoped the proposition would be rejected,
+believing there was a majority in both Houses against it, and that if it
+should be, it would be considered as a proof that things were returning
+into their true channel: and that, at any rate, I looked forward to the
+broad representation which would shortly take place, for keeping the
+general constitution on its true ground; and that this would remove a
+great deal of the discontent which had shown itself. The conversation
+ended with this last topic. It is here stated nearly as much at length
+as it really was; the expressions preserved where I could recollect
+them, and their substance always faithfully stated.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+March 1, 1792.
+
+
+On the 2nd of January, 1792, Messrs. Fitzsimmons and Gerry (among
+others) dined with me. These two staid, with a Mr. Learned of
+Connecticut, after the company was gone. We got on the subject of
+references by the legislature to the Heads of departments, considering
+their mischief in every direction. Gerry and Fitzsimmons clearly opposed
+to them.
+
+Two days afterwards (January the 4th), Mr. Bourne from Rhode Island
+presented a memorial from his State, complaining of inequality in the
+Assumption, and moved to refer it to the Secretary of the Treasury.
+Fitzsimmons, Gerry, and others opposed it; but it was carried.
+
+
+January the 19th. Fitzsimmons moved, that the President of the United
+States be requested to direct the Secretary of the Treasury, to lay
+before the House information to enable the legislature to judge of
+the additional revenue necessary on the increase of the military
+establishment. The House, on debate, struck out the words, �President of
+the United States.�
+
+
+March the 7th. The subject resumed. An animated debate took place on the
+tendency of references to the Heads of departments; and it seemed that
+a great majority would be against it: the House adjourned. Treasury
+greatly alarmed, and much industry supposed to be used before next
+morning, when it was brought on again, and debated through the day, and
+on the question, the Treasury carried it by thirty-one to twenty-seven:
+but deeply wounded, since it was seen that all Pennsylvania, except
+Jacobs, voted against the reference; that Tucker of South Carolina voted
+for it, and Sumpter absented himself, debauched for the moment only,
+because of the connection of the question with a further assumption
+which South Carolina favored; but showing that they never were to be
+counted on among the Treasury votes.
+
+Some others absented themselves. Gerry changed sides. On the whole, it
+showed that Treasury influence was tottering. Committed to writing this
+10th of March, 1792.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Consulted verbally by the President, on whom a
+committee of the Senate (Izard, Morris, and King) are to wait to-morrow
+morning, to know whether he will think it proper to redeem our Algerine
+captives, and make a treaty with the Algerines, on the single vote of
+the Senate, without taking that of the Representatives.
+
+My opinions run on the following heads.
+
+We must go to Algiers with cash in our hands. Where shall we get it? By
+loan? By converting money now in the treasury?
+
+Probably a loan might be obtained on the President�s authority: but as
+this could not be repaid without a subsequent act of legislature,
+the Representatives might refuse it. So if money in the treasury be
+converted, they may refuse to sanction it.
+
+The subsequent approbation of the Senate being necessary to validate a
+treaty, they expect to be consulted beforehand, if the case admits.
+
+So the subsequent act of the Representatives being necessary where money
+is given, why should not they expect to be consulted in like manner,
+when the case admits? A treaty is a law of the land. But prudence will
+point out this difference to be attended to in making them; viz. where
+a treaty contains such articles only as will go into execution of
+themselves, or be carried into execution by the judges, they may be
+safely made; but where there are articles which require a law to be
+passed afterwards by the legislature, great caution is requisite.
+
+For example; the consular convention with France required a very small
+legislative regulation. This convention was unanimously ratified by the
+Senate. Yet the same identical men threw by the law to enforce it at
+the last session, and the Representatives at this session have placed it
+among the laws which they may take up or not, at their own convenience,
+as if that was a higher motive than the public faith.
+
+Therefore, against hazarding this transaction without the sanction of
+both Houses.
+
+The President concurred. The Senate express the motive for this
+proposition, to be a fear that the Representatives would not keep the
+secret. He has no opinion of the secrecy of the Senate. In this very
+case, Mr. Izard made the communication to him, sitting next to him at
+table, on one hand, while a lady (Mrs. McLane) was on his other hand,
+and the French minister next to her; and as Mr. Izard got on with his
+communication, his voice kept rising, and his stutter bolting the words
+out loudly at intervals, so that the minister might hear if he would. He
+said he had a great mind at one time to have got up, in order to put a
+stop to Mr. Izard.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Mr. Sterret tells me that sitting round a fire the
+other day with four or five others, Mr. Smith (of South Carolina) was
+one. Somebody mentioned that the murderers of Hogeboom, sheriff of
+Columbia county, New York, were acquitted. �Ay,� says Smith, �this is
+what comes of your damned trial by jury.�
+
+
+1791. Towards the latter end of November, Hamilton had drawn Ternant
+into a conversation on the subject of the treaty of commerce recommended
+by the National Assembly of France to be negotiated with us, and, as
+he had no ready instructions on the subject, he led him into a proposal
+that Ternant should take the thing up as a volunteer with me, that we
+should arrange conditions, and let them go for confirmation or refusal.
+Hamilton communicated this to the President, who came into it, and
+proposed it to me. I disapproved of it, observing, that such a volunteer
+project would be binding on us, and not them; that it would enable them
+to find out how far we would go, and avail themselves of it. However,
+the President thought it worth trying, and I acquiesced. I prepared a
+plan of treaty for exchanging the privileges of native subjects, and
+fixing all duties for ever as they now stood. Hamilton did not like this
+way of fixing the duties, because, he said, many articles here would
+bear to be raised, and therefore, he would prepare a tariff. He did so,
+raising duties for the French, from twenty-five to fifty per cent. So
+they were to give us the privileges of native subjects, and we, as a
+compensation, were to make them pay higher duties. Hamilton, having made
+his arrangements with Hammond to pretend that though he had no powers to
+conclude a treaty of commerce, yet his general commission authorized him
+to enter into the discussion of one, then proposed to the President at
+one of our meetings, that the business should be taken up with Hammond
+in the same informal way. I now discovered the trap which he had laid,
+by first getting the President into the step with Ternant. I opposed
+the thing warmly. Hamilton observed, if we did it with Ternant we should
+also with Hammond. The President thought this reasonable. I desired him
+to recollect, I had been against it with Ternant, and only acquiesced
+under his opinion. So the matter went off as to both. His scheme
+evidently was, to get us engaged first with Ternant, merely that he
+might have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with Hammond,
+taking care, at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, to render
+it impossible we should come to any conclusion with Ternant: probably
+meaning, at the same time, to propose terms so favorable to Great
+Britain, as would attach us to that country by treaty. On one of those
+occasions he asserted, that our commerce with Great Britain and her
+colonies was put on a much more favorable footing than with France and
+her colonies. I therefore prepared the tabular comparative view of the
+footing-of our commerce with those nations, which see among my papers.
+See also my project of a treaty and Hamilton�s tariff. Committed to
+writing March the 11th, 1792.
+
+It was observable, that whenever, at any of our consultations, any
+thing was proposed as to Great Britain, Hamilton had constantly ready
+something which Mr. Hammond had communicated to him, which suited the
+subject and proved the intimacy of their communications; insomuch, that
+I believe he communicated to Hammond all our views, and knew from
+him, in return, the views of the British court. Many evidences of this
+occurred; I will state some. I delivered to the President my report of
+instructions for Carmichael and Short, on the subject of navigation,
+boundary, and commerce, and desired him to submit it to Hamilton.
+Hamilton made several just criticisms on different parts of it. But
+where I asserted that the United States had no right to alienate an inch
+of the territory of any State, he attacked and denied the doctrine.
+See my report, his note, and my answer. A few days after came to hand
+Kirkland�s letter, informing us that the British, at Niagara, expected
+to run a new line between themselves and us; and the reports of Pond
+and Stedman, informing us it was understood at Niagara, that Captain
+Stevenson had been sent here by Simcoe to settle that plan with Hammond.
+Hence Hamilton�s attack of the principle I had laid down, in order to
+prepare the way for this new line. See minute of March the 9th. Another
+proof. At one of our consultations, about the last of December, I
+mentioned that I wished to give in my report on commerce, in which I
+could not avoid recommending a commercial retaliation against Great
+Britain. Hamilton opposed it violently: and among other arguments,
+observed, that it was of more importance to us to have the posts than to
+commence a commercial war; that this, and this alone, would free us from
+the expense of the Indian wars; that it would therefore be the height
+of imprudence in us, while treating for the surrender of the posts, to
+engage in any thing which would irritate them; that if we did so, they
+would naturally say, �These people mean war; let us therefore hold what
+we have in our hands.� This argument, struck me forcibly, and I
+said, �If there is a hope of obtaining the posts, I agree it would
+be imprudent to risk that hope by a commercial retaliation. I will,
+therefore, wait till Mr. Hammond gives me in his assignment of breaches,
+and if that gives a glimmering of hope that they mean to surrender the
+posts, I will not give in my report till the next session.� Now, Hammond
+had received my assignment of breaches on the 15th of December, and
+about the 22nd or 23rd had made me an apology for not having been able
+to send me his counter-assignment of breaches; but in terms which showed
+I might expect it in a few days. From the moment it escaped my lips
+in the presence of Hamilton, that I would not give in my report till I
+should see Hammond�s counter-complaint, and judge if there was a hope
+of the posts, Hammond never said a word to me on any occasion, as to the
+time he should be ready. At length the President got out of patience,
+and insisted I should jog him. This I did on the 21st of February, at
+the President�s assembly: he immediately promised I should have it in a
+few days, and accordingly, on the 5th of March I received it.
+
+Written March the 11th, 1792.
+
+
+March the 12th, 1792. Sent for by the President, and desired to bring
+the letter he had signed to the King of France. Went. He said the House
+of Representatives had, on Saturday, taken up the communication he had
+made of the King�s letter to him, and come to a vote in their own name;
+that he did not expect this when he sent this message and the letter,
+otherwise he would have sent the message without the letter, as I had
+proposed. That he apprehended the legislature would be endeavoring
+to invade the executive. I told him, I had understood the House had
+resolved to request him to join their congratulations to his on the
+completion and acceptance of the constitution; on which part of the
+vote, there were only two dissentients (Barnwell and Benson); that
+the vote was thirty-five to sixteen on the part which expressed an
+approbation of the wisdom of the constitution; that in the letter he had
+signed, I had avoided saying a word in approbation of the constitution,
+not knowing whether the King, in his heart, approved it. �Why, indeed,�
+says he,� I begin to doubt very much of the affairs of France; there are
+papers from London as late as the 10th of January, which represent them
+as going into confusion. He read over the letter he had signed,
+found there was not a word which could commit his judgment about the
+constitution, and gave it to me back again. This is one of many proofs
+I have had, of his want of confidence in the event of the French
+revolution. The fact is, that Gouverneur Morris, a highflying monarchy
+man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against his
+wishes, and believing every thing he desires to be true, has kept the
+President�s mind constantly poisoned with his forebodings. That the
+President wishes the revolution may be established, I believe from
+several indications. I remember, when I received the news of the King�s
+flight and capture, I first told him of it at his assembly. I never saw
+him so much dejected by any event in my life. He expressed clearly, on
+this occasion, his disapprobation of the legislature referring things to
+the Heads of departments.
+
+Written March the 12th.
+
+Eodem die. Ten o�clock, A. M. The preceding was about nine o�clock. The
+President now sends Lear to me, to ask what answer he shall give to
+the committee, and particularly, whether he shall add to it, that, �in
+making the communication, it was not his expectation that the House
+should give any answer.� I told Mr. Lear, that I thought the House had
+a right, independently of legislation, to express sentiments on other
+subjects. That when these subjects did not belong to any other branch
+particularly, they would publish them by their own authority; that in
+the present case, which respected a foreign nation, the President being
+the organ of our nation with other nations, the House would satisfy
+their duty, if, instead of a direct communication, they should pass
+their sentiments through the President: that if expressing a sentiment
+were really an invasion of the executive power, it was so faint a one,
+that it would be difficult to demonstrate it to the public, and to a
+public partial to the French revolution, and not disposed to considered
+the approbation of it from any quarter is improper. That the Senate,
+indeed, had given many indications of their wish to invade the executive
+power: the Representatives had done it in one case, which was indeed
+mischievous and alarming; that of giving orders to the Heads of the
+executive departments, without consulting the President; but that the
+late vote for directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report ways and
+means, though carried, was carried by so small a majority, and with the
+aid of members so notoriously under local influence on that question,
+as to give a hope that the practice would be arrested, and the
+constitutional course be taken up, of asking the President to have
+information laid before them. But that in the present instance, it was
+so far from being clearly an invasion of the executive, and would be
+so little approved by the general voice, that I could not advise the
+President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the House; and I
+gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers. See it.
+
+
+March the 31st. A meeting at the President�s; present, Thomas Jefferson,
+Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was
+the resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to
+appoint a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the
+late expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call
+for such persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist
+their inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original
+letters, instructions, &tc. The President had called us to consult,
+merely because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as
+it should become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
+acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the
+House were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted
+with subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be
+papers of so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We
+were not prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.
+
+
+April the 2nd. Met again at the President�s, on the same subject. We
+had all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was
+an inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it
+might call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
+communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought
+to refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
+consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
+committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
+and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
+should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the
+President. We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons
+in the case of Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler�s Debates. For the first
+point, seepages 161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153,
+173,207; for the third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page
+246. Note: Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the
+power of the House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that
+as to his department, the act constituting it had made it subject to
+Congress, in some points, but he thought himself not so far subject, as
+to be obliged to produce all the papers they might call for. They might
+demand secrets of a very mischievous nature. [Here I thought he began
+to fear they would go to examining how far their own members and other
+persons in the government had been dabbling in stocks, banks, &c. and
+that he probably would choose in this case to deny their power; and,
+in short, he endeavored to place himself subject to the House, when
+the executive should propose what he did not like, and subject to the
+executive, when the House should propose any thing disagreeable.]
+I observed here a difference between the British parliament and our
+Congress; that the former was a legislature, an inquest, and a council
+(S. C. page 91.) for the King. The latter was, by the constitution, a
+legislature and an inquest, but not a council. Finally agreed, to speak
+separately to the members of the committee, and bring them by persuasion
+into the right channel. It was agreed in this case, that there was not
+a paper which might not be properly produced; that copies only should be
+sent, with an assurance, that if they should desire it, a clerk should
+attend with the originals to be verified by themselves. The committee
+were Fitzsimmons, Steele, Mercer, Clarke, Sedgwick, Giles, and Vining.
+
+
+April the 9th, 1792. The President had wished to redeem our captives at
+Algiers, and to make a peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The
+Senate were willing to approve this, but unwilling to have the lower
+House applied to previously to furnish the money; they wished the
+President to take the money from the treasury, or open a loan for it.
+They thought that to consult the Representatives on one occasion,
+would give them a handle always to claim it, and would let them into a
+participation of the power of making treaties, which the constitution
+had given exclusively to the President and Senate. They said, too, that
+if the particular sum was noted by the Representatives, it would not be
+a secret. The President had no confidence in the secrecy of the Senate,
+and did not choose to take money from the treasury or to borrow. But he
+agreed he would enter into provisional treaties with the Algerines,
+not to be binding on us till ratified here. I prepared questions for
+consultation with the Senate, and added, that the Senate were to be
+apprized, that on the return of the provisional treaty, and after they
+should advise the ratification, he would not have the seal put to it
+till the two Houses should vote the money. He asked me, if the treaty
+stipulating a sum and ratified by him, with the advice of the Senate,
+would not be good under the constitution, and obligatory on the
+Representatives to furnish the money. I answered, it certainly would,
+and that it would be the duty of the Representatives to raise the money;
+but that they might decline to do what was their duty, and I thought it
+might be incautious to commit himself by a ratification with a foreign
+nation, where he might be left in the lurch in the execution: it was
+possible too, to conceive a treaty, which it would not be their duty
+to provide for. He said that he did not like throwing too much into
+democratic hands, that if they would not do what the constitution called
+on them to do, the government would be at an end, and must then assume
+another form. He stopped here; and I kept silence to see whether
+he would say any thing more in the same line, or add any qualifying
+expression to soften what he had said: but he did neither. I had
+observed, that wherever the agency of either, or both Houses would be
+requisite subsequent to a treaty, to carry it into effect, it would be
+prudent to consult them previously, if the occasion admitted. That thus
+it was, we were in the habit of consulting the Senate previously, when
+the occasion permitted, because their subsequent ratification would be
+necessary. That there was the same reason for consulting the lower House
+previously, where they were to be called on afterwards, and especially
+in the case of money, as they held the purse-strings, and would be
+jealous of them. However, he desired me to strike out the intimation
+that the seal would not be put till both Houses should have voted the
+money.
+
+
+April the 6th. The President called on me before breakfast, and first
+introduced some other matter, then fell on the representation bill,
+which he had now in his possession for the tenth day. I had before given
+him my opinion in writing, that the method of apportionment was contrary
+to the constitution. He agreed that it was contrary to the common
+understanding of that instrument, and to what was understood at the time
+by the makers of it: that, yet it would bear the construction which the
+bill put, and he observed that the vote for and against the bill was
+perfectly geographical, a northern against a southern vote, and he
+feared he should be thought to be taking side with a southern party. I
+admitted the motive of delicacy, but that it should not induce him to
+do wrong: urged the dangers to which the scramble for the fractionary
+members would always lead. He here expressed his fear that there would,
+ere long, be a separation of the Union; that the public mind seemed
+dissatisfied and tending to this. He went home, sent for Randolph, the
+Attorney General, desired him to get Mr. Madison immediately and come
+to me, and if we three concurred in opinion that he should negative the
+bill, he desired to hear nothing more about it, but that we would draw
+the instrument for him to sign. They came. Our minds had been before
+made up.
+
+We drew the instrument. Randolph carried it to him, and told him we
+all concurred in it. He walked with him to the door, and as if he still
+wished to get off, he said, �And you say you approve of this yourself.�
+�Yes, Sir,� says Randolph, �I do upon my honor.� He sent it to the House
+of Representatives instantly. A few of the hottest friends of the bill
+expressed passion, but the majority were satisfied, and both in and
+out of doors it gave pleasure to have, at length, an instance of the
+negative being exercised.
+
+Written this the 9th of April.
+
+
+July the 10th, 1792. My letter of ---- to the President, directed to him
+at Mount Vernon, had not found him there, but came to him here. He told
+me of this, and that he would take an occasion of speaking with me on
+the subject. He did so this day. He began by observing that he had put
+it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit, his
+remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
+declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
+again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
+called on to come forward to set the present government in motion,
+it appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a
+change in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all
+would be well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years
+he found some things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he
+thought it was not worth while to disturb the course of things, as
+in one year more his office would expire, and he was decided then to
+retire. Now he was told there would still be danger in it. Certainly,
+if he thought so, he would conquer his longing for retirement. But he
+feared it would be said his former professions of retirement had been
+mere affectation, and that he was like other men, when once in office
+he could not quit it. He was sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing,
+perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it.
+That with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there
+we�re suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a
+great deal too far: there might be desires, but he did not believe there
+were designs to change the form of government into a monarchy: that
+there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life,
+particularly in the great cities; but that the main body of the people
+in the eastern States were as steadily for republicanism as in the
+southern. That the pieces lately published, and particularly in
+Freneau�s paper, seemed to have in view the exciting opposition to
+the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as to the
+excise-law, according to information he had received from General Hand.
+That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most dreadful
+of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy, tended,
+of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He considered
+those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool indeed to
+swallow the little sugar-plumbs here and there thrown out to him. That
+in condemning the administration of the government, they condemned
+him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to his
+sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or
+too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many
+acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put
+his name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That
+as to the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there
+was some infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be
+tolerated. He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat
+of government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and
+Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and
+happy. He wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the
+discontents were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the
+desire that he should remain in the government was not general.
+
+My observations to him tended principally to enforce the topics of my
+letter. I will not, therefore, repeat them, except where they produced
+observations from him. I said, that the two great complaints were, that
+the national debt was unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished
+the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature; that he must
+know, and every body knew, there was a considerable squadron in both,
+whose votes were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest, that
+the names of a weighty number were known, and several others suspected
+on good grounds. That on examining the votes of these men, they would
+be found uniformly for every Treasury measure, and that as most of these
+measures had been carried by small majorities, they were carried by
+these very votes. That, therefore, it was a cause of just uneasiness,
+when we saw a legislature legislating for their own interests, in
+opposition to those of the people. He said not a word on the corruption
+of the legislature, but took up the other point, defended the
+Assumption, and argued that it had not increased the debt, for that all
+of it was honest debt. He justified the excise-law, as one of the best
+laws which could be passed, as nobody would pay the tax who did not
+choose to do it. With respect to the increase of the debt by the
+Assumption, I observed to him, that what was meant and objected to was,
+that it increased the debt of the General Government, and carried
+it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the balances had been
+settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their deficiencies to
+the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and by resources of
+taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by a direct tax
+in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it would
+be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
+argument with him on those points.
+
+
+Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I
+had the following conversation with the President. He opened it by
+expressing his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in
+the letter I had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said,
+that he should be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he
+was in office, and that he could not see where he should find another
+character to fill my office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether
+to retire in March or not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it.
+Nobody disliked more the ceremonies of his office, and he had not the
+least taste or gratification in the execution of its functions. That he
+was happy at home alone, and that his presence there was now peculiarly
+called for by the situation of Major Washington, whom he thought
+irrecoverable, and should he get well, he would remove into another
+part of the country, which might better agree with him. That he did not
+believe his presence necessary; that there were other characters who
+would do the business as well or better. Still, however, if his aid was
+thought necessary to save the cause to which he had devoted his life
+principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer continuance. That
+he therefore reserved himself for future decision, as his declaration
+would be in time if made a month before the day of election. He had
+desired Mr. Lear to find out from conversation, without appearing to
+make the inquiry, whether any other person would be desired by any
+body. He had informed him, he judged from conversations that it was
+the universal desire he should continue, and he believed that those
+who expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language of
+apprehension, and not of desire. But this, says he, is only from the
+north; it may be very different in the south. I thought this meant as
+an opening to me to say what was the sentiment in the south, from which
+quarter I came. I told him, that as far as I knew, there was but one
+voice there, which was for his continuance. That as to myself, I had
+ever preferred the pursuits of private life to those of public,
+which had nothing in them agreeable to me. I explained to him the
+circumstances of the war which had first called me into public life, and
+those following the war, which had called me from a retirement on which
+I had determined. That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home,
+and could no longer refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his
+presence was important; that he was the only man in the United States
+who possessed the confidence of the whole; that government was founded
+in opinion and confidence, and that the longer he remained, the stronger
+would become the habits of the people in submitting to the government,
+and in thinking it a thing to be maintained; that there was no other
+person, who would be thought any thing more than the head of a party. He
+then expressed his concern at the difference which he found to subsist
+between the Secretary of the Treasury and myself, of which he said he
+had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that there was a marked difference
+in our political sentiments, but he had never suspected it had gone so
+far in producing a personal difference, and he wished he could be the
+mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it important to preserve
+the check of my opinions in the administration, in order to keep things
+in their proper channel, and prevent them from going too far. That as
+to the idea of transforming this government into a monarchy, he did
+not believe there were ten men in the United States whose opinions were
+worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him there were
+many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute at
+his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
+Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
+former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
+produce good magistrates as election. I told him, that though the
+people were sound, there were a numerous sect who had monarchy in
+contemplation; that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. That
+I had heard him say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of
+mere milk and water, which could not last, and was only good as a step
+to something better. That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in
+the convention, to make an English constitution of it, and when failing
+in that, we saw all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing,
+it was natural for us to be jealous; and particularly, when we saw that
+these measures had established corruption in the legislature, where
+there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever
+he had directed, and ready to do what he should direct. That if the
+equilibrium of the three great bodies, legislative, executive, and
+judiciary, could be preserved, if the legislature could be kept
+independent, I should never fear the result of such a government;
+but that I could not but be uneasy, when I saw that the executive had
+swallowed up the legislative branch. He said, that as to that interested
+spirit in the legislature, it was what could not be avoided in any
+government, unless we were to exclude particular descriptions of men,
+such as the holders of the funds, from all office. I told him, there was
+great difference between the little accidental schemes of self-interest,
+which would take place in every body of men, and influence their votes,
+and a regular system for forming a corps of interested persons, who
+should be steadily at the orders of the Treasury. He touched on the
+merits of the funding system, observed there was a difference of opinion
+about it, some thinking it very bad, others very good; that experience
+was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would
+decide which opinion was right. That for himself, he had seen our
+affairs desperate and our credit lost, and that this was in a sudden and
+extraordinary degree raised to the highest pitch. I told him, all that
+was ever necessary to establish our credit, was an efficient government
+and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay our debts, laying
+taxes for this purpose, and applying them to it. I avoided going further
+into the subject. He finished by another exhortation to me not to decide
+too positively on retirement, and here we were called to breakfast.
+
+
+October the 31st, 1792. I had sent to the President, Viar and Jaudenes�s
+letter of the 29th instant, whereupon he desired a consultation of
+Hamilton, Knox, E. Randolph, and myself, on these points. 1. What notice
+was to be taken hereof to Spain. 2. Whether it should make part of the
+communication to the legislature. I delivered my opinion, that it ought
+to be communicated to both Houses, because the communications intended
+to be made, being to bring on the question, whether they would declare
+war against any, and which of the nations or parts of the nations of
+Indians to the south, it would be proper this information should be
+before them, that they might know how far such a declaration would lead
+them. There might be some who would be for war against the Indians, if
+it were to stop there, but who would not be for it, if it were to lead
+to a war against Spain. I thought it should be laid before both Houses,
+because it concerned the question of declaring war, which was the
+function equally of both Houses. I thought a simple acknowledgment of
+the receipt of the letter should be made by me to the Spanish Charges,
+expressing that it contained some things very unexpected to us, but that
+we should refer the whole, as they had proposed, to the negotiators
+at Madrid. This would secure to us a continuation of the suspension
+of Indian hostilities, which the Governor of New Orleans said he had
+brought about till the result of the negotiation at Madrid should be
+known; would not commit us as to running or not running the line, or
+imply any admission of doubt about our tentorial right; and would avoid
+a rupture with Spain, which was much to be desired, while we had similar
+points to discuss with Great Britain. Hamilton declared himself the
+advocate for peace. War would derange our affairs greatly; throw us
+back many years in the march towards prosperity; be difficult for us to
+pursue, our countrymen not being disposed to become soldiers; a part
+of the Union feeling no interest in the war, would with difficulty be
+brought to exert itself; and we had no navy. He was for every thing
+which would procrastinate the event. A year, even, was a great gain to a
+nation strengthening as we were. It laid open to us, too, the chapter
+of accidents, which in the present state of Europe, was a very pregnant
+one. That while, however, he was for delaying the event of war, he had
+no doubt it was to take place between us for the object in question:
+that jealousy and perseverance were remarkable features in the character
+of the Spanish government, with respect to their American possessions;
+that so far from receding as to their claims against us, they had
+been strengthening themselves in them. He had no doubt the present
+communication was by authority from the court. Under this impression
+he thought we should be looking forward to the day of rupture, and
+preparing for it. That if we were unequal to the contest ourselves, it
+behoved us to provide allies for our aid. That in this view, but two
+nations could be named, France and England. France was too intimately
+connected with Spain in other points, and of too great mutual value,
+ever to separate for us. Her affairs too, were such, that whatever
+issue they had, she could not be in a situation to make a respectable
+mediation for us. England alone, then, remained. It would not be easy to
+effect it with her; however, he was for trying it, and for sounding them
+on the proposition of a defensive treaty of alliance. The inducements to
+such a treaty, on their part, might be, 1. The desire of breaking up our
+former connections, which we knew they had long wished. 2. A continuance
+of the statu quo in commerce for ten years, which he believed would
+be desirable to them. 3. An admission to some navigable part of the
+Mississippi, by some line drawn from the Lake of the Woods to such
+navigable part. He had not, he said, examined the map to see how such
+a line might be run, so as not to make too great a sacrifice. The
+navigation of the Mississippi being a joint possession, we might
+then take measures in concert for the joint security of it. He was,
+therefore, for immediately sounding them on this subject through our
+minister at London; yet so as to keep ourselves unengaged as long as
+possible, in hopes a favorable issue with Spain might be otherwise
+effected. But he was for sounding immediately, and for not letting slip
+an opportunity of securing our object.
+
+E. Randolph concurred, in general, with me. He objected that such a
+reliance could not be effected without pecuniary consideration probably,
+which he could not give. And what was to be their aid? If men, our
+citizens would see their armies get foothold in the United States, with
+great jealousy; it would be difficult to protect them. Even the French,
+during the distresses of the late war, excited some jealous sentiments,
+
+Hamilton said, money was often but not always demanded, and the aid he
+should propose to stipulate would be in ships. Knox _non dissentiente_.
+
+The President said the remedy would be worse than the disease, and
+stated some of the disagreeable circumstances which would attend our
+making such overtures.
+
+
+November, 1792. Hamilton called on me to speak about our furnishing
+supplies to the French colony of St. Domingo. He expressed his opinion,
+that we ought to be cautious, and not go too far in our application
+of money to their use, lest it should not be recognised by the mother
+country. He did not even think that some kinds of government they
+might establish could give a sufficient sanction.* I observed, that the
+National Convention was now met, and would certainly establish a form
+of government; that as we had recognised the former government because
+established by authority of the nation, so we must recognise any other
+which should be established by the authority of the nation. He said we
+had recognised the former, because it contained an important member of
+the ancient, to wit, the King, and wore the appearance of his consent;
+but if, in any future form, they should omit the King, he did not know
+that we could with safety recognise it, or pay money to its order.
+
+     * There had been a previous consultation at the President�s
+     (about the first week in November) on the expediency of
+     suspending payments to France, under her present situation.
+     I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by
+     the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs
+     surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an
+     integral legislature, and therefore not competent to give a
+     legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought
+     consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate
+     body came into place; and that I should consider the
+     National Convention, called, but not met as we had yet
+     heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it
+     would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should
+     be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on
+     good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
+     and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a
+     convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be
+     competent to do any thing. It ended by agreeing, that I
+     should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment
+     generally, till further orders.
+
+
+November the 19th, 1792. Beckley brings me the pamphlet written by
+Hamilton, before the war, in answer to �Common Sense.� It is entitled
+�Plain Truth.� Melancthon Smith sends it to Beckley, and in his letter
+says, it was not printed in New York by Loudon, because prevented by a
+mob, and was printed in Philadelphia, and that he has these facts from
+Loudon.
+
+
+November the 21st, 1792. Mr. Butler tells me, that he dined last winter
+with Mr. Campbell from Denmark, in company with Hamilton, Lawrence, Dr.
+Shippen, T. Shippen, and one other person whom he cannot recollect. That
+after dinner political principles became the subject of conversation;
+that Hamilton declared openly, that �there was no stability, no security
+in any kind of government but a monarchy.� That Lawrence took him
+up, and entered the lists of argument against him; that the dispute
+continued long, and grew warm, remarkably so as between them; that
+Shippen, at length, joined Lawrence in it; and in fine, that it broke up
+the company. Butler recommended to the company, that the dispute having
+probably gone farther than was intended, it ought to be considered as
+confined to the company.
+
+
+Thursday, December the 27th, 1792. I waited on the President on some
+current business. After this was over, he observed to me, that he
+thought it was time to endeavor to effect a stricter connection with
+France, and that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on this subject.
+He went into the circumstances of dissatisfaction between Spain and
+Great Britain, and us, and observed, there was no nation on whom we
+could rely, at all times, but France; and that, if we did not prepare
+in time some support, in the event of rupture with Spain and England,
+we might be charged with a criminal negligence. I was much pleased with
+the tone of these observations. It was the very doctrine which had been
+my polar star, and I did not need the successes of the republican arms
+in France, lately announced to us, to bring me to these sentiments.
+For it is to be noted, that on Saturday last, (the 22nd) I received Mr.
+Short�s letters of October the 9th and 12th, with the Leyden gazettes to
+October the 13th, giving us the first news of the retreat of the Duke of
+Brunswick, and the capture of Spires and Worms by Custine, and that
+of Nice by Anselme. I therefore expressed to the President my cordial
+approbation of these ideas; told him, I had meant on that day (as an
+opportunity of writing by the British packet would occur immediately) to
+take his orders for removing the suspension of payments to France, which
+had been imposed by my last letter to Gouverneur Morris, but was meant,
+as I supposed, only for the interval between the abolition of the late
+constitution by the dethronement of the King, and the meeting of some
+other body, invested by the will of the nation with powers to transact
+their affairs; that I considered the National Convention, then
+assembled, as such a body; and that, therefore, we ought to go on with
+the payments to them, or to any government they should establish; that,
+however, I had learned last night, that some clause in the bill for
+providing reimbursement of the loan made by the bank to the United
+States, had given rise to a question before the House of Representatives
+yesterday, which might affect these payments; a clause in that bill
+proposing, that the money formerly borrowed in Amsterdam, to pay the
+French debt, and appropriated by law (1790, August 4th, c. 34. � 2.) to
+that purpose, lying dead as was suggested, should be taken to pay the
+bank, and the President be authorized to borrow two millions of dollars
+more, out of which it should be replaced: and if this should be done,
+the removal of our suspension of payments, as I had been about to
+propose, would be premature. He expressed his disapprobation of the
+clause above mentioned; thought it highly improper in the legislature to
+change an appropriation once made, and added, that no one could tell in
+what that would end. I concurred, but observed, that on a division of
+the House, the ayes for striking out the clause were twenty-seven, the
+noes twenty-six; whereon the Speaker gave his vote against striking out,
+which divides the House: the clause for the disappropriation remained
+of course. I mentioned suspicions, that the whole of this was a trick
+to serve the bank under a great existing embarrassment; that the debt to
+the bank was to be repaid by instalments; that the first instalment was
+of two hundred thousand dollars only, or rather one hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars, (because forty thousand of the two hundred thousand
+dollars would be the United States� own dividend of the instalment.) Yet
+here were two millions to be paid them at once, and to be taken from a
+purpose of gratitude and honor, to which it had been appropriated.
+
+
+December the 30th, 1792. I took the occasion furnished by Pinckney�s
+letter of September the 19th, asking instructions how to conduct himself
+as to the French revolution, to lay down the catholic principle of
+republicanism, to wit, that every people may establish what form of
+government they please, and change it as they please; the will of the
+nation being the only thing essential. I was induced to do this, in
+order to extract the President�s opinion on the question which divided
+Hamilton and myself in the conversation of November, 1792, and the
+previous one of the first week of November, on the suspension of
+payments to France: and if favorable to mine, to place the principle on
+record in the letter-books of my office. I therefore wrote the letter
+of December the 30th, to Pinckney, and sent it to the President, and he
+returned me his approbation in writing, in his note of the same date,
+which see.
+
+
+February the 7th, 1793. I waited on the President with letters and
+papers from Lisbon. After going through these, I told him that I had for
+some time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out
+of office, because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with
+foreign nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate, in which case,
+the remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable to
+make it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now passed, I
+was freed from the considerations of propriety which had embarrassed me.
+That &c. [nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T. M. Randolph, of
+a few days ago,] and that I should be willing, if he had taken no
+arrangements to the contrary, to continue somewhat longer, how long I
+could not say, perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He said, so far from
+taking arrangements on the subject, he had never mentioned to any mortal
+the design of retiring which I had expressed to him, till yesterday,
+when having heard that I had given up my house, and that it was rented
+by another, he thereupon mentioned it to Mr. E. Randolph, and asked him,
+as he knew my retirement had been talked of, whether he had heard
+any persons suggested in conversation to succeed me. He expressed his
+satisfaction at my change of purpose and his apprehensions that my
+retirement would be a new source of uneasiness to the public. He
+said Governor Lee had that day informed him of the general discontent
+prevailing in Virginia, of which he never had had any conception,
+much less sound information. That it appeared to him very alarming. He
+proceeded to express his earnest wish that Hamilton and myself could
+coalesce in the measures of the government, and urged here the general
+reasons for it, which he had done to me in two former conversations.
+He said he had proposed the same thing to Hamilton, who expressed
+his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the general
+acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of much less
+importance than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself aloof from all
+cabal and correspondence on the subject with the government, and saw and
+spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr. Hamilton,
+if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his general system
+to the other, it was impossible. We had both, no doubt, formed our
+conclusions after the most mature consideration; and principles
+conscientiously adopted, could not be given up on either side. My wish
+was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested
+in the bank or public stocks: and that a pure legislature being given
+us, I should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations,
+even if contrary to my own opinions; for that I subscribe to the
+principle, that the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should
+give law. I confirmed him in the fact of the great discontents to
+the south; that they were grounded on seeing that their judgments
+and interests were sacrificed to those of the eastern States on every
+occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a corrupt squadron
+of voters in Congress, at the command of the Treasury; and they see that
+if the votes of those members who had any interest distinct from,
+and contrary to the general interest of their constituents, had been
+withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should have been, the laws
+would have been the reverse of what they are on all the great questions.
+I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House of Representatives
+by the Speaker�s vote. On this subject he made no reply. He explained
+his remaining in office to have been the effect of strong solicitations
+after he returned here; declaring that he had never mentioned his
+purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr. Madison; he
+expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in office,
+and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &c.
+and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
+consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of
+the public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
+
+
+February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
+curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New
+York, he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees. At
+length he yielded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle
+the forms. Accordingly, an antechamber and presence-room were provided,
+and when those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President
+set out, preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the antechamber,
+the door of the inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered first,
+calling out with a loud voice, �The President of the United States.� The
+President was so much disconcerted with it, that he did not recover it
+the whole time of the levee, and when the company was gone, he said
+to Humphreys, �Well, you have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall
+never take me in a second time.�
+
+There is reason to believe that the rejection of the late additional
+Assumption by the Senate was effected by the President through Lear,
+operating on Langdon. Beckley knows this.
+
+
+February the 26th, 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [See the
+formal opinions given to the President in writing, and signed.]
+
+First question. We were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed
+merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of
+success. I expressed myself strongly, that the event was so unpromising,
+that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on without the
+least relaxation, and that a day should be fixed with the commissioners
+for the treaty, beyond which they should not permit the treaty to be
+protracted, by which day, orders should be given for our forces to enter
+into action. The President took up the thing instantly, after I had said
+this, and declared he was so much in the opinion that the treaty would
+end in nothing, that he then, in the presence of us all, gave orders to
+General Knox, not to slacken the preparations for the campaign in the
+least, but to exert every nerve in preparing for it. Knox said something
+about the ultimate day for continuing the negotiations. I acknowledged
+myself not a judge on what day the campaign should begin, but that
+whatever it was, that day should terminate the treaty. Knox said he
+thought a winter campaign was always the most efficacious against the
+Indians. I was of opinion, since Great Britain insisted on furnishing
+provisions, that we should offer to repay. Hamilton thought we should
+not.
+
+Second question. I considered our right of preemption of the
+Indian lands, not as amounting to any dominion, or jurisdiction, or
+paramountship whatever, but merely in the nature of a remainder after
+the extinguishment of a present right, which gave us no present right
+whatever, but of preventing other nations from taking possession, and so
+defeating our expectancy; that the Indians had the full, undivided, and
+independent sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, and that this
+might be for ever; that as fast as we extend our rights by purchase from
+them, so fast we extend the limits of our society, and as soon as a new
+portion became encircled within our line, it became a fixed limit of
+our society: that the executive, with either or both branches of the
+legislature, could not alien any part of our territory; that by the
+law of nations it was settled, that the unity and indivisibility of
+the society was so fundamental, that it could not be dismembered by the
+constituted authorities, except, 1. where all power was delegated to
+them (as in the case of despotic governments,) or, 2. where it was
+expressly delegated; that neither of these delegations had been made
+to our General Government, and, therefore, that it had no right
+to dismember or alienate any portion of territory once ultimately
+consolidated with us; and that we could no more cede to the Indians
+than to the English or Spaniards, as it might, according to acknowledged
+principles, remain as irrevocably and eternally with the one as the
+other. But I thought, that, as we had a right to sell and settle lands
+once comprehended within our lines, so we might forbear to exercise
+that right, retaining the property, till circumstances should be more
+favorable to the settlement, and this I agreed to do in the present
+instance, if necessary for peace.
+
+Hamilton agreed to the doctrine of the law of nations, as laid down in
+Europe, but that it was founded on the universality of settlement there;
+consequently that no lopping-off of territory could be made without a
+lopping-off of citizens, which required their consent; but that the law
+of nations for us, must be adapted to the circumstance of our unsettled
+country, which he conceived the President and Senate may cede: that
+the power of treaty was given to them by the constitution, without
+restraining it to particular objects; consequently that it was given in
+as plenipotentiary a form as held by any sovereign in any other society.
+Randolph was of opinion, there was a difference between a cession to
+Indians and to any others, because it only restored the ceded part to
+the condition in which it was before we bought it, and consequently,
+that we might buy it again hereafter: therefore, he thought the
+executive and Senate could cede it. Knox joined in the main opinion. The
+President discovered no opinion, but he made some efforts to get us to
+join in some terms which could unite us all, and he seemed to direct
+those efforts more towards me: but the thing could not be done.
+
+Third question. We agreed in idea as to the line to be drawn; to wit, so
+as to retain all lands appropriated, or granted, or reserved.
+
+Fourth question. We all thought, if the Senate should be consulted, and
+consequently apprized of our line, it would become known to Hammond, and
+we should lose all chance of saving any thing more at the treaty than
+our ultimatum.
+
+The President, at this meeting, mentioned the declaration of some
+person, in a paper of Fenno, that he would commence an attack on the
+character of Dr. Franklin. He said, the theme was to him excessively
+disagreeable on other considerations, but most particularly so, as
+the party seemed to do it as a means of defending him (the President)
+against the late attacks on him: that such a mode of defence would be
+peculiarly painful to him, and he wished it could be stopped. Hamilton
+and Randolph undertook to speak to Fenno to suppress it, without
+mentioning it as the President�s wish. Both observed, that they had
+heard this declaration mentioned in many companies, and that it had
+excited universal horror and detestation.
+
+The paper in Fenno must lie between two persons, viz. Adams and Izard,
+because they are the only persons who could know such facts as are there
+promised to be unfolded. Adams is an enemy to both characters, and might
+choose this ground as an effectual position to injure both. Izard hated
+Franklin with unparalleled bitterness, but humbly adores the President,
+because he is in _loco regis_. If the paper proceeds, we shall easily
+discover which of these two gentlemen is the champion. In the mean time,
+the first paper leads our suspicions more towards Izard than Adams, from
+the circumstance of style, and because he is quite booby enough not to
+see the injury he would do to the President by such a mode of defence.
+
+
+February the 28th. Knox, E. Randolph, and myself met at Knox�s, where
+Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time, manner, and place
+of the President�s swearing in. Hamilton had been there before, and
+had left his opinion with Knox; to wit, that the President should ask
+a judge to attend him in his own house to administer the oath, in the
+presence of the Heads of departments; which oath should be deposited in
+the Secretary of State�s office. I concurred in this opinion. Randolph
+was for the President�s going to the Senate chamber to take the oath,
+attended by the marshal of the United States, who should then make
+proclamation, &c. Knox was for this, and for adding the House of
+Representatives to the presence, as they would not yet be departed. Our
+individual opinions were written, to be communicated to the President,
+out of which he might form one. In the course of our conversation,
+Knox, stickling for parade, got into great warmth, and swore that our
+government must either be entirely new modeled, or it would be knocked
+to pieces in less than ten years; and that, as it is at present, he
+would not give a copper for it; that it is the President�s character,
+and not the written constitution which keeps it together.
+
+Same day. Conversation with Lear. He expressed the strongest confidence
+that republicanism was the universal creed of America, except of a very
+few; that a republican administration must of necessity immediately
+overbear the contrary faction; said that he had seen with extreme
+regret, that a number of gentlemen had for a long time been endeavoring
+to instil into the President, that the noise against the administration
+of the government was that of a little faction, which would soon be
+silent, and which was detested by the people, who were contented and
+prosperous: that this very party, however, began to see their error, and
+that the sense of America was bursting forth to their conviction.
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles�s
+resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe,
+that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the
+House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1.
+of bank directors, 2. holders of bank stock, 3. stock-jobbers, 4. blind
+devotees, 5. ignorant persons who did not comprehend them, 6. lazy and
+good-humored persons, who comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were
+too lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure; the persons who
+knew these characters, foresaw, that the three first descriptions making
+one third of the House, the three latter would make one half of the
+residue; and of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of
+two to one. But they thought, that even this rejection would do good, by
+showing the public the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which
+their affairs were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, and nothing
+spared to present them in the fulness of demonstration. There were not
+more than three or four who voted otherwise than had been expected.
+
+
+March the 30th, 1793. At our meeting at the President�s, February the
+25th, in discussing the question, whether we should furnish to France
+the three millions of livres desired, Hamilton, in speaking on the
+subject, used this expression; �When Mr. Genet arrives, whether we
+shall receive him or not, will then be a question for discussion�; which
+expression I did not recollect till E. Randolph reminded me of it a few
+days after. Therefore, on the 20th instant, as the President was shortly
+to set out for Mount Vernon, I observed to him, that as Genet might
+arrive in his absence, I wished to know beforehand how I should treat
+him, whether as a person who would or would not be received. He said, he
+could see no ground of doubt, but that he ought to be received. On the
+24th, he asked E. Randolph�s opinion on the subject, saying, he had
+consulted Colonel Hamilton thereon, who went into lengthy considerations
+of doubt and difficulty, and viewing it as a very unfortunate thing,
+that the President should have the decision of so critical a point
+forced on him; but in conclusion, said, since he was brought into that
+situation, he did not see but that he must receive Mr. Genet. Randolph
+told the President, he was clear he should be received, and the
+President said, he had never had any doubt on the subject in his mind.
+Afterwards on the same day, he spoke to me again on it, and said, Mr.
+Genet should unquestionably be received; but he thought not with too
+much warmth or Cordiality, so only as to be satisfactory to him. I
+wondered at first at this restriction: but when Randolph afterwards
+communicated to me his conversation of the 24th, I became satisfied it
+was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.
+
+
+March the 31st. Mr. Beckley tells me, that the merchants� bonds for
+duties on six months� credit became due the 1st instant, to a very great
+amount; that Hamilton went to the bank on that day, and directed the
+bank to discount for those merchants all their bonds at thirty days,
+and that he would have the collectors credited for the money at the
+treasury. Hence, the treasury lumping its receipts by the month in its
+printed accounts, these sums will be considered by the public as only
+received on the last day; consequently, the bank makes the month�s
+interest out of it. Beckley had this from a merchant, who had a bond
+discounted, and who supposes a million of dollars were discounted at the
+bank here. Mr. Brown got the same information from another merchant,
+who supposed only six hundred thousand dollars discounted here. But they
+suppose the same orders went to all the branch banks to a great amount.
+
+Eodem die. Mr. Brown tells me he has it from a merchant here, that
+during the last winter, the directors of the bank ordered the freest
+discounts. Every man could obtain it. Money being so flush, the six per
+cents run up to twenty-one and twenty-two shillings. Then the directors
+sold out their private stocks. When the discounted notes were becoming
+due, they stopped discounts, and not a dollar was to be had. This
+reduced six per cents to eighteen shillings and three pence; then the
+same directors bought in again.
+
+
+April the 7th, 1793. Mr. Lear called on me, and introduced of himself a
+conversation on the affairs of the United States. He laughed at the
+cry of prosperity, and the deriving it from the establishment of the
+treasury: he said, that, so far from giving in to this opinion, and that
+we were paying off our national debt, he was clear the debt was growing
+on us: that he had lately expressed this opinion to the President, who
+appeared much astonished at it. I told him I had given the same hint to
+the President last summer, and lately again had suggested, that we
+were even depending for the daily subsistence of government on borrowed
+money. He said, that was certain, and was the only way of accounting for
+what was become of the money drawn over from Holland to this country.
+He regretted that the President was not in the way of hearing full
+information, declared he communicated to him every thing he could learn
+himself; that the men who vaunted the present government so much on some
+occasions, were the very men who at other times declared it was a poor
+thing, and such a one as could not stand, and he was sensible they
+only esteemed it as a stepping-stone to something else, and had availed
+themselves of the first moments of the enthusiasm in favor of it, to
+pervert its principles and make of it what they wanted: and that though
+they raised the cry of anti-federalism against those who censured the
+mode of administration, yet he was satisfied, whenever it should come to
+be tried, that the very men whom they called anti-federalists, were the
+men who would save the government, and he looked to the next Congress
+for much rectification.
+
+
+April the 18th. The President sends a set of questions to be considered,
+and calls a meeting. Though those sent me were in his own hand-writing,
+yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissue and suite,
+that they were not the President�s, that they were raised upon a
+prepared chain of argument, in short, that the language was Hamilton�s,
+and the doubts his alone. They led to a declaration of the executive,
+that our treaty with France is void. E. Randolph, the next day, told me
+that the day before the date of these questions, Hamilton went with him
+through the whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the
+skeleton, and that he recognised them the moment he saw them.
+
+We met. The first question, whether we should receive the French
+minister, Genet, was proposed, and we agreed unanimously that he should
+be received; Hamilton, at the same time, expressing his great regret
+that any accident had happened, which should oblige us to recognise
+the government. The next question was, whether he should be received
+absolutely, or with qualifications. Here Hamilton took up the whole
+subject, and went through it in the order in which the questions sketch
+it. See the chain of his reasoning in my opinion of April the 28th. Knox
+subscribed at once to Hamilton�s opinion that we ought to declare the
+treaty void, acknowledging, at the same time, like a fool as he is,
+that he knew nothing about it. I was clear it remained valid. Randolph
+declared himself of the same opinion, but on Hamilton�s undertaking to
+present to him the authority in Vattel (which we had not present), and
+to prove to him, that if the authority was admitted, the treaty might be
+declared void, Randolph agreed to take further time to consider. It was
+adjourned. We determined unanimously the last question, that Congress
+should not be called. There having been an intimation by Randolph, that
+in so great a question he should choose to give a written opinion, and
+this being approved by the President, I gave in mine April the 28th.
+Hamilton gave in his. I believe Knox�s was never thought worth offering
+or asking for. Randolph gave his May the 6th, concurring with mine.
+The President told me, the same day, he had never had a doubt about the
+validity of the treaty; but that since a question had been suggested,
+he thought it ought to be considered: that this being done, I might
+now issue passports to sea-vessels in the form prescribed by the French
+treaty. I had for a week past only issued the Dutch form; to have issued
+the French, would have been presupposing the treaty to be in existence.
+The President suggested, that he thought it would be as well
+that nothing should be said of such a question having been under
+consideration. Written May the 6th.
+
+
+May the 6th, 1793. When the question was, whether the proclamation of
+April the 22nd should be issued, Randolph observed, that there should
+be a letter written by me to the ministers of the belligerent powers, to
+declare that it should not be taken as conclusive evidence against our
+citizens in foreign courts of admiralty, for contraband goods. Knox
+suddenly adopted the opinion before Hamilton delivered his. Hamilton
+opposed it pretty strongly. I thought it an indifferent thing, but
+rather approved Randolph�s opinion. The President was against it; but
+observed that, as there were three for it, it should go. This was
+the first instance I had seen of an opportunity to decide by a mere
+majority, including his own vote.
+
+
+May the 12th. Lear called on me to-day. Speaking of the lowness of
+stocks (sixteen shillings), I observed it was a pity we had not money to
+buy on public account. He said, yes, and that it was the more provoking,
+as two millions had been borrowed for that purpose, and drawn over here,
+and yet were not here. That he had no doubt those would take notice of
+the circumstance whose duty it was to do so. I suppose he must mean the
+President.
+
+
+May the 23rd. I had sent to the President, yesterday, draughts of a
+letter from him to the Provisory Executive Council of France, and of one
+from myself to Mr. Ternant, both on the occasion of his recall. I called
+on him to-day. He said there was an expression in one of them, which he
+had never before seen in any of our public communications, to wit, �our
+republic� The letter prepared for him to the Council, began thus: �The
+Citizen Ternant has delivered to me the letter wherein you inform me,
+that yielding &c. you had determined to recall him from his mission, as
+your Minister Plenipotentiary to our republic.� He had underscored
+the words our republic. He said that certainly ours was a republican
+government, but yet we had not used that style in this way; that if any
+body wanted to change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it was only
+a few individuals, and that no man in the United States would set his
+face against it more than himself: but that this was not what he was
+afraid of; his fears were from another quarter; that there was more
+danger of anarchy being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau�s
+paper of yesterday; he said he despised all their attacks on him
+personally, but that there never had been an act of the government, not
+meaning in the executive line only, but in any line, which that paper
+had not abused. He had also marked the word republic thus X, where it
+was applied to the French republic. (See the original paper.) He was
+evidently sore and warm, and I took his intention to be, that I should
+interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment
+of translating clerk to my office. But I will not do it. His paper has
+saved our constitution, which was galloping fast into monarchy, and has
+been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper. It is well
+and universally known, that it has been that paper which has checked the
+career of the monocrats; and the President, not sensible of the designs
+of the party, has not, with his usual good sense and _sang froid_,
+looked on the efforts and effects of this free press, and seen that,
+though some bad things have passed through it to the public, yet the
+good have preponderated immensely.
+
+
+June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned from New York within
+a few days, tells me that, while he was there, Sir John Temple, Consul
+General of the northern States for Great Britain showed him a letter
+from Sir Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a borough in
+Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member for twenty-five years, and
+always confidential for the ministers in which he permitted him to read
+particular passages of the following purport: that the government was
+well apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in the United
+States; that they considered Colonel Hamilton, Mr. King, and Mr.
+Smith of South Carolina, as the main supports of that interest; that
+particularly, they considered Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond as
+their effective minister here; that if the anti-federal interest (that
+was his term) at the head of which they considered Mr. Jefferson to be
+should prevail, these gentlemen had secured an asylum to themselves
+in England.� Beckley could not understand whether they had secured it
+themselves* or whether they were only notified that it was secured
+to them. So that they understand that they may go on boldly in their
+machinations to change the government, and if they should be overset
+and choose to withdraw, they will be secure of a pension in England, as
+Arnold, Deane, &c. had. Sir John read passages of a letter (which he did
+not put into Beckley�s hand, as he did the other) from Lord Grenville,
+saying nearly the same things. This letter mentions Sir John, that
+though they had divided the Consul-Generalship, and given the southern
+department to Bond, yet he Sir John, was to retain his whole salary.
+[By this it would seem, as if, wanting to use Bond, they had covered his
+employment with this cloak.] Mr. Beckley says that Sir John Temple is a
+strong republican. I had a proof of his intimacy with Sir John in this
+circumstance. Sir John received his new commission of Consul General for
+the northern department, and, instead of sending it through Mr. Hammond,
+got Beckley to enclose it to me for his exequatur I wrote to Sir John
+that it must come through Mr Hammond enclosing it back to him. He
+accordingly then sent it to Mr. Hammond.
+
+     [* In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson; �Impossible
+     as to Hamilton; he was far above that.]
+
+In conversation with the President to-day, and speaking about General
+Greene, he said that he and General Greene had always differed in
+opinion about the manner of using militia. Greene always placed them
+in his front: himself was of opinion, they should always be used as a
+reserve to improve any advantage, for which purpose they were the finest
+fellows in the world. He said he was on the ground of the battle of
+Guilford, with a person who was in the action, and who explained the
+whole of it to him. That General Greene�s front was behind a fence at
+the edge of a large field, through which the enemy were obliged to pass
+to get at them; and that, in their passage through this, they must have
+been torn all to pieces, if troops had been posted there who would have
+stood their ground; and that the retreat from that position was through
+a thicket, perfectly secure. Instead of this he posted the North
+Carolina militia there who only gave one fire and fell back, so that the
+whole benefit of their position was lost. He thinks that the regulars,
+with their field-pieces, would have hardly let a single man get through
+that field.
+
+Eodem die (June the 7th). Beckley tells me that he has the following
+fact from Governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the present
+General Government, i.e. a little before Hamilton conceived a plan for
+establishing a monarchical government in the United States, he wrote
+a draught of a circular letter, which was to be sent to about
+-------persons, to bring it about. One of these letters in Hamilton�s
+hand-writing, is now in possession of an old militia General up the
+North River, who, at that time, was thought orthodox enough to be
+entrusted in the execution. This General has given notice to Governor
+Clinton, that he has this paper, and that he will deliver it into
+his hands, and no one�s else. Clinton intends, the first interval of
+leisure, to go for it, and he will bring it to Philadelphia. Beckley is
+a man of perfect truth as to what he affirms of his own knowledge, but
+too credulous as to what he hears from others.
+
+
+June the 10th, 1793. Mr. Brown gives me the following specimen of
+the phrenzy which prevailed at New York on the opening of the new
+government. The first public ball which took place after the President�s
+arrival there, Colonel Humphreys, Colonel W. S. Smith, and Mrs. Knox
+were to arrange the ceremonials. These arrangements were as follows:
+a sofa at the head of the room, raised on several steps whereon the
+President and Mrs. Washington were to be seated. The gentlemen were to
+dance in swords. Each one, when going to dance, was to lead his partner
+to the foot of the sofa, make a low obeisance to the President and his
+lady, then go and dance, and when done, bring his partner again to the
+foot of the sofa for new obeisances, and then to retire to their chairs.
+It was to be understood, too, that gentlemen should be dressed in bags.
+Mrs. Knox contrived to come with the President, and to follow him and
+Mrs. Washington to their destination, and she had the design of forcing
+an invitation from the President to a seat on the sofa. She mounted up
+the steps after them unbidden, but unfortunately the wicked sofa was so
+short, that when the President and Mrs. Washington were seated, there
+was not room for a third person; she was obliged therefore to descend in
+the face of the company, and to sit where she could. In other respects
+the ceremony was conducted rigorously according to the arrangements, and
+the President made to pass an evening which his good sense rendered a
+very miserable one to him.
+
+
+June the 12th. Beckley tells me that Klingham has been with him to-day,
+and relates to him the following fact. A certificate of the old Congress
+had been offered at the treasury and refused payment and so endorsed in
+red ink as usual. This certificate came to the hands of Francis, (the
+quondam clerk of the treasury who, on account of his being dipped in
+the infamous case of the Baron Glaubec, Hamilton had been obliged
+to dismiss, to save appearances, but with an assurance of all future
+service, and he accordingly got him established in New York). Francis
+wrote to Hamilton that such a ticket was offered him, but he could not
+buy it unless he would inform him and give him his certificate that it
+was good. Hamilton wrote him a most friendly letter, and sent him
+the certificate. He bought the paper, and came on here and got it
+recognised, whereby he made twenty-five hundred dollars Klingham saw
+both the letter and certificate.
+
+Irving, a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the
+pieces now coming out under the signature of Verita�s and attacking the
+President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the
+fiscal party, to place the President on their side.
+
+July the 18th, 1793. Lear calls on me. I told him that Irving, an
+Irishman, and a writer in the treasury, who, on a former occasion, had
+given the most decisive proofs of his devotion to his principal, was the
+author of the pieces signed Veritas: and I wished he could get at some
+of Irving�s acquaintances and inform himself of the fact, as the person
+who told me of it would not permit the name of his informer to be
+mentioned. [Note. Beckley told me of it, and he had it from Swaine,
+the printer to whom the pieces were delivered]; that I had long before
+suspected this excessive foul play in that party of writing themselves
+in the character of the most exaggerated democrats and incorporating
+with it a great deal of abuse on the President to make him believe it
+was that party who were his enemies, and so throw him entirely into
+the scale of the monocrats. Lear said he no longer ago than yesterday
+expressed to the President his suspicions of the artifices of that party
+to work on him. He mentioned the following fact as a proof of their
+writing in the character of their adversaries; to wit, the day after the
+little incident of Richet�s toasting �the man of the people� (see the
+gazettes), Mrs. Washington was at Mrs. Powel�s, who mentioned to her
+that, when the toast was given, there was a good deal of disapprobation
+appeared in the audience, and that many put on their hats and went out:
+on inquiry, he had not found the fact true, and yet it was put into
+------�s paper, and written under the character of a republican,
+though he is satisfied it is altogether a slander of the monocrats.
+He mentioned this to the President, but he did not mention to him the
+following fact, which he knows; that in New York, the last summer, when
+the parties of Jay and Clinton were running so high, it was an agreed
+point with the former, that if any circumstances should ever bring it to
+a question, whether to drop Hamilton or the President, they had decided
+to drop the President. He said that lately one of the loudest pretended
+friends to the government, damned it, and said it was good for nothing,
+that it could not support itself, and it was time to put it down and
+set up a better; and yet the same person, in speaking to the President,
+puffed off that party as the only friends to the government. He said
+he really feared, that by their artifices and industry, they would
+aggravate the President so much against the republicans, as to separate
+him from the body of the people. I told him what the same cabals had
+decided to do, if the President had refused his assent to the bank bill;
+also what Brockhurst Livingston said to ------, that Hamilton�s life was
+much more precious to the community than the President�s.
+
+
+August the 1st. Met at the President�s, to consider what was to be
+done with Mr. Genet. All his correspondence with me was read over.
+The following propositions were made. 1. That a full statement of Mr.
+Genet�s conduct be made in a letter to G. Morris, and be sent with his
+correspondence, to be communicated to the Executive Council of France;
+the letter to be so prepared, as to serve for the form of communication
+to the Council. Agreed unanimously. 2. That in that letter his recall be
+required. Agreed by all, though I expressed a preference of expressing
+that desire with great delicacy; the others were for peremptory terms.
+3. To send him off. This was proposed by Knox; but rejected by every
+other. 4. To write a letter to Mr. Genet, the same in substance with
+that written to G. Morris, and let him know we had applied for his
+recall. I was against this, because I thought it would render him
+extremely active in his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was
+overruled by the other three gentlemen and the President. 5. That
+a publication of the whole correspondence, and statement of the
+proceedings should be made by way of appeal to the people. Hamilton
+made a jury speech of three quarters of an hour, as inflammatory and
+declamatory as if he had been speaking to a jury. E. Randolph opposed
+it. I chose to leave the contest between them. Adjourned to next day.
+
+
+August the 2nd. Met again. Hamilton spoke again three quarters of an
+hour. I answered on these topics. Object of the appeal. The democratic
+society; this the great circumstance of alarm; afraid it would extend
+its connections over the continent; chiefly meant for the local object
+of the ensuing election of Governor. If left alone, would die away after
+that is over. If opposed, if proscribed, would give it importance and
+vigor; would give it a new object, and multitudes would join it merely
+to assert the right of voluntary associations. That the measure was
+calculated to make the President assume the station of the head of a
+party, instead of the head of the nation. Plan of the appeal. To consist
+of facts and the decisions of the President. As to facts we are agreed;
+but as to the decisions, there have been great differences of opinion
+among us. Sometimes as many opinions as persons. This proves there will
+be ground to attack the decision. Genet will appeal also; it will become
+a contest between the President and Genet--anonymous writers--will be
+same difference of opinion in public, as in our cabinet--will be
+same difference in Congress, lot it must be laid before them--would,
+therefore, work very unpleasantly at home. How would it work abroad?
+France--unkind--after such proofs of her friendship, should rely on
+that friendship and her justice. Why appeal to the world? Friendly
+nations always negotiate little differences in private. Never appeal to
+the world, but when they appeal to the sword. Confederacy of Pilnitz
+was to overthrow the government of France. The interference of France
+to disturb other governments and excite insurrections, was a measure of
+reprisal. Yet these Princes have been able to make it believed to be the
+system of France. Colonel Hamilton supposes Mr. Genet�s proceedings
+here are in pursuance of that system: and we are so to declare it to
+the world, and to add our testimony to this base calumny of the Princes.
+What a triumph to them to be backed by our testimony. What a fatal
+stroke at the cause of liberty; _Et tu, Brute?_ We indispose the French
+government, and they will retract their offer of the treaty of commerce.
+The President manifestly inclined to the appeal to the people.* Knox, in
+a foolish, incoherent sort of a speech, introduced the pasquinade lately
+printed, called the funeral of George W--n and James W---n, King and
+Judge, &c, where the President was placed on a guillotine. The President
+was much inflamed; got into one of those passions when he cannot command
+himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on
+him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he
+had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives;
+that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of
+resigning his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he
+had rather be in his grave than in his present situation; that he had
+rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world; and yet
+that they were charging him with wanting to be a King. That that rascal
+Freneau sent him three of his papers every day, as if he thought he
+would become the distributor of his papers; that he could see in this,
+nothing but an impudent design to insult him: he ended in this high
+tone. There was a pause. Some difficulty in resuming our question; it
+was, however, after a little while, presented again, and he said there
+seemed to be no necessity for deciding it now; the propositions before
+agreed on might be put into a train of execution, and perhaps events
+would show whether the appeal would be necessary or not. He desired we
+would meet at my office the next day, to consider what should be done
+with the vessels armed in our ports by Mr. Genet, and their prizes.
+
+     * He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him
+     the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into
+     this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the
+     President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and
+     engage for all his connections. The President repeated this
+     twice, and with an air of importance. Now Mr. Morris has no
+     family connections; he engaged then for his political
+     friends. This shows that the President has not confidence
+     enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide
+     in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props
+     necessary.
+
+August the 3rd. We met. The President wrote to take our opinions,
+whether Congress should be called. Knox pronounced at once against it.
+Randolph was against it. Hamilton said his judgment was against it, but
+that if any two were for it, or against it, he would join them to make
+a majority. I was for it. We agreed to give separate opinions to the
+President. Knox said we should have had fine work, if Congress had
+been sitting these two last months. The fool thus let out the secret.
+Hamilton endeavored to patch up the indiscretion of this blabber, by
+saying �he did not know; he rather thought they would have strengthened
+the executive arm.�
+
+It is evident they do not wish to lengthen the session of the next
+Congress, and probably they particularly wish it should not meet till
+Genet is gone. At this meeting I received a letter from Mr. Remsen at
+New York, informing me of the event of the combat between the Ambuscade
+and the Boston. Knox broke out into the most unqualified abuse of
+Captain Courtnay. Hamilton, with less fury, but with the deepest
+vexation, loaded him with censures. Both showed the most unequivocal
+mortification at the event.
+
+
+August the 6th, 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
+country, and introduces my letter of July the 31st, announcing that I
+should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
+repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased
+by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had
+counted: that he did not know where he should look to find characters
+to fill up the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the
+department of State, but it required a person conversant in foreign
+affairs, perhaps acquainted with foreign courts; that without this, the
+best talents would be awkward and at a loss. He told me that Colonel
+Hamilton had three or four weeks ago written to him, informing him that
+private as well as public reasons had brought him to the determination
+to retire, and that he should do it towards the close of the next
+session. He said he had often before intimated dispositions to resign,
+but never as decisively before; that he supposed he had fixed on the
+latter part of next session, to give an opportunity to Congress to
+examine into his conduct: that our going out at times so different,
+increased his difficulty; for if he had both places to fill at once, he
+might consult both the particular talents and geographical situation
+of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions at the fermentation
+which seemed to be working in the mind of the public; that many
+descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared to
+be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to
+assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first
+expressions of their sentiment would be important; if I would only stay
+to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.
+
+I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the
+particular uneasiness of my situation in this place, where the laws of
+society oblige me always to move exactly in the circle which I know to
+bear me peculiar hatred; that is to say, the wealthy aristocrats,
+the merchants connected closely with England, the new created paper
+fortunes; that thus surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied,
+misconstrued, and even fabricated and spread abroad to my injury; that
+he saw also, that there was such an opposition of views between myself
+and another part of the administration, as to render it peculiarly
+unpleasing, and to destroy the necessary harmony. Without knowing
+the views of what is called the republican party here, or having any
+communication with them, I could, undertake to assure him, from my
+intimacy with that party in the late Congress, that there was not a view
+in the republican party as spread over the United States, which went
+to the frame of the government; that I believed the next Congress would
+attempt nothing material, but to render their own body independent; that
+that party were firm in their dispositions to support the government;
+that the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet might produce some little
+embarrassment, but that he would be abandoned by the republicans the
+moment they knew the nature of his conduct; and on the whole, no crisis
+existed which threatened any thing.
+
+He said, he believed the views of the republican party were perfectly
+pure, but when men put a machine into motion, it is impossible for them
+to stop it exactly where they would choose, or to say where it will
+stop. That the constitution we have is an excellent one, if we can keep
+it where it is; that it was, indeed, supposed there was a party disposed
+to change it into a monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously
+declare there was not a man in the United States who would set his
+face more decidedly against it than himself. Here I interrupted him by
+saying, �No rational man in the United States suspects you of any other
+disposition; but there does not pass a week, in which we cannot prove
+declarations dropping from the monarchical party, that our government is
+good for nothing, is a milk-and-water thing which cannot support itself,
+we must knock it down, and set up something of more energy. He said, if
+that was the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the
+republican spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was
+astonishing how any one could expect to move it.
+
+He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr.
+Madison would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to
+him such a decision against public office, that he could not expect he
+would undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said
+that Mr. Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there
+was also Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed,
+that, name whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be
+called speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to
+mention any characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson
+of Maryland had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man
+of great good sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of
+speculations: but this, says he, is an instance of what I was observing;
+with all these qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of
+familiarity with foreign affairs, would be in them like a fish out of
+water; every thing would be new to him, and he awkward in every thing.
+I confessed to him that I had considered Johnson rather as fit for the
+Treasury department. �Yes,� says he, �for that he would be the fittest
+appointment that could be made; he is a man acquainted with figures, and
+having as good a knowledge of the resources of this country as any man.�
+I asked him if Chancellor Livingston had occurred to him. He said yes;
+but he was from New York, and to appoint him while Hamilton was in, and
+before it should be known he was going out, would excite a newspaper
+conflagration, as the ultimate arrangement would not be known. He said
+McLurg had occurred to him as a man of first-rate abilities, but it is
+said that he is a speculator. He asked me what sort of a man Wolcot was.
+I told him I knew nothing of him myself; I had heard him characterized
+as a cunning man. I asked him whether some person could not take my
+office per interim, till he should make an appointment; as Mr. Randolph,
+for instance. �Yes,� says he; �but there you would raise the expectation
+of keeping it, and I do not know that he is fit for it, nor what is
+thought of Mr. Randolph.� I avoided noticing the last observation, and
+he put the question to me directly. I then told him, I went into society
+so little as to be unable to answer it. I knew that the embarrassments
+in his private affairs had obliged him to use expedients, which had
+injured him with the merchants and shop-keepers, and affected his
+character of independence; that these embarrassments were serious, and
+not likely to cease soon. He said, if I would only stay in till the end
+of another quarter (the last of December), it would get us through the
+difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied that the affairs of
+Europe would be settled with this campaign: for that either France would
+be overwhelmed by it, or the confederacy would give up the contest. By
+that time, too, Congress will have manifested its character and views. I
+told him that I had set my private affairs in motion in a line which
+had powerfully called for my presence the last spring, and that they
+had suffered immensely from my not going home; that I had now calculated
+them to my return in the fall, and to fail in going then, would be
+the loss of another year, and prejudicial beyond measure. I asked
+him whether he could not name Governor Johnson to my office, under an
+express arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that
+of the Treasury. He said that men never chose to descend; that being
+once in a higher department, he would not like to go into a lower one.
+He asked me whether I could not arrange my affairs by going home. I told
+him I did not think the public business would admit of it; that there
+never was a day now, in which the absence of the Secretary of State
+would not be inconvenient to the public. And he concluded by desiring
+that I would take two or three days to consider whether I could not stay
+in till the end of another quarter, for that, like a man going, to the
+gallows, he was willing to put it off as long as he could; but if I
+persisted, he must then look about him and make up his mind to do the
+best he could: and so he took leave.
+
+
+November the 5th, 1793. E. Randolph tells me, that Hamilton, in
+conversation with him yesterday, said, �Sir, if all the people in
+America were now assembled, and to call on me to say whether I am a
+friend to the French revolution, I would declare that I have it in
+abhorrence?�
+
+
+November the 8th, 1793. At a conference at the President�s, where I read
+several letters of Mr. Genet; on finishing one of them, I asked what
+should be the answer. The President thereupon took occasion to observe,
+that Mr. Genet�s conduct continued to be of so extraordinary a nature,
+that he meant to propose to our serious consideration, whether he
+should not have his functions discontinued, and be ordered away. He
+went lengthily into observations on his conduct, to raise against the
+executive, 1. the people, 2. the State governments, 3. the Congress.
+He showed he felt the venom of Genet�s pen, but declared he would not
+choose his insolence should be regarded any farther, than as might be
+thought to affect the honor of the country. Hamilton and Knox readily
+and zealously argued for dismissing Mr. Genet. Randolph opposed it with
+firmness, and pretty lengthily. The President replied to him lengthily,
+and concluded by saying he did not wish to have the thing hastily
+decided, but that we should consider of it, and give our opinions on his
+return from Reading and Lancaster. Accordingly, November the 18th, we
+met at his house; read new volumes of Genet�s letters, received since
+the President�s departure; then took up the discussion of the subjects
+of communication to Congress. 1. The Proclamation. E. Randolph read the
+statement he had prepared; Hamilton did not like it; said much about his
+own views; that the President had a right to declare his opinion to
+our citizens and foreign nations; that it was not the interest of this
+country to join in the war, and that we were under no obligation to join
+in it; that though the declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet
+the President had a right to give his opinion of it, and he was against
+any explanation in the speech, which should yield that he did not intend
+that foreign nations should consider it as a declaration of neutrality,
+future as well as present; that he understood it as meant to give them
+that sort of assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now,
+would be a deception on them. He was for the President�s using
+such expressions, as should neither affirm his right to make such
+a declaration to foreign nations, nor yield it. Randolph and myself
+opposed the right of the President to declare any thing future on the
+question, Shall there or shall there not be a war? and that no such
+thing was intended; that Hamilton�s construction of the effect of the
+proclamation would have been a determination of the question of the
+guarantee, which we both denied to have intended, and I had at the
+time declared the executive incompetent to. Randolph said he meant that
+foreign nations should understand it as an intimation of the President�s
+opinion, that neutrality would be our interest. I declared my meaning to
+have been, that foreign nations should understand no such thing; that,
+on the contrary, I would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come
+and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the President, having received
+the nation at the close of Congress in a state of peace, was bound to
+preserve them in that state till Congress should meet again, and might
+proclaim any thing which went no farther. The President declared he
+never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or
+that any thing contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first
+day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace;
+he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers,
+and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the
+merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we had not
+objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel Hamilton
+should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it should
+then be considered. We were here called to dinner.
+
+After dinner, the _renvoi_ of Genet was proposed by himself. I opposed
+it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our
+friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced
+where it has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone
+eighty-four days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and
+to be relieved by their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it
+would be eight or ten days before the matter on which the order should
+be founded, could be selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This
+would bring us within four or five days of the meeting of Congress.
+Would it not be better to wait and see how the pulse of that body, new
+as it is, would beat. They are with us now, probably, but such a step as
+this may carry many over to Genet�s side. Genet will not obey the
+order, &c. &c. The President asked me what I would do if Genet sent the
+accusation to us to be communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the
+letter to Moultrie. I said I would not send it to Congress; but either
+put it in the newspapers, or send it back to him to be published if he
+pleased. Other questions and answers were put and returned in a quicker
+altercation than I ever before saw the President use. Hamilton was for
+the _renvoi_; spoke much of the dignity of the nation; that they were
+now to form their character; that our conduct now would tempt or deter
+other foreign ministers from treating us in the same manner; touched on
+the President�s personal feelings; did not believe France would make it
+a cause of war; if she did, we ought to do what was right, and meet the
+consequences, &c. Knox on the same side, and said he thought it very
+possible Mr. Genet would either declare us a department of France, or
+levy troops here and endeavor to reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my
+opinion, and argued chiefly on the resurrection of popularity to Genet,
+which might be produced by this measure. That at present he was dead in
+the public opinion, if we would but leave him so. The President lamented
+there was not unanimity among us; that as it was, we had left him
+exactly where we found him; and so it ended.
+
+
+November the 21st. We met at the President�s. The manner of explaining
+to Congress the intentions of the proclamation, was the matter of
+debate. Randolph produced his way of stating it. This expressed its
+views to have been, 1. to keep our citizens quiet; 2. to intimate to
+foreign nations that it was the President�s opinion, that the interests
+and dispositions of this country were for peace. Hamilton produced his
+statement, in which he declared his intention to be, to say nothing
+which could be laid hold of for any purpose; to leave the proclamation
+to explain itself. He entered pretty fully into all the argumentation
+of Pacificus; he justified the right of the President to declare his
+opinion for a future neutrality, and that there existed no circumstances
+to oblige the United States to enter into the war on account of the
+guarantee; and that in agreeing to the proclamation, he meant it to be
+understood as conveying both those declarations; viz. neutrality, and
+that the _casus foederis_ on the guarantee did not exist. He admitted
+the Congress might declare war, notwithstanding these declarations of
+the President. In like manner, they might declare war in the face of a
+treaty, and in direct infraction of it. Among other positions laid down
+by him, this was with great positiveness; that the constitution having
+given power to the President and Senate to make treaties, they might
+make a treaty of neutrality which should take from Congress the right to
+declare war in that particular case, and that under the form of a treaty
+they might exercise any powers whatever, even those exclusively given by
+the constitution to the House of Representatives. Randolph opposed this
+position, and seemed to think that where they undertook to do acts by
+treaty (as to settle a tariff of duties), which were exclusively given
+to the legislature, that an act of the legislature would be necessary
+to confirm them, as happens in England, when a treaty interferes with
+duties established by law. I insisted that in giving to the President
+and Senate a power to make treaties, the constitution meant only to
+authorize them to carry into effect, by way of treaty, any powers they
+might constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of the weak points in
+this position, but there were still weaker in the other hypothesis; and
+if it be impossible to discover a rational measure of authority to have
+been given by this clause, I would rather suppose that the cases
+which my hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not thought of by the
+convention, or if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were thought
+of and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. Of this
+last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties offensive and
+defensive, &c. In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as
+to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would
+agree to yield, than too broadly, and, indeed, so broadly as to enable
+the executive and Senate to do things which the constitution forbids.
+On the question, which form of explaining the principles of the
+proclamation should be adopted, I declared for Randolph�s, though it
+gave to that instrument more objects than I had contemplated. Knox
+declared for Hamilton�s. The President said he had had but one
+object, the keeping our people quiet till Congress should meet; that
+nevertheless, to declare he did not mean a declaration of neutrality,
+in the technical sense of the phrase, might perhaps be crying _peccavi_
+before he was charged. However, he did not decide between the two
+draughts.
+
+November the 23rd. At the President�s. Present, Knox, Randolph, and Th:
+Jefferson. Subject, the heads of the speech. One was, a proposition to
+Congress to fortify the principal harbors. I opposed the expediency
+of the General Government�s undertaking it, and the expediency of the
+President�s proposing it. It was amended, by substituting a proposition
+to adopt means for enforcing respect to the jurisdiction of the United
+States within its waters. It was proposed to recommend the establishment
+of a military academy. I objected that none of the specified powers
+given by the constitution to Congress, would authorize this. It was,
+therefore, referred for further consideration and inquiry. Knox was for
+both propositions. Randolph against the former, but said nothing as to
+the latter. The President acknowledged he had doubted of the expediency
+of undertaking the former; and as to the latter, though it would be a
+good thing, he did not wish to bring on any thing which might generate
+heat and ill-humor. It was agreed that Randolph should draw the speech
+and the messages.
+
+November the 28th. Met at the President�s. I read over a list of the
+papers copying, to be communicated to Congress on the subject of Mr.
+Genet. It was agreed that Genet�s letter of August the 13th to the
+President, mine of August the 16th, and Genet�s of November to myself
+and the Attorney General, desiring a prosecution of Jay and King,
+should not be sent to the legislature: on a general opinion, that the
+discussion of the fact certified by Jay and King had better be left to
+the channel of the newspapers, and in the private hands in which it now
+is, than for the President to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion
+of it in Congress.
+
+Randolph had prepared a draught of the speech. The clause recommending
+fortifications was left out; but that for a military academy was
+inserted. I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitution. Hamilton
+and Knox approved it without discussion. Randolph was for it, saying
+that the words of the constitution anthorizing Congress to lay taxes,
+&c. for the common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he
+would not choose to recommend any thing against the constitution, but if
+it was doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure,
+that he would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves
+whether the constitution authorized it or not. It was, therefore,
+left in. I was happy to see that Randolph had, by accident, used the
+expression �our republic,� in the speech. The President, however, made
+no objection to it, and so, as much as it had disconcerted him on
+a former occasion with me, it was now put into his own mouth to be
+pronounced to the two Houses of legislature.
+
+No material alterations were proposed or made in any part of the
+draught.
+
+After dinner, I produced the draught of messages on the subject of
+France and England, proposing that that relative to Spain should be
+subsequent and secret.
+
+Hamilton objected to the draught in toto; said that the contrast drawn
+between the conduct of France and England amounted to a declaration of
+war; he denied that France had ever done us favors; that it was mean for
+a nation to acknowledge favors; that the dispositions of the people of
+this country towards France, he considered as a serious calamity; that
+the executive ought not, by an echo of this language, to nourish that
+disposition in the people; that the offers in commerce made us by
+France, were the offspring of the moment, of circumstances which would
+not last, and it was wrong to receive as permanent, things merely
+temporary; that he could demonstrate that Great Britain showed us
+more favors than France. In complaisance to him I whittled down the
+expressions without opposition; struck out that of �favors ancient and
+recent� from France; softened some terms, and omitted some sentiments
+respecting Great Britain. He still was against the whole, but insisted
+that, at any rate, it should be a secret communication, because the
+matters it stated were still depending. These were, 1. the inexecution
+of the treaty; 2. the restraining our commerce to their own ports and
+those of their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every thing. Randolph
+was for the communications; that the documents respecting the first
+should be given in as public; but that those respecting the second
+should not be given to the legislature at all, but kept secret. I began
+to tremble now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. I urged,
+especially, the duty now incumbent on the President, to lay before the
+legislature and the public what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty, since Mr. Hammond�s answer of this month might be considered
+as the last we should ever have; that, therefore, it could no longer
+be considered as a negotiation pending. I urged that the documents
+respecting the stopping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that if
+it should be thought better to withhold them, the restrictions should
+not go to those respecting the treaty; that neither of these subjects
+was more in a state of pendency than the recall of Mr. Genet, on which,
+nevertheless, no scruples had been expressed. The President took up
+the subject with more vehemence than I have seen him show, and decided
+without reserve, that not only what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty should go in as public (in which Hamilton and Knox had divided
+in opinion from Randolph and myself), but also that those respecting the
+stopping our corn should go in as public (wherein Hamilton, Knox, and
+Randolph had been against me.) This was the first instance I had seen of
+his deciding on the opinion of one against that of three others, which
+proved his own to have been very strong.
+
+
+December the 1st, 1793. Beckley tells me he had the following fact from
+Lear. Langdon, Cabot, and some others of the Senate, standing in a knot
+before the fire after the Senate had adjourned, and growling together
+about some measure which they had just lost; �Ah!� said Cabot,
+�things will never go right till you have a President for life, and an
+hereditary Senate.� Langdon told this to Lear, who mentioned it to the
+President. The President seemed struck with it, and declared he had not
+supposed there was a man in the United States who could have entertained
+such an idea.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1797. I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as
+Vice-President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who lodged at
+Francis�s, in Fourth street. The next morning he returned my visit
+at Mr. Madison�s, where I lodged. He found me alone in my room, and
+shutting the door himself, he said he was glad to find me alone, for
+that he wished a free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an
+explanation of the situation of our affairs with France, and the
+danger of rupture with that nation, a rupture which would convulse the
+attachments of this country; that he was impressed with the necessity of
+an immediate mission to the Directory; that it would have been the first
+wish of his heart to have got me to go there, but that he supposed it
+was out of the question, as it did not seem justifiable for him to
+send away the person destined to take his place in case of accident to
+himself, nor decent to remove from competition one who was a rival in
+the public favor. That he had, therefore, concluded to send a mission,
+which, by its dignity, should satisfy France, and by its selection from
+the three great divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of
+the United States; in short, that he had determined to join Gerry and
+Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me to consult Mr. Madison for him.
+I told him that, as to myself, I concurred in the opinion of
+the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned me, and that my
+inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross the Atlantic
+again; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. Madison, but I feared
+it was desperate, as he had refused that mission on my leaving it, in
+General Washington�s time, though it was kept open a twelvemonth for
+him. He said that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint
+him, and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madison, who
+declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday the 6th of March, Mr.
+Adams and myself met at dinner at General Washington�s, and we happened,
+in the evening, to rise from table and come away together. As soon as
+we got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr.
+Madison. He immediately said, that, on consultation, some objections to
+that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was
+going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to
+Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street,
+mine off along Fifth, and we took leave: and he never after that said
+one word to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures
+of the government. The opinion I formed at the time on this transaction
+was, that Mr. Adams, in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the
+occasion (his inauguration), forgot party sentiments, and, as he never
+acted on any system, but was always governed by the feeling of the
+moment, he thought, for a moment, to steer impartially between the
+parties; that Monday, the 6th of March, being the first time he had
+met his cabinet, on expressing ideas of this kind, he had been at once
+diverted from them, and returned to his former party views.
+
+
+July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
+Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
+
+
+August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
+Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
+Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, �_Mais vraiment, Monsieur
+Hamilton, ce n�est pas Men honnete_, after making the Senate ratify
+the treaty, to advise the President to reject it.� �The treaty,� says
+Hamilton, �is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making
+it; but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the
+President.� After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the
+President also must ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, �Though
+the treaty is a most execrable one, yet when once we have come to a
+determination on it, we must carry it through thick and thin, right or
+wrong.� Talleyrand told this to Volney, who told it to me.
+
+There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
+dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton.
+He was in Philadelphia at that date.
+
+
+December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election
+of President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
+considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
+occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
+Adams, who gritting his teeth, said, �Damn �em, damn �em, damn �em, you
+see that an elective government will not do.� He also tells me that Mr.
+Adams, in a late conversation,said,� Republicanism must be disgraced,
+�Sir.� The Chevalier Yrujo called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
+French affairs, and Yrujo expressing his belief of their stability, in
+opposition to Mr. Adamses, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger
+at him, said, �I�ll tell you what, the French republic will not last
+three months.� This I had from Yrujo.
+
+Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
+friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of
+their monarch. �Then,� says a by-stander, �the best thing we could do,
+I suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the
+United States.� �Qur people,� says Harper, �are not yet ripe for it, but
+it is the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.� Something
+like this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the
+public papers, though it can be proved by several members.
+
+
+December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton
+went out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his
+last conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their
+differences, �For my part,� says he, �I avow myself a monarchist; I have
+no objection to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,�
+&c.
+
+
+January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in
+our history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our
+present government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New
+York and the eastern States, among that description of people who were
+partly monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays�s rebellion
+and the impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had
+actually had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of
+a government, and establishing them by force; had corresponded with
+one another, and had sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his
+co-operation. He refused to join them. The new convention was in the
+mean time proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people believed it
+impossible the States should ever agree on a government, as this must
+include the impost and all the other powers which the States had, a
+thousand times, refused to the general authority. They therefore let the
+proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure, and confiding
+that on its failure would be a still more favorable moment for their
+enterprise. They therefore wished it to fail, and especially, when
+Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his plan of government, failed
+entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust from the convention.
+His associates then took every method to prevent any form of government
+being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased trying, first one
+thing, then another, till they could get something agreed to. The final
+passage and adoption of the constitution completely defeated the
+views of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to establish a
+government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light on the
+conduct of several members from New York and the eastern States in the
+convention of Annapolis, and the grand convention. At that of Annapolis,
+several eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison�s proposition
+for a more general convention, with more general powers. They wished
+things to get more and more into confusion, to justify the violent
+measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by
+reasoning and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project,
+visionary and unexampled.
+
+
+February the 6th, 1798. Mr. Baldwin tells me, that in a conversation
+yesterday with Goodhue, on the state of our affairs, Goodhue said, �I�ll
+tell you what, I have made up my mind on this subject; I would rather
+the old ship should go down than not�; (meaning the Union of the
+States.) Mr. Hillhouse coming up, �Well,� says Mr. Baldwin, �I�ll tell
+my old friend Hillhouse what you say �; and he told him. �Well,� says
+Goodhue, �I repeat, that I would rather the old ship should go down,
+if we are to be always kept pumping so.� �Mr. Hillhouse,� says Baldwin,
+�you remember when we were learning logic together at school, there was
+the case categorical and the case hypothetical. Mr. Goodhue stated it to
+me first as the case categorical. I am glad to see that he now changes
+it to the case hypothetical, by adding, �if we are always to be kept
+pumping so.� Baldwin went on then to remind Goodhue what an advocate he
+had been for our tonnage duty, wanting to make it one dollar instead
+of fifty cents; and how impatiently he bore the delays of Congress
+in proceeding to retaliate on Great Britain before Mr. Madison�s
+propositions came on. Goodhue acknowledged that his opinions had changed
+since that.
+
+
+February the 15th, 1798. I dined this day with Mr. Adams, (the
+President.) The company was large. After dinner I was sitting next to
+him, and our conversation was first on the enormous price of labor,*
+house rent, and other things. We both concurred in ascribing it
+chiefly to the flood of bank paper now afloat, and in condemning those
+institutions. We then got on the constitution; and in the course of our
+conversation he said, that no republic could ever last which had not a
+Senate, and a Senate deeply and strongly rooted, strong enough to bear
+up against all popular storms and passions; that he thought our
+Senate as well constituted as it could have been, being chosen by the
+legislatures; for if these could not support them, he did not know what
+could do it; that perhaps it might have been as well for them to
+be chosen by the State at large, as that would insure a choice of
+distinguished men, since none but such could be known to a whole people;
+that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not durable enough;
+that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was afraid they
+would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular assembly for
+the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera imaginable;
+they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that he would
+as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety, who made
+the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been observed by
+some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more mischief in
+one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we might say
+with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one night,
+than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or thirty
+years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of the
+constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
+two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
+conduct they pursue.
+
+     * He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
+     fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
+     food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
+     dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
+
+March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for
+the British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower
+House, there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of
+committees of the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want
+of them, he, in his place, called on the committees to report, and
+particularly on Mr. King, who was of most of them. King said that it was
+true the committees kept back their reports, waiting the event of
+the question about appropriation: that if that was not carried, they
+considered legislation as at an end; that they might as well break up
+and consider the Union as dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment
+at these ideas, and called on King to know if he had misapprehended him.
+King rose again and repeated the same words. The next day, Cabot took
+an occasion in debate, and so awkward a one as to show it was a thing
+agreed to be done, to repeat the same sentiments in stronger terms, and
+carried further, by declaring a determination on their side to break up
+and dissolve the government.
+
+
+March the 11th. In conversation with Baldwin and Brown of Kentucky,
+Brown says that in a private company once, consisting of Hamilton, King,
+Madison, himself, and some one else making a fifth, speaking of the
+�federal government�; �Oh!� says Hamilton, �say the federal monarchy;
+let us call things by their right names, for a monarchy it is.�
+
+Baldwin mentions at table the following fact. When the bank bill was
+under discussion in the House of Representatives, Judge Wilson came in,
+and was standing by Baldwin. Baldwin reminded him of the following fact
+which passed in the grand convention. Among the enumerated powers given
+to Congress, was one to erect corporations. It was on debate struck
+out. Several particular powers were then proposed. Among others, Robert
+Morris proposed to give Congress a power to establish a national bank.
+Gouverneur Morris opposed it, observing that it was extremely doubtful
+whether the constitution they were framing could ever be passed at all
+by the people of America; that to give it its best chance, however, they
+should make it as palatable as possible and put nothing into it not
+very essential, which might raise up enemies; that his colleague (Robert
+Morris) well knew that �a bank� was, in their State (Pennsylvania)
+the very watch-word of party; that a bank had been the great bone of
+contention between the two parties of the State, from the establishment
+of their constitution, having been erected, put down, and erected again,
+as either party preponderated; that therefore, to insert this power,
+would instantly enlist against the whole instrument, the whole of the
+anti-bank party in Pennsylvania. Whereupon it was rejected, as was every
+other special power, except that of giving copyrights to authors, and
+patents to inventors; the general power of incorporating being whittled
+down to this shred. Wilson agreed to the fact.
+
+Mr. Hunter of South Carolina, who lodges with Rutledge, [* J. Rutledge,
+junior] tells me, that Rutledge was explaining to him the plan they
+proposed to pursue as to war measures, when Otis came in. Rutledge
+addressed Otis. �Now, Sir,� says he, �you must come forward with
+something liberal for the southern States, fortify their harbors and
+build galleys, in order to obtain their concurrence.� Otis said, �We
+insist on convoys for our European trade, and _guarda-costas_, on which
+condition alone, we will give them galleys and fortifications.� Rutledge
+observed, that in the event of war, McHenry and Pickering must go out;
+Wolcott, he thought, might remain, but the others were incapable of
+conducting a war. Otis said the eastern people would never abandon
+Pickering; he must be retained; McHenry might go. They considered
+together whether General Pinckney would accept the office of
+Secretary of War. They apprehended he would not. It was agreed in this
+conversation, that Sewall had more the ear of the President than any
+other person.
+
+
+March the 12th. When the bill for appropriations was before the
+Senate, Anderson moved to strike out a clause recognising (by way
+of appropriation) the appointment of a committee by the House of
+Representatives, to sit during their recess to collect evidence on
+Blount�s case, denying they had power, but by a law, to authorize a
+committee to sit during recess. Tracy advocated the motion, and said,
+�We may as well speak out. The committee was appointed by the House of
+Representatives, to take care of the British minister, to take care of
+the Spanish minister, to take care of the Secretary of State, in short,
+to take care of the President of the United States. They were afraid
+the President and Secretary of State would not perform the office of
+collecting evidence faithfully; that there would be collusion, &c.
+Therefore, the House appointed a committee of their own. We shall have
+them next sending a committee to Europe to make a treaty, &c. Suppose
+that the House of Representatives should resolve, that after the
+adjournment of Congress, they should continue to sit as a committee of
+the whole House during the whole recess.� This shows how the appointment
+of that committee has been viewed by the President�s friends.
+
+
+April the 5th. Doctor Rush tells me he had it from Mrs. Adams, that
+not a scrip of a pen has passed between the late and present President,
+since he came into office.
+
+
+April the 13th. New instructions of the British government to their
+armed ships now appear, which clearly infringe their treaty with us,
+by authorizing them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French
+colonies from those colonies to Europe, and to lake vessels bound to
+a blockaded port. See them in Brown�s paper, of April the 18th, in due
+form.
+
+The President has sent a government brig to France, probably to carry
+despatches. He has chosen as the bearer of these, one Humphreys, the son
+of a ship-carpenter, ignorant, under age, not speaking a word of French,
+most abusive of that nation; whose only merit is, the having mobbed and
+beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted
+and punished by fine.
+
+
+April the 25th. At a dinner given by the bar to the federal judges,
+Chase and Peters, present about twenty-four lawyers, and William
+Tilghman in the chair, this toast was given; �Our _King_ in old
+England.� Observe the double entendre on the word King. Du Ponceau,
+who was one of the bar present, told this to Tench Coxe, who told me
+in presence of H. Tazewell. Dallas was at the dinner; so was Colonel
+Charles Sims of Alexandria, who is here on a law-suit vs. General
+Irving.
+
+
+May the 3rd. The President some time ago appointed Steele, of Virginia,
+a commissioner to the Indians, and recently Secretary of the Mississippi
+Territory. Steele was a Counsellor of Virginia, and was voted out by the
+Assembly because he turned tory. He then offered for Congress, and was
+rejected by the people. Then offered for the Senate of Virginia, and was
+rejected. The President has also appointed Joseph Hopkinson commissioner
+to make a treaty with the Oneida Indians. He is a youth of about
+twenty-two or twenty-three, and has no other claims to such an
+appointment than extreme toryism, and the having made a poor song to the
+tune of the President�s March.
+
+
+October the 13th, 1798. Littlepage, who has been on one or two missions
+from Poland to Spain, said that when Gardoqui returned from America,
+he settled with his court an account of secret service money, of six
+hundred thousand dollars. _Ex relatione_ Colonel Monroe.
+
+
+January, 1799. In a conversation between Doctor Ewen and the President,
+the former said one of his sons was an aristocrat, the other a democrat.
+The President asked if it were not the youngest who was the democrat.
+�Yes,� said Ewen. �Well,� said the President, �a boy of fifteen who
+is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a
+democrat at twenty.� Ewen told Hurt, and Hurt told me.
+
+
+January the 14th. Logan tells me that in his conversation with Pickering
+on his arrival, the latter abused Gerry very much; said he was a traitor
+to his country, and had deserted the post to which he was appointed;
+that the French temporized at first with Pinckney, but found him too
+much of a man for their purpose. Logan observing, that, notwithstanding
+the pacific declarations of France, it might still be well to keep up.
+the military ardor of our citizens, and to have the militia in good
+order: �The militia,� said Pickering, �the militia never did any good to
+this country, except in the single affair of Bunker�s Hill; that we must
+have a standing army of fifty thousand men, which being stationed in
+different parts of the continent, might serve as rallying points for the
+militia, and so render them of some service.� In his conversation with
+Mr. Adams, Logan mentioned the willingness of the French to treat with
+Gerry. �And do you know why,� said Mr. Adams. �Why, Sir?� said
+Logan. �Because,� said Mr. Adams, �they know him to have been an
+anti-federalist, against the constitution.�
+
+
+January the 2nd, 1800. Information from Tench Coxe. Mr. Liston had sent
+two letters to the Governor of Canada by one Sweezy. He had sent copies
+of them, together with a third, (original) by one Cribs. Sweezy was
+arrested (being an old horse-thief), and his papers examined. T. Coxe
+had a sight of them. As soon as a rumor got out that there were letters
+of Mr. Liston disclosed, but no particulars yet mentioned, Mr. Liston
+suspecting that Cribs had betrayed him, thought it best to bring all
+his three letters, and lay them before Pickering, Secretary of State.
+Pickering thought them all very innocent. In his office they were seen
+by Mr. Hodgen of New Jersey, commissary of military stores, and the
+intimate friend of Pickering. It happens that there is some land
+partnership between Pickering, Hodgen, and Coxe, so that the latter is
+freely and intimately visited by Hodgen, who, moreover, speaks freely
+with him on political subjects. They were talking the news of the day,
+when Mr. Coxe observed that these intercepted letters of Liston were
+serious things; (nothing being yet out but a general rumor.) Hodgen
+asked which he thought the most serious. Coxe said the second; (for he
+knew yet of no other.) Hodgen said he thought little of any of them, but
+that the third was the most exceptionable. This struck Coxe, who, not
+betraying his ignorance of a third letter, asked generally what part of
+that he alluded to. Hodgen said to that wherein he assured the Governor
+of Canada, that if the French invaded Canada, an army would be marched
+from these States to his assistance. After this it became known that it
+was Sweezy who was arrested, and not Cribs; so that Mr. Liston had made
+an unnecessary disclosure of his third letter to Mr. Pickering, who,
+however, keeps his secret for him. In the beginning of the conversation
+between Hodgen and Coxe, Coxe happened to name Sweezy as the bearer of
+the letters. �That �s not his name,� says Hodgen, (for he did not know
+that two of the letters had been sent by Sweezy also) �his name is
+Cribs.� This put Coxe on his guard, and set him to fishing for the new
+matter.
+
+
+January the 10th. Doctor Rush tells me, that he had it from Samuel
+Lyman, that during the X. Y. Z. Congress, the federal members held the
+largest caucus they have ever had, at which he was present, and the
+question was proposed and debated, whether they should declare war
+against France, and determined in the negative. Lyman was against it. He
+tells me, that Mr. Adams told him, that when he came on in the fall to
+Trenton, he was there surrounded constantly by the opponents of the late
+mission to France. That Hamilton pressing him to delay it, said, �Why,
+Sir, by Christmas, Louis the XVIII. will be seated on his throne.� Mr.
+A. �By whom?� H. �By the coalition.� Mr. A. �Ah! then farewell to the
+independence of Europe. If a coalition, moved by the finger of England,
+is to give a government to France, there is an end to the independence
+of every country.�
+
+
+January the 12th. General Samuel Smith says that Pickering, Wolcott,
+and McHenry, wrote a joint letter from Trenton to the President, then at
+Braintree, dissuading him from the mission to France. Stoddard refused
+to join it. Stoddard says the instructions are such, that if the
+Directory have any disposition to reconciliation, a treaty will be made.
+He observed to him also, that Ellsworth looks beyond this mission to
+the Presidential chair. That with this view, he will endeavor to make
+a treaty, and a good one. That Davie has the same vanity and views. All
+this communicated by Stoddard to S. Smith.
+
+
+January the 13th. Baer and Harrison G. Otis told J. Nicholas, that in
+the caucus mentioned ante 10th, there wanted but five votes to produce a
+declaration of war. Baer was against it.
+
+
+January the 19th. W. C. Nicholas tells me, that in a conversation with
+Dexter three or four days ago, he asked Dexter whether it would not be
+practicable for the States to agree on some uniform mode of choosing
+electors of President. Dexter said, �I suppose you would prefer an
+election by districts.� �Yes,� said Nicholas, �I think it would be
+best; but would nevertheless agree to any other consistent with the
+constitution.� Dexter said he did not know what might be the opinion of
+his State, but his own was, that no mode of election would answer any
+good purpose; that he should prefer one for life. �On that reasoning,�
+said Nicholas, �you should prefer an hereditary one.� �No,� he said, �we
+are not ripe for that yet. I suppose,� added he, �this doctrine is not
+very popular with you.� �No,� said Nicholas, �it would effectually damn
+any man in my State.� �So it would in mine,� said Dexter; �but I am
+under no inducement to belie my sentiment; I have nothing to ask from
+any body; I had rather be at home than here, therefore I speak my
+sentiments freely.� Mr. Nicholas, a little before or after this, made
+the same proposition of a uniform election to Rossr who replied that he
+saw no good in any kind of election. �Perhaps,� said he, �the present
+one may last a while.� On the whole, Mr. Nicholas thinks he perceives,
+in that party, a willingness and a wish to let every thing go from bad
+to worse, to amend nothing, in hopes it may bring on confusion, and open
+a door to the kind of government they wish. In a conversation with Gunn,
+who goes with them, but thinks in some degree with us, Gunn told him
+that the very game which the minority of Pennsylvania is now playing
+with McKean (see substitute of minority in lower House, and address
+of Senate in upper), was meditated by the same party in the federal
+government, in case of the election of a republican President; and that
+the eastern States would in that case throw things into confusion,
+and break the Union. That they have in a great degree got rid of their
+paper, so as no longer to be creditors, and the moment they cease to
+enjoy the plunder of the immense appropriations now exclusively theirs,
+they would aim at some other order of things.
+
+
+January the 24th. Mr. Smith, a merchant of Hamburg, gives me the
+following information. The St. Andrew�s Club, of New York, (all
+of Scotch tories,) gave a public dinner lately. Among other guests
+Alexander Hamilton was one. After dinner, the first toast was �The
+President of the United States.� It was drunk without any particular
+approbation. The next was, �George the Third.� Hamilton started up on
+his feet, and insisted on a bumper and three cheers. The whole company
+accordingly rose and gave the cheers. One of them, though a federalist,
+was so disgusted at the partiality shown by Hamilton to a foreign
+sovereign over his own President, that he mentioned it to a Mr.
+Schwart-house, an American merchant of New York, who mentioned it to
+Smith.
+
+Mr. Smith also tells me, that calling one evening on Mr. Evans, then
+Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and asking
+the news, Evans said, Harper had just been there, and speaking of the
+President�s setting out to Braintree, said, �he prayed to God that his
+horses might run away with him, or some other accident happen to break
+his neck before he reached Braintree.� This was in indignation at his
+having named Murray, &c. to negotiate with France. Evans approved of the
+wish.
+
+
+February the 1st. Doctor Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green,
+that when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure
+from the government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had
+never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief
+in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their
+address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a
+Christian or not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was
+too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address
+particularly except that, which he passed over without notice. Rush
+observes, he never did say a word on the subject in any of his public
+papers, except in his valedictory letter to the Governors of the States
+when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of �the
+benign influence of the Christian religion.�
+
+I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
+believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
+believed no more of that system than he himself did.
+
+
+March, 1800. Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate, on the motion
+against the Aurora. That there is in every legal body of men a right of
+self-preservation, authorizing them to do whatever is necessary for that
+purpose: by Tracy, Read, and Lawrence. That the common law authorizes
+the proceeding proposed against the Aurora, and is in force here: by
+Read. That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite: by
+Read.
+
+Tracy says, he would not say exactly that the common law of England in
+all its extent is in force here; but common sense reason, and morality,
+which are the foundations of the common law, are in force here, and
+establish a common law. He held himself so nearly half way between the
+common law of England and what every body else has called natural law,
+and not common law, that he could hold to either the one or the other,
+as he should find expedient.
+
+Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
+United States.
+
+Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.
+
+
+March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
+in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life
+had, directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which
+is an absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty
+well ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on
+Davila. This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though
+long and universally understood to be so.
+
+
+March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws
+in his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney�s letters on Robbins�s
+case. Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of
+that place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to
+about one hundred dollars a year.
+
+
+March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that
+Thatcher, on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had
+been for a declaration of war against France, and many others also; but
+that on counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore
+did not attempt it.
+
+
+March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information.
+He and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found
+him keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the
+study of the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator,
+and particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still
+were in concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed
+him there was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the
+government, who were in league with France; that France, by a secret
+article of treaty with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great
+Britain was likely to be our best friend and dependence.
+
+On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
+for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
+General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on
+him, and he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on
+their grievances under the government, and particularly the western
+expedition; that he spoke to him of the advantages that country would
+have in joining France when she should hold Louisiana; showed him a map
+he had drawn of that part of the country; pointed out the passes in the
+mountain, and the facility with which they might hold them against
+the United States, and with which France could support them from New
+Orleans. He says, that in these conversations, Collot let himself out
+without common prudence. He says, Michaux (to whom I, at the request of
+Genet, had given a letter of introduction to the Governor of Kentucky as
+a botanist, which was his real profession,) called on him; that Michaux
+had a commissary�s commission for the expedition, which Genet had
+planned from that quarter against the Spaniards; that ----------,
+the late Spanish commandant of St. Genevieve, with one Powers, an
+Englishman, called on him. That from all these circumstances, together
+with Ross�s stories, he did believe that there was a conspiracy to
+deliver our country, or some part of it at least, to the French; that he
+made notes of what passed between himself and Collot and the others, and
+lent them to Mr. Ross, who gave them to the President, by whom they were
+deposited in the office of the Board of War; that when he complained
+to Ross of this breach of confidence, he endeavored to get off by
+compliments on the utility and importance of his notes. They now cooled
+towards each other; and his opposition to Ross�s election as Governor
+has separated them in truth, though not entirely to appearance.
+
+Doctor Rush tells me, that within a few days he has heard a member
+of Congress lament our separation from Great Britain, and express his
+sincere wishes that we were again dependent on her.
+
+
+December the 25th, 1800. Colonel Hitchburn tells me what Colonel Monroe
+had before told me of, as coming from Hitchburn. He was giving me the
+characters of persons in Massachusetts. Speaking of Lowell, he said he
+was, in the beginning of the Revolution, a timid whig, but as soon as he
+found we were likely to prevail, he became a great office-hunter. And in
+the very breath of speaking of Lowell, he stopped: says he, I will give
+you a piece of information which I do not venture to speak of to others.
+There was a Mr. Hale in Massachusetts, a reputable, worthy man, who
+becoming a little embarrassed in his affairs, I aided him, which
+made him very friendly to me. He went to Canada on some business. The
+Governor there took great notice of him. On his return, he took occasion
+to mention to me that he was authorized by the Governor of Canada
+to give from three to five thousand guineas each to himself and some
+others, to induce them not to do any thing to the injury of their
+country, but to befriend a good connection between England and it.
+Hitchburn said he would think of it, and asked Hale to come and dine
+with him to-morrow. After dinner he drew Hale fully out. He told him he
+had his doubts, but particularly, that he should not like to be alone in
+such a business. On that, Hale named to him four others who were to
+be engaged, two of whom, said Hitchburn, are now dead, and two living.
+Hitchburn, when he had got all he wanted out of Hale, declined in a
+friendly way. But he observed those, four men, from that moment, to
+espouse the interests of England in every point and on every occasion.
+Though he did not name the men to me, yet as the speaking of Lowell was
+what brought into his Read to tell me this anecdote, I concluded he was
+one. From other circumstances respecting Stephen Higginson, of whom he
+spoke, I conjectured him to be the other living one.
+
+
+December the 26th. In another conversation, I mentioned to Colonel
+Hitchburn, that though he had not named names, I had strongly suspected
+Higginson to be one of Hale�s men. He smiled and said, if I had strongly
+suspected any man wrongfully from his information, he would undeceive
+me: that there were no persons he thought more strongly to be suspected
+himself, than Higginson and Lowell. I considered this as saying they
+were the men. Higginson is employed in an important business about our
+navy.
+
+
+February the 12th, 1801. Edward Livingston tells me, that Bayard applied
+to-day or last night to General Samuel Smith, and represented to him
+the expediency of his coming over to the States who vote for Burr, that
+there was nothing in the way of appointment which he might not command,
+and particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. Smith asked
+him if he was authorized to make the offer. He said he was authorized.
+Smith told this to Livingston, and to W. C. Nicholas, who confirms it
+to me. Bayard in like manner tempted Livingston, not by offering
+any particular office, but by representing to him his (Livingston�s)
+intimacy and connection with Burr; that from him he had every thing to
+expect, if he would come over to him. To Doctor Linn of New Jersey, they
+have offered the government of New Jersey. See a paragraph in Martin�s
+Baltimore paper of February the 10th, signed, �a looker on,� staling an
+intimacy of views between Harper and Burr.
+
+
+February the 14th. General Armstrong tells me, that Gouverneur Morris,
+in conversation with him to-day on the scene which is passing, expressed
+himself thus. �How comes it,� says he, �that Burr, who is four hundred
+miles off (at Albany), has agents here at work with great activity,
+while Mr. Jefferson, who is on the spot, does nothing?� This explains
+the ambiguous conduct of himself and his nephew, Lewis Morris, and that
+they were holding themselves free for a price; i.e. some office, either
+to the uncle or nephew.
+
+
+February the 16th. See in the Wilmington Mirror of February the 14th,
+Mr. Bayard�s elaborate argument to prove that the common law, as
+modified by the laws of the respective States at the epoch of the
+ratification of the constitution, attached to the courts of the United
+States.
+
+
+June the 23rd, 1801. Andrew Ellicot tells me, that in a conversation
+last summer with Major William Jackson of Philadelphia, on the subject
+of our intercourse with Spain, Jackson said we had managed our affairs
+badly; that he himself was the author of the papers against the Spanish
+minister signed Americanus; that his object was irritation; that he was
+anxious, if it could have been brought, about, to have plunged us into a
+war with Spain, that the people might have been occupied with that, and
+not with the conduct of the administration, and other things they had no
+business to meddle with.
+
+
+December the 13th, 1803. The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who
+is now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in
+Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this
+enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which
+he meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in
+a civil character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his
+name, he being then President, and the application going only for his
+name, and not for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and
+considering, said, �he saw no possibility of continuing the union of
+the States; that their dissolution must necessarily take place; that he
+therefore saw no propriety in recommending to New England men to promote
+a literary institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength
+to those who were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have
+nothing to do with it.�
+
+December the 31st. After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of
+Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed
+the insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the
+Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was
+spoken out which was known; that it would then appear on which side
+there was a bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode
+Island, urging him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words. �What is
+it you want, Colonel Lyon? Is it office, is it money? Only say what you
+want, and you shall have it.�
+
+January the 2nd, 1804. Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding
+me of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the
+Presidential election, says he did not therein give the details. That he
+was in company at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and ------ that in the
+course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, �We must
+have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.� �How is it to
+be done,� says Hitchburn; �Mr. Jefferson�s friends will not quit him,
+and his enemies are not strong enough to carry another.� �Why,� says
+Burr, �our friends must join the federalists, and give the President.�
+�The next morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same,
+saying, �We cannot be without a President, our friends must join the
+federal vote.� �But,� says Hitchburn, �we shall then be without a
+Vice-President; who is to be our Vice-President?� Colonel Burr answered,
+�Mr. Jefferson.�
+
+
+January the 26th. Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the
+evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me.
+He began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a
+stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two
+rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not
+political, and he meddled not. When the crisis, however, of 1800 came
+on, they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the
+people. He lent it without any views of promotion. That his being named
+as a candidate for Vice-President was unexpected by him. He acceded to
+it with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to
+be with me, whose company and conversation had always been fascinating
+to him. That, since, those great families had become hostile to him,
+and had excited the calumnies which I had seen published. That in this
+Hamilton had joined, and had even written some of the pieces against
+him. That his attachment to me had been sincere, and was still
+unchanged, although many little stories had been carried to him, and
+he supposed to me also, which he despised; but that attachments must be
+reciprocal, or cease to exist, and therefore he asked if any change
+had taken place in mine towards him; that he had chosen to have this
+conversation with myself directly, and not through any intermediate
+agent. He reminded me of a letter written to him about the time of
+counting the votes (say February, 1801), mentioning that his election
+had left a chasm in my arrangements; that I had lost him from my list
+in the administration, &c. He observed, he believed it would be for
+the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a
+disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place; but that were he to
+retire, it would be said he shrunk from the public sentence, which he
+never would do; that his enemies were using my name to destroy him,
+and something was necessary from me to prevent and deprive them of that
+weapon, some mark of favor from me which would declare to the world that
+he retired with my confidence.
+
+I answered by recapitulating to him what had been my conduct previous
+to the election of 1800. That I had never interfered directly or
+indirectly, with my friends or any others, to influence the election
+either for him or myself; that I considered it as my duty to be merely
+passive, except that in Virginia I had taken some measures to procure
+for him the unanimous vote of that State, because I thought any failure
+there might be imputed to me. That in the election now coming on, I was
+observing the same conduct, held no councils with any body respecting
+it, nor suffered any one to speak to me on the subject, believing it my
+duty to leave myself to the free discussion of the public; that I do
+not at this moment know, nor have ever heard, who were to be proposed
+as candidates for the public choice, except so far as could be gathered
+from the newspapers. That as to the attack excited against him in the
+newspapers, I had noticed it but as the passing wind; that I had seen
+complaints that Cheetham, employed in publishing the laws, should be
+permitted to eat the public bread and abuse its second officer: that as
+to this, the publishers of the laws were appointed by the Secretary of
+State, without any reference to me; that to make the notice general, it
+was often given to one republican and one federal printer of the same
+place; that these federal printers did not in the least intermit their
+abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the government, and that
+I have never thought it proper to interfere for myself, and consequently
+not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to the letter he referred
+to, I remembered it, and believed he had only mistaken the date at which
+it was written; that I thought it must have been on the first notice of
+the event of the election of South Carolina; and that I had taken that
+occasion to mention to him, that I had intended to have proposed to
+him one of the great offices, if he had not been elected; but that his
+election, in giving him a higher station, had deprived me of his aid in
+the administration. The letter alluded to was, in fact, mine to him of
+December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain to him verbally,
+what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That in General
+Washington�s time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams, the
+Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
+Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams
+was a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts,
+indeed, his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away
+the person who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution
+to take his place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be
+disposing of the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor
+for the public favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I
+recollect rightly, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave
+the same opinions. That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in
+his first interview with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to
+France, and how desirable it would have been to him if he could have got
+me to undertake it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to
+send me away, and assigned the same reasons General Washington had done;
+and therefore, he should appoint Mr. Madison, &c. That I had myself
+contemplated his (Colonel Burr�s) appointment to one of the great
+offices, in case he was not elected Vice-President; but that as soon
+as that election was known, I saw it could not be done, for the good
+reasons which had led General Washington and Mr. Adams to the same
+conclusion; and therefore, in my first letter to Colonel Burr, after the
+issue was known, I had mentioned to him that a chasm in my arrangements
+had been produced by this event. I was thus particular in rectifying the
+date of this letter, because it gave me an opportunity of explaining the
+grounds on which it was written, which were, indirectly, an answer to
+his present hints. He left the matter with me for consideration, and the
+conversation was turned to indifferent subjects. I should here notice,
+that Colonel Burr must have thought I could swallow strong things in
+my own favor, when he founded his acquiescence to the nomination as
+Vice-President, to his desire of promoting my honor, the being with me,
+whose company and conversation had always been fascinating with him, &c.
+I had never seen Colonel Burr till he came as a member of Senate. His
+conduct very soon inspired me with distrust. I habitually cautioned
+Mr. Madison against trusting him too much. I saw afterwards, that under
+General Washington�s and Mr. Adams�s administrations, whenever a great
+military appointment or a diplomatic one was to be made, he came post to
+Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact that he was always at market,
+if they had wanted him. He was indeed told by Dayton in 1800, he
+might be Secretary at War; but this bid was too late! His election as
+Vice-President was then foreseen. With these impressions of Colonel
+Burr, there never had been an intimacy between us, and but little
+association. When I destined him for a high appointment, it was out of
+respect for the favor he had obtained with the republican party, by his
+extraordinary exertions and success in the New York election in 1800.
+
+
+April the 15th, 1806. About a month ago, Colonel Burr called on me, and
+entered into a conversation, in which he mentioned, that a little before
+my coming into office, I had written to him a letter intimating that I
+had destined him for a high employ, had he not been placed by the people
+in a different one; that he had signified his willingness to resign as
+Vice-President, to give aid to the administration in any other place;
+that he had never asked an office, however; he asked aid of nobody, but
+could walk on his own legs and take care of himself; that I had always
+used him with politeness, but nothing more; that he aided in bringing on
+the present order of things; that he had supported the administration;
+and that he could do me much harm: he wished, however, to be
+on different ground: he was now disengaged from all particular
+business--willing to engage in something--should be in town some days,
+if I should have any thing to propose to him. I observed to him, that
+I had always been sensible that he possessed talents which might be
+employed greatly to the advantage of the public, and that, as to myself,
+I had a confidence that if he were employed, he would use his talents
+for the public good: but that he must be sensible the public had
+withdrawn their confidence from him, and that in a government like ours
+it was necessary to embrace in its administration as great a mass of
+public confidence as possible, by employing those who had a character
+with the public, of their own, and not merely a secondary one through
+the executive. He observed, that if we believed a few newspapers, it
+might be supposed he had lost the public confidence, but that I knew how
+easy it was to engage newspapers in any thing. I observed, that I
+did not refer to that kind of evidence of his having lost the public
+confidence, but to the late Presidential election, when, though in
+possession of the office of Vice-President, there was not a single voice
+heard for his retaining it. That as to any harm he could do me, I knew
+no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I feared no
+injury which any man could do me: that I never had done a single act,
+or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully laid
+open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated: that I had never
+done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of any
+friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:
+that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive
+of action with me. He has continued in town to this time; dined with me
+this day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.
+
+I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now,
+because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of
+Mr. Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor
+to any other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to have
+addressed to me, during the pending of the Presidential election in
+February, 1801, through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on
+which my election might be obtained, and that General Smith, after
+conversing with me, gave answers from me. This is absolutely false. No
+proposition of any kind was ever made to me on that occasion by General
+Smith, nor any answer authorized by me. And this fact General Smith
+affirms at this moment.
+
+For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th
+and 14th, 1801, made at the moment. But the following transactions
+took place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential
+election was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at
+the time, they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now
+as fresh, as to their principal circumstances, as if they had happened
+yesterday. Coming out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur
+Morris on the steps. He stopped me, and began a conversation on the
+strange and portentous state of things then existing, and went on to
+observe, that the reasons why the minority of States was so opposed to
+my being elected, were, that they apprehended that, 1. I would turn all
+federalists out of office; 2. put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public
+debt. That I need only to declare, or authorize my friends to declare,
+that I would not take these steps, and instantly the event of the
+election would be fixed. I told him, that I should leave the world
+to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued
+hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the
+present scene; that I should certainly make no terms; should never go
+into the office of President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by
+any conditions which should hinder me from pursuing the measures which
+I should deem for the public good. It was understood that Gouverneur
+Morris had entirely the direction of the vote of Lewis Morris of
+Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would have added another
+vote, and decided the election. About the same time, I called on Mr.
+Adams. We conversed on the state of things. I observed to him, that
+a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to defeat the
+Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the right of
+the Senate to name a President of the Senate, to devolve on him the
+government during any interregnum: that such a measure would probably
+produce resistance by force, and incalculable consequences, which it
+would be in his power to prevent by negativing such an act. He seemed to
+think such an act justifiable, and observed, it was in my power to fix
+the election by a word in an instant, by declaring I would not turn out
+the federal officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national
+debt. Finding his mind made up as to the usurpation of the government by
+the President of the Senate, I urged it no further, observed, the
+world must judge as to myself of the future by the past, and turned the
+conversation to something else. About the same time, Dwight Foster of
+Massachusetts called on me in my room one night, and went into a very
+long conversation on the state of affairs, the drift of which was to let
+me understand, that the fears above mentioned were the only obstacle to
+my election, to all of which I avoided giving any answer the one way
+or the other. From this moment he became most bitterly and personally
+opposed to me, and so has ever continued. I do not recollect that I
+ever had any particular conversation with General Samuel Smith on this
+subject. Very possibly I had, however, as the general subject and
+all its parts were the constant themes of conversation in the private
+t�te-�-t�tes with our friends. But certain I am, that neither he nor
+any other republican ever uttered the most distant hint to me about
+submitting to any conditions, or giving any assurances to any body;
+and still more certainly, was neither he nor any other person ever
+authorized by me to say what I would or would not do.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+[The following official opinion, though inadvertently omitted in its
+proper place, is deemed of sufficient importance to be inserted here.]
+
+The bill for establishing a National Bank, undertakes, among other
+things,
+
+1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
+
+2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of
+land; and so far, is against the laws of _Mortmain_.*
+
+     * Though the constitution controls the laws of Mortmain, so
+     far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain
+     purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a
+     similar right to other corporate bodies.
+
+3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far, is
+against the laws of Alienage.
+
+4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain
+line of successors; and so far, changes the course of Descents.
+
+5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat; and so
+far, is against the laws of _Forfeiture_ and _Escheat_.
+
+6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain line; and so
+far, is against the laws of Distribution.
+
+7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the
+national authority; and so far, is against the laws of Monopoly.
+
+8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws of
+the States; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution
+from the control of the State legislatures; and so, probably, they will
+be construed.
+
+I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this ground,
+that all powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution
+nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to
+the people.� (Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond the
+boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to
+take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of
+any definition.
+
+The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill,
+have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the
+constitution.
+
+I. They are not among the powers specially, enumerated. For these are,
+
+1. A power to _lay taxes_ for the purpose of paying the debts of the
+United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were
+it a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it
+by the constitution.
+
+2. To �borrow money.� But this bill neither borrows money, nor insures
+the borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free
+as any other money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to the
+public. The operation proposed in the bill, first to lend them two
+millions, and then borrow them back again cannot change the nature of
+the latter act, which will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by
+what name you please.
+
+3. �To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the States, and
+with the Indian tribes.� To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are
+very different acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject of commerce
+in its bills: so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar
+out of the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce
+thereby. To make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to
+prescribe regulations for buying and selling. Besides, if this were
+an exercise of the power of regulating commerce, it would be void, as
+extending as much to the internal commerce of every State, as to its
+external. For the power given to Congress by the constitution, does not
+extend to the internal regulation, of the commerce of a State (that
+is to say, of the commerce between citizen and citizen), which remains
+exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce
+only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign
+nations, or with the Indian tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not
+propose the measure as a �regulation of trade,� but as �productive of
+considerable advantage to trade.�
+
+Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
+enumerations.
+
+II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
+following.
+
+1. �To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United
+States�; that is to say, �to lay taxes for the purpose of providing
+for the general welfare.� For the laying of taxes is the power, and
+the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised.
+Congress are not to lay taxes, _ad libitum_, for any purpose they
+please: but only to pay the debts, or provide for the welfare of the
+Union. In like manner, they are not to do any thing they please, to
+provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.
+To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the
+first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they
+please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the
+preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
+It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of
+instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good
+of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good
+or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased. It
+is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either
+of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the
+other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the
+others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given
+them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated
+powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be
+carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed as
+a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which formed the
+constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to
+open parials, and an amendatory one, to empower them to incorporate.
+But the whole was rejected; and one of the reasons of rejection urged
+in debate was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank,
+which would render the great cities, where there were prejudices
+and jealousies on that subject, adverse to the reception of the
+constitution.
+
+2. The second general phrase is, �to make all laws necessary and proper
+for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.� But they can all
+be carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not
+necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase.
+
+It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or
+convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the
+constitution allows only the means which are �necessary� not those which
+are merely �convenient� for effecting the enumerated powers. If such
+a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any
+non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which
+ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to
+some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up
+all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before
+observed. Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them to the
+necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant
+of the power would be nugatory.
+
+But let us examine this �convenience,� and see what it is. The report
+on this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience to be, the
+preventing the transportation and re-transportation of money between the
+States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase of circulating
+medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, according to my ideas of
+paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every State will have to pay a sum
+of tax-money into the treasury; and the treasury will have to pay in
+every State a part of the interest on the public debt, and salaries
+to the officers of government resident in that State. In most of the
+States, there will be still a surplus of tax-money, to come up to the
+seat of government, for the officers residing there. The payments of
+interest and salary in each State, may be made by treasury orders on the
+state collector. This will take up the greater part of the money he has
+collected in his State and consequently prevent the great mass of it
+from being drawn out of the state. If there be a balance of commerce in
+favor of that State, against the one in which the government resides,
+the surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for
+that commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. But if
+there be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the
+banks in the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but in the
+form of money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of exchange, may prevent
+the displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the
+aid of any bank: and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with
+that aid.
+
+Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than
+treasury orders. But a little difference in the degree of convenience,
+cannot constitute the necessity which the constitution makes the ground
+for assuming any non-enumerated power.
+
+Besides; the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into arrangements
+for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a
+competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill delivers us up bound
+to the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangements but on
+their own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal to employ any
+other bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by
+their post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasury, are paid
+by any State collector to whom they are presented. This expedient alone,
+suffices to prevent the existence of that necessity which may justify
+the assumption of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into
+effect an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, and
+well done, without this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that
+degree of necessity which can honestly justify it.
+
+It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency all over
+the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency is limited
+to a single State. So it would be still more convenient, that there
+should be a bank whose bills should have a currency all over the world.
+But it does not follow from this superior conveniency, that there exists
+any where a power to establish such a bank, or that the world may not
+go on very well without it. Can it be thought that the constitution
+intended, that for a shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress
+should be authorized to break down the most ancient and fundamental
+laws of the several States, such as those against mortmain, the laws of
+alienage, the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws
+of escheat and forfeiture, and the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a
+necessity invincible by any other means, can justify such a prostration
+of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of
+jurisprudence. Will Congress be too strait-laced to carry the
+constitution into honest effect, unless they may pass over the
+foundation laws of the State governments, for the slightest convenience
+to theirs?
+
+The negative of the President is the shield provided by the
+constitution, to protect against the invasions of the legislature, 1.
+the rights of the Executive; 2. of the Judiciary; 3. of the States
+and State legislatures. The present is the case of a right remaining
+exclusively with the States, and is, consequently, one of those intended
+by the constitution to be placed under his protection.
+
+It must be added, however, that unless the President�s mind, on a view
+of every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably
+clear that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the pro and the
+con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the
+wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of
+their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by
+error, ambition, or interest, that the constitution has placed a check
+in the negative of the President.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+February 15, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And
+Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
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diff --git a/16784-8.zip b/16784-8.zip
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas
+      Jefferson, Vol IV.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies,
+From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Editor: Thomas Jefferson Randolph
+
+Illustrator: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2005 [EBook #16784]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/spines.jpg"
+       alt="Book Spines, 1829 Set of Jefferson Papers " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, <br /> FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS
+      JEFFERSON.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3">
+      <tbody>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a href="#linkcontents"><big><b>Contents</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a href="#linkillustrations"><big><b>Illustrations</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16781/16781-h/16781-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;I.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16782/16782-h/16782-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;II.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16783/16783-h/16783-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;III.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+      </tbody>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg"
+       alt="Steel Engraving by Longacre from Painting of G. Stuart " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/TP4.jpg" alt="Titlepage of Volume Three (of Four) "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h3>
+      VOLUME IV.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkcontents" id="linkcontents"></a><br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <h2>
+        CONTENTS
+      </h2>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> LETTER I.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LEVI LINCOLN,
+        August 30, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> LETTER II.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0003">
+        LETTER III.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> LETTER IV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M.
+        DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0005">
+        LETTER V.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> LETTER VI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DAVID WILLIAMS,
+        November 14, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> LETTER VII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008">
+        LETTER VIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> LETTER IX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY,
+        January 29, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> LETTER X.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011">
+        LETTER XI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> LETTER XII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS, June
+        13,1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> LETTER XIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014">
+        LETTER, XIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0015"> LETTER XV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22,
+        1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> LETTER XVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0017">
+        LETTER XVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> LETTER XVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS,
+        September 11, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> LETTER XIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0020">
+        LETTER XX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0021"> LETTER XXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE TYLER, March
+        29, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> LETTER XXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> LETTER
+        XXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0024"> LETTER XXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS PAINE, June
+        5, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> LETTER XXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0026"> LETTER XXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. DUANE, March
+        22, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> LETTER XXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0028">
+        LETTER XXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> LETTER XXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR.
+        HARRIS, April 18, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> LETTER XXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> LETTER XXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> LETTER
+        XXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0033"> LETTER XXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR DIGGES, July
+        1, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> LETTER XXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> LETTER
+        XXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0036"> LETTER XXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO W. A. BURWELL,
+        September 17, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> LETTER XXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0038">
+        LETTER XXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> LETTER XXXIX,</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C.
+        NICHOLAS, February 28,1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> LETTER
+        XL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0041"> LETTER XLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;M. LE COMTE DIODATI,
+        March 29, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> LETTER XLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> LETTER
+        XLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0044"> LETTER XLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June
+        2, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> LETTER XLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0046">
+        LETTER XLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0047"> LETTER XLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR HORATIO
+        TURPIN, June 10, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> LETTER
+        XLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0049"> LETTER XLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM SHORT,
+        June 12, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> LETTER L.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> LETTER
+        LI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0052"> LETTER LII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June
+        19,1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> LETTER LIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0054">
+        LETTER LIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0055"> LETTER LV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June
+        21, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> LETTER LVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> LETTER
+        LVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> LETTER LVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN PAGE,
+        July 17, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> LETTER LIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> LETTER
+        LX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0061"> LETTER LXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY,
+        September 4, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> LETTER LXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0063">
+        LETTER LXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> LETTER LXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0065">
+        LETTER LXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> LETTER LXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO RICHARD M.
+        JOHNSON, March 10, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> LETTER
+        LXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0068"> LETTER LXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CHARLES
+        PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> LETTER
+        LXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0070"> LETTER LXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ROBERT L.
+        LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> LETTER
+        LXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> LETTER LXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LIEUTENANT
+        GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0073">
+        LETTER LXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24,
+        1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> LETTER LXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0075">
+        LETTER LXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0076"> LETTER LXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS MANN
+        RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0077"> LETTER
+        LXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0078"> LETTER LXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M. DUPONT DE
+        NEMOURS, March 2, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0079"> LETTER
+        LXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0080"> LETTER LXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE INHABITANTS OF
+        ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0081">
+        LETTER LXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0082"> LETTER LXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE
+        PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0083"> LETTER
+        LXXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0084"> LETTER LXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DON VALENTINE
+        DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0085"> LETTER
+        LXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0086"> LETTER LXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY,
+        February 10, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0087"> LETTER LXXXVII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0088">
+        LETTER LXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0089"> LETTER LXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0090"> LETTER
+        XC.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0091"> LETTER XCI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        July 16,1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0092"> LETTER XCII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0093">
+        LETTER XCIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0094"> LETTER XCIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN
+        RUSH, January 16, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0095"> LETTER XCV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0096">
+        LETTER XCVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0097"> LETTER XCVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        August 14, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0098"> LETTER XCVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0099"> LETTER XCIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0100"> LETTER
+        C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0101"> LETTER CI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MAURY, April
+        25, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0102"> LETTER CII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0103"> LETTER
+        CIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0104"> LETTER CIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE TYLER, June
+        17,1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0105"> LETTER CV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0106"> LETTER CVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. MELISH, January
+        13, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0107"> LETTER CVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MADAME DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0108"> LETTER CVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, May
+        27, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0109"> LETTER CIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0110"> LETTER
+        CX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0111"> LETTER CXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, June
+        21, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0112"> LETTER CXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0113"> LETTER
+        CXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0114"> LETTER CXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        October 13, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0115"> LETTER CXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0116"> LETTER
+        CXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0117"> LETTER CXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR WALTER
+        JONES, January 2,1814 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0118"> LETTER
+        CXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0119"> LETTER CXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        July 5, 1814 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0120"> LETTER CXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0121">
+        LETTER CXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14,
+        1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0122"> LETTER CXXII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0123"> LETTER
+        CXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0124"> LETTER CXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        March 17, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0125"> LETTER CXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0126"> LETTER
+        CXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0127"> LETTER CXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. LEIPER, June
+        12, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0128"> LETTER CXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0129"> LETTER
+        CXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0130"> LETTER CXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, April
+        8, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0131"> LETTER CXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0132"> LETTER
+        CXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0133"> LETTER CXXXIII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO BENJAMIN
+        AUSTIN, January 9, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0134"> LETTER
+        CXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0135"> LETTER CXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO SAMUEL
+        KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0136"> LETTER
+        CXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0137"> LETTER CXXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO SAMUEL
+        KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0138"> LETTER
+        CXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0139"> LETTER CXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, TO
+        JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0140"> LETTER CXL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0141"> LETTER
+        CXLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0142"> LETTER CXLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ALBERT
+        GALLATIN, June 16, 1817 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0143"> LETTER
+        CXLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0144"> LETTER CXLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        November 13, 1818 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0145"> LETTER CXLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0146">
+        LETTER CXLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0147"> LETTER CXLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR VINE
+        UTLEY, March 21, 1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0148"> LETTER
+        CXLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0149"> LETTER CXLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE ROANE,
+        September 6,1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0150"> LETTER CL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0151">
+        LETTER CLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0152"> LETTER CLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN HOLMES,
+        April 22, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0153"> LETTER CLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0154">
+        LETTER CLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0155"> LETTER CLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL,
+        November 28, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0156"> LETTER CLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0157">
+        LETTER CLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0158"> LETTER CLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C
+        CABELL, January 31, 1821 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0159"> LETTER
+        CLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0160"> LETTER CLX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO &mdash; &mdash;
+        &mdash; NICHOLAS, December 11,1821 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0161">
+        LETTER CLXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0162"> LETTER CLXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR
+        BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0163">
+        LETTER CLXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0164"> LETTER CLXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM T. BARRY,
+        July 2, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0165"> LETTER CLXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0166">
+        LETTER CLXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0167"> LETTER CLXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR COOPER,
+        November 2, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0168"> LETTER CLXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0169">
+        LETTER, CLXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0170"> LETTER CLXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        April 11, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0171"> LETTER CLXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0172"> LETTER
+        CLXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0173"> LETTER CLXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MADISON,
+        August 30,1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0174"> LETTER CLXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0175">
+        LETTER CLXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0176"> LETTER CLXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE
+        PRESIDENT, October 24,1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0177"> LETTER
+        CLXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0178"> LETTER CLXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0179">
+        LETTER CLXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0180"> LETTER CLXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO EDWARD
+        LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0181"> LETTER
+        CLXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0182"> LETTER CLXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MARTIN VAN
+        BUREN, June 29, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0183"> LETTER
+        CLXXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0184"> LETTER CLXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C.
+        CABELL, January 11, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0185"> LETTER
+        CLXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0186"> LETTER CLXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0187">
+        LETTER CLXXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0188"> LETTER CLXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0189">
+        LETTER CLXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0190"> LETTER CXC.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0191">
+        LETTER CXCI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0192"> THOUGHTS </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ON LOTTERIES. <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0193"> LETTER CXCII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN QUINCY
+        ADAMS, March 30, 1826 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0194"> LETTER
+        CXCIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0195"> ANA.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;EXPLANATION OF VOLUMES IN
+        MARBLED PAPER <br /><br /> <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <hr />
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br /> <a name="linkillustrations" id="linkillustrations"></a><br />
+      </p>
+      <h2>
+        List of Illustrations
+      </h2>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Book Spines, 1829 Set of Jefferson Papers
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Steel Engraving by Longacre from Painting of
+        G. Stuart </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> Titlepage of Volume Three (of Four) </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Pages With Greek Phrases and Tables:
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> Page77 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> Page201 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> Page205 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> Page225 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> Page226 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> Page227 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> Page227a </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> Page229 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> Page240 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> Page331 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> Page332 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> Page364 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> Page365 </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER I.&mdash;TO LEVI LINCOLN, August 30, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deak. Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enclosed letter came to hand by yesterday&rsquo;s post. You will be sensible
+      of the circumstances which make it improper that I should hazard a formal
+      answer, as well as of the desire its friendly aspect naturally excites,
+      that those concerned in it should understand that the spirit they express
+      is friendly viewed. You can judge also from your knowledge of the ground,
+      whether it may be usefully encouraged. I take the liberty, therefore, of
+      availing myself of your neighborhood to Boston, and of your friendship to
+      me, to request you to say to the Captain and others verbally whatever you
+      think would be proper, as expressive of my sentiments on the subject. With
+      respect to the day on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may
+      be told, that disapproving myself of transferring the honors and
+      veneration for the great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of
+      dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be
+      known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the
+      uniform answer to every application of the kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On further consideration as to the amendment to our constitution
+      respecting Louisiana, I have thought it better, instead of enumerating the
+      powers which Congress may exercise, to give them the same powers they have
+      as to other portions of the Union generally, and to enumerate the special
+      exceptions, in some such form as the following.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of the
+      United States, its white inhabitants shall be citizens, and stand, as to
+      their rights and obligations, on the same footing with other citizens of
+      the United States, in analogous situations. Save only that as to the
+      portion thereof lying north of an east and west line drawn through the
+      mouth of Arkansas river, no new State shall be established, nor any grants
+      of land made, other than to Indians, in exchange for equivalent portions
+      of land occupied by them, until an amendment of the constitution shall be
+      made for these purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Florida also, whensoever it may be rightfully obtained, shall become a
+      part of the United States, its white inhabitants shall thereupon be
+      citizens, and shall stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the same
+      footing with other citizens of the United States, in analogous
+      situations.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is said
+      about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will be
+      desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence. I find but one
+      opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the country for some time. We
+      meet in Washington the 25th of September to prepare for Congress. Accept
+      my affectionate salutations, and great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER II.&mdash;TO WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 7, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 3rd was delivered me at court; but we were much
+      disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison and the Governor being
+      here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of the
+      late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what we
+      are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers, to
+      believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
+      obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
+      treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and an
+      unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
+      State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should be
+      done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
+      respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of the
+      observations you make on the power given by the constitution to Congress,
+      to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the subject to the
+      territory then constituting the United States. But when I consider that
+      the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1783,
+      that the constitution expressly declares itself to be made for the United
+      States, I cannot help believing the intention was not to permit Congress
+      to admit into the Union new States, which should be formed out of the
+      territory for which, and under whose authority alone, they were then
+      acting. I do not believe it was meant that they might receive England,
+      Ireland, Holland, &amp;tc. into it, which would be the case on your
+      construction. When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe,
+      the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that
+      which is safe and precise. I had rather ask an enlargement of power from
+      the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a
+      construction which would make our powers boundless. Our peculiar security
+      is in the possession of a written constitution. Let us not make it a blank
+      paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion of those who
+      consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then
+      we have no constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the
+      definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies and
+      delineates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives
+      all the powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of these
+      enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
+      whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President and
+      Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a judicial
+      sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more likely than
+      that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case
+      of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting it, by adding, by way of
+      amendment to the constitution, those powers which time and trial show are
+      still wanting. But it has been taken too much for granted, that by this
+      rigorous construction the treaty power would be reduced to nothing. I had
+      occasion once to examine its effect on the French treaty, made by the old
+      Congress, and found that out of thirty odd articles which that contained,
+      there were one, two, or three only, which could not now be stipulated
+      under our present constitution. I confess, then, I think it important, in
+      the present case, to set an example against broad construction, by
+      appealing for new power to the people. If, however, our friends shall
+      think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with satisfaction;
+      confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of
+      construction when it shall produce ill effects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the
+      contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, and proves to me
+      their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their
+      sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
+      and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that due
+      reflection which ought to precede action. I leave this about the 21st, and
+      shall hope the District Court will give me an opportunity of seeing you.
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of cordial esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER III.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 4, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one would more willingly than myself pay the just tribute due to the
+      services of Captain Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his widow,
+      as you suggest. But when one undertakes to administer justice, it must be
+      with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be done for
+      every one in equal degree. To what a train of attentions would this draw a
+      President? How difficult would it be to draw the line between that degree
+      of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and that not so entitled?
+      If drawn in a particular case differently from what the friends of the
+      deceased would judge right, what offence would it give, and of the most
+      tender kind? How much offence would be given by accidental inattentions,
+      or want of information? The first step into such an undertaking ought to
+      be well weighed. On the death of Dr. Franklin, the King and Convention of
+      France went into mourning. So did the House of Representatives of the
+      United States: the Senate refused. I proposed to General Washington that
+      the executive departments should wear mourning; he declined it, because he
+      said he should not know where to draw the line, if he once began that
+      ceremony. Mr. Adams was then Vice-President, and I thought General
+      Washington had his eye on him, whom he certainly did not love. I told him
+      the world had drawn so broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on
+      the one side, and the residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear
+      mourning for them, and the question still remain new and undecided as to
+      all others. He thought it best, however, to avoid it. On these
+      considerations alone, however well affected to the merit of Commodore
+      Barry, I think it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may
+      become embarrassing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers?
+      With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With no
+      partialities certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to destroy
+      their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the waters,
+      the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Affectionate and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER IV.&mdash;TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 1, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
+      with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
+      so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
+      here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
+      ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with the
+      world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
+      difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
+      speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
+      thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
+      having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings to
+      unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on the
+      globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
+      America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
+      horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of France
+      to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and that this
+      may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as France there,
+      and the United States here, what she can expect from so gross a compound
+      of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the book of wisdom. She
+      is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more than we are. Our policy
+      will be to form New Orleans and the country on both sides of it on the
+      Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all above that, to transplant our
+      Indians into it, constituting them a Marechaussee to prevent emigrants
+      crossing the river, until we shall have filled up all the vacant country
+      on this side. This will secure both Spain and us as to the mines of
+      Mexico, for half a century, and we may safely trust the provisions for
+      that time to the men who shall live in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have communicated with Mr. Gallatin on the subject of using your house
+      in any matters of consequence we may have to do at Paris. He is impressed
+      with the same desire I feel to give this mark of our confidence in you,
+      and the sense we entertain of your friendship and fidelity. Mr. Behring
+      informs him that none of the money which will be due from us to him, as
+      the assignee of France, will be wanting at Paris. Be assured that our
+      dispositions are such as to let no occasion pass unimproved, of serving
+      you, where occurrences will permit it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present my respects to Madame Dupont, and accept yourself assurances of my
+      constant and warm friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER V.&mdash;TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 4,1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A report reaches us this day from Baltimore (on probable, but not certain
+      grounds), that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul, was
+      yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The effect of this
+      measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to suppose; but as
+      it might occur to him <i>primâ facie</i>, that the executive of the United
+      States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it advisable to mention
+      the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by explanations set that
+      idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all persons are free to enter
+      into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age, no one having a power to
+      restrain it, not even their parents; and that under that age, no one can
+      prevent it but the parent or guardian. The lady is under age, and the
+      parents, placed between her affections which were strongly fixed, and the
+      considerations opposing the measure, yielded with pain and anxiety to the
+      former.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
+     the 3rd, but will this day.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
+      man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
+      of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
+      of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
+      society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
+      rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
+      obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
+      against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be nothing.
+      The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by twenty-four
+      against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in the House of
+      Representatives for making provision for its execution, was carried by
+      eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority of sixty-six, and
+      the necessary bills are going through the Houses by greater majorities.
+      Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his government, proposed to
+      have added to the ratification a protestation against any failure in time
+      or other circumstances of execution, on our part. He was told, that in
+      that case we should annex a counter protestation, which would leave the
+      thing exactly where it was; that this transaction had been conducted from
+      the commencement of the negotiation to this stage of it, with a frankness
+      and sincerity honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the heart of
+      an honest man to review; that to annex to this last chapter of the
+      transaction such an evidence of mutual distrust, was to change its aspect
+      dishonorably for us both, and contrary to truth as to us; for that we had
+      not the smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its part; and
+      I assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence in the word of the First
+      Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. He saw that we had
+      ratified the treaty; that both branches had passed by great majorities one
+      of the bills for execution, and would soon pass the other two; that no
+      circumstances remained that could leave a doubt of our punctual
+      performance; and like an able and an honest minister (which he is in the
+      highest degree) he undertook to do, what he knew his employers would do
+      themselves, were they here spectators of all the existing circumstances,
+      and exchanged the ratification&rsquo;s purely and simply; so that this
+      instrument goes to the world as an evidence of the candor and confidence
+      of the nations in each other, which will have the best effects. This was
+      the more justifiable, as Mr. Pichon knew that Spain had entered with us a
+      protestation against our ratification of the treaty, grounded, first, on
+      the assertion that the First Consul had not executed the conditions of the
+      treaties of cession, and secondly, that he had broken a solemn promise not
+      to alienate the country to any nation. We answered, that these were
+      private questions between France and Spain, which they must settle
+      together; that we derived our title from the First Consul, and did not
+      doubt his guarantee of it: and we, four days ago, sent off orders to the
+      Governor of the Mississippi territory and General Wilkinson, to move down
+      with the troops at hand to New Orleans, to receive the possession from Mr.
+      Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to carry the order of the Consul into
+      execution, he can probably command a volunteer force at New Orleans, and
+      will have the aid of ours also, if he desires it, to take the possession
+      and deliver it to us. If he is not so disposed, we shall take the
+      possession, and it will rest with the government of France, by adopting
+      the act as their own and obtaining the confirmation of Spain, to supply
+      the non-execution of their stipulation to deliver, and to entitle
+      themselves to the complete execution of our part of the agreements. In the
+      mean time, the legislature is passing the bills, and we are preparing
+      every thing to be done on our part towards execution, and we shall not
+      avail ourselves of the three months&rsquo; delay after possession of the
+      province, allowed by the treaty for the delivery of the stock, but shall
+      deliver it the moment that possession is known here, which will be on the
+      eighteenth day after it has taken place.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant esteem
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VI.&mdash;TO DAVID WILLIAMS, November 14, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DAVID WILLIAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 14, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received the volume on the claims of literature; which you did
+      me the favor to send me through Mr. Monroe: and have read with
+      satisfaction the many judicious reflections it contains, on the condition
+      of the respectable class of literary men. The efforts for their relief,
+      made by a society of private citizens, are truly laudable: but they are,
+      as you justly observe, but a palliation of an evil, the cure of which
+      calls for all the wisdom and the means of the nation. The greatest evils
+      of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring from the vicious
+      distribution of its members among the occupations called for. I have no
+      doubt that those nations are essentially right, which leave this to
+      individual choice, as a better guide to an advantageous distribution, than
+      any other which could be devised. But when, by a blind concourse,
+      particular occupations are ruinously overcharged, and others left in want
+      of hands, the national authorities can do much towards restoring the
+      equilibrium. On the revival of letters, learning became the universal
+      favorite. And with reason, because there was not enough of it existing to
+      manage the affairs of a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its
+      individuals to the happiness of which they were susceptible, by
+      improvements in their minds, their morals, their health, and in those
+      conveniences which contribute to the comfort and embellishment of life.
+      All the efforts of the society, therefore, were directed to the increase
+      of learning, and the inducements of respect, ease, and profit were held up
+      for its encouragement. Even the charities of the nation forgot that misery
+      was their object, and spent themselves in founding schools to transfer to
+      science the hardy sons of the plough. To these incitements were added the
+      powerful fascinations of great cities. These circumstances have long since
+      produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned occupation,
+      and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and the more, as
+      their habits of life have disqualified them for re-entering into the
+      laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever entirely
+      cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it may be cured.
+      Doubtless there are many engines which the nation might bring to bear on
+      this object. Public opinion and public encouragement are among these. The
+      class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the first in
+      utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial means
+      which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may be equally
+      successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of
+      men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts among its
+      handmaids the most respectable sciences, such as Chemistry, Natural
+      Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics generally, Natural History, Botany. In
+      every College and University, a professorship of agriculture, and the
+      class of its students, might be honored as the first. Young men closing
+      their academical education with this, as the crown of all other sciences,
+      fascinated with its solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an
+      occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would return to the
+      farms of their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and
+      invigorate a calling, now languishing under contempt and oppression. The
+      charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the
+      present state of society does not call for, converted into schools of
+      agriculture, might restore them to that branch, qualified to enrich and
+      honor themselves, and to increase the productions of the nation instead of
+      consuming them. A gradual abolition of the useless offices, so much
+      accumulated in all governments, might close this drain also from the
+      labors of the field, and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these,
+      and the better means which will occur to others, the surcharge of the
+      learned, might in time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of
+      citizenss the sum of industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked by
+      exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane
+      resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come
+      here. Those who can labor do well, for the most part. Of the learned class
+      of emigrants, a small portion find employments analogous to their talents.
+      But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in the scenes
+      where it began. Even here we find too strong a current from the country to
+      the towns; and instances beginning to appear of that species of misery,
+      which you are so humanely endeavoring to relieve with you. Although we
+      have in the old countries of Europe the lesson of their experience to warn
+      us, yet I am not satisfied we shall have the firmness and wisdom to profit
+      by it. The general desire of men to live by their heads rather than their
+      hands, and the strong allurements of great cities to those who have any
+      turn for dissipation, threaten to make them here, as in Europe, the sinks
+      of voluntary misery. I perceive, however, that I have suffered my pen to
+      run into a disquisition, when I had taken it up only to thank you for the
+      volume you had been so kind as to send me, and to express my approbation
+      of it. After apologizing, therefore, for having touched on a subject so
+      much more familiar to you, and better understood, I beg leave to assure
+      you of my high consideration and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VII.&mdash;TO JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN RANDOLH.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, December 1, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explanations in your letter of yesterday were quite unnecessary to me.
+      I have had too satisfactory proofs of your friendly regard, to be disposed
+      to suspect any thing of a contrary aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I understood perfectly the expressions stated in the newspaper to which
+      you allude, to mean, that &lsquo;though the proposition came from the republican
+      quarter of the House, yet you should not concur with it.&rsquo; I am aware, that
+      in parts of the Union, and even with persons to whom Mr. Eppes and Mr.
+      Randolph are unknown, and myself little known, it will be presumed from
+      their connection, that what comes from them comes from me. No men on earth
+      are more independent in their sentiments than they are, nor any one less
+      disposed than I am to influence the opinions of others. We rarely speak of
+      politics, or of the proceedings of the House, but merely historically; and
+      I carefully avoid expressing an opinion on them in their presence, that we
+      may all be at our ease. With other members, I have believed that more
+      unreserved communications would be advantageous to the public. This has
+      been, perhaps, prevented by mutual delicacy. I have been afraid to express
+      opinions unasked, lest I should be suspected of wishing to direct the
+      legislative action of members. They have avoided asking communications
+      from me, probably, lest they should be suspected of wishing to fish out
+      executive secrets. I see too many proofs of the imperfection of human
+      reason, to entertain wonder or intolerance at any difference of opinion on
+      any subject; and acquiesce in that difference as easily as on a difference
+      of feature or form: experience having long taught me the reasonableness of
+      mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any
+      common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we
+      cannot do all we would wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VIII.&mdash;TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR. GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Attorney General having considered and decided, that the prescription
+      in the law for establishing a bank, that the officers in the subordinate
+      offices of discount and deposit, shall be appointed &lsquo;on the same terms and
+      in the same manner practised in the principal bank,&rsquo; does not extend to
+      them the principle of rotation, established by the legislature in the body
+      of directors in the principal bank, it follows that the extension of that
+      principle has been merely a voluntary and prudential act of the principal
+      bank, from which they are free to depart. I think the extension was wise
+      and proper on their part, because the legislature having deemed rotation
+      useful in the principal bank constituted by them, there would be the same
+      reason for it in the subordinate banks to be established by the principal.
+      It breaks in upon the <i>esprit de corps</i>, so apt to prevail in
+      permanent bodies; it gives a chance for the public eye penetrating into
+      the sanctuary of those proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the
+      directors may introduce for their personal emolument, and which the
+      resentments of excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted,
+      might betray to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the
+      year, or at other periods, of correcting a choice, which, on trial, proves
+      to have been unfortunate; an evil of which themselves complain in their
+      distant institutions. Whether, however, they have a power to alter this or
+      not, the executive has no right to decide; and their consultation with you
+      has been merely an act of complaisance, or from a desire to shield so
+      important an innovation under the cover of executive sanction. But ought
+      we to volunteer our sanction in such a case? Ought we to disarm ourselves
+      of any fair right of animadversion, whenever that institution shall be a
+      legitimate subject of consideration? I own I think the most proper answer
+      would be, that we do not think ourselves authorized to give an opinion on
+      the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a passage in the letter of the President, I observe an idea of
+      establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This
+      institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the
+      principles and form of our constitution. The nation is, at this time, so
+      strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this
+      moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient
+      to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a
+      crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the
+      public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its
+      branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may,
+      in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe
+      which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any
+      other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
+      What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its
+      branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace we
+      should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth
+      to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile we know,
+      1. from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing the body of
+      directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of most of the
+      stock-holders: 2. from their opposition to the measures and principles of
+      the government, and to the election of those friendly to them: and, 3.
+      from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now, while we are
+      strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our constitution,
+      to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination under its
+      authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an equal footing
+      only with other banks, as to the favors of the government. But, in order
+      to be able to meet a general combination of the banks against us, in a
+      critical emergency, could we not make a beginning towards an independent
+      use of our own money, towards holding our own bank in all the deposits
+      where it is received, and letting the Treasurer give his draft or note for
+      payment at any particular place, which, in a well conducted government,
+      ought to have as much credit as any private draft, or bank note, or bill,
+      and would give us the same facilities which we derive from the banks? I
+      pray you to turn this subject in your mind, and to give it the benefit of
+      your knowledge of details; whereas, I have only very general views of the
+      subject. Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, December 13, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER IX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 29, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
+      letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
+      you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
+      together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who departs
+      in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
+      Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have also
+      to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your Harmony,
+      which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is the first I have
+      been able to meet with, which is clear of those long repetitions of the
+      same transaction, as if it were a different one because related with some
+      different circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
+      doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so much
+      in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and better
+      than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving, as
+      preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines, extracted
+      in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every thing
+      relative to his personal history and character. It would be short and
+      precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent to
+      Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and two
+      English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality, and paste them
+      on the leaves of a book, in the manner you describe as having been pursued
+      in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by better
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our horizon, which
+      was to burst in a tornado; and the public are un-apprized how near this
+      catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank and friendly developement of causes
+      and effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte to see that
+      the train was unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved
+      us from that storm. I did not expect he would yield till a war took place
+      between France and England, and my hope was to palliate and endure, if
+      Messrs. Ross, Morris, &amp;c. did not force a premature rupture until that
+      event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge it came on
+      sooner than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense of Bonaparte
+      might not see the course predicted to be necessary and unavoidable, even
+      before a war should be imminent, was a chance which we thought it our duty
+      to try: but the immediate prospect of rupture brought the case to
+      immediate decision. The denouement has been happy: and I confess I look to
+      this duplication of area for the extending a government so free and
+      economical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which
+      is to ensue. Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic
+      and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the
+      happiness of either part. Those of the western confederacy will be as much
+      our children and descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as
+      much identified with that country, in future time, as with this: and did I
+      now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty
+      and the desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the
+      eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which
+      should fall within my power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Have you seen the new work of Malthus on Population? It is one of the
+      ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate the
+      effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws of England,
+      and other palliations for that evil, several important questions in
+      political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are treated with a
+      masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have been only able to
+      read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard of. Probably our
+      friends in England will think of you, and give you an opportunity of
+      reading it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER X.&mdash;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 3, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although it is long since I received your favor of October the 27th, yet I
+      have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it. In the Middle and Southern
+      States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place as is perhaps
+      desirable. For as there will always be an opposition, I believe it had
+      better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New York seems to be
+      in danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly with us; Rhode Island
+      with us on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on the verge of the republican
+      shore; Connecticut advancing towards it very slowly, but with steady step;
+      your State only uncertain of making port at all. I had forgotten Delaware,
+      which will be always uncertain from the divided character of her citizens.
+      If the amendment of the constitution passes Rhode Island (and we expect to
+      hear in a day or two), the election for the ensuing four years seems to
+      present nothing formidable. I sincerely regret that the unbounded
+      calumnies of the federal party have obliged me to throw myself on the
+      verdict of my country for trial, my great desire having been to retire at
+      the end of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it was my
+      decided purpose when I entered into office. They force my continuance. If
+      we can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her course for another four
+      years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall be free to
+      enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my books. That your
+      enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I sincerely pray,
+      and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great respect
+      and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XI.&mdash;TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GIDEON GRANGER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 16, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of forming
+      a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what they called
+      the seven eastern States. The idea was new to me, and after time for
+      reflection, I had no opportunity of conversing with you again. The
+      federalists know that, <i>eo nomine</i>, they are gone for ever. Their
+      object, therefore, is, how to return into power under some other form.
+      Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans,
+      join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name. I
+      say, join the minority; because the majority of the republicans, not
+      needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of
+      ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
+      must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their numbers
+      also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must pay in.
+      Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on the ruins of
+      the true principles of our revolution. And when this party is formed, who
+      will constitute the majority of it, which majority is then to dictate?
+      Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of putting themselves
+      into gear with the republican minority, is exactly like Roger Sherman&rsquo;s
+      proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island. The idea of forming seven
+      eastern States is moreover clearly to form the basis of a separation of
+      the Union. Is it possible that real republicans can be gulled by such a
+      bait? And for what? What do they wish, that they have not? Federal
+      measures? That is impossible. Republican measures? Have they them not? Can
+      any one deny, that in all important questions of principle, republicanism
+      prevails? But do they want that their individual will shall govern the
+      majority? They may purchase the gratification of this unjust wish, for a
+      little time, at a great price; but the federalists must not have the
+      passions of other men, if, after getting thus into the seat of power, they
+      suffer themselves to be governed by their minority. This minority may say,
+      that whenever they relapse into their own principles, they will quit them,
+      and draw the seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the
+      mean time, all the venal will have become associated with them, and will
+      give them a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them
+      to eject the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power.
+      I cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this
+      trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass
+      of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of
+      principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all other
+      similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their authors
+      and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict and
+      upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others
+      should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly
+      overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be the
+      conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your health
+      and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XII.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, June 13,1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 13,1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Madam,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to express in
+      your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
+      awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled your
+      kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and
+      friendship. I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible
+      impression on her mind, and that to the last, on our meetings after long
+      separations, whether I had heard lately of you, and how you did, were
+      among the earliest of her inquiries. In giving you this assurance, I
+      perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same time, am thankful for the
+      occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that circumstances should
+      have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of separation between us.
+      The friendship with which you honored me has ever been valued, and fully
+      reciprocated; and although events have been passing which might be trying
+      to some minds, I never believed yours to be of that kind, nor felt that my
+      own was. Neither my estimate of your character, nor the esteem founded in
+      that, has ever been lessened for a single moment, although doubts whether
+      it would be acceptable may have forbidden manifestations of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s friendship and mine began at an earlier date. It accompanied
+      us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had
+      drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to
+      lessen mutual esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of
+      an honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing
+      among our fellow citizens, attached them to the one or the other of us,
+      and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We
+      never stood in one another&rsquo;s way. For if either had been withdrawn at any
+      time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would have
+      sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration was
+      sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
+      friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can say
+      with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams&rsquo;s life, and one only, ever gave me a
+      moment&rsquo;s personal displeasure. I did consider his last appointments to
+      office as personally unkind. They were from among my most ardent political
+      enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation could ever be expected; and
+      laid me under the embarrassment of acting through men, whose views were to
+      defeat mine, or to encounter the odium of putting others in their places.
+      It seems but common justice to leave a successor free to act by
+      instruments of his own choice. If my respect for him did not permit me to
+      ascribe the whole blame to the influence of others, it left something for
+      friendship to forgive, and after brooding over it for some little time,
+      and not always resisting the expression of it, I forgave it cordially, and
+      returned to the same state of esteem and respect for him which had so long
+      subsisted. Having come into life a little later than Mr. Adams, his career
+      has preceded mine, as mine is followed by some other; and it will probably
+      be closed at the same distance after him which time originally placed
+      between us. I maintain for him, and shall carry into private life, an
+      uniform and high measure of respect and good will, and for yourself a
+      sincere attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which I
+      have long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it will
+      be received, I feal[sp.] relief from being unbosomed. And I have now only
+      to entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject of domestic
+      affliction, to one which seems of a different aspect. But though connected
+      with political events, it has been viewed by me most strongly in its
+      unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The injury these have
+      sustained has been a heavy price for what has never given me equal
+      pleasure. That you may both be favored with health, tranquillity, and long
+      life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the assurance of his highest
+      consideration and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XIII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GOVERNOR PAGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 25, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of the
+      goodness of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an
+      affectionate concern for the greatness of it. It is great indeed. Others
+      may lose of their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half of
+      all I had. My evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single
+      life. Perhaps I maybe destined to see even this last cord of parental
+      affection broken! The hope with which I had looked forward to the moment,
+      when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to retire to that
+      domestic comfort from which the last great step is to be taken, is
+      fearfully blighted. When you and I look back on the country over which we
+      have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit! Where are all the
+      friends who entered it with us, under all the inspiring energies of health
+      and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of war, they are strewed by the way,
+      some earlier, some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to count the
+      numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall, the last footsteps of
+      their party. Is it a desirable thing to bear up through the heat of the
+      action to witness the death of all our companions, and merely be the last
+      victim? I doubt it. We have, however, the traveller&rsquo;s consolation. Every
+      step shortens the distance we have to go; the end of our journey is in
+      sight, the bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the
+      friends we have lost. &lsquo;We sorrow not, then, as others who have no hope&rsquo;;
+      but look forward to the day which &lsquo;joins us to the great majority.&rsquo; But
+      whatever is to be our destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we
+      should acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and
+      be contented in the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with
+      us. Of those connected by blood, the number does not depend on us. But
+      friends we have, if we have merited them. Those of our earliest years
+      stand nearest in our affections. But in this too, you and I have been
+      unlucky. Of our college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have
+      stood with us in the great political questions which have agitated our
+      country: and these were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not
+      believe the Lilliputian fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so
+      many. Will not Mrs. Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a
+      healthier region for the months of August and September? And may we not
+      flatter ourselves that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not
+      many summers to live. While fortune places us then within striking
+      distance, let us avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of
+      other times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
+      salutations, and assurances of constant affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER, XIV.&mdash;TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO P. MAZZEI.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 18, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure of
+      business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something of public
+      importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a principle of
+      conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely from all
+      private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic; I scarcely write a
+      letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another consideration has led to
+      this, which is the liability of my letters to miscarry, be opened, and
+      made ill use of. Although the great body of our country are perfectly
+      returned to their ancient principles, yet there remains a phalanx of old
+      tories and monarchists, more envenomed, as all their hopes become more
+      desperate. Every word of mine which they can get hold of, however
+      innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted, tormented, perverted, and,
+      like the words of holy writ, are made to mean every thing but what they
+      were intended to mean. I trust little, therefore, unnecessarily in their
+      way, and especially on political subjects. I shall not, therefore, be free
+      to answer all the several articles of your letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation, as
+      far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not been
+      renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been
+      declined. We believe, that with nations as with individuals, dealings may
+      be carried on as anvantageously[sp.], perhaps more so, while their
+      continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a
+      contract, which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced
+      constructions, to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war instead
+      of a bond of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we will
+      prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels, and goods all the privileges
+      of the most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily, we cannot
+      doubt they will voluntarily do the same for us. Our interests against the
+      Barbaresques being also the same, we have little doubt she will give us
+      every facility to insure them, which our situation may ask and hers admit.
+      It is not, then, from a want of friendship that we do not propose a treaty
+      with Naples, but because it is against our system to embarrass ourselves
+      with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at all with the affairs of Europe.
+      The kind offices we receive from that government are more sensibly felt,
+      as such, than they would be, if rendered only as due to us by treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli, which,
+      in addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the credit
+      which Commodore Morris&rsquo;s two years&rsquo; sleep lost us, and for which he has
+      been broke. I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they mistake
+      their interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should she have
+      declared war, as we expect, and almost wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
+      dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge it in
+      twelve years more. That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen millions of
+      dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay the expenses of
+      any war we may be forced into, without new taxes or loans. The spirit of
+      republicanism is now in almost all its ancient vigor, five sixths of the
+      people being with us. Fourteen of the seventeen States are completely with
+      us, and two of the other three will be in one year. We have now got back
+      to the ground on which you left us. I should have retired at the end of
+      the first four years, but that the immense load of tory calumnies which
+      have been manufactured respecting me, and have filled the European market,
+      have obliged me to appeal once more to my country for a justification. I
+      have no fear but that I shall receive honorable testimony by their verdict
+      on those calumnies. At the end of the next four years I shall certainly
+      retire. Age, inclination, and principle all dictate this. My health, which
+      at one time threatened an unfavorable turn, is now firm. The acquisition
+      of Louisiana, besides doubling our extent, and trebling our quantity of
+      fertile country, is of incalculable value, as relieving us from the danger
+      of war. It has enabled us to do a handsome thing for Fayette. He had
+      received a grant of between eleven and twelve thousand acres north of the
+      Ohio, worth, perhaps, a dollar an acre. We have obtained permission of
+      Congress to locate it in Louisiana. Locations can be found adjacent to the
+      city of New Orleans, in the island of New Orleans and in its vicinity, the
+      value of which cannot be calculated. I hope it will induce him to come
+      over and settle there with his family. Mr. Livingston having asked leave
+      to return, General Armstrong, his brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is
+      of the first order of talents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
+      Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson Andrews.
+      To these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of my youngest
+      daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has left two children.
+      My eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six children. This loss
+      has increased my anxiety to retire, while it has dreadfully lessened the
+      comfort of doing it. Wythe, Dickinson, and Charles Thomson are all living,
+      and are firm republicans. You informed me formerly of your marriage, and
+      your having a daughter, but have said nothing in you late letters on that
+      subject. Yet whatever concerns your happiness is sincerely interesting to
+      me, and is a subject of anxiety, retaining, as I do, cordial sentiments of
+      esteem and affection for you. Accept, I pray you, my sincere assurances of
+      this, with my most friendly salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XV.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 22, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Madam,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not again
+      have intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to have
+      been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to Callendar
+      are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I think, as 1796, I
+      was told in Philadelphia, that Callendar, the author of the &lsquo;Political
+      Progress of Britain,&rsquo; was in that city, a fugitive from persecution for
+      having written that book, and in distress. I had read and approved the
+      book; I considered him as a man of genius, unjustly persecuted. I knew
+      nothing of his private character, and immediately expressed my readiness
+      to contribute to his relief, and to serve him. It was a considerable time
+      after, that, on application from a person who thought of him as I did, I
+      contributed to his relief, and afterwards repeated the contribution.
+      Himself I did not see till long after, nor ever more than two or three
+      times. When he first began to write, he told some useful truths in his
+      coarse way; but nobody sooner disapproved of his writing than I did, or
+      wished more that he would be silent. My charities to him were no more
+      meant as encouragements to his scurrilities, than those I give to the
+      beggar at my door are meant as rewards for the vices of his life, and to
+      make them chargeable to myself. In truth, they would have been greater to
+      him, had he never written a word after the work for which he fled from
+      Britain. With respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and
+      printers at large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping
+      to any concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those
+      of Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who published volumes against me for
+      every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I never
+      supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these
+      editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable of that base warfare,
+      and believed him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I may have thought of
+      the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne testimony to
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my presence,
+      without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed that any
+      person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us meddled in
+      that dirty work. But another fact is, that I &lsquo;liberated a wretch who was
+      suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.&rsquo; I do not know who was the
+      particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every person under
+      punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I considered,
+      and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and as palpable as
+      if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image; and
+      that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it
+      would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should
+      have been cast into it for refusing to worship the image. It was
+      accordingly done in every instance, without asking what the offenders had
+      done, or against whom they had offended, but whether the pains they were
+      suffering were inflicted under the pretended sedition law. It was
+      certainly possible that my motives for contributing to the relief of
+      Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition law might have been
+      to protect, encourage, and reward slander; but they may also have been
+      those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of distress, meritorious
+      or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect the constitution, violated
+      by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which of these were my motives, must
+      be decided by a regard to the general tenor of my life. On this I am not
+      afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to posterity, and still less to
+      that Being who sees himself our motives, who will judge us from his own
+      knowledge of them, and not on the testimony of Porcupine or Fenno.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You observe, there has been one other act of my administration personally
+      unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me. I declare on my
+      honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act is alluded to. I
+      never did a single one with an unkind intention. My sole object in this
+      letter being to place before your attention, that the acts imputed to me
+      are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might flow from good as well
+      as bad motives, I shall make no other addition, than the assurances of my
+      continued wishes for the health and happiness of yourself and Mr. Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 15, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
+      received it only by that day&rsquo;s post. I return you Monroe&rsquo;s letter, which
+      is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
+      contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
+      surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the greater
+      wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes on their
+      enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France and
+      England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and deadly
+      hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that England
+      should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get footing on
+      our continent, and that France should willingly see the United States
+      re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons should be replaced
+      on their throne and agree to any terms of restitution, is possible: but
+      that they and England joined, could recover us to British dominion, is
+      impossible. If these things are not so, then human reason is of no aid in
+      conjecturing the conduct of nations. Still, however, it is our
+      unquestionable interest and duty to conduct ourselves with such sincere
+      friendship and impartiality towards both nations, as that each may see
+      unequivocally, what is unquestionably true, that we may be very possibly
+      driven into her scale by unjust conduct in the other. I am so much
+      impressed with the expediency of putting a termination to the right of
+      France to patronize the rights of Louisiana, which will cease with their
+      complete adoption as citizens of the United States, that I hope to see
+      that take place on the meeting of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from
+      a newspaper respecting St. Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I
+      conceive the British insults in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot
+      be respected by France as a neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves
+      as an independent one, if we do not take effectual measures to support, at
+      every risk, our authority in our own harbors. I shall write to Mr. Wagner
+      directly (that a post may not be lost by passing through you) to send us
+      blank commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to be filled
+      up, signed, and forwarded by us. Affectionate salutations and constant
+      esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till now the
+      general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans.
+      Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions. Among these is one for
+      yourself as Governor. With respect to this I will enter into frank
+      explanations. This office was originally destined for a person * whose
+      great services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly
+      acceptable to the nation at large. Circumstances, however, exist, which do
+      not now permit his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time hereafter.
+      That, therefore, being suspended, and entirely contingent, your services
+      have been so much approved, as to leave no desire to look elsewhere to
+      fill the office. Should the doubts you have sometimes expressed, whether
+      it would be eligible for you to continue, still exist in your mind, the
+      acceptance of the commission gives you time to satisfy yourself by further
+      experience, and to make the time and manner of withdrawing, should you
+      ultimately determine on that, agreeable to yourself. Be assured, that
+      whether you continue or retire, it will be with every disposition on my
+      part to be just and friendly to you.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* In the margin is written by the author, &lsquo;La Fayette.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVIII.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, September 11, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 11, 1804,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received, but
+      a press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps,
+      indeed, I may have already trespassed too far on your attention. With
+      those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly
+      indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only
+      truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive. The act of personal
+      unkindness alluded to in your former letter, is said in your last to have
+      been the removal of your eldest son from some office to which the judges
+      had appointed him. I conclude, then, he must have been a commissioner of
+      bankruptcy. But I declare to you, on my honor, that this is the first
+      knowledge I have ever had that he was so. It may be thought, perhaps, that
+      I ought to have inquired who were such, before I appointed others. But it
+      is to be observed, that the former law permitted the judges to name
+      commissioners occasionally only, for every case as it arose, and not to
+      make them permanent officers. Nobody, therefore, being in office, there
+      could be no removal. The judges, you well know, have been considered as
+      highly federal; and it was noted that they confined their nominations
+      exclusively to federalists. The legislature, dissatisfied with this,
+      transferred the nomination to the President, and made the offices
+      permanent. The very object in passing the law was, that he should correct,
+      not confirm, what was deemed the partiality of the judges. I thought it
+      therefore proper to inquire, not whom they had employed, but whom I ought
+      to appoint to fulfil the intentions of the law. In making these
+      appointments, I put in a proportion of federalists, equal, I believe, to
+      the proportion they bear in numbers through the Union generally. Had I
+      known that your son had acted, it would have been a real pleasure to me to
+      have preferred him to some who were named in Boston, in what was deemed
+      the same line of politics. To this I should have been led by my knowledge
+      of his integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards yourself and
+      Mr. Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of
+      the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right
+      to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for
+      them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action
+      assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a
+      right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was
+      placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing
+      the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;
+      because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That
+      instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each
+      other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what
+      laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in their
+      own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also in their
+      spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch. Nor does the opinion
+      of the unconstitutionality, and consequent nullity of that law, remove all
+      restraint from the overwhelming torrent of slander, which is confounding
+      all vice and virtue, all truth and falsehood, in the United States. The
+      power to do that is fully possessed by the several State legislatures. It
+      was reserved to them, and was denied to the General Government, by the
+      constitution, according to our construction of it. While we deny that
+      Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press, we have ever
+      asserted the right of the States, and their exclusive right, to do so.
+      They have, accordingly, all of them made provisions for punishing slander,
+      which those who have time and inclination resort to for the vindication of
+      their characters. In general, the State laws appear to have made the
+      presses responsible for slander as far as is consistent with its useful
+      freedom. In those States where they do not admit even the truth of
+      allegations to protect the printer, they have gone too far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to
+      possess, has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention once more
+      to those circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be judged. I
+      hope you will see these intrusions on your time to be, what they really
+      are, proofs of my great, respect for you. I tolerate with the utmost
+      latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion, without
+      imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and uncertainty
+      of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both of our political
+      parties, at least the honest part of them, agree conscientiously in the
+      same object, the public good: but they differ essentially in what they
+      deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by
+      one composition of the governing powers; the other, by a different one.
+      One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of
+      rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will
+      prove. We think that one side of this experiment has been long enough
+      tried, and proved not to promote the good of the many: and that the other
+      has not been fairly and sufficiently tried. Our opponents think the
+      reverse. With whichever opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must
+      prevail. My anxieties on this subject will never carry me beyond the use
+      of fair and honorable means of truth and reason; nor have they ever
+      lessened my esteem for moral worth, nor alienated my affections from a
+      single friend, who did not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has
+      happened, I confess I have not been insensible to it: yet have ever kept
+      myself open to a return of their justice. I conclude with sincere prayers
+      for your health and happiness, that yourself and Mr. Adams may long enjoy
+      the tranquillity you desire and merit, and see in the prosperity of your
+      family what is the consummation of the last and warmest of human wishes,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XIX.&mdash;TO MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. NICHOLSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 29, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of yesterday,
+      asking information on the subject of the gun-boats proposed to be built. I
+      lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting them,
+      premising a few words on the system of fortifications. Considering the
+      harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to
+      defence, and the estimates we have seen of the fortifications planned for
+      some of them, this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale for less
+      than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of war with less than
+      fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. And when done, they avail
+      little; because all military men agree, that wherever a vessel may pass a
+      fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case at all our sea-port
+      towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according to the advantages of the
+      position, but can never be prevented. Our own experience during the war
+      proved this on different occasions. Our predecessors have, nevertheless,
+      proposed to go into this system, and had commenced it. But, no law
+      requiring us to proceed, we have suspended it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn our
+      attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to, before
+      a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in aid of
+      each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages, which may be moved to
+      any point on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging the vessel.
+      A sufficient number of these should be lent to each sea-port town, and
+      their militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to do this; it
+      has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more competently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so stationed
+      as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her after entering to
+      depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the United States, which ought
+      to be in a state of substantial defence. The whole of these would require,
+      according to the best opinions, two hundred and forty gun-boats. Their
+      cost was estimated by Captain Rogers at two thousand dollars each; but we
+      had better say four thousand dollars. The whole would cost one million of
+      dollars. But we should allow ourselves ten years to complete it, unless
+      circumstances should force it sooner. There are three situations in which
+      the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up under a shed, in readiness to be
+      launched and manned by the seamen and militia of the town on short notice.
+      In this situation she costs nothing but an enclosure, or a centinel to see
+      that no mischief is done to her. 2. Afloat, and with men enough to
+      navigate her in harbor and take care of her, but depending on receiving
+      her crew from the town on short warning. In this situation, her annual
+      expense is about two thousand dollars, as by an official estimate at the
+      end of this letter. 3. Fully manned for action. Her annual expense in this
+      situation is about eight thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined.
+      &lsquo;When there is general peace, we should probably keep about six or seven
+      afloat in the second situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen
+      thousand dollars; the rest all hauled up. When France and England are at
+      war, we should keep, at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation,
+      their annual expense fifty thousand dollars. When we should be at war
+      ourselves, some of them would probably be kept in the third situation, at
+      an annual expense of eight thousand dollars; but how many, must depend on
+      the circumstances of the war. We now possess ten, built and building. It
+      is the opinion of those consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to
+      put every harbor under our view into a respectable condition; and that
+      this should limit the views of the present year. This would require an
+      appropriation of sixty thousand dollars, and I suppose that the best way
+      of limiting it, without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would
+      build more. I should think it best not to give a detailed report, which
+      exposes our policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, will
+      suffice for the information of the House. I do not know whether General
+      Wilkinson would approve the printing his paper. If he would, it would be
+      useful. Accept affectionate and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XX.&mdash;TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. VOLNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 8, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the books some
+      time after, which were all distributed according to direction. The copy
+      for the East Indies went immediately by a safe conveyance. The letter of
+      April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying that, did not come
+      to hand till August. That copy was deposited in the Congressional library.
+      It was not till my return here from my autumnal visit to Monticello, that
+      I had an opportunity of reading your work. I have read it, and with great
+      satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a judge than most people, having
+      never travelled westward of Staunton, so as to know any thing of the face
+      of the country; nor much indulged myself in geological inquiries, from a
+      belief that the skin-deep scratches, which we can make or find on the
+      surface of the earth, do not repay our time with as certain and useful
+      deductions, as our pursuits in some other branches. The subject of our
+      winds is more familiar to me. On that, the views you have taken are always
+      great, supported in their outlines by your facts; and though more
+      extensive observations, and longer continued, may produce some anomalies,
+      yet they will probably take their place in this first great canvass which
+      you have sketched. In no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or
+      judgment more than in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in his
+      sleigh and snow, the very idea of which gives me the shivers. The
+      comparison of climate between Europe and North America, taking together
+      its corresponding parts, hangs chiefly on three great points. 1. The
+      changes between heat and cold in America are greater and more frequent,
+      and the extremes comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer in America
+      than in Europe. Habit, however, prevents these from affecting us more than
+      the smaller changes of Europe affect the European. But he is greatly
+      affected by ours. 2. Our sky is always clear; that of Europe always
+      cloudy. Hence a greater accumulation of heat here than there, in the same
+      parallel. 3. The changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and
+      sudden in Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls
+      in half the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate of
+      the United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It is
+      our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all
+      disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited
+      from our English ancestors. During a residence of between six and seven
+      years in Paris, I never but once saw the sun shine through a whole day,
+      without being obscured by a cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the
+      moment, in which, viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could
+      say there was not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at
+      Monticello, on my return from France, in January, and during only two
+      months&rsquo; stay there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to
+      France, that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of a
+      cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an European
+      should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our taste in this,
+      as in most other cases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to what we
+      then knew of it. Further experience has developed more and more its
+      peculiar character. Facts appear to have established, that it is
+      originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never generated but in the
+      lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large cities, in the neighborhood
+      of the water; and that, to catch the disease, you must enter the local
+      atmosphere. Persons having taken the disease in the infected quarter, and
+      going into the country, are nursed and buried by their friends, without an
+      example of communicating it. A vessel going from the infected quarter, and
+      carrying its atmosphere in its hold into another State, has given the
+      disease to every person who there entered her. These have died in the arms
+      of their families, without a single communication of the disease. It is
+      certainly, therefore, an epidemic, not a contagious disease; and calls on
+      the chemists for some mode of purifying the vessel by a decomposition of
+      its atmosphere, if ventilation be found insufficient. In the long scale of
+      bilious fevers, graduated by many shades, this is probably the last and
+      most mortal term. It seizes the native of the place equally with
+      strangers. It has not been long known in any part of the United States.
+      The shade next above it, called the stranger&rsquo;s fever, has been coeval with
+      the settlement of the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit,
+      Norfolk, Charleston, New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the
+      months of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the
+      genuine yellow fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them
+      some time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
+      respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger&rsquo;s fever,
+      and every species of bilious fever which produces a black vomit, that is
+      to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear of yellow fever on
+      the Allegany mountains, in Kentucky, &amp;c. This is a matter of
+      definition only: but it leads into error those who do not know how loosely
+      and how interestedly some physicians think and speak. So far as we have
+      yet seen, I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow fever, which
+      seizes on all indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of bilious fever,
+      never known in the United States till lately, nor farther south, as yet,
+      than Alexandria, and that what they have recently called the yellow fever
+      in New Orleans, Charleston, and Norfolk, is what has always been known in
+      those places as confined chiefly to strangers, and nearly as mortal to
+      them, as the other is to all its subjects. But both grades are local: the
+      stranger&rsquo;s fever less so, as it sometimes extends a little into the
+      neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so, confined within narrow
+      and well defined limits, and not communicable out of those limits. Such a
+      constitution of atmosphere being requisite to originate this disease as is
+      generated only in low, close, and ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have
+      supposed it practicable to prevent its generation by building our cities
+      on a more open plan. Take, for instance, the chequer-board for a plan. Let
+      the black squares only be building squares, and the white ones be left
+      open, in turf and trees. Every square of houses will be surrounded by four
+      open squares, and every house will front an open square. The atmosphere of
+      such a town would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the
+      miasmata which produce yellow fever. I have accordingly proposed that the
+      enlargements of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take
+      place, shall be on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be
+      made, or of cities to be built, that his means of prevention can be
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>genus irritabile vatum</i> could not let the author of the Ruins
+      publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of discrediting that
+      puzzling composition. Some one of those holy calumniators has selected
+      from your new work every scrap of a sentence, which, detached from its
+      context, could displease an American reader. A cento has been made of
+      these, which has run through a particular description of newspapers, and
+      excited a disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the
+      reading of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
+      error.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, that they
+      have little time to write or invent. A good invention here, therefore, is
+      such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the acceptance of a friend. A
+      Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, has invented a machine, which
+      he calls a polygraph, and which carries two, three, or four pens. That of
+      two pens, with which I am now writing, is best; and is so perfect that I
+      have laid aside the copying-press, for a twelvemonth past, and write
+      always with the polygraph. I have directed one to be made, of which I ask
+      your acceptance. By what conveyance I shall send it while Havre is
+      blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you will be pleased with it, and
+      will use it habitually as I do; because it requires only that degree of
+      mechanical attention which I know you to possess. I am glad to hear that
+      M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the reformation of medicine. It needs
+      the hand of a reformer, and cannot be in better hands than his. Will you
+      permit my respects to him and the Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word now on our political state. The two parties which prevailed with so
+      much violence when you were here, are almost wholly melted into one. At
+      the late Presidential election I have received one hundred and sixty-two
+      votes against fourteen only. Connecticut is still federal by a small
+      majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she has been since 1775, and will be
+      till Anglomany with her yields to Americanism. Connecticut will be with us
+      in a short time. Though the people in mass have joined us, their leaders
+      had committed themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps them hostile;
+      they brood over their angry passions, and give them vent in the newspapers
+      which they maintain. They still make as much noise as if they were the
+      whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile papers, published
+      chiefly in the seaports, are the only ones which find their way to Europe,
+      and make very false impressions there. I am happy to hear that the late
+      derangement of your health is going off, and that you are reestablished. I
+      sincerely pray for the continuance of that blessing, and with my
+      affectionate salutations, tender you assurances of great respect and
+      attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying-pen of the
+      polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXI.&mdash;TO JUDGE TYLER, March 29, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE TYLER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 29, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 17th found me on a short visit to this place, and I
+      observe in it with great pleasure a continuance of your approbation of the
+      course we are pursuing, and particularly the satisfaction you express with
+      the last inaugural address. The first was, from the nature of the case,
+      all profession and promise. Performance, therefore, seemed to be the
+      proper office of the second. But the occasion restricted me to mention
+      only the most prominent heads, and the strongest justification of these in
+      the fewest words possible. The crusade preached against philosophy by the
+      modern disciples of steady habits, induced me to dwell more in showing its
+      effect with the Indians than the subject otherwise justified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The war with Tripoli stands on two grounds of fact. 1st. It is made known
+      to us by our agents with the three other Barbary States, that they only
+      wait to see the event of this, to shape their conduct accordingly. If the
+      war is ended by additional tribute, they mean to offer us the same
+      alternative. 2ndly. If peace was made, we should still, and shall ever, be
+      obliged to keep a frigate in the Mediterranean to overawe rupture, or we
+      must abandon that market. Our intention in sending Morris with a
+      respectable force, was to try whether peace could be forced by a coercive
+      enterprise on their town. His inexecution of orders baffled that effort.
+      Having broke him, we try the same experiment under a better commander. If
+      in the course of the summer they cannot produce peace, we shall recall our
+      force, except one frigate and two small vessels, which will keep up a
+      perpetual blockade. Such a blockade will cost us no more than a state of
+      peace, and will save us from increased tributes, and the disgrace attached
+      to them. There is reason to believe the example we have set, begins
+      already to work on the dispositions of the powers of Europe to emancipate
+      themselves from that degrading yoke. Should we produce such a revolution
+      there, we shall be amply rewarded for what we have done. Accept my
+      friendly salutations, and assurances of great respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 11, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among our
+      friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place in
+      other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their good
+      intentions will produce great public evil. The minority, whichever section
+      shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the federalists, and
+      some compromise of principle; because these will not sell their aid for
+      nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain, some portion of
+      that ground which we thought we had rescued to good government. I do not
+      express my sense of our misfortunes from any idea that they are
+      remediable. I know that the passions of men will take their course, that
+      they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and that this melancholy
+      truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an upright administration
+      is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family
+      dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties. The war
+      <i>ad internecionem</i> which we have waged against federalism, has filled
+      our latter times with strife and unhappiness. We have met it, with pain
+      indeed, but with firmness, because we believed it the last convulsive
+      effort of that Hydra, which in earlier times we had conquered in the
+      field. But if any degeneracy of principle should ever render it necessary
+      to give ascendancy to one of the rising sections over the other, I thank
+      my God it will fall to some other to perform that operation. The only
+      cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is the undivided good will of
+      all those with whom I have acted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me affectionately to Mrs. Logan, and accept my salutations, and
+      assurances of constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIII.&mdash;TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE SULLIVAN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 21, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An accumulation of business, which I found on my return here from a short
+      visit to Monticello, has prevented till now my acknowledgment of your
+      favor of the 14th <i>ultimo</i>. This delay has given time to see the
+      result of the contest in your State, and I cannot but congratulate you on
+      the advance it manifests, and the certain prospect it offers that another
+      year restores Massachusetts to the general body of the nation. You have
+      indeed received the federal unction of lying and slandering. But who has
+      not? Who will ever again come into eminent office, unanointed with this
+      chrism? It seems to be fixed that falsehood and calumny are to be their
+      ordinary engines of opposition; engines which will not be entirely without
+      effect. The circle of characters equal to the first stations is not too
+      large, and will be lessened by the voluntary retreat of those whose
+      sensibilities are stronger than their confidence in the justice of public
+      opinion. I certainly have known, and still know, characters eminently
+      qualified for the most exalted trusts, who could not bear up against the
+      brutal hackings and hewings of these heroes of Billingsgate. I may say,
+      from intimate knowledge, that we should have lost the services of the
+      greatest character of our country, had he been assailed with the degree of
+      abandoned licentiousness now practised. The torture he felt under rare and
+      slight attacks, proved that under those of which the federal bands have
+      shown themselves capable, he would have thrown up the helm in a burst of
+      indignation. Yet this effect of sensibility must not be yielded to. If we
+      suffer ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the
+      enemy will use that weapon; for what one so cheap to those of whose system
+      of politics morality makes no part? The patriot, like the Christian, must
+      learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty; and
+      in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more
+      requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But that
+      will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are
+      repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good
+      example. To the other falsehoods they have brought forward, should they
+      add, as you expect, insinuations of want of confidence in you from the
+      administration generally, or myself particularly, it will, like their
+      other falsehoods, produce in the public mind a contrary inference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *********
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIV.&mdash;TO THOMAS PAINE, June 5, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS PAINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 5, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
+      received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to your
+      farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
+      attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
+      answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which it
+      will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian blinds,
+      can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you propose will
+      have advantages. You know it has been practised on the cloth market at
+      Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs in his book, to
+      which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a dome, being one
+      hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in the capitol we
+      unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all framed in De
+      Lorme&rsquo;s manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has it been tried
+      and persevered in by any workman?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
+      truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become a
+      mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however, expressed
+      satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the subject of
+      that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners, you know I can do
+      nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a question in
+      Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which the constitution
+      authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would cover an
+      expenditure for importing settlers to Orleans. The letter of the
+      revolutionary sergeant was attended to by General Dearborn, who wrote to
+      him informing him how to proceed to obtain his land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Eustis&rsquo;s observation to you, that &lsquo;certain paragraphs in the
+      National Intelligencer,&rsquo; respecting my letter to you, &lsquo;supposed to be
+      under Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s direction, had embarrassed Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s friends
+      in Massachusetts; that they appeared like a half denial of the letter, or
+      as if there was something in it not proper to be owned, or that needed an
+      apology,&rsquo; is one of those mysterious half confidences difficult to be
+      understood. That tory printers should think it advantageous to identify me
+      with that paper, the Aurora, &amp;c. in order to obtain ground for abusing
+      me, is perhaps fair warfare. But that any one who knows me personally
+      should listen one moment to such an insinuation, is what I did not expect.
+      I neither have, nor ever had, any more connection with those papers than
+      our antipodes have; nor know what is to be in them until I see it in them,
+      except proclamations and other documents sent for publication. The friends
+      in Massachusetts who could be embarrassed by so weak a weapon as this,
+      must be feeble friends indeed. With respect to the letter, I never
+      hesitated to avow and to justify it in conversation. In no other way do I
+      trouble myself to contradict any thing which is said. At that time,
+      however, there were certain anomalies in the motions of some of our
+      friends, which events have at length reduced to regularity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems very difficult to find out what turn things are to take in
+      Europe. I suppose it depends on Austria, which knowing it is to stand in
+      the way of receiving the first hard blows, is cautious of entering into a
+      coalition. As to France and England we can have but one wish, that they
+      may disable one another from injuring others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [The following, in the hand-writing of the Author, is inserted in his MS.
+      of this period. Whether it was published, or where, is not stated.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richmond, 1780, December 31. At 8 A. M. the Governor receives the first
+      intelligence that twenty-seven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay,
+      and were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby&rsquo;s point (the
+      southern cape of James river); their destination unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1781, January 2. At 10 A. M. information received that they had entered
+      James river, their advance being at Warrasqueak bay. Orders were
+      immediately given for calling in the militia, one fourth from some, and
+      one half from other counties. The members of the legislature, which rises
+      this day, are the bearers of the orders to their respective counties. The
+      Governor directs the removal of the records into the country, and the
+      transportation of the military stores from Richmond to Westham (on the
+      river seven miles above); there to be carried across the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 3. At 8 P. M. the enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown;
+      convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 4. At 5 A. M. information is received that they had passed
+      Kennon&rsquo;s and Hood&rsquo;s the evening before, with a strong; easterly wind,
+      which determines their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The
+      Governor now calls in the whole militia from the adjacent counties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At 5 P. M. information, that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up at
+      Westover (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
+      Richmond); and consequently Richmond their destination. Orders are now
+      given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to
+      Westham, and to throw them across the river directly at Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the night,
+      then rode up to the foundery (one mile below Westham), ordered Captains
+      Boush and Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to continue all night wagoning to Westham
+      the arms and stores still at the foundery, to be thrown across the river
+      at Westham, then proceeded to Westham to urge the pressing the
+      transportation there across the river, and thence went to Tuckahoe (eight
+      miles above and on the same side of the river) to see after his family,
+      which he had sent that far in the course of the day. He arrived there at 1
+      o&rsquo;clock in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 5. Early in the morning, he carried his family across the river
+      there, and sending them to Fine Creek (eight miles higher up) went himself
+      to Britton&rsquo;s on the south side of the river, (opposite to Westham).
+      Finding the arms, &amp;c. in a heap near the shore, and exposed to be
+      destroyed by cannon from the north bank, he had them removed under cover
+      of a point of land near by. He proceeded to Manchester (opposite to
+      Richmond). The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1 P. M. Having found that
+      nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond, he set out for
+      Chetwood&rsquo;s to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that place as a
+      rendezvous and head-quarters; but not finding him there, and understanding
+      he would be at Colonel Fleming&rsquo;s (six miles above Britton&rsquo;s), he proceeded
+      thither. The enemy had now a detachment at Westham, and sent a deputation
+      from the city of Richmond to the Governor, at Colonel Fleming&rsquo;s, to
+      propose terms for ransoming the safety of the city, which terms he
+      rejected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 6. The Governor returned to Britton&rsquo;s, had measures taken more
+      effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy, having burnt
+      some houses and stores, left Richmond after twenty-four hours&rsquo; stay there,
+      and encamped at Four Mile Creek (eight or ten miles below); and the
+      Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 7. He returned to Britton&rsquo;s to see further to the arms there,
+      exposed on the ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before,
+      and thence proceeded to Manchester and lodged there. The enemy encamped at
+      Westover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 8. At half after 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and resumed
+      his residence there. The enemy are still retained in their encampment at
+      Westover by an easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has now three hundred
+      militia at the Forest (six miles off from Westover); General Nelson, two
+      hundred at Charles City Court-House (eight miles below Westover); Gibson,
+      one thousand, and Baron Steuben, eight hundred, on the south side of the
+      river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 9. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 10. At 1 P. M. they embark: and the wind having shifted a little
+      to the north of west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
+      Steuben marches for Hood&rsquo;s, where their passage may be checked. He reaches
+      Bland&rsquo;s mills in the evening, within nine miles of Hood&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 11. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they make good their
+      retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this period, time and place have been minutely cited, in order that
+      those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the Governor,
+      may lay their finger on the point, and say, when and where it was.
+      Hereafter, less detail will suffice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold with a
+      reinforcement of two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg,
+      and about the last of April to Manchester. The Governor had remained
+      constantly in and about Richmond, exerting all his powers for collecting
+      militia, and providing such means for the defence of the State as its
+      exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, and with only the
+      river between him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within four,
+      five, or six miles of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de la Fayette about this time arrived at Richmond with some continental
+      troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued to occupy that
+      place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips and Arnold held
+      Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis, about the middle of
+      May, joining them with the main southern army, M. de la Fayette was
+      obliged to retire. The enemy crossed the river, and advanced up into the
+      country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles of Charlottesville, at
+      which place the legislature being to meet in June, the Governor proceeded
+      to his seat at Monticello, two or three miles from it. His office was now
+      near expiring, the country under invasion by a powerful army, no services
+      but military of any avail; unprepared by his line of life and education
+      for the command of armies, he believed it right not to stand in the way of
+      talents better fitted than his own to the circumstances under which the
+      country was placed. He therefore himself proposed to his friends in the
+      legislature, that General Nelson, who commanded the militia of the State,
+      should be appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the union of the
+      civil and military power in the same hands, at this time, would greatly
+      facilitate military measures. This appointment accordingly took place on
+      the 12th of June, 1781.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the state of things, when, his office having actually expired,
+      and no successor yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment, of
+      horse, was detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson (whom
+      they thought still in office) and the legislature now sitting in
+      Charlottesville. The Speakers of the two Houses, and some other members of
+      the legislature, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello. Tarleton,
+      early in the morning, (June 23, I believe,) when within ten miles of that
+      place, detached a company of horse to secure him and his guests, and
+      proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to Charlottesville, where he
+      hoped to find the legislature unapprized of his movement. Notice of it,
+      however, had been brought both to Monticello and Charlottesville about
+      sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues, returned to Charlottesville,
+      and, with the other members of the legislature, had barely time to get out
+      of his way. Mr. Jefferson sent off his family, to secure them from danger,
+      and was himself still at Monticello, making arrangements for his own
+      departure, when Lieutenant Hudson arrived there at half speed, and
+      informed him the enemy were then ascending the hill of Monticello. He
+      departed immediately, and knowing that he would be pursued if he took the
+      high road, he plunged into the woods of the adjoining mountain, where,
+      being at once safe, he proceeded to overtake his family. This is the
+      famous adventure of Carter&rsquo;s Mountain, which has been so often resounded
+      through the slanderous chronicles of Federalism. But they have taken care
+      never to detail the facts, lest these should show that this favorite
+      charge amounted to nothing more, than that he did not remain in his house,
+      and there singly fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be
+      taken prisoner. Having accompanied his family one day&rsquo;s journey, he
+      returned to Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours&rsquo; stay in
+      Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded
+      with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest,
+      where, riding in his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse,
+      and disabled from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr.
+      Turner finds it more convenient to give him this fall in his retreat
+      before Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof that he
+      withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which Don Quixote would
+      not have practised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place, are
+      taken from the notes made by the writer hereof, for his own satisfaction,
+      at the time: the others are from memory, but so well recollected, that he
+      is satisfied there is no material fact misstated. Should any person
+      undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence which may at all merit
+      the public respect, the writer will take the trouble (though not at all in
+      the best situation for it) to produce the proofs in support of it. He
+      finds, indeed, that, of the persons whom he recollects to have been
+      present on these occasions, few have survived the intermediate lapse of
+      four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that some, as well as himself, are
+      yet among the living; and he is positively certain, that no man can
+      falsify any material fact here stated. He well remembers, indeed, that
+      there were then, as there are at all times, some who blamed every thing
+      done contrary to their own opinion, although their opinions were formed on
+      a very partial knowledge of facts. The censures, which have been hazarded
+      by such men as Mr. Turner, are nothing but revivals of these half-informed
+      opinions. Mr. George Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very
+      honest one, was prompted by these persons to bring specific charges
+      against Mr. Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were communicated
+      through a mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also
+      the heads of justification on each of them. I well remember this paper,
+      and believe the original of it still exists; and though framed when every
+      real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabricated flight
+      from Richmond was not among the charges stated in this paper, nor any
+      charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting, singly, the troop of horse.
+      Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House of
+      Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable sentence of entire
+      approbation of Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s conduct, and so much the more honorable, as
+      themselves had been witnesses to it. And Mr. George Nicholas took a
+      conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will, and when the matter
+      was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the erroneous opinions he had
+      been led into on that occasion, and to make just reparation by a candid
+      acknowledgment of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXV.&mdash;TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 2, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gentlemen,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received the favor of your letter of February the 2nd, and read
+      with thankfulness its obliging expressions respecting myself. I regret
+      that the object of a letter from persons whom I so much esteem, and
+      patronized by so many other respectable names, should be beyond the law
+      which a mature consideration of circumstances has prescribed for my
+      conduct. I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of
+      his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to see
+      it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This I
+      believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
+      inquiry and information, the subjects of distress to whose relief his
+      contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
+      life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it would
+      leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind from
+      different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far beyond any
+      resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in the East Indies,
+      the object of the present application, is but one of many items. However
+      disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our means having limits, we
+      are necessarily circumscribed by them. They are too narrow to relieve even
+      the distresses under our own eye: and to desert these for others which we
+      neither see nor know, is to omit doing a certain good for one which is
+      uncertain. I know, indeed, there have been splendid associations for
+      effecting benevolent purposes in remote regions of the earth. But no
+      experience of their effect has proved that more good would not have been
+      done by the same means employed nearer home. In explaining, however, my
+      own motives of action, I must not be understood as impeaching those of
+      others. Their views are those of an expanded liberality. Mine may be too
+      much restrained by the law of usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with
+      minds like yours, will be felt as a justification. With this apology, I
+      pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of high esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVI.&mdash;TO MR. DUANE, March 22, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 22, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you, my good Sir, cordially, for your letter of the 12th; which,
+      however, I did not receive till the 20th. It is a proof of sincerity,
+      which I value above all things; as, between those who practise it,
+      falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. There is an enemy
+      somewhere endeavoring to sow discord among us. Instead of listening first,
+      then doubting, and lastly believing anile tales handed round without an
+      atom of evidence, if my friends will address themselves to me directly, as
+      you have done, they shall be informed with frankness and thankfulness.
+      There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would disguise. But secret
+      slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are secret. Although you desire
+      no answer, I shall give you one to those articles admitting a short
+      answer, reserving those which require more explanation than the compass of
+      a letter admits, to conversation on your arrival here. And as I write this
+      for your personal satisfaction, I rely that my letter will, under no
+      circumstances, be communicated to any mortal, because you well know how
+      every syllable from me is distorted by the ingenuity of political enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or
+      indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever
+      had before. This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from
+      design. And if there be any coolness between those of the south and
+      myself, it has not been from me towards them. Certainly there has been no
+      other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among our
+      friends. That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is
+      sufficiently known. We were not disposed to join in league with Britain,
+      under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind, and to
+      enter into war with Spain, and consequently France. The House of
+      Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.&lsquo;s
+      resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western service.
+      We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if it can be
+      effected honorably. This, perhaps, is not the only ground of his
+      alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of eighty-seven
+      to eleven republicans may satisfy you: but you will better satisfy
+      yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things can be
+      known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied on all
+      essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is totally
+      unfounded. There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial
+      administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise. And while
+      differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm, that
+      as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my message to
+      Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was not a unanimity
+      of concurrence in the members of the administration. The fact is, that in
+      ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me on those of his
+      department, and where any thing arises too difficult or important to be
+      decided between us, the consultation becomes general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public
+      profession and concealed counteraction, is false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and declared
+      I would appoint none but those called moderates of both parties, and that
+      I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those called the third
+      party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the expedition of Miranda was countenanced by me is an absolute
+      falsehood, let it have gone from whom it might; and I am satisfied it is
+      equally so as to Mr. Madison. To know as much of it as we could was our
+      duty, but not to encourage it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our situation is difficult; and whatever we do, is liable to the
+      criticisms of those who wish to represent it awry. If we recommend
+      measures in a public message, it may be said that members are not sent
+      here to obey the mandates of the President, or to register the edicts of a
+      sovereign. If we express opinions in conversation, we have then our
+      Charles Jenkinsons, and back-door counsellors. If we say nothing, &lsquo;we have
+      no opinions, no plans, no cabinet.&rsquo; In truth, it is the fable of the old
+      man, his son, and ass, over again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are short facts, which may suffice to inspire you with caution,
+      until you can come here and examine for yourself. No other information can
+      give you a true insight into the state of things; but you will have no
+      difficulty in understanding them when on the spot. In the mean time,
+      accept my friendly salutations and cordial good wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVII.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.&mdash;[Confidential.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 24,1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed to be made at
+      Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose, General
+      Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint
+      commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
+      Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
+      stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add a
+      third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
+      confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
+      Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be a
+      southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated are almost
+      entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet ultimately decided
+      on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted. Under this
+      expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake it, I give
+      you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may be preparing both
+      your mind and your measures for the mission. The departure would be
+      required to be very prompt; though the absence, I think, will not be long,
+      Bonaparte not being in the practice of procrastination. This particular
+      consideration will, I hope, reconcile the voyage to your affairs and your
+      feelings. The allowance to an extra mission, is salary from the day of
+      leaving home, and expenses to the place of destination, or in lieu of the
+      latter, and to avoid settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For
+      the return, a continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment
+      of the commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as
+      possible, and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure as
+      proposed provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal
+      until we see it proper. Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVIII.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 13, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause for your not
+      acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe. My only hope
+      had been, that they could have gone on one summer without you. An unjust
+      hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid, show itself
+      whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for ratification. I
+      wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a person who would
+      have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General Smith was so
+      prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be impossible for
+      them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave the matter with
+      Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish sincerely you were back
+      in the Senate; and that you would take the necessary measures to get
+      yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you should go to our
+      legislature. Giles&rsquo;s absence has been a most serious misfortune. A
+      majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard are too dexterous
+      for them, and have very much influenced their proceedings. Tracy has been
+      of nearly every committee during the session, and for the most part the
+      chairman, and of course drawer of the reports. Seven federalists voting
+      always in phalanx, and joined by some discontented republicans, some
+      oblique ones, some capricious, have so often made a majority, as to
+      produce very serious embarrassment to the public operations; and very much
+      do I dread the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which
+      can be made with either England or Spain, when I consider that five
+      joining the federalists, can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs.
+      The House of Representatives is as well disposed as I ever saw one. The
+      defection of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and confusion
+      for a moment; but they soon rallied to their own principles, and let him
+      go off with five or six followers only. One half of these are from
+      Virginia. His late declaration of perpetual opposition to this
+      administration, drew off a few others, who at first had joined him,
+      supposing his opposition occasional only, and not systematic. The alarm
+      the House has had from this schism, has produced a rallying together, and
+      a harmony, which carelessness and security had begun to endanger. On the
+      whole, this little trial of the firmness of our representatives in their
+      principles, and that of the people also, which is declaring itself in
+      support of their public functionaries, has added much to my confidence in
+      the stability of our government; and to my conviction, that should things
+      go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable
+      exercise of their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this
+      schism, its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation;
+      and must be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably
+      be about the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there.
+      Congress has agreed to rise on Monday the 21st.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIX.&mdash;TO MR. HARRIS, April 18, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. HARRIS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 18, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now some time since I received from you, through the house of Smith
+      and Buchanan, at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander, for which I
+      have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial, because of the
+      value the bust derives from the great estimation in which its original is
+      held by the world, and by none more than by myself. It will constitute one
+      of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am preparing for myself at
+      my native home. Accept, at the same time, my acknowledgments for the
+      elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the customs of the Russians. I had
+      laid it down as a law for my conduct while in office, and hitherto
+      scrupulously observed, to accept of no present beyond a book, a pamphlet,
+      or other curiosity of minor value; as well to avoid imputations on my
+      motives of action, as to shut out a practice susceptible of such abuse.
+      But my particular esteem for the character of the Emperor places his image
+      in my mind above the scope of law. I receive it, therefore, and shall
+      cherish it with affection. It nourishes the contemplation of all the good
+      placed in his power, and of his disposition to do it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little before Dr. Priestley&rsquo;s death, he informed me that he had received
+      intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the Emperor
+      entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have therefore
+      selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which I pray you
+      to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to occupy his
+      time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to be made by
+      others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the compass of the
+      time which his higher callings can yield to such an object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
+      aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there had
+      ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia, traces of
+      it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore availed
+      myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain vocabularies of
+      such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding to a list then
+      formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I have made such
+      progress, that within a year or two more I think to give to the public
+      what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a report of Mr.
+      Volney&rsquo;s to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas, entitled <i>Vocabulaires
+      Comparés des Langues de toute la Terre</i>; with a list of one hundred and
+      thirty words, to which the vocabulary is limited. I find that
+      seventy-three of these words are common to that and to my vocabulary, and
+      therefore will enable us, by a comparison of language, to make the inquiry
+      so long desired, as to the probability of a common origin between the
+      people of color of the two continents. I have to ask the favor of you to
+      procure me a copy of the above work of Pallas, to inform me of the cost,
+      and permit me to pay it here to your use; for I presume you have some
+      mercantile correspondent here, to whom a payment can be made for you. A
+      want of knowledge what the book may cost, as well as of the means of
+      making so small a remittance, obliges me to make this proposition, and to
+      restrain it to the sole condition that I be permitted to reimburse it
+      here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
+      have delivered: it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
+      State will explain to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXX.&mdash;TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 19, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty, of the great
+      satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,
+      and sincere expressions of the respect and veneration I entertain for your
+      character. It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts of my
+      life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a portion of
+      the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign, whose ruling
+      passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity of his people;
+      and not of his own people only, but who can extend his eye and his good
+      will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its course,
+      unambitious in its views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
+      observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of their
+      actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect that your
+      Majesty&rsquo;s interposition in them has been disinterested and generous, and
+      having in view only the general good of the great European family. When
+      you shall proceed to the pacification which is to re-establish peace and
+      commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead you to think of the
+      general intercourse of nations, and to make that provision for its future
+      maintenance, which, in times past, it has so much needed. The northern
+      nations of Europe, at the head of which your Majesty is distinguished, are
+      habitually peaceable. The United States of America, like them, are
+      attached to peace. We have then with them a common interest in the neutral
+      rights. Every nation, indeed, on the continent of Europe, belligerent as
+      well as neutral, is interested in maintaining these rights, in
+      liberalizing them progressively with the progress of science and
+      refinement of morality, and in relieving them from restrictions which the
+      extension of the arts has long since rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their
+      power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
+      nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
+      correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such a
+      definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent, would
+      give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them with an
+      authority, which would protect them in an important degree against future
+      violation; and should any further sanction be necessary, that of an
+      exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse with all the
+      others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to the offence, more
+      easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The essential articles of
+      these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily to be defined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
+      no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
+      in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that they
+      are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond the
+      narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of his
+      equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a happy
+      concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step can now and
+      then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the present
+      occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty&rsquo;s character will not be wanting
+      to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may your life
+      become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and may He who
+      called it into being for the good of the human family, give it length of
+      days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXI.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 4, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected to
+      have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar confidence
+      to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying trip to London,
+      on private business. But I believe he does not find it convenient. He
+      could have let you into the <i>arcana rerum</i>, which you have interests
+      in knowing. Mr. Pinckney&rsquo;s pursuits having been confined to his peculiar
+      line, he has only that general knowledge of what has passed here, which
+      the public possess. He has a just view of things so far as known to him.
+      Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time ago, at first
+      professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from the habit of
+      voting together, becoming soon identified with them. Without carrying over
+      with him one single person, he is now in a state of as perfect obscurity
+      as if his name had never been known. Mr. J. Randolph is in the same track,
+      and will end in the same way. His course has excited considerable alarm.
+      Timid men consider it as a proof of the weakness of our government, and
+      that it is to be rent into pieces by demagogues and to end in anarchy. I
+      survey the scene with a different eye, and draw a different augury from
+      it. In a House of Representatives of a great mass of good sense, Mr.
+      Randolph&rsquo;s popular eloquence gave him such advantages as to place him
+      unrivalled as the leader of the House; and, although not conciliatory to
+      those whom he led, principles of duty and patriotism induced many of them
+      to swallow humiliations he subjected them to, and to vote as was right, as
+      long as he kept the path of right himself. The sudden defection of such a
+      man could not but produce a momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but
+      for a moment only. The good sense of the House rallied around its
+      principles, and, without any leader, pursued steadily the business of the
+      session, did it well, and by a strength of vote which has never before
+      been seen. Upon all trying questions, exclusive of the federalists, the
+      minority of republicans voting with him, has been from four to six or
+      eight, against from ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the
+      federalists with ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal
+      opposition to this administration, and consequently associated with them
+      in his votes, he will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from
+      this is that there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the
+      body of the nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to
+      discern and to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can
+      arise, and that no <i>ignis faiuus</i> will be able to lead them long
+      astray. In the present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations
+      of it have yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence
+      to the administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain
+      equivocal ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
+      Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
+      carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
+      this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than him
+      who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground of
+      opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
+      advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
+      among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support of
+      you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
+      former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would lead
+      me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be embarrassed
+      with such a <i>soi-disant</i> friend. You must not commit yourself to him.
+      These views may assist you to understand such details as Mr. Pinckney will
+      give you. If you are here at any time before the fall, it will be in time
+      for any object you may have, and by that time the public sentiment will be
+      more decisively declared. I wish you were here at present, to take your
+      choice of the two governments of Orleans and Louisiana, in either of which
+      I could now place you; and I verily believe it would be to your advantage
+      to be just that much withdrawn from the focus of the ensuing contest,
+      until its event should be known. The one has a salary of five thousand
+      dollars, the other of two thousand dollars; both with excellent hotels for
+      the Governor. The latter at St. Louis, where there is good society, both
+      French and American, a healthy climate, and the finest field in the United
+      States for acquiring property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a
+      residence there in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their
+      connections are established there. As I think you can within four months
+      inform me what you say to this, I will keep things in their present state
+      till the last day of August, for your answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
+      settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox, personally,
+      I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it is founded in
+      what, through unquestionable channels, I have had opportunities of knowing
+      of his honesty and his good sense. While he shall be in the
+      administration, my reliance on that government will be solid. We had
+      committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to meet Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s
+      policy and hostility, before we heard of his death, which self-respect did
+      not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late unparalleled outrage on
+      us at New York excited such sentiments in the public at large, as did not
+      permit us to do less than has been done. It ought not to be viewed by the
+      ministry as looking towards them at all, but merely as the consequences of
+      the measures of their predecessors, which their nation has called on them
+      to correct. I hope, therefore, they will come to just arrangements. No two
+      countries upon earth have so many points of common interest and
+      friendship; and their rulers must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such
+      dispositions, they break them asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is
+      on the ocean. England may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that
+      element a little, but nothing she can do will retard us there one year&rsquo;s
+      growth. We shall be supported there by other nations, and thrown into
+      their scale to make a part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on
+      the other hand, she is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the
+      sentiment of family feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the
+      security of both. We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the
+      line, and half that number of frigates, and were France to give us the
+      money, and England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to
+      England serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
+      school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
+      immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
+      state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
+      England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us on the
+      sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent of Europe,
+      might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these scenes. We ask
+      for peace and justice from all nations, and we will remain uprightly
+      neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the opinion that an English
+      ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than that of France. We begin to
+      broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters,
+      in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present,
+      and prohibited so soon as either consent or force will permit us. We shall
+      never permit another privateer to cruise within it, and shall forbid our
+      harbors to national cruisers. This is essential for our tranquillity and
+      commerce. Be so good as to have the enclosed letters delivered, to present
+      me to your family, and be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
+      name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXII.&mdash;TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 4,1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I have
+      repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper I see
+      overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a single
+      fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have made a
+      fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle I
+      acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
+      authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
+      lodging together at Conrad&rsquo;s, he was pressed on me to be made Governor of
+      the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very principle.
+      When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that ground, I was not
+      insensible to its having some weight. But in the appointment to Louisiana,
+      I did not think myself departing from my own principle, because I consider
+      it not as a civil government, but merely a military station. The
+      legislature had sanctioned that idea by the establishment of the office of
+      Commandant, in which were completely blended the civil and military
+      powers. It seemed, therefore, that the Governor should be in suit with
+      them. I observed too, that the House of Representatives, on the very day
+      they passed the stricture on this union of authorities, passed a bill
+      making the Governor of Michigan, commander of the regular troops which
+      should at any time be within his government. However, on the subject of
+      General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation at this time. We shall see
+      what turn things take at home and abroad in the course of the summer.
+      Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr. Fox, which gives me hopes
+      that we shall have an amicable arrangement with that government. Accept my
+      friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIII.&mdash;TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and sends
+      him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the latter
+      part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to see, is in
+      them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on the fourth of
+      July, and to join in congratulations on the return of the day which
+      divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a dollar in the
+      pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from all the ruin of
+      Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s administration. We, too, shall encounter follies; but if great,
+      they will be short, if long, they will be light: and the vigor of our
+      country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s follies have been great,
+      long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with age, and exhausted by
+      excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIV.&mdash;TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BIDWELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 5, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
+      heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons are
+      proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under circumstances
+      of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between them. But it
+      shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on the triumph of
+      republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism has now lost all
+      its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow Massachusetts.
+      Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a mere county of
+      England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but always disposed to
+      counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an accommodation
+      there on both the points of &lsquo;accustomed commerce and impressment.&rsquo; In this
+      there must probably be some mutual concession, because we cannot expect to
+      obtain every thing and yield nothing. But I hope it will be such an one as
+      may be accepted. The arrival of the Hornet in France is so recently known,
+      that it will yet be some time before we learn our prospects there.
+      Notwithstanding the efforts made here, and made professedly to assassinate
+      that negotiation in embryo, if the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail
+      over his temper, the present state of things in Europe may induce him to
+      require of Spain, that she should do us justice at least. That he should
+      require her to sell us East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there
+      are not wanting considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent
+      foundation for peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall
+      be, our old enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find
+      enough to carp at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error
+      where they found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their
+      rallying point is &lsquo;war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great
+      Britain&rsquo;: and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor
+      to be fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted.
+      There one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
+      part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than all
+      others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say, there never
+      was a time when the services of those who possess talents, integrity,
+      firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress. Some one of
+      that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in the House of
+      Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as his own
+      business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it, and carry it
+      through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing his own judgment,
+      should implicitly support all the measures of the administration; but
+      that, where he does not disapprove of them, he should not suffer them to
+      go off in sleep, but bring them to the attention of the House, and give
+      them a fair chance. Where he disapproves, he will of course leave them to
+      be brought forward by those who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain
+      my idea by an example? The classification of the militia was communicated
+      to General Varnum and yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you
+      approved, it was trusted you would support. I knew, indeed, that General
+      Varnum was opposed to any thing which might break up the present
+      organization of the militia: but when so modified as to avoid this, I
+      thought he might, perhaps, be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did
+      not coincide with your sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but
+      using the same freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward
+      elsewhere. It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail:
+      but a militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
+      Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
+      composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
+      them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
+      public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
+      shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
+      while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
+      the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
+      respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
+      important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
+      to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all other
+      information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes
+      a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one of those
+      artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual arms; and men
+      of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this order. The last
+      session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time: but as soon as
+      the members penetrated into the views of those who were taking a new
+      course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have ever seen act
+      together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better dispositions.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it proceeds
+      from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness. Opportunities of
+      candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I must not lose them
+      when they occur. The information I receive from your quarter agrees with
+      that from the south; that the late schism has made not the smallest
+      impression on the public, and that the seceders are obliged to give to it
+      other grounds than those which we know to be the true ones. All we have to
+      wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every one may take the part openly
+      which he secretly befriends. I recollect nothing new and true, worthy
+      communicating to you. As for what is not true, you will always find
+      abundance in the newspapers. Among other things, are those perpetual
+      alarms as to the Indians, for no one of which has there ever been the
+      slightest ground. They are the suggestions of hostile traders, always
+      wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to perpetuate their own
+      extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXV.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 10, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
+      not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
+      with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or exertion
+      to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present age, and so
+      much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will never be
+      continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was invented by a
+      Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in England,
+      turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit of writing
+      much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to your daily
+      convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful machines. I
+      have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its perfection I have
+      used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction to find it the best
+      one I have ever tried; and in the course of two years&rsquo; daily use of them,
+      I have had opportunities of trying several. As a secretary, which copies
+      for us what we write without the power of revealing it, I find it a most
+      precious possession to a man in public-business. I enclose directions for
+      unpacking and using the machine when you receive it; but the machine
+      itself must await a special and sure conveyance under the care of some
+      person going to Paris. It is ready packed, and shall go by the first
+      proper conveyance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet at
+      L&rsquo;Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first impressions
+      on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida, and a good
+      western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy. It will secure
+      to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a long peace with
+      Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with them and alliance
+      with England, which, at the last session of Congress, drew off from the
+      republican band about half a dozen of its members, is universally
+      reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I have never seen
+      the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally so firmly to its
+      constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the opposition to them.
+      With England, I think we shall cut off the resource of impressing our
+      seamen to fight her battles, and establish the inviolability of our flag
+      in its commerce with her enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
+      truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
+      for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded from all
+      the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by securing for
+      her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial,
+      while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may, therefore, be
+      employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more useful friends to
+      France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope they will be sensible
+      of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of future misunderstanding to
+      another age, enable you to present us such an arrangement, as will insure
+      to our fellow-citizens long and permanent peace and friendship with them.
+      With respect to our western boundary, your instructions will be your
+      guide. I will only add, as a comment to them, that we are attached to the
+      retaining the Bay of St. Bernard, because it was the first establishment
+      of the unfortunate La Sale, was the cradle of Louisiana, and more
+      incontestibly covered and conveyed to us by France, under that name, than
+      any other spot in the country. This will be secured to us by taking for
+      our western boundary the Guadaloupe, and from its head around the sources
+      of all waters eastward of it, to the highlands embracing the waters
+      running into the Mississippi. However, all these things I presume will be
+      settled before you receive this; and I hope so settled as to give peace
+      and satisfaction to us all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
+      nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did little
+      injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want of rain; and
+      even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many chances to run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
+      order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will so
+      provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be <i>hors
+      d&rsquo;insulte</i>. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
+      to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
+      competent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVI.&mdash;TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO W. A. BURWELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 17, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands till the 9th
+      instant. About the same time, I received the Enquirer in which Decius was
+      so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper observed, that the
+      matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly, of inferences from
+      these facts: that he was not well enough informed to affirm or deny his
+      facts, and he therefore examines his inferences, and in a very masterly
+      manner shows that even were his facts true, the reasonable inferences from
+      them are very different from those drawn by Decius. But his facts are far
+      from truth, and should be corrected. It happened that Mr. Madison and
+      General Dearborn were here when I received your letter. I therefore, with
+      them, took up Decius and read him deliberately; and our memories aided one
+      another in correcting his bold and unauthorized assertions. I shall note
+      the most material of them in the order of the paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note, had
+      proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish spoliations,
+      or even for French. Their instructions were to make no treaty in which
+      Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although they were
+      permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into Spanish
+      ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is not true
+      that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as our western
+      boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their instructions.
+      Although we considered our title good as far as the Rio Bravo, yet in
+      proportion to what they could obtain east of the Mississippi, they were to
+      relinquish to the westward, and successive sacrifices were marked out, of
+      which even the Colorado was not the last. 3. It is not true that the
+      Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great Britain should consider our
+      supplying her enemies with money as a breach of neutrality. After the very
+      words of the treaty were finally agreed to, it took some time, perhaps
+      some days, to make out all the copies in the very splendid manner of
+      Bonaparte&rsquo;s treaties. Whether the 30th of April, 1803, the date expressed,
+      was the day of the actual compact, or that on which it was signed, our
+      memories do not enable us to say. If the former, then it is strictly
+      conformable to the day of the compact; if the latter, then it was
+      postdated, instead of being antedated. The motive assigned, too, is as
+      incorrect as the fact. It was so far from being thought, by any party, a
+      breach of neutrality, that the British minister congratulated Mr. King on
+      the acquisition, and declared that the King had learned it with great
+      pleasure: and when Baring, the British banker, asked leave of the minister
+      to purchase the debt and furnish the money to France, the minister
+      declared to him, that so far from throwing obstacles in the way, if there
+      were any difficulty in the payment of the money, it was the interest of
+      Great Britain to aid it. 4. He speaks of a double set of opinions and
+      principles; the one ostensible, to go on the journals and before the
+      public, the other efficient, and the real motives to action. But where are
+      these double opinions and principles? The executive informed the
+      legislature of the wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be made to
+      repel them, by force, if necessary. But as it might still be possible to
+      negotiate a settlement, they asked such means as might enable them to meet
+      the negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first part of this
+      system was communicated publicly, the second, privately; but both were
+      equally official, equally involved the responsibility of the executive,
+      and were equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase of the
+      Floridas was in direct opposition to the views of the executive, as
+      expressed in the President&rsquo;s official communication. It was not in
+      opposition even to the public part of the communication, which did not
+      recommend war, but only to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized
+      with the private part, which asked the means of negotiation in such terms
+      as covered the purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak
+      it out. He speaks of secret communications between the executive and
+      members, of backstairs influence, &amp;tc.. But he never spoke of this
+      while he and Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it almost solely. But when he differed
+      from the executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting
+      to him, expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit,
+      for the purchase of Florida), which he acknowledges they expressed to him,
+      then he roars out upon backstairs influence. 6. The committee, he says,
+      forbore to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not they
+      recommend the raising &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- regiments? Besides, if it was
+      proper for the committee to forbear recommending offensive measures, was
+      it not proper for the executive and legislature to exercise the same
+      forbearance? 7. He says Monroe&rsquo;s letter had a most important bearing on
+      our Spanish relations. Monroe&rsquo;s letter related, almost entirely, to our
+      British relations. Of those with Spain he knew nothing particular since he
+      left that country. Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed an
+      opinion on our affairs with Spain, of which he knew we had better
+      information than he could possess. His opinion was no more than that of
+      any other sensible man; and his letter was proper to be communicated with
+      the English papers, and with them only. That the executive did not hold it
+      up on account of any bearing on Spanish affairs, is evident from the fact,
+      that it was communicated when the Senate had not yet entered on the
+      Spanish affairs, and had not yet received the papers relating to them from
+      the other House. The moment the Representatives were ready to enter on the
+      British affairs, Monroe&rsquo;s letter, which peculiarly related to them, and
+      was official solely as to them, was communicated to both Houses, the
+      Senate being then about entering on the Spanish affairs.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any use
+      of them you think best, without letting your source of information be
+      known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber-tree? Accept
+      affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVII.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 12, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You witnessed, in the earlier part of the administration, the malignant
+      and long continued efforts which the federalists exerted in their
+      newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and myself.
+      These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made, through other
+      channels, to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn and myself,
+      but with no more success. The machinations of the last session to put you
+      at cross questions with us all, were so obvious as to be seen at the first
+      glance of every eye. In order to destroy one member of the administration,
+      the whole were to be set to loggerheads to destroy one another. I observe
+      in the papers lately, new attempts to revive this stale artifice, and that
+      they squint more directly towards you and myself. I cannot, therefore, be
+      satisfied, till I declare to you explicitly, that my affections and
+      confidence in you are nothing impaired, and that they cannot be impaired
+      by means so unworthy the notice of candid and honorable minds. I make the
+      declaration, that no doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts
+      they fear, may find a moment&rsquo;s harbor in either of our minds. I have so
+      much reliance on the superior good sense and candor of all those
+      associated with me, as to be satisfied they will not suffer either friend
+      or foe to sow tares among us. Our administration now drawing towards a
+      close, I have a sublime pleasure in believing it will be distinguished as
+      much by having placed itself above all the passions which could disturb
+      its harmony, as by the great operations by which it will have advanced the
+      well-being of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
+      unalterable respect and attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN DICKINSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 13, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Ancient Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of the 1st instant, and am ever thankful
+      for communications which may guide me in the duties which I wish to
+      perform as well as I am able. It is but too true, that great discontents
+      exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have
+      for their sources, 1. the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be
+      partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the
+      other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger. 2.
+      The administration of justice in our forms, principles, and language, with
+      all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more abhorrent, because of
+      the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption of bankrupt
+      and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the United States and
+      engrossed the practice. 3. The call on them by the land commissioners to
+      produce the titles of their lands. The object of this is really to record
+      and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on rights so ancient
+      that the title papers are lost, they expect the land is to be taken from
+      them wherever they cannot produce a regular deduction of title in writing.
+      In this they will be undeceived by the final result, which will evince to
+      them a liberal disposition of the government towards them. Among the
+      American inhabitants it is the old division of federalists and
+      republicans. The former, are as hostile there as they are every where, and
+      are the most numerous and wealthy. They have been long endeavoring to
+      batter down the Governor, who has always been a firm republican. There
+      were characters superior to him, whom I wished to appoint, but they
+      refused the office: I know no better man who would accept of it, and it
+      would not be right to turn him out for one not better. But it is the
+      second cause, above mentioned, which is deep seated and permanent. The
+      French members of the legislature, being the majority in both Houses,
+      lately passed an act, declaring that the civil, or French laws, should be
+      the laws of their land, and enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in
+      Latin, as the depositories of these laws. The Governor negatived the act.
+      One of the Houses thereupon passed a vote for self-dissolution of the
+      legislature as a useless body, which failed in the other House by a single
+      vote only. They separated, however, and have disseminated all the
+      discontent they could. I propose to the members of Congress in
+      conversation, the enlisting thirty thousand volunteers, Americans by
+      birth, to be carried at the public expense, and settled immediately on a
+      bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land each, on the west side of
+      the Mississippi, on the condition of giving two years of military service,
+      if that country should be attacked within seven years. The defence of the
+      country would thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number would
+      entitle the territory to become a State, would make the majority American,
+      and make it an American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten
+      the pill to the French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to
+      our own good as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both
+      will be promoted by whatever will amalgamate us together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will end
+      in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired of an
+      office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be glad to
+      be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but unceasing
+      drudgery, and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming vacant, every
+      appointment made, <i>me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis</i>. My only
+      consolation is in the belief, that my fellow-citizens at large give me
+      credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the
+      continuance of that good will which follows well intended actions, and
+      their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and
+      happy years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIX,&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, February 28,1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 28,1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But such has
+      been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of my power
+      to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond the extent
+      of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello, it can then
+      be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however, generally,
+      that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so acceptable a
+      favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts and opinions. I
+      have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it; indeed, both
+      self-love and the desire to do what is best strongly invite unreserved
+      communication. There is one subject which will not admit a delay till I
+      see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to retire from
+      Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here, that you
+      should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more loudly
+      assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists, who will
+      be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be three or
+      four (all tongue), the residue of the House of Representatives is as well
+      disposed a body of men as I ever saw collected. But there is no one whose
+      talents and standing, taken together, have weight enough to give him the
+      lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake to do
+      the public business, and it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would
+      rally round you in an instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for
+      the public good. Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery in the
+      House. There are enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying point is
+      all that is wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself. You never
+      will have it so much in your power again to render such eminent service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XL.&mdash;TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 21, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine&rsquo;s hands on the
+      last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately communicated to
+      us; and since that, Mr. Purviance has arrived with an original. On the
+      subject of it you will receive a letter from the Secretary of State, of
+      about this date, and one more in detail hereafter. I should not have
+      written, but that I perceive uncommon efforts, and with uncommon
+      wickedness, are making by the federal papers to produce mischief between
+      myself, personally, and our negotiators; and also to irritate the British
+      government, by putting a thousand speeches into my mouth, not one word of
+      which I ever uttered. I have, therefore, thought it safe to guard you, by
+      stating the view which we have given out on the subject of the treaty, in
+      conversation and otherwise; for ours, as you know, is a government which
+      will not tolerate the being kept entirely in the dark, and especially on a
+      subject so interesting as this treaty. We immediately stated in
+      conversation, to the members of the legislature and others, that having,
+      by a letter received in January, perceived that our ministers might sign a
+      treaty not providing satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen,
+      we had, on the 3rd of February, informed you, that should such an one have
+      been forwarded, it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore,
+      that you should resume negotiations for inserting an article to that
+      effect; that we should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn
+      from you the result of our instructions, which probably would not be till
+      summer, and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We
+      observed, too, that a written declaration of the British commissioners,
+      given in at the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn,
+      prevent the acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us
+      bound by the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement
+      we have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
+      made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as a
+      hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to have
+      screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every thing,
+      and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil of all
+      the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to expunge
+      the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we may enjoy our
+      right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present hostilities. If
+      peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the benefit of this
+      stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years, to pass no
+      non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any other measures to
+      restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the British. But on this
+      you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the treaty cannot be put
+      into an acceptable form, then the next best thing is to back out of the
+      negotiation as well as we can, letting that die away insensibly; but, in
+      the mean time, agreeing informally, that both parties shall act on the
+      principles of the treaty, so as to preserve that friendly understanding
+      which we so sincerely desire, until the one or the other may be disposed
+      to yield the points which divide us. This will leave you to follow your
+      desire of coming home, as soon as you see that the amendment of the treaty
+      is desperate. The power of continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to
+      Mr. Pinckney, who, by procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us
+      time, the most precious of all things to us. The government of New Orleans
+      is still without such a head as I wish. The salary of five thousand
+      dollars is too small; but I am assured the Orleans legislature would make
+      it adequate, would you accept it. It is the second office in the United
+      States in importance, and I am still in hopes you will accept it. It is
+      impossible to let you stay at home while the public has so much need of
+      talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of periodical headache,
+      without scarcely command enough of my mind to know what I write. As a part
+      of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as yourself, be so good as to
+      communicate so much of it to him; and with my best respects to him, to
+      Mrs. Monroe, and your daughter, be assured yourself, in all cases, of my
+      constant and affectionate friendship and attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLI.&mdash;M. LE COMTE DIODATI, March 29, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 29, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Antient Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 29th reached me the 18th of February. It
+      enclosed a duplicate of that written from Brunswick five years before, but
+      which I never received, or had notice of, but by this duplicate. Be
+      assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such negligence towards you,
+      as a failure to answer it would have implied. It would illy have accorded
+      with those sentiments of friendship I entertained for you at Paris, and
+      which neither time nor distance has lessened. I often pass in review the
+      many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati and yourself on the banks of
+      the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count them among the most pleasing I
+      enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days of tranquillity and happiness.
+      They had begun to cloud a little before I left you; but I had no
+      apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the beginning, was to spread
+      over such an extent of space and time. I have often thought of you with
+      anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered the storm, and into what
+      port you had retired. The letters now received give me the first
+      information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your safe and quiet
+      retreat. Were I in Europe, <i>pax et panis</i> would certainly be my
+      motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history with more
+      matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness
+      furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own
+      country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed now upwards of twenty years,
+      while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption. I again, my friend,
+      repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming torrent of its lava.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
+      propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
+      of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform
+      health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy for me,
+      and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my farms, and
+      my family. Having performed my <i>quadragena stipendia</i>, I am entitled
+      to my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner
+      sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have, therefore, requested
+      my fellow-citizens to think of a successor for me, to whom I shall deliver
+      the public concerns with greater joy than I received them. I have the
+      consolation too of having added nothing to my private fortune, during my
+      public service, and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty.
+      Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever excusable, are so when writing to
+      a friend to whom our concerns are not uninteresting. I shall always be
+      glad to hear of your health and happiness, and having been out of the way
+      of hearing of any of our cotemporaries of the <i>corps diplomatique</i> at
+      Paris, any details of their subsequent history, which you will favor me
+      with, will be thankfully received. I pray you to make my friendly respects
+      acceptable to Madame la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my
+      continued esteem, and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and
+      assurances of constant attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLII.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 2, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
+      the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
+      fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
+      to go under cover of the Secretary of State&rsquo;s despatches by any vessel
+      going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned
+      for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that the United
+      States&rsquo; armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is to touch
+      at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London, and at Brest,
+      with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
+      between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received in
+      January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up their
+      minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
+      impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received in
+      the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators, assuring
+      them of the discretion with which impressments should be conducted, which
+      could be construed into a covenant only by inferences, against which its
+      omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in its terms totally
+      unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3rd, they were immediately
+      informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory article on that
+      head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the negotiations on
+      that point. The treaty having come to as actually in the inadmissible
+      shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know the result of
+      the instructions of February the 3rd. I have but little expectation that
+      the British government will retire from their habitual wrongs in the
+      impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without that we will never
+      tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing a non-importation or
+      non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to become just. This may
+      bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To show, however, the sincerity
+      of our desire for conciliation, I have suspended the non-importation act.
+      This state of things should be understood at Paris, and every effort used
+      on your part to accommodate our differences with Spain, under the auspices
+      of France, with whom it is all-important that we should stand in terms of
+      the strictest cordiality. In fact, we are to depend on her and Russia for
+      the establishment of neutral rights by the treaty of peace, among which
+      should be that of taking no persons by a belligerent out of a neutral
+      ship, unless they be the soldiers of an enemy. Never did a nation act
+      towards another with more perfidy and injustice than Spain has constantly
+      practised against us: and if we have kept our hands off of her till now,
+      it has been purely out of respect to France, and from the value we set on
+      the friendship of France. We expect, therefore, from the friendship of the
+      Emperor, that he will either compel Spain to do us justice, or abandon her
+      to us. We ask but one month to be in possession of the city of Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have been
+      given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense incurred,
+      in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against Mexico.
+      Although at first he proposed a separation of the western country, and on
+      that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, according to the
+      usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very early saw that the
+      fidelity of the western country was not to be shaken, and turned himself
+      wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an enterprise on that country in
+      this, that we had only to lie still, and he would have had followers
+      enough to have been in the city of Mexico in six weeks. You have doubtless
+      seen my several messages to Congress, which gave a faithful narrative of
+      that conspiracy. Burr himself, after being disarmed by our endeavors of
+      all his followers, escaped from the custody of the court of Mississippi,
+      but was taken near Fort Stoddart, making his way to Mobile, by some
+      country people, who brought him on as a prisoner to Richmond, where he is
+      now under a course for trial. Hitherto we have believed our law to be,
+      that suspicion on probable grounds was sufficient cause to commit a person
+      for trial, allowing time to collect witnesses till the trial. But the
+      judges here have decided, that conclusive evidence of guilt must be ready
+      in the moment of arrest, or they will discharge the malefactor. If this is
+      still insisted on, Burr will be discharged; because his crimes having been
+      sown from Maine, through the whole line of the western waters, to New
+      Orleans, we cannot bring the witnesses here under four months. The fact
+      is, that the federalists make Burr&rsquo;s cause their own, and exert their
+      whole influence to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents
+      of Miranda. And it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominent in
+      our judiciary department, which is consequently in opposition to the
+      legislative and executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures
+      often.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr&rsquo;s offences, was
+      received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety and doubt in the
+      public mind, in the present defective state of the proof, is not
+      wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the
+      judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,
+      dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans. The
+      federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr&rsquo;s cause their own,
+      mortified only that he did not separate the union or overturn the
+      government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they
+      would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy, as
+      they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them of
+      this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
+      administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The
+      present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,
+      so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I
+      believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,
+      we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on foot
+      an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the scene of
+      these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they will give
+      time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress, what the real
+      facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to appeal to the
+      patriotism of particular persons in different places, of whom we have
+      requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on such
+      information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process or
+      facilities from the federal courts, but frowned on by their new-born zeal
+      for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow the
+      liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the
+      accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the judges
+      have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What loop-hole
+      they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee.
+      Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will
+      satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr&rsquo;s guilt. And I do suppose
+      the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men, in a
+      regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round Blannerhassett&rsquo;s
+      island, when they expected Governor Tiffin&rsquo;s men to be on them <i>modo
+      guerrino arraiati</i>. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth
+      of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi,
+      holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation, regularly
+      signed with the aid of the Governor, as between two independent and
+      hostile commanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a moment&rsquo;s calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
+      collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
+      when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
+      inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
+      &lsquo;More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme Court
+      has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they exist. Why
+      are they not proved.&rsquo; In what terms of decency can we speak of this? As if
+      an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of Cumberland, and return in
+      five weeks, to do which has never taken less than twelve. Again, &lsquo;If, in
+      November or December last, a body of troops had been assembled on the
+      Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the affidavits, establishing the fact,
+      could not have been obtained by the last of March.&rsquo; But I ask the Judge,
+      where they should have been lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at
+      Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places
+      of apprehension and examination. It was not known at Washington till the
+      26th of March, that Burr would escape from the western tribunals, be
+      retaken and brought to an eastern one: and in five days after (neither
+      five months nor five weeks, as the Judge calculated) he says, it is
+      &lsquo;impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained.&rsquo;
+      Where? At Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the
+      eyes of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted
+      which would bear on the favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this
+      odious republic. &lsquo;I understand,&rsquo; says the Judge, &lsquo;probable cause of guilt
+      to be a case made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,&rsquo; &amp;c.
+      Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at
+      least. But this is confounding probability and proof. We had always before
+      understood that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the
+      offender must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable,
+      the Judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of
+      letters of information in Mr. Rodney&rsquo;s hands, the letters and facts
+      published in the local newspapers, Burr&rsquo;s flight, and the universal belief
+      or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of
+      enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or
+      capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the
+      United States who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt
+      acts to have taken place?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
+      administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to
+      condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged
+      them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work
+      well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.
+      If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never
+      far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then, and amend
+      the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent of the
+      nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of the
+      government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the
+      common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders
+      which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are themselves protected
+      in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment is a farce which will
+      not be tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment,
+      it will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against Burr,
+      personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never, indeed, thought
+      him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or
+      other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of.
+      Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my
+      duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he
+      deserved it: and if his punishment can be commuted now for an useful
+      amendment of the constitution, I shall rejoice in it. My sheet being full,
+      I perceive it is high time to offer you my friendly salutations, and
+      assure you of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIV.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 2, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 2, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Burr&rsquo;s case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from
+      time to time with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury v.
+      Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the threshold
+      the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be law. 1.
+      Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed all cognizance of the case;
+      although they then went on to say what would have been their opinion, had
+      they had cognizance of it. This then was confessedly an extra-judicial
+      opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2. Because, had it been judicially
+      pronounced, it would have been against law; for to a commission, a deed, a
+      bond, delivery is essential to give validity. Until, therefore, the
+      commission is delivered out of the hands of the executive and his agents,
+      it is not his deed. He may withhold or cancel it at pleasure, as he might
+      his private deed in the same situation. The constitution intended that the
+      three great branches of the government should be co-ordinate, and
+      independent of each other. As to acts, therefore, which are to be done by
+      either, it has given no control to another branch. A judge, I presume,
+      cannot sit on a bench without a commission, or a record of a commission:
+      and the constitution having given to the judiciary branch no means of
+      compelling the executive either to deliver a commission, or to make a
+      record of it, shows it did not intend to give the judiciary that control
+      over the executive, but that it should remain in the power of the latter
+      to do it or not. Where different branches have to act in their respective
+      lines, finally and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it
+      different and opposite constructions. Thus in the case of William Smith,
+      the House of Representatives determined he was a citizen, and in the case
+      of William Duane (precisely the same in every material circumstance) the
+      judges determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callender and others,
+      the judges determined the sedition act was valid under the constitution,
+      and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
+      imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was a
+      nullity under the constitution, and exercised his regular power of
+      prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing the real
+      law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these different
+      constructions of the same act by different branches, less mischief arises,
+      than from giving to any one of them a control over the others. The
+      executive and Senate act on the construction, that until delivery from the
+      executive department, a commission is in their possession, and within
+      their rightful power; and in cases of commissions not revocable at will,
+      where, after the Senate&rsquo;s approbation and the President&rsquo;s signing and
+      sealing, new information of the unfitness of the person has come to hand
+      before the delivery of the commission, new nominations have been made and
+      approved, and new commissions have issued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act, and
+      maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control which
+      may be attempted by the judges in subversion of the independence of the
+      executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
+      therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the constitution the
+      supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
+      constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was <i>coram
+      non judice</i>, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried into
+      effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the gratuitous
+      opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, and denounced as
+      not law: and I think the present a fortunate one, because it occupies such
+      a place in the public attention. I should be glad, therefore, if, in
+      noticing that case, you could take occasion to express the determination
+      of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were given
+      extra-judicially and against law, and that their reverse will be the rule
+      of action with the executive. If this opinion should not be your own, I
+      would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the executive. If it is
+      your own also, you would of course give to the arguments such a
+      developement, as a case, incidental only, might render proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLV.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines, than
+      that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the faulty
+      classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with attention,
+      and according to the best information I possess, classing them more
+      rigorously. I am persuaded, that were the duty on cheap wines put on the
+      same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge the field of those
+      who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The introduction of a very
+      cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood, within two years past, has
+      quadrupled in that time the number of those who keep wine, and will ere
+      long increase them tenfold. This would be a great gain to the treasury,
+      and to the sobriety of our country. I will here add my tariff, wherein you
+      will be able to choose any rate of duty you please; and to decide whether
+      it will not, on a fit occasion, be proper for legislative attention.
+      Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page077.jpg" alt="Page77 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 5, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think it will be
+      fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of the present
+      scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller: though the same views
+      of protecting the offender may again reduce the number to sixteen, in
+      order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur. It is understood,
+      that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not choose to embark in his
+      projects, unless approved by their government, he asserted that he had
+      that approbation. Most of them took his word for it, but it is said that
+      with those who would not, the following stratagem was practised. A forged
+      letter, purporting to be from General Dearborn, was made to express his
+      approbation, and to say that I was absent at Monticello, but that there
+      was no doubt that, on my return, my approbation of his enterprises would
+      be given. This letter was spread open on his table, so as to invite the
+      eye of whoever entered his room; and he contrived occasions of sending up
+      into his room, those whom he wished to become witnesses of his acting
+      under sanction. By this means, he avoided committing himself to any
+      liability to prosecution for forgery, and gave another proof of being a
+      great man in little things, while he is really small in great ones. I must
+      add General Dearborn&rsquo;s declaration, that he never wrote a letter to Burr
+      in his life, except that when here, once in a winter, he usually wrote him
+      a billet of invitation to dine. The only object of sending you the
+      enclosed letters is to possess you of the fact, that you may know how to
+      pursue it, if any of your witnesses should know any thing of it. My
+      intention in writing to you several times, has been to convey facts or
+      observations occurring in the absence of the Attorney General, and not to
+      make to the dreadful drudgery you are going through the unnecessary
+      addition of writing me letters in answer, which I beg you to relieve
+      yourself from, except when some necessity calls for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN, June 10, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 10, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
+      capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to yourself, I
+      may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided to others,
+      on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of making it
+      subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it has been no
+      sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence of my
+      fellow-citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards excluding
+      merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However, I have
+      thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied, that,
+      in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am influenced
+      by neither personal nor family interests, and especially, that the field
+      of public office will not be perverted by me into a family property. On
+      this subject, I had the benefit of useful lessons from my predecessors,
+      had I needed them, marking what was to be imitated and what avoided. But,
+      in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough. Its energy
+      depending mainly on the confidence of the people, in their Chief
+      Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him
+      with that confidence.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN NORVELL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 11, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
+      proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
+      occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
+      not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society into civil
+      government: I mean a work which presents in one full and comprehensive
+      view the system of principles on which such an organization should be
+      founded, according to the rights of nature. For want of a single work of
+      that character, I should recommend Locke on Government, Sidney,
+      Priestley&rsquo;s Essay on the First Principles of Government, Chipman&rsquo;s
+      Principles of Government, and the Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on
+      Crimes and Punishments, because of the demonstrative manner in which he
+      has treated that branch of the subject. If your views of political inquiry
+      go further, to the subjects of money and commerce, Smith&rsquo;s Wealth of
+      Nations is the best book to be read, unless Say&rsquo;s Political Economy can be
+      had, which treats the same subjects on the same principles, but in a
+      shorter compass, and more lucid manner. But I believe this work has not
+      been translated into our language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
+      have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in
+      the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history
+      becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general
+      history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of Hume
+      seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the
+      government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner, as
+      to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary
+      readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the
+      text of Hume as his ground-work, abridging it by the omission of some
+      details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to
+      mislead, by either the suppression of a truth, or by giving it a false
+      coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we may
+      properly call it Hume&rsquo;s history republicanized. He has, moreover,
+      continued the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it, to the
+      year 1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is republican;
+      and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a single quarto
+      volume. Adding to this Ludlow&rsquo;s Memoirs, Mrs. Macaulay&rsquo;s and Belknap&rsquo;s
+      histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free principles of
+      the English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be
+      conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, &lsquo;by restraining it to
+      true, facts and sound principles only.&rsquo; Yet I fear such a paper would find
+      few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press
+      could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done
+      by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed
+      which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put
+      into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of
+      misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront
+      facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with
+      commiseration over the great body of my fellow-citizens, who, reading
+      newspapers, live and die in the belief, that they have known something of
+      what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts
+      they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other
+      period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the
+      day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected
+      from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a
+      successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his
+      will, &amp;c. &amp;c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that
+      the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who
+      reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he
+      whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will
+      still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
+      Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
+      Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
+      very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
+      information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk his
+      own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a mature
+      consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude to be
+      probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little than too
+      much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers who would
+      rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would occupy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
+      practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
+      depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation is
+      becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the morning
+      or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those who do
+      not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance to their
+      auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which should fill
+      a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may
+      believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to escape them, that
+      it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing a slander, who is
+      its real author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
+      request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
+      intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
+      enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their own
+      wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty
+      communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public
+      papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoided putting
+      myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer
+      away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties
+      will permit me to enjoy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIX.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, June 12, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 12, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ******
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to our
+      discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it, and
+      reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
+      therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
+      For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
+      unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a very
+      different thing in practice. The minor business in each department is done
+      by the Head of the department, on consultation with the President alone.
+      But all matters of importance or difficulty are submitted to all the Heads
+      of departments composing the cabinet; sometimes by the President&rsquo;s
+      consulting them separately and successively, as they happen to call on
+      him; but in the greatest cases, by calling them together, discussing the
+      subject maturely, and finally taking the vote, in which the President
+      counts himself but as one. So that in all important cases the executive
+      is, in fact, a directory, which certainly the President might control: but
+      of this there was never an example either in the first or the present
+      administration. I have heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes
+      decided things against his council.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
+      opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of a
+      third negotiator was not at this time advisable. For the present,
+      therefore, the question must rest. Mr. Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to
+      come home, and is detained only by the delicacy of not deserting his post.
+      In the existing temper between him and his colleague, it would certainly
+      be better that one of them should make an opening for re-composing the
+      commission more harmoniously. I salute you with affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER L.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 12, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving the necessary
+      right of the President of the United States to decide, independently of
+      all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public
+      interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I assure you of my
+      readiness, under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish, on all
+      occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But the letter of
+      General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the defence of
+      Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges against him,
+      which were in my possession when the Attorney General went on to Richmond
+      in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken for granted he
+      left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains the order in
+      which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter desired, under
+      the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th: but lest the
+      Attorney General should not have left those papers with you, I this day
+      write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty whether he is at
+      Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce delay in his
+      receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be apprized. But, as
+      I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter, I must beg leave to
+      devolve on you the exercise of that discretion which it would be my right
+      and duty to exercise, by withholding the communication of any parts of the
+      letter, which are not directly material for the purposes of justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
+      practicable. But when the request goes to &lsquo;copies of the orders issued in
+      relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &amp;c. by
+      the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,&rsquo; it seems to cover a
+      correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil and
+      military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying open
+      the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to examine
+      his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be able to
+      judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with the request.
+      If the defendant alleges that there was any particular order, which, as a
+      cause, produced any particular act on his part, then he must know what
+      this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer can be given. If the
+      object had been specified, we might then have had some guide for our
+      conjectures, as to what part of the executive records might be useful to
+      him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is right, we are without
+      the indications which may enable us to do it. If the researches of the
+      Secretary at War should produce any thing proper for communication, and
+      pertinent to any point we can conceive in the defence before the court, it
+      shall be forwarded to you. I salute you with respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 17, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication of one
+      to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed you in
+      mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers respecting
+      the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General, when he went to
+      Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in your possession, but
+      would immediately write to him, if he had not, to forward that particular
+      letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly on the same day, but
+      having no answer, I know not whether he has forwarded the letter. I stated
+      in the same letter, that I had desired the Secretary at War, to examine
+      his office, in order to comply with your further request, to furnish
+      copies of the orders which had been given respecting Aaron Burr and his
+      property; and in a subsequent letter of the same day, I forwarded to you
+      copies of two letters from the Secretary at War, which appeared to be
+      within the description expressed in your letter. The order from the
+      Secretary of the Navy, you said, you were in possession of. The receipt of
+      these papers had, I presume, so far anticipated, and others this day
+      forwarded will have substantially fulfilled, the object of a subpoena from
+      the District Court of Richmond, requiring that those officers and myself
+      should attend the Court in Richmond, with the letter of General Wilkinson,
+      the answer to that letter, and the orders of the departments of War and
+      the Navy, therein generally described. No answer to General Wilkinson&rsquo;s
+      letter, other than a mere acknowledgment of its receipt, in a letter
+      written for a different purpose, was ever written by myself or any other.
+      To these communications of papers, I will add, that if the defendant
+      supposes there are any facts within the knowledge of the Heads of
+      departments, or of myself, which can be useful for his defence, from a
+      desire of doing any thing our situation will permit in furtherance of
+      justice, we shall be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of
+      deposition, through any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our
+      testimony at this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by
+      consent of parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the
+      part of the United States. Mr. Burr&rsquo;s consent will be given of course, if
+      he supposes the testimony useful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court is
+      sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
+      obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
+      should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
+      and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
+      and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
+      seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
+      without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood to
+      be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
+      constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then mean
+      that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private side to
+      our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for inventions,
+      certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent in their
+      nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All nations have
+      found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of their affairs,
+      some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known to their
+      executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of the case,
+      must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests will permit
+      publication. Hence, under our constitution, in requests of papers, from
+      the legislative to the executive branch, an exception is carefully
+      expressed, as to those which he may deem the public welfare may require
+      not to be disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed resolution of the
+      House of Representatives, which produced the message of January 22nd,
+      respecting this case. The respect mutually due between the constituted
+      authorities, in their official intercourse, as well as sincere
+      dispositions to do for every one what is just, will always insure from the
+      executive, in exercising the duty of discrimination confided to him, the
+      same candor and integrity to which the nation has in like manner trusted
+      in the disposal of its judiciary authorities. Considering you as the organ
+      for communicating these sentiments to the Court, I address them to you for
+      that purpose, and salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LII.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 19,1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 19,1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons had been
+      (as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and I have
+      desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask what is to be
+      done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge decides it to
+      have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason or misdemeanor,
+      as you think the evidence will support; let the court decide where he
+      shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have the marshal aided
+      in his transportation, with the executive means. And we think it proper,
+      further, that when Burr shall have been convicted of either treason or
+      misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed all those persons
+      against whom you should find evidence sufficient, whose agency has been so
+      prominent as to mark them as proper objects of punishment, and especially
+      where their boldness has betrayed an inveteracy of criminal disposition.
+      As to obscure offenders and repenting ones, let them lie for
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
+      singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
+      was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore, of
+      the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
+      implicitly as any man&rsquo;s for whatever he affirms. The letter-writer, also,
+      is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for more than
+      a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally, that Burr was
+      engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther Martin knew all about
+      it. We think you should immediately despatch a subpoena for Graybell; and
+      while that is on the road, you will have time to consider in what form you
+      will use his testimony; e.g. shall Luther Martin be summoned as a witness
+      against Burr, and Graybell held ready to confront him? It may be doubted
+      whether we could examine a witness to discredit our own witness. Besides,
+      the lawyers say that they are privileged from being forced to breaches of
+      confidence, and that no others are. Shall we move to commit Luther Martin,
+      as <i>particeps criminis</i> with Burr? Graybell will fix upon him
+      misprision of treason at least. And at any rate, his evidence will put
+      down this unprincipled and impudent federal bull-dog, and add another
+      proof that the most clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices.
+      It will explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the aid of &lsquo;his
+      honorable friend,&rsquo; abandoning his clients and their property during a
+      session of a principal court in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with
+      the clamors and ruin of his clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as
+      a witness. He will prove that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage
+      several thousand men, chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the
+      habit of employing in the works he directs, under pretence of a canal
+      opposite Louisville, or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he
+      could with that force alone have carried every thing before him, and would
+      not have been where he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr,
+      Bollman, Yrujo, and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him
+      not the less in our view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpoenas?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
+      it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were to
+      work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses will
+      some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and that
+      consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from the men
+      themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of to-morrow
+      evening, and be with you Monday evening. T. J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 19, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3rd instant, I avail
+      myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to Mr. Lincoln,
+      and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late happy event of
+      the election of a republican executive to preside over its councils. The
+      harmony it has introduced between the legislative and executive branches,
+      between the people and both of them, and between all and the General
+      Government, are so many steps towards securing that union of action and
+      effort in all its parts, without which no nation can be happy or safe. The
+      just respect, with which all the States have ever looked to Massachusetts,
+      could leave none of them without anxiety while she was in a state of
+      alienation from her family and friends. Your opinion of the propriety and
+      advantage of a more intimate correspondence between the executives of the
+      several States, and that of the Union, as a central point, is precisely
+      that which I have ever entertained; and on coming into office I felt the
+      advantages which would result from that harmony. I had it even in
+      contemplation, after the annual recommendation to Congress of those
+      measures called for by the times, which the constitution had placed under
+      their power, to make communications in like manner to the executives of
+      the States, as to any parts of them to which their legislatures might be
+      alone competent. For many are the exercises of power reserved to the
+      States, wherein an uniformity of proceeding would be advantageous to all.
+      Such are quarantines, health laws, regulations of the press, banking
+      institutions, training militia, &amp;c. &amp;c. But you know what was the
+      state of the several governments when I came into office. That a great
+      proportion of them were federal, and would have been delighted with such
+      opportunities of proclaiming their contempt, and of opposing republican
+      men and measures. Opportunities so furnished and used by some of the State
+      governments, would have produced an ill effect, and would have insured the
+      failure of the object of uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured even
+      now (Connecticut and Delaware being still hostile) it must be on some
+      greater occasion than is likely to arise within my time. I look to it,
+      therefore, as a course which will probably be to be left to the
+      consideration of my successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and never
+      more to take the field under their own banners. They will now reserve
+      themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to earn favors
+      from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over their more numerous
+      antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely accept their votes,
+      no great harm will be done; because it will only place in power one shade
+      of republicanism, instead of another. But when they purchase the votes of
+      the federalists, by giving them a participation of office, trust, and
+      power, it is a proof that anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion.
+      I do not think that the republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen
+      into this heresy, nor that there are in your State materials of which a
+      minority can be made who will fall into it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
+      should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
+      course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military, the
+      services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
+      affections of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of
+      precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
+      claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
+      as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present. I
+      confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
+      parading himself through the several States as an object of public gaze,
+      and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable, should be purely
+      voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
+      of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
+      of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland, I
+      must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have never
+      yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me to be
+      so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have no
+      reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office. A
+      journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen, would
+      much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and, founded in
+      curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I should see my
+      friends, too, more at our mutual ease, and be left more exclusively to
+      their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring I have made up no
+      opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a question for future
+      consideration and advice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
+      esteem,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIV.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His presence here is
+      with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred and fifty workmen
+      require his constant directions on various public works of pressing
+      importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon as possible.
+      How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I know not;
+      but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and his principal
+      accomplices should come fully out, and judicially, as they will establish
+      the just complaints we have against his nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the <i>subpoena
+      duces tecum</i> against the President. Considering the question there as
+      <i>coram non judice</i>, I did not read his argument with much attention.
+      Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual, where an opinion is to be
+      supported, right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and
+      passes over those which are solid. Laying down the position generally,
+      that all persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no exception unless
+      it can be produced in his law books. But if the constitution enjoins on a
+      particular officer to be always engaged in a particular set of duties
+      imposed on him, does not this supersede the general law, subjecting him to
+      minor duties inconsistent with these? The constitution enjoins his
+      constant agency in the concerns of six millions of people. Is the law
+      paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single one? Let us
+      apply the Judge&rsquo;s own doctrine to the case of himself and his brethren.
+      The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to quell a riot
+      somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the general law, a part
+      of the posse of the State sheriff. Would the Judge abandon major duties to
+      perform lesser ones? Again; the court of Orleans or Maine commands, by
+      subpoenas, the attendance of all the judges of the Supreme Court. Would
+      they abandon their posts as judges, and the interests of millions
+      committed to them, to serve the purposes of a single individual? The
+      leading principle of our constitution is the independence of the
+      legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each other, and none are more
+      jealous of this than the judiciary. But would the executive be independent
+      of the judiciary, if he were subject to the commands of the latter, and to
+      imprisonment for disobedience; if the several courts could bandy him from
+      pillar to post, keep him constantly trudging from north to south, and east
+      to west, and withdraw him entirely from his constitutional duties? The
+      intention of the constitution, that each branch should be independent of
+      the others, is further manifested by the means it has furnished to each,
+      to protect itself from enterprises of force attempted on them by the
+      others, and to none has it given more effectual or diversified means than
+      to the executive. Again; because ministers can go into a court in London,
+      as witnesses, without interruption to their executive duties, it is
+      inferred that they would go to a court one thousand or one thousand five
+      hundred miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans
+      by every criminal who will swear that their testimony &lsquo;may be of use to
+      him.&rsquo; The Judge says, &lsquo;it is apparent that the President&rsquo;s duties, as
+      chief magistrate, do not demand his whole time, and are not unremitting.&rsquo;
+      If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat of government, during
+      the sickly season, he should be told that such arrangements are made for
+      carrying on the public business, at and between the several stations we
+      take, that it goes on as unremittingly there, as if we were at the seat of
+      government. I pass more hours in public business at Monticello than I do
+      here, every day; and it is much more laborious, because all must be done
+      in writing. Our stations being known, all communications come to them
+      regularly, as to fixed points. It would be very different were we always
+      on the road, or placed in the noisy and crowded taverns where courts are
+      held. Mr. Rodney is expected here every hour, having been kept away by a
+      sick child. I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June 21, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 21, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen years of
+      age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I am not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they
+      acquire there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the
+      happiness of their after life. But there are particular branches of
+      science, which are not so advantageously taught any where else in the
+      United States as in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for Botany,
+      Mr. Peale&rsquo;s Museum for Natural History, your Medical School for Anatomy,
+      and the able professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found
+      elsewhere. We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend
+      the schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps Surgery; but
+      not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led to the
+      subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express my opinions on
+      that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to finish first
+      with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask of you, and
+      which is the object of this letter.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
+      further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
+      most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
+      less enlightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its organs
+      and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and tending to its
+      destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature providing for the
+      re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary evacuation of the
+      morbific matter, or by some other operation which escapes our imperfect
+      senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by stools, vomiting, sweat,
+      urine, expectoration, bleeding, &amp;c, which, for the most part, ends in
+      the restoration of healthy action. Experience has taught us also, that
+      there are certain substances, by which, applied to the living body,
+      internally or externally, we can at will produce these same evacuations,
+      and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but slowly, and do
+      effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength to accomplish.
+      Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized by specific signs or
+      phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural evacuation or process,
+      whenever that disease recurs under the same appearances, we may reasonably
+      count on producing a solution of it, by the use of such substances as we
+      have found produce the same evacuation or movement. Thus, fulness of the
+      stomach we can relieve by emetics; diseases of the bowels, by purgatives;
+      inflammatory cases, by bleeding; intermittents, by the Peruvian bark;
+      syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness, by opium; &amp;c. So far, I bow to the
+      utility of medicine. It goes to the well defined forms of disease, and
+      happily, to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal body,
+      and the symptoms indicating them, are as various as the elements of which
+      the body is composed. The combinations, too, of these symptoms are so
+      infinitely diversified, that many associations of them appear too rarely
+      to establish a definite disease: and to an unknown disease, there cannot
+      be a known remedy. Here, then, the judicious, the moral, the humane
+      physician should stop. Having been so often a witness to the salutary
+      efforts which nature makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he
+      should rather trust to their action, than hazard the interruption of that,
+      and a greater derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a
+      machine so complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject so
+      sacred as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be
+      necessary to keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be
+      of the most innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I
+      have ever known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of
+      colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines
+      put together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous
+      physician goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the
+      scanty field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region of
+      what is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory of
+      corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of
+      stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the
+      lancet, and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which
+      lets him into all nature&rsquo;s secrets at short hand. On the principle which
+      he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases into
+      families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all the cases
+      he has thus arbitrarily marshaled together. I have lived myself to see the
+      disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown, succeed one another
+      like the shifting figures of a magic-lanthern, and their fancies like the
+      dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris, becoming, from their
+      novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty their
+      ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the fashionable theory, sometimes
+      gets well in spite of the medicine. The medicine therefore restored him,
+      and the young doctor receives new courage to proceed in his bold
+      experiments on the lives of his fellow creatures. I believe we may safely
+      affirm, that the inexperienced and presumptuous band of medical tyros let
+      loose upon the world, destroys more of human life in one year, than all
+      the Robin-hoods, Cartouches, and Macheaths do in a century. It is in this
+      part of medicine that I wish to see a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis
+      for sober facts, the first degree of value set on clinical observation,
+      and the lowest on visionary theories. I would wish the young practitioner,
+      especially, to have deeply impressed on his mind the real limits of his
+      art, and that when the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office
+      is to be a watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature,
+      giving them fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they
+      can derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient. I
+      have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
+      transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I would
+      rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than hasten it by
+      guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my hands. The only
+      sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge of the human body,
+      and observation on the effects of medicinal substances on that. The
+      anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are those in which the young
+      physician should be formed. If he enters with innocence that of the theory
+      of medicine, it is scarcely possible he should come out untainted with
+      error. His mind must be strong indeed, if, rising above juvenile
+      credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity against the authority of his
+      instructers, and the bewitching delusions of their theories. You see that
+      I estimate justly that portion of instruction, which our medical students
+      derive from your labors; and, associating with it one of the chairs which
+      my old and able friend, Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them
+      as the two fundamental pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an
+      opinion of the talents of the professors in the other branches which
+      constitute the school of medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that
+      it is from this side of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so
+      many other things, will at length be led into sound principles in this
+      branch of science, the most important of all others, being that to which
+      we commit the care of health and life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
+      heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
+      presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
+      credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology I
+      can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too, to whom
+      the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so familiar. But
+      having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give a confession of
+      my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps, at times, to him
+      as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining
+      its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment,
+      to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste of politics, into which I
+      have been impressed by the times on which I happened, and to indulge in
+      the rich fields of nature, where alone I should have served as a
+      volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations and partialities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVI.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 10, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806; but supposing, from your not
+      acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried, I sent a
+      duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2nd. These having gone by
+      the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours of May
+      the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
+      department of State, carried by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what a
+      critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by their
+      armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them
+      two-deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority
+      under which this aggression is committed, their minister here is
+      unapprized. You will see by the proclamation of July the 2nd, that (while
+      we are not omitting such measures of force as are immediately necessary)
+      we propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal and
+      reparation, and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or other
+      measures, uncommitted, to the legislature. This country has never been in
+      such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In this state of
+      things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at least with Spain,
+      become more interesting. You know the circumstances respecting this last
+      power, which have rendered it ineligible that you should have proceeded
+      heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle is now removed by their
+      recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another minister, and, in the mean
+      time, of a <i>chargé des affaires</i>, who has been received. The way
+      being now open for taking your station at Madrid, it is certainly our wish
+      you should do so, and that this may be more agreeable to you than your
+      return home, as is solicited in yours of May the 1st. It is with real
+      unwillingness we should relinquish the benefit of your services.
+      Nevertheless, if your mind is decidedly bent on that, we shall regret, but
+      not oppose your return. The choice, therefore, remains with yourself. In
+      the mean time, your place in the joint commission being vacated by either
+      event, we shall take the measures rendered necessary by that. We have
+      seen, with real grief, the misunderstanding which has taken place between
+      yourself and General Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to
+      form an opinion between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt
+      by persons, both of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have
+      not been without fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has
+      seemed, however, that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little
+      to be done, in matters so distant from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
+      No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it probable
+      this will continue very much the case till we get an answer from England.
+      Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is now secured
+      south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVII.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 14, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received last night your letters of February the 20th and April the
+      29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to
+      acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I receive
+      whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate esteem for
+      yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the state of
+      Madame de la Fayette&rsquo;s health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of
+      learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give great
+      confidence to that hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of
+      yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established on this
+      side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
+      found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
+      been formed from infancy. Certainly had you been, as I wished, at the head
+      of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one moment&rsquo;s
+      uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which
+      history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the western
+      States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their head,
+      establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus provide an
+      example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom. The man who
+      could expect to effect this, with American materials, must be a fit
+      subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however, demands more
+      serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the United States
+      who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of our laws in favor
+      of the accused against the accuser, that I question if he is convicted.
+      Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to select the twelve who
+      are to try him, and if there be any one who will not concur in finding him
+      guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry to tell you that Bollman
+      was Burr&rsquo;s right hand man in all his guilty schemes. On being brought to
+      prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison and myself the whole of the
+      plans, always, however, apologetically for Burr as far as they would bear.
+      But his subsequent tergiversations have proved him conspicuously base. I
+      gave him a pardon, however, which covers him from every thing but infamy.
+      I was the more astonished at his engaging in this business, from the
+      peculiar motives he should have felt for fidelity. When I came into the
+      government, I sought him out on account of the services he has rendered
+      you, cherished him, offered him two different appointments of value,
+      which, after keeping them long under consideration, he declined for
+      commercial views, and would have given him any thing for which he was fit.
+      Be assured he is unworthy of ever occupying again the care of any honest
+      man. Nothing has ever so strongly proved the innate force of our form of
+      government, as this conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men
+      to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise
+      than by assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a
+      proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with
+      about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was or
+      was suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in one
+      instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of the military
+      but to take care of their respective stations. His first enterprise was to
+      have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would powerfully bridle
+      the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico. It is with
+      pleasure I inform you that not a single native Creole, and but one
+      American of those settled there before we received the place, took any
+      part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants from the United States
+      and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt, and adventurers and
+      speculators of all descriptions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing on
+      which we stand, at present, with England. Never, since the battle of
+      Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at
+      present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The federalists
+      themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they will return to
+      their old trade of condemning every step we take towards obtaining it.
+      &lsquo;Reparation for the past, and security for the future,&rsquo; is our motto.
+      Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort to
+      non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near two
+      thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast, and
+      cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve Madame
+      de Tesse in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &amp;c. which I sent
+      her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England, and
+      discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit, for that season.
+      Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has, I fear, been
+      equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will persevere in my
+      endeavors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tesse, Madame de la Fayette, and
+      your family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+      constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN PAGE, July 17, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN PAGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 17, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public offices of mere
+      profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or
+      second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments on
+      that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen that confidence so
+      necessary to enable the executive to direct the whole public force to the
+      best, advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Boiling Robertson&rsquo;s talents and
+      integrity I have long been apprized, and would gladly use them where
+      talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought of him for the vacant
+      place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but supposing the salary of
+      two thousand dollars not more than he makes by his profession, and while
+      remaining with his friends, I have, in despair, not proposed it to him. If
+      he would accept it, I should name him instantly with the greatest
+      satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform me on this point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some casual
+      conversation, it was said that the most conspicuous accomplices of Burr
+      were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on me, that
+      neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this subject, I
+      have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a wish they might
+      be understood by the federalists in office. I have never removed a man
+      merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished them to give a
+      vote at an election, but according to their own wishes. But as no
+      government could discharge its duties to the best advantage of its
+      citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting instead of
+      executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage and influence
+      of their offices against the government and its measures, I have only
+      requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe: and if their
+      conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in opposition, it
+      ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they could not
+      conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed in them; and on
+      failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say, those who
+      maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government. Nothing
+      which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger from these
+      principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the late
+      British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the demand
+      of reparation for the past, and security for the future, that is to say,
+      an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest should
+      produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war: but if they are
+      refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and property,
+      and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean, and who may
+      man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these to us would be
+      worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile and Trafalgar. The mean
+      time may also be importantly employed in preparations to enable us to give
+      quick and deep blows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and respectful
+      salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIX.&mdash;TO WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications, yet I
+      merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which they are
+      susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others will be
+      considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us to hear
+      every thing, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all their
+      confidence that every thing is doing which can be done, and when our
+      greatest praise shall be, that we appear to be doing nothing. The law for
+      detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation for it, and
+      that for fortifications, enable us to do every thing for land service, as
+      well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters, their opinion is
+      known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our merchants a precious
+      interval to call in their property and our seamen, and the postponing the
+      summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give too quick an alarm to the
+      adversary. They will be called, however, in good time. Although we demand
+      of England what is merely of right, reparation for the past, security for
+      the future, yet as their pride will possibly, nay probably, prevent their
+      yielding them to the extent we shall require, my opinion is, that the
+      public mind, which I believe is made up for war, should maintain itself at
+      that point. They have often enough, God knows, given us cause of war
+      before; but it has been on points which would not have united the nation.
+      But now they have touched a chord which vibrates in every heart. Now then
+      is the time to settle the old and the new.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the subject
+      of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I suspect
+      you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe, does not
+      exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better the
+      condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to it, as a
+      monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse. He is not of
+      the very first order of understanding, but he is of a high one. He has
+      taken a peculiar affection to this country and its government, of which he
+      has given me public as well as personal proofs. Our nation being like his,
+      habitually neutral, our interests as to neutral rights, and our
+      sentiments, agree. And whenever conferences for peace shall take place, we
+      are assured of a friend in him. In fact, although in questions of
+      restitution he will be with England, in those of neutral rights he will be
+      with Bonaparte and every other power in the world, except England: and I
+      do presume that England will never have peace until she subscribes to a
+      just code of marine law. I have gone into this subject, because I am
+      confident that Russia (while her present monarch lives) is the most
+      cordially friendly to us of any power on earth, will go furthest to serve
+      us, and is most worthy of conciliation. And although the source of this
+      information must be a matter of confidence with you, yet it is desirable
+      that the sentiments should become those of the nation. I salute you with
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LX.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the post-office
+      had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury Burr&rsquo;s conduct would
+      convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be offered against him.
+      But to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings in those who
+      administer it? Why do not Blannerhasset, Dayton, &amp;c. demand private
+      and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal application of law
+      to every condition of man is fundamental, how could it be denied to them?
+      How can it ever be denied to the most degraded malefactor? The enclosed
+      letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of one from Alston to
+      Blannerhasset, came to hand yesterday. I enclose them, because it is
+      proper all these papers should be in one deposite, and because you should
+      know the case and all its bearings, that you may understand whatever turns
+      up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the letter-writer is sound, may be
+      doubted. For however these, and other circumstances which have come to us,
+      may induce us to believe that the bouncing letter he published, and the
+      insolent one he wrote to me, were intended as blinds, yet they are not
+      sufficient for legal conviction. Blannerhasset and his wife could possibly
+      tell us enough. I commiserate the sufferings you have to go through in
+      such a season, and salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, September 4, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 4, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from
+      ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place. It
+      is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single witness
+      be paid or permitted to depart, until his testimony has been committed to
+      writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by yourself in the
+      presence of any of Burr&rsquo;s counsel, who may choose to attend to
+      cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before Congress, that
+      they may decide, whether the defect has been in the evidence of guilt, or
+      in the law, or in the application of the law, and that they may provide
+      the proper remedy for the past and the future. I must pray you also to
+      have an authentic copy of the record made out (without saying for what)
+      and to send it to me: if the Judge&rsquo;s opinions make not a part of it, then
+      I must ask a copy of them, either under his hand, if he delivers one
+      signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
+      disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the pivot on
+      which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign governments may
+      wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted of the
+      misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some short
+      confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short. Be assured
+      yourself, and communicate the same assurances to your colleagues, that
+      your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed in this affair to my
+      entire satisfaction and your own honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXII.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 7, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now
+      re-enclose you the subpoena. As I do not believe that the district courts
+      have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon superior
+      duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am unwilling, by any
+      notice of the subpoena, to set a precedent which might sanction a
+      proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a letter, public and
+      for the court, covering substantially all they ought to desire. If the
+      papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson&rsquo;s letter may, in your judgment, be
+      communicated without injury, you will be pleased to communicate them. I
+      return you the original letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison&rsquo;s counsel on this
+      occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of opinion,
+      that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should proceed at
+      Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the head of the
+      Judge: if successful, it will give time to see whether a prosecution for
+      treason against him can be instituted in any, and what other court. But,
+      we incline to think, it may be best to send Blannerhasset and Smith
+      (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the treason and misdemeanor.
+      The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well go on at Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIII.&mdash;TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of the 18th, and am thankful to you for
+      having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse
+      what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider the
+      government of the United States as interdicted by the constitution from
+      intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or
+      exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be
+      made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from
+      that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the
+      United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or
+      to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the
+      General Government. It must then rest with the States, as far as it can be
+      in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should recommend,
+      not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should
+      indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious
+      exercises, which the constitution has directly precluded them from. It
+      must be meant, too, that this recommendation is to carry some authority,
+      and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not indeed
+      of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription, perhaps in
+      public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the
+      recommendation the less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed?
+      I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil
+      magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor
+      of the religious societies, that the General Government should be invested
+      with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them.
+      Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of
+      discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself
+      the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according
+      to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in
+      their own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I have
+      ever believed, that the example of State executives led to the assumption
+      of that authority by the General Government, without due examination,
+      which would have discovered that what might be a right in a State
+      government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another. Be this
+      as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason,
+      and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President
+      of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises
+      of his constituents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give me
+      an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which I could
+      give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a public
+      answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 18, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as to bring for
+      me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage, and you
+      wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the favor
+      of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them to
+      Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must intreat you to send
+      me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be enabled to
+      reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between us, against which
+      this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my recollection or knowledge,
+      there were any thing, I pray that that may be left to be settled by
+      itself. If I could have known the amount beforehand, I should have
+      remitted it, and asked the advance only under the idea that it should be
+      the same as ready money to you on your arrival. I must again, therefore,
+      beseech you to let me know its amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and another,
+      who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I sincerely
+      pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you; with me I
+      confidently trust they will not. For independently of the dictates of
+      public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere friendship for
+      you both will insure its sacred observance. I suffer no one to converse
+      with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend Clinton
+      estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him, as they will
+      be to the other two candidates, under forms, which, however false he can
+      scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to him also, never
+      to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest is a fair and
+      honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no doubt the personal
+      conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no ground of dissatisfaction
+      with each other. But your friends will not be as delicate. I know too well
+      from experience the progress of political controversy, and the
+      exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates, not to fear for the
+      continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing thing said, draws on
+      another, that a third, and always with increasing acrimony, until all
+      restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult for yourselves to keep
+      clear of the toils in which your friends will endeavor to interlace you,
+      and to avoid the participation in their passions which they will endeavor
+      to produce. A candid recollection of what you know of each other will be
+      the true corrective. With respect to myself, I hope they will spare me. My
+      longings for retirement are so strong, that I with difficulty encounter
+      the daily drudgeries of my duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not
+      stronger than that of carrying into it the affections of all my friends. I
+      have ever viewed Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of my
+      happiness. Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among the
+      greatest calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I have
+      great confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will guard
+      me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
+      weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
+      assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 10, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
+      have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had never
+      entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds, because
+      explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1. You consider
+      the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been in some way
+      injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself, I might say in
+      its justification, that it has been the regular and habitual practice of
+      the United States to do this, under every form in which their government
+      has existed. I need not recapitulate the multiplied instances, because you
+      will readily recollect them. I went as an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr.
+      Adams, yourself as an adjunct first to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr.
+      Pinckney, and I really believe there has scarcely been a great occasion
+      which has not produced an extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is
+      well known, that I was strongly opposed to it in the case of which you
+      complain. A committee of the Senate called on me with two resolutions of
+      that body on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain,
+      and requesting that I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the
+      resolutions, the committee entered into free conversation, and observed,
+      that although the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary
+      mission, yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them
+      on the measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave
+      them so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
+      end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set upon
+      me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as myself, and
+      represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain redress would
+      throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the opinion of
+      nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary, at length,
+      to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national council, and
+      it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from any want of
+      confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an extraordinary
+      mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating the degree of
+      importance which this country attached to the rights which we considered
+      as infracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
+      was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment&rsquo;s credit to
+      the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public papers,
+      or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word of which I
+      had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of the views to
+      mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my confidence was
+      firm, that neither yourself nor the British government, equally outraged
+      by them, would believe me capable of making the editors of newspapers the
+      confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact was this. The treaty was
+      communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day Congress was to rise. Two of
+      the Senators inquired of me in the evening, whether it was my purpose to
+      detain them on account of the treaty. My answer was, &lsquo;that it was not:
+      that the treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our
+      seamen, and being accompanied by a kind of protestation of the British
+      ministers, which would leave that government free to consider it as a
+      treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, I should not give
+      them the trouble of deliberating on it.&rsquo; This was substantially, and
+      almost verbally, what I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never
+      failed when the occasion would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr.
+      Pinckney, by expressing my conviction, that it was all that could be
+      obtained from the British government; that you had told their
+      commissioners that your government could not be pledged to ratify, because
+      it was contrary to their instructions; of course, that it should be
+      considered but as a projet; and in this light I stated it publicly in my
+      message to Congress on the opening of the session. Not a single article of
+      the treaty was ever made known beyond the members of the administration,
+      nor would an article of it be known at this day, but for its publication
+      in the newspapers, as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as
+      we have always understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as
+      the most sacred of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your
+      reputation and favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to
+      justify your failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably
+      unattainable. Reviewing, therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you
+      will become sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground.
+      I cannot, indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you;
+      and that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find,
+      my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us,
+      that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If
+      you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs
+      of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren and
+      friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without ever
+      having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that the
+      most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are brought to
+      me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated so
+      positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the narrator;
+      who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view of putting us
+      on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge of your
+      character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any affirmative
+      which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own ears. In fact,
+      when you shall have been a little longer among us, you will find that
+      little is to be believed which interests the prevailing passions, and
+      happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not then, my dear
+      friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the ocean of slander,
+      of falsehood, and of malice, on which our credulous friends are floating.
+      If you have been made to believe that I ever did, said, or thought a thing
+      unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me injury as causeless as it
+      is afflicting to me. In the present contest in which you are concerned, I
+      feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment. Whichever of my
+      friends is called to the supreme cares of the nation, I know that they
+      will be wisely and faithfully administered, and as far as my individual
+      conduct can influence, they shall be cordially supported,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve in
+      retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and to be
+      permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and friends,
+      the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor myself, I
+      shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be in their
+      place) those who are still buffeting the storm, uncertain of their fate.
+      Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it may continue with
+      entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that friendship which I have
+      ever borne you, and of which I now assure you, with the tender of my high
+      respect and affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVI.&mdash;TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 10, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
+      for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I cannot
+      but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to express of
+      my conduct in the administration of our government. This approbation of my
+      fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I am conscious of
+      having always intended to do what was best for them: and never, for a
+      single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of my own. It has
+      been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many among our
+      opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and
+      social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they
+      bore to his political opinions. I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a
+      man whose political principles have any decided character, and who has
+      energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to encounter
+      political hostility from those of adverse principles. But I came to the
+      government under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar acrimony. I
+      found all its offices in the possession of a political sect, who wished to
+      transform it ultimately into the shape of their darling model, the English
+      government; and in the mean time, to familiarize the public mind to the
+      change, by administering it on English principles, and in English forms.
+      The elective interposition of the people had blown all their designs, and
+      they found themselves and their fortresses of power and profit put in a
+      moment into the hands of other trustees. Lamentations and invective were
+      all that remained to them. This last was naturally directed against the
+      agent selected to execute the multiplied reformations, which their
+      heresies had rendered necessary. I became of course the butt of every
+      thing which reason, ridicule, malice, and falsehood could supply. They
+      have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded
+      themselves, that I am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I
+      hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some of their disaffection
+      to the government of their country, and that my successor will enter on a
+      calmer sea than I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the
+      hands of his friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without
+      even the hope of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed,
+      retain their rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated
+      with us in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow-citizens, now solidly
+      republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of
+      principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy
+      in our government.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVII.&mdash;TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand. You know our
+      principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not employ their
+      influence in opposing the government, but only give their own vote
+      according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well with
+      those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
+      denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
+      beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
+      flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
+      punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination of
+      Mr. Rose&rsquo;s mission, <i>re infectâ</i>, put it in my power to communicate
+      to Congress yesterday, every thing respecting our relations with England
+      and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his worthy
+      coadjutor Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really their
+      persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The embargo
+      appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter except
+      yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact, it is the
+      last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does not take place
+      in Europe, and if France and England will not consent to withdraw the
+      operation of their decrees and orders from us, when Congress shall meet in
+      December, they will have to consider at what point of time the embargo,
+      continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I am inclined to believe, we
+      shall have this summer and autumn to prepare for the defence of our
+      sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the works of defence will be
+      completed, which have been provided for by the legislature. I think
+      Congress will rise within three weeks. I salute you with great affection
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVIII.&mdash;TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 30, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I proceed to state to
+      you my views of the present state and prospect of foreign affairs, under
+      the confidence that you will use them for your own government and opinions
+      only, and by no means let them get out as from me. With France we are in
+      no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible to estimate.
+      The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England, is postponed for
+      this year. This is effected by the embargo, as the question was simply
+      between that and war. That may go on a certain time, perhaps through the
+      year, without the loss of their property to our citizens, but only its
+      remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would come, however, when war
+      would be preferable to a continuance of the embargo. Of this Congress may
+      have to decide at their next meeting. In the mean time, we have good
+      information, that a negotiation for peace between France and England is
+      commencing through the medium of Austria. The way for it has been smoothed
+      by a determination expressed by France (through the Moniteur, which is
+      their government paper), that herself and her allies will demand from
+      Great Britain no renunciation of her maritime principles; nor will they
+      renounce theirs. Nothing shall be said about them in the treaty, and both
+      sides will be left in the next war to act on their own. No doubt the
+      meaning of this is, that all the Continental powers of Europe will form
+      themselves into an armed neutrality, to enforce their own principles.
+      Should peace be made, we shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and
+      prosperity. If we have any thing to fear, it will be after that. Nothing
+      should be spared from this moment in putting our militia into the best
+      condition possible, and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer, we shall
+      get our whole sea-ports put into that state of defence, which Congress has
+      thought proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say,
+      put <i>hors d&rsquo;insulte</i> from a maritime attack, by a moderate squadron.
+      If armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be
+      provided, but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven
+      regiments only for the present year, depending always on our militia for
+      the operations of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be
+      obliged always to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn in
+      about three weeks. I hope Captain McComb is going on well with your
+      defensive works. We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient
+      number of gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessels which can cross
+      the bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
+      complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
+      shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
+      ten good seamen. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0069" id="link2H_4_0069">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR LEIB.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the Tammany
+      society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the favorable
+      sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will so much
+      sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the knowledge that
+      I carry with me the good will and approbation of my republican
+      fellow-citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison with whom I
+      have so long acted. With respect to the federalists, I believe we think
+      alike; for when speaking of them, we never mean to include a worthy
+      portion of our fellow-citizens, who consider themselves as in duty bound
+      to support the constituted authorities of every branch, and to reserve
+      their opposition to the period of election. These having acquired the
+      appellation of federalists, while a federal administration was in place,
+      have not cared about throwing off their name, but, adhering to their
+      principle, are the supporters of the present order of things. The other
+      branch of the federalists, those who are so in principle as well as in
+      name, disapprove of the republican principles and features of our
+      constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any public calamity (war with
+      England excepted) which might lessen the confidence of our country in
+      those principles and forms. I have generally considered them rather as
+      subjects for a madhouse. But they are now playing a game of the most
+      mischievous tendency, without perhaps being themselves aware of it. They
+      are endeavoring to convince England, that we suffer more by the embargo
+      than they do, and that, if they will but hold out a while, we must abandon
+      it. It is true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is
+      before the repeal of the orders of council, we must abandon it only for a
+      state of war. The day is not distant, when that will be preferable to a
+      longer continuance of the embargo. But we can never remove that, and let
+      our vessels go out and be taken under these orders, without making
+      reprisal. Yet this is the very state of things which these federal
+      monarchists are endeavoring to bring about; and in this it is but too
+      possible they may succeed. But the fact is, that if we have war with
+      England, it will be solely produced by their manoeuvres. I think that in
+      two or three months we shall know what will be the issue. I salute you
+      with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXX.&mdash;TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 15, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of September the 22nd waited here for my return, and it is not
+      till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation of his
+      principles, given you by the French Emperor, in conversation, is correct
+      as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with England, knowing
+      we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay to England the
+      tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders of council, would
+      be to aid her in the war against him, and would give him just ground to
+      declare war with us. He concludes, therefore, as every rational man must,
+      that the embargo, the only remaining alternative, was a wise measure.
+      These are acknowledged principles, and should circumstances arise, which
+      may offer advantage to our country in making them public, we shall avail
+      ourselves of them. But as it is not usual nor agreeable to governments to
+      bring their conversations before the public, I think it would be well to
+      consider this on your part as confidential, leaving to the government to
+      retain or make it public, as the general good may require. Had the Emperor
+      gone further, and said that he condemned our vessels going voluntarily
+      into his ports in breach of his municipal laws, we might have admitted it
+      rigorously legal, though not friendly. But his condemnation of vessels
+      taken on the high seas by his privateers, and carried involuntarily into
+      his ports, is justifiable by no law, is piracy, and this is the wrong we
+      complain of against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
+      dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
+      friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXI.&mdash;TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 27, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will wonder that your letter of June the 3rd should not be
+      acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the 12th,
+      and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business I found
+      here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever participated in
+      any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one moment believed. I
+      knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise against Mexico was
+      of a very different character, I had supposed what I heard on that subject
+      to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for me, and I for ever
+      dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend my belief of innocence
+      to a very different description of men in New Orleans; but I think there
+      is sufficient evidence of there being there a set of foreign adventurers,
+      and native malcontents, who would concur in any enterprise to separate
+      that country from this. I did wish to see these people get what they
+      deserved; and under the maxim of the law itself, that <i>inter arma silent
+      leges</i>, that in an encampment expecting daily attack from a powerful
+      enemy, self-preservation is paramount to all law, I expected that instead
+      of invoking the forms of the law to cover traitors, all good citizens
+      would have concurred in securing them. Should we have ever gained our
+      Revolution, if we had bound our hands by manacles of the law, not only in
+      the beginning, but in any part of the revolutionary conflict? There are
+      extreme cases where the laws become inadequate even to their own
+      preservation, and where the universal resource is a dictator, or martial
+      law. Was New Orleans in that situation? Although we knew here that the
+      force destined against it was suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this
+      unknown at New Orleans at the time that Burr&rsquo;s accomplices were calling in
+      the aid of the law to enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that
+      it was reasonable, according to the state of information there, to act on
+      the expectation of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
+      offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
+      rebellion as big as an handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
+      this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
+      it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
+      periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment&rsquo;s fear. My long
+      and intimate knowledge of my countrymen satisfied and satisfies me, that,
+      let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the
+      world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in
+      opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have indeed thought it a
+      duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful, that of a Bonaparte,
+      for instance, by the only means competent, that of a classification of the
+      militia, and placing the junior classes at the public disposal: but the
+      lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all apprehensions from my mind. If,
+      in a peninsula, the neck of which is adjacent to him, and at his command,
+      where he can march any army without the possibility of interception or
+      obstruction from any foreign power, he finds it necessary to begin with an
+      army of three hundred thousand men, to subdue a nation of five millions,
+      brutalized by ignorance, and enervated by long peace, and should find
+      constant reinforcements of thousands after thousands necessary to effect
+      at last a conquest as doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be
+      necessary against eight millions of free Americans, spread over such an
+      extent of country as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of
+      food, autumnal diseases, &amp;c.? How would they be brought, and how
+      reinforced, across an ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a
+      bitter enemy, whose peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than
+      momentary? And for what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese
+      Creoles would but contemplate these truths, they would cling to the
+      American Union, soul and body, as their first affection, and we should be
+      as safe there as we are every where else. I have no doubt of their
+      attachment to us in preference of the English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with sincere friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXII.&mdash;TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 13, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision.
+      Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in
+      smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away what
+      it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to bear
+      in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State
+      encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are
+      made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I
+      presume there can be no want in Massachusetts, as yet, as I am informed
+      that Governor Sullivan&rsquo;s permits are openly bought and sold here and in
+      Alexandria, and at other markets. The Congressional campaign is just
+      opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2.
+      War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will not
+      want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
+      first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
+      most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
+      the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
+      general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their edicts
+      by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores peace
+      without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On this
+      occasion, I think it fair to leave to those who are to act on them, the
+      decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should not
+      feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute them
+      would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been pressed
+      by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
+      impracticable. I salute you with sincere friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIII.&mdash;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 24, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Jefferson,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but
+      give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you, by
+      your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
+      recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers which
+      surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers, without
+      a friend or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so little
+      experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must
+      rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence, and
+      good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the
+      world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and
+      direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or
+      friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts of
+      bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished I
+      did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society as
+      they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with
+      some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that
+      I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I
+      would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in
+      this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation? I am
+      certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to its
+      correctness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and
+      dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two
+      courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object
+      through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth,
+      I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was
+      often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters,
+      scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time
+      have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the
+      victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at
+      the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds
+      of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an
+      orator? or the honest advocate of my country&rsquo;s rights? Be assured, my dear
+      Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechizing
+      habit, is not trifling, nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection
+      and steady pursuit of what is right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
+      tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
+      imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes an
+      acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial good
+      humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a
+      substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of
+      sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little conveniences
+      and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a
+      moment&rsquo;s consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to
+      our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with
+      us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another!
+      When this is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to
+      his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and
+      places him at the feet of your good nature, in the eyes of the company.
+      But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must not
+      omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with
+      another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing
+      the other by argument. I have seen many, of their getting warm, becoming
+      rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own
+      dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves,
+      dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing uncommitted in
+      argument ourselves. It was one of the rules, which, above all others, made
+      Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society, &lsquo;never to contradict
+      any body.&rsquo; If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by
+      asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I
+      hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has
+      a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error
+      does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by
+      force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable
+      he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of
+      the gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I
+      will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story,
+      and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him, and say
+      nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two
+      classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first
+      is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first
+      view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications
+      which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other
+      consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up a
+      passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into
+      mixed society a question on which they foresee there will be a difference
+      of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson,
+      keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or
+      pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of
+      Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep
+      within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of
+      silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no
+      good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to
+      rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts
+      they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them,
+      therefore, as you would by an angry bull: it is not for a man of sense to
+      dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than others
+      to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the relation
+      in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me
+      and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be
+      to them what the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing
+      ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as
+      objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. My character is
+      not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow-citizens at large,
+      and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican
+      mass of our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what
+      their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these
+      puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show,
+      that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of public
+      opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to
+      Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid
+      taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons generally; for
+      it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and you will find your
+      path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is
+      time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing the same to
+      Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
+      mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it. T. J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 14, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December
+      the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens of Boston, of
+      the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient character of the
+      sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord with her sister
+      States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully through the
+      revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national government,
+      which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for its protection
+      the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these united powers, to
+      repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe, seems likely to be
+      pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce with nearly the whole
+      world. They have declared it shall be carried on with such places, in such
+      articles, and in such measure only, as they shall dictate; thus
+      prostrating all the principles of right, which have hitherto protected it.
+      After exhausting the cup of forbearance and conciliation to its dregs, we
+      found it necessary, on behalf of that commerce, to take time to call it
+      home into a state of safety, to put the towns and harbors which carry it
+      on into a condition of defence, and to make further preparation for
+      enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and restoring it to its rightful
+      freedom. This required a certain measure of time, which, although not
+      admitting specific limitation, must, from its avowed objects, have been
+      obvious to all: and the progress actually made towards the accomplishment
+      of these objects, proves it now to be near its term.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
+      commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary and
+      necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended for
+      its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so kind as
+      to enclose me, show that those who have concurred in them, have judged
+      with more candor the intentions of their government, and are sufficiently
+      aware of the tendency of the excitements and misrepresentations which have
+      been practised on this occasion. And such, I am persuaded, will be the
+      disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts at large, whenever truth can
+      reach them. Associated with her sister States in a common government, the
+      fundamental principle of which is, that the will of the majority is to
+      prevail, sensible, that in the present difficulty, that will has been
+      governed by no local interests or jealousies, that to save permanent
+      rights, temporary sacrifices were necessary, that these have fallen as
+      impartially on all, as in a situation so peculiar they could be made to
+      do, she will see, in the existing measures, a legitimate and honest
+      exercise of the will and wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful
+      to themselves and their associates, will not, to avoid a transient
+      pressure, yield to the seductions of enemies to their independence,
+      foreign or domestic, and take a course equally subversive of their
+      well-being, as of that of their brethren.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
+      Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
+      consoling to its members: and, encouraged by the declaration of the
+      continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
+      they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according to
+      the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to the good
+      of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of tendering you
+      personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0075" id="link2H_4_0075">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 28, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer has been
+      delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation of your
+      absence from Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
+      entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the former,
+      and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect as an
+      extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all minds
+      revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives a few
+      days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another, but
+      rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very generally
+      in conversation by all others: and I am satisfied such a proposition would
+      get no vote in the Senate. The course the legislature means to pursue, may
+      be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting in May, and a
+      proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June, and then
+      resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation. There will be
+      considerable opposition to this last proposition, not only from the
+      federalists, old and new, who oppose every thing, but from sound members
+      of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good majority, and
+      that it is the only proposition which can be devised that could obtain a
+      majority of any kind. Final propositions, will, therefore, be soon
+      despatched to both the belligerents through the resident ministers, so
+      that their answers will be received before the meeting in May, and will
+      decide what is to be done. This last trial for peace is not thought
+      desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should be successful in Spain,
+      however every virtuous and liberal sentiment revolts at it, it may induce
+      both powers to be more accommodating with us. England will see here the
+      only asylum for her commerce and manufactures, worth more to her than her
+      orders of council. And Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look
+      immediately to the Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply
+      purchased by a repeal of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps
+      the Floridas thrown into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of
+      affairs in Europe produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and
+      prosperity may be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take
+      the tented field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
+      endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is probable
+      there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear we may
+      renounce for ever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt. If we
+      can keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from debt,
+      will be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our position
+      and increasing strength will put us <i>hors d&rsquo;insulte</i> from any nation.
+      I am now so near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in affairs
+      beyond the expression of an opinion. I think it fair, that my successor
+      should now originate those measures of which he will be charged with the
+      execution and responsibility, and that it is my duty to clothe them with
+      the forms of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me from a drudgery to
+      which I am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene of tranquillity,
+      amidst my family and friends, more congenial to my age and natural
+      inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a pleasure to me to see
+      you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my constant friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0076" id="link2H_4_0076">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 7, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing their
+      embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable revolution
+      of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New England and New
+      York members, and in a kind of panic, they voted the 4th of March for
+      removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave all reason to
+      believe, they would not agree either to war or non-intercourse. This, too,
+      was after we had become satisfied, that the Essex Junto had found their
+      expectation desperate, of inducing the people there to either separation
+      or forcible opposition. The majority of Congress, however, has now rallied
+      to the removing the embargo on the 4th of March, non-intercourse with
+      France and Great Britain, trade every where else, and continuing war
+      preparations. The further details are not yet settled, but I believe it is
+      perfectly certain that the embargo will be taken off the 4th of March.
+      Present my warmest affections to my dearest Martha, and the young ones,
+      and accept the assurances of them to yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0077" id="link2H_4_0077">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVII.&mdash;TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN HOLLINS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 19, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one as I ever entered into,
+      and where an improper construction was never less expected, is making some
+      noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain it to you, because
+      I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the Agricultural Society
+      of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough presented to them,
+      which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal work with half the
+      force of their best ploughs, they thought it would be a benefit to mankind
+      to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me, with a view to its
+      being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke of Bedford also, who
+      is one of their members, to be made use of for England, although the two
+      nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now going to France, I have given
+      permission to two individuals in Delaware and New York, to import two
+      parcels of Merino sheep from France, which they have procured there, and
+      to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a very valuable machine which spins
+      cotton, wool, and flax equally. The last spring, the Society informed me
+      they were cultivating the cotton of the Levant and other parts of the
+      Mediterranean, and wished to try also that of our southern States. I
+      immediately got a friend to have two tierces of seed forwarded to me. They
+      were consigned to Messrs. Falls and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it
+      being given me, I immediately wrote to them to re-ship them to New York,
+      to be sent by the Mentor. Their first object was to make a show of my
+      letter, as something very criminal, and to carry the subject into the
+      newspapers. I had, on a like request, some time ago (but before the
+      embargo), from the President of the Board of Agriculture of London, of
+      which I am also a member, to send them some of the genuine May wheat of
+      Virginia, forwarded to them two or three barrels of it. General
+      Washington, in his time, received from the same Society the seed of the
+      perennial succory, which Arthur Young had carried over from France to
+      England, and I have since received from a member of it the seed of the
+      famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known here. I mention these things,
+      to show the nature of the correspondence which is carried on between
+      societies instituted for the benevolent purpose of communicating to all
+      parts of the world whatever useful is discovered in any one of them. These
+      societies are always in peace, however their nations may be at war. Like
+      the republic of letters, they form a great fraternity spreading over the
+      whole earth, and their correspondence is never interrupted by any
+      civilized nation. Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance of
+      the liberal diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really
+      painful, it is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are
+      known to every one who knows any thing, and felt with approbation by every
+      one who has any feeling. But we have a faction to whose hostile passions
+      the torture even of right into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their
+      malice I have long learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise. But
+      I observe, that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are
+      receiving liberally from others) that this small return should be made.
+      They will think more justly at another day: but, in the mean time, I wish
+      to avoid offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so
+      good, under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed
+      from Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &amp;c.
+      which I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed,
+      when received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted
+      with a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
+      I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
+      should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
+      it, I know nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVIII.&mdash;TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 2, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
+      May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
+      and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are read
+      with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being entangled
+      in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The edicts of the
+      two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean, we met by an
+      embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships, and property,
+      to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state of defence. We have
+      now taken off the embargo, except as to France and England and their
+      territories, because fifty millions of exports annually sacrificed, are
+      the treble of what war would cost us; besides, that by war we should take
+      something, and lose less than at present. But to give you a true
+      description of the state of things here, I must refer you to Mr. Coles,
+      the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy, intelligent, and
+      well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your notice, and conversation
+      on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity may be relied on. I expect he
+      will find you with Spain at your feet, but England still afloat, and a
+      barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all these concerns I am now leaving
+      to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison. Within a few days I retire to my
+      family, my books, and farms; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall
+      look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not
+      with envy. Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such
+      relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me
+      for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme
+      delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have
+      forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the
+      boisterous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of
+      retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most
+      consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave every thing in the hands
+      of men so able to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet
+      misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should
+      you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to
+      visit the hermit of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and
+      delight; hailing you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations,
+      and assurances of constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred shepherd&rsquo;s
+      dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now beginning to pay
+      great attention to the raising sheep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      T.J. <a name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIX.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 17, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my departure from
+      Washington, I found from their signatures that they were from literary
+      characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset that
+      it was private, and that his public communications were in the letter to
+      the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however, on reading his
+      letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a passage of some
+      length, proper to be communicated to you, and which I have therefore
+      extracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
+      although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better to
+      be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable a snow
+      storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the expedition but
+      fatigue, I have more confidence in my <i>vis vitæ</i> than I had before
+      entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats sown, not much
+      tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has suffered
+      considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple, weeping-willow,
+      and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at Richmond, and all
+      produce is hurrying down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
+      months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have a smooth
+      administration. I know no government which would be so embarrassing in war
+      as ours. This would proceed very much from the lying and licentious
+      character of our papers; but much, also, from the wonderful credulity of
+      the members of Congress in the floating lies of the day. And in this no
+      experience seems to correct them. I have never seen a Congress during the
+      last eight years, a great majority of which I would not implicitly have
+      relied on in any question, could their minds have been purged of all
+      errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly with the protraction of
+      the session, and I apprehend, in case of war, their session would have a
+      tendency to become permanent. It is much, therefore, to be desired that
+      war may be avoided, if circumstances will admit. Nor in the present maniac
+      state of Europe, should I estimate the point of honor by the ordinary
+      scale. I believe we shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world,
+      for having made the avoidance of being engaged in the present unexampled
+      war, our first object. War, however, may become a less losing business
+      than unresisted depredation. With every wish that events may be propitious
+      to your administration, I salute you with sincere affection and every
+      sympathy of the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0080" id="link2H_4_0080">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXX.&mdash;TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society of
+      those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
+      receive, fellow-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the
+      cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties which
+      the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to them, the
+      pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office, have drawn but
+      deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private
+      life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with you, my
+      neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which nature
+      has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay
+      down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow-citizens,
+      repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors, and perplexities
+      of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer to my
+      happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the measure will
+      be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the several public
+      stations to which I have been called, have obtained for me the approbation
+      of my country. The part which I have acted on the theatre of public life,
+      has been before them; and to their sentence I submit it: but the testimony
+      of my native county, of the individuals who have known me in private life,
+      to my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful,
+      as proceeding from eye-witnesses and observers, from triers of the
+      vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I may ask, in the face of the world,
+      &lsquo;Whose ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
+      or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?&rsquo; On
+      your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness
+      are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your
+      own welfare and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April 3, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0081" id="link2H_4_0081">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXI.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 13, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you
+      had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed in the debates of
+      Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations more
+      fully in conversation, which I will now do by abridgment in writing. Mr.
+      Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain prosecutions at common law
+      in Connecticut, for libels on the government, and not only himself, but
+      others have stated them with such affected caution, and such hints at the
+      same time, as to leave on every mind the impression that they had been
+      instituted either by my direction, or with my acquiescence, at least. This
+      has not been denied by my friends, because probably the fact is unknown to
+      them. I shall state it for their satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed
+      of as they think best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the time
+      exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
+      obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
+      time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
+      prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies uttered
+      from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote to Mr.
+      Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating that I had
+      laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the thousand
+      calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my own conduct,
+      and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that I had found no
+      reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I was unwilling it should
+      be broke through by others as to any matter concerning me; and I therefore
+      requested him to desire the district attorney to dismiss the prosecution.
+      Some time after this, 1 heard of subpoenas being served on General Lee,
+      David M. Randolph, and others, as witnesses to attend the trial. I then,
+      for the first time, conjectured the subject of the libel. I immediately
+      wrote to Mr. Granger, to require an immediate dismission of the
+      prosecution. The answer of Mr. Huntington, the district attorney, was,
+      that these subpoenas had been issued by the defendant without his
+      knowledge, that it had been his intention to dismiss all the prosecutions
+      at the first meeting of the court, and to accompany it with an avowal of
+      his opinion, that they could not be maintained, because the federal court
+      had no jurisdiction over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till
+      then know that there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I
+      now know what were their subjects. But all went off together; and I
+      afterwards saw, in the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the
+      clergyman, disavowing any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly
+      declaring he had never uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger
+      either showed me, or said there were affidavits of at least half a dozen
+      respectable men who were present at the sermon, and swore no such
+      expressions were uttered, and as many equally respectable who swore the
+      contrary. But the clergyman expressed his gratification at the dismission
+      of the prosecution. I write all this from memory, and after too long an
+      interval of time to be certain of the exactness of all the details; but I
+      am sure there is no variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small
+      lapses of memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that
+      the prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
+      without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
+      and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground on
+      which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and others; to
+      wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null, and that my
+      obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not suffering rights
+      secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no law. I always
+      understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if not instituted, by
+      Judge Edwards, and the marshal, being republican, had summoned a grand
+      jury partly or wholly republican: but that Mr. Huntington declared from
+      the beginning against the jurisdiction of the court, and had determined to
+      enter <i>nolle-prosequis</i> before he received my directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
+      goes to those to me only, not those from me. The bill had got to its
+      passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana), and
+      the house under too much pressure of business near the close of the
+      session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was given to
+      the letters from as well as to both my predecessors, I suppose no reason
+      exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive a correspondence as I
+      am subject to, and still considerably on public matters, it would be a
+      sensible convenience to myself, as well as those who have occasion to
+      receive letters from me. It happens, too, as I was told at the time (for I
+      have never looked into it myself), that it was done by two distinct acts
+      on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I think, mentioned this to me. I
+      know from the Post Master General, that Mr. Adams franks all his letters.
+      I state this matter to you as being my representative, which must
+      apologize for the trouble of it. We have been seasonable since you left
+      us. Yesterday evening and this morning we have had refreshing showers,
+      which will close and confirm the business of planting. Affectionately
+      yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXII.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 17, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen, on whatsoever measures you
+      should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am satisfied
+      that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has been sanctioned
+      by universal approbation; and although it was not literally the case
+      foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper extension of their
+      provision to a case similar, though not the same. It proved to the whole
+      world our desire of accommodation, and must have satisfied every candid
+      federalist on that head. It was not only proper on the well-grounded
+      confidence that the arrangement would be honestly executed, but ought to
+      have taken place even had the perfidy of England been foreseen. Their
+      dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our placing them so shamefully
+      in the wrong, and by the union it must produce among ourselves. The last
+      proclamation admits of quibbles, of which advantage will doubtless be
+      endeavored to be taken, by those to whom gain is their god, and their
+      country nothing. But it is soundly defensible. The British minister
+      assured us, that the orders of council would be revoked before the 10th of
+      June. The executive, trusting in that assurance, declared by proclamation
+      that the revocation was to take place, and that on that event the law was
+      to be suspended. But the event did not take place, and the consequence, of
+      course, could not follow. This view is derived from the former
+      non-intercourse law only, having never read the latter one. I had doubted
+      whether Congress must not be called; but that arose from another doubt,
+      whether their second law had not changed the ground, so as to require
+      their agency to give operation to the law. Should Bonaparte have the
+      wisdom to correct his injustice towards us, I consider war with England as
+      inevitable. Our ships will go to France and its dependencies, and they
+      will take them. This will be war on their part, and leaves no alternative
+      but reprisal. I have no doubt you will think it safe to act on this
+      hypothesis, and with energy. The moment that open war shall be apprehended
+      from them, we should take possession of Baton Rouge. If we do not, they
+      will, and New Orleans becomes irrecoverable, and the western country
+      blockaded during the war. It would be justifiable towards Spain on this
+      ground, and equally so on that of title to West Florida, and reprisal
+      extended to East Florida. Whatever turn our present difficulty may take, I
+      look upon all cordial conciliation with England as desperate during the
+      life of the present King. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify
+      himself. My confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in the
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; of Canning. I consider the present as the most
+      shameless ministry which ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will
+      immortalize their infamy. In general their administrations are so
+      changeable, and they are obliged to descend to such tricks to keep
+      themselves in place, that nothing like honor or morality can ever be
+      counted on in transactions with them. I salute you with all possible
+      affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0083" id="link2H_4_0083">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BARTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 21, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with all possible
+      pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole of the Indian
+      vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable misfortune has
+      deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing myself of every
+      possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same set of
+      words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur again to
+      any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty, and had
+      digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have printed
+      them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet digested
+      Captain Lewis&rsquo;s collection, nor having leisure then to do it, I put it off
+      till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as originals, were
+      packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water with about thirty
+      other packages of my effects, from Washington, and while ascending James
+      river, this package, on account of its weight and presumed precious
+      contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being disappointed on
+      opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of which he thought he
+      could make no use. Among these were the whole of the vocabularies. Some
+      leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud; but these were very few,
+      and so defaced by the mud and water, that no general use can ever be made
+      of them. On the receipt of your letter I turned to them, and was very
+      happy to find, that the only morsel of an original vocabulary among them,
+      was Captain Lewis&rsquo;s of the Pani language, of which you say you have not
+      one word. I therefore enclose it to you as it is, and a little fragment of
+      some other, which I see is in his hand-writing, but no indication remains
+      on it of what language it is. It is a specimen of the condition of the
+      little which was recovered. I am the more concerned at this accident, as
+      of the two hundred and fifty words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred
+      and thirty words of the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the
+      other quarters of the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and would
+      have furnished materials for a comparison, from which something might have
+      resulted. Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the wrecks
+      of my loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary when you are
+      done with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect, although I am
+      too old to expect to make much progress in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the astronomy
+      of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or modern and
+      rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most interesting
+      countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
+      perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
+      and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
+      that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a greater
+      adept in the language than I am.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0084" id="link2H_4_0084">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIV.&mdash;TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 4, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding month, and
+      have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I have read it with
+      pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would probably be as free as
+      is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has one feature which I
+      like much; that which provides that when the three co-ordinate branches
+      differ in their construction of the constitution, the opinion of two
+      branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not sufficiently
+      solved this difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
+      official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal worth
+      marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish to select
+      for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the present
+      occasion, of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with your merit
+      and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a particular
+      respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a great comfort
+      to have to do business with frank and honorable minds. And here give me
+      leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present retirement, there can be
+      no motive but a regard for truth. Your predecessor, soured on a question
+      of etiquette against the administration of this country, wished to impute
+      wrong to them in all their actions, even where he did not believe it
+      himself. In this spirit, he wished it to be believed that we were in
+      unjustifiable co-operation in Miranda&rsquo;s expedition. I solemnly, and on my
+      personal truth and honor, declare to you, that this was entirely without
+      foundation, and that there was neither co-operation nor connivance on our
+      part. He informed us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native
+      country from bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance at
+      least. He was at once informed, that, although we had great cause of
+      complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think
+      proper to act as her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that
+      our hostility should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no
+      suspicion that he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase
+      military stores. Against this there was no law, nor consequently any
+      authority for us to interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it
+      improper to betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain.
+      Although his measures were many days in preparation at New York, we never
+      had the least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his
+      enterprise, until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his
+      proceedings kept them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at
+      Philadelphia, and the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of them
+      gave us any information of the enlistment of men, until it was too late
+      for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure. The
+      officer in the Customs, who participated in this transaction with Miranda,
+      we immediately removed, and should have had him and others further
+      punished, had it not been for the protection given them by private
+      citizens at New York, in opposition to the government, who, by their
+      impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able to overbear the minds of the
+      jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could induce me, at this time, to
+      make this declaration so gratuitously, were it not founded in sacred
+      truth: and I will add further, that I never did, or countenanced, in
+      public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith;
+      having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and
+      another for a private man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
+      breathe through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
+      sincere with which I now salute you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0085" id="link2H_4_0085">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXV.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 11, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the
+      enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of
+      whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me to place
+      it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right, neither more
+      nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three lines, in such form
+      as I may forward him by way of answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions which
+      has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
+      arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It would
+      be, indeed, a great public calamity, were it to fix you in the purpose
+      which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of our
+      republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment of the
+      public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we shall have
+      revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it in war,
+      without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should
+      once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be
+      despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt,
+      corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge of the
+      debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and it hangs
+      on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another President
+      and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordinate to
+      this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that great hope is
+      lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix on that object
+      the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our country will owe
+      you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary considerations
+      which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never can produce any
+      other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated by our
+      fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to admit any
+      remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was, that none of us
+      ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress than yourself, and
+      I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel your aid to be still as
+      important for the future, as it has been for the past. You have nothing,
+      therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of Congress, and still less of
+      the President, who, above all men, is the most interested and
+      affectionately disposed to support you. I hope, then, you will abandon
+      entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that you will consider the
+      eight years to come as essential to your political career. I should
+      certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement, as the most
+      inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In addition to the
+      common interest in this question, I feel particularly for myself the
+      considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you for your valuable
+      aid during my administration of the public affairs, a just sense of the
+      large portion of the public approbation which was earned by your labors,
+      and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship and attachment which grew
+      out of our joint exertions to promote the common good; and of which I pray
+      you now to accept the most cordial and respectful assurances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVI.&mdash;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 10, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
+      received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that the
+      portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a share
+      in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has never
+      before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice we have
+      observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit their
+      esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise, would have
+      preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence of all other
+      nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which is now blasting
+      the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the mounds of reason as
+      well as right. All those calculations which, at any other period, would
+      have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a moral sense in man,
+      individually or associated, of the connection which the laws of nature
+      have established between his duties and his interests, of a regard for
+      honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men, have been a matter of
+      reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if it could be a folly for
+      an honest man to suppose that others could be honest also, when it is
+      their interest to be so. And when is this state of things to end? The
+      death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the first and chiefest
+      apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and might withdraw the
+      scourge of the land. But what is to restore order and safety on the ocean?
+      The death of George III? Not at all. He is only stupid; and his ministers,
+      however weak and profligate in morals, are ephemeral. But his nation is
+      permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant of the ocean. The principle
+      that force is right, is become the principle of the nation itself. They
+      would not permit an honest minister, were accident to bring such an one
+      into power, to relax their system of lawless piracy. These were the
+      difficulties when I was with you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
+      kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
+      to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain their
+      confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
+      functionaries. <i>Macte virtute</i> therefore. Continue to go straight
+      forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can
+      lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or
+      passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock of our
+      safety. In times of peace the people look most to their representatives;
+      but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence
+      is even now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the
+      executive to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence
+      as auspicious as it is well founded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
+      all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
+      faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for the
+      valuable aids I received from you. Though separated from my
+      fellow-laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all, and
+      I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God bless
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0087" id="link2H_4_0087">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVII.*&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 19,1810.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This letter is endorsed, &lsquo;not sent.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet
+      enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
+      and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time
+      elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
+      before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his
+      special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and
+      aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system
+      of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and
+      sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to
+      filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to
+      swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats,
+      they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the
+      greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and
+      do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices which
+      the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
+      administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends are
+      men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
+      principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
+      neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of
+      their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions are
+      no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
+      administration conducted the government on principles professed by the
+      Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians, as
+      to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with their
+      professions. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them, and in
+      this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle in this,
+      to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the professions of
+      religious sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is a very obvious
+      one. The mother society is in England. Its members are English by birth
+      and residence, devoted to their own country, as good citizens ought to be.
+      The Quakers of these States are colonies or filiations from the mother
+      society, to whom that society sends its yearly lessons. On these the
+      filiated societies model their opinions, their conduct, their passions,
+      and attachments. A Quaker is, essentially an Englishman, in whatever part
+      of the earth he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on our
+      navigation and commerce have kept us in perpetual bickerings with her. The
+      Quakers here have taken side against their own government; not on their
+      profession of peace, for they saw that peace was our object also; but from
+      devotion to the views of the mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an
+      administration sought war with France, the Quakers were the most clamorous
+      for war. Their principle of peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the
+      primary one of adherence to the Friends in England, and what was
+      patriotism in the original became treason in the copy. On that occasion,
+      they obliged their good old leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from
+      a petition to Congress, against war, which had been delivered to a
+      Representative of Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present
+      administration. He accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his
+      name. You must not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more
+      effect on the society of Friends here, than on the English merchants
+      settled among us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally.
+      I know individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
+      in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health and
+      happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0088" id="link2H_4_0088">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVIII.&mdash;TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 26, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and avoiding
+      every thing political, lest coming from one in the station I then held, it
+      might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps even excite
+      jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry. Retired now from
+      public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and avoiding all curiosity
+      about what is done or intended, what I say is from myself only, the
+      workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
+      justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
+      devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
+      worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
+      and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which
+      might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not been
+      inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment that the
+      affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent, every
+      faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may venture to
+      solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree, prepared.
+      Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the necessary articles
+      (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them among ourselves,
+      abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than will ever be required
+      in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly added, of our own
+      fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from Europe; heavy
+      artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of field-pieces,
+      several founderies casting one every other day each; a military school of
+      about fifty students, which has been in operation a dozen years; and the
+      manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding forty thousand young
+      soldiers to our force every year that the war is deferred: at all our
+      sea-port towns of the least consequence we have erected works of defence,
+      and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or two heavy pieces, either
+      eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders, sufficient in the smallest
+      harbors to repel the predatory attacks of privateers or single armed
+      ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors to such more serious attacks
+      as they may probably be exposed to. All these were nearly completed, and
+      their gunboats in readiness, when I retired from the government. The works
+      of New York and New Orleans alone, being on a much larger scale, are not
+      yet completed. The former will be finished this summer, mounting four
+      hundred and thirty-eight guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one
+      hundred gunboats, will be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which
+      will ever be trusted across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are
+      less advanced. These are our preparations. They are very different from
+      what you will be told by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But
+      it is not to them the government communicates the public condition. Ask
+      one of them if he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you
+      will find probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes
+      from. You will ask, perhaps, where are the proofs of these preparations
+      for one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
+      authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
+      authorized, they would be executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two measures have not been adopted which I pressed on Congress repeatedly
+      at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted territory of
+      Orleans, by donations of land to able bodied young men, to be engaged and
+      carried there at the public expense, who would constitute a force always
+      ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was, to class the
+      militia according to the years of their birth, and make all those from
+      twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into service at a
+      moment&rsquo;s warning. This would have given us a force of three hundred
+      thousand young men, prepared, by proper training, for service in any part
+      of the United States; while those who had passed through that period would
+      remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent States. These
+      two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary for the entire
+      security of our country. They would have given me, on my retirement from
+      the government of the nation, the consolatory reflection, that having
+      found, when I was called to it, not a single sea-port town in a condition
+      to repel a levy of contribution by a single privateer or pirate, I had
+      left every harbor so prepared by works and gun-boats, as to be in a
+      reasonable state of security against any probable attack; the territory of
+      Orleans acquired, and planted with an internal force sufficient for its
+      protection; and the whole territory of the United States organized by such
+      a classification of its male force, as would give it the benefit of all
+      its young population for active service, and that of a middle and advanced
+      age for stationary defence. But these measures will, I hope, be completed
+      by my successor, who, to the purest principles of republican patriotism,
+      adds a wisdom and foresight second to no man on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
+      Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books,
+      I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are
+      devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops, my
+      garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give to
+      society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from
+      candle-light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my
+      strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue;
+      perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven
+      years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and harvesting, with
+      my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve
+      as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of
+      being free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it
+      to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least
+      pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it.
+      They place themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my
+      library and counsel, and make a part of my society. In advising the course
+      of their reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main
+      objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming
+      to bear a share in the councils and government of their country, they will
+      keep ever in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
+      independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited
+      views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never
+      before known to me. Except, for this, my happiness would have been
+      perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as
+      many years of life, health, and ease as yourself shall wish, is the
+      sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0089" id="link2H_4_0089">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR JONES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received duly your favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with all
+      antient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned, with real
+      sorrow, that circumstances have risen among our executive counsellors,
+      which have rendered foes those who once were friends. To themselves it
+      will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and therefore chiefly I
+      lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both parties. To the President
+      it will be really inconvenient: but to the nation I do not know that it
+      can do serious injury, unless we were to believe the newspapers, which
+      pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out. That indeed would be a day of
+      mourning for the United States: but I hope that the position of both
+      gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no cause for either to withdraw.
+      The ordinary business of every day is done by consultation between the
+      President and the Head of the department alone to which it belongs. For
+      measures of importance or difficulty, a consultation is held with the
+      Heads of departments, either assembled, or by taking their opinions
+      separately in conversation or in writing. The latter is most strictly in
+      the spirit of the constitution. Because the President, on weighing the
+      advice of all, is left free to make up an opinion for himself. In this way
+      they are not brought together, and it is not necessarily known to any what
+      opinion the others have given. This was General Washington&rsquo;s practice for
+      the first two or three years of his administration, till the affairs of
+      France and England threatened to embroil us, and rendered consideration
+      and discussion desirable. In these discussions, Hamilton and myself were
+      daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks. We were then but four in
+      number, and, according to the majority, which of course was three to one,
+      the President decided. The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the
+      public experienced no inconvenience. I practised this last method, because
+      the harmony was so cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a
+      contribution of mutual views of the subject, to form an opinion acceptable
+      to the whole. I think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any
+      case of consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into
+      a directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is
+      better calculated, too, to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure
+      it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place. It
+      is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present case, and will
+      doubtless be resorted to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But
+      when viewed in comparison with those of Europe, they are the joys of
+      Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed our
+      portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no other
+      period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but one on
+      the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over the earth
+      with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin over the
+      face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses. And the
+      system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst this wreck of the
+      world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be sure, our petty
+      squabbles and heart-burnings, and we have something of the blue devils at
+      times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are eating up other
+      nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim, nor the Leviathan
+      move on dry land: and if we will keep out of their way, they cannot get at
+      us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves within the scope of their
+      tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the tail, may be our fortune.
+      Our business certainly was to be still. But a part of our nation chose to
+      declare against this, in such a way as to control the wisdom of the
+      government. I yielded with others, to avoid a greater evil. But from that
+      moment, I have seen no system which could keep us entirely aloof from
+      these agents of destruction. If there be any, I am certain that you, my
+      friends, now charged with the care of us all, will see and pursue it. I
+      give myself, therefore, no trouble with thinking or puzzling about it.
+      Being confident in my watchmen, I sleep soundly. God bless you all, and
+      send you a safe deliverance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0090" id="link2H_4_0090">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XC.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the refreshing
+      dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient as well as
+      recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty years we
+      have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these have passed
+      away, and so I trust will those of the present day. The toryism with which
+      we struggled in &lsquo;77, differed but in name from the federalism of &lsquo;99, with
+      which we struggled also; and the Anglicism, of 1808, against which we are
+      now struggling, is but the same thing still, in another form. It is a
+      longing for a King, and an English King, rather than any other. This is
+      the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is too
+      chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
+      Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
+      never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear; and
+      especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the embers,
+      merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two subdued
+      (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England alone a
+      short work), ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his
+      prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would
+      glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests.
+      Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half a
+      century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, he has
+      an old affront to wipe out. Then come &lsquo;Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia,
+      Asia, and Bithynia,&rsquo; the fine countries on the Euphrates and Tigris, the
+      Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which bounded the glories of
+      his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of his new British subjects on
+      the banks of the Ganges, whom, after receiving under his protection the
+      mother country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this is done and
+      settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsubdued, he may turn to
+      the new one. But will he attack us first, from whom he will get but hard
+      knocks, and no money? Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of
+      Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from
+      his affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must
+      grant to ours the Cyclops&rsquo; boon of being the last devoured. While all this
+      is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that
+      nothing can happen to cut short or disturb his enterprises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence, than
+      all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
+      first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
+      Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
+      the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided by
+      Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now to
+      destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
+      alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be our
+      security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
+      separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith of a
+      nation of merchants! The <i>Punica fides</i> of modern Carthage! Of the
+      friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
+      chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
+      that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
+      morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But, in
+      addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of itself,
+      reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been the least
+      faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her
+      history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and
+      corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. To
+      Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuin treaty,
+      she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. It may be
+      asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits England for the
+      observation of moral duties? In the first place, her King is a cipher; his
+      only function being to name the oligarchy which is to govern her. The
+      parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the
+      administration. The real power and property in the government is in the
+      great aristocratical families of the nation. The nest of office being too
+      small for all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal,
+      which shall crowd the other out. For this purpose they are divided into
+      two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight, that a small matter
+      turns the balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every
+      stratagem must be practised, every artifice used, which may flatter the
+      pride, the passions, or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must
+      yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question,
+      whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will nourish
+      the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or
+      produce any other effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to
+      engagements, however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the
+      Ins, why, they were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong;
+      and to reverse every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is
+      the true character of the English government in practice, however
+      different its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation,
+      the individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
+      duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
+      whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In an
+      absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties. The despot
+      is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition, maintains his
+      ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through
+      them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his
+      own honor and faith with that of his nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did not
+      mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that throne.
+      The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings, has been
+      that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine
+      them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable, or a
+      state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual
+      appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let every
+      thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, and
+      in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and this, too, by
+      a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice
+      of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we raise for
+      our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in this way
+      they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused myself
+      with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of
+      Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of
+      the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and
+      of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two
+      couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they
+      had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these
+      were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature.
+      And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the
+      powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great
+      Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden,
+      and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know
+      was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine,
+      who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
+      state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
+      lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind and
+      powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
+      generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an exception.
+      He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His
+      race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of
+      whom the Lord deliver us and have you, my friend, and all such good men
+      and true, in his holy keeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0091" id="link2H_4_0091">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCI.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, July 16,1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 16,1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in
+      congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles in
+      Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of these
+      principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The
+      federalists, during their short-lived ascendancy, have, nevertheless, by
+      forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which can
+      never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to
+      cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came on
+      (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days; long
+      enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who giving in to his
+      representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to his
+      colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress. They
+      believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced the fatal
+      measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our present evils,
+      and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the world. I should
+      think that even the federalists themselves must now be made, by their
+      feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the embargo brought
+      home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of our enemies; and
+      our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise and unpatriotic
+      conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove genuine, which are
+      said to have been given against our fisheries, they, too, are gone: and if
+      not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze of success which
+      England shall feel: for it has now been some years, that I am perfectly
+      satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and
+      prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a tribute as may
+      enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion
+      over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating,
+      according to occurrences, but has in no situation done any thing which
+      might amount to an acknowledged relinquishment of her intentions. I have
+      ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a
+      situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce
+      her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was,
+      proved it would have coerced her, had it been honestly executed. The proof
+      she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in
+      this country, as to control the will of its government and three fourths
+      of its people, and oblige the three fourths to submit to one fourth, is to
+      me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the
+      establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that
+      influence, is in her own conduct, and not from any thing in our power.
+      Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry,
+      she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not
+      aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests
+      over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to
+      herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way
+      the chief causes and provocations to war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these are views which concern the present and future generation, among
+      neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in our
+      pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
+      effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her
+      to agriculture, manufactures, and emigration, will lessen her happiness.
+      But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborn do? How do
+      you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm,
+      or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy,
+      healthy, and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0092" id="link2H_4_0092">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCII.&mdash;TO J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO J. B. COLVIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 20, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you for
+      the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it. If I have
+      left in the breasts of my fellow-citizens a sentiment of satisfaction with
+      my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will soften the pillow
+      of my repose through the residue of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
+      which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
+      beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
+      embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws, is
+      doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the
+      highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
+      country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a
+      scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with
+      life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus
+      absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of
+      Germantown, General Washington&rsquo;s army was annoyed from Chew&rsquo;s house, he
+      did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of
+      a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that
+      the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While
+      the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages,
+      provisions, and even men, by force, to enable that army to stay together
+      till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea
+      in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing a
+      supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a
+      supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of
+      self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
+      <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>. Further to exemplify the principle, I will
+      state an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the
+      executive of the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the
+      Floridas for a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so
+      appropriated by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks,
+      and might appropriate it on the first or second day of their session.
+      Ought he, for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself
+      by transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage
+      offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense: but a reverence for
+      law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally
+      accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons against
+      hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find
+      means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing
+      spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind of the other
+      party. Ought the executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to
+      have secured the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice
+      for the transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would
+      have been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a
+      very possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary
+      articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We
+      ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety;
+      and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
+      Wilkinson&rsquo;s situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
+      to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he
+      then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet
+      from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city.
+      Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1. In seizing notorious
+      conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty
+      and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2. In sending
+      them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to
+      trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing
+      their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of the
+      judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown
+      disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation
+      of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to
+      its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of
+      necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the <i>salus populi</i>
+      supreme over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this
+      superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the
+      controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty
+      to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and his fellow-citizens
+      generally, are bound to judge according to the circumstances under which
+      he acted. They are not to transfer the information of this place or moment
+      to the time and place of his action; but to put themselves into his
+      situation. We knew here that there never was danger of a British fleet
+      from below, and that Burr&rsquo;s band was crushed before it reached the
+      Mississippi. But General Wilkinson&rsquo;s information was very different, and
+      he could act on no other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
+      question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
+      petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for a
+      legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the written
+      law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of greater evil than
+      a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is incumbent on those
+      only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves on great occasions,
+      when the safety of the nation, or some of its very high interests are at
+      stake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An officer is bound to obey orders: yet he would be a bad one who should
+      do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the
+      most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases may
+      be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own peril,
+      and throw himself on the justice of his country, and the rectitude of his
+      motives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that they
+      are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the hands of
+      news-writers. I met their scurrilities without concern, while in pursuit
+      of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my present
+      retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0093" id="link2H_4_0093">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIII.&mdash;TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. LAW.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 15, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner acknowledging
+      the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet, which the same
+      absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I know I shall
+      read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22nd is also
+      received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Wagner&rsquo;s malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
+      printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
+      When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
+      mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
+      than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as to
+      your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I felt
+      myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to
+      England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of the
+      friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
+      circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that
+      if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our
+      connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both our
+      governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them, and I
+      spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and
+      intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship
+      with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington, I
+      thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that
+      government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
+      administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
+      their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox&rsquo;s power. But
+      every other administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in
+      their injuries and insults, and has manifested equal hatred and aversion.
+      Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose principles are
+      those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted the miserable
+      policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves with a
+      faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled, and which
+      never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of the nation,
+      and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of population
+      shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the good will
+      of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every benefit
+      which reason or justice would permit it to give. With respect to myself, I
+      saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough to credit the
+      newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself towards
+      England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of wise
+      men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war, and
+      for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I
+      must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt
+      either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs
+      confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then,
+      generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above
+      the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have preserved
+      us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly urging
+      us. The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of
+      their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by
+      ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a
+      powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions
+      at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial
+      interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not
+      be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so
+      infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice, and the
+      well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the English
+      constitution, renders a dependance on that government very unsafe. The
+      feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us, have added
+      another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This obstacle to
+      friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and I verily believe
+      the successor will come in with fairer and wiser dispositions towards us;
+      perhaps on that event their conduct may be changed. But what England is to
+      become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I
+      cannot foresee. Her monied interest, created by her paper system, and now
+      constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the
+      soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great
+      taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be
+      supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy
+      tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
+      relinquished, every nation must contest, even <i>ad internecionem</i>. And
+      yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a
+      fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element, would be
+      the desire of every nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
+      myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
+      Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
+      Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
+      which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should
+      your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0094" id="link2H_4_0094">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 16, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a letter,
+      to bring myself to your recollection, when I received your welcome favor
+      of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the heart-rending calamity you
+      mention, and had sincerely sympathized with your afflictions. But I had
+      not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolences were
+      but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and still think, this is one of the
+      cases wherein we should &lsquo;not sorrow, even as others who have no hope.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. &lsquo;My present course of life
+      admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to
+      dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other concerns,
+      which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the few hours I
+      can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences; not those with my
+      intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with
+      others, who, writing to me on concerns of their own in which I have had an
+      agency, or from motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to
+      be answered with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this
+      obstacle to the delights of retirement will wear away with the oblivion
+      which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in those studious
+      pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have
+      called me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall receive your proposed publication, and read it with the pleasure
+      which every thing gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in
+      the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
+      friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you
+      take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me,
+      nor from the want of sincere desire, and of effort on my part, to renew
+      our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and of
+      action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree
+      of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no
+      man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of
+      rational republicanism, which, after the necessity of throwing off our
+      monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new
+      government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the principles of
+      the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account.
+      While he was Vice-President, and I Secretary of State, I received a letter
+      from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call
+      together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us
+      (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being done) in order to
+      determine on some measure which required despatch; and he desired me to
+      act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him. I invited them to
+      dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our
+      question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion
+      arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British
+      Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of its
+      defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect
+      constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary,
+      asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of
+      government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices
+      would render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured
+      was the real line of difference between the political principles of these
+      two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which
+      will further delineate Hamilton&rsquo;s political principles. The room being
+      hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among
+      them were those of Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they
+      were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world
+      had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: &lsquo;The greatest
+      man,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;that ever lived, was Julius Caesar.&rsquo; Mr. Adams was honest
+      as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
+      politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
+      govern men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about that
+      time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our constitution,
+      to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into war
+      with France and alliance with England, and finally to homologize our
+      constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelmed
+      with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often by the pen of the
+      <i>bloody buoy</i>, and was seduced by them into some open indications of
+      his new principles of government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix
+      with his kindness a little superciliousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams,
+      with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you
+      recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance
+      which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early
+      explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of us
+      all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the political principles
+      of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the Presidency.
+      On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of New
+      York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and
+      that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official
+      business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words.
+      &lsquo;Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will
+      only say that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have.&rsquo; &lsquo;Mr.
+      Adams,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;this is no personal contest between you and me. Two
+      systems of principles on the subject of government divide our
+      fellow-citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with
+      the other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those
+      now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these
+      parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we
+      both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be in the place of
+      ours, without any change in the motion of the machine. Its motion is from
+      its principle, not from you or myself. &lsquo;I believe you are right,&rsquo; said he,
+      &lsquo;that we are but passive instruments, and should not suffer this matter to
+      affect our personal dispositions.&rsquo; But he did not long retain this just
+      view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies
+      which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
+      ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
+      intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
+      myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
+      to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
+      called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
+      by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he
+      had not used towards me before, &lsquo;Sir, the event of the election is within
+      your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to the public
+      creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and
+      the government will instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the
+      wish of the people it should be so.&lsquo; &lsquo;Mr. Adams,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;I know not what
+      part of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized
+      a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I will
+      not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter on it, but
+      in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own judgment.&rsquo; I had
+      before given the same answer to the same intimation from Gouverneur
+      Morris. &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;things must take their course.&rsquo; I turned the
+      conversation to something else, and soon took my leave. It was the first
+      time in our lives we had ever parted with any thing like dissatisfaction.
+      And then followed those scenes of midnight appointment, which have been
+      condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last hours,
+      and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices and
+      especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing
+      for me the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies,
+      whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur
+      the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A
+      little time and reflection effaced in my mind this temporary
+      dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of
+      his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix.
+      And my first wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means
+      in my power; for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some
+      republican members of the delegation from his State, the giving him,
+      either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that
+      State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem
+      it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the
+      offer; and, moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such a
+      step in the outset, as auguring very ill of the course I meant to pursue.
+      I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some
+      opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
+      between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment, she
+      made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the tenderest
+      expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a single one
+      of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with the wishes &lsquo;of
+      her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, Abigail
+      Adams.&rsquo; Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, I determined to
+      make an effort towards removing the clouds from between us. This brought
+      on a correspondence which I now enclose for your perusal, after which be
+      so good as to return it to me, as I have never communicated it to any
+      mortal breathing, before. I send it to you, to convince you I have not
+      been wanting either in the desire, or the endeavor to remove this
+      misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly disgraceful to us both, as
+      indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to prevent a public competition
+      from affecting our personal friendship. I soon found from the
+      correspondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to an
+      intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I have
+      the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an
+      honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on
+      the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from me, by belief in the
+      lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps
+      mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate
+      friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes,
+      indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in
+      such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence
+      without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons I
+      have doubtless disapproved of the principles and practices of his
+      administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it
+      could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me,
+      if disposition had not: and I am satisfied Mr. Adams&rsquo;s conduct was equally
+      honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul
+      play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
+      suspicions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know every
+      thing which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of the state
+      of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they admit a
+      revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
+      solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in any thing on my part which
+      may second your efforts; which will be the easier with me, inasmuch as I
+      do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression of which could
+      give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to yourself, with the
+      assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship and respect for
+      yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0095" id="link2H_4_0095">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCV.&mdash;TO M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 26, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way to
+      me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed very
+      much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which accompanied
+      it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I received from its
+      perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu&rsquo;s a work of much merit;
+      but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of paradox, of false
+      principle, and misapplied fact, as to render its value equivocal on the
+      whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at its errors. A radical
+      correction of them, therefore, was a great desideratum. This want is now
+      supplied, and with a depth of thought, precision; of idea, of language,
+      and of logic, which will force conviction into every mind. I declare to
+      you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I consider it the
+      most precious gift the present age has received. But what would it have
+      been, had the author, or would the author, take up the whole scheme of
+      Montesquieu&rsquo;s work, and following the correct analysis he has here
+      developed, fill up all its parts according to his sound views of them.
+      Montesquieu&rsquo;s celebrity would be but a small portion of that which would
+      immortalize the author. And with whom? With the rational and high-minded
+      spirits of the present and all future ages. With those whose approbation
+      is both incitement and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope
+      desperate? To what object can the occupation of his future life be devoted
+      so usefully to the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to
+      others who have higher claims on his attention, to press these
+      considerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to the
+      object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is the
+      least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists any
+      enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following the
+      receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its execution.
+      The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me by post, from
+      time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by the original, I
+      could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however, it is
+      substantially correct, without being an adequate representation of the
+      excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I found it
+      impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition in our
+      language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the author
+      towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view, propose
+      to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy of the
+      work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret of the
+      author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint lives; and
+      those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death will be equally
+      worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his living consent
+      shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both his and my papers
+      will furnish the evidence. In the mean time, the many important truths the
+      works so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it the political rudiment
+      of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
+      executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
+      government was first established, we had many doubts on this question, and
+      many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that at
+      that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France, while the
+      single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions and effects
+      of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety proportioned to the
+      importance of a. choice between them. The experiment in France failed
+      after a short course, and not from any circumstance peculiar to the times
+      or nation, but from those internal jealousies and dissensions in the
+      Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in power, without a
+      principal to decide and control their differences. We had tried a similar
+      experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of the States, composed of
+      a member from every State, then thirteen, to exercise the executive
+      functions during the recess of Congress. They fell immediately into
+      schisms and dissensions, which became at length so inveterate as to render
+      all co-operation among them impracticable: they dissolved themselves,
+      abandoning the helm of government, and it continued without a head, until
+      Congress met the ensuing winter. This was then imputed to the temper of
+      two or three individuals; but the wise ascribed it to the nature of man.
+      The failure of the French Directory, and from the same cause, seems to
+      have authorized a belief that the form of a plurality, however promising
+      in theory, is impracticable with men constituted with the ordinary
+      passions. While the tranquil and steady tenor of our single executive,
+      during a course of twenty-two years of the most tempestuous times the
+      history of the world has ever presented, gives a rational hope that this
+      important problem is at length solved. Aided by the counsels of a cabinet
+      of Heads of departments, originally four, but now five, with whom the
+      President consults, either singly or all together, he has the benefit of
+      their wisdom and information, brings their views to one centre, and
+      produces an unity of action and direction in all the branches of the
+      government. The excellence of this construction of the executive power has
+      already manifested itself here under very opposite circumstances. During
+      the administration of our first President, his cabinet of four members was
+      equally divided, by as marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism
+      and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a
+      directory, like positive and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing
+      wills would have balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute
+      inaction. But the President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons
+      of each, decided the course to be pursued, and kept the government
+      steadily in it, unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the
+      dissensions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their
+      account; because they knew also they had provided a regulating power,
+      which would keep the machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate
+      knowledge of these scenes, <i>quorum pars fui</i>; as I may of others of a
+      character entirely opposite. The third administration, which was of eight
+      years, presented an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to
+      which perhaps history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during
+      the whole time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the
+      members. We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever
+      failed, by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other&rsquo;s ideas, as
+      to produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
+      were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
+      equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
+      departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and strengthened
+      by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of designing persons
+      to build an importance to themselves on the divisions of others, might,
+      from small beginnings, have produced persevering oppositions. But the
+      power of decision in the President left no object for internal dissension,
+      and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by the knowledge which
+      incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they could foment would change
+      the course of the executive power. I am not conscious that my
+      participations in executive authority have produced any bias in favor of
+      the single executive; because the parts I have acted have been in the
+      subordinate, as well as superior stations, and because, if I know myself,
+      what I have felt, and what I have wished, I know that I have never been so
+      well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of
+      others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could
+      propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that, to
+      insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be subject
+      to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without suspending or
+      disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of government. You
+      apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of talent, and
+      destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by usurpation,
+      render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes as many
+      examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a plurality,
+      as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered permanent by
+      usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger is lessened in
+      the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly increased, by the
+      state of inefficiency to which they are liable from feuds and divisions
+      among themselves. The conservative body you propose might be so
+      constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in a variety of
+      smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check on the
+      liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to this idea.
+      But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our State
+      governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man, is
+      that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed.
+      Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign
+      concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration,
+      regularly organized with a legislature and governor resting on the choice
+      of the people, and enlightened by a free press, can never be so fascinated
+      by the arts of one man, as to submit voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor
+      can they be constrained to it by any force he can possess. While that may
+      paralyze the single State in which it happens to be encamped, sixteen
+      others, spread over a country of two thousand miles diameter, rise up on
+      every side, ready organized for deliberation by a constitutional
+      legislature, and for action by their governor, constitutionally the
+      commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it,
+      able to bear arms; and that militia, too, regularly formed into regiments
+      and battalions, into infantry, cavalry, and artillery, trained under
+      officers general and subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness,
+      and to whom they are already in habits of obedience. The republican
+      government of France was lost without a struggle, because the party of &lsquo;<i>un
+      et indivisible</i>&rsquo; had prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to
+      which the people might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the
+      directory were virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the
+      legislature out of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the
+      nation. But with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under
+      regular organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by
+      their Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention,
+      present such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the
+      first conception of that object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
+      perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
+      wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
+      attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would be
+      befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that local
+      discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face the sound
+      parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach the majority,
+      they would then become the regular government, acquire the ascendancy in
+      Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by laws peaceably
+      and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which local
+      discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would be
+      paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into which
+      we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at liberty
+      to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities of their
+      individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential to preserve
+      the purity of the government, by the censorship which these parties
+      habitually exercise over each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the grounds
+      on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from yours. They
+      prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my own, which have
+      forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion questioned by you.
+      Permit me now to render my portion of the general debt of gratitude, by
+      acknowledgments in advance for the singular benefaction which is the
+      subject of this letter, to tender my wishes for the continuance of a life
+      so usefully employed, and to add the assurances of my perfect esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0096" id="link2H_4_0096">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVI.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 5, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
+      Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
+      sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
+      councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those whom
+      personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
+      Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that the
+      dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
+      occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
+      affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony and
+      affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our country
+      than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of their
+      victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers and the
+      public are very different personages. The former may lead the latter a
+      little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible: but the
+      moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will
+      be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have been the
+      theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting after war,
+      some against France, and some against England. But the people wish for
+      peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become the reformers
+      of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and sword, a return
+      to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more losing than war,
+      they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes are clamoring for on
+      false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by these clamors, as the
+      re-election of their legislators shows, and they are firm to their
+      executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
+      lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton this
+      year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market. This is the
+      case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears alarmingly in
+      our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want of rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances of
+      my constant and affectionate esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0097" id="link2H_4_0097">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVII.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will long
+      continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the way. I
+      sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and because it
+      multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have been able to
+      judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against the government.
+      Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now; but the mass of
+      our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an incident, another
+      proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of self-government,
+      and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The spirit, indeed,
+      which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter, although I
+      believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down in peaceable
+      times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the determination of
+      England, now formally expressed, to take possession of the ocean, and to
+      suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force a war upon us, I
+      foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between her and your Essex men,
+      on the principles of neutrality and commerce. Pickering here, and his
+      nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate this. Such a lure to the
+      quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit theirs to a majority. Yet,
+      excluded as they would be from intercourse with the rest of the Union and
+      of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they would propose to themselves, even
+      for the moment. The defection would certainly disconcert the other States,
+      but it could not ultimately endanger their safety. They are adequate, in
+      all points, to a defensive war. However, I hope your majority, with the
+      aid it is entitled to, will save us from this trial, to which I think it
+      possible we are advancing. The death of George may come to our relief; but
+      I fear the dominion of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also.
+      Perhaps, if some stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from
+      the Mammoth of the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people
+      of England might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again.
+      Tell my old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping
+      with which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice and
+      protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
+      pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
+      assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust can
+      go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem it
+      timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it flows.
+      Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to come,
+      when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the more
+      gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now <i>hors de
+      combat</i> myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack of
+      rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not very
+      long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in the
+      focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue out of
+      all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long health, and
+      friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0098" id="link2H_4_0098">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVIII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that I
+      can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as I
+      have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
+      therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams and
+      myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I communicated
+      to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and myself, in proof
+      that I could not give friendship in exchange for such sentiments as she
+      had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and maintained in her
+      letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of these could admit a
+      reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in proportion as the return
+      to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In these jaundiced sentiments of
+      hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing the weight which her opinions had
+      with him, and notwithstanding she declared in her letters that they were
+      not communicated to him. A late incident has satisfied me that I wronged
+      him as well as her in not yielding entire confidence to this assurance on
+      her part. Two of the Mr. &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, my neighbors and friends,
+      took a tour to the northward during the last summer. In Boston they fell
+      into company with Mr. Adams, and by his invitation passed a day with him
+      at Braintree. He spoke out to them every thing which came uppermost, and
+      as it occurred to his mind, without any reserve, and seemed most disposed
+      to dwell on those things which happened during his own administration. He
+      spoke of his masters, as he called his Heads of departments, as acting
+      above his control, and often against his opinions. Among many other
+      topics, he adverted to the unprincipled licentiousness of the press
+      against myself, adding, &lsquo;I always loved Jefferson, and still love him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards him
+      all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives. Changing a
+      single word only in Dr. Franklin&rsquo;s character of him, I knew him to be
+      always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes incorrect and
+      precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who have ever heard
+      me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice myself, and
+      defended him when assailed by others, with the single exception as to his
+      political opinions. But with a man possessing so many other estimable
+      qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion
+      in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any thing else. His opinions
+      are as honestly formed as my own. Our different views of the same subject
+      are the result of a difference in our organization and experience. I never
+      withdrew from the society of any man on this account, although many have
+      done it from me; much less should I do it from one with whom I had gone
+      through, with hand and heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore,
+      but for an apposite occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged
+      affections for him. There is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming
+      a correspondence so long discontinued, unless something could arise which
+      should call for a letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an
+      occasion, of which I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself.
+      From this fusion of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated.
+      It will only be necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr.
+      Adams, you can, perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and
+      knowing this, should an occasion of writing first present itself to him,
+      he will perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first
+      occur to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give
+      fair play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
+      in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
+      greatest intimacy with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
+      kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
+      which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God ever
+      bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0099" id="link2H_4_0099">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 21, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens of
+      homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not their
+      excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things in your
+      quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse and middling
+      goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a manufactory within
+      itself, and is very generally able to make within itself all the stouter
+      and middling stuffs for its own clothing and household use. We consider a
+      sheep for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in
+      addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax, which we raise ourselves. For fine
+      stuff we shall depend on your northern manufactories. Of these, that is to
+      say, of company establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The
+      spinning jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a
+      family; but nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness
+      resulting from our household manufactures are such that they will never
+      again be laid aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened
+      than the British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures.
+      Restore free intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have
+      totally changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from
+      them will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries
+      me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were
+      fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to
+      man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with
+      some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless
+      under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart and
+      hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not expect to be without rubs
+      and difficulties; and we have had them. First the detention of the western
+      posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce with France,
+      and the British enforcement of the outlawry. In your day, French
+      depredations: in mine, English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the
+      English orders of council, and the piracies they authorize. When these
+      shall be over, it will be the impressment of our seamen, or something
+      else: and so we have gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and
+      prospering beyond example in the history of man. And I do believe we shall
+      continue to growl, to multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an
+      association, powerful, wise, and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by
+      men. As for France and England, with all their pre-eminence in science,
+      the one is a den of robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science
+      produces no better fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of
+      national morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
+      and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
+      garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave. I
+      think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in exchange
+      for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much
+      the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former occurrences, in
+      remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers, who have fallen before
+      us. Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I see now living
+      not more than half a dozen on your side of the Potomac, and on this side,
+      myself alone. You and I have been wonderfully spared, and myself with
+      remarkable health, and a considerable activity of body and mind. I am on
+      horseback three or four hours of every day; visit three or four times a
+      year a possession I have ninety miles distant, performing the winter
+      journey on horseback. I walk little, however, a single mile being too much
+      for me; and I live in the midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has
+      lately promoted me to be a great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure
+      that you also retain good health, and a greater power of exercise in
+      walking than I do. But I would rather have heard this from yourself, and
+      that, writing a letter like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your
+      health, your habits, occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the
+      pleasure of knowing, that in the race of life, you do not keep, in its
+      physical decline, the same distance ahead of me, which you have done in
+      political honors and achievements. No circumstances have lessened the
+      interest I feel in these particulars respecting yourself; none have
+      suspended for one moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you
+      with unchanged affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0100" id="link2H_4_0100">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER C.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 20, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for
+      that I received from you. Not of the fine texture, or delicate character
+      of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that
+      display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles Lettres, but
+      a mere sober, dry, and formal piece of logic. <i>Ornari res ipsa negat</i>.
+      Yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading, to cast an
+      eye over some of the questions it discusses. At any rate, accept it as the
+      offering of esteem and friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You wish to know something of the Richmond and Wabash prophets. Of Nimrod
+      Hews I never before heard. Christopher Macpherson I have known for twenty
+      years. He is a man of color, brought up as a book-keeper by a merchant,
+      his master, and afterwards enfranchised. He had understanding enough to
+      post up his leger from his journal, but not enough to bear up against
+      hypochrondriac affections, and the gloomy forebodings they inspire. He
+      became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and rhapsodizing what
+      neither himself nor any one else could understand. I think he told me he
+      had visited you personally while you were in the administration, and wrote
+      you letters, which you have probably forgotten in the mass of the
+      correspondences of that crazy class, of whose complaints, and terrors, and
+      mysticisms, the several Presidents have been the regular depositories.
+      Macpherson was too honest to be molested by any body, and too inoffensive
+      to be a subject for the mad-house; although, I believe, we are told in the
+      old book, that &lsquo;every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, thou
+      shouldst put him in prison and in the stocks.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wabash prophet is a very different character, more rogue than fool, if
+      to be a rogue is not the greatest of all follies. He arose to notice while
+      I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper subject of
+      inquiry for me. The inquiry was made with diligence. His declared object
+      was the reformation of his red brethren, and their return to their
+      pristine manner of living. He pretended to be in constant communication
+      with the Great Spirit; that he was instructed by him to make known to the
+      Indians that they were created by him distinct from the whites, of
+      different natures, for different purposes, and placed under different
+      circumstances, adapted to their nature and destinies; that they must
+      return from all the ways of the whites to the habits and opinions of their
+      forefathers; they must not eat the flesh of hogs, of bullocks, of sheep,
+      &amp;c. the deer and buffalo having been created for their food; they must
+      not make bread of wheat, but of Indian corn; they must not wear linen nor
+      woollen, but dress like their fathers in the skins and furs of animals;
+      they must not drink ardent spirits: and I do not remember whether he
+      extended his inhibitions to the gun and gunpowder, in favor of the bow and
+      arrow. I concluded from all this that he was a visionary, enveloped in the
+      clouds of their antiquities, and vainly endeavoring to lead back his
+      brethren to the fancied beatitudes of their golden age. I thought there
+      was little danger of his making many proselytes from the habits and
+      comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships and privations
+      of savagism, and no great harm if he did. We let him go on, therefore,
+      unmolested. But his followers increased till the English thought him worth
+      corruption, and found him corruptible. I suppose his views were then
+      changed; but his proceedings in consequence of them were after I left the
+      administration, and are, therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been
+      informed what were the particular acts on his part, which produced, an
+      actual commencement of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that
+      his subsequent proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and
+      Lord Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
+      embargo, and communicated it to me. But he had learned nothing of the
+      particular agent, although, of his workings, the information he had
+      obtained appears now to have been correct. He stated a particular which
+      Henry has not distinctly brought forward, which was, that the eastern
+      States were not to be required to make a formal act of separation from the
+      Union, and to take a part in the war against it; a measure deemed much too
+      strong for their people: but to declare themselves in a state of
+      neutrality, in consideration of which they were to have peace and free
+      commerce, the lure most likely to insure popular acquiescence. Having no
+      indications of Henry as the intermediate in this negotiation of the Essex
+      junto, suspicions fell on Pickering, and his nephew Williams in London. If
+      he was wronged in this, the ground of the suspicion is to be found in his
+      known practices and avowed opinions, as that of his accomplices in the
+      sameness of sentiment and of language with Henry, and subsequently by the
+      fluttering of the wounded pigeons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter, with what it encloses, has given you enough, I presume, of
+      law and the prophets. I will only add to it, therefore, the homage of my
+      respects to Mrs. Adams, and to yourself the assurances of affectionate
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0101" id="link2H_4_0101">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CI.&mdash;TO JAMES MAURY, April 25, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MAURY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 25, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Ancient Friend and Classmate,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Often has my heart smote me for delaying acknowledgments to you,
+      receiving, as I do, such frequent proofs of your kind recollection in the
+      transmission of papers to me. But instead of acting on the good old maxim
+      of not putting off to to-morrow what we can do to-day, we are too apt to
+      reverse it, and not to do today what we can put off to to-morrow. But this
+      duty can be no longer put off. To-day we are at peace; to-morrow war. The
+      curtain of separation is drawing between us, and probably will not be
+      withdrawn till one, if not both of us, will be at rest with our fathers.
+      Let me now, then, while I may, renew to you the declarations of my warm
+      attachment, which in no period of life has ever been weakened, and seems
+      to become stronger as the remaining objects of our youthful affections are
+      fewer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our two countries are to be at war, but not you and I. And why should our
+      two countries be at war, when by peace we can be so much more useful to
+      one another? Surely the world will acquit our government of having sought
+      it. Never before has there been an instance of a nation&rsquo;s bearing so much
+      as we have borne. Two items alone in our catalogue of wrongs will for ever
+      acquit us of being the aggressors; the impressment of our seamen, and the
+      excluding us from the ocean. The first foundations of the social compact
+      would be broken up, were we definitively to refuse to its members the
+      protection of their persons and property, while in their lawful pursuits.
+      I think the war will not be short, because the object of England, long
+      obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain, and to exact transit duties
+      from every vessel traversing it. This is the sum of her orders of council,
+      which were only a step in this bold experiment, never meant to be
+      retracted if it could be permanently maintained. And this object must
+      continue her in war with all the world. To this I see no termination,
+      until her exaggerated efforts, so much beyond her natural strength and
+      resources, shall have exhausted her to bankruptcy. The approach of this
+      crisis is, I think, visible in the departure of her precious metals, and
+      depreciation of her paper medium. We, who have gone through that
+      operation, know its symptoms, its course, and consequences. In England
+      they will be more serious than elsewhere, because half the wealth of her
+      people is now in that medium, the private revenue of her money-holders, or
+      rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe, greater than that of her
+      land-holders. Such a proportion of property, imaginary and baseless as it
+      is, cannot be reduced to vapor, but with great explosion. She will rise
+      out of its ruins, however, because her lands, her houses, her arts, will
+      remain, and the greater part of her men. And these will give her again
+      that place among nations which is proportioned to her natural means, and
+      which we all wish her to hold. We believe that the just standing of all
+      nations is the health and security of all. We consider the overwhelming
+      power of England on the ocean, and of France on the land, as destructive
+      of the prosperity and happiness of the world, and wish both to be reduced
+      only to the necessity of observing moral duties. We believe no more in
+      Bonaparte&rsquo;s fighting merely for the liberty of the seas, than in Great
+      Britain&rsquo;s fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object of both is the
+      same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth, and the resources of
+      other nations. We resist the enterprises of England first, because they
+      first come vitally home to us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing
+      the lash of George the III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future
+      day. When the wrongs of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall
+      resist them also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice
+      to the champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I am
+      not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If I
+      could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct of
+      England would have permitted them to be directed towards her, they would
+      have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr. Addington, I
+      discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even friendship and
+      respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing these
+      dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will. But we had
+      then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe himself, and
+      to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his subsequent conduct
+      has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English minister here, had
+      learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions, without head enough to
+      distinguish when they were misplaced. Mr. Addington and Mr. Fox passed
+      away too soon to avail the two countries of their dispositions. Had I been
+      personally hostile to England, and biassed in favor of either the
+      character or views of her great antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake
+      put war into my hand. I had only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if
+      ever I was gratified with the possession of power, and of the confidence
+      of those who had entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was
+      enabled to use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent
+      of passion here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another
+      person in the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could
+      have resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments
+      and orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer
+      is, that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
+      other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
+      England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
+      Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
+      our neighborhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics, to
+      possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes which
+      are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself from all
+      political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life with what have
+      been the passions of every portion of it, books, science, my farms, my
+      family, and friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these every hour of the day is now devoted. I retain a good activity of
+      mind, not quite as much of body, but uninterrupted health. Still the hand
+      of age is upon me. All my old friends are nearly gone. Of those in my
+      neighborhood, Mr. Divers and Mr. Lindsay alone remain. If you could make
+      it a <i>partie quarrée</i>, it would be a comfort indeed. We would beguile
+      our lingering hours with talking over our youthful exploits, our hunts on
+      Peter&rsquo;s Mountain, with a long train of <i>et cetera</i> in addition, and
+      feel, by recollection at least, a momentary flash of youth. Reviewing the
+      course of a long and sufficiently successful life, I find in no portion of
+      it happier moments than those were. I think the old hulk in which you are,
+      is near her wreck, and that like a prudent rat, you should escape in time.
+      However, here, there, and every where, in peace or in war, you will have
+      my sincere affections, and prayers for your life, health, and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0102" id="link2H_4_0102">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CII.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 30, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another communication is enclosed, and the letter of the applicant is the
+      only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember such a
+      person as the secretary of Mr. Adams, and messenger to the Senate while I
+      was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding to it a
+      strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the Anglomen and
+      malcontents; in other words, the federalists and quids. Yet it would
+      reconcile neither. It would only change the topic of abuse with the
+      former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter. It would prevent
+      our eastern capitalists and seamen from employment in privateering, take
+      away the only chance of conciliating them, and keep them at home, idle, to
+      swell the discontents; it would completely disarm us of the most powerful
+      weapon we can employ against Great Britain, by shutting every port to our
+      prizes, and yet would not add a single vessel to their number; it would
+      shut every market to our agricultural productions, and engender impatience
+      and discontent with that class which, in fact, composes the nation; it
+      would insulate us in general negotiations for peace, making all the
+      parties our opposers, and very indifferent about peace with us, if they
+      have it with the rest of the world; and would exhibit a solecism worthy of
+      Don Quixotte only, that of a choice to fight two enemies at a time, rather
+      than to take them by succession. And the only motive for all this is a
+      sublimated impartiality, at which the world will laugh, and our own people
+      will turn upon us in mass as soon as it is explained to them, as it will
+      be by the very persons who are now laying that snare. These are the hasty
+      views of one who rarely thinks on these subjects. Your own will be better,
+      and I pray to them every success, and to yourself every felicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0103" id="link2H_4_0103">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIII.&mdash;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 11, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has given me great pleasure to receive a letter from you. It seems as
+      if, our ancient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections of the
+      heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our
+      acquaintance commenced in 1764, both then just of age. We happened to take
+      lodgings in the same house in New York. Our next meeting was in the
+      Congress of 1775, and at various times afterwards in the exercise of that
+      and other public functions, until your mission to Europe. Since we have
+      ceased to meet, we have still thought and acted together, &lsquo;<i>et idem
+      velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum amicitia est</i>.&rsquo; Of this harmony of
+      principle, the papers you enclosed me are proof sufficient. I do not
+      condole with you on your release from your government. The vote of your
+      opponents is the most honorable mark by which the soundness of your
+      conduct could be stamped. I claim the same honorable testimonial. There
+      was but a single act of my whole administration of which that party
+      approved. That was the proclamation on the attack of the Chesapeake. And
+      when I found they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to apprehend
+      I had done wrong, and to exclaim with the Psalmist, &lsquo;Lord, what have I
+      done, that the wicked should praise me!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What, then, does this English faction with you mean? Their newspapers say
+      rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we will
+      permit them to govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their
+      anti-republican spirit, it ought to be met at once. But a government like
+      ours should be slow in believing this, should put forth its whole might
+      when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
+      reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the
+      vindictive passions of the petty incorporations of Greece. I rather
+      suspect that the principal office of the other seventeen States will be to
+      moderate and restrain the local excitement of our friends with you, when
+      they (with the aid of their brethren of the other States, if they need it)
+      shall have brought the rebellious to their feet. They count on British
+      aid. But what can that avail them by land? They would separate from their
+      friends, who alone furnish employment for their navigation, to unite with
+      their only rival for that employment. When interdicted the harbors of
+      their quondam brethren, they will go, I suppose, to ask a share in the
+      carrying-trade of their rivals, and a dispensation with their navigation
+      act. They think they will be happier in an association under the rulers of
+      Ireland, the East and West Indies, than in an independent government,
+      where they are obliged to put up with their proportional share only in the
+      direction of its affairs. But I trust that such perverseness will not be
+      that of the honest and well meaning mass of the federalists of
+      Massachusetts; and that when the questions of separation and rebellion
+      shall be nakedly proposed to them, the Gores and the Pickerings will find
+      their levees crowded with silk-stocking gentry, but no yeomanry; an army
+      of officers without soldiers. I hope, then, all will still end well: the
+      Anglomen will consent to make peace with their bread and butter, and you
+      and I shall sink to rest, without having been actors or spectators in
+      another civil war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count; but I
+      you in that of our grand-children. We have not timed these things well
+      together, or we might have begun a re-alliance between Massachusetts and
+      the Old Dominion, faithful companions in the war of Independence,
+      peculiarly tallied in interests, by each wanting exactly what the other
+      has to spare; and estranged to each other, in latter times, only by the
+      practices of a third nation, the common enemy of both. Let us live only to
+      see this re-union, and I will say with old Simeon, &lsquo;Lord, now lettest thou
+      thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.&rsquo; In
+      that peace may you long remain, my friend, and depart only in the fulness
+      of years, all passed in health and prosperity. God bless you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P.S. June 13. I did not condole with you on the reprobation of your
+      opponents, because it proved your orthodoxy. Yesterday&rsquo;s post brought me
+      the resolution of the republicans of Congress, to propose you as
+      Vice-President. On this I sincerely congratulate you. It is a stamp of
+      double proof. It is a notification to the factionaries that their nay is
+      the yea of truth, and its best test. We shall be almost within striking
+      distance of each other. Who knows but you may fill up some short recess of
+      Congress with a visit to Monticello, where a numerous family will hail you
+      with a hearty country welcome. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0104" id="link2H_4_0104">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIV.&mdash;TO JUDGE TYLER, June 17,1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE TYLER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 17,1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      On the other subject of your letter, the application of the common law to
+      our present situation, I deride with you the ordinary doctrine, that we
+      brought with us from England the common law rights. This narrow notion was
+      a favorite in the first moment of rallying to our rights against Great
+      Britain. But it was that of men who felt their rights before they had
+      thought of their explanation. The truth is, that we brought with us the
+      rights of men; of expatriated men. On our arrival here, the question would
+      at once arise, by what law will we govern ourselves? The resolution seems
+      to have been, by that system with which we are familiar, to be altered by
+      ourselves occasionally, and adapted to our new situation. The proofs of
+      this resolution are to be found in the form of the oaths of the judges, 1
+      Hening&rsquo;s Stat. 169, 187; of the Governor, ib. 504; in the act for a
+      provisional government, ib. 372; in the preamble to the laws of 1661-2;
+      the uniform current of opinions and decisions; and in the general
+      recognition of all our statutes framed on that basis. But the state of the
+      English law at the date of our emigration, constituted the system adopted
+      here. We may doubt, therefore, the propriety of quoting in our courts
+      English authorities subsequent to that adoption; still more, the admission
+      of authorities posterior to the Declaration of Independence, or rather to
+      the accession of that King, whose reign, <i>ab initio</i>, was that very
+      tissue of wrongs which rendered the Declaration at length necessary. The
+      reason for it had inception at least as far back as the commencement of
+      his reign. This relation to the beginning of his reign, would add the
+      advantage of getting us rid of all Mansfield&rsquo;s innovations, or
+      civilizations of the common law. For however I admit the superiority of
+      the civil, over the common law code, as a system of perfect justice, yet
+      an incorporation of the two would be like Nebuchadnezzar&rsquo;s image of metals
+      and clay, a thing without cohesion of parts. The only natural improvement
+      of the common law, is through its homogeneous ally, the chancery, in which
+      new principles are to be examined, concocted, and digested. But when, by
+      repeated decisions and modifications, they are rendered pure and certain,
+      they should be transferred by statute to the courts of common law, and
+      placed within the pale of juries. The exclusion from the courts of the
+      malign influence of all authorities after the <i>Georgium sidus</i> became
+      ascendant, would uncanonize Blackstone, whose book, although the most
+      elegant and best digested of our law catalogue, has been perverted more
+      than all others to the degeneracy of legal science. A student finds there
+      a smattering of every thing, and his indolence easily persuades him, that
+      if he understands that book, he is master of the whole body of the law.
+      The distinction between these and those who have drawn their stores from
+      the deep and rich mines of Coke&rsquo;s Littleton, seems well understood even by
+      the unlettered common people, who apply the appellation of
+      Blackstone-lawyers to these ephemeral insects of the law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and so much
+      of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a question of
+      transcendant difficulty. It was discussed at the first meeting of the
+      committee of the revised code, in 1776, and decided in the negative, by
+      the opinions of Wythe, Mason, and myself, against Pendleton and Thomas
+      Lee. Pendleton proposed to take Blackstone for that text, only purging him
+      of what was inapplicable, or unsuitable to us. In that case, the meaning
+      of every word of Blackstone would have become a source of litigation,
+      until it had been settled by repeated legal decisions. And to come at that
+      meaning, we should have had produced, on all occasions, that very pile of
+      authorities from which it would be said he drew his conclusion, and which,
+      of course, would explain it, and the terms in which it is couched. Thus we
+      should have retained the same chaos of law-lore from which we wished to be
+      emancipated, added to the evils of the uncertainty which a new text and
+      new phrases would have generated. An example of this may be found in the
+      old statutes, and commentaries on them, in Coke&rsquo;s second institute; but
+      more remarkably, in the institute of Justinian, and the vast masses,
+      explanatory or supplementary of that, which fill the libraries of the
+      civilians. We were deterred from the attempt by these considerations,
+      added to which, the bustle of the times did not permit leisure for such an
+      undertaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your request of my opinion on this subject has given you the trouble of
+      these observations. If your firmer mind in encountering difficulties,
+      would have added your vote to the minority of the committee, you would
+      have had on your side one of the greatest men of our age, and, like him,
+      have detracted nothing from the sentiments of esteem and respect which I
+      bore to him, and tender with sincerity the assurance of to yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0105" id="link2H_4_0105">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CV.&mdash;TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 1, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of September the 20th has been duly received, and I cannot but
+      be gratified by the assurance it expresses, that my aid in the councils of
+      our government would increase the public confidence in them; because it
+      admits an inference that they have approved of the course pursued, when I
+      heretofore bore a part in those councils. I profess, too, so much of the
+      Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the general of yesterday to
+      act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be useful to his country;
+      holding that to be false pride, which postpones the public good to any
+      private or personal considerations. But I am past service. The hand of age
+      is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties apprizes me that those of the
+      mind cannot be unimpaired, had I not still better proofs. Every year
+      counts by increased debility, and departing faculties keep the score. The
+      last year it was the sight, this it is the hearing, the next something
+      else will be going, until all is gone. Of all this I was sensible before I
+      left Washington, and probably my fellow-laborers saw it before I did. The
+      decay of memory was obvious: it is now become distressing. But the mind,
+      too, is weakened. When I was young, mathematics was the passion of my
+      life. The same passion has returned upon me, but with unequal powers.
+      Processes which I then read off with the facility of common discourse, now
+      cost me labor, and time, and slow investigation. When I offered this,
+      therefore, as one of the reasons deciding my retirement from office, it
+      was offered in sincerity and a consciousness of its truth. And I think it
+      a great blessing that I retain understanding enough to be sensible how
+      much of it I have lost, and to avoid exposing myself as a spectacle for
+      the pity of my friends; that I have surmounted the difficult point of
+      knowing when to retire. As a compensation for faculties departed, nature
+      gives me good health, and a perfect resignation to the laws of decay which
+      she has prescribed to all the forms and combinations of matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The detestable treason of Hull has, indeed, excited a deep anxiety in all
+      breasts. The depression was in the first moment gloomy and portentous. But
+      it has been succeeded by a revived animation, and a determination to meet
+      the occurrence with increased efforts; and I have so much confidence in
+      the vigorous minds and bodies of our countrymen, as to be fearless as to
+      the final issue. The treachery of Hull, like that of Arnold, cannot be
+      matter of blame on our government. His character, as an officer of skill
+      and bravery, was established on the trials of the last war, and no
+      previous act of his life had led to doubt his fidelity. Whether the Head
+      of the war department is equal to his charge, I am not qualified to
+      decide. I knew him only as a pleasant, gentlemanly man in society; and the
+      indecision of his character rather added to the amenity of his
+      conversation. But when translated from the colloquial circle to the great
+      stage of national concerns, and the direction of the extensive operations
+      of war, whether he has been able to seize at one glance the long line of
+      defenceless border presented by our enemy, the masses of strength which we
+      hold on different points of it, the facility this gave us of attacking
+      him, on the same day, on all his points, from the extremity of the lakes
+      to the neighborhood of Quebec, and the perfect indifference with which
+      this last place, impregnable as it is, might be left in the hands of the
+      enemy to fall of itself; whether, I say, he could see and prepare
+      vigorously for all this, or merely wrapped himself in the cloak of cold
+      defence, I am uninformed. I clearly think with you on the competence of
+      Monroe to embrace great views of action. The decision of his character,
+      his enterprise, firmness, industry, and unceasing vigilance, would, I
+      believe, secure, as I am sure they would merit, the public confidence, and
+      give us all the success which our means can accomplish. If our operations
+      have suffered or languished from any want of energy in the present head
+      which directs them, I have so much confidence in the wisdom and
+      conscientious integrity of Mr. Madison, as to be satisfied, that, however
+      torturing to his feelings, he will fulfil his duty to the public and to
+      his own reputation, by making the necessary change. Perhaps he may be
+      preparing it while we are talking about it: for of all these things I am
+      uninformed. I fear that Hull&rsquo;s surrender has been more than the mere loss
+      of a year to us. Besides bringing on us the whole mass of savage nations,
+      whom fear and not affection had kept in quiet, there is danger that in
+      giving time to an enemy who can send reinforcements of regulars faster
+      than we can raise them, they may strengthen Canada and Halifax beyond the
+      assailment of our lax and divided powers. Perhaps, however, the patriotic
+      efforts from Kentucky and Ohio, by recalling the British force to its
+      upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to strike a blow below.
+      Effectual possession of the river from Montreal to the Chaudiere, which is
+      practicable, would give us the upper country at our leisure, and close for
+      ever the scenes of the tomahawk and scalping-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these things are for others to plan and achieve. The only succor from
+      the old, must lie in their prayers. These I offer up with sincere
+      devotion; and in my concern for the great public, I do not overlook my
+      friends, but supplicate for them, as I do for yourself, a long course of
+      freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0106" id="link2H_4_0106">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVI.&mdash;TO MR. MELISH, January 13, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. MELISH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 13, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received duly your favor of December the 15th, and with it the copies of
+      your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. The book I
+      have read with extreme satisfaction and information. As to the western
+      States, particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the actual
+      condition of that interesting portion of our country, I had not an
+      adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the condition
+      of the maritime States. I had no conception that manufactures had made
+      such progress there, and particularly of the number of carding and
+      spinning machines dispersed through the whole country. We are but
+      beginning here to have them in our private families. Small
+      spinning-jennies of from half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon,
+      however, make their way into the humblest cottages, as well as the richest
+      houses; and nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and middling
+      clothing for our families, will for ever hereafter continue to be made
+      within ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on foreign
+      manufactures: but I have now thirty-five spindles a going, a hand
+      carding-machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply of my
+      own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The continuance of
+      the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the evils of impressment
+      and of the orders of council, a great blessing for us will grow. I have
+      not formerly been an advocate for great manufactories. I doubted whether
+      our labor, employed in agriculture, and aided by the spontaneous energies
+      of the earth, would not procure us more than we could make ourselves of
+      other necessaries. But other considerations entering into the question,
+      have settled my doubts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition of our
+      citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and English
+      travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners and habits of
+      their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed every thing differing
+      from that test as boorish and barbarous, that your work will be read here
+      extensively, and operate great good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other part of the
+      work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to bring to
+      what I think the correct one; and, on a point so interesting, I value your
+      opinion too highly not to ambition its concurrence with my own. Stating in
+      volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of difference between the
+      two great political parties here, you conclude it to be, &lsquo;whether the
+      controlling power shall be vested in this or that set of men.&rsquo; That each
+      party endeavors to get into the administration of the government, and to
+      exclude the other from power, is true, and may be stated as a motive of
+      action: but this is only secondary; the primary motive being a real and
+      radical difference of political principle. I sincerely wish our
+      differences were but personally who should govern and that the principles
+      of our constitution were those of both parties. Unfortunately, it is
+      otherwise; and the question of preference between monarchy and
+      republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere, threatens a
+      permanent division here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
+      shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
+      compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
+      perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
+      corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion, which
+      others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that a
+      correction of what are called its vices, would render the English an
+      impracticable government.. This government they wished to have established
+      here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the present
+      constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of their
+      favorite model. This party has therefore always clung to England, as their
+      prototype, and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this change. A
+      weighty minority, however, of these leaders, considering the voluntary
+      conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant, if not
+      desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment, as
+      being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a
+      commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other States
+      may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to the
+      desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is
+      the last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being of all
+      the most dependant on the others. Not raising bread for the sustenance her
+      own inhabitants, not having a stick of timber for the construction of
+      vessels, her principal occupation, nor an article to export in them, where
+      would she be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and thrown into
+      dependance on England, her direct and natural, but now insidious, rival?
+      At the head of this minority is what is called the Essex Junto of
+      Massachusetts. But the majority of these leaders do not aim at separation.
+      In this they adhere to the known principle of General Hamilton, never,
+      under any views, to break the Union. Anglomany, monarchy, and separation,
+      then, are the principles of the Essex federalists; Anglomany and monarchy,
+      those of the Hamiltonians, and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among
+      the people who call themselves federalists. These last are as good
+      republicans as the brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in
+      the devotion to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from
+      their leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
+      separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
+      popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
+      standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
+      thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
+      constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to it
+      they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have any
+      ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further, by
+      shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
+      responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment. They
+      esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest the
+      governing powers of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
+      councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which they
+      are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for power.
+      An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his
+      fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
+      conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
+      legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
+      refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient that
+      power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the primary
+      principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that on which I have
+      acted; and had it been a mere contest who should be permitted to
+      administer the government according to its genuine republican principles,
+      there has never been a moment of my life, in which I should not have
+      relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends, and
+      books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You expected to discover the difference of our party principles in General
+      Washington&rsquo;s Valedictory, and my Inaugural Address. Not at all. General
+      Washington did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was neither an
+      Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished the people
+      to have as much self-government as they were competent to exercise
+      themselves. The only point in which he and I ever differed in opinion,
+      was, that I had more confidence than he had in the natural integrity and
+      discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to which they might
+      trust themselves with a control over their government. He has asseverated
+      to me a thousand times his determination that the existing government
+      should have a fair trial, and that in support of it he would spend the
+      last drop of his blood. He did this the more repeatedly, because he knew
+      General Hamilton&rsquo;s political bias, and my apprehensions from it. It is a
+      mere calumny, therefore, in the monarchists, to associate General
+      Washington with their principles. But that may have happened in this case
+      which has been often seen in ordinary cases, that, by often repeating an
+      untruth, men come to believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this
+      party, to bolster themselves up on the revered name of that first of our
+      worthies. If I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, it
+      proves the estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and my
+      desire of placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I am certain
+      I risk no use of the communication which may draw me into contention
+      before the public. Tranquillity is the <i>summum bonum</i> of a <i>Septagénaire</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to the merits of your work; I consider it as so lively a picture
+      of the real state of our country, that if I can possibly obtain
+      opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy to a friend in
+      France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will translate and
+      circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations of former
+      travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political faith may have
+      on your general opinion, a part of my object will be obtained, if it
+      satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, and of the high
+      respect and consideration with which I tender you my salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0107" id="link2H_4_0107">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVII.&mdash;TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      United States of America,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May 24, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your letter of
+      November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely gratified by the
+      occasion it gives me of expressing to you the sentiments of high respect
+      and esteem which I entertain for you. It recalls to my remembrance a happy
+      portion of my life, passed in your native city; then the seat of the most
+      amiable and polished society of the world, and of which yourself and your
+      venerable father were such distinguished members. But of what scenes has
+      it since been the theatre, and with what havoc has it overspread the
+      earth! Robespierre met the fate, and his memory the execration, he so
+      justly merited. The rich were his victims, and perished by thousands. It
+      is by millions that Bonaparte destroys the poor, and he is eulogized and
+      deified by the sycophants&mdash;even of science. These merit more than the
+      mere oblivion to which they will be consigned; and the day will come when
+      a just posterity will give to their hero the only pre-eminence he has
+      earned, that of having been the greatest of the destroyers of the human
+      race. What year of his military life has not consigned a million of human
+      beings to death, to poverty, and wretchedness? What field in Europe may
+      not raise a monument of the murders, the burnings, the desolations, the
+      famines, and miseries, it has witnessed from him! And all this to acquire
+      a reputation, which Cartouche attained with less injury to mankind, of
+      being fearless of God or man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To complete and universalize the desolation of the globe, it has been the
+      will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a tyrant as unprincipled
+      and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in the poor maniac George, but in
+      his government and nation. Bonaparte will die, and his tyrannies with him.
+      But a nation never dies. The English government and its piratical
+      principles and practices, have no fixed term of duration. Europe feels,
+      and is writhing under the scorpion whips of Bonaparte. We are assailed by
+      those of England. The one continent thus placed under the gripe of
+      England, and the other of Bonaparte, each has to grapple with the enemy
+      immediately pressing on itself. We must extinguish the fire kindled in our
+      own house, and leave to our friends beyond the water that which is
+      consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one thousand of our
+      ships, and impressed into her service more than six thousand of our
+      citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of her Prince Regent,
+      that she would not repeal her aggressive orders as to us, until Bonaparte
+      should have repealed his as to all nations; till her minister, in formal
+      conference with ours, declared, that no proposition for protecting our
+      seamen from being impressed, under color of taking their own, was
+      practicable or admissible; that, the door to justice and to all amicable
+      arrangement being closed, and negotiation become both desperate and
+      dishonorable, we concluded that the war she had been for years waging
+      against us, might as well become a war on both sides. She takes fewer
+      vessels from us since the declaration of war than before, because they
+      venture more cautiously; and we now make full reprisals where before we
+      made none. England is, in principle, the enemy of all maritime nations, as
+      Bonaparte is of the continental; and I place in the same line of insult to
+      the human understanding, the pretension of conquering the ocean, to
+      establish continental rights, as that of conquering the continent, to
+      restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam; the object of England is the
+      permanent dominion of the ocean, and the monopoly of the trade of the
+      world. To secure this, she must keep a larger fleet than her own resources
+      will maintain. The resources of other nations, then, must be impressed to
+      supply the deficiency of her own. This is sufficiently developed and
+      evidenced by her successive strides towards the usurpation of the sea.
+      Mark them, from her first war after William Pitt, the little, came into
+      her administration. She first forbade to neutrals all trade with her
+      enemies in time of war, which they had not in time of peace. This deprived
+      them of their trade from port to port of the same nation. Then she forbade
+      them to trade from the port of one nation to that of any other at war with
+      her, although a right fully exercised in time of peace. Next, instead of
+      taking vessels only entering a blockaded port, she took them over the
+      whole ocean, if destined to that port, although ignorant of the blockade,
+      and without intention to violate it. Then she took them returning from
+      that port, as if infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came
+      her paper blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without
+      sending a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they
+      must, of course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her
+      orders of council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other,
+      without coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute
+      to her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed
+      to the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
+      the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could not
+      send a vessel from St. Mary&rsquo;s to St. Augustine, distant six hour&rsquo;s sail,
+      on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice with the
+      outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this too daring and
+      outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain articles of
+      commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute important
+      branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no longer rest on
+      inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in open parliament,
+      that the object of the present war is a monopoly of commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
+      speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
+      execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
+      with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might retaliate
+      on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each other. To make
+      war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, therefore, to single out
+      an enemy, we offered to both, that if either would revoke its hostile
+      decrees, and the other should refuse, we would interdict all intercourse
+      whatever with that other; which would be war of course, as being an avowed
+      departure from neutrality. France accepted the offer, and revoked her
+      decrees as to us. England not only refused, but declared by a solemn
+      proclamation of her Prince Regent, that she would not revoke her orders
+      even as to us, until those of France should be annulled as to the whole
+      world. We thereon declared war, and with abundant additional cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the ruinous effects
+      of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing them to the nation and
+      to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial proclamation, suspending
+      the orders on certain conditions, but claiming to renew them at pleasure,
+      as a matter of right. Even this might have prevented the war, if done and
+      known here before its declaration. But the sword being once drawn, the
+      expense of arming incurred, and hostilities in full course, it would have
+      been unwise to discontinue them, until effectual provision should be
+      agreed to by England, for protecting our citizens on the high seas from
+      impressment by her naval commanders, through, error, voluntary or
+      involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers, entering our
+      ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen, (which they have
+      no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which they neither do, nor
+      ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and which no nation ever before
+      pretended to do in any case), entering our ships, I say, under pretext of
+      searching for and taking out their seamen, they took ours, native as well
+      as naturalized, knowing them to be ours, merely because they wanted them;
+      insomuch, that no American could safely cross the ocean, or venture to
+      pass by sea from one to another of our own ports. It is not long since
+      they impressed at sea two nephews of General Washington, returning from
+      Europe, and put them, as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of
+      their ships of war. There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between
+      England and us; but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirit of
+      conciliation on both sides would not permit to continue them at war. The
+      sword, however, can never again be sheathed, until the personal safety of
+      an American on the ocean, among the most important and most vital of the
+      rights we possess, is completely provided for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of council, we
+      offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, if she would
+      suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements for securing our
+      citizens against them. She refused to do it, because impracticable by any
+      arrangement, as she pretends; but, in truth, because a body of sixty to
+      eighty thousand of the finest seamen in the world, which we possess, is
+      too great a resource for manning her exaggerated navy, to be relinquished,
+      as long as she can keep it open. Peace is in her hand, whenever she will
+      renounce the practice of aggression on the persons of our citizens. If she
+      thinks it worth eternal war, eternal war we must have. She alleges that
+      the sameness of language, of manners, of appearance, renders it impossible
+      to distinguish us from her subjects. But because we speak English, and
+      look like them, are we to be punished? Are free and independent men to be
+      submitted to their bondage?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the war. She has
+      called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of her orders of
+      council. She knows there has never been a moment of suspension of our
+      reclamations against it, from General Washington&rsquo;s time inclusive, to the
+      present day: and that it is distinctly stated in our declaration of war,
+      as one of its principal causes. She has pretended we have entered into the
+      war, to establish the principle of &lsquo;free bottoms, free goods,&rsquo; or to
+      protect her seamen against her own right over them. We contend for neither
+      of these. She pretends we are partial to France; that we have observed a
+      fraudulent and unfaithful neutrality between her and her enemy. She knows
+      this to be false, and that if there has been any inequality in our
+      proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in her favor. Her
+      ministers are in possession of full proofs of this. Our accepting at once,
+      and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous Alexander, their greatest
+      friend, and the most aggravated enemy of Bonaparte, sufficiently proves
+      whether we have partialities on the side of her enemy. I sincerely pray
+      that this mediation may produce a just peace. It will prove that the
+      immortal character, which has first stopped by war the career of the
+      destroyer of mankind, is the friend of peace, of justice, of human
+      happiness, and the patron of unoffending and injured nations. He is too
+      honest and impartial to countenance propositions of peace derogatory to
+      the freedom of the seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shall I apologize to you, my dear Madam, for this long political letter?
+      But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings must plead for the
+      unreserved expression of them; and they have been the less reserved, as
+      being from a private citizen, retired from all connection with the
+      government of his country, and whose ideas, expressed without
+      communication with any one, are neither known, nor imputable to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities of
+      interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name to this
+      letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference to the date of
+      time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in answer to that. This
+      omission must not lessen in your view the assurances of my great esteem,
+      of my sincere sympathies for the share which you bear in the afflictions
+      of your country, and the deprivations to which a lawless will has
+      subjected you. In return, you enjoy the dignified satisfaction of having
+      met them, rather than be yoked, with the abject, to his car; and that, in
+      withdrawing from oppression, you have followed the virtuous example of a
+      father, whose name will ever be dear to your country and to mankind. With
+      my prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may see it
+      re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does not infer
+      either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of prosperity which
+      would be the consequence of such a government, in that, in short, which
+      the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, if wisdom could have
+      stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent zeal of men, who did not
+      know the character of their own countrymen, and that you may long live in
+      health and happiness under it, and leave to the world a well educated and
+      virtuous representative and descendant of your honored father, is the
+      ardent prayer of the sincere and respectful friend who writes this letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0108" id="link2H_4_0108">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 27, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 27, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another of our friends of seventy-six is gone, my Dear Sir, another of the
+      co-signers of the Independence of our country. And a better man than Rush
+      could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or
+      more honest. We too must go; and that ere long. I believe we are under
+      half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the Declaration. Yourself,
+      Gerry, Carroll, and myself, are all I know to be living. I am the only one
+      south of the Potomac. Is Robert Treat Paine, or Floyd living? It is long
+      since I heard of them, and yet I do not recollect to have heard of their
+      deaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreton&rsquo;s deduction of the origin of our Indians from the fugitive
+      Trojans, stated in your letter of January the 26th, and his manner of
+      accounting for the sprinkling of their Latin with Greeks is really
+      amusing. Adair makes them talk Hebrew. Reinold Foster derives them from
+      the soldiers sent by Kouli Khan to conquer Japan. Brerewood, from the
+      Tartars, as well as our bears, wolves, foxes, &amp;c. which, he says,
+      &lsquo;must of necessity fetch their beginning from Noah&rsquo;s ark, which rested
+      after the deluge, in Asia, seeing they could not proceed by the course of
+      nature, as the imperfect sort of living creatures do, from putrefaction.&rsquo;
+      Bernard Romans is of opinion that God created an original man and woman in
+      this part of the globe. Doctor Barton thinks they are not specifically
+      different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a broader range, he
+      thinks, &lsquo;that in all the vast countries of America, there is but one
+      language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered highly probable, that
+      all the languages of the earth bear some affinity together.&rsquo; This reduces
+      it to a question of definition, in which every one is free to use his own:
+      to wit, What constitutes identity, or difference in two things, in the
+      common acceptation of sameness? All languages may be called the same, as
+      being all made up of the same primitive sounds, expressed by the letters
+      of the different alphabets. But, in this sense, all things on earth are
+      the same, as consisting of matter. This gives up the useful distribution
+      into genera and species, which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief
+      of our imperfect memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian
+      tribes descended, some have gone into their religion, their morals, their
+      manners, customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be
+      learnedly proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended
+      from those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
+      draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves in
+      spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of winter,
+      he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe, because our
+      wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard, &amp;c. But
+      when, for convenience, we distribute languages, according to common
+      understanding, into classes originally different, as we choose to consider
+      them, as the Hebrew, the Greek, the Celtic, the Gothic; and these again
+      into genera, or families, as the Icelandic, German, Swedish, Danish,
+      English; and these last into species, or dialects, as English, Scotch,
+      Irish, we then ascribe other meanings to the terms, &lsquo;same&rsquo; and
+      &lsquo;different.&rsquo; In some one of these senses, Barton, and Adair, and Foster,
+      and Brerewood, and Moreton, may be right, every one according to his own
+      definition of what constitutes &lsquo;identity.&rsquo; Romans, indeed, takes a higher
+      stand, and supposes a separate creation. On the same unscriptural ground,
+      he had but to mount one step higher, to suppose no creation at all, but
+      that all things have existed without beginning in time, as they now exist,
+      and may for ever exist, producing and reproducing in a circle, without
+      end. This would very summarily dispose of Mr. Moreton&rsquo;s learning, and show
+      that the question of Indian origin, like many others, pushed to a certain
+      height, must receive the same answer, &lsquo;Ignoro.&rsquo; You ask if the usage of
+      hunting in circles has ever been known among any of our tribes of Indians?
+      It has been practised by them all; and is to this day, by those still
+      remote from the settlements of the whites. But their numbers not enabling
+      them, like Genghis Khan&rsquo;s seven hundred thousand, to form themselves into
+      circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make their circle by firing
+      the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually forcing the animals to a
+      centre, they there slaughter them with arrows, darts, and other missiles.
+      This is called fire-hunting, and has been practised in this State within
+      my time, by the white inhabitants. This is the most probable cause of the
+      origin and extension of the vast prairies in the western country, where
+      the grass having been of extraordinary luxuriance, has made a
+      conflagration sufficient to kill even the old as well as the young timber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
+      must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the early
+      and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with you on this
+      ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing that we
+      cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall into the
+      same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but even those
+      of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these can be
+      resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that we can
+      turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In the mean time,
+      one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is necessary; these
+      being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel with us. But I respect
+      too much the weighty opinions of others to be unyielding on this point,
+      and acquiesce with the prayer, &lsquo;<i>quod felix faustumque sit</i>&rsquo;; adding
+      ever a sincere one for your health and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0109" id="link2H_4_0109">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 15, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
+      about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of May.
+      Of Lindsay&rsquo;s Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed of
+      himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters of
+      mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his editor was
+      new to me, and certainly presents itself for the first time under
+      unfavorable circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of his book;
+      and that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the world in the
+      very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing private
+      letters which passed between two friends, with no views to their ever
+      being made public, is an instance of inconsistency as well as of
+      infidelity, of which I would rather be the victim than the author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters, I have been enabled
+      to turn to them. They had completely vanished from my memory. The last is
+      on the subject of religion, and by its publication will gratify the
+      priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations against me.
+      They wish it to be believed, that he can have no religion who advocates
+      its freedom. This was not the doctrine of Priestley; and I honored him for
+      the example of liberality he set to his order. The first letter is
+      political. It recalls to our recollection the gloomy transactions of the
+      times, the doctrines they witnessed, and the sensibilities they excited.
+      It was a confidential communication of reflections on these from one
+      friend to another, deposited in his bosom, and never meant to trouble the
+      public mind. Whether the character of the times is justly portrayed or
+      not, posterity will decide. But on one feature of them, they can never
+      decide, the sensations excited in free yet firm minds by the terrorism of
+      the day. None can conceive who did not witness them, and they were felt by
+      one party only. This letter exhibits their side of the medal. The
+      federalists, no doubt, have presented the other, in their private
+      correspondences, as well as open action. If these correspondences should
+      ever be laid open to the public eye, they will probably be found not
+      models of comity towards their adversaries. The readers of my letter
+      should be cautioned not to confine its view to this country alone. England
+      and its alarmists were equally under consideration. Still less must they
+      consider it as looking personally towards you. You happen, indeed, to be
+      quoted, because you happened to express more pithily than had been done by
+      themselves, one of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer to the
+      address of the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of Patriotic
+      Addresses, page 198.] One of the questions, you know, on which our parties
+      took different sides, was on the improvability of the human mind, in
+      science, in ethics, in government, &amp;c. Those who advocated reformation
+      of institutions, <i>pari passu</i> with the progress of science,
+      maintained that no definite limits could be assigned to that progress. The
+      enemies of reform, on the other hand, denied improvement, and advocated
+      steady adherence to the principles, practices, and institutions of our
+      fathers, which they represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of
+      excellence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. Although in
+      the passage of your answer alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish to
+      influence the freedom of inquiry, you predict that that will produce
+      nothing more worthy of transmission to posterity than the principles,
+      institutions, and systems of education received from their ancestors. I do
+      not consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess yourself too
+      much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained and
+      unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before our
+      ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an expression
+      lent to the prejudices of your friends; and although I happened to cite it
+      from you, the whole letter shows I had them only in view. In truth, my
+      dear Sir, we were far from considering you as the author of all the
+      measures we blamed. They were placed under the protection of your name,
+      but we were satisfied they wanted much of your approbation. We ascribed
+      them to their real authors, the Pickerings, the Wolcotts, the Tracys, the
+      Sedgwicks, <i>et id genus omne</i>, with whom we supposed you in a state
+      of <i>duresse</i>. I well remember a conversation with you in the morning
+      of the day on which you nominated to the Senate a substitute for
+      Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience under &lsquo;the legacy of
+      Secretaries which General Washington had left you,&rsquo; and whom you seemed,
+      therefore, to consider as under public protection. Many other incidents
+      showed how differently you would have acted with less impassioned
+      advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your minds were not
+      together. You would do me great injustice, therefore, by taking to
+      yourself what was intended for men who were then your secret, as they are
+      now your open enemies. Should you write on the subject, as you propose, I
+      am sure we shall see you place yourself farther from them than from us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave others to
+      judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
+      shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
+      others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
+      sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
+      reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
+      the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
+      in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
+      truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should be
+      different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
+      indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
+      sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
+      tender you the assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0110" id="link2H_4_0110">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CX.&mdash;TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 24, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
+      myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
+      suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
+      the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
+      that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
+      trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed to
+      cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within
+      the limits of its faculties, &lsquo;never to borrow a dollar without laying a
+      tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the
+      principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the
+      creditors on the public faith.&rsquo; On such a pledge as this, sacredly
+      observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all
+      the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent
+      tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against
+      oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution. But
+      the term of redemption must be moderate, and, at any rate, within the
+      limits of their rightful powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does
+      this prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a
+      perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the
+      living, not to the dead. The will and the power of man expire with his
+      life, by nature&rsquo;s law. Some societies give it an artificial continuance,
+      for the encouragement of industry; some refuse it, as our aboriginal
+      neighbors, whom we call barbarians. The generations of men may be
+      considered as bodies or corporations. Each generation has the usufruct of
+      the earth during the period of its continuance. When it ceases to exist,
+      the usufruct passes on to the succeeding generation, free and
+      unincumbered, and so on, successively, from one generation to another for
+      ever. We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right,
+      by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the
+      succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. Or
+      the case may be likened to the ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may
+      hypothecate the land for his debts, during the continuance of his
+      usufruct; but at his death, the reversioner (who is also for life only)
+      receives it exonerated from all burthen. The period of a generation, or
+      the term of its life, is determined by the laws of mortality, which,
+      varying a little only in different climates, offer a general average, to
+      be found by observation. I turn, for instance, to Buffon&rsquo;s tables, of
+      twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at
+      which they happened, and I find that of the numbers of all ages living at
+      one moment, half will be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. Bat
+      (leaving out minors, who have not the power of self-government) of the
+      adults (of twenty-one years of age) living at one moment, a majority of
+      whom act for the society, one half will be dead in eighteen years and
+      eight months. At nineteen years then from the date of a contract, the
+      majority of the contractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let
+      this general theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual
+      births of the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred
+      and ninety-four: the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon,
+      will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of all
+      ages. Of these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine
+      thousand two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and
+      forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last, one
+      hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a majority.
+      Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had borrowed a
+      sum of money equal to the fee simple value of the State, and to have
+      consumed it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day; or, if you
+      please, in quarrelling and fighting with their unoffending neighbors.
+      Within eighteen years and eight months, one half of the adult citizens
+      were dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully levy the
+      interest of their debt annually on themselves and their fellow-revellers,
+      or fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this moment, a new
+      majority have come into place, in their own right, and not under the
+      rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are they bound to
+      acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation as having had a
+      right to eat up the whole soil of their country in the course of a life,
+      to alienate it from them (for it would be an alienation to the creditors),
+      and would they think themselves either legally or morally bound to give up
+      their country, and emigrate to another for subsistence? Every one will say
+      no: that the soil is the gift of God to the living, as much as it had been
+      to the deceased generation; and that the laws of nature impose no
+      obligation on them to pay this debt. And although, like some other natural
+      rights, this has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no
+      less a law, and ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the
+      same time, a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which,
+      since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the
+      earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever
+      accumulating. Had this principle been declared in the British bill of
+      rights, England would have been placed under the happy disability of
+      waging eternal war, and of contracting her thousand millions of public
+      debt. In seeking, then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our
+      debts, let us rally to this principle, and provide for their payment
+      within the term of nineteen years, at the farthest. Our government has
+      not, as yet, begun to act on the rule, of loans and taxation going hand in
+      hand. Had any loan taken place in my time, I should have strongly urged a
+      redeeming tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of
+      Congress, we should now set the example of appropriating some particular
+      tax, sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within a
+      fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your
+      committee will render the immortal service of introducing this practice.
+      Not that it is expected that Congress should formally declare such a
+      principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But
+      they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet,
+      even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. We are an
+      agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or
+      improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly
+      that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and
+      that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in view.
+      In such a nation there is one and one only resource for loans, sufficient
+      to carry them through the expense of a war; and that will always be
+      sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual in the
+      preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of circulating
+      coin. Every one knows, that, although not literally, it is nearly true,
+      that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the
+      circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments with
+      bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out of
+      circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the vendor,
+      receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his purchases or
+      payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may continue to
+      issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits of the
+      circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend with us, at
+      present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum than would be
+      necessary for any war. But this, the only resource which the government
+      could command with certainty, the States have unfortunately fooled away,
+      nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and shavers, under the cover of
+      private banks. Say, too, as an additional evil, that the disposable funds
+      of individuals, to this great amount, have thus been withdrawn from
+      improvement and useful enterprise, and employed in the useless, usurious,
+      and demoralizing practices of bank directors and their accomplices. In the
+      war of 1755, our State availed itself of this fund by issuing a paper
+      money, bottomed on a specific tax for its redemption, and, to insure its
+      credit, bearing an interest of five per cent. Within a very short time,
+      not a bill of this emission was to be found in circulation. It was locked
+      up in the chests of executors, guardians, widows, farmers, &amp;tc. We
+      then issued bills, bottomed on a redeeming tax, but bearing no interest.
+      These were readily received, and never depreciated a single farthing. In
+      the revolutionary war, the old Congress and the States issued bills
+      without interest, and without tax. They occupied the channels of
+      circulation very freely, till those channels were overflowed by an excess
+      beyond all the calls of circulation. But although we have so improvidently
+      suffered the field of circulating medium to be filched from us by private
+      individuals, yet I think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole,
+      if the States will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a
+      tax appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure
+      preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of six
+      per cent., there is no one who would not take them in preference to the
+      bank-paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as interest:
+      and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private hoards to a
+      considerable amount. Their credit once established, others might be
+      emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest: and if ever
+      their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills alone
+      should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund, would
+      reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an
+      equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which,
+      in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their
+      possession of the circulation: but a steady and judicious alternation of
+      emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going
+      on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right to
+      the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of
+      issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, <i>in perpetuum</i>, if
+      possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I
+      believe that every State west and south of Connecticut river, except
+      Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up
+      their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters
+      expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they
+      would supply with their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate tax,
+      and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public pulse
+      should indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills would make
+      their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks, by their
+      solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their
+      receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to
+      curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering up
+      their paper, and running it constantly on them. The national paper might
+      thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I am not
+      without a hope, that this great, this sole resource for loans in an
+      agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the nation
+      during war: and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be sufficient
+      to carry us through any war; provided, that, in the interval between war
+      and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in, coin be permitted
+      to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation until another war
+      should require its yielding place again to the national medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and others to
+      be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found so convenient?
+      I answer, let us have banks: but let them be such as are alone to be found
+      in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There is not a bank of
+      discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was not one when I was
+      there), which offers any thing but cash in exchange for discounted bills.
+      No one has a natural right to the trade of a money-lender, but he who has
+      the money to lend. Let those then among us, who have a monied capital, and
+      who prefer employing it in loans rather than otherwise, set up banks, and
+      give cash or national bills for the notes they discount. Perhaps, to
+      encourage them, a larger interest than is legal in the other cases might
+      be allowed them, on the condition of their lending for short periods only.
+      It is from Great Britain we copy the idea of giving paper in exchange for
+      discounted bills: and while we have derived from that country some good
+      principles of government and legislation, we unfortunately run into the
+      most servile imitation of all her practices, ruinous as they prove to her,
+      and with the gulph yawning before us into which those very practices are
+      precipitating her. The unlimited emission of bank-paper has banished all
+      her specie, and is now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own
+      statesmen, carrying her rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did
+      us, and will do us again, and every country permitting paper to be
+      circulated, other than that by public authority, rigorously limited to the
+      just measure for circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of
+      our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money-lenders, and
+      are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice
+      deluges us. He who lent his money to the public or to an individual,
+      before the institution of the United States bank, twenty years ago, when
+      wheat was well sold at a dollar the bushel, and receives now his nominal
+      sum when it sells at two dollars, is cheated of half his fortune: and by
+      whom? By the banks, which, since that, have thrown into circulation ten
+      dollars of their nominal money where there was one at that time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as they appear
+      to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point out a resource
+      ample enough, without overwhelming war-taxes, for the expense of the war,
+      and possibly still recoverable; and that they hold up to all future time a
+      resource within ourselves, ever at the command of government, and
+      competent to any wars into which we may be forced. Nor is it a slight
+      object to equalize taxes through peace and war.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0111" id="link2H_4_0111">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 21, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 21, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page201.jpg" alt="Page201 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where to
+      begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions, and
+      contentions which have occurred in our day. I should say with Theocritus,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I shall not do it. The <i>summum bonum</i> with me is now truly
+      epicurean, ease of body and tranquillity of mind; and to these I wish to
+      consign my remaining days. Men have differed in opinion, and been divided
+      into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies; and in
+      all governments, where they have been permitted freely to think and to
+      speak. The same political parties which now agitate the United States,
+      have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of
+      the<img alt="page202 (1K)" src="images/page202.jpg" height="18" width="63" />
+      should prevail, were questions which kept the States of Greece and Rome in
+      eternal convulsions; as they now schismatize every people whose minds and
+      mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. And in fact, the terms of
+      whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil history. They denote
+      the temper and constitution of mind of different individuals. To come to
+      our own country, and to the times when you and I became first acquainted:
+      we well remember the violent parties which agitated the old Congress, and
+      their bitter contests. There you and I were together, and the Jays, and
+      the Dickinsons, and other anti-independents were arrayed against us. They
+      cherished the monarchy of England, and we the rights of our countrymen.
+      When our present government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to
+      Union, how bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and
+      I were together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the
+      Atlantic from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States
+      should confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others
+      hold off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should be
+      made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
+      Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
+      delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and all were
+      reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into motion, the
+      line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties, each wishing
+      to give the government a different direction; the one to strengthen the
+      most popular branch, the other the more permanent branches, and to extend
+      their permanence. Here you and I separated for the first time: and as we
+      had been longer than most others on the public theatre, and our names
+      therefore were more familiar to our countrymen, the party which considered
+      you as thinking with them, placed your name at their head; the other, for
+      the same reason, selected mine. But neither decency nor inclination
+      permitted us to become the advocates of ourselves, or to take part
+      personally in the violent contests which followed. We suffered ourselves,
+      as you so well expressed it, to be passive subjects of public discussion.
+      And these discussions, whether relating to men, measures, or opinions,
+      were conducted by the parties with an animosity, a bitterness, and an
+      indecency, which had never been exceeded. All the resources of reason and
+      of wrath were exhausted by each party in support of its own, and to
+      prostrate the adversary opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the
+      anti-federalists, the other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom.
+      Of this acrimony, the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in
+      the debates of Congress, of State legislatures, of stump-orators, in
+      addresses, answers, and newspaper essays; and to these, without question,
+      may be added the private correspondences of individuals; and the less
+      guarded in these, because not meant for the public eye, not restrained by
+      the respect due to that, but poured forth from the overflowings of the
+      heart into the bosom of a friend, as a momentary easement of our feelings.
+      In this way and in answers to addresses, you and I could indulge
+      ourselves. We have probably done it, sometimes with warmth, often with
+      prejudice, but always, as we believed, adhering to truth. I have not
+      examined my letters of that day. I have no stomach to revive the memory of
+      its feelings. But one of these letters, it seems, has got before the
+      public, by accident and infidelity, by the death of one friend to whom it
+      was written, and of his friend to whom it had been communicated, and by
+      the malice and treachery of a third person, of whom I had never before
+      heard, merely to make mischief, and in the same Satanic spirit, in which
+      the same enemy had intercepted and published, in 1776, your letter
+      animadverting on Dickinson&rsquo;s character. How it happened that I quoted you
+      in my letter to Doctor Priestley, and for whom, and not for yourself, the
+      strictures were meant, has been explained to you in my letter of the 15th,
+      which had been committed to the post eight days before I received yours of
+      the 10th, 11th, and 14th. That gave you the reference which these asked to
+      the particular answer alluded to in the one to Priestley. The renewal of
+      these old discussions, my friend, would be equally useless and irksome. To
+      the volumes then written on these subjects, human ingenuity can add
+      nothing new, and the rather, as lapse of time has obliterated many of the
+      facts. And shall you and I, my Dear Sir, at our age, like Priam of old,
+      gird on the
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shall we, at our age, become the athletes of party, and exhibit ourselves,
+      as gladiators, in the arena of the newspapers? Nothing in the universe
+      could induce me to it. My mind has been long fixed to bow to the judgment
+      of the world, who will judge by my acts, and will never take counsel from
+      me as to what that judgment shall be. If your objects and opinions have
+      been misunderstood, if the measures and principles of others have been
+      wrongfully imputed to you, as I believe they have been, that you should
+      leave an explanation of them, would be an set of justice to yourself. I
+      will add, that it has been hoped that you would leave such explanations as
+      would place every saddle on its right horse, and replace on the shoulders
+      of others the burdens they shifted to yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all this, my friend, is offered merely for your consideration and
+      judgment, without presuming to anticipate what you alone are qualified to
+      decide for yourself. I mean to express my own purpose only, and the
+      reflections which have led to it. To me, then, it appears, that there have
+      been differences of opinion and party differences, from the first
+      establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same question
+      which now divides our own country: that these will continue through all
+      future time: that every one takes his side in favor of the many, or of the
+      few, according to his constitution, and the circumstances in which he is
+      placed: that opinions, which are equally honest on both sides, should not
+      affect personal esteem or social intercourse: that as we judge between the
+      Claudii and the Gracchi, the Wentworths and the Hampdens of past ages, so,
+      of those among us whose names may happen to be remembered for a while, the
+      next generations will judge, favorably or unfavorably, according to the
+      complexion of individual minds, and the side they shall themselves have
+      taken: that nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by
+      others, and will be said in every age in support of the conflicting
+      opinions on government: and that wisdom and duty dictate an humble
+      resignation to the verdict of our future peers. I doing this myself, I
+      shall certainly not suffer moot questions to affect the sentiments of
+      sincere friendship and respect, consecrated to you by so long a course of
+      time, and of which I now repeat sincere assurances,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0112" id="link2H_4_0112">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 22, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since my letter of June the 27th, I am in your debt for many; all of which
+      I have read with infinite delight. They open a wide field for reflection,
+      and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen indefinitely. I
+      must follow the good example you have set; and when I have not time to
+      take up every subject, take up a single one. Your approbation of my
+      outline to Dr. Priestley is a great gratification to me; and I very much
+      suspect that if thinking men would have the courage to think for
+      themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found they do not
+      differ in religious opinions, as much as is supposed. I remember to have
+      heard Dr. Priestley say, that if all England would candidly examine
+      themselves, and confess, they would find that Unitarianism was really the
+      religion of all: and I observe a bill is now depending in parliament for
+      the relief of Anti-Trinitarians. It is too late in the day for men of
+      sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three
+      are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the
+      three are not one: to divide mankind by a single letter into<a
+      name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a><img alt="page205 (2K)" src="images/page205.jpg"
+       height="26" width="222" />    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the priests.
+      Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would
+      catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers, live without an
+      order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience,
+      and say nothing about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe;
+      for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind to an intelligible
+      proposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is with great pleasure I can inform you, that Priestley finished the
+      comparative view of the doctrines of the philosophers of antiquity, and of
+      Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after. And with
+      still greater pleasure, that I can have a copy of his work forwarded from
+      Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your acceptance,
+      by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after. The branch of
+      the work which the title announces, is executed with learning and candor,
+      as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a little hastily; for he
+      felt himself pressed by the hand of death. The Abbe Batteux had, in fact,
+      laid the foundation of this part in his &lsquo;Causes Premieres&rsquo;; with which he
+      has given us the originals of Ocellus and Timzeus, who first committed the
+      doctrines of Pythagoras to writing: and Enfield, to whom the Doctor
+      refers, had done it more copiously. But he has omitted the important
+      branch, which, in your letter of August the 9th, you say you have never
+      seen executed, a comparison of the morality of the Old Testament with that
+      of the New. And yet, no two things were ever more unlike. I ought not to
+      have asked him to give it. He dared not. He would have been eaten alive by
+      his intolerant brethren, the Cannibal priests. And yet, this was really
+      the most interesting branch of the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very soon after my letter to Doctor Priestley, the subject being still in
+      my mind, I had leisure, during an abstraction from business for a day or
+      two, while on the road, to think a little more on it, and to sketch more
+      fully than I had done to him, a syllabus of the matter which I thought
+      should enter into the work. I wrote it to Doctor Rush; and there ended all
+      my labor on the subject; himself and Doctor Priestley being the only
+      depositories of my secret. The fate of my letter to Priestley, after his
+      death, was a warning to me on that of Doctor Rush; and at my request, his
+      family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original letter and
+      syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much interest I take in keeping
+      myself clear of religious disputes before the public; and especially of
+      seeing my syllabus disembowelled by the Aruspices of the modern Paganism.
+      Yet I enclose it to you with entire confidence, free to be perused by
+      yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and to be returned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are right in supposing, in one of yours, that I had not read much of
+      Priestley&rsquo;s Predestination, his no-soul system, or his controversy with
+      Horsley. But I have read his Corruptions of Christianity, and Early
+      Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them, and on
+      Middleton&rsquo;s writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to Waterland,
+      as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been answered, nor
+      can be answered by quoting historical proofs, as they have done. For these
+      facts, therefore, I cling to their learning, so much superior to my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now fly off in a tangent to another subject. Marshall, in the first
+      volume of his history, chapter 3, p. 180, ascribes the petition to the
+      King, of 1774, (1 Journ. Cong. 67) to the pen of Richard Henry Lee. I
+      think myself certain, it was not written by him, as well from what I
+      recollect to have heard, as from the internal evidence of style. He was
+      loose, vague, frothy, rhetorical. He was a poorer writer than his brother
+      Arthur; and Arthur&rsquo;s standing may be seen in his Monitor&rsquo;s Letters, to
+      insure the sale of which, they took the precaution of tacking to them a
+      new edition of the Farmer&rsquo;s Letters; like Mezentius, who &lsquo;<i>mortua
+      jungebat corpora vivis</i>.&rsquo; You were of the committee, and can tell me
+      who wrote this petition; and who wrote the Address to the Inhabitants of
+      the Colonies, ib. 45. Of the papers of July 1775, I recollect well that
+      Mr. Dickinson drew the petition to the King, ib. 149; I think Robert R.
+      Livingston drew the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, ib. 152.
+      Am I right in this? And who drew the Address to the People of Ireland, ib.
+      180? On these questions, I ask of your memory to help mine. Ever and
+      affectionately yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0113" id="link2H_4_0113">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIII.&mdash;TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 6, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance;
+      but since the date of my last, I have received from Mr. Law a letter
+      covering a memorial on that subject, which, from its tenor, I conjecture
+      must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. This paper
+      contains two propositions; the one for issuing treasury notes, bearing
+      interest, and to be circulated as money; the other for the establishment
+      of a national bank. The first was considered in my former letter; and the
+      second shall be the subject of the present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank, suppose of thirty
+      millions capital, of which they shall contribute ten millions in new six
+      per cent, stock, the States ten millions, and individuals ten millions,
+      one half of the two last contributions to be of similar stock, for which
+      the parties are to give cash to Congress: the whole, however, to be under
+      the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who are to name
+      all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having any power of
+      interference in its administration. Discounts are to be at five per cent.,
+      but the profits are expected to be seven per cent. Congress then will be
+      paying six per cent, on twenty millions, and receiving seven per cent, on
+      ten millions, being its third of the institution: so that on the ten
+      millions cash which they receive from the States and individuals, they
+      will, in fact, have to pay but five per cent, interest. This is the bait.
+      The charter is proposed to be for forty or fifty years, and if any future
+      augmentations should take place, the individual proprietors are to have
+      the privilege of being the sole subscribers for that. Congress are further
+      allowed to issue to the amount of three millions of notes, bearing
+      interest, which they are to receive back in payment for lands at a premium
+      of five or ten per cent., or as subscriptions for canals, roads, and
+      bridges, in which undertakings they are, of course, to be engaged. This is
+      a summary of the scheme, as I understand it: but it is very possible I may
+      not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made
+      Unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them. The advantages
+      and disadvantages shall be noted promiscuously as they occur; leaving out
+      the speculation of canals, &amp;c. which, being an episode only in the
+      scheme, may be omitted, to disentangle it as much as we can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Congress are to receive five millions from the States (if they will
+      enter into this partnership, which few probably will), and five millions
+      from the individual subscribers, in exchange for ten millions of six per
+      cent, stock, one per cent, of which, however, they will make on their ten
+      millions of stock remaining in bank, and so reduce it, in effect, to a
+      loan of ten millions at five per cent, interest. This is good: but
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. They authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions of
+      dollars, (three times the capital), which increases our circulating medium
+      fifty per cent., depreciates proportionably the present value of the
+      dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same
+      proportion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. This loan of ten millions at five per cent., is to be once for all,
+      only. Neither the terms of the scheme, nor their own prudence could ever
+      permit them to add to the circulation in the same, or any other way, for
+      the supplies of the succeeding years of the war. These succeeding years
+      then are to be left unprovided for, and the means of doing it in a great
+      measure precluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash
+      to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging to
+      Congress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to
+      themselves, say twenty millions, with which, as no one has a right ever to
+      see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time for
+      running away, after adding to their booty the proceeds of as much of their
+      own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. The subscribers may be one, two, or three, or more individuals, (many
+      single individuals being able to pay in the five millions,) whereupon this
+      bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions of
+      dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the
+      influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it
+      will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England herself
+      may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal
+      and sole subscriber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of
+      relief, for forty or fifty years. That is to say, the eight millions of
+      people now existing, for the sake of receiving one dollar and twenty-five
+      cents apiece at five per cent, interest, are to subject the fifty millions
+      of people who are to succeed them within that term, to the payment of
+      forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest, which will be
+      payable in the course of the fifty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. But the great and national advantage is to be the relief of the present
+      scarcity of money, which is produced and proved by,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for the
+      troops, ammunition, he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. By the cash sent to the frontiers, and the vacuum occasioned in the
+      trading towns by that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. By the late loans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. By the necessity of recurring to shavers with good paper, which the
+      existing banks are not able to take up; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. By the numerous applications for bank charters, showing that an
+      increase of circulating medium is wanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of an increase of
+      medium, one by one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+      troops, ammunition, &amp;c. Now I had always supposed that war produced a
+      diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from
+      industrious pursuits, for employment in arms &amp;c. which are totally
+      unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of
+      ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from other
+      branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it is but a
+      shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The cash sent to the frontiers occasions a vacuum in the trading towns,
+      which requires a new supply. Let us examine what are the calls for money
+      to the frontiers. Not for clothing, tents, ammunition, arms, which are all
+      bought in the trading towns. Not for provisions; for although these are
+      bought partly in the intermediate country, bank-bills are more acceptable
+      there than even in the trading towns. The pay of the army calls for some
+      cash; but not a great deal, as bank-notes are as acceptable with the
+      military men, perhaps more so; and what cash is sent must find its way
+      back again, in exchange for the wants of the upper from the lower country.
+      For we are not to suppose that cash stays accumulating there for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. This scarcity has been occasioned by the late loans. But does the
+      government borrow money to keep it in their coffers? Is it not instantly
+      restored to circulation by payment for its necessary supplies? And are we
+      to restore a vacuum of twenty millions of dollars by an emission of ninety
+      millions?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The want of medium is proved by the recurrence of individuals with good
+      paper to brokers at exorbitant interest; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. By the numerous applications to the State governments for additional
+      banks; New York wanting eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions,
+      &amp;c. But say more correctly, the speculators and spendthrifts of New
+      York and Pennsylvania, but never consider them as being the States of New
+      York and Pennsylvania. These two items shall be considered together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than
+      of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and of English
+      writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an evil; and
+      excepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is not a
+      nation existing, I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation. The
+      experiment is going on, however, desperately in England, pretty boldly
+      with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which opinion
+      experience approves: for I believe it to be one of those cases where
+      mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin. In
+      the mean time, however, let us reason on this new call for a national
+      bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the solemn decision of Congress against the renewal of the charter
+      of the bank of the United States, and the grounds of that decision (the
+      want of constitutional power), I had imagined that question at rest, and
+      that no more applications would be made to them for the incorporation of
+      banks. The opposition on that ground to its first establishment, the small
+      majority by which it was overborne, and the means practised for obtaining
+      it, cannot be already forgotten. The law having passed, however, by a
+      majority, its opponents, true to the sacred principle of submission to a
+      majority, suffered the law to flow through its term without obstruction.
+      During this, the nation had time to consider the constitutional question,
+      and when the renewal was proposed, they condemned it, not by their
+      representatives in Congress only, but by express instructions from
+      different organs of their will. Here then we might stop, and consider the
+      memorial as answered. But, setting authority apart, we will examine
+      whether the legislature ought to comply with it, even if they had the
+      power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Proceeding to reason on this subject, some principles must be premised as
+      forming its basis. The adequate price of a thing depends on the capital
+      and labor necessary to produce it. (In the term capital, I mean to include
+      science, because capital as well as labor has been employed to acquire
+      it.) Two things requiring the same capital and labor should be of the same
+      price. If a gallon of wine requires for its production the same capital
+      and labor with a bushel of wheat, they should be expressed by the same
+      price, derived from the application of a common measure to them. The
+      comparative prices of things being thus to be estimated, and expressed by
+      a common measure, we may proceed to observe, that were a country so
+      insulated as to have no commercial intercourse with any other, to confine
+      the interchange of all its wants and supplies within itself, the amount of
+      circulating medium, as a common measure for adjusting these exchanges,
+      would be quite immaterial. If their circulation, for instance, were of a
+      million of dollars, and the annual produce of their industry equivalent to
+      ten millions of bushels of wheat, the price of a bushel of wheat might be
+      one dollar. If, then, by a progressive coinage, their medium should be
+      doubled, the price of a bushel of wheat might become progressively two
+      dollars, and without, inconvenience. Whatever be the proportion of the
+      circulating medium to the value of the annual produce of industry, it may
+      be considered as the representative of that industry. In the first case, a
+      bushel of wheat will be represented by one dollar; in the second, by two
+      dollars. This is well explained by Hume, and seems admitted by Adam Smith,
+      (B. 2. c. 2. 436, 441, 490.) But where a nation is in a full course of
+      interchange of wants and supplies with all others, the proportion of its
+      medium to its produce is no longer indifferent, (lb. 441.) To trade on
+      equal terms, the common measure of values should be as nearly as possible
+      on a par with that of its corresponding nations, whose medium is in a
+      sound state; that is to say, not in an accidental state of excess or
+      deficiency. Now, one of the great advantages of specie as a medium is,
+      that being of universal value, it will keep itself at a general level,
+      flowing out from where it is too high into parts where it is lower.
+      Whereas, if the medium be of local value only, as paper-money, if too
+      little, indeed, gold and silver will flow in to supply the deficiency; but
+      if too much, it accumulates, banishes the gold and silver not locked up in
+      vaults and hoards, and depreciates itself; that is to say, its proportion
+      to the annual produce of industry being raised, more of it is required to
+      represent any particular article of produce than in the other countries.
+      This is agreed by Smith (B. 2. c. 2. 437.), the principal advocate for a
+      paper circulation; but advocating it on the sole condition that it be
+      strictly regulated. He admits, nevertheless, that &lsquo;the commerce and
+      industry of a country cannot be so secure when suspended on the Daedalian
+      wings of paper-money, as on the solid ground of gold and silver; and that
+      in time of war the insecurity is greatly increased, and great confusion
+      possible where the circulation is for the greater part in paper.&lsquo;(B. 2. c.
+      2. 484.) But in a country where loans are uncertain, and a specie
+      circulation the only sure resource for them, the preference of that
+      circulation assumes a far different degree of importance, as is explained
+      in my former letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only advantage which Smith proposes by substituting paper in the room
+      of gold and silver money (B. 2. c. 2. 434.), is, &lsquo;to replace an expensive
+      instrument with one much less costly, and sometimes equally convenient&rsquo;;
+      that is to say, (page 437,) to allow the gold and silver to be sent abroad
+      and converted into foreign goods,&rsquo; and to substitute paper as being a
+      cheaper measure. But this makes no addition to the stock or capital of the
+      nation. The coin sent out was worth as much, while in the country, as the
+      goods imported and taking its place. It is only, then, a change of form in
+      a part of the national capital, from that of gold and silver to other
+      goods. He admits, too, that while a part of the goods received in exchange
+      for the coin exported, may be materials, tools, and provisions for the
+      employment of an additional industry, a part also may be taken back in
+      foreign wines, silks, &amp;c. to be consumed by idle people who produce
+      nothing; and so far the substitution promotes prodigality, increases
+      expense and consumption, without increasing production. So far also, then,
+      it lessens the capital of the nation. What may be the amount which the
+      conversion of the part exchanged for productive goods, may add to the
+      former productive mass, it is not easy to ascertain, because, as he says,
+      (page 441,) &lsquo;It is impossible to determine what is the proportion which
+      the circulating money of any country bears to the whole value of the
+      annual produce. It has been computed by different authors, from a fifth*
+      to a thirtieth of that value.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The real cash or money necessary to carry on the
+     circulation and barter of a State, is nearly one third part
+     of all the annual rents of the proprietors of the said
+     State; that is, one ninth of the whole produce of the land.
+     Sir William Petty supposes one tenth part of the value of
+     the whole produce sufficient. Postlethwayt, <i>voce</i>, Cash.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the United States it must be less than in any other part of the
+      commercial world; because the great mass of their inhabitants being in
+      responsible circumstances, the great mass of their exchanges in the
+      country is effected on credit, in their merchant&rsquo;s ledger, who supplies
+      all their wants through the year, and at the end of it receives the
+      produce of their farms, or other articles of their industry. It is a fact,
+      that a farmer, with a revenue of ten thousand dollars a year, may obtain
+      all his supplies from his merchant, and liquidate them at the end of the
+      year, by the sale of his produce to him, without the intervention of a
+      single dollar of cash. This, then, is merely barter, and in this way of
+      barter a great portion of the annual produce of the United States is
+      exchanged without the intermediation of cash. We might safely, then, state
+      our medium at the minimum of one thirtieth. But what is one thirtieth of
+      the value of the annual produce of the industry of the United States? Or
+      what is the whole value of the annual produce of the United States? An
+      able writer and competent judge of the subject, in 1799, on as good
+      grounds as probably could be taken, estimated it, on the then population
+      of four and a half millions of inhabitants, to be thirty-seven and a half
+      millions sterling, or one hundred and sixty-eight and three fourths
+      millions of dollars. See Cooper&rsquo;s Political Arithmetic, page 47. According
+      to the same estimate, for our present population it will be three hundred
+      millions of dollars, one thirtieth of which, Smith&rsquo;s minimum, would be ten
+      millions, and one fifth, his maximum, would be sixty millions for the
+      quantum of circulation. But suppose, that, instead of our needing the
+      least circulating medium of any nation, from the circumstance before
+      mentioned, we should place ourselves in the middle term of the
+      calculation, to wit, at thirty-five millions. One fifth of this, at the
+      least, Smith thinks should be retained in specie, which would leave
+      twenty-eight millions of specie to be exported in exchange for other
+      commodities; and if fifteen millions of that should be returned in
+      productive goods, and not in articles of prodigality, that would be the
+      amount of capital which this operation would add to the existing mass. But
+      to what mass? Not that of the three hundred millions, which is only its
+      gross annual produce; but to that capital of which the three hundred
+      millions are but the annual produce. But this being gross, we may infer
+      from it the value of the capital by considering that the rent of lands is
+      generally fixed at one third of the gross produce, and is deemed its nett
+      profit, and twenty times that its fee simple value. The profits on landed
+      capital may, with accuracy enough for our purpose, be supposed on a par
+      with those of other capital. This would give us then for the United
+      States, a capital of two thousand millions, all in active employment, and
+      exclusive of unimproved lands lying in a great degree dormant. Of this,
+      fifteen millions would be the hundred and thirty-third part. And it is for
+      this petty addition to the capital of the nation, this minimum of one
+      dollar, added to one hundred and thirty-three and a third, or three
+      fourths per cent., that we are to give up our gold and silver medium, its
+      intrinsic solidity, its universal value, and its saving powers in time of
+      war, and to substitute for it paper, with all its train of evils, moral,
+      political, and physical, which I will not pretend to enumerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another authority to which we may appeal for the proper quantity
+      of circulating medium for the United States. The old Congress, when we
+      were estimated at about two millions of people, on a long and able
+      discussion, June the 22nd, 1775, decided the sufficient quantity to be two
+      millions of dollars, which sum they then emitted.* According to this, it
+      should be eight millions, now that we are eight millions of people. This
+      differs little from Smith&rsquo;s minimum of ten millions, and strengthens our
+      respect for that estimate.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Within five months after this they were compelled, by the
+     necessities of the war, to abandon the idea of emitting only
+     an adequate circulation, and to make those necessities the
+     sole measure of their emissions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is, indeed, a convenience in paper; its easy transmission from one
+      place to another. But this may be mainly supplied by bills of exchange, so
+      as to prevent any great displacement of actual coin. Two places trading
+      together balance their dealings, for the most part, by their mutual
+      supplies, and the debtor individuals of either may, instead of cash, remit
+      the bills of those who are creditors in the same dealings; or may obtain
+      them through some third place with which both have dealings. The cases
+      would be rare where such bills could not be obtained, either directly or
+      circuitously, and too unimportant to the nation to overweigh the train of
+      evils flowing from paper circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From eight to thirty-five millions then being our proper circulation, and
+      two hundred millions the actual one, the memorial proposes to issue ninety
+      millions more, because, it says, a great scarcity of money is proved by
+      the numerous applications for banks; to wit, New York for eighteen
+      millions, Pennsylvania ten millions, &amp;c. The answer to this shall be
+      quoted, from Adam Smith (B. 2, c. 2, page 462), where speaking of the
+      complaints of the traders against the Scotch bankers, who had already gone
+      too far in their issues of paper, he says, &lsquo;Those traders and other
+      undertakers having got so much assistance from banks, wished to get still
+      more. The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend their credits to
+      whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any other expense besides
+      that of a few reams of paper. They complained of the contracted views and
+      dastardly spirit of the directors of those banks, which did not, they
+      said, extend their credits in proportion to the extension of the trade of
+      the country; meaning, no doubt, by the extension of that trade, the
+      extension of their own projects beyond what they could carry on, either
+      with their own capital, or with what they had credit to borrow of private
+      people in the usual way of bond or mortgage. The banks, they seem to have
+      thought, were in honor bound to supply the deficiency, and to provide them
+      with all the capital which they wanted to trade with.&rsquo; And again (page
+      470): &lsquo;When bankers discovered that certain projectors were trading, not
+      with any capital of their own, but with that which they advanced them,
+      they endeavored to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and
+      greater difficulties about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and
+      enraged in the highest degree those projectors. Their own distress, of
+      which this prudent and necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the
+      immediate occasion, they called the distress of the country; and this
+      distress of the country, they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance,
+      pusillanimity, and bad conduct of the banks, which did not give a
+      sufficiently liberal aid to the spirited undertakings of those who exerted
+      themselves in order to beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was
+      the duty of the banks, they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time,
+      and to as great an extent, as they might wish to borrow.&rsquo; It is, probably,
+      the good paper of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks
+      being unable to discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the
+      risk of this good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal
+      interest, to the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had
+      rather try trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other
+      laborious calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) &lsquo;That the industry of
+      Scotland languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the
+      famous Mr. Law. By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which he
+      seems to have imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value
+      of all the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money.
+      It was afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the Duke of Orleans,
+      at that time Regent of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying
+      paper to almost any extent, was the real foundation of what is called the
+      Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project both of banking and
+      stockjobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw. The principles upon which
+      it was founded are explained by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse concerning
+      money and trade, which he published in Scotland when he first proposed his
+      project. The splendid but visionary ideas which are set forth in that and
+      some other works upon the same principles, still continue to make an
+      impression upon many people, and have perhaps, in part, contributed to
+      that excess of banking which has of late been complained of both in
+      Scotland and in other places.&rsquo; The Mississippi scheme, it is well known,
+      ended in France in the bankruptcy of the public treasury, the crush of
+      thousands and thousands of private fortunes, and scenes of desolation and
+      distress equal to those of an invading army, burning and laying waste all
+      before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about &lsquo;a
+      public debt being a public blessing&rsquo;; that the stock representing it was a
+      creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures, and
+      agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in
+      dreams, and the gulls of that size entered <i>bonâ fide</i> into it. But
+      the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It is
+      established on the principle, that &lsquo;private debts are a public blessing;&rsquo;
+      that the evidences of those private debts, called bank-notes, become
+      active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures, and
+      agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for instance,
+      who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our debt about
+      two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they are, where
+      they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when called on; nay,
+      who have made us so sensible of the blessings of letting them run in our
+      debt, that we have exempted them by law from the repayment of these debts
+      beyond a given proportion, (generally estimated at one third.) And to fill
+      up the measure of blessing, instead of paying, they receive an interest on
+      what they owe from those to whom they owe; for all the notes, or evidences
+      of what they owe, which we see in circulation, have been lent to somebody
+      on an interest which is levied again on us through the medium of commerce.
+      And they are so ready still to deal out their liberalities to us, that
+      they are now willing to let themselves run in our debt ninety millions
+      more, on our paying them the same premium of six or eight per cent,
+      interest, and on the same legal exemption from the repayment of more than
+      thirty millions of the debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look
+      at this principle in its original form, and its copy will then be equally
+      understood. &lsquo;A public debt is a public blessing.&rsquo; That our debt was
+      juggled from forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount,
+      according to this opinion, was a great public blessing, because the
+      evidences of it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into
+      active capital, and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active
+      capital was created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in
+      commerce the money due them from the public, and make from it an annual
+      profit of five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that
+      the public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the
+      same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to either
+      party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in the state
+      of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from the public,
+      of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on which he is
+      receiving an annual interest. He wishes, however, to have the money
+      itself, and to go into business with it. B has an equal sum of money in
+      business, but wishes now to retire, and live on the interest. He therefore
+      gives it to A, in exchange for A&rsquo;s certificates of public stock. Now,
+      then, A has the money to employ in business, which B so employed before. B
+      has the money on interest to live on, which A lived on before: and the
+      public pays the interest to B, which they paid to A before. Here is no new
+      creation of capital, no additional money employed, nor even a change in
+      the employment of a single dollar. The only change is of place between A
+      and B, in which we discover no creation of capital, nor public blessing.
+      Suppose, again, the public to owe nothing. Then A not having lent his
+      money to the public, would be in possession of it himself, and would go
+      into business without the previous operation of selling stock. Here again,
+      the same quantity of capital is employed as in the former case, though no
+      public debt exists. In neither case is there any creation of active
+      capital, nor other difference than that there is a public debt in the
+      first case, and none in the last; and we may safely ask which of the two
+      situations is most truly a public blessing? If, then, a public debt be no
+      public blessing, we may pronounce <i>a fortiori</i>, that a private one
+      cannot be so. If the debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to
+      any body, it is to themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of
+      eight or ten per cent, on it. As to the public, these companies have
+      banished all our gold and silver medium, which, before their institution,
+      we had without interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and
+      would have been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of which,
+      they have given us two hundred millions of froth and bubble, on which we
+      are to pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air, as
+      Morris&rsquo;s notes did. We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody
+      on the principle of &lsquo;a public debt being a public blessing,&rsquo; and its
+      mutation into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as
+      ridiculous as the original principle itself. In both cases, the truth is,
+      that capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy: but
+      jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with paper.
+      I have called the actual circulation of bank paper in the United States,
+      two hundred millions of dollars. I do not recollect where I have seen this
+      estimate; but I retain the impression that I thought it just at the time.
+      It may be tested, however, by a list of the banks now in the United
+      States, and the amount of their capital. I have no means of recurring to
+      such a list for the present day: but I turn to two lists in my possession
+      for the years of 1803 and 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1803, there were thirty-four banks, whose capital was $28,902,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1804, there were sixty-six, consequently thirty-two additional ones.
+      Their capital is not stated, but at the average of the others (excluding
+      the highest, that of the United States, which was of ten millions) they
+      would be of six hundred thousand dollars each, and add.........19,200,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a total of........ $48,102,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      or say, of fifty millions in round numbers. Now every one knows the
+      immense multiplication of these institutions since 1804. If they have only
+      doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if trebled, as
+      I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty millions, on which
+      they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount. I should sooner,
+      therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below than above the
+      actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary document, (see
+      Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other public papers of about
+      that date) it appears that six years ago, the bank of England had twelve
+      millions of pounds sterling in circulation, which had increased to
+      forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and eighty-nine millions of
+      dollars. What proportion all the other banks may add to this, I do not
+      know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal it, this would give a
+      circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight millions, or the double of
+      ours on a double population. But that nation is essentially commercial,
+      ours essentially agricultural, and needing, therefore, less circulating
+      medium, because the produce of the husbandman comes but once a year, and
+      is then partly consumed at home, partly exchanged by barter. The dollar,
+      which was of four shillings and six pence sterling, was, by the same
+      document, stated to be then six shillings and nine pence, a depreciation
+      of exactly fifty per cent. The average price of wheat on the continent of
+      Europe, at the commencement of its present war with England, was about a
+      French crown, of one hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it was one
+      hundred cents, and consequently we could send it there in competition with
+      their own. That ordinary price has now doubled with us, and more than
+      doubled in England; and although a part of this augmentation may proceed
+      from the war demand, yet from the extraordinary nominal rise in the prices
+      of land and labor here, both of which have nearly doubled in that period,
+      and are still rising with every new bank, it is evident that were a
+      general peace to take place to-morrow, and time allowed for the
+      re-establishment of commerce, justice, and order, we could not afford to
+      raise wheat for much less than two dollars, while the continent of Europe,
+      having no paper circulation, and that of its specie not being augmented,
+      would raise it at their former price of one hundred and ten cents. It
+      follows, then, that with our redundancy of paper, we cannot, after peace,
+      send a bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary circumstances
+      double its price in particular places, and that then the exporting
+      countries of Europe could undersell us. It is said our paper is as good as
+      silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues.
+      This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it: but a general
+      application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous
+      proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form. It is a
+      fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants of the banking
+      cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of the vaults
+      would hold out; but distance puts it out of the power of the country to do
+      this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston bank, distant
+      hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash. And while these
+      calls are impracticable for the country, the banks have no fear of their
+      being made from the towns; because their inhabitants are mostly on their
+      books, and there on sufferance only and during good behavior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this state of things, we are called on to add ninety millions more to
+      the circulation. Proceeding in this career, it is infallible, that we must
+      end where the revolutionary paper ended. Two hundred millions was the
+      whole amount of all the emissions of the old Congress, at which point
+      their bills ceased to circulate. We are now at that sum; but with treble
+      the population, and of course a longer tether. Our depreciation is, as
+      yet, but at about two for one. Owing to the support its credit receives
+      from the small reservoirs of specie in the vaults of the banks, it is
+      impossible to say at what point their notes will stop. Nothing is
+      necessary to effect it but a general alarm; and that may take place
+      whenever the public shall begin to reflect on, and perceive, the
+      impossibility that the banks should repay this sum. At present, caution is
+      inspired no farther than to keep prudent men from selling property on long
+      payments. Let us suppose the panic to arise at three hundred millions, a
+      point to which every session of the legislatures hastens us by long
+      strides. Nobody dreams that they would have three hundred millions of
+      specie to satisfy the holders of their notes. Were they even to stop now,
+      no one supposes they have two hundred millions in cash, or even the
+      sixty-six and two-thirds millions, to which amount alone the law obliges
+      them to repay. One hundred and thirty-three and one-third millions of
+      loss, then, is thrown on the public by law; and as to the sixty-six and
+      two-thirds, which they are legally bound to pay, and ought to have in
+      their vaults, every one knows there is no such amount of cash in the
+      United States, and what would be the course with what they really have
+      there? Their notes are refused. Cash is called for. The inhabitants of the
+      banking towns will get what is in the vaults, until a few banks declare
+      their insolvency; when, the general crush becoming evident, the others
+      will withdraw even the cash they have, declare their bankruptcy at once,
+      and leave an empty house and empty coffers for the holders of their notes.
+      In this scramble of creditors, the country gets nothing, the towns but
+      little. What are they to do? Bring suits? A million of creditors bring a
+      million of suits against John Nokes and Robert Styles, wheresoever to be
+      found? All nonsense. The loss is total. And a sum is thus swindled from
+      our citizens, of seven times the amount of the real debt, and four times
+      that of the factitious one of the United States, at the close of the war.
+      All this they will justly charge on their legislatures; but this will be
+      poor satisfaction for the two or three hundred millions they will have
+      lost. It is time, then, for the public functionaries to look to this.
+      Perhaps it may not be too late. Perhaps, by giving time to the banks, they
+      may call in and pay off their paper by degrees. But no remedy is ever to
+      be expected while it rests with the State legislatures. Personal motives
+      can be excited through so many avenues to their will, that, in their
+      hands, it will continue to go on from bad to worse, until the catastrophe
+      overwhelms us. I still believe, however, that on proper representations of
+      the subject, a great proportion of these legislatures would cede to
+      Congress their power of establishing banks, saving the charter rights
+      already granted. And this should be asked, not by way of amendment to the
+      constitution, because until three fourths should consent, nothing could be
+      done; but accepted from them one by one, singly, as their consent might be
+      obtained. Any single State, even if no other should come into the measure,
+      would find its interest in arresting foreign bank-paper immediately, and
+      its own by degrees. Specie would flow in on them as paper disappeared.
+      Their own banks would call in and pay off their notes gradually, and their
+      constituents would thus be saved from the general wreck. Should the
+      greater part of the States concede, as is expected, their power over banks
+      to Congress, besides insuring their own safety, the paper of the
+      non-conceding States might be so checked and circumscribed, by prohibiting
+      its receipt in any of the conceding States, and even in the non-conceding
+      as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other demands of the United States, or
+      of the citizens of other States, that it would soon die of itself, and the
+      medium of gold and silver be universally restored. This is what ought to
+      be done. But it will not be done. <i>Carthago non delebitur</i>. The
+      overbearing clamor of merchants, speculators, and projectors, will drive
+      us before them with our eyes open, until, as in France, under the
+      Mississippi bubble, our citizens will be overtaken by the crash of this
+      baseless fabric, without other satisfaction than that of execrations on
+      the heads of those functionaries, who, from ignorance, pusillanimity, or
+      corruption, have betrayed the fruits of their industry into the hands of
+      projectors and swindlers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I speak comparatively of the paper emissions of the old Congress and
+      the present banks, let it not be imagined that I cover them under the same
+      mantle. The object of the former was a holy one; for if ever there was a
+      holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.
+      The object of the latter, is to enrich swindlers at the expense of the
+      honest and industrious part of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum of what has been said is, that pretermitting the constitutional
+      question on the authority of Congress, and considering this application on
+      the grounds of reason alone, it would be best that our medium should be so
+      proportioned to our produce, as to be on a par with that of the countries
+      with which we trade, and whose medium is in a sound state: that specie is
+      the most perfect medium, because it will preserve its own level; because,
+      having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and
+      it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war: that the trifling
+      economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for
+      transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the
+      precious metals: that it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and for
+      ever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted; that it is
+      already at a term of abuse in these States, which has never been reached
+      by any other nation, France excepted, whose dreadful catastrophe should be
+      a warning against the instrument which produced it: that we are already at
+      ten or twenty times the due quantity of medium; insomuch, that no man
+      knows what his property is now worth, because it is bloating while he is
+      calculating; and still less what it will be worth when the medium shall be
+      relieved from its present dropsical state: and that it is a palpable
+      falsehood to say we can have specie for our paper whenever demanded.
+      Instead, then, of yielding to the cries of scarcity of medium set up by
+      speculators, projectors, and commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be
+      spared to begin the work of reducing it by such gradual means as may give
+      time to private fortunes to preserve their poise, and settle down with the
+      subsiding medium; and that, for this purpose, the States should be urged
+      to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights,
+      the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the existence of banks of discount for cash, as on the continent of
+      Europe, there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of
+      abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals. I
+      think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than
+      legal, interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion as
+      the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those of a
+      year or more. Even banks of deposite, where cash should be lodged, and a
+      paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled to a return
+      of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances, travelling
+      persons, he. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered and robbed,
+      and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued without deposite, it
+      would require skilful and strict regulation. This would differ from the
+      bank of Amsterdam, in the circumstance that the cash could be re-demanded
+      on returning the note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I commenced this letter to you, my dear Sir, on Mr. Law&rsquo;s memorial, I
+      expected a short one would have answered that. But as I advanced, the
+      subject branched itself before me into so many collateral questions, that
+      even the rapid views I have taken of each have swelled the volume of my
+      letter beyond my expectations, and, I fear, beyond your patience. Yet on a
+      revisal of it, I find no part which has not so much bearing on the subject
+      as to be worth merely the time of perusal. I leave it then as it is; and
+      will add only the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0114" id="link2H_4_0114">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 13, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 13, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since mine of August the 22nd, I have received your favors of August the
+      16th, September the 2nd, 14th, 15th, and, and Mrs. Adams&rsquo;s, of September
+      the 20th. I now send you, according to your request, a copy of the
+      syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with nerves,
+      muscles, and flesh, is really beyond my time and information. Whoever
+      could undertake it, would find great aid in Enfield&rsquo;s judicious abridgment
+      of Brucker&rsquo;s History of Philosophy, in which he has reduced five or six
+      quarto volumes, of one thousand pages each of Latin closely printed, to
+      two moderate octavos of English open type.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To compare the morals of the Old, with those of the New Testament, would
+      require an attentive study of the former, a search through all its books
+      for its precepts, and through all its history for its practices, and the
+      principles they prove. As commentaries, too, on these, the philosophy of
+      the Hebrews must be inquired into, their Mishna, their Gemara, Cabbala,
+      Jezirah, Sonar, Cosri, and their Talmud, must be examined and understood,
+      in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it would seem, has gone deeply
+      into these repositories of their ethics, and Enfield his epitomizer,
+      concludes in these words. &lsquo;Ethics were so little understood among the
+      Jews, that, in their whole compilation called the Talmud, there is only
+      one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of morals chiefly consisted in
+      a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of Moses were deduced six
+      hundred and thirteen precepts, which were divided into two classes,
+      affirmative and negative, two hundred and forty-eight in the former, and
+      three hundred and sixty-five in the latter. It may serve to give the
+      reader some idea of the low state of moral philosophy among the Jews in
+      the middle age, to add, that of the two hundred and forty-eight
+      affirmative precepts, only three were considered as obligatory upon women;
+      and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was judged sufficient to fulfil
+      any one single law in the hour of death; the observance of the rest being
+      deemed necessary, only to increase the felicity of the future life. What a
+      wretched depravity of sentiment and manners must have prevailed, before
+      such corrupt maxims could have obtained credit! It is impossible to
+      collect from these writings a consistent series of moral doctrine.
+      (Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.) It was the reformation of this wretched
+      depravity of morals which Jesus undertook. In extracting the pure
+      principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial
+      vestments in which they have been muffled by priests who have travestied
+      them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves.
+      We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and
+      Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences
+      and emanations, their Logos and Demiurgos, Æons, and Daemons, male and
+      female, with a long train of &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c. or, shall I say at
+      once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists,
+      select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the
+      amphiboligisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not
+      understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own
+      misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what
+      they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most
+      sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.
+      I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse
+      out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his,
+      and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds, in a dunghill. The
+      result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated
+      doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the unlettered Apostles,
+      the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians, of the first century. Their
+      Platonizing successors, indeed, in after times, in order to legitimate the
+      corruptions which they had incorporated into the doctrines of Jesus, found
+      it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken their
+      principles from the mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, and the
+      Fathers cotemporary with them. They excommunicated their followers as
+      heretics, branding them with the opprobrious name of Ebionites and
+      Beggars. For a comparison of the Grecian philosophy with that of Jesus,
+      materials might be largely drawn from the same source. Enfield gives a
+      history and detailed account of the opinions and principles of the
+      different sects. These relate to the Gods, their natures, grades, places,
+      and powers; the demi-Gods and Demons, and their agency with man; the
+      universe, its structure, extent, and duration; the origin of things from
+      the elements of fire, water, air, and earth; the human soul, its essence
+      and derivation; the <i>summum bonum</i>, and <i>finis bonorum</i>; with a
+      thousand idle dreams and fancies on these and other subjects, the
+      knowledge of which is withheld from man; leaving but a short chapter for
+      his moral duties, and the principal section of that given to what he owes
+      himself, to precepts for rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the
+      evils of life, and for preserving his mind in a state of constant
+      serenity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a canvass is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of one
+      whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life. We
+      must leave, therefore, to others, younger and more learned than we are, to
+      prepare this euthanasia for Platonic Christianity, and its restoration to
+      the primitive simplicity of its founder. I think you give a just outline
+      of the theism of the three religions, when you say that the principle of
+      the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and of the Christian
+      the love of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression in your letter of September the 14th, that &lsquo;the human
+      understanding is a revelation from its maker,&rsquo; gives the best solution
+      that I believe can be given of the question, &lsquo;What did Socrates mean by
+      his Daemon?&rsquo; He was too wise to believe, and too honest to pretend, that
+      he had real and familiar converse with a superior and invisible being. He
+      probably considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason, as
+      revelations, or inspirations from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on important
+      occasions, by a special superintending providence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I acknowledge all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which you
+      ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct imagination
+      can permit itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being so
+      superlative, the hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be followed
+      with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation in giving
+      him the palm over all the hymnists of every language, and of every time.
+      Turn to the 148th psalm in Brady and Tate&rsquo;s version. Have such conceptions
+      been ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th psalm is more to be
+      esteemed for its pithiness than its poetry. Even Sternhold, the leaden
+      Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the sublimity of his
+      original, and expresses the majesty of God descending on the earth, in
+      terms not unworthy of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page225.jpg" alt="Page225 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are but
+      mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian dissenters
+      of Liverpool, in their printed form of prayer; but they are not always the
+      best versions. Indeed, bad is the best of the English versions; not a ray
+      of poetical genius having ever been employed on them. And how much depends
+      on this, may be seen by comparing Brady and Tate&rsquo;s 15th psalm with
+      Blacklock&rsquo;s <i>Justum et tenacem propositi virum</i> of Horace, quoted in
+      Hume&rsquo;s History, Car. 2. ch. 66. A translation of David in this style, or
+      in that of Pompei&rsquo;s Cleanthes, might give us some idea of the merit of the
+      original. The character, too, of the poetry of these hymns is singular to
+      us; written in monostichs, each divided into strophe and antistrophe, the
+      sentiment of the first member responded with amplification or antithesis
+      in the second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of the Postscript of yours of August the 16th and of Mrs.
+      Adams&rsquo;s letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has
+      caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there is
+      no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us, which
+      experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time and
+      silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can suppress,
+      the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings up, until
+      recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever affectionately
+      yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0115" id="link2H_4_0115">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 28, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the subjects
+      of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of August the 16th
+      and September the 2nd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than a
+      political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page226.jpg" alt="Page226 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who, while
+      with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by employing
+      always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement of his own
+      race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the old, for
+      considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with the
+      principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by Ocellus
+      in another form;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus translated;
+      &lsquo;Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it shall be, in
+      a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and sanctity,
+      conjointly, this is what I think right. First, to lay it down that we do
+      not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation of children.
+      For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have not been given by
+      God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the procreation of the race.
+      For as it were incongruous for a mortal born to partake of divine life,
+      the immortality of the race being taken away, God fulfilled the purpose by
+      making the generations uninterrupted and continuous. This, therefore, we
+      are especially to lay down as a principle, that coition is not for the
+      sake of pleasure.&rsquo; But nature, not trusting to this moral and abstract
+      motive, seems to have provided more securely for the perpetuation of the
+      species, by making it the effect of the <i>oestrum</i> implanted in the
+      constitution of both sexes. And not only has the commerce of love been
+      indulged on this unhallowed impulse, but made subservient also to wealth
+      and ambition by marriages, without regard to the beauty, the healthiness,
+      the understanding, or virtue of the subject from which we are to breed.
+      The selecting the best male for a Haram of well chosen females, also,
+      which Theognis seems to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses,
+      would doubtless improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and
+      produce a race of veritable<a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a><img alt="page227 (1K)" src="images/page227.jpg"
+       height="21" width="65" />   </p>
+    <p>
+      For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
+      whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father to
+      son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against this
+      privileged Solomon and his Haram, and oblige us to continue acquiescence
+      under the<a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <img alt="page227a (2K)" src="images/page227a.jpg"
+       height="23" width="209" /> which Theognis complains of, and to content
+      ourselves with the accidental <i>aristoi</i> produced by the fortuitous
+      concourse of breeders. For I agree with you, that there is a natural
+      aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
+      Formerly, bodily powers gave place among the <i>aristoi</i>. But since the
+      invention of gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with
+      missile death, bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness, and
+      other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction.
+      There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth,
+      without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the
+      first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift
+      of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society.
+      And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed
+      man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom
+      enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say, that
+      that form of government is the best, which provides the most effectually
+      for a pure selection of these natural <i>aristoi</i> into the offices of
+      government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in
+      government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy. On the
+      question, what is the best provision, you and I differ; but we differ as
+      rational friends, using the free exercise of our own reason, and mutually
+      indulging its errors. You think it best to put the pseudo-aristoi into a
+      separate chamber of legislation, where they may be hindered from doing
+      mischief by their co-ordinate branches, and where, also, they may be a
+      protection to wealth against the Agrarian and plundering enterprises of
+      the majority of the people. I think that to give them power in order to
+      prevent them from doing mischief, is arming them for it, and increasing
+      instead of remedying the evil. For if the co-ordinate branches can arrest
+      their action, so may they that of the co-ordinates. Mischief may be done
+      negatively as well as positively. Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the
+      United States has furnished many proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary
+      to protect the wealthy; because enough of these will find their way into
+      every branch of the legislation, to protect themselves. From fifteen to
+      twenty legislatures of our own, in action for thirty years past, have
+      proved that no fears of an equalization of property are to be apprehended
+      from them. I think the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our
+      constitutions, to leave to the citizens the free election and separation
+      of the <i>aristoi</i> from the <i>pseudo-aristoi</i>, of the wheat from
+      the chaff. In general, they will elect the really good and wise. In some
+      instances, wealth may corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient
+      degree to endanger the society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that our difference of opinion may, in some measure, be
+      produced by a difference of character in those among whom we live. From
+      what I have seen of Massachusetts and Connecticut myself, and still more
+      from what I have heard, and the character given of the former by yourself,
+      (Vol. I, page 111,) who know them so much better, there seems to be in
+      those two States a traditionary reverence for certain families, which has
+      rendered the offices of government nearly hereditary in those families. I
+      presume that from an early period of your history, members of these
+      families happening to possess virtue and talents, have honestly exercised
+      them for the good of the people, and by their services have endeared their
+      names to them. In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean it politically
+      only, not morally. For having made the Bible the common law of their land,
+      they seem to have modeled their morality on the story of Jacob and Laban.
+      But although this hereditary succession to office with you may, in some
+      degree, be founded in real family merit, yet in a much higher degree, it
+      has proceeded from your strict alliance of Church and State. These
+      families are canonized in the eyes of the people on the common principle,
+      &lsquo;You tickle me, and I will tickle you.&rsquo; In Virginia, we have nothing of
+      this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having been secured against
+      rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give themselves the trouble of
+      acquiring influence over the people. Of wealth, there were great
+      accumulations in particular families, handed down from generation to
+      generation, under the English law of entails. But the only object of
+      ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the King&rsquo;s Council. All their court
+      then was paid to the crown and its creatures; and they Philipized in all
+      collisions between the King and the people. Hence they were unpopular; and
+      that unpopularity continues attached to their names. A Randolph, a Carter,
+      or a Burwell must have great personal superiority over a common
+      competitor, to be elected by the people, even at this day. At the first
+      session of our legislature after the Declaration of Independence, we
+      passed a law abolishing entails. And this was followed by one abolishing
+      the privilege of primogeniture, and dividing the lands of intestates
+      equally among all their children, or other representatives. These laws,
+      drawn by myself, laid the axe to the root of pseudo-aristocracy. And had
+      another which I prepared been adopted by the legislature, our work would
+      have been complete. It was a bill for the more general diffusion of
+      learning. This proposed to divide every county into wards of five or six
+      miles square, like your townships; to establish in each ward a free school
+      for reading, writing, and common arithmetic; to provide for the annual
+      selection of the best subjects from these schools, who might receive, at
+      the public expense, a higher degree of education at a district school; and
+      from these district schools to select a certain number of the most
+      promising subjects, to be completed at an University, where all the useful
+      sciences should be taught. Worth and genius would thus have been sought
+      out from every condition of life, and completely prepared by education for
+      defeating the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts. My
+      proposition had, for a further object, to impart to these wards those
+      portions of self-government for which they are best qualified, by
+      confiding to them the care of their poor, their roads, police, elections,
+      the nomination of jurors, administration of justice in small cases,
+      elementary exercises of militia; in short, to have made them little
+      republics, with a warden at the head of each, for all those concerns
+      which, being under their eye, they would better manage than the larger
+      republics of the county or State. A general call of ward-meetings by their
+      wardens on the same day through the State, would at any time produce the
+      genuine sense of the people on any required point, and would enable the
+      State to act in mass, as your people have so often done, and with so much
+      effect, by their town-meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made
+      a part of this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and
+      restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails and
+      descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on education
+      would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground of moral
+      respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly government;
+      and would have completed the great object of qualifying them to select the
+      veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, to the exclusion of the
+      pseudalists: and the same Theognis, who has furnished the epigraphs of
+      your two letters, assures us that<a name="linkimage-0015"
+       id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <img alt="page229 (4K)" src="images/page229.jpg"
+       height="24" width="395" /> Although this law has not yet been acted on but
+      in a small and inefficient degree, it is still considered as before the
+      legislature, with other bills of the revised code, not yet taken up, and I
+      have great hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment,
+      call it up, and make it the key-stone of the arch of our government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to aristocracy, we should further consider, that before the
+      establishment of the American States, nothing was known to history but the
+      man of the old world, crowded within limits either small or overcharged,
+      and steeped in the vices which that situation generates. A government
+      adapted to such men would be one thing; but a very different one, that for
+      the man of these States. Here every one may have land to labor for
+      himself, if he chooses; or, preferring the exercise of any other industry,
+      may exact for it such compensation as not only to afford a comfortable
+      subsistence, but wherewith to provide for a cessation from labor in old
+      age. Every one, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is
+      interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and
+      advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public
+      affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of
+      the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and
+      destruction of every thing public and private. The history of the last
+      twenty-five years of France, and of the last forty years in America, nay,
+      of its last two hundred years, proves the truth of both parts of this
+      observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man.
+      Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the
+      American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
+      insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents, and courage,
+      against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed in
+      its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for
+      its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be
+      restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic
+      of this first catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents and
+      enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of the country, a
+      more governable power from their principles and subordination; and rank
+      and birth and tinsel-aristocracy will finally shrink into insignificance,
+      even there. This, however, we have no right to meddle with. It suffices
+      for us, if the moral and physical condition of our own citizens qualifies
+      them to select the able and good for the direction of their government,
+      with a recurrence of elections at such short periods as will enable them
+      to displace an unfaithful servant, before the mischief he meditates may be
+      irremediable, I have thus stated my opinion on a point on which we differ,
+      not with a view to controversy, for we are both too old to change opinions
+      which are the result of a long life of inquiry and reflection; but on the
+      suggestion of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to die before we
+      have explained ourselves to each other. We acted in perfect harmony,
+      through a long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence. A
+      constitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us thinks
+      perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens the
+      happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone. If we do not
+      think exactly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to our
+      country, which, after devoting to it long lives of disinterested labor we
+      have delivered over to our successors in life, who will be able to take
+      care of it and of themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or who may be
+      its author, I have heard nothing but through your letter. If the person
+      you suspect, it may be known from the quaint, mystical, and hyperbolical
+      ideas, involved in affected, newfangled, and pedantic terms, which stamp
+      his writings. Whatever it be, I hope your quiet is not to be affected at
+      this day by the rudeness or intemperance of scribblers; but that you may
+      continue in tranquillity to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of our
+      country, until it shall be your own wish to take your seat among the <i>aristoi</i>
+      who have gone before you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0116" id="link2H_4_0116">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS LIEPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 1, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had hoped, when I retired from the business of the world, that I should
+      have been permitted to pass the evening of life in tranquillity,
+      undisturbed by the peltings and passions of which the public papers are
+      the vehicles. I see, however, that I have been dragged into the newspapers
+      by the infidelity of one with whom I was formerly intimate, but who has
+      abandoned the American principles out of which that intimacy grew, and
+      become the bigoted partisan of England, and malcontent of his own
+      government. In a letter which he wrote me, he earnestly besought me to
+      avail our country of the good understanding which subsisted between the
+      executive and myself, by recommending an offer of such terms to our enemy
+      as might produce a peace, towards which he was confident that enemy was
+      disposed. In my answer, I stated the aggressions, the insults, and
+      injuries which England had been heaping on us for years, our long
+      forbearance in the hope she might be led by time and reflection to a
+      sounder view of her own interests, and of their connection with justice to
+      us, the repeated propositions for accommodation made by us, and rejected
+      by her, and at length her Prince Regent&rsquo;s solemn proclamation to the
+      world, that he would never repeal the orders in council as to us, until
+      France should have revoked her illegal decrees as to all the world, and
+      her minister&rsquo;s declaration to ours, that no admissible precaution against
+      the impressment of our seamen could be proposed: that the unavoidable
+      declaration of war which followed these was accompanied by advances for
+      peace, on terms which no American could dispense with, made through
+      various channels, and unnoticed and unanswered through any: but that if he
+      could suggest any other conditions which we ought to accept, and which had
+      not been repeatedly offered and rejected, I was ready to be the channel of
+      their conveyance to the government: and, to show him that neither that
+      attachment to Bonaparte nor French influence, which they allege eternally
+      without believing it, themselves, affected my mind, I threw in the two
+      little sentences, of the printed extract enclosed in your friendly favor
+      of the 9th ultimo, and exactly these two little sentences, from a letter
+      of two or three pages, he has thought proper to publish, naked, alone, and
+      with my name, although other parts of the letter would have shown that I
+      wished such limits only to the successes of Bonaparte, as should not
+      prevent his completely closing Europe against British manufactures and
+      commerce; and thereby reducing her to just terms of peace with us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus am I situated. I receive letters from all quarters, some from known
+      friends, some from those who write like friends, on various subjects. What
+      am I to do? Am I to button myself up in Jesuitical reserve, rudely
+      declining any answer, or answering in terms so unmeaning, as only to prove
+      my distrust? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of sentiment with
+      the world? I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits and temper. I
+      cannot act as if all men were unfaithful, because some are so; nor believe
+      that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather be the victim of
+      occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general confidence in the
+      honesty of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far as to the breach of confidence which has brought me into the
+      newspapers, with a view to embroil me with my friends, by a supposed
+      separation in opinion and principle from them. But it is impossible there
+      can be any difference of opinion among us on the two propositions
+      contained in these two little sentences, when explained, as they were
+      explained in the context from which they were insulated. That Bonaparte is
+      an unprincipled tyrant, who is deluging the continent of Europe with
+      blood, there is not a human being, not even the wife of his bosom, who
+      does not see: nor can there, I think, be a doubt as to the line we ought
+      to wish drawn between his successes and those of Alexander. Surely none of
+      us wish to see Bonaparte conquer Russia, and lay thus at his feet the
+      whole continent of Europe. This done, England would be but a breakfast:
+      and although I am free from the visionary fears which the votaries of
+      England have affected to entertain, because I believe he cannot effect the
+      conquest of Europe; yet put all Europe into his hands, and he might spare
+      such a force, to be sent in British ships, as I would as lieve not have to
+      encounter, when I see how much trouble a handful of British soldiers in
+      Canada has given us. No. It cannot be our interest that all Europe should
+      be reduced to a single monarchy. The true line of interest for us is, that
+      Bonaparte should be able to effect the complete exclusion of England from
+      the whole continent of Europe, in order, as the same letter said, &lsquo;by this
+      peaceable engine of constraint, to make her renounce her views of dominion
+      over the ocean, of permitting no other nation to navigate it but with her
+      license, and on tribute to her, and her aggressions on the persons of our
+      citizens who may choose to exercise their right of passing over that
+      element.&rsquo; And this would be effected by Bonaparte&rsquo;s succeeding so far as
+      to close the Baltic against her. This success I wished him the last year,
+      this I wish him this year; but were he again advanced to Moscow, I should
+      again wish him such disasters as would prevent his reaching Petersburg.
+      And were the consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war, I
+      would rather meet them, than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a
+      single hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have gone into this explanation, my friend, because I know you will not
+      carry my letter to the newspapers, and because I am willing to entrust to
+      your discretion the explaining me to our honest fellow-laborers, and the
+      bringing them to pause and reflect, if any of them have not sufficiently
+      reflected on the extent of the success we ought to wish to Bonaparte, with
+      a view to our own interests only; and even were we not men, to whom
+      nothing human should be indifferent. But is our particular interest to
+      make us insensible to all sentiments of morality? Is it then become
+      criminal, the moral wish that the torrents of blood this man is shedding
+      in Europe, the sufferings of so many human beings, good as ourselves, on
+      whose necks he is trampling, the burnings of ancient cities, devastations
+      of great countries, the destruction of law and order, and demoralization
+      of the world, should be arrested, even if it should place our peace a
+      little further distant? No. You and I cannot differ in wishing that
+      Russia, and Sweden, and Denmark, and Germany, and Spain, and Portugal, and
+      Italy, and even England, may retain their independence. And if we differ
+      in our opinions about Towers and his four beasts and ten kingdoms, we
+      differ as friends, indulging mutual errors, and doing justice to mutual
+      sincerity and honesty. In this spirit of sincere confidence and affection,
+      I pray God to bless you here and hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0117" id="link2H_4_0117">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 2,1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of November the 25th reached this place December the 21st,
+      having been near a month on the way. How this could happen I know not, as
+      we have two mails a week both from Fredericksburg and Richmond. It found
+      me just returned from a long journey and absence, during which so much
+      business had accumulated, commanding the first attentions, that another
+      week has been added to the delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have
+      passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
+      who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of a
+      New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we
+      are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and
+      lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and a
+      curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by
+      forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been
+      produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with you;
+      and I have read with great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on that
+      subject, which I now return. It is at the same time a perfect model of the
+      style of discussion which candor and decency should observe, of the tone
+      which renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a succinct, correct,
+      and dispassionate history of the origin and progress of party among us. It
+      might be incorporated, as it stands, and without changing a word, into the
+      history of the present epoch, and would give to posterity a fairer view of
+      the times than they will probably derive from other sources. In reading
+      it, with great satisfaction, there was but a single passage where I wished
+      a little more developement of a very sound and catholic idea; a single
+      intercalation to rest it solidly on true bottom. It is near the end of the
+      first page, where you make a statement of genuine republican maxims;
+      saying, &lsquo;that the people ought to possess as much political power as can
+      possibly consist with the order and security of society.&rsquo; Instead of this,
+      I would say, &lsquo;that the people, being the only safe depository of power,
+      should exercise in person every function which their qualifications enable
+      them to exercise consistently with the order and security of society; that
+      we now find them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
+      their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the
+      judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that the range of their powers
+      ought to be enlarged,&rsquo; &amp;c. This gives both the reason and
+      exemplification of the maxim you express, &lsquo;that they ought to possess as
+      much political power,&rsquo; &amp;c. I see nothing to correct either in your
+      facts or principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him
+      harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic. I
+      do not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of his
+      mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
+      seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think I knew
+      General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to
+      delineate his character, it should be in terms like these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order;
+      his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or
+      Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in
+      operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in
+      conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of the advantage he
+      derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected
+      whatever was best; and certainly no General ever planned his battles more
+      judiciously. But if deranged during the course of the action, if any
+      member of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in
+      a re-adjustment. The consequence was, that he often failed in the field,
+      and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was
+      incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern.
+      Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting
+      until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed;
+      refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with
+      his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his
+      justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or
+      consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision.
+      He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great
+      man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and
+      resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever,
+      however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his
+      expenses he was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever
+      promised utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects,
+      and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its
+      affections; but he exactly calculated every man&rsquo;s value, and gave him a
+      solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his
+      stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and
+      noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that
+      could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where
+      he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
+      his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
+      copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for
+      a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote
+      readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had
+      acquired by conversation with the world, for his education was merely
+      reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a
+      later day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and
+      that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became
+      necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural
+      proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors. On the
+      whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few
+      points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and
+      fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in
+      the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an
+      everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit, of
+      leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for
+      the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through
+      the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had
+      settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying
+      the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the
+      history of the world furnishes no other example. How, then, can it be
+      perilous for you to take such a man on your shoulders? I am satisfied the
+      great body of republicans think of him as I do. We were, indeed,
+      dissatisfied with him on his ratification of the British treaty. But this
+      was short-lived. We knew his honesty, the wiles with which he was
+      encompassed, and that age had already begun to relax the firmness of his
+      purposes; and I am convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and
+      gratitude of the republicans, than in the Pharisaical homage of the
+      federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist from preference of his
+      judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct views of the rights of
+      man, and his severe justice devoted him to them. He has often declared to
+      me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the
+      practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man
+      could be trusted for his own good; that he was determined the experiment
+      should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in
+      support of it. And these declarations he repeated to me the oftener and
+      the more pointedly, because he knew my suspicions of Colonel Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      views, and probably had heard from him the same declarations which I had,
+      to wit, &lsquo;that the British constitution, with its unequal representation,
+      corruption, and other existing abuses, was the most perfect government
+      which had ever been established on earth, and that a reformation of these
+      abuses would make it an impracticable government.&rsquo; I do believe that
+      General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability of our
+      government. He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy
+      apprehensions: and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at
+      length end in something like a British constitution, had some weight in
+      his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with
+      Congress, and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us
+      gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on
+      with as little shock as might be to the public mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the
+      judgment-seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty
+      years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the
+      Revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us
+      to take command of the army. During the war and after it we corresponded
+      Occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office of
+      Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and cordial.
+      After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains were taken by
+      our federal monarchists, and not entirely without effect, to make him view
+      me as a theorist, holding French principles of government, which would
+      lead infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy. And to this he listened the
+      more easily, from my known disapprobation of the British treaty. I never
+      saw him afterwards, or these malignant insinuations should have been
+      dissipated before his just judgment, as mists before the sun. I felt on
+      his death, with my countrymen, that &lsquo;verily a great man hath fallen this
+      day in Israel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More time and recollection would enable me to add many other traits of his
+      character; but why add them to you, who knew him well? And I cannot
+      justify to myself a longer detention of your paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Vale, proprieque tuum me esse tibi persuadeas</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0118" id="link2H_4_0118">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 31, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 23d is received. Say had come to hand safely. But I
+      regretted having asked the return of him; for I did not find in him one
+      new idea on the subject I had been contemplating; nothing more than a
+      succinct, judicious digest of the tedious pages of Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask my opinion on the question, whether the States can add any
+      qualifications to those which the constitution has prescribed for their
+      members of Congress? It is a question I had never before reflected on; yet
+      had taken up an off-hand opinion, agreeing with your first, that they
+      could not: that to add new qualifications to those of the constitution,
+      would be as much an alteration, as to detract from them. And so I think
+      the House of Representatives of Congress decided in some case; I believe
+      that of a member from Baltimore. But your letter having induced me to look
+      into the constitution, and to consider the question a little, I am again
+      in your predicament, of doubting the correctness of my first opinion. Had
+      the constitution been silent, nobody can doubt but that the right to
+      prescribe all the qualifications and disqualifications of those they would
+      send to represent them, would have belonged to the State. So also the
+      constitution might have prescribed the whole, and excluded all others. It
+      seems to have preferred the middle way. It has exercised the power in
+      part, by declaring some disqualifications, to wit, those of not being
+      twenty-five years of age, of not having been a citizen seven years, and of
+      not being an inhabitant of the State at the time of election. But it does
+      not declare, itself, that the member shall not be a lunatic, a pauper, a
+      convict of treason, of murder, of felony, or other infamous crime, or a
+      non-resident of his district; nor does it prohibit to the State the power
+      of declaring these, or any other disqualifications which its particular
+      circumstances may call for: and these may be different in different
+      States. Of course, then, by the tenth amendment, the power is reserved to
+      the State. If, wherever the constitution assumes a single power out of
+      many which belong to the same subject, we should consider it as assuming
+      the whole, it would vest the General Government with a mass of powers
+      never contemplated. On the contrary, the assumption of particular powers
+      seems an exclusion of all not assumed. This reasoning appears to me to be
+      sound; but, on so recent a change of view, caution requires us not to be
+      too confident, and that we admit this to be one of the doubtful questions
+      on which honest men may differ with the purest motives; and the more
+      readily, as we find we have differed from ourselves on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have always thought, that where the line of demarcation between the
+      powers of the General and State governments was doubtfully or indistinctly
+      drawn, it would be prudent and praiseworthy in both parties, never to
+      approach it but under the most urgent necessity. Is the necessity now
+      urgent, to declare that no non-resident of his district shall be eligible
+      as a member of Congress? It seems to me that, in practice, the
+      partialities of the people are a sufficient security against such an
+      election; and that if, in any instance, they should ever choose a
+      non-resident, it must be in one of such eminent merit and qualifications,
+      as would make it a good, rather than an evil; and that, in any event, the
+      examples will be so rare, as never to amount to a serious evil. If the
+      case then be neither clear nor urgent, would it not be better to let it
+      lie undisturbed? Perhaps its decision may never be called for. But if it
+      be indispensable to establish this disqualification now, would it not look
+      better to declare such others, at the same time, as may be proper? I
+      frankly confide to yourself these opinions, or rather no-opinions, of
+      mine; but would not wish to have them go any farther. I want to be quiet:
+      and although some circumstances now and then excite me to notice them, I
+      feel safe, and happier in leaving events to those whose turn it is to take
+      care of them; and, in general, to let it be understood, that I meddle
+      little or not at all with public affairs. There are two subjects, indeed,
+      which I shall claim a right to further as long as I breathe, the public
+      education and the subdivision of the counties into wards. I consider the
+      continuance of republican government as absolutely hanging on these two
+      hooks. Of the first, you will, I am sure, be an advocate, as having
+      already reflected on it, and of the last, when you shall have reflected.
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0119" id="link2H_4_0119">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 5, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 5, 1814
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since mine of January the 24th, yours of March the 14th has been received.
+      It was not acknowledged in the short one of May the 18th, by Mr. Rives,
+      the only object of that having been to enable one of our most promising
+      young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. I learned with
+      great regret the serious illness mentioned in your letter; and I hope Mr.
+      Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored. But our machines
+      have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we must expect that,
+      worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now a pinion, next a
+      spring, will be giving way; and however we may tinker them up for a while,
+      all will at length surcease motion. Our watches, with works of brass and
+      steel, wear out within that period. Shall you and I last to see the course
+      the seven-fold wonders of the times will take? The Attila of the age
+      dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the human race, whose
+      thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights
+      and liberties of the world, shut up within the circuit of a little island
+      of the Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and
+      degraded pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. How
+      miserably, how meanly, has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of
+      the bathos will his history present! He should have perished on the swords
+      of his enemies, under the walls of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page240.jpg" alt="Page240 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a cold-blooded,
+      calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no statesman, knowing
+      nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying
+      ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed him a great man until his
+      entrance into the Assembly <i>des Cinq Cens</i>, eighteenth <i>Brumaire</i>
+      (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as a great scoundrel only.
+      To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add that of a Czar of Muscovy,
+      dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all the successors of the Caesars,
+      and holding even the balance in which the fortunes of this new world are
+      suspended. I own, that while I rejoice, for the good of mankind, in the
+      deliverance of Europe from the havoc which would have never ceased while
+      Bonaparte should have lived in power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the
+      ocean remaining in vigor, and even participating in the merit of crushing
+      his brother tyrant. While the world is thus turned upside down, on which
+      side of it are we? All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of
+      peace; the interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and
+      even the interests of England. Her passions alone are opposed to it. Peace
+      would seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed.
+      Her orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers,
+      and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I
+      fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public papers, of
+      demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will Massachusetts
+      say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered as speaking
+      through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of its will. She
+      chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens, in which we
+      were all interested, and with them her obligations to the co-States,
+      rather than war with England. Will she now sacrifice the fisheries to the
+      same partialities? This question is interesting to her alone; for to the
+      middle, the southern, and western States, they are of no direct concern;
+      of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and cotton to Massachusetts.
+      I am really at a loss to conjecture what our refractory sister will say on
+      this occasion. I know what, as a citizen of the Union, I would say to her.
+      &lsquo;Take this question ad referendum. It concerns you alone. If you would
+      rather, give up the fisheries than war with England, we give them up. If
+      you had rather fight for them, we will defend your interests to the last
+      drop of our blood, choosing rather to set a good example than follow a bad
+      one.&rsquo; And I hope she will determine to fight for them. With this, however,
+      you and I shall have nothing to do; ours being truly the case wherein &lsquo;<i>Non
+      tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, tempus eget</i>.&rsquo; Quitting this
+      subject, therefore, I will turn over another leaf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my other
+      home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than here for reading,
+      I amused myself with reading seriously Plato&rsquo;s Republic. I am wrong,
+      however, in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest task-work I ever
+      went through. I had occasionally before taken up some of his other works,
+      but scarcely ever had patience to go through a whole dialogue. While
+      wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of
+      this work, I laid it down often to ask myself, how it could have been that
+      the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such
+      nonsense as this. How the soi-disant Christian world, indeed, should have
+      done it, is a piece of historical curiosity. But how could the Roman good
+      sense do it? And particularly, how could Cicero bestow such eulogies on
+      Plato? Although Cicero did not wield the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet
+      he was able, learned, laborious, practised in the business of the world
+      and honest. He could not be the dupe of mere style, of which he was
+      himself the first master in the world. With the moderns, I think, it is
+      rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in the
+      hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the
+      reputation and the dreams of Plato. They give the tone while at school,
+      and few in their after years have occasion to revise their college
+      opinions. But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test
+      of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and
+      incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In truth, he is one of the race
+      of genuine sophists, who has escaped the oblivion of his brethren, first,
+      by the elegance of his diction, but chiefly by the adoption and
+      incorporation of his whimsies into the body of artificial Christianity.
+      His foggy mind is for ever presenting the semblances of objects which,
+      half seen through a mist, can be defined neither in form nor dimension.
+      Yet this, which should have consigned him to early oblivion, really
+      procured him immortality of fame and reverence. The Christian priesthood,
+      finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding, and too
+      plain to need explanation, saw in the mysticisms of Plato materials with
+      which they might build up an artificial system, which might, from its
+      indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their
+      order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines
+      which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension
+      of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms
+      engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be
+      explained. Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and
+      it is now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle
+      of Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
+      of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
+      arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
+      it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
+      the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
+      living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts of
+      the field or forest. Yet &lsquo;Plato is a great philosopher,&rsquo; said La Fontaine.
+      But, says Fontenelle, &lsquo;Do you find his ideas very clear.&rsquo; &lsquo;Oh, no! he is
+      of an obscurity impenetrable.&rsquo; &lsquo;Do you not find him full of
+      contradictions?&rsquo; &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; replied La Fontaine, &lsquo;he is but a sophist.&rsquo;
+      Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, &lsquo;Oh, Plato was a great
+      philosopher.&rsquo; Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
+      misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
+      Socrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I am glad
+      to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not receive them
+      as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth are born under
+      happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all learning in their
+      mother&rsquo;s womb, and bring it into the world ready made. The information of
+      books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which is not innate is in
+      contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must run its round; and so, I
+      suppose, must that of self-learning and self-sufficiency; of rejecting the
+      knowledge acquired in past ages, and starting on the new ground of
+      intuition. When sobered by experience, I hope our successors will turn
+      their attention to the advantages of education. I mean of education on the
+      broad scale, and not that of the petty academies, as they call themselves,
+      which are starting up in every neighborhood, and where one or two men,
+      possessing Latin, and sometimes Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the
+      first six books of Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of
+      science. They commit their pupils to the theatre of the world, with just
+      taste enough of learning to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and
+      not enough to do service in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions,
+      indeed. I presented one to you lately, and we have some others. But the
+      terms I use are general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be
+      seen of establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch
+      of science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have
+      you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I mean
+      to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in human
+      affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many professors
+      only, as might bring them within the views of a just but enlightened
+      economy? I should be happy in a communication of your ideas on this
+      problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my being run away with by
+      another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of the present letter,
+      I will here present to Mrs. Adams and yourself, the assurance of my
+      constant and sincere friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0120" id="link2H_4_0120">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXX.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 1, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been received
+      with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the ocean of
+      newspaper lies, serves like headlands to correct our course. Indeed, my
+      scepticism as to every thing I see in a newspaper, makes me indifferent
+      whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in August last,
+      I expected would be great in any state of things; but they proved greater
+      than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the President were wise
+      and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1. To the insubordinate
+      temper of Armstrong: and, 2. To the indecision of Winder. However, it ends
+      well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check, perhaps, the silly
+      boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the feelings of the
+      world on our side: and the advantage of public opinion is like that of the
+      weather-gage in a naval action. In Europe, the transient possession of our
+      Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every Capital there was in possession
+      of its enemy some often and long. But diabolical as they paint that enemy,
+      he burnt neither public edifices nor private dwellings. It was reserved
+      for England to show that Bonaparte, in atrocity, was an infant to their
+      ministers and their generals. They are taking his place in the eyes of
+      Europe, and have turned into our channel all its good will. This will be
+      worth the million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost
+      us. I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to
+      counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English papers,
+      the government will make it a standing instruction to their ministers at
+      foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of occurrences here, by
+      publishing in their papers the naked truth always, whether favorable or
+      unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we candidly tell them the
+      bad also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But you have two more serious causes of uneasiness; the want of men and
+      money. For the former, nothing more wise or efficient could have been
+      imagined than what you proposed. It would have filled our ranks with
+      regulars, and that, too, by throwing a just share of the burthen on the
+      purses of those whose persons are exempt either by age or office; and it
+      would have rendered our militia, like those of the Greeks and Romans, a
+      nation of warriors. But the go-by seems to have been given to your
+      proposition, and longer sufferance is necessary to force us to what is
+      best. We seem equally incorrigible in our financial course. Although a
+      century of British experience has proved to what a wonderful extent the
+      funding on specific redeeming taxes enables a nation to anticipitate in
+      war the resources of peace, and although the other nations of Europe have
+      tried and trodden every path of force or folly in fruitless quest of the
+      same object, yet we still expect to find, in juggling tricks and banking
+      dreams, that money can be made out of nothing, and in sufficient quantity
+      to meet the expenses of a heavy war by sea and land. It is said, indeed,
+      that money cannot be borrowed from our merchants as from those of England.
+      But it can be borrowed from our people. They will give you all the
+      necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt trash they
+      now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will give them a
+      paper-promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for common
+      circulation. But you say the merchants will not take this paper. What the
+      people take the merchants must take, or sell nothing. All these doubts and
+      fears prove only the extent of the dominion which the banking institutions
+      have obtained over the minds of our citizens, and especially of those
+      inhabiting cities or other banking places; and this dominion must be
+      broken, or it will break us. But here, as in the other case, we must make
+      up our mind to suffer yet longer before we can get right. The misfortune
+      is, that in the mean time, we shall plunge ourselves into inextinguishable
+      debt, and entail on our posterity an inheritance of eternal taxes, which
+      will bring our government and people into the condition of those of
+      England, a nation of pikes and gudgeons, the latter bred merely as food
+      for the former. But, however these two difficulties of men and money may
+      be disposed of, it is fortunate that neither of them will affect our war
+      by sea. Privateers will find their own men and money. Let nothing be
+      spared to encourage them. They are the dagger which strikes at the heart
+      of the enemy, their commerce. Frigates and seventy-fours are a sacrifice
+      we must make, heavy as it is, to the prejudices of a part of our citizens.
+      They have, indeed, rendered a great moral service, which has delighted me
+      as much as any one in the United States. But they have had no physical
+      effect sensible to the enemy; and now, while we must fortify them in our
+      harbors, and keep armies to defend them, our privateers are bearding and
+      blockading the enemy in their own sea-ports. Encourage them to burn all
+      their prizes, and let the public pay for them. They will cheat us
+      enormously. No matter; they will make the merchants of England feel, and
+      squeal, and cry out for peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I much regretted your acceptance of the war department. Not that I know a
+      person who I think would better conduct it. But, conduct it ever so
+      wisely, it will be a sacrifice of yourself. Were an angel from Heaven to
+      undertake that office, all our miscarriages would be ascribed to him. Raw
+      troops, no troops, insubordinate militia, want of arms, want of money,
+      want of provisions, all will be charged to want of management in you. I
+      speak from experience, when I was Governor of Virginia. Without a regular
+      in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of the militia,
+      invaded by two armies, Arnold&rsquo;s from the sea-board, and Cornwallis&rsquo;s from
+      the southward,&mdash;when we were driven from Richmond and
+      Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it
+      was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them,
+      which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.
+      It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not till
+      means were brought us by General Washington&rsquo;s army, and the French fleet
+      and army. And although the legislature, who were personally intimate with
+      both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and thanks, yet
+      General Lee has put all those imputations among the romances of his
+      historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and uninquisitive
+      readers. Not that I have seen the least disposition to censure you. On the
+      contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington has met the praises of
+      every one, and your plan for regulars and militia, their approbation. But
+      no campaign is as yet opened. No generals have yet an interest in shifting
+      their own incompetence on you, no army agents, their rogueries. I
+      sincerely pray you may never meet censure where you will deserve most
+      praise, and that your own happiness and prosperity may be the result of
+      your patriotic services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0121" id="link2H_4_0121">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXI.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 14, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and
+      again, with extraordinary pleasure. It is the first glimpse which has been
+      furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but fortunate
+      revolution of your country. The newspapers told us only that the great
+      beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted, and what the
+      egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were awake to their own
+      interests only, the hireling scribblers of the English press said little,
+      and knew less. I see now the mortifying alternative under which the
+      patriot there is placed, of being either silent, or disgraced by an
+      association in opposition with the remains of Bonaparteism. A full measure
+      of liberty is not now perhaps to be expected by your nation; nor am I
+      confident they are prepared to preserve it. More than a generation will be
+      requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws favoring the
+      progress of knowledge in the general mass of the people, and their
+      habituation to an independent security of person and property, before they
+      will be capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a
+      sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for preservation.
+      Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of
+      reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes, with an
+      unprepared people, a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one.
+      Possibly you may remember, at the date of the <i>jeu de paume</i>, how
+      earnestly I urged yourself and the patriots of my acquaintance to enter
+      then into a compact with the King, securing freedom of religion, freedom
+      of the press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and a national legislature,
+      all of which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and let these
+      work on the amelioration of the condition of the people, until they should
+      have rendered them capable of more, when occasions would not fail to arise
+      for communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought them
+      able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought otherwise,
+      and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you were right; for
+      subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitution of 1791.
+      Unfortunately, some of the most honest and enlightened of our patriotic
+      friends (but closet politicians merely, unpractised in the knowledge of
+      man) thought more could still be obtained and borne. They did not weigh
+      the hazards of a transition from one form of government to another, the
+      value of what they had already rescued from those hazards, and might hold
+      in security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving up the certainty
+      of such a degree of liberty, under a limited monarch, for the uncertainty
+      of a little more under the form of a republic. You differed from them. You
+      were for stopping there, and for securing the constitution which the
+      National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you were right; and from this
+      fatal error of the republicans, from their separation from yourself and
+      the constitutionalists, in their councils, flowed all the subsequent
+      sufferings and crimes of the French nation. The hazards of a second change
+      fell upon them by the way. The foreigner gained time to anarchize by gold
+      the government he could not overthrow by arms, to crush in their own
+      councils the genuine republicans, by the fraternal embraces of exaggerated
+      and hired pretenders, and to turn the machine of Jacobinism from the
+      change to the destruction of order: and, in the end, the limited monarchy
+      they had secured was exchanged for the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of
+      Robespierre, and the equally unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte.
+      You are now rid of him, and I sincerely wish you may continue so. But this
+      may depend on the wisdom and moderation of the restored dynasty. It is for
+      them now to read a lesson in the fatal errors of the republicans; to be
+      contented with a certain portion of power, secured by formal compact with
+      the nation, rather than, grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty,
+      and risk meeting the fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own
+      exile. We are just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true,
+      their most profound contemplation. The gazettes say, that Ferdinand of
+      Spain is dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their
+      new constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that
+      although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their whole
+      length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken place, yet
+      that men have by no means fallen back to their former passiveness; but on
+      the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a restlessness to obtain
+      them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, and, if not quieted by
+      reasonable relaxations of power, will break out like a volcano on the
+      first occasion, and overwhelm every thing again in its way. I always
+      thought the present King an honest and moderate man: and having no issue,
+      he is under a motive the less for yielding to personal considerations. I
+      cannot, therefore, but hope, that the patriots in and out of your
+      legislature, acting in phalanx, but temperately and wisely, pressing
+      unremittingly the principles omitted in the late capitulation of the King,
+      and watching the occasions which the course of events will create, may get
+      those principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by the solemnity of a
+      national act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With us the affairs of war have taken the more favorable turn which was to
+      be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, or superannuated,
+      all our revolutionary officers of experience and grade; and our first
+      draught in the lottery of untried characters had been most unfortunate.
+      The delivery of the fort and army of Detroit, by the traitor Hull; the
+      disgrace at Queenstown, under Van Rensellaer; the massacre at Frenchtown,
+      under Winchester; and surrender of Boerstler in an open field to one third
+      of his own numbers, were the inauspicious beginnings of the first year of
+      our warfare. The second witnessed but the single miscarriage occasioned by
+      the disagreement of Wilkinson and Hampton, mentioned in my letter to you
+      of November the 30th, 1813; while it gave us the capture of York by
+      Dearborn and Pike; the capture of Fort George by Dearborn also; the
+      capture of Proctor&rsquo;s army on the Thames by Harrison, Shelby, and Johnson;
+      and that of the whole British fleet on Lake Erie by Perry. The third year
+      has been a continued series of victories; to wit, of Brown and Scott at
+      Chippeway; of the same at Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie;
+      that of Brown over Drummond at the same place; the capture of another
+      fleet on Lake Champlain by M&rsquo;Donough; the entire defeat of their army
+      under Prevost, on the same day, by M&rsquo;Comb, and recently their defeats at
+      New Orleans by Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four
+      thousand men out of nine thousand and six hundred, with their two
+      Generals, Packingham and Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded,
+      mortally, as is said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This series of successes has been tarnished only by the conflagrations at
+      Washington, a <i>coup de main</i> differing from that at Richmond, which
+      you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the circumstance only, that we
+      had, in that case, but forty-eight hour&rsquo;s notice that an enemy had arrived
+      within our capes; whereas at Washington there was abundant previous
+      notice. The force designated by the President was the double of what was
+      necessary; but failed, as is the general opinion, through the
+      insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack intended
+      until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder before the
+      occasion, and his indecision during it. Still, in the end, the transaction
+      has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general indignation of our
+      country, and by marking to the world of Europe the Vandalism and brutal
+      character of the English government. It has merely served to immortalize
+      their infamy. And add further, that through the whole period of the war,
+      we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and so thoroughly established
+      our superiority over them with equal force, that they retire from that
+      kind of contest, and never suffer their frigates to cruise singly. The
+      Endymion would never have engaged the frigate President, but knowing
+      herself backed by three frigates and a razee, who, though somewhat slower
+      sailors, would get up before she could be taken. The disclosure to the
+      world of the fatal secret that they can be beaten at sea with an equal
+      force, the evidence furnished by the military operations of the last year
+      that experience is rearing us officers, who, when our means shall be fully
+      under way, will plant our standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax,
+      their recent and signal disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of
+      their hopes from the Hartford Convention, will probably raise a clamor in
+      the British nation, which will force their ministry into peace. I say
+      force them; because, willingly, they would never be at peace. The British
+      ministers find in a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the
+      various contractors, and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of
+      the war supplies, that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new
+      ones, and therefore will not make peace, as long as by any delusions they
+      can keep the temper of the nation up to the war point. They found some
+      hopes on the state of our finances. It is true, that the excess of our
+      banking institutions, and their present discredit, have shut us out from
+      the best source of credit we could ever command with certainty. But the
+      foundations of credit still remain to us, and need but skill, which
+      experience will soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may
+      carry us through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their
+      Hartford Convention. Their fears of republican France being now done away,
+      they are directed to republican America, and they are playing the same
+      game for disorganization here, which they played in your country. The
+      Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in the same
+      pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to anarchize us,
+      that their prototypes in France did there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same motives of
+      money: nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, and wish to be
+      Ins; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of their own party passions;
+      while the Maratists alone are in the real secret: but they have very
+      different materials to work on. The yeomanry of the United States are not
+      the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them leave to go through the
+      United States recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied they could not
+      raise one single regiment (gambling merchants and silk-stocking clerks
+      excepted), who would support them in any effort to separate from the
+      Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every American. I
+      do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable
+      a basis. Let them, in any State, even in Massachusetts itself, raise the
+      standard of separation, and its citizens will rise in mass, and do justice
+      themselves on their own incendiaries. If they could have induced the
+      government to some effort of suppression, or even to enter into discussion
+      with them, it would have given them some importance, have brought them
+      into some notice. But they have not been able to make themselves even a
+      subject of conversation, either of public or private societies. A silent
+      contempt has been the sole notice they could excite; consoled, indeed,
+      some of them, by the palpable favors of Philip. Have then no fears for us,
+      my friend. The grounds of these exist only in English newspapers, endited
+      or endowed by the Castlereaghs or the Cannings, or some other such models
+      of pure and uncorrupted virtue. Their military heroes, by land and sea,
+      may sink our oyster-boats, rob our hen-roosts, burn our negro-huts, and
+      run off. But a campaign or two more will relieve them from further trouble
+      or expense in defending their American possessions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in Virginia, in
+      1781, which I must have lent to some one of the undertakers to write the
+      history of the revolutionary war, and forgot to reclaim. I conclude this,
+      because it is no longer among my papers, which I have very diligently
+      searched for it, but in vain. An author of real ability is now writing
+      that part of the history of Virginia. He does it in my neighborhood, and I
+      lay open to him all my papers. But I possess none, nor has he any, which
+      can enable him to do justice to your faithful and able services in that
+      campaign. If you could be so good as to send me another copy, by the very
+      first vessel bound to any port of the United States, it might be here in
+      time; for although he expects to begin to print within a month or two, yet
+      you know the delays of these undertakings. At any rate, it might be got in
+      as a supplement. The old Count Rochambeau gave me also his memoire of the
+      operations at York, which is gone the same way, and I have no means of
+      applying to his family for it. Perhaps you could render them as well as
+      us, the service of procuring another copy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Tesse.
+      They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I have
+      sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris once more,
+      for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I never permitted
+      myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of seventy-three at the loss
+      of friends, may be the less, as the time is shorter within which we are to
+      meet again, according to the creed of our education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young gentleman of
+      Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and preparation for a
+      life of distinction, in his own country. He passed a few days with me
+      here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams and others, and appeared
+      in every respect to merit them. He is well worthy of those attentions
+      which you so kindly bestow on our countrymen, and for those he may receive
+      I shall join him in acknowledging personal obligations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th; Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P.S. February 26. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I received news
+      of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we closed our war with
+      the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I consider it as an armistice
+      only, because no security is provided against the impressment of our
+      seamen. While this is unsettled we are in hostility of mind with England,
+      although actual deeds of arms may be suspended by a truce. If she thinks
+      the exercise of this outrage is worth eternal war, eternal war it must be,
+      or extermination of the one or the other party. The first act of
+      impressment she commits on an American, will be answered by reprisal, or
+      by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be merely a state of
+      preparation for it. In this we have much to do, in further fortifying our
+      seaport towns, providing military stores, classing and disciplining our
+      militia, arranging our financial, system, and above all, pushing our
+      domestic manufactures, which have taken such root as never again can be
+      shaken. Once more, God bless you. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0122" id="link2H_4_0122">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXII.*&mdash;TO MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. WENDOVER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 13, 1815.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This is endorsed;&rsquo; not sent.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of January the 30th was received after long delay on the road,
+      and I have to thank you for the volume of Discourses which you have been
+      so kind as to send me. I have gone over them with great satisfaction, and
+      concur with the able preacher in his estimate of the character of the
+      belligerents in our late war, and lawfulness of defensive war. I consider
+      the war, with him, as &lsquo;made on good advice,&rsquo; that is, for just causes, and
+      its dispensation as providential, inasmuch, as it has exercised our
+      patriotism and submission to order, has planted and invigorated among us
+      arts of urgent necessity, has manifested the strong and the weak parts of
+      our republican institutions, and the excellence of a representative
+      democracy compared with the misrule of Kings, has rallied the opinions of
+      mankind to the natural rights of expatriation, and of a common property in
+      the ocean, and raised us to that grade in the scale of nations which the
+      bravery and liberality of our citizen soldiers, by land and by sea, the
+      wisdom of our institutions and their observance of justice, entitled us to
+      in the eyes of the world. All this Mr. McLeod has well proved, and from
+      those sources of argument particularly which belong to his profession. On
+      one question only I differ from him, and it is that which constitutes the
+      subject of his first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs in
+      the pulpit. I add the last words, because I admit the right in general
+      conversation and in writing; in which last form it has been exercised in
+      the valuable book you have now favored me with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the field of
+      knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
+      extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
+      less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
+      necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each of
+      which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and attention
+      of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages, teachers of
+      Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of Medicine, of Law, of
+      History, of Government, &amp;c. Religion, too, is a separate department,
+      and happens to be the only one deemed requisite for all men, however high
+      or low. Collections of men associate together, under the name of
+      congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the particular sect of
+      opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute to make up a stipend
+      as a compensation for the trouble of delivering them, at such periods as
+      they agree on, lessons in the religion they profess. If they want
+      instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply to other instructers;
+      and this is generally the business of early life. But I suppose there is
+      not an instance of a single congregation which has employed their preacher
+      for the mixt purpose of lecturing them from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in
+      Medicine, in Law, in the science and principles of Government, or in any
+      thing but Religion exclusively. Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of
+      a lesson in religion, put them off with a discourse on the Copernican
+      system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the
+      characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of
+      contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they
+      are salaried, and giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if
+      wanted, would rather seek from better sources in that particular art or
+      science. In choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications,
+      without inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we
+      mean to have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which
+      may twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
+      they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example, it
+      is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
+      religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know how
+      to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors: the
+      preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
+      understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
+      religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and give
+      us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And so
+      ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the branches
+      of science into any one of them, and the physician who is paid to visit
+      the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and the merchant to whom
+      money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief instead of it. But not
+      withstanding this possible confusion of all sciences into one, common
+      sense draws lines between them sufficiently distinct for the general
+      purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to understand that a recipe in
+      medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in geometry, is not a lesson in
+      religion. I do not deny that a congregation may, if they please, agree
+      with their preacher that he shall instruct them in Medicine also, or Law,
+      or Politics. Then, lectures in these, from the pulpit, become not only a
+      matter of right, but of duty also. But this must be with the consent of
+      every individual; because the association being voluntary, the mere
+      majority has no right to apply the contributions of the minority to
+      purposes unspecified in the agreement of the congregation. I agree, too,
+      that on all other occasions the preacher has the right, equally with every
+      other citizen, to express his sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the
+      subjects of Medicine, Law, Politics, he, his leisure time being his own,
+      and his congregation not obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read
+      his writings; and no one would have regretted more than myself, had any
+      scruple as to this right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which
+      have led to the expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the
+      right. I feel my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the
+      distinguished learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had
+      proved that religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those
+      principles on which our government has been founded and its rights
+      asserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those of
+      the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
+      doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to
+      truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both.
+      We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
+      constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
+      ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
+      have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
+      present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this mark
+      of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly expressed
+      in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations not
+      intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
+      happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
+      While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not wish
+      to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres of the
+      priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners of
+      Massachusetts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0123" id="link2H_4_0123">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIII.&mdash;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 16, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
+      pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
+      harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
+      during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed, the
+      affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
+      recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
+      Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
+      public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen; and
+      he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out a hope
+      of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your visits
+      together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or as you
+      can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a month&rsquo;s
+      notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession ninety
+      miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
+      mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
+      absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
+      enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
+      friendships.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
+      have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
+      of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
+      unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
+      original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where it
+      ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the tyrant
+      of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his power still
+      stalking over the deep. &lsquo;<i>Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat</i>.&rsquo;
+      The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course impending. Are we to
+      be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a reasonable conduct on their
+      part, might make us the main pillar of their prosperity and existence. But
+      their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to be the means which Providence
+      permits to lead them to their final catastrophe. &lsquo;<i>Nullam enim in terris
+      gentem esse, nullum infestiorem populum, nomini Romano</i>, said the
+      General who erased Capua from the list of powers. What nourishment and
+      support would not England receive from an hundred millions of industrious
+      descendants, whom some of her people now born will live to see here. What
+      their energies are, she has lately tried. And what has she not to fear
+      from an hundred millions of such men, if she continues her maniac course
+      of hatred and hostility to them. I hope in God she will change. There is
+      not a nation on the globe with whom I have more earnestly wished a
+      friendly intercourse on equal conditions. On no other would I hold out the
+      hand of friendship to any. I know that their creatures represent me as
+      personally an enemy to England. But fools only can believe this, or those
+      who think me a fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an
+      enemy to the flagitious principles of her administration, and to those
+      which govern her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to
+      morality some place in her political code, and especially would she
+      exercise decency, and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not,
+      I repeat it, a people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be
+      in friendship. They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other
+      nation; and in peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us
+      internally. Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our
+      own are chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven
+      with the whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war
+      with her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
+      experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have been
+      able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and had the
+      war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to command a
+      single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay their own
+      paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to avail
+      themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
+      circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
+      for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
+      rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government, I
+      say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have even
+      countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
+      establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
+      citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and which
+      we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that of
+      Britain.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you with
+      sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0124" id="link2H_4_0124">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIV.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 17, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great pleasure,
+      and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events. Peace was
+      indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome without the
+      successes of New Orleans. These last have established truths too important
+      not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are sincerely attached to
+      the Union; that their city can be defended; that the western States make
+      its defence their peculiar concern; that the militia are brave; that their
+      deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring skill of their enemy; that we have
+      officers of natural genius now starting forward from the mass; and that,
+      putting together all our conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by
+      land, with equal numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the
+      pacification of Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable
+      arrangement against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of
+      peace, and not a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the
+      principle of the war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will
+      we forget your services. After the disasters produced by the treason or
+      the cowardice, or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your
+      capture of York and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our
+      favor; and the subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces
+      of the first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only,
+      your resolution to retire from all public business could not but be
+      approved. But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public
+      counsels too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish
+      their claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own
+      State. Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your
+      apostacy! Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote
+      was my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
+      standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
+      counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
+      promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
+      usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to be
+      nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected. But
+      should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we shall
+      receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among the
+      crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold what
+      their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look forward,
+      then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her venal traitors,
+      shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the principles of her
+      brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give her modesty enough to
+      suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on a par with her in
+      wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery, and even in honesty,
+      although not in psalm-singing, she will more justly estimate her own
+      relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient principles, she would
+      really be great, if she did not think herself the whole. I should be
+      pleased to hear that you go into her councils, and assist in bringing her
+      back to those principles, and to a sober satisfaction with her
+      proportionable share in the direction of our affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
+      assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0125" id="link2H_4_0125">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXV.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 23,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deak Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
+      causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it with
+      great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be published.
+      The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it are so
+      easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between them. 1.
+      We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character. Accustomed
+      to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting, they will see
+      in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under wrong, to a certain
+      degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and that peace and happiness are
+      preferable to that false honor, which, by eternal wars, keeps their people
+      in eternal labor, want, and wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the
+      people of England, who have been deceived as to the causes and conduct of
+      the war, and do not entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and
+      wicked on our part, and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their
+      ideas, it will tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to
+      the peace and prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own
+      people, who, although they have known the details as they went along, yet
+      have been so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists,
+      that some impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be
+      said that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
+      character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
+      Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
+      things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
+      every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
+      show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative will
+      present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its moderation,
+      as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed at. Rubbing down these
+      roughnesses (and they are neither many nor prominent), and preserving the
+      original date, might, I think, remove all the offensiveness, and give more
+      effect to the publication. Indeed, I think that a soothing postscript,
+      addressed to the interests, the prospects, and the sober reason of both
+      nations, would make it acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of
+      reprinting it ought not to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have
+      it translated into French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without
+      either avowal or disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of
+      an appendix, containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in
+      libraries, and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history,
+      the acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
+      eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was fraught
+      with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends, and will
+      powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of Europe. It
+      will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and count no odds
+      when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared to the pride of
+      England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of impressment in an
+      article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention for relinquishing
+      it. Without this, she must understand that the present is but a truce,
+      determinable on the first act of impressment of an American citizen,
+      committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be better that this
+      convention should be a separate act, unconnected with any treaty of
+      commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all other treaty? If
+      blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the price of injurious
+      concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without such treaties with
+      any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves from the European
+      system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too sedulously cultivate an
+      American system, essentially pacific. But if we go into commercial
+      treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same time, with whom we
+      have important commercial relations. France, Spain, Portugal, Holland,
+      Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed <i>pari passu</i>. Our
+      ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and intercommunicating
+      freely, each will be supported by the weight of the whole mass, and the
+      facility with which the other nations will agree to equal terms of
+      intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of England, or
+      justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them it would be best
+      to have but the single article <i>gentis amicissimæ</i>, leaving every
+      thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized nations. But all
+      these things will occur to yourself, with their counter considerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
+      particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
+      that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
+      carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to a
+      wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
+      receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
+      strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in its
+      place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue, and
+      shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ me a
+      considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to attend,
+      and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on the
+      shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds. This
+      would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty&rsquo;s business
+      would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose you a
+      letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not cost more
+      than eight or ten days&rsquo; reasonable compensation. This is necessary for my
+      safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for the public. You know
+      there are persons, both in and out of the public councils, who will seize
+      every occasion of imputation on either of us, the more difficult to be
+      repelled in this case, in which a negative could not be proved. If you
+      approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am through the review, I will give
+      notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other person whom you will name, to come on
+      immediately. Indeed it would be well worth while to add to his duty, that
+      of covering the books with a little paper (the good bindings at least),
+      and filling the vacancies of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought
+      from Washington. This would add little more to the time, as he could carry
+      on both operations at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+      respect,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0126" id="link2H_4_0126">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 10,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
+      have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In the
+      first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all again into a
+      course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the Bourbons has
+      proved to the world their incompetence to the functions of the station
+      they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has clothed him with the
+      semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity should have taught him
+      wisdom, of which I have little expectation, he may yet render some service
+      to mankind, by teaching the ancient dynasties that they can be changed for
+      misrule, and by wearing down the maritime power of England to limitable
+      and safe dimensions. But it is not possible he should love us; and of that
+      our commerce had sufficient proofs during his power. Our military
+      achievements, indeed, which he is capable of estimating, may in some
+      degree moderate the effect of his aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that
+      we are to become the natural enemies of England, as England herself has so
+      steadily endeavored to make us, and as some of our own over-zealous
+      patriots would be willing to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a
+      cold toleration of some intercourse and commerce between the two nations.
+      He has certainly had time to see the folly of turning the industry of
+      France from the cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to
+      those of sugar, cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power
+      has given to other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the
+      passions of his tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue
+      from motives of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil
+      happiness and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for
+      human blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us.
+      And if again some great man could arise in England, who could see and
+      correct the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by
+      exercising justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of
+      temperate and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the
+      place we ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded
+      to the condition of mere partisans of either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper
+      limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on the
+      other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to attempt
+      the forcing on the French, a ruler and government which they refuse;
+      whether they will risk their own thrones to re-establish that of the
+      Bourbons. If this is attempted, and the European world again committed to
+      war, will the jealousy of England at the commerce which neutrality will
+      give us, induce her again to add us to the number of her enemies, rather
+      than see us prosper in the pursuit of peace and industry? And have our
+      commercial citizens merited from their country its encountering another
+      war to protect their gambling enterprises? That the persons of our
+      citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the ocean, that the
+      transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels, to the markets of
+      our choice, and the return to us of the articles we want for our own use,
+      shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental, and that the gauntlet must
+      be for ever hurled at him who questions it. But whether we shall engage in
+      every war of Europe, to protect the mere agency of our merchants and
+      shipowners in carrying on the commerce of other nations, even were those
+      merchants and ship-owners to take the side of their country in the
+      contest, instead of that of the enemy, is a question of deep and serious
+      consideration, with which, however, you and I shall have nothing to do; so
+      we will leave it to those whom it will concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for making known to me Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Gray. They are fine
+      young men, indeed, and if Massachusetts can raise a few more such, it is
+      probable she would be better counselled as to social rights and social
+      duties. Mr. Ticknor is, particularly, the best bibliograph I have met
+      with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of reprocuring
+      some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded to Congress, to
+      replace the devastations of British Vandalism at Washington. I cannot live
+      without books. But fewer will suffice, where amusement, and not use, is
+      the only future object. I am about sending him a catalogue, to which less
+      than his critical knowledge of books would hardly be adequate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present my high respects to Mrs. Adams, and accept yourself the assurances
+      of my affectionate attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0127" id="link2H_4_0127">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVII.&mdash;TO MR. LEIPER, June 12, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. LEIPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 12, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A journey soon after the receipt of your favor of April the 17th and an
+      absence from home of some continuance, have prevented my earlier
+      acknowledgment of it. In that came safely my letter of January the 2nd,
+      1814. In our principles of government we differ not at all; nor in the
+      general object and tenor of political measures. We concur in considering
+      the government of England as totally without morality, insolent beyond
+      bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive
+      dominion of the sea, lost in corruption, of deep-rooted hatred towards us,
+      hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and the eternal
+      disturber of the peace of the world. In our estimate of Bonaparte, I
+      suspect we differ. I view him as a political engine only, and a very
+      wicked one; you, I believe, as both political and religious, and obeying,
+      as an instrument, an unseen hand. I still deprecate his becoming sole lord
+      of the continent of Europe, which he would have been, had he reached in
+      triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment in our day of another
+      Roman. empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over the face of the
+      globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of Heaven. Nor does the return
+      of Bonaparte give me pleasure unmixed; I see in his expulsion of the
+      Bourbons, a valuable lesson to the world, as showing that its ancient
+      dynasties may be changed for their misrule. Should the allied powers
+      presume to dictate a ruler and government to France, and follow the
+      example he had set of parcelling and usurping to themselves their neighbor
+      nations, I hope he will give them another lesson in vindication of the
+      rights of independence and self-government, which himself had heretofore
+      so much abused, and that in this contest he will wear down the maritime
+      power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. So far, good. It cannot
+      be denied, on the other hand, that his successful perversion of the force
+      (committed to him for vindicating the rights and liberties of his country)
+      to usurp its government, and to enchain it under an hereditary despotism,
+      is of baneful effect in encouraging future usurpations, and deterring
+      those under oppression from rising to redress themselves. His restless
+      spirit leaves no hope of peace to the world; and his hatred of us is only
+      a little less than that he bears to England, and England to us. Our form
+      of government is odious to him, as a standing contrast between republican
+      and despotic rule; and as much from that hatred, as from ignorance in
+      political economy, he had excluded intercourse between us and his people,
+      by prohibiting the only articles they wanted from us, that is, cotton and
+      tobacco. Whether the war we have had with England, the achievements of
+      that war, and the hope that we may become his instruments and partisans
+      against that enemy, may induce him, in future, to tolerate our commercial
+      intercourse with his people, is still to be seen. For my part, I wish that
+      all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which
+      are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a
+      salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace,
+      commerce, and friendship may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our
+      business to manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep all markets
+      open for what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the
+      amities or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no
+      distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the
+      stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power,
+      and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The federal misrepresentation of my sentiments, which occasioned my former
+      letter to you, was gross enough; but that and all others are exceeded by
+      the impudence and falsehood of the printed extract you sent me from
+      Ralph&rsquo;s paper. That a continuance of the embargo for two months longer
+      would have prevented our war; that the non-importation law which succeeded
+      it was a wise and powerful measure, I have constantly maintained. My
+      friendship for Mr. Madison, my confidence in his wisdom and virtue, and my
+      approbation of all his measures, and especially of his taking up at length
+      the gauntlet against England, is known to all with whom I have ever
+      conversed or corresponded on these measures. The word federal, or its
+      synonyme &amp;c., may therefore be written under every word of Mr. Ralph&rsquo;s
+      paragraph. I have ransacked my memory to recollect any incident which
+      might have given countenance to any particle of it, but I find none. For
+      if you will except the bringing into power and importance those who were
+      enemies to himself as well as to the principles of republican government,
+      I do not recollect a single measure of the President which I have not
+      approved. Of those under him, and of some very near him, there have been
+      many acts of which we have all disapproved, and he more than we. We have
+      at times dissented from the measures, and lamented the dilatoriness of
+      Congress. I recollect an instance the first winter of the war, when, from
+      sloth of proceedings, an embargo was permitted to run through the winter,
+      while the enemy could not cruise, nor consequently restrain the
+      exportation of our whole produce, and was taken off in the spring, as soon
+      as they could resume their stations. But this procrastination is
+      unavoidable. How can expedition be expected from a body which we have
+      saddled with an hundred lawyers, whose trade is talking? But lies, to sow
+      divisions among us, are so stale an artifice of the federal prints, and
+      are so well understood, that they need neither contradiction nor
+      explanation. As to myself, my confidence in the wisdom and integrity of
+      the administration is so entire, that I scarcely notice what is passing,
+      and have almost ceased to read newspapers. Mine remain in our post-office
+      a week or ten days, sometimes, unasked for. I find more amusement in
+      studies to which I was always more attached, and from which I was dragged
+      by the events of the times in which I have happened to live.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In that
+      of the Revolution, we had France, Spain, and Holland on our side, and the
+      credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion, unprepared
+      and unexpecting war, we were compelled to declare it, and to receive the
+      attack of England, just issuing from a general war, fully armed, and freed
+      from all other enemies, and have not only made her sick of it, but glad to
+      prevent, by a peace, the capture of her adjacent possessions, which one or
+      two campaigns more would infallibly have made ours. She has found that we
+      can do her more injury than any other enemy on earth, and henceforward
+      will better estimate the value of our peace. But whether her government
+      has power, in opposition to the aristocracy of her navy, to restrain their
+      piracies within the limits of national rights, may well be doubted. I
+      pray, therefore, for peace, as best for all the world, best for us, and
+      best for me, who have already lived to see three wars, and now pant for
+      nothing more than to be permitted to depart in peace. That you also, who
+      have longer to live, may continue to enjoy this blessing with health and
+      prosperity, through as long a life as you desire, is the prayer of yours
+      affectionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. June the 14th. Before I had sent my letter to the post-office, I
+      received the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French
+      nation shall not have Bonaparte, and shall have Louis XVIII for their
+      ruler. They are all then as great rascals, as Bonaparte himself. While he
+      was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would answer our
+      purposes, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in the right, he
+      shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may dethrone every man
+      of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0128" id="link2H_4_0128">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 10,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been remarkable on
+      several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or state of
+      the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on
+      our mutual recollections. I had sat down to answer your letters of June
+      the 19th, 20th, and 22nds with pen, ink, and paper, before me, when I
+      received from our mail that of July the 30th. You ask information on the
+      subject of Camus. All I recollect of him is, that he was one of the
+      deputies sent to arrest Dumourier at the head of his army, who were,
+      however, themselves arrested by Dumourier, and long detained as prisoners.
+      I presume, therefore, he was a Jacobin. You will find his character in the
+      most excellent revolutionary history of Toulongeon. I believe also, he may
+      be the same person who has given us a translation of Aristotle&rsquo;s Natural
+      History, from the Greek into French. Of his report to the National
+      Institute on the subject of the Bollandists, your letter gives me the
+      first information. I had supposed them defunct with the society of
+      Jesuits, of which they were: and that their works, although above ground,
+      were, from their bulk and insignificance, as effectually entombed on their
+      shelves, as if in the graves of their authors. Fifty-two volumes in folio,
+      of the <i>acta sanctorum</i>, in dog-Latin, would be a formidable
+      enterprise to the most laborious German. I expect, with you, they are the
+      most enormous mass of lies, frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture, that ever
+      was heaped together on this globe. By what chemical process M. Camus
+      supposed that an extract of truth could be obtained from such a farrago of
+      falsehood, I must leave to the chemists and moralists of the age to
+      divine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who shall
+      write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it? Nobody;
+      except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
+      discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
+      member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which are
+      the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as you
+      observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths of
+      persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such speeches.
+      In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made their great
+      men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style, and in that of
+      the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one, more judicious,
+      more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the party diatribe of
+      Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too much from him. I
+      possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable portions of it,
+      although I never read it through. But a very judicious and well informed
+      neighbor of mine went through it with great attention, and spoke very
+      highly of it. I have said that no member of the old Congress, as far as I
+      knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not knew of the speeches you
+      mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on the questions of Independence,
+      and on the two articles of Confederation respecting taxes and voting, I
+      took minutes of the heads of the arguments. On the first, I threw all into
+      one mass, without ascribing to the speakers their respective arguments;
+      pretty much in the manner of Hume&rsquo;s summary digests of the reasonings in
+      parliament for and against a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of
+      arguments used by each speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question
+      of Independence does not occupy more than five pages, such as of this
+      letter: and on the other questions, two such sheets. They have never been
+      communicated to any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the
+      ablest work of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the
+      constitutional convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every
+      thing said and done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and
+      exactness beyond comprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I presume that our correspondence has been observed at the post-offices,
+      and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe, that a printer has had
+      the effrontery to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people
+      think they have a right to every thing, however secret or sacred. I had
+      not before heard of the Boston pamphlet with Priestley&rsquo;s Letters and mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Bonaparte has got on the right side of a question. From the time
+      of his entering the legislative hall to his retreat to Elba, no man has
+      execrated him more than myself. I will not except even the members of the
+      Essex Junto; although for very different reasons; I, because he was
+      warring against the liberty of his own country, and independence of
+      others; they, because he was the enemy of England, the Pope, and the
+      Inquisition. But at length, and as far as we can judge, he seems to have
+      become the choice of his nation. At least, he is defending the cause of
+      his nation, and that of all mankind, the rights of every people to
+      independence and self-government. He and the allies have now changed
+      sides. They are parcelling out among themselves Poland, Belgium, Saxony,
+      Italy, dictating a ruler and government to France, and looking askance at
+      our republic, the splendid libel on their governments, and he is fighting
+      for the principles of national independence, of which his whole life
+      hitherto has been a continued violation. He has promised a free government
+      to his own country, and to respect the rights of others; and although his
+      former conduct inspires little confidence in his promises, yet we had
+      better take the chance of his word for doing right, than the certainty of
+      the wrong which his adversaries are doing and avowing. If they succeed,
+      ours is only the boon of the Cyclops to Ulysses, of being the last
+      devoured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me affectionately and respectfully to Mrs. Adams, and Heaven give
+      you both as much more of life as you wish, and bless it with health and
+      happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. August the 11th. I had finished my letter yesterday, and this
+      morning receive the news of Bonaparte&rsquo;s second abdication. Very well. For
+      him personally, I have no feeling but reprobation. The representatives of
+      the nation have deposed him. They have taken the allies at their word,
+      that they had no object in the war but his removal. The nation is now free
+      to give itself a good government, either with or without a Bourbon; and
+      France unsubdued, will still be a bridle on the enterprises of the
+      combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0129" id="link2H_4_0129">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIX.&mdash;TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DABNEY CARR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 19, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
+      since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
+      been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been able
+      to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in this
+      neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke&rsquo;s History, I had suggested
+      to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee of
+      correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who introduced
+      it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the press. My
+      books, journals of the times, &amp;c. being all gone, I have nothing now
+      but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular statement you
+      wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find that I remember
+      old things better than new. The transaction took place in the session of
+      Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Frank Lee, your
+      father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening, about the close of the
+      session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on the measures which the
+      circumstances of the times seemed to call for. We agreed, in result, that
+      concert in the operations of the several Colonies was indispensable; and
+      that to produce this, some channel of correspondence between them must be
+      opened: that, therefore, we would propose to our House the appointment of
+      a committee of correspondence, which should be authorized and instructed
+      to write to the Speakers of the House of Representatives of the several
+      Colonies, recommending the appointment of similar committees on their
+      part, who, by a communication of sentiment on the transactions threatening
+      us all, might promote a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the
+      substance, not pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution,
+      and your father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day,
+      March the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by the
+      reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was developed.
+      It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some of us who
+      proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed of the
+      committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to the Speakers
+      of all the other Assemblies. I remember that Mr. Carr and myself,
+      returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the way,
+      concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably beget the
+      meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for the purpose
+      of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the maintenance of
+      our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm that we did it in
+      consequence of no such proposition from any other Colony. No doubt, the
+      resolution itself, and the journals of the day, will show that ours was
+      original, and not merely responsive to one from any other quarter. Yet, I
+      am certain I remember also, that a similar proposition, and nearly
+      cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and that our northern messenger
+      passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be settled by recurrence to the
+      records of Massachusetts. The proposition was generally acceded to by the
+      other Colonies, and the first effect, as expected, was the meeting of a
+      Congress at New York the ensuing year. The committee of correspondence
+      appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by you from Marshall, under the date
+      of 1770, must have been for a special purpose, and <i>functus officio</i>
+      before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts herself would not then have
+      proposed another. Records should be examined to settle this accurately. I
+      well remember the pleasure expressed in the countenance and conversation
+      of the members generally, on this <i>début</i> of Mr. Carr, and the hopes
+      they conceived as well from the talents as the patriotism it manifested.
+      But he died within two months after, and in him we lost a powerful
+      fellow-laborer. His character was of a high order. A spotless integrity,
+      sound judgment, handsome imagination, enriched by education and reading,
+      quick and clear in his conceptions, of correct and ready elocution,
+      impressing every hearer with the sincerity of the heart from which it
+      flowed. His firmness was inflexible in whatever he thought was right: but
+      when no moral principle stood in the way, never had man more of the milk
+      of human kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in
+      conversation and conduct. The number of his friends, and the warmth of
+      their affection, were proofs of his worth, and of their estimate of it. To
+      give to those now living, an idea of the affliction produced by his death
+      in the minds of all who knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by
+      themselves on the death of his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all
+      his endowments and moral qualities, and whose recollection can never recur
+      without a deep-drawn sigh from the bosom of any one who knew him. You
+      mention that I showed you an inscription I had proposed for the tomb-stone
+      of your father. Did I leave it in your hands to be copied? I ask the
+      question, not that I have any such recollection, but that I find it no
+      longer in the place of its deposite, and think I never took it out but on
+      that occasion. Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0130" id="link2H_4_0130">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 8, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 8, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th and March the
+      2nd, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and regret that
+      distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation would be worth a
+      volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three years
+      over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you that it is a good world
+      on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and
+      more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are, indeed, (who might say
+      nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies,
+      disgusted with the present, and despairing of the future; always counting
+      that the worst will happen, because it may happen. To these I say, how
+      much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened! My temperament
+      is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern.
+      My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of
+      the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge, even in the happiest life, some
+      terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs against the opposite page of the
+      account. I have often wondered for what good end the sensations of grief
+      could be intended. All our other passions, within proper bounds, have an
+      useful object. And the perfection of the moral character is, not in a
+      stoical apathy, so hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because
+      impossible, but in a just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the
+      pathologists then would tell us what is the use of grief in the economy,
+      and of what good it is the cause, proximate or remote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the
+      pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while I
+      was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning, and egoism. No
+      heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak its
+      language: his forte was Belles-lettres, painting, and sculpture. In these
+      he was the oracle of the society, and as such, was the Empress Catharine&rsquo;s
+      private correspondent and factor, in all things not diplomatic. It was
+      through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to go to Kamschatka, and
+      cross over thence to the western coast of America, in order to penetrate
+      across our continent in the opposite direction to that afterwards adopted
+      for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she withdrew after he had got
+      within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had him seized, brought back, and
+      set down in Poland. Although I never heard Grimm express the opinion
+      directly, yet I always supposed him to be of the school of Diderot,
+      D&rsquo;Alembert, D&rsquo;Holbach; the first of whom committed his system of atheism
+      to writing in &lsquo;<i>Le Bon Sens</i>,&rsquo; and the last in his &lsquo;<i>Systeme de la
+      Nature</i>? It was a numerous school in the Catholic countries, while the
+      infidelity of the Protestant took generally the form of theism. The former
+      always insisted that it was a mere question of definition between them,
+      the hypostasis of which on both sides, was &lsquo;<i>Nature</i>,&rsquo; or &lsquo;the <i>Universe</i>&rsquo;:
+      that both agreed in the order of the existing system, but the one supposed
+      it from eternity, the other as having begun in time. And when the atheist
+      descanted on the unceasing motion and circulation of matter through the
+      animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated,
+      always changing form, and under all forms gifted with the power of
+      reproduction; the theist pointing &lsquo;to the heavens above, and to the earth
+      beneath, and to the waters under the earth,&rsquo; asked, if these did not
+      proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence and power; power in the
+      production, and intelligence in the design, and constant preservation of
+      the system; urged the palpable existence of final causes; that the eye was
+      made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that we see because we have
+      eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer obvious to the senses, as
+      that of walking across the room, was to the philosopher demonstrating the
+      non-existence of motion. It was in D&rsquo;Holbach&rsquo;s conventicles that Rousseau
+      imagined all the machinations against him were contrived and he left, in
+      his Confessions, the most biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after
+      I left France; but I have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by
+      them, that he kept his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of
+      Grimm. Their volume has kept them out of our market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been lately amusing myself with Levi&rsquo;s book, in answer to Dr.
+      Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and
+      incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy
+      enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his two
+      resurrections: the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body as
+      well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of perfect
+      obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal punishment for
+      the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he explains this
+      resurrection of bodies to be only of the original stamen of Leibnitz, or
+      the human <i>calus in semine masculino</i>, considering that as a
+      mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The second
+      resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to enjoy divine
+      glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that the Jews alone
+      preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God would be deemed a
+      very indifferent man with us: and it was to correct their anamorphosis of
+      the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to establish the doctrine of a
+      future state. However, Levi insists, that that was taught in the Old
+      Testament, and even by Moses himself and the prophets. He agrees that an
+      anointed prince was prophesied and promised: but denies that the character
+      and history of Jesus had any analogy with that of the person promised. He
+      must be fearfully embarrassing to the Hierophants of fabricated
+      Christianity; because it is their own armor in which he clothes himself
+      for the attack. For example, he takes passages of scripture from their
+      context (which would give them a very different meaning), strings them
+      together, and makes them point towards what object he pleases; he
+      interprets them figuratively, typically, analogically, hyperbolically; he
+      calls in the aid of emendation, transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and
+      every other figure of rhetoric; the name of one man is taken for another,
+      one place for another, days and weeks for months and years; and finally he
+      avails himself of all his advantage over his adversaries by his superior
+      knowledge of the Hebrew, speaking in the very language of the divine
+      communication, while they can only fumble on with conflicting and disputed
+      translations. Such is this war of giants. And how can such pigmies as you
+      and I decide between them? For myself, I confess, that my head is not
+      formed <i>tantas componere lites</i>. And as you began yours of March the
+      2nd, with a declaration, that you were about to write me the most
+      frivolous letter I had ever read, so I will close mine by saying, I have
+      written you a full match for it, and by adding my affectionate respects to
+      Mrs. Adams, and the assurance of my constant attachment and consideration
+      for yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0131" id="link2H_4_0131">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXI.&mdash;TO JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 28,1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from home, I
+      found here the copy of your &lsquo;Enquiry into the Principles of our
+      Government,&rsquo; which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I
+      pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in our
+      situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had
+      prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated
+      during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted me
+      to give to the whole a thorough reading: yet certain that you and I could
+      not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government, I was
+      impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the
+      writing-table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should confirm
+      our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our constitution, and
+      fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The sixth section on the
+      good moral principles of our government, I found so interesting and
+      replete with sound principles, as to postpone my letter-writing to its
+      thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much other good matter, it
+      settles unanswerably the right of instructing representatives, and their
+      duty to obey. The system of banking we have both equally and ever
+      reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions,
+      which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit
+      by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the
+      fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I consider as limited,
+      rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority of
+      the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the
+      laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he
+      made for their subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like
+      them, were but tenants for life. You have successfully and completely
+      pulverized Mr. Adams&rsquo;s system of orders, and his opening the mantle of
+      republicanism to every government of laws, whether consistent or not with
+      natural right. Indeed, it must be acknowledged, that the term republic is
+      of very vague application in every language. Witness the self-styled
+      republics of Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to assign
+      to this term a precise and definite idea, I would say, that, purely and
+      simply, it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and
+      personally, according to rules established by the majority: and that every
+      other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it has in
+      its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct action of
+      the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow
+      limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond
+      the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure
+      element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of
+      itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, should
+      be exercised each by representatives chosen by the citizens either <i>pro
+      hac vice</i>, or for such short terms as should render secure the duty of
+      expressing the will of their constituents. This I should consider as the
+      nearest approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a large scale
+      of country or population. And we have examples of it in some of our State
+      constitutions, which, if not poisoned by priestcraft, would prove its
+      excellence over all mixtures with other elements; and, with only equal
+      doses of poison, would still be the best. Other shades of republicanism
+      may be found in other forms of government, where the executive, judiciary,
+      and legislative functions, and the different branches of the latter, are
+      chosen by the people more or less directly, for longer terms of years, or
+      for life, or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities,
+      some dependent on, and others independent of the peopje. The further the
+      departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has
+      the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none where
+      the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &amp;c. or
+      self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion as
+      the life continues in being after the act of election.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the
+      House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less
+      the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by the
+      people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because for
+      life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military leaders,
+      irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious constitution of
+      our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive administration, the
+      taxation, police, the military appointments of the county, and nearly all
+      our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed, self-continued, holding
+      their authorities for life, and with an impossibility of breaking in on
+      the perpetual succession of any faction once possessed of the bench. They
+      are, in truth, the executive, the judiciary, and the military of their
+      respective counties, and the sum of the counties makes the State. And add,
+      also, that one half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded,
+      like Helots, from the rights of representation, as if society were
+      instituted for the soil, and not for the men inhabiting it; or one half of
+      these could dispose of the rights and the will of the other half, without
+      their consent.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     What constitutes a State?
+     Not high-raised battlements, or lahor&rsquo;d mound,
+     Thick wall, or moated gate;
+     Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown&rsquo;d;
+     No: men, high-minded men;
+     Men, who their duties know;
+     But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
+     These constitute a State.&rsquo;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
+      republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
+      directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
+      Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
+      election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
+      assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also, a
+      principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
+      judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
+      found nugatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be
+      the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other measure),
+      it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism
+      than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have
+      less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their
+      interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of republican
+      dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to a submission
+      of true principle to European authorities, to speculators on government,
+      whose fears of the people have been inspired by the populace of their own
+      great cities, and were unjustly entertained against the independent, the
+      happy, and therefore orderly citizens of the United States. Much I
+      apprehend that the golden moment is past for reforming these heresies. The
+      functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to
+      abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not likely to
+      prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are always told that
+      things are going on well; why change them? &lsquo;<i>Chi sta bene, non si muova</i>,&rsquo;
+      says the Italian, &lsquo;Let him who stands well, stand still.&rsquo; This is true;
+      and I verily believe they would go on well with us under an absolute
+      monarch, while our present character remains, of order, industry, and love
+      of peace, and restrained, as he would be, by the proper spirit of the
+      people. But it is while it remains such, we should provide against the
+      consequences of its deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it
+      will yet be done, and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never
+      happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this view of the import of the term republic, instead of saying, as has
+      been said, &lsquo;that it may mean any thing or nothing,&rsquo; we may say with truth
+      and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as they have
+      more or less of the element of popular election and control in their
+      composition: and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the
+      safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils
+      flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those
+      from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of
+      government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely
+      believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than
+      standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by
+      posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large
+      scale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0132" id="link2H_4_0132">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXII.&mdash;TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 7,1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received a few-days ago from Mr. Dupont the enclosed manuscript, with
+      permission to read it, and a request, when read, to forward it to you, in
+      expectation that you would translate it. It is well worthy of publication
+      for the instruction of our citizens, being profound, sound, and short. Our
+      legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their
+      powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural
+      rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural
+      right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all
+      from which the laws ought to restrain him: every man is under the natural
+      duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all
+      the laws should enforce on him: and, no man having a natural right to be
+      the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to
+      the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and
+      enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is
+      quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural
+      right. The trial of every law by one of these texts, would lessen much the
+      labors of our legislators, and lighten equally our municipal codes. There
+      is a work of the first order of merit now in the press at Washington, by
+      Destutt Tracy, on the subject of political economy, which he brings into
+      the compass of three hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary discourse on
+      the origin of the right of property, he coincides much with the principles
+      of the present manuscript; but is more developed, more demonstrative. He
+      promises a future work on morals, in which I lament to see, that he will
+      adopt the principles of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature; that the
+      sense of justice and injustice is not derived from our natural
+      organization, but founded on convention only. I lament this the more, as
+      he is unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract subjects.
+      Assuming the fact, that the earth has been created in time, and
+      consequently the dogma of final causes, we yield, of course, to this short
+      syllogism. Man was created for social intercourse; but social intercourse
+      cannot be maintained without a sense of justice; then man must have been
+      created with a sense of justice. There is an error into which most of the
+      speculators on government have fallen, and which the well known state of
+      society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In their
+      hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have commenced
+      in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are evidently in that
+      state of nature which has passed the association of a single family; and
+      not yet submitted to the authority of positive laws, or of any
+      acknowledged magistrate. Every man, with them, is perfectly free to follow
+      his own inclinations. But if, in doing this, he violates the rights of
+      another, if the case be slight, he is punished by the disesteem of his
+      society, or, as we say, by public opinion; if serious, he is tomahawked as
+      a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by the influence of their
+      character only; and they follow, or not, as they please, him of whose
+      character for wisdom or war they have the highest opinion. Hence the
+      origin of the parties among them adhering to different leaders, and
+      governed by their advice, not by their command. The Cherokees, the only
+      tribe I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws,
+      magistrates, and government, propose a government of representatives,
+      elected from every town. But of all things, they least think of subjecting
+      themselves to the will of one man. This, the only instance of actual fact
+      within our knowledge, will be then a beginning by republican, and not by
+      patriarchal or monarchical government, as speculative writers have
+      generally conjectured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment of our friend
+      Correa, to be Minister or Envoy of Portugal, here. This, I hope, will give
+      him to us, for life. Nor will it at all interfere with his botanical
+      rambles or journeys. The government of Portugal is so peaceable and
+      inoffensive, that it has never any altercations with its friends. If their
+      minister abroad writes them once a quarter that all is well, they desire
+      no more. I learn (though not from Correa himself) that he thinks of paying
+      us a visit as soon as he is through his course of lectures. Not to lose
+      this happiness again by my absence, I have informed him I shall set out
+      for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and be back the first week of July. I
+      wish you and he could concert your movements so as to meet here, and that
+      you would make this your headquarters. It is a good central point from
+      which to visit your connections; and you know our practice of placing our
+      guests at their ease, by showing them we are so ourselves, and that we
+      follow our necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging
+      unremittingly on their shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0133" id="link2H_4_0133">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIII.*&mdash;TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 9, 1816.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
+     inserted out of its regular order.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are entirely
+      just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we have reason to
+      suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate termination. There is
+      still an awful void between the present, and what is to be the last
+      chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled with abominations,
+      as frightful as those which have already disgraced it. That nation is too
+      high-minded, has too much innate force, intelligence, and elasticity, to
+      remain quiet under its present compression. Samson will arise in his
+      strength, and probably will ere long burst asunder the cords and the webs
+      of the Philistines. But what are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and
+      how widely they may spread between the brethren of one family, our
+      ignorance of the interior feuds and antipathies of the country places
+      beyond our view. Whatever may be the convulsions, we cannot but indulge
+      the pleasing hope, they will end in the permanent establishment of a
+      representative government; a government in which the will of the people
+      will be an effective ingredient. This important element has taken root in
+      the European mind, and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of
+      this, are already offering this modification of their governments, under
+      the plausible pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part.
+      Had Bonaparte used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment
+      and support of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity
+      and rest, and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every
+      nation in Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the
+      will of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper
+      conduct, however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
+      object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
+      accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of man.
+      What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and how
+      faithfully should they cherish the parent tree at home. Chagrin and
+      mortification are the punishments our enemies receive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence on
+      England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so
+      quoted with more candor. But within the thirty years which have since
+      elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We were then in peace; our
+      independent place among nations was acknowledged. A commerce which offered
+      the raw material, in exchange for the same material after receiving the
+      last touch of industry, was worthy of welcome to all nations. It was
+      expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing industry was
+      important, would cherish the friendship of such customers by every favor,
+      and particularly cultivate their peace by every act of justice and
+      friendship. Under this prospect, the question seemed legitimate, whether,
+      with such an immensity of unimproved land, courting the hand of husbandry,
+      the industry of agriculture, or that of manufactures, would add most to
+      the national wealth. And the doubt on the utility of the American
+      manufactures was entertained on this consideration, chiefly, that to the
+      labor of the husbandman a vast addition is made by the spontaneous
+      energies of the earth on which it is employed. For one grain of wheat
+      committed to the earth, she renders twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold;
+      whereas to the labor of the manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of flax,
+      in his hands, on the contrary, yield but penny weights of lace. This
+      exchange, too, laborious as it might seem, what a field did it promise for
+      the occupation of the ocean; what a nursery for that class of citizens who
+      were to exercise and maintain our equal rights on that element! This was
+      the state of things in 1785, when the Notes on Virginia were first
+      published; when, the ocean being open to all nations, and their common
+      right in it acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the
+      assent and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But who, in 1785, could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render
+      the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man? Who could have
+      imagined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations, for
+      science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from that
+      honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws
+      established by the Author of Nature between nation and nation, as between
+      man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and piracies, merely
+      because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity, and that under this
+      disbandment of nations from social order, we should have been despoiled of
+      a thousand ships, and have thousands of our citizens reduced to Algerine
+      slavery. Yet all this has taken place. The British interdicted to our
+      vessels all harbors of the globe, without having first proceeded to some
+      one of hers, there paid a tribute proportioned to the cargo, and obtained
+      her license to proceed to the port of destination. The French declared
+      them to be lawful prize if they had touched at the port, or been visited
+      by a ship of the enemy nation. Thus were we completely excluded from the
+      ocean. Compare this state of things with that of &lsquo;85, and say whether an
+      opinion founded in the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to
+      those of the present. We have experienced, what we did not then believe,
+      that there exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the
+      field of interchange with other nations. That to be independent for the
+      comforts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the
+      manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former question is
+      suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry now is, Shall
+      we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign
+      nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture, must be
+      for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be
+      clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am
+      not one of these. Experience has taught me that manufactures are now as
+      necessary to our independence as to our comfort; and if those who quote me
+      as of a different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing
+      foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without
+      regard to difference of price, it will not be our fault if we do not soon
+      have a supply at home equal to our demand, and wrest that weapon of
+      distress from the hand which has so long wantonly wielded it. If it shall
+      be proposed to go beyond our own supply, the question of &lsquo;85 will then
+      recur, Will our surplus labor be then more beneficially employed, in the
+      culture of the earth, or in the fabrications of art? We have time yet for
+      consideration, before that question will press upon us; and the axiom to
+      be applied will depend on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in
+      so complicated a science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid
+      down as wise and expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to
+      this is what has called for this explanation, which reflection would have
+      rendered unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those
+      who use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their
+      disloyal propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and
+      unfriendly people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0134" id="link2H_4_0134">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIV.&mdash;TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 20, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to the
+      drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt of
+      your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot, however,
+      deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I have
+      received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris, in
+      yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had not
+      before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the perusal
+      of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the subject of
+      drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted into ours
+      from the British system, by a man whose mind was really powerful, but
+      chained by native partialities to every thing English; who had formed
+      exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English constitution,
+      the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely believed it for the
+      good of this country to make them their model in every thing; without
+      considering that what might be wise and good for a nation essentially
+      commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse with numerous and
+      powerful neighbors, might not be so for one essentially agricultural, and
+      insulated by nature from the abusive governments of the old world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice to
+      exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
+      whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it is
+      the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry on the
+      business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with the
+      other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute its
+      distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to that,
+      is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the mimicry of
+      an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every society has a right
+      to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and to say to all
+      individuals, that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these
+      principles, and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they
+      must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and
+      still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude
+      them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease. Such is
+      the situation of our country. We have most abundant resources of happiness
+      within ourselves, which we may enjoy in peace and safety, without
+      permitting a few citizens, infected with the mania of rambling and
+      gambling, to bring danger on the great mass engaged in innocent and safe
+      pursuits at home. In your letter to Fisk, you have fairly stated the
+      alternatives between which we are to choose: 1. licentious commerce and
+      gambling speculations for a few, with eternal war for the many; or, 2.
+      restricted commerce, peace, and steady occupations for all. If any State
+      in the Union will declare that it prefers separation with the first
+      alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I have no hesitation in
+      saying, &lsquo;Let us separate.&rsquo; I would rather the States should withdraw,
+      which are for unlimited commerce and war, and confederate with those alone
+      which are for peace and agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe
+      would join in sincere amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm&rsquo;s
+      length, by jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations, and war. No
+      earthly consideration could induce my consent to contract such a debt as
+      England has by her wars for commerce, to reduce our citizens by taxes to
+      such wretchedness, as that laboring sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they
+      are still unable to afford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much
+      oatmeal or potatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this to
+      feed the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up one
+      thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial speculations.
+      I returned from Europe after our government had got under way, and had
+      adopted from the British code the law of drawbacks. I early saw its
+      effects in the jealousies and vexations of Britain; and that, retaining
+      it, we must become, like her, an essentially warring nation, and meet, in
+      the end, the catastrophe impending over her. No one can doubt that this
+      alone produced the orders of council, the depredations which preceded, and
+      the war which followed them. Had we carried but our own produce, and
+      brought back but our own wants, no nation would have troubled us. Our
+      commercial dashers, then, have already cost us so many thousand lives, so
+      many millions of dollars, more than their persons and all their commerce
+      were worth. When war was declared, and especially after Massachusetts, who
+      had produced it, took side with the enemy waging it, I pressed on some
+      confidential friends in Congress to avail us of the happy opportunity of
+      repealing the drawback; and I do rejoice to find that you are in that
+      sentiment. You are young, and may be in the way of bringing it into
+      effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and change of tone (for there are symptoms
+      of that in Massachusetts), may not have obliterated altogether the sense
+      of our late feelings and sufferings; may not have induced oblivion of the
+      friends we have lost, the depredations and conflagrations we have
+      suffered, and the debts we have incurred, and to have to labor for through
+      the lives of the present generation. The earlier the repeal is proposed,
+      the more it will be befriended by all these recollections and
+      considerations. This is one of three great measures necessary to insure us
+      permanent prosperity. This preserves our peace. A second should enable us
+      to meet any war, by adopting the report of the war department, for placing
+      the force of the nation at effectual command: and a third should insure
+      resources of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during
+      peace, and licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic
+      medium of which we should be possessed at the commencement of a war, would
+      be a sufficient fund for all the loans we should need through its
+      continuance; and if the national bills issued, be bottomed (as is
+      indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for their redemption within
+      certain and moderate epochs, and be of proper denominations for
+      circulation, no interest on them would be necessary or just, because they
+      would answer to every one the purposes of the metallic money withdrawn and
+      replaced by them. But possibly these may be the dreams of an old man, or
+      that the occasions of realizing them may have passed away without return.
+      A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many,
+      uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their
+      affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed, for a
+      moment, at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its
+      continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than
+      any where else; and for its growth and continuance, as well as for your
+      personal health and happiness, I offer sincere prayers, with the homage of
+      my respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0135" id="link2H_4_0135">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXV.&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 12, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the copy of the letters
+      on the calling a convention, on which you are pleased to ask my opinion. I
+      have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of
+      buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. On the contrary, while in
+      public service especially, I thought the public entitled to frankness, and
+      intimately to know whom they employed. But I am now retired: I resign
+      myself, as a passenger, with confidence to those at present at the helm,
+      and ask but for rest, peace, and good will. The question you propose, on
+      equal representation, has become a party one, in which I wish to take no
+      public share. Yet, if it be asked for your own satisfaction only, and not
+      to be quoted before the public, I have no motive to withhold it, and the
+      less from you, as it coincides with your own. At the birth of our
+      republic, I committed that opinion to the world, in the draught of a
+      constitution annexed to the Notes on Virginia, in which a provision was
+      inserted for a representation permanently equal. The infancy of the
+      subject at that moment, and our inexperience of self-government,
+      occasioned gross departures in that draught from genuine republican
+      canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space
+      of political contemplation, that we imagined every thing republican which
+      was not monarchy. We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that
+      &lsquo;governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of
+      their people, and execute it.&rsquo; Hence, our first constitutions had really
+      no leading principle in them. But experience and reflection have but more
+      and more confirmed me in the particular importance of the equal
+      representation then proposed. On that point, then, I am entirely in
+      sentiment with your letters; and only lament that a copyright of your
+      pamphlet prevents their appearance in the newspapers, where alone they
+      would be generally read, and produce general effect. The present vacancy
+      too, of other matter, would give them place in every paper, and bring the
+      question home to every man&rsquo;s conscience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legislature, is not
+      the only republican heresy in this first essay of our revolutionary
+      patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be agreed that a government
+      is republican in proportion as every member composing it has his equal
+      voice in the direction of its concerns, (not indeed in person, which would
+      be impracticable beyond the limits of a city, or small township, but) by
+      representatives chosen by himself, and responsible to him at short
+      periods, and let us bring to the test of this canon every branch of our
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than
+      half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose. The
+      Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of
+      irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent
+      of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally so,
+      and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the judges of
+      the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves. In England, where
+      judges were named and removable at the will of an hereditary executive,
+      from which branch most misrule was feared, and has flowed, it was a great
+      point gained, by fixing them for life, to make them independent of that
+      executive. But in a government founded on the public will, this principle
+      operates in an opposite direction, and against that will. There, too, they
+      were still removable on a concurrence of the executive and legislative
+      branches. But we have made them independent of the nation itself. They are
+      irremovable, but by their own body, for any depravities of conduct, and
+      even by their own body for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the
+      inferior courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own
+      body in succession for ever, so that a faction once possessing themselves
+      of the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county in
+      chains, for ever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real executive
+      as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
+      tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all the
+      executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military leaders,
+      which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The juries,
+      our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are not selected
+      by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an officer named
+      by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up by the sheriff
+      from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing respectable has
+      retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be found? Not in our
+      constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of our people. That would
+      oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly. Owing to this spirit, and
+      to nothing in the form of our constitution, all things have gone well. But
+      this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by the enemies of reformation, is not
+      the fruit of our constitution, but has prevailed in spite of it. Our
+      functionaries have done well, because generally honest men. If any were
+      not so, they feared to show it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I do
+      not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down true
+      principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their
+      surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against
+      the ascendancy of the people. If experience be called for, appeal to that
+      of our fifteen or twenty governments for forty years, and show me where
+      the people have done half the mischief in these forty years, that a single
+      despot would have done in a single year; or show half the riots and
+      rebellions, the crimes and the punishments, which have taken place in any
+      single nation, under Kingly government, during the same period. The true
+      foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen,
+      in his person and property, and in their management. Try by this, as a
+      tally, every provision of our constitution, and see if it hangs directly
+      on the will of the people. Reduce your legislature to a convenient number
+      for full, but orderly discussion. Let every man who fights or pays,
+      exercise his just and equal right in their election. Submit them to
+      approbation or rejection at short intervals. Let the executive be chosen
+      in the same way, and for the same term, by those whose agent he is to be;
+      and leave no screen of a council behind which to skulk from
+      responsibility. It has been thought that the people are not competent
+      electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know that this is
+      true, and if doubtful, we should follow principle. In this, as in many
+      other elections, they would be guided by reputation, which would not err
+      oftener, perhaps, than the present mode of appointment. In one State of
+      the Union, at least, it has been long tried, and with the most
+      satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut have been chosen by the
+      people every six months, for nearly two centuries, and I believe there has
+      hardly ever been an instance of change; so powerful is the curb of
+      incessant responsibility. If prejudice, however, derived from a
+      monarchical institution, is still to prevail against the vital elective
+      principle of our own, and if the existing example among ourselves of
+      periodical election of judges by the people be still mistrusted, let us at
+      least not adopt the evil, and reject the good, of the English precedent;
+      let us retain a movability on the concurrence of the executive and
+      legislative branches, and nomination by the executive alone. Nomination to
+      office is an executive function. To give it to the legislature, as we do,
+      is a violation of the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves
+      the members from correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office
+      themselves, and to a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility
+      by dividing it among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper
+      place, among executive functions, the principle of the distribution of
+      power is preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest force on a
+      single head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The organization of our county administrations may be thought more
+      difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. Divide the
+      counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can attend when
+      called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the government of their
+      wards in all things relating to themselves exclusively. A justice, chosen
+      by themselves, in each, a constable, a military company, a patrol, a
+      school, the care of their own poor, their own portion of the public roads,
+      the choice of one or more jurors to serve in some court, and the delivery,
+      within their own wards, of their own votes for all elective officers of
+      higher sphere, will relieve the county administration of nearly all its
+      business, will have it better done, and by making every citizen an acting
+      member of the government, and in the offices nearest and most interesting
+      to him, will attach him by his strongest feelings to the independence of
+      his country, and its republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by
+      every ward, would constitute the county court, would do its judiciary
+      business, direct roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates, and
+      administer all the matters of common interest to the whole county. These
+      wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their
+      governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised
+      by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its
+      preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1. The general
+      federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2. That of the
+      State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; 3. The county
+      republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; and, 4. The ward
+      republics, for the small, and yet numerous and interesting concerns of the
+      neighborhood: and in government, as well as in every other business of
+      life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all
+      matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole is
+      cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the
+      administration of the public affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2. Equal
+      representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the people.
+      4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and sheriffs
+      elective. 6. Ward divisions. And, 7. Periodical amendments of the
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thrown out these, as loose heads of amendment, for consideration
+      and correction: and their object is to secure self-government by the
+      republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the people;
+      and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those who fear
+      the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued
+      freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers
+      load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and
+      liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we
+      must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our
+      comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our
+      creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to
+      labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of
+      these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the
+      sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now
+      do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling
+      the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring
+      ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our
+      land-holders, too, like theirs, retaining indeed the title and stewardship
+      of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must
+      wander, like theirs, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury,
+      obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us
+      the salutary lesson that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well
+      as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human
+      governments. A departure from principle in one instance, becomes a
+      precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk
+      of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no
+      sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the
+      <i>bellum omnium in omnia</i>, which some philosophers observing to be so
+      general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the
+      abusive state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public
+      debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem
+      them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe
+      to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what
+      they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it,
+      and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the
+      present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of
+      experience in government is worth a century of book-reading: and this they
+      would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not
+      an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I
+      think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once
+      known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of
+      correcting their ill effects. But I know, also, that laws and institutions
+      must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes
+      more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths
+      disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of
+      circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the
+      times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted
+      him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of
+      their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately
+      deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding to the
+      gradual changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodation to
+      progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves
+      behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects to seek through blood and
+      violence rash and ruinous innovations, which, had they been referred to
+      the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have
+      been put into acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such
+      examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as
+      another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs. Let us,
+      as our sister States have done, avail ourselves of our reason and
+      experience, to correct the crude essays of our first and unexperienced,
+      although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning councils. And, lastly, let us
+      provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods. What these
+      periods should be, nature herself indicates. By the European tables of
+      mortality, of the adults living at any one moment of time, a majority will
+      be dead in about nineteen years. At the end of that period, then, a new
+      majority is come into place; or, in other words, a new generation. Each
+      generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all
+      which had gone before. It has, then, like them, a right to choose for
+      itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own
+      happiness; consequently, to accommodate to the circumstances in which it
+      finds itself, that received from its predecessors: and it is for the peace
+      and good of mankind, that a solemn opportunity of doing this every
+      nineteen or twenty years, should be provided by the constitution; so that
+      it may be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to
+      generation, to the end of time, if any thing human can so long endure. It
+      is now forty years since the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same
+      tables inform us, that, within that period, two thirds of the adults then
+      living are now dead. Have then the remaining third, even if they had the
+      wish, the right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws heretofore
+      made by them, the other two thirds, who, with themselves, compose the
+      present mass of adults? If they have not, who has? The dead? But the dead
+      have no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where
+      there is no substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe, and
+      every thing upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants, during
+      their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is the concern of
+      themselves alone, and to declare the law of that direction: and this
+      declaration can only be made by their majority. That majority, then, has a
+      right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make the
+      constitution what they think will be best for themselves. But how collect
+      their voice? This is the real difficulty. If invited by private authority
+      to county or district meetings, these divisions are so large, that few
+      will attend; and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely pronounced.
+      Here, then, would be one of the advantages of the ward divisions I have
+      proposed. The mayor of every ward, on a question like the present, would
+      call his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of its members, convey
+      these to the county court, who would hand on those of all its wards to the
+      proper general authority; and the voice of the whole people would be thus
+      fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed, discussed, and decided by the
+      common reason of the society. If this avenue be shut to the call of
+      sufferance, it will make itself heard through that of force, and we shall
+      go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless circle of oppression,
+      rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and
+      so on, for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among men, and of
+      the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from falling into the
+      same dreadful track. I have given them at greater length than your letter
+      called for. But I cannot say things by halves; and I confide them to your
+      honor, so to use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the public
+      papers. If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done that of
+      equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them to yourself
+      as the effusions of withered age, and useless time. I shall, with not the
+      Less truth, assure you of my great respect and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0136" id="link2H_4_0136">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 21, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to acknowledge a copious supply
+      of the turnip-seed requested. Besides taking care myself, I shall endeavor
+      again to commit it to the depository of the neighborhood, generally found
+      to be the best precaution against losing a good thing. I will add a word
+      on the political part of our letters. I believe we do not differ on either
+      of the points you suppose. On education certainly not; of which the proofs
+      are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge, proposed near forty years ago,
+      and my uniform endeavors, to this day, to get our counties divided into
+      wards, one of the principal objects of which is, the establishment of a
+      primary school in each. But education not being a branch of municipal
+      government, but, like the other arts and sciences, an accident only, I did
+      not place it, with election, as a fundamental member in the structure of
+      government. Nor, I believe, do we differ as to the county courts. I
+      acknowledge the value of this institution; that it is in truth our
+      principal executive and judiciary, and that it does much for little
+      pecuniary reward. It is their self-appointment I wish to correct; to find
+      some means of breaking up a cabal, when such a one gets possession of the
+      bench. When this takes place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies,
+      because its powers are so various, and exercised on every thing most
+      immediately around us. And how many instances have you and I known of
+      these monopolies of county administration! I knew a county in which a
+      particular family (a numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a
+      whole generation. never admitted a man on it who was not of its clan or
+      connection. 1 know a county now of one thousand and five hundred militia,
+      of which sixty are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom
+      twenty are federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large and
+      populous districts in it without a justice, because without a federalist
+      for appointment: the militia are as disproportionably under federal
+      officers. And there is no authority on earth which can break up this
+      junto, short of a general convention. The remaining one thousand four
+      hundred and forty, free, fighting, and paying citizens, are governed by
+      men neither of their choice nor confidence, and without a hope of relief.
+      They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free government for
+      life, and indefinitely, for aught the constitution has provided. This
+      solecism may be called any thing but republican, and ought undoubtedly to
+      be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0137" id="link2H_4_0137">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVII.&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 5, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That which I wrote to you
+      under the address of H. Tompkinson, was intended for the author of the
+      pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and therefore, in your hands,
+      found its true destination. But I must beseech you, Sir, not to admit a
+      possibility of its being published. Many good people will revolt from its
+      doctrines, and my wish is to offend nobody; to leave to those who are to
+      live under it, the settlement of their own constitution, and to pass in
+      peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions are sound, they will
+      occur to others, and will prevail by their own weight, without the aid of
+      names. I am glad to see that the Staunton meeting has rejected the idea of
+      a limited convention. The article, however, nearest my heart, is the
+      division of the counties into wards. These will be pure and elementary
+      republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes the State, and
+      will make of the whole a true democracy as to the business of the wards,
+      which is that of nearest and daily concern. The affairs of the larger
+      sections, of counties, of States, and of the Union, not admitting personal
+      transaction by the people, will be delegated to agents elected by
+      themselves; and representation will thus be substituted, where personal
+      action becomes impracticable. Yet, even over these representative organs,
+      should they become corrupt and perverted, the division into wards
+      constituting the people, in their wards, a regularly organized power,
+      enables them by that organization to crush, regularly and peaceably, the
+      usurpations of their unfaithful agents, and rescues them from the dreadful
+      necessity of doing it insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as
+      republican as a large society can be; and secure the continuance of purity
+      in our government, by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the
+      people. No other depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did
+      not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed
+      to their charge. George the III., in execution of the trust confided to
+      him, has, within his own day, loaded the inhabitants of Great Britain with
+      debts equal to the whole fee-simple value of their island, and under
+      pretext of governing it, has alienated its whole soil to creditors who
+      could lend money to be lavished on priests, pensions, plunder, and
+      perpetual war. This would not have been so, had the people retained
+      organized means of acting on their agents. In this example, then, let us
+      read a lesson for ourselves, and not &lsquo;go, and do likewise.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told, that on the
+      question of equal representation, our fellow-citizens in some sections of
+      the State claim peremptorily a right of representation for their slaves.
+      Principle will, in this, as in most other cases, open the way for us to
+      correct conclusion. Were our State a pure democracy, in which all its
+      inhabitants should meet together to transact all their business, there
+      would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until arrived
+      at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation of morals,
+      and ambiguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously in the public meetings
+      of men. 3, Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of things with us takes
+      away the rights of will and of property. Those, then, who have no will,
+      could be permitted to exercise none in the popular assembly; and of course
+      could delegate none to an agent in a representative assembly. The
+      business, in the first case, would be done by qualified citizens only;
+      and, in the second, by the representatives of qualified citizens only. It
+      is true, that in the general constitution, our State is allowed a larger
+      representation on account of its slaves. But every one knows, that that
+      constitution was a matter of compromise; a capitulation between
+      conflicting interests and opinions. In truth, the condition of different
+      descriptions of inhabitants in any country is a matter of municipal
+      arrangement, of which no foreign country has a right to take notice. All
+      its inhabitants are men as to them. Thus, in the New England States, none
+      have the powers of citizens but those whom they call freemen; and none are
+      freemen Until admitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the
+      General Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum of
+      representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no powers as
+      citizens; yet, in representation in the General Government, they count in
+      the proportion of three to five; and so also in taxation. Whether this is
+      equal, is not here the question. It is a capitulation of discordant
+      sentiments and circumstances, and is obligatory on that ground. But this
+      view shows there is no inconsistency in claiming representation for them
+      from the other States, and refusing it within our own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the renewal of assurances of my respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0138" id="link2H_4_0138">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 14, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well explained the uses
+      of grief. That of September the 3rd, with equal truth, adduces instances
+      of its abuse; and when we put into the same scale these abuses, with the
+      afflictions of soul which even the uses of grief cost us, we may consider
+      its value in the economy of the human being, as equivocal at least. Those
+      afflictions cloud too great a portion of life, to find a counterpoise in
+      any benefits derived from its uses. For setting aside its paroxyms on the
+      occasions of special bereavements, all the latter years of aged men are
+      overshadowed with its gloom. Whither, for instance, can you and I look
+      without seeing the graves of those we have known? And whom can we call up,
+      of our early companions, who has not left us to regret his loss? This,
+      indeed, may be one of the salutary effects of grief; inasmuch as it
+      prepares us to loose ourselves also without repugnance. Doctor Freeman&rsquo;s
+      instances of female levity cured by grief, are certainly to the point, and
+      constitute an item of credit in the account we examine. I was much
+      mortified by the loss of the Doctor&rsquo;s visit, by my absence from home. To
+      have shown how much I feel indebted to you for making good people known to
+      me, would have been one pleasure; and to have enjoyed that of his
+      conversation, and the benefits of his information, so favorably reported
+      by my family, would have been another. I returned home on the third day
+      after his departure. The loss of such visits is among the sacrifices which
+      my divided residence costs me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism to
+      which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. I have been
+      contented with the humble achievement of reading the analysis of his work
+      by Destutt Tracy, in two hundred pages, octavo. I believe I should have
+      ventured on his own abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume, had it
+      ever come to my hands; but the marrow of it in Tracy has satisfied my
+      appetite: and even in that, the preliminary discourse of the analyzer
+      himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than the body of the
+      work. For the object of that seems to be to smother all history under the
+      mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as those of Hercules and Jesus,
+      can, by a fertile imagination and allegorical interpretations, be brought
+      to the same tally, no line of distinction remains between fact and fancy.
+      As this pithy morsel will not overburthen the mail in passing and
+      repassing between Quincy and Monticello, I send it for your perusal.
+      Perhaps it will satisfy you, as it has me; and may save you the labor of
+      reading twenty-four times its volume. I have said to you that it was
+      written by Tracy; and I had so entered it on the title-page, as I usually
+      do on anonymous works whose authors are known to me. But Tracy requested
+      me not to betray his anonyme, for reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have
+      ceased to weigh. I am bound, then, to make the same reserve with you.
+      Destutt-Tracy is, in my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual
+      subjects, or the operations of the understanding. His three octavo volumes
+      on Ideology, which constitute the foundation of what he has since written,
+      I have not entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely
+      abstract, and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte,
+      with his repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has
+      by this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without
+      principle. The next work Tracy wrote was the Commentary on Montesquieu,
+      never published in the original, because not safe; but translated and
+      published in Philadelphia, yet without the author&rsquo;s name. He has since
+      permitted his name to be mentioned. Although called a Commentary, it is,
+      in truth, an elementary work on the principles of government, comprised in
+      about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a third work on
+      Political Economy, comprising the whole subject within about the same
+      compass; in which all its principles are demonstrated with the severity of
+      Euclid, and, like him, without ever using a superfluous word. I have
+      procured this to be translated, and have been four years endeavoring to
+      get it printed: but, as yet, without success. In the mean time, the author
+      has published the original in France, which he thought unsafe while
+      Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet reached this
+      country. He has his fourth and last work now in the press at Paris,
+      closing, as he conceives, the circle of metaphysical sciences. This work,
+      which is on Ethics, I have not seen, but suspect I shall differ from it in
+      its foundation, although not in its deductions. I gather from his other
+      works that he adopts the principle of Hobbes, that justice is founded in
+      contract solely, and does not result from the constitution of man. I
+      believe, on the contrary, that it is instinct and innate, that the moral
+      sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or
+      hearing; as a wise creator must have seen to be necessary in an animal
+      destined to live in society: that every human mind feels pleasure in doing
+      good to another: that the non-existence of justice is not to be inferred
+      from the fact that the same act is deemed virtuous and right in one
+      society which is held vicious and wrong in another; because, as the
+      circumstances and opinions of different societies vary, so the acts which
+      may do them right or wrong must vary also; for virtue does not consist in
+      the act we do, but in the end it is to effect. If it is to effect the
+      happiness of him to whom it is directed, it is virtuous, while, in a
+      society under different circumstances and opinions, the same act might
+      produce pain, and would be vicious. The essence of virtue is in doing good
+      to others, while what is good may be one thing in one society, and its
+      contrary in another. Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of
+      morals (and as many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on
+      the subject nearly), so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound
+      system of morals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers,
+      setting out from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same
+      conclusions. This looks as if they were guided unconsciously, by the
+      unerring-hand of instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
+      description is it to be inquired for?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
+      great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has been
+      foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from mortal
+      prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist which
+      render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is now equal
+      to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor of the
+      island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those who labor.
+      Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other countries, and
+      the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him to cover his back
+      and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now almost general, are of
+      the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted but by food and raiment.
+      But where are the means of feeding and clothing them? The landholder has
+      nothing of his own to give; he is but the fiduciary of those who have lent
+      him money; the lender is so taxed in his meat, drink, and clothing, that
+      he has but a bare subsistence left. The landholder, then, must give up his
+      land, or the lender his debt, or they must compromise by giving up each
+      one half. But will either consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of
+      property? Or must it not be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably
+      compromised, will they agree to risk another ruin under the same
+      government unreformed? I think not; but I would rather know what you
+      think; because you have lived with John Bull, and know better than I do
+      the character of his herd. I salute Mrs. Adams and yourself with every
+      sentiment of affectionate cordiality and respect;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0139" id="link2H_4_0139">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 11, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear Sir,
+      how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as much as
+      I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from
+      my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by that light see
+      to write. From sunrise to one or two o&rsquo;clock, and often from dinner to
+      dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this to answer letters
+      into which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters; and often
+      from persons whose names I have never before heard. Yet, writing civilly,
+      it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is the burthen of my life, a
+      very grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of. Delaplaine
+      lately requested me to give him a line on the subject of his book;
+      meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I constantly refuse; but in
+      this instance yielded, that in saying a word for him, I might say two for
+      myself. I expressed in it freely my sufferings from this source; hoping it
+      would have the effect of an indirect appeal to the discretion of those,
+      strangers and others, who, in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me
+      with their concerns, their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and
+      speculations, political, moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical,
+      historical, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c. I hope the appeal will bring me
+      relief, and that I shall be left to, exercise and enjoy correspondence
+      with the friends I love, and on subjects which they, or my own
+      inclinations, present. In that case, your letters shall not be so long on
+      my files unanswered, as sometimes they have been to my great
+      mortification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
+      Tracy&rsquo;s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
+      original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
+      years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now be had,
+      I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
+      Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
+      under the word &lsquo;Ideology&rsquo; all the subjects which the French term <i>Morale</i>,
+      as the correlative to <i>Physique</i>, His works on Logic, Government,
+      Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up the circle of
+      ideological subjects, or of those which are within the scope of the
+      understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies exactly the
+      ground of Locke&rsquo;s work on the Understanding. The translation of that on
+      Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation of mine. I
+      have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very laborious. <i>Le
+      premier jet</i> having been by some one who understood neither French nor
+      English, it was impossible to make it more than faithful. But it is a
+      valuable work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four
+      words, &lsquo;Be just and good,&rsquo; is that in which all our inquiries must end; as
+      the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, &lsquo;<i>Ubi panis, ibi
+      deus</i>.&rsquo; What all agree in, is probably right; what no two agree in,
+      most probably wrong. One of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small
+      men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether
+      he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken of
+      in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had been my
+      religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly
+      never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was, &lsquo;Say nothing of my
+      religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the
+      world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to
+      society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.&rsquo;
+      Affectionately adieu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0140" id="link2H_4_0140">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXL.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 5, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Absences and avocations had prevented my acknowledging your favor of
+      February the 2nd, when that of April the 19th arrived. I had not the
+      pleasure of receiving the former by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business
+      probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, and
+      distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities.
+      Your recommendations are always welcome, for, indeed, the subjects of them
+      always merit that welcome, and some of them in an extraordinary degree.
+      They make us acquainted with what there is excellent in our ancient sister
+      State of Massachusetts, once venerated and beloved, and still hanging on
+      our hopes, for what need we despair of after the resurrection of
+      Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that the last retreat
+      of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind
+      which had carried the other States a century ahead of them. They seemed
+      still to be exactly where their forefathers were when they schismatized
+      from the covenant of works, and to consider as dangerous heresies all
+      innovations good or bad. I join you, therefore, in sincere congratulations
+      that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a
+      Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and
+      character. If by religion, we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which
+      no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just,
+      &lsquo;that this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no
+      religion in it.&rsquo; But if the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part
+      of his physical constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the
+      sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of
+      Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute true religion, then, without it,
+      this would be, as you again say, &lsquo;something not fit to be named, even
+      indeed, a hell.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the malice of
+      Pickering could say of you. Were such things to be answered, our lives
+      would be wasted in the filth of fendings and provings, instead of being
+      employed in promoting the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-citizens.
+      The tenor of your life is the proper and sufficient answer. It is
+      fortunate for those in public trust, that posterity will judge them by
+      their works, and not by the malignant vituperations and invectives of the
+      Pickerings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men of energy of
+      character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every
+      question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect,
+      those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion as they
+      feel that effect. Thus, in the Revolution, Hancock and the Adamses were
+      the raw-head and bloody bones of tories and traitors; who yet knew nothing
+      of you personally but what was good. I do not entertain your apprehensions
+      for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state of retirement. Such a
+      mind as his, fraught with information and with matter for reflection, can
+      never know <i>ennui</i>. Besides, there will always be work enough cut out
+      for him to continue his active usefulness to his country. For example, he
+      and Monroe (the President) are now here on the work of a collegiate
+      institution to be established in our neighborhood, of which they and
+      myself are three of six Visitors. This, if it succeeds, will raise up
+      children for Mr. Madison to employ his attention through life. I say, if
+      it succeeds; for we have two very essential wants in our way: 1. means to
+      compass our views; and 2. men qualified to fulfil them. And these you will
+      agree are essential wants indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his is a field
+      familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His work is highly
+      praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been occupied and delighted
+      with reading another work, the title of which did not promise much useful
+      information or amusement, &lsquo;<i>L&rsquo;Italia avanti il Dominio del Romani, dal
+      Micali</i>. It has often, you know, been a subject of regret that Carthage
+      had no writer to give her side of her own history, while her wealth,
+      power, and splendor prove she must have had a very distinguished policy
+      and government. Micali has given the counterpart of the Roman history, for
+      the nations over which they extended their dominion. For this he has
+      gleaned up matter from every quarter, and furnished materials for
+      reflection and digestion to those who, thinking as they read, have
+      perceived that there was a great deal of matter behind the curtain, could
+      that be fully withdrawn. He certainly gives new views of a nation whose
+      splendor has masked and palliated their barbarous ambition. I am now
+      reading Botta&rsquo;s History of our own Revolution. Bating the ancient practice
+      which he has adopted, of putting speeches into mouths which never made
+      them, and fancying motives of action which we never felt, he has given
+      that history with more detail, precision, and candor, than any writer I
+      have yet met with. It is, to be sure, compiled from those writers; but it
+      is a good secretion of their matter, the pure from the impure, and
+      presented in a just sense of right, in opposition to usurpation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affectionate esteem
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0141" id="link2H_4_0141">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLI.&mdash;TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 14, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although, Dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling little in
+      its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute at times my
+      old friends, were it only to say and to know that &lsquo;all&rsquo;s well.&rsquo; Our hobby
+      has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so desperate,
+      that little matter is furnished us for active attention. With you too, it
+      has long been forbidden ground, and therefore imprudent for a foreign
+      friend to tread, in writing to you. But although our speculations might be
+      intrusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable, and mine are sincerely
+      offered for the well-being of France. What government she can bear,
+      depends not on the state of science, however exalted, in a select band of
+      enlightened men, but on the condition of the general mind. That, I am
+      sure, is advanced and will advance, and the last change of government was
+      fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be less obstructive to the effects of
+      that advancement. For I consider your foreign military oppression as an
+      ephemeral obstacle only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but that is a
+      cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment of the
+      necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our government is
+      solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even to civil schism,
+      are precious facts for us; and of these the strongest proofs were
+      furnished, when, with four eastern States tied to us, as dead to living
+      bodies, all doubt was removed as to the achievements of the war, had it
+      continued. But its best effect has been the complete suppression of party.
+      The federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was so, have
+      separated from their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are received
+      with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut, as a State,
+      and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which were
+      essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen a
+      republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts indeed
+      still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide crimes and
+      treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh
+      advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut as
+      the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my attention.
+      That is essentially a Quaker State, the fragment of a religious sect
+      which, there, in the other States, in England, are a homogeneous mass,
+      acting with one mind, and that directed by the mother society in England.
+      Dispersed, as the Jews, they still form, as those do, one nation, foreign
+      to the land they live in. They are Protestant Jesuits, implicitly devoted
+      to the will of their superior, and forgetting all duties to their country
+      in the execution of the policy of their order. When war is proposed with
+      England, they have religious scruples; but when with France, these are
+      laid by, and they become clamorous for it. They are, however, silent,
+      passive, and give no other trouble than of whipping them along. Nor is the
+      election of Monroe an inefficient circumstance in our felicities. Four and
+      twenty years, which he will accomplish, of administration in republican
+      forms and principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people as
+      to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition of party
+      dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened society beyond
+      imagination. The war then has done us all this good, and the further one
+      of assuring the world, that although attached to peace from a sense of its
+      blessings, we will meet war when it is made necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The achievement
+      of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. But it is a very
+      serious one, what will then become of them. Ignorance and bigotry, like
+      other insanities, are incapable of self-government. They will fall under
+      military despotisms, and become the murderous tools of the ambition of
+      their respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be for their greater
+      happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to judge. No one, I hope,
+      can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind exercising self-government,
+      and capable of exercising it. But the question is not what we wish, but
+      what is practicable. As their sincere friend and brother, then, I do
+      believe the best thing for them, would be for themselves to come to an
+      accord with Spain, under the guarantee of France, Russia, Holland, and the
+      United States, allowing to Spain a nominal supremacy, with authority only
+      to keep the peace among them, leaving them otherwise all the powers of
+      self-government, until their experience in them, their emancipation from
+      their priests, and advancement in information, shall prepare them for
+      complete independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because
+      her selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
+      disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
+      revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
+      permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension of
+      her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
+      Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
+      send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
+      wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
+      led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
+      sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
+      are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have still many
+      years to be a spectator of these events. That these years may indeed be
+      many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0142" id="link2H_4_0142">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLII.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 16, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 16, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The importance that the enclosed letters should safely reach their
+      destination, impels me to avail myself of the protection of your cover.
+      This is an inconvenience to which your situation exposes you, while it
+      adds to the opportunities of exercising yourself in works of charity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before your departure,
+      we have had almost an entire change in the body of Congress. The
+      unpopularity of the compensation law was completed, by the manner of
+      repealing it as to all the world except themselves. In some States, it is
+      said, every member is changed; in all, many. What opposition there was to
+      the original law, was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of those
+      have been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I have never
+      known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation; and what is remarkable,
+      is, that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost entirely silent,
+      and the people not only unled by their leaders, but in opposition to them.
+      I confess I was highly pleased with this proof of the innate good sense,
+      the vigilance, and the determination of the people to act for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note: a navigation act,
+      particularly, applicable to those nations only who have navigation acts;
+      pinching one of them especially, not only in the general way, but in the
+      intercourse with her foreign possessions. This part may re-act on us, and
+      it remains for trial which may bear longest. A law respecting our conduct
+      as a neutral between Spain and her contending colonies, was passed by a
+      majority of one only, I believe, and against the very general sentiment of
+      our country. It is thought to strain our complaisance to Spain beyond her
+      right or merit, and almost against the right of the other party, and
+      certainly against the claims they have to our good wishes and neighborly
+      relations. That we should wish to see the people of other countries free,
+      is as natural, and at least as justifiable, as that one King should wish
+      to see the Kings of other countries maintained in their despotism. Right
+      to both parties, innocent favor to the juster cause, is our proper
+      sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after passing
+      both houses, was negatived by the President. The act was founded,
+      avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution, which
+      authorizes Congress &lsquo;to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide for the
+      general welfare,&rsquo; was an extension of the powers specifically enumerated
+      to whatever would promote the general welfare; and this, you know, was the
+      federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost
+      the only land-mark which now divides the federalists from the republicans,
+      that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare,
+      but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was
+      never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of
+      the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise
+      money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action:
+      consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the
+      purposes for which they may raise money. I think the passage and rejection
+      of this bill a fortunate incident. Every State will certainly concede the
+      power; and this will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal
+      to them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a
+      mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
+      claim of universal power. For in the phrase, &lsquo;to lay taxes, to pay the
+      debts and provide for the general welfare,&rsquo; it is a mere question of
+      syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first, or are
+      distinct and co-ordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided by the
+      exact definition of powers immediately following. It is fortunate for
+      another reason, as the States, in conceding the power, will modify it,
+      either by requiring the federal ratio of expense in each State, or
+      otherwise, so as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this
+      caution, intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
+      habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have the
+      appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called &lsquo;logging,&rsquo; the term
+      of the farmers for their exchanges of aid in rolling together the logs of
+      their newly cleared grounds. Three of our papers have presented us the
+      copy of an act of the legislature of New York, which, if it has really
+      passed, will carry us back to the times of the darkest bigotry and
+      barbarism to find a parallel. Its purport is, that all those who shall
+      hereafter join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking Quakers,
+      shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and all their
+      children and property taken out of their hands. This act being published
+      nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any history of the
+      circumstances of its passage, I am not without a hope it may have been a
+      mere abortive attempt. It contrasts singularly with a cotemporary vote of
+      the Pennsylvania legislature, who, on a proposition to make the belief in
+      a God a necessary qualification for office, rejected it by a great
+      majority, although assuredly there was not a single atheist in their body.
+      And you remember to have heard, that, when the act for religious freedom
+      was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion to insert the name of Jesus
+      Christ before the phrase, &lsquo;the author of our holy religion,&rsquo; which stood
+      in the bill, was rejected, although that was the creed of a great majority
+      of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now produces
+      scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison&rsquo;s election there was little, on
+      Monroe&rsquo;s all but none. In Mr. Adams&rsquo;s time and mine, parties were so
+      nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful for our peace. But since
+      the decided ascendancy of the republican body, federalism has looked on
+      with silent but unresisting anguish. In the middle, southern, and western
+      States, it is as low as it ever can be; for nature has made some men
+      monarchists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course, there
+      always will be.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in Maine, the mercury
+      was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit, which is sixteen
+      degrees lower than it was in Paris in 1788-9. Here it was at six degrees
+      above zero, which is our greatest degree of cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my constant
+      and affectionate friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0143" id="link2H_4_0143">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 17, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mr. Holly&rsquo;s own hand your
+      favor of January the 28th, being then at my other home. He dined only with
+      my family, and left them with an impression which has filled me with
+      regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them. I am
+      glad he is gone to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more
+      rapidly there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are, and
+      bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though neither you
+      nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary people to them. Our
+      greediness for wealth, and fantastical expense have degraded, and will
+      degrade, the minds of our maritime citizens. These are the peculiar vices
+      of commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of you through a
+      letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to reclaim against an expression
+      of Mr. Wirt&rsquo;s, as to the commencement of motion in the revolutionary ball.
+      The lawyers say that words are always to be expounded <i>secundum
+      subjectam materiem</i>, which, in Mr. Wirt&rsquo;s case, was Virginia. It would,
+      moreover, be as difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began, and
+      what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo
+      becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning. But the most
+      agreeable part of his letter was that which informed me of your health,
+      your activity, and strength of memory; and the most wonderful, that which
+      assured me that you retained your industry and promptness in epistolary
+      correspondence. Here you have entire advantage over me. My repugnance to
+      the writing-table becomes daily and hourly more deadly and insurmountable.
+      In place of this has come on a canine appetite for reading. And I indulge
+      it, because I see in it a relief against the <i>tædium senectutis</i>; a
+      lamp to lighten my path through the dreary wilderness of time before me,
+      whose bourne I see not. Losing daily all interest in the things around us,
+      something else is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which
+      occupies the mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own stock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of South
+      America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is
+      within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their
+      minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it
+      would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that
+      would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to take
+      charge of themselves understanding; with more certainty, if, in the mean
+      time, under so much control as may keep them at peace with one another.
+      Surely, it is our duty to wish them independence and self-government,
+      because they wish it themselves, and they have the right, and we none, to
+      choose for themselves: and I wish, moreover, that our ideas may be
+      erroneous, and theirs prove well-founded. But these are speculations, my
+      friend, which we may as well deliver over to those who are to see their
+      developement. We shall only be lookers on, from the clouds above, as now
+      we look down on the labors, the hurry, and bustle of the ants and bees.
+      Perhaps, in that super-mundane region, we may be amused with seeing the
+      fallacy of our own guesses, and even the nothingness of those labors which
+      have filled and agitated our own time here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>En attendant</i>, with sincere affections to Mrs. Adams and yourself, I
+      salute you both cordially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0144" id="link2H_4_0144">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, November 13, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 13, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your
+      letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself
+      in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which
+      can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what
+      you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials
+      have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the
+      only medicine. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh
+      the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with
+      yours, will I say a word more where words are vain, but that it is of some
+      comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to
+      deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to
+      ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved
+      and lost, and whom we shall still love, and never lose again. God bless
+      you, and support you under your heavy affliction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0145" id="link2H_4_0145">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLV.&mdash;TO ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ROBERT WALSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 4, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of November the 8th has been some time received; but it is in my
+      power to give little satisfaction as to its inquiries. Dr. Franklin had
+      many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision
+      enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on the
+      feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in
+      Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of the
+      proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
+      Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which,
+      spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr. Lee
+      was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides
+      enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the
+      agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into that
+      State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor&rsquo;s enemy also, but
+      from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges against
+      him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also, ever
+      maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he would
+      have waived the formal recognition of our independence, I never heard on
+      any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was urgent to
+      retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe, that had they been
+      ultimately made a <i>sine qua non</i>, our commissioners (Mr. Adams
+      excepted) would have relinquished them, rather than have broken off the
+      treaty. To Mr. Adams&rsquo;s perseverance alone, on that point, I have always
+      understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the charge of
+      subservience to France, besides the evidence of his friendly colleagues
+      before named, two years of my own service with him at Paris, daily visits,
+      and the most friendly and confidential conversations, convince me it had
+      not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the confidence of that government
+      in the highest degree, insomuch, that it may truly be said, that they were
+      more under his influence, than he under theirs. The fact is, that his
+      temper was so amiable and conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never
+      urging impossibilities, or even things unreasonably inconvenient to them,
+      in short, so moderate and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our
+      own, that what his enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that
+      reasonable disposition, which, sensible that advantages are not all to be
+      on one side, yielding what is just and liberal, is the more certain of
+      obtaining liberality and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course,
+      mutual influence, and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin
+      and the government of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too much
+      in detail for the scale of Delaplaine&rsquo;s work, but which may find a cadre
+      in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is in a
+      great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
+      recollections and assurances of respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0146" id="link2H_4_0146">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVI.&mdash;TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DE NEUVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 13, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
+      of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
+      no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
+      Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
+      much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from the
+      incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from her
+      slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her central
+      position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than she ever
+      was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future day, remind
+      of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most eagerly. I hope,
+      however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk no new troubles. Her
+      constitution, as now amended, gives as much of self-government as perhaps
+      she can yet bear, and will give more, when the habits of order shall have
+      prepared her to receive more. Besides the gratitude which every American
+      owes her, as our sole ally during the war of independence, I am
+      additionally affectioned by the friendships I contracted there, by the
+      good dispositions I witnessed, and by the courtesies I received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties on
+      wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on that
+      liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use to the
+      middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to the poison
+      of whiskey, which is desolating their houses. No nation is drunken where
+      wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes
+      ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote
+      to the bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of other merchandise,
+      and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog: and who will not prefer
+      it? Its extended use will carry health and comfort to a much enlarged
+      circle. Every one in easy circumstances (as the bulk of our citizens are)
+      will prefer it to the poison to which they are now driven by their
+      government. And the treasury itself will find that a penny a piece from a
+      dozen, is more than a groat from a single one. This reformation, however,
+      will require time. Our merchants know nothing of the infinite variety of
+      cheap and good wines to be had in Europe; and particularly in France, in
+      Italy, and the Grecian islands: as they know little, also, of the variety
+      of excellent manufactures and comforts to be had any where out of England.
+      Nor will these things be known, nor of course called for here, until the
+      native merchants of those countries, to whom they are known, shall bring
+      them forward, exhibit, and vend them at the moderate profits they can
+      afford. This alone will procure them familiarity with us, and the
+      preference they merit in competition with corresponding articles now in
+      use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your kind visit to
+      Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assurances of the
+      gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem and respectful
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0147" id="link2H_4_0147">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY, March 21, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 21, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the
+      request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me not a
+      little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied it, of
+      Doctor Rush&rsquo;s answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like other
+      people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my own. Like
+      my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food,
+      and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables,
+      which constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the Doctor&rsquo;s glass
+      and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend; but halve its effect
+      by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I
+      use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors and cider are my table
+      drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of my friend, is of tea and
+      coffee. I have been blest with organs of digestion, which accept and
+      concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate chooses to consign to
+      them, and I have not yet lost a tooth by age. I was a hard student until I
+      entered on the business of life, the duties of which leave no idle time to
+      those disposed to fulfil them; and now, retired, and at the age of
+      seventy-six, I am again a hard student. Indeed my fondness for reading and
+      study revolts me from the drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist,
+      the consequence of an early dislocation, makes writing both slow and
+      painful. I am not so regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was,
+      devoting to it from five to eight hours, according as my company or the
+      book I am reading interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or
+      half hour&rsquo;s previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in
+      the intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise
+      with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the day,
+      unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular
+      conversation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
+      unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate than my
+      friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have not had
+      one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight or ten years through
+      life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of bathing my feet in
+      cold water every morning for sixty years past. A fever of more than
+      twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my life. A
+      periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps, in six
+      or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time, which seems now to have
+      left me; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I enjoy good
+      health; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without fatigue six
+      or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may end these
+      egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has been so much
+      like that of other people, that I might say with Horace, to every one, &lsquo;<i>Nomine
+      mutato, narratur fabula de te</i>.&rsquo; I must not end, however, without due
+      thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are so good as to express
+      towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for these, be pleased to
+      accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0148" id="link2H_4_0148">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 9, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June the
+      22nd. The first, delivered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the gratification
+      of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is, to be made
+      acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as I found
+      Mr. Greenwood to be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams Wells, shall
+      not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to his advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg
+      county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Register, which you were
+      so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you seem to
+      think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very
+      unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us as
+      having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago, in that
+      part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I
+      do not remember its precise locality. If this paper be really taken from
+      the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped Ritchie,
+      who culls what is good from every paper, as the bee from every flower; and
+      the National Intelligencer, too, which is edited by a North-Carolinian:
+      and that the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thousand
+      miles from where the spark is said to have fallen. But if really taken
+      from the Raleigh Register, who is the narrator, and is the name subscribed
+      real, or is it as fictitious as the paper itself? It appeals, too, to an
+      original book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint
+      letter from Caswell, Hughes, and Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the
+      dead Caswell, and another sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead,
+      whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has written of North
+      Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is
+      silent in his history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country
+      bordering On Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt,
+      historians of the adjacent States, all silent. When Mr. Henry&rsquo;s
+      resolutions, far short of independence, flew like lightning through every
+      paper, and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of
+      the same date, of the independence of Mecklenburg county, of North
+      Carolina, absolving it from the British allegiance, and abjuring all
+      political connection with that nation, although sent to Congress, too, is
+      never heard of. It is not known even a twelvemonth after, when a similar
+      proposition is first made in that body. Armed with this bold example,
+      would not you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thunder, on
+      their tardy fears? Would not every advocate of independence have rung the
+      glories of Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, in the ears of the
+      doubting Dickinson and others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example
+      of independent Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once
+      quoted. The paper speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their
+      delegation (Caswell, Hooper, Hughes,) &lsquo;in the cause of liberty and
+      independence.&rsquo; Now, you remember as well as I do, that we had not a
+      greater tory in Congress than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering,
+      sometimes firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day was clear or
+      cloudy; that Caswell, indeed, was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to
+      the notch, while he was present; but that he left us soon, and their line
+      of conduct became then uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes, and
+      the vote of the State. I must not be understood as suggesting any
+      doubtfulness in the State of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or
+      forward. Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrication:
+      because the proof of a negative can only be presumptive. But I shall
+      believe it such until positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall
+      be produced. And if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the
+      fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production of such proof. For
+      the present, I must be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his friends;
+      but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship
+      in our University, which we should have offered him in form. Mr. Bowditch,
+      too, refuses us; so fascinating is the <i>vinculum</i> of the <i>dulce
+      natale solum</i>. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can be found,
+      like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement in their
+      respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to natives
+      of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our
+      Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance of
+      which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary
+      communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there, here,
+      and every where, I am and shall always be, affectionately and respectfully
+      yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0149" id="link2H_4_0149">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIX.&mdash;TO JUDGE ROANE, September 6,1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE ROANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, September 6,1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces signed
+      Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation in the copies
+      you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every tittle of them.
+      They contain the true principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was
+      as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776
+      was in its form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the
+      rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.
+      The nation declared its will by dismissing functionaries of one principle,
+      and electing those of another, in the two branches, executive and
+      legislative, submitted to their election. Over the judiciary department,
+      the constitution had deprived them of their control. That, therefore, has
+      continued the reprobated system: and although new matter has been
+      occasionally incorporated into the old, yet the leaven of the old mass
+      seems to assimilate to itself the new; and after twenty years&rsquo;
+      confirmation of the federated system by the voice of the nation, declared
+      through the medium of elections, we find the judiciary, on every occasion,
+      still driving us into consolidation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
+      constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your
+      quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that &lsquo;the judiciary is the
+      last resort in relation <i>to the other departments of the government</i>,
+      but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under
+      which the judiciary is derived.&rsquo; If this opinion be sound, then indeed is
+      our constitution a complete <i>felo de se</i>. For intending to establish
+      three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check and
+      balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one of
+      them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the others,
+      and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation.
+      For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is
+      not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent
+      cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the
+      case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion
+      beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in,
+      have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion,
+      even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. The
+      constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of
+      the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
+      It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that
+      whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in
+      theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in
+      practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted no where
+      but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but
+      moral law. My construction of the constitution is very different from that
+      you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others,
+      and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the
+      constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and especially, where
+      it is to act ultimately and without appeal. I will explain myself by
+      examples, which, having occurred while I was in office, are better known
+      to me, and the principles which governed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A legislature had passed the sedition-law. The federal courts had
+      subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and imprisonment.
+      On coming into office, I released these individuals by the power of pardon
+      committed to executive discretion, which could never be more properly
+      exercised than where citizens were suffering without the authority of law,
+      or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorized by the constitution,
+      and therefore null. In the case of Marbury and Madison, the federal judges
+      declared that commissions, signed and sealed by the President, were valid,
+      although not delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete a deed,
+      which, as long as it remains in the hands of the party, is as yet no deed,
+      it is in posse only, but not in esse, and I withheld delivery of the
+      commissions. They cannot issue a mandamus* to the President or
+      legislature, or to any of their officers. When the British treaty of 180-
+      arrived, without any provision against the impressment of our seamen, I
+      determined not to ratify it. The Senate thought I should ask their advice.
+      I thought that would be a mockery of them, when I was predetermined
+      against following it, should they advise its ratification. The
+      constitution had made their advice necessary to confirm a treaty, but not
+      to reject it. This has been blamed by some; but I have never doubted its
+      soundness. In the cases of two persons, antenati, under exactly similar
+      circumstances, the federal court had determined that one of them (Duane)
+      was not a citizen; the House of Representatives nevertheless determined
+      that the other (Smith of South Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him
+      to his seat in their body. Duane was a republican, and Smith a federalist,
+      and these decisions were during the federal ascendancy.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The constitution controlling the common law in this
+     particular.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These are examples of my position, that each of the three departments has
+      equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the
+      constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided for
+      themselves under a similar question. But you intimate a wish that my
+      opinion should be known on this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw from all
+      contests of opinion, and resign every thing cheerfully to the generation
+      now in place. They are wiser than we were, and their successors will be
+      wiser than they, from the progressive advance of science. Tranquillity is
+      the <i>summum bonum</i> of age. I wish, therefore, to offend no man&rsquo;s
+      opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions on my own. While duty
+      required it, I met opposition with a firm and fearless step. But, loving
+      mankind in my individual relations with them, I pray to be permitted to
+      depart in their peace; and like the superannuated soldier, &lsquo;<i>quadragenis
+      stipendiis emeritis</i>&rsquo;to hang my arms on the post. I have unwisely, I
+      fear, embarked in an enterprise of great public concern, but not to be
+      accomplished within my term, without their liberal and prompt support. A
+      severe illness the last year and another from which I am just emerged,
+      admonish me that repetitions may be expected, against which a declining
+      frame cannot long bear up. I am anxious therefore to get our University so
+      far advanced as may encourage the public to persevere to its final
+      accomplishment. That secured, I shall sing my <i>Nunc demittas</i>. I hope
+      your labors will be long continued in the spirit in which they have always
+      been exercised, in maintenance of those principles on which I verily
+      believe the future happiness of our country essentially depends. I salute
+      you with affectionate and great respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0150" id="link2H_4_0150">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CL.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 10, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of November the 23rd. The
+      banks, bankrupt-law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing. These are
+      occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will pass under the ship. But
+      the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the Missouri country
+      by revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the battle of Bunker&rsquo;s Hill
+      to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous a question. It even damps
+      the joy with which I hear of your high health, and welcomes to me the
+      consequences of my want of it. I thank God that I shall not live to
+      witness its issue. <i>Sed hæc hactenus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters of
+      Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effusions of an exalted patriot,
+      while the parricide Caesar is lost in odious contrast. When the
+      enthusiasm, however, kindled by Cicero&rsquo;s pen and principles, subsides into
+      cool reflection, I ask myself, What was that government which the virtues
+      of Cicero were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar to
+      subvert? And if Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and
+      sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power, have
+      done to lead his fellow-citizens into good government? I do not say to
+      restore it, because they never had it, from the rape of the Sabines to the
+      ravages of the Caesars. If their people indeed had been, like ourselves,
+      enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be obvious.
+      &lsquo;Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve Italy from
+      the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a nation entitled to
+      self-government, and do its will.&rsquo; But steeped in corruption, vice, and
+      venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody had done more than Caesar
+      to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero, Cato, Brutus, have done, had it
+      been referred to them to establish a good government for their country?
+      They had no ideas of government themselves, but of their degenerate
+      Senate, nor the people of liberty, but of the factious opposition of their
+      tribunes. They had afterwards their Tituses, their Trajans, and
+      Antoninuses, who had the will to make them happy, and the power to mould
+      their government into a good and permanent form. But it would seem as if
+      they could not see their way clearly to do it. No government can continue
+      good, but under the control of the people; and their people were so
+      demoralized and depraved, as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome
+      control. Their reformation then was to be taken up <i>ab incunabulis</i>.
+      Their minds were to be informed by education what is right and what wrong;
+      to be encouraged in habits of virtue, and deterred from those of vice, by
+      the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all
+      cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which
+      bewilders us in one false consequence after another, in endless
+      succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a
+      sure basis for the structure of order and good government. But this would
+      have been an operation of a generation or two, at least, within which
+      period would have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have
+      quashed the whole process. I confess then, I can neither see what Cicero,
+      Cato, and Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could have devised to lead
+      their people into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved, nor
+      how further shown why it has been the fate of that delightful country
+      never to have known, to this day, and through a course of five and twenty
+      hundred years, the history of which we possess, one single day of free and
+      rational government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient, middle,
+      and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in the science of
+      government at this time, will enable you, if any body, to go back with our
+      principles and opinions to the limes of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus, and tell
+      us by what process these great and virtuous men could have led so
+      unenlightened and vitiated a people into freedom and good government, <i>et
+      eris mihi magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas carissimum te
+      mihi esse</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0151" id="link2H_4_0151">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLI.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 13, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of March the 27th is received, and, as you request, a copy of
+      the syllabus is now enclosed. It was originally written to Dr. Rush. On
+      his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of
+      it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied
+      with. At the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent it
+      to his friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it appeared in
+      the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that repository is scarcely
+      known in this country; and the syllabus, therefore, is still a secret, and
+      in your hands I am sure it will continue so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its
+      true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the
+      Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in
+      all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism:
+      he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I
+      require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, &amp;c. &amp;c. It is
+      the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral
+      precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues
+      in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed,
+      needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be
+      founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the
+      sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many
+      passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely
+      benevolence; and others again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so
+      much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible
+      that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I
+      separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him the former,
+      and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of
+      his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great
+      Coryphæus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable
+      interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me to try to sift
+      them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that his part composed
+      the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man.
+      The syllabus is therefore of his doctrine, not all of mine: I read them as
+      I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a mixture of
+      approbation and dissent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal improvement
+      prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever expressed of the
+      advantages of a western communication through the James River, I still
+      entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links of
+      communication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the ten pavilions
+      destined for the Professors, and about thirty dormitories, will be
+      completed this year, and three others, with six hotels for boarding, and
+      seventy other dormitories, will be completed the next year, and the whole
+      be in readiness then to receive those who are to occupy them. But means to
+      bring these into place, and to set the machine into motion, must come from
+      the legislature. An opposition, in the mean time, has been got up. That of
+      our alma mater, William and Mary, is not of much weight. She must descend
+      into the secondary rank of academies of preparation for the University.
+      The serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to
+      whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits
+      are now resounding with denunciations against the appointment of Doctor
+      Cooper, whom they charge as a monotheist in opposition to their tritheism.
+      Hostile as these sects are, in every other point, to one another, they
+      unite in maintaining their mystical theogony against those who believe
+      there is one God only. The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most
+      intolerant of all sects, the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the
+      word of the lawgiver, if such a word could be now obtained, to put the
+      torch to the pile, and to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere the flames in
+      which their oracle Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because, he could
+      not find in his Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three
+      are one, and one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that
+      magistrates have a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic creed.
+      They pant to re-establish, by law, that holy inquisition, which they can
+      now only infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to
+      the hierophants of our particular superstition the direction of public
+      opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and
+      privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering
+      their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as wax in
+      the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations against
+      endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason of the
+      people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of this State
+      will support this institution, and give fair play to the cultivation of
+      reason. Can you ever find a more eligible occasion of visiting once more
+      your native country, than that of accompanying Mr. Correa, and of seeing
+      with him this beautiful and hopeful institution <i>in ovo</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or even
+      think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore had
+      ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled me
+      with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican threatened nothing,
+      because it existed in every State, and united them together by the
+      fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and
+      political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never
+      more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every
+      occasion, and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and
+      mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I
+      have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of
+      long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great
+      distance, and the direct consequence of this question: not by the line
+      which has been so confidently counted on; the laws of nature control this;
+      but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or more probably, the Mississippi
+      upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is, that
+      I shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the
+      glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers&rsquo; sacrifices of life and
+      fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide
+      ultimately whether man is capable of self-government. This treason against
+      human hope will signalize their epoch in future history, as the
+      counterpart of the medal of their predecessors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it immediately
+      threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down mechanically, by
+      bandages from the toe to the knee. These I have worn for six months. But
+      the tendency to turgidity may proceed from debility alone. I can walk the
+      round of my garden; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day without
+      fatigue. I shall set out for Poplar Forest within three or four days; a
+      journey from which my physician augurs much good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0152" id="link2H_4_0152">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLII.&mdash;TO JOHN HOLMES, April 22, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN HOLMES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 22, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of
+      the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is a perfect
+      justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or
+      pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in good hands,
+      and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not
+      distant. But this momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night,
+      awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell
+      of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve
+      only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked
+      principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry
+      passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will
+      mark it deeper and deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is
+      not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us
+      from this heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The cession of that kind
+      of property (for so it is misnamed) is a bagatelle which would not cost me
+      a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation
+      could be effected: and, gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it
+      might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither
+      hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and
+      self-preservation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as the
+      passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a slave of a
+      single human being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over
+      a greater surface would make them individually happier, and proportionally
+      facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation, by dividing the
+      burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An abstinence, too, from this
+      act of power, would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of
+      Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of men
+      composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of every State,
+      which nothing in the constitution has taken from them, and given to the
+      General Government. Could Congress, for example, say, that the non-freemen
+      of Connecticut shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any
+      other State?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of
+      themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and
+      happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and
+      unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be,
+      that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh
+      the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more
+      likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before
+      they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason
+      against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
+      the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0153" id="link2H_4_0153">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 4, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, which was received in
+      due time; and there being no subject of the day, of particular interest, I
+      will make this a supplement to mine of April the 13th. My aim in that was,
+      to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his
+      pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an
+      impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies,
+      the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him,
+      and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the
+      fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion
+      would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give
+      no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to
+      rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is
+      granted in reading every other historian. When Livy and Siculus, for
+      example, tell us things which coincide with our experience of the order of
+      nature, we credit them on their word, and place their narrations among the
+      records of credible history. But when they tell us of calves speaking, of
+      statues sweating blood, and other things against the course of nature, we
+      reject these as fables not belonging to history. In like manner, when an
+      historian, speaking of a character well known and established on
+      satisfactory testimony, imputes to it things incompatible with that
+      character, we reject them without hesitation, and assent to that only of
+      which we have better evidence. Had Plutarch informed us that Cæsar and
+      Cicero passed their whole lives in religious exercises, and abstinence
+      from the affairs of the world, we should reject what was so inconsistent
+      with their established characters, still crediting what he relates in
+      conformity with our ideas of them. So again, the superlative wisdom of
+      Socrates is testified by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be
+      questioned. When, therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms,
+      such quibbles on words, and sophisms, as a school-boy would be ashamed of,
+      we conclude they were the whimsies of Plato&rsquo;s own foggy brain, and acquit
+      Socrates of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking of Plato, I
+      will add, that no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with
+      more <i>ignes fatui</i>, than this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in
+      Politics, and Physics. In the latter, to specify a single example, compare
+      his views of the animal economy, in his Timasus, with those of Mrs. Bryan
+      in her Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized
+      philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But Plato&rsquo;s
+      visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mystical theology,
+      and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian saint. It is surely
+      time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of
+      names so artificially magnified. But to return from this parenthesis.) I
+      say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of
+      the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers matter
+      of two distinct descriptions. First, a ground-work of vulgar ignorance, of
+      things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications.
+      Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the Supreme Being,
+      aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morality and benevolence, sanctioned
+      by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity of manners, neglect of
+      riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors, with an eloquence and
+      persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. These could not be
+      inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them. They are far beyond
+      the powers of their feeble minds. They show that there was a character,
+      the subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above all
+      suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. Can we be at a loss in
+      separating such materials, and ascribing each to its genuine author? The
+      difference is obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read
+      as we run to each his part; and I will venture to affirm, that he who, as
+      I have done, will undertake to winnow this grain from its chaff, will find
+      it not to require a moment&rsquo;s consideration. The parts fall asunder of
+      themselves, as would those of an image of metal and clay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we may,
+      with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence from
+      the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the reformation of
+      some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses. That sect
+      had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific
+      character, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus, taking for
+      his type the best qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice,
+      goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of these, but in infinite
+      perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him really worthy of their
+      adoration. Moses had either not believed in a future state of existence,
+      or had not thought it essential to be explicitly taught to his people.
+      Jesus inculcated that doctrine with emphasis and precision. Moses had
+      bound the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no
+      effect towards producing the social utilities which constitute the essence
+      of virtue; Jesus exposed their futility and insignificance. The one
+      instilled into his people the most anti-social spirit towards other
+      nations; the other preached philanthropy and universal charity and
+      benevolence. The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is
+      ever dangerous. Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and
+      religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of
+      the priests of the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and
+      remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of
+      Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were
+      constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He
+      was justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by
+      misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and in
+      defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, <i>ad
+      homines</i>, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on
+      mankind as the Son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by
+      the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he
+      might conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very
+      possible. The whole religion of the Jews, inculcated on him from his
+      infancy, was founded in the belief of divine inspiration. The fumes of the
+      most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as
+      special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen that,
+      in the course of ages events would now and then turn up to which some of
+      these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of allegories,
+      figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not only preserved
+      their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times, but are the foundation
+      of much of the religions of those who have schismatized from them.
+      Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart, conscious of the high
+      strains of an eloquence which had not been taught him, he might readily
+      mistake the coruscations of his own fine genius for inspirations of an
+      higher order. This belief, carried, therefore, no more personal
+      imputation, than the belief of Socrates, that himself was under the care
+      and admonitions of a guardian Daemon. And how many of our wisest men still
+      believe in the reality of these inspirations, while perfectly sane on all
+      other subjects. Excusing, therefore, on these considerations, those
+      passages in the gospels which seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus,
+      ascribing to him what alone is consistent with the great and pure
+      character of which the same writings furnish proofs, and to their proper
+      authors their own trivialities and imbecilities, I think myself authorized
+      to conclude the purity and distinction of his character, in opposition to
+      the impostures which those authors would fix upon him; and that the
+      postulate of my former letter is no more than is granted in all other
+      historical works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been much pleased
+      with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some valuable
+      hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good in his new
+      country; the public instruction there, as I understand, being within the
+      department destined for him. He is not without dissatisfaction, and
+      reasonable dissatisfaction, too, with the piracies of Baltimore; but his
+      justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure, distinguish between the
+      iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound principles of our country at
+      large, and of our government especially. From many conversations with him,
+      I hope he sees, and will promote, in his new situation, the advantages of
+      a cordial fraternization among all the American nations, and the
+      importance of their coalescing in an American system of policy, totally
+      independent of, and unconnected with that of Europe. The day is not
+      distant, when we may formally require a meridian of partition through the
+      ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither side of which no
+      European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; and when,
+      during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb,
+      within our regions, shall lie down together in peace. The excess of
+      population in Europe, and want of room, render war, in their opinion,
+      necessary to keep down that excess of numbers. Here, room is abundant,
+      population scanty, and peace the necessary means for producing men, to
+      whom the redundant soil is offering the means of life and happiness. The
+      principles of society there and here, then, are radically different, and I
+      hope no American patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of
+      interdicting in the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious
+      and sanguinary contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I
+      am earnest for an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning
+      them the task of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the
+      cannibalisms of the African coasts, and, to us, the suppression of the
+      same enormities within our seas: and for this purpose, I should rejoice to
+      see the fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren
+      of the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be
+      of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the
+      invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be
+      preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval
+      collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and respect for you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0154" id="link2H_4_0154">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 15, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am a great defaulter, my Dear Sir, in our correspondence, but prostrate
+      health rarely permits me to write; and when it does, matters of business
+      imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however, slowly,
+      swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I believe,
+      proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I ride six or
+      eight miles a day without fatigue; and within a few days, I shall endeavor
+      to visit my other home, after a twelvemonth&rsquo;s absence from it. Our
+      University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise, and the
+      oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and it is
+      becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have lately had an
+      opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your North
+      American Review of January last, having been not without anxiety to see
+      what that able work would say of us: and I was relieved on finding in it
+      much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms where indulged, I
+      found they would have been obviated had the developements of our plan been
+      fuller. But these were restrained by the character of the paper reviewed,
+      being merely a report of outlines, not a detailed treatise, and addressed
+      to a legislative body, not to a learned academy. For example, as an
+      inducement to introduce the Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it
+      would reward amply the few weeks of attention which alone would be
+      requisite for its attainment; leaving both term and degree under an
+      indefinite expression, because I know that not much time is necessary to
+      attain it to an useful degree, sufficient to give such instruction in the
+      etymologies of our language as may satisfy ordinary students, while more
+      time would be requisite for those who should propose to attain a critical
+      knowledge of it. In a letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts
+      who sent you, I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the
+      English and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary
+      he meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for
+      simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and
+      difficulties presented by it&rsquo;s rude alphabet, and unformed orthography.
+      But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond the
+      bounds of a report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts died, I believe, before
+      any progress was made in the work he had projected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our placing
+      military and naval architecture in the department of pure mathematics.
+      Military architecture embraces fortification and field works, which, with
+      their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts, &amp;c. are based on a
+      technical combination of lines and angles. These are adapted to offence
+      and defence, with and against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades, he.
+      But lines and angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch of pure
+      mathematics: and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other projectiles,
+      the necessary appendages of military works, although no part of their
+      architecture, belong to the conic sections, a branch of transcendental
+      geometry. Diderot and D&rsquo;Alembert, therefore, in their <i>Arbor scienciæ</i>,
+      have placed military architecture in the department of elementary
+      geometry. Naval architecture teaches the best form and construction of
+      vessels; for which best form it has recourse to the question of the solid
+      of least resistance; a problem of transcendental geometry. And its
+      appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch as in the preceding
+      case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of the water on the
+      rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may be placed in the
+      department of mechanics, as Diderot and D&rsquo;Alembert have done; but
+      belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in its military character
+      to military architecture, it simplified our plan to place both under the
+      same head. These views are so obvious, that I am sure they would have
+      required but a second thought to reconcile the reviewer to their location
+      under the head of pure mathematics. For this word location, see Bailey,
+      Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, &amp;c. But if dictionaries are to be the
+      arbiters of language, in which of them shall we find neologism? No matter.
+      It is a good word, well sounding, obvious, and expresses an idea, which
+      would otherwise require circumlocution. The reviewer was justifiable,
+      therefore, in using it; although he noted at the same time, as
+      unauthoritative, <i>centrality, grade, sparse</i>; all which have been
+      long used in common speech and writing. I am a friend to neology. It is
+      the only way to give to a language copiousness and euphony. Without it we
+      should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred or of Ulphilas; and held
+      to their state of science also: for I am sure they had no words which
+      could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen, cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism,
+      electricity, hyaline, and thousands of others expressing ideas not then
+      existing, nor of possible communication in the state of their language.
+      What a language has the French become since the date of their revolution,
+      by the free introduction of new words! The most copious and eloquent in
+      the living world; and equal to the Greek, had not that been regularly
+      modifiable almost <i>ad infinitum</i>. Their rule was, that whenever their
+      language furnished or adopted a root, all its branches in every part of
+      speech, were legitimated by giving them their appropriate terminations:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page331.jpg" alt="Page331 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the
+      adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity,
+      fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize,
+      fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root, and
+      it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist,
+      neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical; its
+      verb, neologize; and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but the
+      depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the
+      work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new
+      word, if ill formed, it is rejected in society, if well formed, adopted,
+      and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if, in
+      this process of sound neologization, our trans-Atlantic brethren shall not
+      choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after the Ionians, a second
+      example of a colonial dialect improving on its primitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of May the
+      12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &amp;c. Its crowd of scepticisms kept me
+      from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid it down, again
+      and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur ultimately
+      to my habitual anodyne, &lsquo;I feel, therefore I exist.&rsquo; I feel bodies which
+      are not myself: there are other existences then. I call them matter. I
+      feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where there is an absence
+      of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial space. On the basis
+      of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect the fabric of all the
+      certainties we can have or need. I can conceive thought to be an action of
+      a particular organization of matter, formed for that purpose by its
+      creator, as well as that attraction is an action of matter, or magnetism
+      of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator the power of endowing
+      matter with the mode of action called thinking, shall show how he could
+      endow the sun with the mode of action called attraction, which reins the
+      planets in the track of their orbits, or how an absence of matter can have
+      a will, and by that will put matter into motion, then the Materialist may
+      be lawfully required to explain the process by which matter exercises the
+      faculty of thinking. When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in
+      the wind. To talk of immaterial existences, is to talk of nothings. To say
+      that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say, they are
+      nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason
+      otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by the
+      Lockes, the Tracys, and the Stewarts. At what age* of the Christian church
+      this heresy of immaterialism, or masked atheism, crept in, I do not
+      exactly know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He
+      told us, indeed, that &lsquo;God is a spirit,&rsquo; but he has not defined what a
+      spirit is, nor said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers
+      generally, of the three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and
+      thin indeed, an ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. &lsquo;<i>Deus
+      reapse corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus</i>.&rsquo;
+      Tertullian,&rsquo; <i>Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?</i>&rsquo; And again, &lsquo;<i>Quis
+      negabit Deum esse corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est,
+      sui generis in sua effigie</i>. St. Justin Martyr,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page332.jpg" alt="332 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, &lsquo;<i>Quamvis enim subtilia
+      sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturas
+      eorum, corpora sunt tenuia</i>.&rsquo; And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius,
+      Tatian, Athenagoras, and others, with whose writings I pretend not a
+      familiarity, are said by those who are better acquainted with them, to
+      deliver the same doctrine. (Enfield x. 3. 1.) Turn to your Ocellus
+      d&rsquo;Argens, 97, 105. and to his Timseus 17. for these quotations. In
+      England, these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2.
+      when the writ <i>de hæretico comburendo</i> was abolished; and here until
+      the Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies being
+      now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing
+      from the material atheist only in their belief, that &lsquo;nothing made
+      something,&rsquo; and from the material deist, who believes that matter alone
+      can operate on matter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* That of Athanasius and the Council of Nicasa, anno 324]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses, I rid
+      myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations
+      hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and disquiet the mind.
+      A single sense may indeed be sometimes deceived, but rarely; and never all
+      our senses together, with their faculty of reasoning. They evidence
+      realities, and there are enough of these for all the purposes of life,
+      without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am
+      satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without
+      tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of
+      which I have no evidence. I am sure that I really know many, many things,
+      and none more surely than that I love you with all my heart, and pray for
+      the continuance of your life until you shall be tired of it yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0155" id="link2H_4_0155">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLV.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, November 28, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor, with a
+      request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary Board in time to
+      lay it before the legislature on the second day of their session. It was
+      enclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. If delivered before
+      the crowd of other business presses on them, they may act on it
+      immediately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly
+      combinations and manoeuvres by the enemies of the institution. I enclose
+      you now a paper presenting some views which may be useful to you in
+      conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution is
+      to cost, and reproaches of deceptive estimates. One hundred and sixty-two
+      thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars will be about the cost of
+      the whole establishment, when completed. Not an office at Washington has
+      cost less. The single building of the courthouse of Henrico has cost
+      nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of bricks of William
+      and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely Governor Clinton&rsquo;s display of the gigantic efforts of New York
+      towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate the pride as well as
+      the patriotism of our legislature, to look to the reputation and safety of
+      their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of becoming the
+      Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our own negroes. To
+      that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the hands of the other
+      States, what our indigenous predecessors were when invaded by the science
+      and arts of Europe. The mass of education in Virginia, before the
+      Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her sister colonies. What is
+      her education now? Where is it? The little we have, we import, like
+      beggars, from other States; or import their beggars to bestow on us their
+      miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to restore us to our station among
+      our confederates? Not more money from the people. Enough has been raised
+      by them, and appropriated to this very object. It is that it should be
+      employed understandingly, and for their greatest good. That good requires,
+      that while they are instructed in general, competently to the common
+      business of life, others should employ their genius with necessary
+      information to the useful arts, to inventions for saving labor and
+      increasing our comforts, to nourishing our health, to civil government,
+      military science, &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Would it not have a good effect for the friends of the University to take
+      the lead in proposing and effecting a practical scheme of elementary
+      schools? to assume the character of the friends, rather than the opponents
+      of that object? The present plan has appropriated to the primary schools
+      forty-five thousand dollars for three years, making one hundred and
+      thirty-five thousand dollars. I should be glad to know if this sum has
+      educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children? I doubt it much. And
+      if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a piece for what might
+      have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the literary revenue to be
+      sixty thousand dollars, I think it demonstrable, that this sum, equally
+      divided between the two objects, would amply suffice for both. One hundred
+      counties, divided into about twelve wards each, on an average, and a
+      school in each ward of perhaps ten children, would be one thousand and two
+      hundred schools, distributed proportionably over the surface of the State.
+      The inhabitants of each ward, meeting together (as when they work on the
+      roads), building good log-houses for their school and teacher, and
+      contributing for his provisions, rations of pork, beef, and corn, in the
+      proportion, each of his other taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without
+      feeling it; and those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of
+      their own children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the
+      tuition fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would still be
+      fed and lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten dollars, and three
+      hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an average (more or less duly
+      proportioned), would there be thirty such paupers for every county? I
+      think not. The truth is, that the want of common education with us is not
+      from our poverty, but from want of an orderly system. More money is now
+      paid for the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the
+      whole, if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in New
+      York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one hundred and
+      sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty established
+      academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen pupils; and five
+      colleges, with seven hundred and eighteen students; to which last classes
+      of institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars have been given;
+      and the whole appropriations for education estimated at two and a half
+      millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is Virginia become, with a
+      population almost equal to that of New York! And whence this difference?
+      From the difference their rulers set on the value of knowledge, and the
+      prosperity it produces. But still, if a pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may
+      do. If among fifty children in each of the six thousand schools of New
+      York, there are only paupers enough to employ twenty-five dollars of
+      public money to each school, surely among the ten children of each of our
+      one thousand and two hundred schools, the same sum of twenty-five dollars
+      to each school will teach its paupers (five times as much as to the same
+      number in New York), and will amount for the whole to thirty thousand
+      dollars a year, the one half only of our literary revenue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do then, Dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take in hand
+      the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the elementary
+      schools, and none are more warmly so than myself, lighten the difficulties
+      of the University, and promote in every order of men the degree of
+      instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their views in life.
+      It will combine with the mass of our force, a wise direction of it, which
+      will insure to our country its future prosperity and safety. I had
+      formerly thought that visitors of the schools might be chosen by the
+      county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward, and to superintend
+      them. I now think it would be better for every ward to choose its own
+      resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a teacher in the
+      ward, to superintend the school, and to call meetings of the ward for all
+      purposes relating to it: their accounts to be settled, and wards laid off
+      by the courts. I think ward elections better for many reasons, one of
+      which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary education out of the
+      hands of fanaticizing preachers, who, in county elections, would be
+      universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the county would possess
+      itself of all its schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the effect of
+      age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with me. I cannot,
+      therefore, present these views by separate letters to each of our
+      colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to communicate them to
+      Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge, and to request them to consider this
+      as equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon, being the local representative of
+      the University and among its most zealous friends, would be a more useful
+      second to General Breckenridge in the House of Delegates, by a free
+      communication of what concerns the University, with which he has had
+      little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So also, would it be as to Mr.
+      Rives, who would be a friendly advocate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0156" id="link2H_4_0156">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December, 25, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my return home after a long absence, I find here your favor of November
+      the 23rd, with Colonel Taylor&rsquo;s &lsquo;Construction Construed,&rsquo; which you have
+      been so kind as to send me, in the name of the author as well as yourself.
+      Permit me, if you please, to use the same channel for conveying to him the
+      thanks I render you also for this mark of attention. I shall read it, I
+      know, with edification, as I did his Enquiry, to which I acknowledge
+      myself indebted for many valuable ideas, and for the correction of some
+      errors of early opinion, never seen in a correct light until presented to
+      me in that work. That the present volume is equally orthodox I know before
+      reading it, because I know that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if
+      ever, differed in any political principle of importance. Every act of his
+      life, and every word he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to
+      the two Presidents, late and now in office, I know them both to be of
+      principles as truly republican as any men living. If there be any thing
+      amiss, therefore, in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable
+      deficit lately unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention
+      of Congress to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the
+      public contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss
+      for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the
+      treasury. I had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my old
+      fellow-laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
+      minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries, the
+      people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
+      Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it, will,
+      I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. Taxes
+      and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary of the United
+      States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under
+      ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are
+      construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special
+      government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all things at
+      their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to forget the
+      maxim, &lsquo;<i>Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem.</i>&rsquo; We shall see if
+      they are bold enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers have
+      lately taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book in his address
+      to the public, I will say, that against this every man should raise his
+      voice, and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this admirable address?
+      Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one which can be changed
+      but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay bare these wounds of our
+      constitution, expose these <i>decisions seriatim</i>, and arouse, as it is
+      able, the attention of the nation to these bold speculators on its
+      patience. Having found, from experience, that impeachment is an
+      impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider themselves secure
+      for life; they skulk from responsibility to public opinion, the only
+      remaining hold on them, under a practice first introduced into England by
+      Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a
+      majority of one, delivered as if unanimous and with the silent
+      acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who
+      sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. A
+      judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General to Congress,
+      requiring each judge to deliver his opinion <i>seriatim</i> and openly,
+      and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the record. A
+      judiciary independent of a King or executive alone, is a good thing; but
+      independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a
+      republican government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the work you send
+      me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a point of
+      declining (one or two instances only excepted). Complimentary thanks to
+      writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me sometimes before
+      the public, without my consent having been asked. But I am far from
+      presuming to direct the reading of my fellow-citizens, who are good enough
+      judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I am, also, too
+      desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention. Against this I
+      am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be unaccompanied by
+      corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet sensible sufficiently
+      to be unwilling to trust myself before the public, and when I cease to be
+      so, I hope that my friends will be too careful of me to draw me forth and
+      present me, like a Priam in armor, as a spectacle for public compassion. I
+      hope our political bark will ride through all its dangers; but I can in
+      future be but an inert passenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0157" id="link2H_4_0157">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 22, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and spirits
+      enough to take part in the late convention of your State, for revising its
+      constitution, and to bear your share in its debates and labors. The
+      amendments of which we have as yet heard, prove the advance of liberalism
+      in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the human mind will
+      some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand years ago. This
+      country, which has given to the world the example of physical liberty,
+      owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet it is but nominal
+      with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms, in practice, the
+      freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question, what
+      does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the
+      Missouri question? And this, by the bye, is but the name of the case, it
+      is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. The real question,
+      as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate population, is, Are
+      our slaves to be presented with freedom and a dagger? For if Congress has
+      the power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of the States,
+      within the States, it will be but another exercise of that power, to
+      declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again Athenian and
+      Lacedæmonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian war to settle
+      the ascendancy between them? Or is this the tocsin of merely a servile
+      war? That remains to be seen: but not, I hope, by you or me. Surely, they
+      will parley awhile, and give us time to get out of the way. What a
+      Bedlamite is man? But let us turn from our own uneasiness to the miseries
+      of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo, it seems, have come to a
+      parley, with dispositions at length to stop the useless effusion of human
+      blood in that quarter. I feared from the beginning, that these people were
+      not yet sufficiently enlightened for self-government; and that after
+      wading through blood and slaughter, they would end in military tyrannies,
+      more or less numerous. Yet as they wished to try the experiment, I wished
+      them success in it: they have now tried it, and will possibly find that
+      their safest road will be an accommodation with the mother country, which
+      shall hold them together by the single link of the same chief magistrate,
+      leaving to him power enough to keep them in peace with one another, and to
+      themselves the essential power of self-government and self-improvement,
+      until they shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of
+      freedom, to walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
+      functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
+      security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the press, habeas
+      corpus, and trial by jury, would make a good beginning. This last would be
+      the school in which their people might begin to learn the exercise of
+      civic duties as well as rights. For freedom of religion they are not yet
+      prepared. The scales of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen from their
+      eyes, to accept it for themselves individually, much less to trust others
+      with it. But that will come in time, as well as a general ripeness to
+      break entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir, how easily we
+      prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while we cannot cure
+      our own. We must leave both, I believe, to Heaven, and wrap ourselves up
+      in the mantle of resignation, and of that friendship of which I tender to
+      you the most sincere assurances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0158" id="link2H_4_0158">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C CABELL, January 31, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 31, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together, three days ago. They fill
+      me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards the
+      University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened. As to what
+      had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust with entire
+      confidence to what yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson shall
+      think best. You will see what is practicable, and give it such shape as
+      you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think sixty thousand
+      dollars will be necessary, including the library. Its instalments cannot
+      begin until those of the former loan are accomplished; and they should not
+      begin later, nor be less than thirteen thousand dollars a year. (I think
+      it safe to retain two thousand dollars a year for care of the buildings,
+      improvement of the grounds, and unavoidable contingencies.) To extinguish
+      the second loan, will require between five and six instalments, which will
+      carry us to the end of 1833, or thirteen years from this time. My
+      individual opinion is, that we had better not open the institution until
+      the buildings, library, and all, are finished, and our funds cleared of
+      incumbrance. These buildings once erected, will secure the full object
+      infallibly at the end of thirteen years, and as much earlier as the
+      legislature shall choose. And if we were to begin sooner, with half funds
+      only, it would satisfy the common mind, prevent their aid beyond that
+      point, and our institution, remaining at that for ever, would be no more
+      than the paltry academies we now have. Even with the whole funds we shall
+      be reduced to six Professors. While Harvard will still prime it over us
+      with her twenty Professors. How many of our youths she now has, learning
+      the lessons of anti-Missourianism, I know not; but a gentleman lately from
+      Princeton told me he saw there the list of the students at that place, and
+      that more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt,
+      deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of
+      restrictionists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best
+      friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the
+      necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you say, will
+      explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself they
+      are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that yourself, General
+      Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at your posts in the
+      legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened.
+      If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
+      our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed at
+      all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your country,
+      and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or later.
+      With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal to this?
+      What object of our lives can we propose so important? What interest of our
+      own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, labor, on what
+      in the single life which nature has given us, can these be better bestowed
+      than on this immortal boon to our country? The exertions and the
+      mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If any member of our
+      college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it
+      would be myself, who <i>quadragenis stipendiis jamdudum peractis</i>, have
+      neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep the field: but I will die in
+      the last ditch, and so I hope you will, my friend, as well as our
+      firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr. Johnson and General
+      Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life wherein to atone for
+      the omissions of this. Pray then, dear and very dear Sir, do not think of
+      deserting us, but view the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as
+      the lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest
+      of all. Continue with us in these holy labors, until, having seen their
+      accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, &lsquo;<i>Nunc dimittas, Domine</i>.
+      Under all circumstances, however, of praise or blame, I shall be
+      affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0159" id="link2H_4_0159">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIX.&mdash;TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 15, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn with deep affliction, that nothing is likely to be done for our
+      University this year. So near as it is to the shore that one shove more
+      would land it there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
+      open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our
+      country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections
+      that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they should
+      be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to deliver
+      over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for them, we
+      secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling this duty, we
+      bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of seeing our sons
+      rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high promise; these are
+      considerations which will occur to all; but all, I fear, do not see the
+      speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or
+      later. The line of division lately marked out between different portions
+      of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and we
+      are now trusting to those who are against us in position and principle, to
+      fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our youth. If, as
+      has been estimated, we send three hundred thousand dollars a year to the
+      northern seminaries, for the instruction of our own sons, then we must
+      have there five hundred of our sons, imbibing opinions and principles in
+      discord with those of their own country. This canker is eating on the
+      vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be beyond
+      remedy. We are now certainly furnishing recruits to their school. If it be
+      asked what are we to do, or said we cannot give the last lift to the
+      University without stopping our primary schools, and these we think most
+      important; I answer, I know their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for
+      the general instruction of the people. Who first started that idea? I may
+      surely say, Myself. Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew
+      more than forty years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the
+      education of the people, generally, had never been suggested in this
+      State. There you will see developed the first rudiments of the whole
+      system of general education we are now urging and acting on: and it is
+      well known to those With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never
+      have proposed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of
+      instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we
+      cannot do every thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary
+      schools need no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a
+      considerable expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year
+      or two on the primary schools, and an application of the whole income,
+      during that time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the
+      University, would enable us then to start both institutions at the same
+      time. The intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private
+      classical schools, for the middle grade, may hereafter receive any
+      necessary aids when the funds shall become competent. In the mean time,
+      they are going on sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the
+      private expense of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are
+      competent to their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I
+      presume, left no doubt, that the present plan of primary schools, of
+      putting money into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing,
+      and under no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other must be
+      thought of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, the whole
+      revenue of that year, with that of the last three years which has not been
+      already thrown away, would place our University in readiness to start with
+      a better organization of primary schools, and both may then go on, hand in
+      hand, for ever. No diminution of the capital will in this way have been
+      incurred; a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A relinquishment of
+      interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars, would so far, also,
+      forward the University without lessening the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to yourself and
+      your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I do the conditions
+      of the literary fund and its wisest application; and I shall acquiesce
+      with perfect resignation to their will. I have brooded, perhaps with
+      fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to me the hope of
+      continuing to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed that the
+      course and circumstances of my life had placed within my power some
+      services favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be
+      egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my
+      colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the legislature shall
+      enable them to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxieties, freely
+      to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a different light. I am sure
+      that all act conscientiously, and that all will be done honestly and
+      wisely which can be done. I yield the concerns of the world with
+      cheerfulness to those who are appointed in the order of nature to succeed
+      to them; and for yourself, for our colleagues, and for all in charge of
+      our country&rsquo;s future fame and fortune, I offer up sincere prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0160" id="link2H_4_0160">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLX.&mdash;TO &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- NICHOLAS, December
+      11,1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 11,1821,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of December the 19th places me under a dilemma, which I cannot
+      solve but by an exposition of the naked truth. I would have wished this
+      rather to have remained as hitherto, without inquiry; but your inquiries
+      have a right to be answered. I will do it as exactly as the great lapse of
+      time and a waning memory will enable me. I may misremember indifferent
+      circumstances, but can be right in substance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed at
+      the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the executive
+      and the judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious consideration
+      how head could be made against their enterprises on the constitution. The
+      leading republicans in Congress found themselves of no use there,
+      browbeaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelming majority. They
+      concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in the State
+      legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The alien and
+      sedition laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy between
+      Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately confidential,
+      than between any other two States of republican policy. Mr. Madison came
+      into the Virginia legislature. 1 was then in the Vice-Presidency, and
+      could not leave my station. But your father, Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and
+      myself happening to be together, the engaging the co-operation of Kentucky
+      in an energetic protestation against the constitutionality of those laws,
+      became a subject of consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to
+      sketch resolutions for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce
+      them to that legislature, with a solemn assurance, which I strictly
+      required, that it should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew
+      and delivered them to him, and, in keeping their origin secret, he
+      fulfilled his pledge of honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas
+      asked me if I would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn
+      them. I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
+      intimated it before to any one, I know not: but I afterwards observed in
+      the papers repeated imputations of them to me; on which, as has been my
+      practice on all occasions of imputation, I have observed entire silence.
+      The question, indeed, has never before been put to me, nor should I answer
+      it to any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed by it,
+      and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be withdrawn
+      from public notice. Your father&rsquo;s zeal and talents were too well known, to
+      derive any additional distinction from the penning these resolutions. That
+      circumstance, surely, was of far less merit than the, proposing and
+      carrying them through the legislature of his State. The only fact in this
+      statement, on which my memory is not distinct, is the time and occasion of
+      the consultation with your father and Colonel Nicholas. It took place here
+      I know; but whether any other person was present, or communicated with, is
+      my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was either with us, or consulted, but my
+      memory is uncertain as to minute details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this difference
+      only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in the present
+      assaults on the constitution. But its assaults are more sure and deadly,
+      as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you and your
+      cotemporaries meet them with the same determination and effect, as your
+      father and his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve inviolate a
+      constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and purity, will prove
+      in the end a blessing to all the nations of the earth. With these prayers,
+      accept those for your own happiness and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0161" id="link2H_4_0161">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXI.&mdash;TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JEDIDIAH MORSE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 6, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, and have now to
+      express my sense of the honorable station proposed to my ex-brethren and
+      myself, in the constitution of the society for the civilization and
+      improvement of the Indian tribes. The object, too, expressed, as that of
+      the association, is one which I have ever had much at heart, and never
+      omitted an occasion of promoting, while I have been in situations to do it
+      with effect, and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and retirement,
+      would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable plan of
+      raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state of physical
+      and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by circumstances
+      foreign to them. That the plan now proposed is entitled to unmixed
+      approbation, I am not prepared to say, after mature consideration, and
+      with all the partialities which its professed object would rightfully
+      claim from me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private
+      associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose
+      magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government. Yet
+      such a line does exist. I have seen the days, they were those which
+      preceded the Revolution, when even this last and perilous engine became
+      necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second
+      time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government
+      had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of correction
+      remained to them, but to organize a collateral power, which, with their
+      support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But such is not
+      the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral power, which,
+      by a change of its original views, and assumption of others we know not
+      how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready organized, and in force
+      sufficient to shake the established foundations of society, and endanger
+      its peace and the principles on which it is based. Is not the machine now
+      proposed of this gigantic stature? It is to consist of the ex-Presidents
+      of the United States, the Vice-President, the Heads of all the executive
+      departments, the members of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the
+      several States and Territories, all the members of both Houses of
+      Congress, all the general officers of the army, the commissioners of the
+      navy, all Presidents and Professors of colleges and theological
+      seminaries, all the clergy of the United States, the. Presidents and
+      Secretaries of all associations having relation to Indians, all commanding
+      officers within or near Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and
+      agents; all these ex officio; and as many private individuals as will pay
+      a certain price for membership. Observe, too, that the clergy will
+      constitute * nineteen twentieths of this association, and, by the law of
+      the majority, may command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the
+      high authorities of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted
+      and wielded by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both as to
+      purpose and process. . Can this formidable array be reviewed without
+      dismay?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated
+     at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four
+     hundred; but if the former number be halved, the reasoning
+     will be the same.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It will be said, that in this association will be all the confidential
+      officers of the government; the choice of the people themselves. No man on
+      earth has more implicit confidence than myself in the integrity and
+      discretion of this chosen band of servants. But is confidence or
+      discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our constitution? It will
+      comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries of the government: but seceded
+      from their consitutional stations as guardians of the nation, and acting
+      not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary society,
+      having no limit to their purposes but the same will which constitutes
+      their existence. It will be the authorities of the people, and all
+      influential characters from among them, arrayed on one side, and on the
+      other, the people themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a fearful
+      array. It will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know they are so
+      at present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of our choice and
+      unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against the adored principles
+      of our constitution, as for gravity to change its direction, and gravid
+      bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed imaginary: but the example
+      is real. Under its authority, as a precedent, future associations will
+      arise with objects at which we should shudder at this time. The society of
+      Jacobins, in another country, was instituted on principles and views as
+      virtuous as ever kindled the hearts of patriots. It was the pure
+      patriotism of their purposes which extended their association to the
+      limits of the nation, and rendered their power within it boundless; and it
+      was this power which degenerated their principles and practices to such
+      enormities, as never before could have been imagined. Yet these were men;
+      and we and our descendants will be no more. The present is a case where,
+      if ever, we are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we
+      are, but as we may be; for who can now imagine what we may become under
+      circumstances not now imaginable? The object, too, of this institution,
+      seems to require so hazardous an example as little as any which could be
+      proposed. The government is, at this time, going on with the process of
+      civilizing the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any one of us
+      is able to devise, and with resources more competent than we could expect
+      to command by voluntary taxation. Is it that the new characters called
+      into association with those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it
+      that a plan originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better than
+      that prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not
+      self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is it
+      that there is no danger that a new authority, marching independently along
+      side of the government, in the same line and to the same object, may not
+      produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct the operations of the
+      government, or wrest the object entirely from their hands? Might we not as
+      well appoint a committee for each department of the government, to counsel
+      and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to counsel and
+      direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well for their
+      foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian affairs?
+      And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we expect to see
+      spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate themselves in this
+      and that of its functions? In a word, why not take the government out of
+      its constitutional hands, associate them indeed with us, to preserve a
+      semblance that the acts are theirs, but insuring them to be our own by
+      allowing them a minor vote only?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so irrresistible,
+      that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, without which I should
+      not have obtruded an opinion) I have not been able to withhold the
+      expression of them. Not knowing the individuals who have proposed this
+      plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining personal disrespect for them.
+      On the contrary, I see in the printed list persons for whom I cherish
+      sentiments of sincere friendship; and others, for whose opinions and
+      purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet thinking, as I do, that
+      this association is unnecessary; that the government is proceeding to the
+      same object under control of the law; that they are competent to it in
+      wisdom, in means, and inclination; that this association, this wheel
+      within a wheel, is more likely to produce collision than aid; and that it
+      is, in its magnitude, of dangerous example; I am bound to say, that, as a
+      dutiful citizen, I cannot in conscience become a member of this society,
+      possessing as it does my entire confidence in the integrity of its views.
+      I feel with awe the weight of opinion to which I may be opposed, and that,
+      for myself, I have need to ask the indulgence of a belief, that the
+      opinion I have given is the best result I can deduce from my own reason
+      and experience, and that it is sincerely conscientious. Repeating,
+      therefore, my just acknowledgments for the honor proposed to me, I beg
+      leave to add the assurances to the society and yourself of my highest
+      confidence and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0162" id="link2H_4_0162">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 26, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation
+      of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I
+      expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it is as
+      difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the
+      present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. I
+      wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn from you that the
+      latter, at least, is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion
+      as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The
+      doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is
+      the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored to
+      reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the demoralizing
+      dogmas of Calvin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. That there are three Gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the
+      proposition, the more merit in its faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved,
+      and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn
+      them; no virtues of the latter, save.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes
+      and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus; or the impious dogmatists, as
+      Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold
+      as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other
+      way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a
+      counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign
+      from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven
+      thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed
+      author himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the
+      doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his
+      lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice
+      that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has
+      surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the
+      genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is
+      not a young man now living in the United States, who will not die an
+      Unitarian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its
+      votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of creed
+      and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the religion
+      of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they will give up
+      morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser are the Quakers,
+      who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, schismatize
+      about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense, suffer
+      no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of feature, to impair
+      the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of Unitarians, this the
+      holy mantle which shall cover within its charitable circumference all who
+      believe in one God, and who love their neighbor! I conclude my sermon with
+      sincere assurances of my friendly esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0163" id="link2H_4_0163">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 27, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great satisfaction. For although
+      I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily on you, as
+      on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the degree of that
+      pressure. Much reflection, too, has been produced by your suggestion of
+      lending my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have generally great
+      aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public papers; because of
+      my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be exhibited in scene on the
+      public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the precept of Horace, &lsquo;<i>Solve
+      senescentem, mature sanus, equum, ne peccet ad extremum ridendus</i>.&rsquo; In
+      the present case, however, I see a possibility that this might aid in
+      producing the very quiet after which I pant. I do not know how far you may
+      suffer, as I do, under the persecution of letters, of which every mail
+      brings a fresh load. They are letters of inquiry, for the most part,
+      always of good will, sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much
+      oftener from persons whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and
+      civilly, and to which, therefore, civility requires answers. Perhaps, the
+      better known failure of your hand in its function of writing, may shield
+      you in greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the
+      misfortune of its disability. I happened to turn to my letter-list some
+      time ago, and a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single
+      year. It was the year before the last. I found the number to be one
+      thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of
+      elaborate research, and all to be answered with due attention and
+      consideration. Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I
+      will repeat the question suggested by other considerations in mine of the
+      1st. Is this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no
+      end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is
+      paradise. It occurs, then, that my condition of existence, truly stated in
+      that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions which are
+      so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a relief would, to
+      me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the 11th, equally interesting
+      and affecting, should accompany that to which it is an answer. The two,
+      taken together, would excite a joint interest, and place before our
+      fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient servants, who, having
+      faithfully performed their forty or fifty campaigns, <i>stipendiis omnibus
+      expletis</i>, have a reasonable claim to repose from all disturbance in
+      the sanctuary of invalids and superannuates. But some device should be
+      thought of for their getting before the public otherwise than by our own
+      publication. Your printer, perhaps, could frame something plausible,
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s name, should be left blank, as his picture, should
+      it meet his eye, might give him pain. I consign, however, the whole
+      subject to your consideration, to do in it whatever your own judgment
+      shall approve, and repeat always, with truth, the assurance of my constant
+      and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0164" id="link2H_4_0164">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXIV.&mdash;TO WILLIAM T. BARRY, July 2, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM T. BARRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 2, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am very thankful for the
+      kindness of its expressions respecting myself. But it ascribes to me
+      merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause of
+      independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for its
+      success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition. So also
+      in the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious were the
+      worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its
+      republican tack. To preserve it in that will require unremitting
+      vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into
+      our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to our
+      objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of republicanism,
+      may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider the party division
+      of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist in any government, and
+      well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a more dangerous
+      character. We already see the power, installed for life, responsible to no
+      authority (for impeachment is not even a scare-crow), advancing with a
+      noiseless and steady pace to the great object of consolidation. The
+      foundations are already deeply laid by their decisions, for the
+      annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the removal of every
+      check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing* power of which themselves are
+      to make a sovereign part. If ever this vast country is brought under a
+      single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption,
+      indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of
+      surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between
+      reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one
+      or the other is inevitable. Before the canker is become inveterate, before
+      its venom has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond
+      control, remedy should be applied. Let the future appointments of judges
+      be for four or six years, and renewable by the President and Senate. This
+      will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revision and
+      probation, and may keep them in equipoise between the general and special
+      governments. We have erred in this point, by copying England, where
+      certainly it is a good thing to have the judges independent of the King.
+      But we have omitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge
+      removable on the address of both legislative Houses. That there should be
+      public functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their
+      demerit, is a solecism in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and
+      inconsistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my power to
+      give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated, and now stiffened
+      wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that I am obliged to decline
+      every thing possible requiring writing. An act of our legislature will
+      inform you of our plan of primary schools, and the annual reports show
+      that it is becoming completely abortive, and must be abandoned very
+      shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and eighty thousand
+      dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars a year more until
+      it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has received the elements of
+      common education, it must be in some part of the country not known to me.
+      Experience has but too fully confirmed the early predictions of its fate.
+      But on this subject I must refer you to others more able than I am to go
+      into the necessary details; and I conclude with the assurances of my great
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0165" id="link2H_4_0165">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 19, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist, makes writing an
+      operation so slow and painful to me, that I should not so soon have
+      troubled you with an acknowledgment of your favor of the 8th, but for the
+      request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter of June
+      the 26th. No, my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest of hornets
+      would it thrust my head! the <i>genus irritabile vatum</i>, on whom
+      argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in matters of
+      religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily wrongs of the world,
+      but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an enterprise more than
+      Quixotic. I should as soon undertake to bring the crazy skulls of Bedlam
+      to sound understanding, as inculcate reason into that of an Athanasian. I
+      am old, and tranquillity is now my <i>summum bonum</i>. Keep me,
+      therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his victim Servetus.
+      Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity, I must
+      leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off the false branches
+      which have been engrafted into it by the mycologists of the middle and
+      modern ages. I am not aware of the peculiar resistance to Unitarianism,
+      which you ascribe to Pennsylvania. When I lived in Philadelphia there was
+      a respectable congregation of that sect, with a meeting-house and regular
+      service which I attended, and in which Doctor Priestley officiated to
+      numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two churches, and their pastor,
+      author of an inestimable book on this subject, was elected chaplain to the
+      late Congress. That doctrine has not yet been preached to us: but the
+      breeze begins to be felt which precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all
+      in a bustle, shutting its doors and windows to keep it out. But it will
+      come, and drive before it the foggy mists of Platonism which have so long
+      obscured our atmosphere. I am in hopes that some of the disciples of your
+      institution will become missionaries to us, of these doctrines truly
+      evangelical, and open our eyes to what has been so long hidden from them.
+      A bold and eloquent preacher would be no where listened to with more
+      freedom than in this State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might
+      need a preparatory discourse on the text of &lsquo;Prove all things, hold fast
+      that which is good,&rsquo; in order to unlearn the lesson that reason is an
+      unlawful guide in religion. They might startle on being first awaked from
+      the dreams of the night, but they would rub their eyes at once, and look
+      the spectres boldly in the face. The preacher might be excluded by our
+      hierophants from their churches and meeting-houses, but would be attended
+      in the fields by whole acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from
+      Cambridge would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the
+      tritheistical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be my
+      welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem and respect for
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0166" id="link2H_4_0166">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 1, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to
+      answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th; but to little
+      purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only. I
+      know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our
+      seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
+      treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the opinion
+      that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a naval force
+      sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this subject we
+      communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to the United
+      States and took part in the administration under General Washington, I
+      constantly maintained that opinion; and in December, 1790, took advantage
+      of a reference to me from the first Congress which met after I was in
+      office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for the protection of our
+      Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them an accurate statement of
+      the whole Barbary force, public and private. I think General Washington
+      approved of building vessels of war to that extent. General Knox, I know,
+      did. But what was Colonel Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion, I do not in the least
+      remember. Your recollections on that subject are certainly corroborated by
+      his known anxieties for a close connection with Great Britain, to which he
+      might apprehend danger from collisions between their vessels and ours.
+      Randolph was then Attorney General; but his opinion on the question I also
+      entirely forget. Some vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into
+      the Mediterranean. The additions to these in your time, I need not note to
+      you, who are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
+      of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
+      Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that the
+      public safety might require some additional vessels of strength, to be
+      prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided they
+      could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept in the
+      water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this view I
+      proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level of the
+      tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that places for
+      these docks should be selected where there was a command of water on a
+      high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which the vessels might
+      be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the majority of the
+      legislature was against any addition to the navy, and the minority,
+      although for it in judgment, voted against it on a principle of
+      opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to remain on the
+      stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be launched and
+      finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour&rsquo;s notice. On
+      this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That of
+      the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations. Yet a
+      navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or twelve
+      years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs as much
+      as would build a new one: and that a nation who could count on twelve or
+      fifteen years&rsquo; of peace, would gain by burning its navy and building a new
+      one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by circumstances.
+      Since my proposition for a force adequate to the piracies of the
+      Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in our own seas for
+      considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I wish we could have a
+      convention with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down the
+      pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of Africa,
+      and for us to perform the same duties for the society of nations in our
+      seas. In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the vessels
+      of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
+      weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [The annexed is the letter to which the foregoing is a reply.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Montezillo, October 15, 1822. Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon a subject
+      of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built, and the four
+      captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry, &amp;c,
+      to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
+      Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to you; for several
+      reasons. First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we were at
+      Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly,
+      because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only indifferent
+      about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of the Navy; only
+      four Heads of department. You were Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary
+      of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and I believe Bradford was
+      Attorney General. I have always suspected that you and Knox were in favor
+      of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was clear. But Washington, I
+      am confident, was against it in his judgment. But his attachment to Knox,
+      and his deference to your opinion, for I know he had a great regard for
+      you, might induce him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even though
+      Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition to you. That Hamilton was
+      averse to the measure, I have personal evidence; for while it was pending,
+      he came in a hurry and a fit of impatience to make a visit to me. He said,
+      he was likely to be called upon for a large sum of money to build ships of
+      war, to fight the Algerines, and he asked my opinion of the measure. I
+      answered him that I was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of
+      opinion, from the commencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most
+      powerful, the safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country.
+      My advice, therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly
+      be spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. The
+      conversation was of some length, but it was manifest in his looks and in
+      his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
+      that I had expressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, requesting
+      him to procure a commision for her son, in the navy; &lsquo;that navy,&rsquo; says her
+      ladyship, &lsquo;of which his father was the parent.&rsquo; &lsquo;For,&rsquo; says she, &lsquo;I have
+      frequently heard General Washington say to my husband, the navy was your
+      child.&rsquo; I have always believed it to be Jefferson&rsquo;s child, though Knox may
+      have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton&rsquo;s hobby was the
+      army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof from his own
+      lips, in many different conversations, some of them of length, in which he
+      always insisted that it was only building and arming ships for the
+      English. &lsquo;<i>Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus imperii; si non, his
+      utere mecum</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0167" id="link2H_4_0167">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR COOPER, November 2, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR COOPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 2, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere of
+      our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of
+      fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all.
+      I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and
+      freedom of religion, it could have arisen to the height you describe. This
+      must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy and
+      absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending
+      them, render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone
+      to denunciation. In Boston, however, and its neighborhood, Unitarianism
+      has advanced to so great strength, as now to humble this haughtiest of all
+      religious sects; insomuch, that they condescend to interchange with them
+      and the other sects, the civilities of preaching freely and frequently in
+      each other&rsquo;s meeting-houses. In Rhode Island, on the other hand, no
+      sectarian preacher will permit an Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our
+      Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have
+      their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by their
+      priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the
+      effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their
+      modesty would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover. In our village
+      of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice
+      only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either church or
+      meeting-house. The court-house is the common temple, one Sunday in the
+      month to each. Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist,
+      meet together, join in hymning their Maker, listen with attention and
+      devotion to each others&rsquo; preachers, and all mix in society with perfect
+      harmony. It is not so in the districts where Presbyterianism prevails
+      undividedly. Their ambition and tyranny would tolerate no rival, if they
+      had power. Systematical in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects,
+      they aim, like the Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country,
+      are hostile to every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at
+      seeing others begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of
+      instruction, to which there is now so growing an attention, will be the
+      remote remedy to this fever of fanaticism; while the more proximate one
+      will be the progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the
+      religion of the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A handle
+      has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is an institution,
+      not merely of no religion, but against all religion. Occasion was taken at
+      the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might
+      silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to
+      the institution. In our annual report to the legislature, after stating
+      the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious
+      instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the different
+      religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of their
+      own tenets, on the confines of the University, so near as that the
+      students may attend the lectures there, and have the free use our own
+      library, and every other accommodation we can give them; preserving,
+      however, their independence of us and of each other. This fills the chasm
+      objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give
+      instruction in all useful sciences. I think the invitation will be
+      accepted, by some sects from candid intentions, and by others from
+      jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects together, and mixing
+      them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities,
+      liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion,
+      a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time of opening our University is still as uncertain as ever. All the
+      pavilions, boarding-houses, and dormitories are done. Nothing is now
+      wanting but the central building for a library and other general purposes.
+      For this we have no funds, and the last legislature refused all aid. We
+      have better hopes of the next. But all is uncertain. I have heard with
+      regret of disturbances on the part of the students in your seminary. The
+      article of discipline is the most difficult in American education.
+      Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by parents, beget a
+      spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle to science with us,
+      and a principal cause of its decay since the Revolution. I look to it with
+      dismay in our institution, as a breaker ahead, which I am far from being
+      confident we shall be able to weather. The advance of age, and tardy pace
+      of the public patronage, may probably spare me the pain of witnessing
+      consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0168" id="link2H_4_0168">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVIII.&mdash;TO JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 8, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject of Unitarianism, and
+      to express my gratification with your efforts for the revival of primitive
+      Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is better established,
+      than that the doctrine of one God, pure and uncompounded, was that of the
+      early ages of Christianity; and was amoung the efficacious doctrines which
+      gave it triumph over the polytheism of the ancients, sickened with the
+      absurdities of their own theology. Nor was the unity of the Supreme Being
+      ousted from the Christian creed by the force of reason, but by the sword
+      of civil government, wielded at the will of the fanatic Athanasius. The
+      hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and
+      three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
+      thousands of martyrs. And a strong proof of the solidity of the primitive
+      faith, is its restoration, as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to
+      itself the freedom of religious opinion, and its external divorce from the
+      civil authority. The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe,
+      is now all but ascendant in the eastern States; it is dawning in the west,
+      and advancing towards the south; and I confidently expect that the present
+      generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United
+      States. The eastern presses are giving us many excellent pieces on the
+      subject, and Priestley&rsquo;s learned writings on it are, or should be, in
+      every hand. In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three
+      but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can
+      say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea?
+      He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man,
+      once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities
+      the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every
+      wind. With such persons, gullability, which they call faith, takes the
+      helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in one
+      God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of
+      believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that is
+      the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual
+      freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought in
+      question before the public on this or any other subject, and I pray you to
+      consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part in controversies,
+      religious or political. At the age of eighty, tranquillity is the greatest
+      good of life, and the strongest of our desires that of dying in the
+      good-will of all mankind. And with the assurances of all my good-will to
+      Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and Tory, accept for yourself that of
+      my entire respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0169" id="link2H_4_0169">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER, CLXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 25, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received, in due time, your two favors of December the 2nd and February
+      the 10th, and have to acknowledge for the ladies of my native State their
+      obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind as to bestow on
+      them. They certainly claim no advantages over those of their sister
+      States, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances existing with
+      many of them, and happily availed, which our situation does not offer. But
+      the paper respecting Monticello, to which you allude, was not written by a
+      Virginian, but a visitant from another State; and written by memory at
+      least a dozen years after the visit. This has occasioned some lapses of
+      recollection, and a confusion of some things in the mind of our friend,
+      and particularly as to the volume of slanders supposed to have been cut
+      out of newspapers and preserved. It would not, indeed, have been a single
+      volume, but an Encyclopaedia in bulk. But I never had such a volume;
+      indeed, I rarely thought those libels worth reading, much less preserving
+      and remembering. At the end of every year, I generally sorted all my
+      pamphlets, and had them bound according to their subjects. One of these
+      volumes consisted of personal altercations between individuals, and
+      calumnies on each other. This was lettered on the back, &lsquo;Personalities,&rsquo;
+      and is now in the library of Congress. I was in the habit, also, while
+      living apart from my family, of cutting out of the newspapers such morsels
+      of poetry, or tales, as I thought would please, and of sending them to my
+      grandchildren, who pasted them on leaves of blank paper and formed them
+      into a book. These two volumes have been confounded into one in the
+      recollection of our friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has heightened
+      the scenes she visited, as well as the merits of the inhabitants, to whom
+      her society was a delightful gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have just finished reading O&rsquo;Meara&rsquo;s Bonaparte. It places him in a
+      higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him. I had thought him
+      the greatest of all military captains, but an indifferent statesman, and
+      misled by unworthy passions. The flashes, however, which escaped from him
+      in these conversations with O&rsquo;Meara, prove a mind of great expansion,
+      although not of distinct developement and reasoning. He seizes results
+      with rapidity and penetration, but never explains logically the process of
+      reasoning by which he arrives at them. This book, too, makes us forget his
+      atrocities for a moment, in commiseration of his sufferings. I will not
+      say that the authorities of the world, charged with the care of their
+      country and people, had not a right to confine him for life, as a lion or
+      tiger, on the principles of self-preservation. There was no safety to
+      nations while he was permitted to roam at large. But the putting him to
+      death in cold blood, by lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults,
+      and deprivations, was a degree of inhumanity to which the poisonings and
+      assassinations of the school of Borgia and the den of Marat never
+      attained. The book proves, also, that nature had denied him the moral
+      sense, the first excellence of well-organized man. If he could seriously
+      and repeatedly affirm, that he had raised himself to power without ever
+      having committed a crime, it proves that he wanted totally the sense of
+      right and wrong. If he could consider the millions of human lives which he
+      had destroyed or caused to be destroyed, the desolations of countries by
+      plunderings, burnings, and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of
+      the world without the consent of their constituents, to place his brothers
+      and sisters on their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of
+      men and jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the
+      demolition of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their
+      rights and amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train
+      of his other enormities; the man, I say, who could consider all these as
+      no crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
+      have been lifted to slay him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of my arm is well
+      knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a discouraging condition, kept
+      entirely useless by an oedematous swelling of slow amendment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0170" id="link2H_4_0170">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 11, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 11, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may continue in life and
+      health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of, &lsquo;<i>Mon
+      Dieu! jusqu&rsquo;a quand?</i>&rsquo; would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin
+      in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be; or
+      rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false God, he
+      did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom you and I
+      acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of the world;
+      but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe
+      in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of
+      Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to
+      atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, there would
+      not be sufficient proof of the being of a God. Now one sixth of mankind
+      only are supposed to be Christians: the other five sixths then, who do not
+      believe in the Jewish and Christian revelation, are without a knowledge of
+      the existence of a God! This gives completely a <i>gain de cause</i> to
+      the disciples of Ocellus, Timasus, Spinosa, Diderot, and D&rsquo;Holbach. The
+      argument which they rest on as triumphant and unanswerable is, that in
+      every hypothesis of cosmogony, you must admit an eternal pre-existence of
+      something; and according to the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to
+      employ two principles to solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They
+      say then, that it is more simple to believe at once in the eternal
+      pre-existence of the world, as it is now going on, and may for ever go on
+      by the principle of reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe
+      in the eternal pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the
+      world, a being whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and
+      mode, or place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no power
+      of the mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. On the contrary, I hold
+      (without appeal to revelation), that when we take a view of the universe,
+      in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind
+      not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and
+      indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the
+      heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of
+      centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our earth itself,
+      with its distribution of lands, waters, and atmosphere; animal and
+      vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles; insects, mere
+      atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or mammoth; the mineral
+      substances, their generation and uses; it is impossible, I say, for the
+      human mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause, and
+      effect, up to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter
+      and motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in
+      their present forms, and their regenerator into new and other forms. We
+      see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to
+      maintain the universe in its course and order. Stars, well known, have
+      disappeared, new ones have come into view; comets, in their incalculable
+      courses, may run foul of suns and planets, and require renovation under
+      other laws; certain races of animals are become extinct; and were there no
+      restoring power, all existences might extinguish successively, one by one,
+      until all should be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are
+      these evidences of an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the
+      infinite numbers of men who have existed through all time, they have
+      believed, in the proportion of a million at least to unit, in the
+      hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that
+      of a self-existent universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this
+      more probable, than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early
+      Christians, indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of both
+      the creator and the world, without changing their relation of cause and
+      effect. That this was the opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by
+      Cardinal Toleta, in these words; &lsquo;<i>Deus ab terno fuit jam omnipotens, si
+      cut cum produxit mundum. Ah aternopotuit producers mundum. Si sol ah
+      czterno esset, lumen ah æterno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium. At
+      lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficients solis et pedis; potuit ergo
+      cum causa æterna effectus coaternus esse. Cujus sententia, est S. Thomas,
+      theologorum primus</i>.&rsquo;&mdash;Cardinal Toleta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page364.jpg" alt="Page364 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page365.jpg" alt="Page365 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us, that &lsquo;God is
+      a spirit&rsquo; (John iv. 24.), but without defining what a spirit is: [Greek
+      phrase] Down to the third century, we know that it was still deemed
+      material but of a lighter, subtler matter than our gross bodies. So says
+      Origen; <i>Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Originem, reapte
+      corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus</i>.&rsquo;
+      These are the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen. Origen himself
+      says, [Greek and Latin phrase]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two fathers were of the third century. Calvin&rsquo;s character of this
+      Supreme Being seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the
+      reformation of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those
+      more worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of
+      Jesus in his discourses to the Jews: and his doctrine of the cosmogony of
+      the world is very clearly laid down in the three first verses of the first
+      chapter of John, in these words: [Greek phrase] Which, truly translated,
+      means, &lsquo;In the beginning God existed, and reason [or mind] was with God,
+      and that mind was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were
+      created by it, and without it was made not one thing which was made.&rsquo; Yet
+      this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of Jesus, that the world was
+      created by the supreme intelligent being, has been perverted by modern
+      Christians to build up a second person of their tritheism, by a
+      mistranslation of the word <i>Xoyog</i>. One of its legitimate meanings,
+      indeed, is &lsquo;a word.&rsquo; But in that sense it makes an unmeaning jargon: while
+      the other meaning, &lsquo;reason,&rsquo; equally legitimate, explains rationally the
+      eternal pre-existence of God, and his creation of, the world. Knowing how
+      incomprehensible it was that &lsquo;a word,&rsquo; the mere action or articulation of
+      the organs of speech could create a world, they undertook to make of this
+      articulation a second pre-existing being, and ascribe to him, and not to
+      God, the creation of the universe. The atheist here plumes himself on the
+      uselessness of such a God, and the simpler hypothesis of a self-existent
+      universe. The truth is, that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of
+      Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have
+      perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely
+      incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the
+      day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being
+      as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of
+      the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that
+      the dawn of reason, and freedom of thought, in these United States, will
+      do away all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive
+      and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much for your quotation of Calvin&rsquo;s &lsquo;<i>Mon Dieu! jusqu&rsquo;a quand</i>&rsquo;in
+      which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I join you
+      cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness than
+      reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our ancient
+      colleagues, and receive with them the seal of approbation, &lsquo;Well done,
+      good and faithful servants.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0171" id="link2H_4_0171">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXI.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 11, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a twelvemonth before, I
+      thought myself singularly unfortunate in so timing my journey, as to have
+      been absent exactly at the moment of your late visit to our neighborhood.
+      The loss, indeed, was all my own; for in these short interviews with you.
+      I generally get my political compass rectified, learn from you whereabouts
+      we are, and correct my course again. In exchange for this, I can give you
+      but newspaper ideas, and little indeed of these, for I read but a single
+      paper, and that hastily. I find Horace and Tacitus so much better writers
+      than the champions of the gazettes, that I lay those down, to take up
+      these, with great reluctance. And on the question you propose, whether we
+      can, in any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in favor of
+      liberty, I can give you but commonplace ideas. They will be but the
+      widow&rsquo;s mite, and offered only because requested. The matter which now
+      embroils Europe, the presumption of dictating to an independent nation the
+      form of its government, is so arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as
+      well as moral sentiment, enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor
+      of one, and our equal execrations against the other. I do not know,
+      indeed, whether all nations do not owe to one another a bold and open
+      declaration of their sympathies with the one party, and their detestation
+      of the conduct of the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go;
+      and indeed, for the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the
+      jealousies, or draw on ourselves the power, of this formidable
+      confederacy. I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States,
+      never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political
+      interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their
+      balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles
+      of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All
+      their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and
+      lives of their people. On our part, never had a people so favorable a
+      chance of trying the opposite system, of peace and fraternity with
+      mankind, and the direction of all our means and faculties to the purposes
+      of improvement instead of destruction. With Europe we have few occasions
+      of collision, and these, with a little prudence and forbearance, may be
+      generally accommodated. Of the brethren of our own hemisphere, none are
+      yet, or for an age to come will be, in a shape, condition, or disposition
+      to war against us. And the foothold, which the nations of Europe had in
+      either America, is slipping from under them, so that we shall soon be rid
+      of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at present to hold up a speck of
+      war to us. Its possession by Great Britain would indeed be a great
+      calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us in guarantying its
+      independence against all the world, except Spain, it would be nearly as
+      valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she take it, I would not
+      immediately go to war for it; because the first war on other accounts will
+      give it to us; or the island will give itself to us, when, able to do so.
+      While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take part in the present war of
+      Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in reward for doing nothing,
+      peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and interest. We may gratify
+      ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial to Spain as would be
+      justifiable without giving cause of war to her adversary; we might and
+      ought to avail ourselves of the happy occasion of procuring and cementing
+      a cordial reconciliation with her, by giving assurance of every friendly
+      office which neutrality admits, and especially, against all apprehension
+      of our intermeddling in the quarrel with her colonies. And I expect daily
+      and confidently to hear of a spark kindled in France, which will employ
+      her at home, and relieve Spain from all further apprehensions of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her government
+      is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to look back a little
+      on past events. During the ascendancy of Bonaparte, the word among the
+      herd of Kings was, &lsquo;<i>Sauve qui peut</i>.&rsquo; Each shifted for himself, and
+      left his brethren to squander and do the same as they could. After the
+      battle of Waterloo, and the military possession of France, they rallied
+      and combined in common cause, to maintain each other against any similar
+      and future danger. And in this alliance, Louis, now avowedly, and George,
+      secretly but solidly, were of the contracting parties; and there can be no
+      doubt that the allies are bound by treaty to aid England with their
+      armies, should insurrection take place among her people. The coquetry she
+      is now playing off between her people and her allies is perfectly
+      understood by the latter, and accordingly gives no apprehensions to
+      France, to whom it is all explained. The diplomatic correspondence she is
+      now displaying, these double papers fabricated merely for exhibition, in
+      which she makes herself talk of morals and principle, as if her qualms of
+      conscience would not permit her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies,
+      are all to gull her own people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the
+      five powers are the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the
+      dupes. Playing thus so dextrously into each other&rsquo;s hands, and their own
+      persons seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
+      These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This war is
+      evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England is
+      also acting her part. &lsquo;Save but the Nobles, and there shall be no war,&rsquo;
+      says she, masking her measures at the same time under the form of
+      friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party, offering
+      herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not permitted openly to
+      oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will
+      get from her. And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks at
+      it rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage of carrying
+      coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude and uninformed notions of
+      things beyond my cognizance, only be so good as to remember that it is at
+      your request, and with as little confidence on my part as profit on yours.
+      You will do what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act their
+      follies and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith the
+      paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are willingly resigned,
+      with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0172" id="link2H_4_0172">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXII.&mdash;TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 12, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our correspondence is of that accommodating character, which admits of
+      suspension at the convenience of either party, without inconvenience to
+      the other. Hence this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the
+      11th. I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on
+      continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in
+      preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet I
+      hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry
+      explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine
+      monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what they
+      endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on principle,
+      but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the formation of our
+      government, many had formed their political opinions on European writings
+      and practices, believing the experience of old countries, and especially
+      of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer guide than mere theory. The
+      doctrines of Europe were, that men in numerous associations cannot be
+      restrained within the limits of order and justice, but by forces physical
+      and moral, wielded over them by authorities independent of their will.
+      Hence their organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still
+      further to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary
+      to keep them down by hard labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from
+      them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor
+      shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a
+      scanty and miserable life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their
+      privileged orders in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the
+      people, and excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an
+      order of superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths
+      of opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And
+      in the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw the
+      cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the
+      dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to subject
+      to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of maintaining the
+      steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention had deemed
+      salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover, therefore, in
+      practice, the powers which the nation had refused, and to warp to their
+      own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of the federal
+      party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will of the majority of
+      the convention, and of the people themselves. We believed, with them, that
+      man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an
+      innate sense of justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and
+      protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own
+      choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will. We
+      believed that the complicated organization of kings, nobles, and priests,
+      was not the wisest nor best to effect the happiness of associated man;
+      that wisdom and virtue were not hereditary; that the trappings of such a
+      machinery consumed, by their expense, those earnings of industry they were
+      meant to protect, and, by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty
+      to sufferance. We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the
+      full fruits of their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the
+      side of law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow
+      their reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed,
+      than with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in
+      Europe, by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment of the
+      people then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the
+      other party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of
+      the country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and
+      order than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong holds of
+      federalism. And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our
+      constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
+      order, and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort truth,
+      and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at justification
+      of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will the opening scenes
+      of our present government be seen in their true aspect, until the letters
+      of the day, now held in private hoards, shall be broken up and laid open
+      to public view. What a treasure will be found in General Washington&rsquo;s
+      cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend to truth
+      as he was himself! When no longer, like Caesar&rsquo;s notes and memorandums in
+      the hands of Anthony, it shall be open to the high priests of federalism
+      only, and garbled to say so much, and no more, as suits their views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to his Farewell Address, to the authorship of which, it
+      seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you some facts. He had
+      determined to decline a re-election at the end of his first term, and so
+      far determined, that he had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for him
+      something valedictory, to be addressed to his constituents on his
+      retirement. This was done: but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce in a
+      second election, to which no one more strenuously pressed him than myself,
+      from a conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer habit, the
+      respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his character only
+      could effect. When, at the end of this second term, his Valedictory came
+      out, Mr. Madison recognised in it several passages of his draught; several
+      others we were both satisfied were from the pen of Hamilton, and others
+      from that of the President himself. These he probably put into the hands
+      of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence it may all appear in
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s hand-writing, as if it were all of his composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists were, 1.
+      To warp our government more to the form and principles of monarchy, and 2.
+      To weaken the barriers of the State governments as co-ordinate powers. In
+      the first they have been so completely foiled by the universal spirit of
+      the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise, shrunk from the odium
+      of their old appellation, taken to themselves a participation of ours, and
+      under the pseudo-republican mask, are now aiming at their second object,
+      and strengthened by unsuspecting or apostate recruits from our ranks, are
+      advancing fast towards an ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that
+      a prevalence of the doctrines of consolidation would one day call for
+      reformation or revolution. I answer by asking, if a single State of the
+      Union would have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers to
+      the General Government? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from
+      the jealousy and fear of every State, of being subjected to the other
+      States, in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe
+      the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general
+      surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government, one
+      and undivided?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether the
+      Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and
+      trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, my
+      dear Sir, because I am unable. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on it,
+      have disqualified me from investigations so severe, and researches so
+      laborious. And it is the less necessary in this case, as having been
+      already done by others with a logic and learning to which I could add
+      nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of Virginia,
+      in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821, Judge Roane,
+      under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for the Enquirer, a series
+      of papers on the law of that case. I considered these papers maturely as
+      they came out, and confess, that they appeared to me to pulverize every
+      word which had been delivered by Judge Marshall, of the extra-judicial
+      part of his opinion; and all was extra-judicial, except the decision that
+      the act of Congress had not purported to give to the corporation of
+      Washington the authority claimed by their lottery-law, of controlling the
+      laws of the States within the States themselves. But unable to claim that
+      case, he could not let it go entirely, but went on gratuitously to prove,
+      that notwithstanding the eleventh amendment of the constitution, a State
+      could be brought, as a defendant, to the bar of his court; and again, that
+      Congress might authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise
+      legislation within a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I
+      cite the sum and result only of his doctrines, according to the impression
+      made on my mind at the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate
+      in circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely
+      refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human reason as
+      a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us. And I
+      mention this particular case as one only of several, because it gave
+      occasion to that thorough examination of the constitutional limits between
+      the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for. There were
+      two other writers in the same paper, under the signatures of Fletcher of
+      Saltoun, and Somers, who in a few essays presented some very luminous and
+      striking views of the question. And there was a particular paper which
+      recapitulated all the cases in which it was thought the federal court had
+      usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will be found in the
+      Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th. It is not in my
+      present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can furnish them, I will
+      procure and forward them. If they had been read in the other States, as
+      they were here, I think they would have left, there as here, no
+      dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken up by our
+      legislature of 1821-22, and two draughts of remonstrances were prepared
+      and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference of opinion
+      as to the matter of right; but there was as to the expediency of a
+      remonstrance at that time, the general mind of the States being then under
+      extraordinary excitement by the Missouri question; and it was dropped on
+      that consideration. But this case is not dead; it only sleepeth. The
+      Indian Chief said, he did not go to war for every petty injury by itself,
+      but put it into his pouch, and when that was full, he then made war. Thank
+      Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and rational mode of redress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case to
+      prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the court, is
+      very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect another instance, and the
+      more particularly, perhaps, because it in some measure bore on myself.
+      Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions to some
+      federal justices of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed and sealed
+      by him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the department of
+      State, on my entrance into office, and 1 forbade their delivery. Marbury,
+      named in one of them, applied to the Supreme Court for a Mandamus to the
+      Secretary of State (Mr. Madison), to deliver the commission intended for
+      him. The Court determined at once, that being an original process, they
+      had no cognizance of it; and there the question before them was ended. But
+      the Chief Justice went on to lay down what the law would be, had they
+      jurisdiction of the case; to wit, that they should command the delivery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The object was clearly to instruct any other court having the
+      jurisdiction, what they should do, if Marbury should apply to them.
+      Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could any thing
+      exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle of law never
+      yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to the
+      validity of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it remains
+      in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is not a deed,
+      and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of a third person it
+      may be made an escrow. But whatever is in the executive offices is
+      certainly deemed to be in the hands of the President; and, in this case,
+      was actually in my hands, because, when I countermanded them, there was as
+      yet no Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and Madison is
+      continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were settled law, without any
+      animadversion on its being merely an obiter dissertation of the Chief
+      Justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of words which
+      shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, this limit of
+      jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will guide us safely in most
+      of the cases. 1. The capital and leading object of the constitution was,
+      to leave with the States all authorities which respected their own
+      citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which respected
+      citizens of foreign or other States: to make us several as to ourselves,
+      but one as to all others. In the latter case, then, constructions should
+      lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will bear it; and in favor
+      of the States in the former, if possible to be so construed. And indeed,
+      between citizens and citizens of the same State, and under their own laws,
+      I know but a single case in which a jurisdiction is given to the General
+      Government. That is, where any thing but gold or silver is made a lawful
+      tender, or the obligation of contracts is any otherwise impaired. The
+      separate legislatures had so often abused that power, that the citizens
+      themselves chose to trust it to the general, rather than to their own
+      special authorities. 2. On every question of construction, carry ourselves
+      back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit
+      manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be
+      squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable
+      one in which it was passed. Let us try Cohen&rsquo;s case by these canons only,
+      referring always however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law of his
+      State. It was a domestic case therefore, and not a foreign one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing against the
+      General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, the States meant
+      to surrender the authority of preserving order, of enforcing moral duties,
+      and restraining vice, within their own territory? And this is the present
+      case, that of Cohen being under the ancient and general law of gaming. Can
+      any good be effected, by taking from the States the moral rule of their
+      citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority, or to one of
+      their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning of words,
+      hunting after possible constructions, and hanging inference on inference,
+      from heaven to earth, like Jacob&rsquo;s ladder? Such an intention was
+      impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference, if
+      exercised by, both governments, as may be done with equal right, would
+      equally authorize both to claim all powers, general and particular, and
+      break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made for men of ordinary
+      understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules
+      of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical
+      subtleties, which may make any thing mean every thing or nothing, at
+      pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms of advocates, whose trade it
+      is, to prove that a defendant is a plaintiff, though dragged into court,
+      torto collo, like Bonaparte&rsquo;s volunteers into the field in chains, or that
+      a power has been given, because it ought to have been given, et alia
+      talia. The States supposed, that, by their tenth amendment, they had
+      secured themselves against constructive powers. They were not lessoned yet
+      by Cohen&rsquo;s case, nor aware of the slipperiness of the eels of the law. I
+      ask for no straining of words against the General Government nor yet
+      against the States. I believe the States can best govern our home
+      concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore,
+      to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers, established by
+      the constitution for the limitation of both; and never to see all offices
+      transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the
+      people, they may more secretly be bought and sold, as at market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Chief Justice says, &lsquo;there must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.&rsquo;
+      True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate
+      arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in
+      convention, at the call of Congress, or of two thirds of the States. Let
+      them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of
+      their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our
+      constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other
+      nations is at once to force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice in the example you set of <i>seriatim</i> opinions. I have heard
+      it often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some of your brethren
+      will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in time, it may be felt
+      by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the primitive court be again
+      restored. Why should not every judge be asked his opinion, and give it
+      from the bench, if only by yea or nay? Besides ascertaining the fact of
+      his opinion, which the public have a right to know, in order to judge
+      whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the opinions were
+      unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly the weight of their
+      authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to relieve you
+      from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
+      accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
+      my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond the
+      sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with me in
+      principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
+      consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in every
+      feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the republican
+      form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the salutary
+      distribution of powers which that has established. These are the two sheet
+      anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of
+      foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I add those for
+      the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness to your
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0173" id="link2H_4_0173">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIII.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30,1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
+      after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
+      and to be returned then to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering&rsquo;s fourth of July observations on
+      the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
+      personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
+      quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
+      should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams&rsquo;s memory has
+      led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
+      forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
+      wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage of
+      that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it not
+      supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the spot.
+      He says, &lsquo;The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin, Sherman,
+      Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and then appointed
+      him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a sub-committee, met, and
+      after the urgencies of each on the other, I consented to undertake the
+      task; that, the draught being made, we, the sub-committee, met, and conned
+      the paper over, and he does not remember that he made or suggested a
+      single alteration.&rsquo; Now these details are quite incorrect. The committee
+      of five met; no such thing as a sub-committee was proposed, but they
+      unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught. I consented;
+      I drew it: but before I reported it to the committee, I communicated it
+      separately to Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections,
+      because they were the two members of whose judgments and amendments I
+      wished most to have the benefit, before presenting it to the committee:
+      and you have seen the original paper now in my hands, with the corrections
+      of Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams interlined in their own hand-writings.
+      Their alterations were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote
+      a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to
+      Congress. This personal communication and consultation with Mr. Adams, he
+      has misremembered into the actings of a sub-committee. Pickering&rsquo;s
+      observations, and Mr. Adams&rsquo;s in addition, &lsquo;that it contained no new
+      ideas, that it is a common-place compilation, its sentiments hacknied in
+      Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis&rsquo;s
+      pamphlet,&rsquo; may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard
+      Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke&rsquo;s Treatise on Government. Otis&rsquo;s
+      pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from reading or
+      reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither book nor
+      pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my charge
+      to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had ever
+      been expressed before. Had Mr. Adams been so restrained, Congress would
+      have lost the benefit of his bold and impressive advocations of the rights
+      of Revolution. For no man&rsquo;s confident and fervid addresses, more than Mr.
+      Adams&rsquo;s, encouraged and supported us through the difficulties surrounding
+      us, which, like the ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night
+      and by day. Yet, on the same ground, we may ask what of these elevated
+      thoughts was new, or can be affirmed never before to have entered the
+      conceptions of man?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons for
+      declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, had been
+      hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of July, &lsquo;76, or this
+      dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of memory, let history say. This,
+      however, I will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the Declaration with
+      zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of it. As to myself,
+      I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive auditor of the
+      opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could be, of its merits
+      or demerits. During the debate I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, and he
+      observed that I was writhing a little under the acrimonious criticisms on
+      some of its parts; and it was on that occasion, that by way of comfort, he
+      told me the story of John Thomson, the hatter, and his new sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of it
+      expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other three
+      fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only one he
+      approves), which recommends friendship to his dear England, whenever she
+      is willing to be at peace with us. His insinuations are, that although
+      &lsquo;the high tone of the instrument was in unison with the warm feelings of
+      the times, this sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never
+      be forgotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne in
+      mind on every celebration of this anniversary.&rsquo; In other words, that the
+      Declaration, as being a libel on the government of England, composed in
+      times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare the
+      feelings of our English friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. But it is
+      not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind; but to cherish the
+      principles of the instrument in the besoms of our own citizens: and it is
+      a heavenly comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly felt,
+      as to render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of memory of
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s, worthy of being solemnly announced and supported at an
+      anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-day. In opposition,
+      however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that these principles may be
+      eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for yourself of
+      long life, health, and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0174" id="link2H_4_0174">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 4, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 15th was received in due time, and with the
+      welcome of every thing which comes from you. With its opinions on the
+      difficulties of revolutions from despotism to freedom, I very much concur.
+      The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.
+      Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body fend mind to
+      their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on, to think
+      and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their ignorance and
+      bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the Bonapartes and
+      Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This is the present
+      situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is not desperate. The
+      light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing, has eminently
+      changed the condition of the world. As yet, that light has dawned on the
+      middling classes only of the men in Europe. The kings and the rabble, of
+      equal ignorance, have not yet received its rays; but it continues to
+      spread, and while printing is preserved, it can no more recede than the
+      sun return on his course. A first attempt to recover the right of
+      self-government may fail, so may a second, a third, &amp;c. But as a
+      younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and
+      more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the
+      ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In France, the first effort
+      was defeated by Robespierre, the second by Bonaparte, the third by Louis
+      XVIII., and his holy allies; another is yet to come, and all Europe,
+      Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and all will attain representative
+      government, more or less perfect. This is now well understood to be a
+      necessary check on Kings, whom they will probably think it more prudent to
+      chain and tame, than to exterminate. To attain all this, however, rivers
+      of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object
+      is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation. For what inheritance so
+      valuable, can man leave to his posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and
+      his deadly and eternal hatred to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that
+      he will never submit, but finally defeat this atrocious violation of the
+      laws of God and man, under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and
+      firmness of the Cortes, afford reasonable hope, that that nation will
+      settle down in a temperate representative government, with an executive
+      properly subordinated to that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece,
+      will follow suit. You and I shall look down from another world on these
+      glorious achievements to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein you say that
+      the omission of his signature to the Declaration of Independence was by
+      accident. Our impressions as to this fact being different, I shall be glad
+      to have mine corrected, if wrong. Jay, you know, had been in constant
+      opposition to our laboring majority. Our estimate at the time was, that
+      he, Dickinson, and Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity, perseverance,
+      and partiality to our English connection, had constantly kept us a year
+      behind where we ought to have been, in our preparations and proceedings.
+      From about the date of the Virginia instructions of May the 15th, 1776, to
+      declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented himself from Congress, and never
+      came there again until December, 1778. Of course, he had no part in the
+      discussions or decision of that question. The instructions to their
+      Delegates by the convention of New York, then sitting, to sign the
+      Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th of July only, and on
+      that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay, by a letter received
+      from him, as they had done as early as the 29th of May, by another letter.
+      And I think he had been omitted by the convention on a new election of
+      Delegates, when they changed their instructions. Of this last fact,
+      however, having no evidence but an ancient impression, I shall not affirm
+      it. But whether so or not, no agency of accident appears in the case. This
+      error of fact, however, whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to
+      the public. But truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it
+      for our own satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
+      month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0175" id="link2H_4_0175">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 12, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
+      supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. But
+      while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the recollection
+      of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing.
+      I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing
+      but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours
+      until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this
+      <i>tedium vita</i>, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which,
+      indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but
+      whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an
+      octogenary rider. This is the establishment of a University, on a scale
+      more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old
+      William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of
+      languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness with which such works proceed,
+      may render it doubtful whether I shall live to see it go into action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter
+      as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be
+      poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had
+      for some time observed, in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious
+      innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had
+      opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that
+      friend or his representative. And now it is said to be actually published.
+      It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as
+      seemed most likely to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself.
+      Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the author of
+      this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed
+      at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every
+      honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its impression a
+      seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me, however, no such
+      armor is needed. The circumstances of the times in which we have happened
+      to live, and the partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed
+      us in a state of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be
+      personal also: and there might, not be wanting those who wished to make it
+      so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous
+      phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to
+      me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things concerning
+      each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had been, at any
+      time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the
+      whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each other
+      for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men, who have
+      attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colors
+      under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others,
+      have seen also those passions subsiding with time and reflection,
+      dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring to us the
+      sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange,
+      indeed, if, at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt up imaginary
+      or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to
+      the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I am incapable of
+      receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made to plant
+      thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow tares between
+      friends who have been such for near half a century. Beseeching you, then,
+      not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison
+      its peace, and praying you to throw it by among the things which have
+      never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and constant
+      attachment, friendship, and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0176" id="link2H_4_0176">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVI.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, October 24,1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 24,1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most
+      momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of
+      Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass, and points the
+      course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And
+      never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first
+      and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils
+      of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with
+      cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests
+      distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from
+      that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of
+      despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of
+      freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she
+      now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
+      proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty
+      weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at
+      one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.
+      Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or
+      all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole world.
+      With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship;
+      and nothing would tend more to knit our affections, than to be fighting
+      once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even
+      her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war in which
+      the present proposition might engage us, should that be its consequence,
+      is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and establish the
+      American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign powers, of never
+      permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations.
+      It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to
+      facilitate this, we can effect a division in the body of the European
+      powers, and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we
+      should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning&rsquo;s opinion, that it will
+      prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their
+      scale, and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe combined
+      would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose to get at
+      either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion to be slighted
+      which this proposition offers, of declaring our protest against the
+      atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by the interference of any
+      one in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by
+      Bonaparte, and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling
+      itself Holy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to
+      our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly
+      confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition
+      which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with
+      Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the
+      countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters
+      flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being. Yet,
+      as I am sensible that this can never be obtained, even with her own
+      consent, but by war; and its independence, which is our second interest
+      (and especially its independence of England), can be secured without it, I
+      have no hesitation in abandoning my first wish to future chances, and
+      accepting its independence, with peace and the friendship of England,
+      rather than its association, at the expense of war and her enmity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we aim
+      not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not stand
+      in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother
+      country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible
+      interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any
+      other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any power by
+      conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should think it,
+      therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the British
+      government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in these
+      letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as his
+      authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of which
+      requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them for
+      consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable aspect in
+      which it is seen by himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long
+      ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not qualified
+      to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the question now
+      proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so decisive of our
+      future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I have heretofore felt
+      on such occasions, and to induce me to the hazard of opinions, which will
+      prove only my wish to contribute still my mite towards any thing which may
+      be useful to our country. And praying you to accept it at only what it is
+      worth, I add the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0177" id="link2H_4_0177">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVII.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 4, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so slow
+      and laborious, as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all correspondence:
+      not, however, from yours, while I can make a stroke with a pen. We have
+      gone through too many trying scenes together, to forget the sympathies and
+      affections they nourished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your trials have indeed been long and severe. When they will end, is yet
+      unknown, but where they will end, cannot be doubted. Alliances, Holy or
+      Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell the
+      rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the scene,
+      and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that Spain will
+      prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines not to be so,
+      and that her success will be the turning of the tide of liberty, no more
+      to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of society in Europe
+      can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know when with you, and I
+      do now. A hereditary chief, strictly limited, the right of war vested in
+      the legislative body, a rigid economy of the public contributions, and
+      absolute interdiction of all useless expenses, will go far towards keeping
+      the government honest and unoppressive. But the only security o£ all, is
+      in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when
+      permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be
+      submitted to. It is necessary to keep the waters pure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful country. For in
+      peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is to be the
+      next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My opinion on
+      that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter. The question
+      will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and southernmost
+      candidates. The former will get every federal vote in the Union, and many
+      republicans; the latter, all those denominated of the old school; for you
+      are not to believe that these two parties are amalgamated, that the lion
+      and the lamb are lying down together. The Hartford convention, the victory
+      of Orleans, the peace of Ghent, prostrated the name of federalism. Its
+      votaries abandoned it through shame and mortification; and now call
+      themselves republicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles are
+      the same. For in truth, the parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature.
+      They exist in all countries, whether called by these names, or by those of
+      Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and
+      Radicals, Serviles and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the
+      people, and is a tory by nature. The healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes
+      them, and is formed a whig by nature. On the eclipse of federalism with
+      us, although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question,
+      under the false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the
+      real view of producing a geographical division of parties, which might
+      insure them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold
+      into the snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral
+      and laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead
+      of aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used,
+      merely as tools for electioneering purposes; and that trick of hypocrisy
+      then fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now succeeding a
+      distinction, which, like that of republican and federal, or whig and tory,
+      being equally intermixed through every State, threatens none of those
+      geographical schisms which go immediately to a separation. The line of
+      division now is the preservation of State rights as reserved in the
+      constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument, to merge
+      all into a consolidated government. The tories are for strengthening the
+      executive and General Government; the whigs cherish the representative
+      branch, and the rights reserved by the States, as the bulwark against
+      consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy. And although this
+      division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists, is well understood,
+      and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing election, with the
+      reflecting men of both parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr.
+      Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of her
+      American work: but her &lsquo;Few Days in Athens,&rsquo; was entirely new, and has
+      been a treat to me of the highest order. The matter and manner of the
+      dialogue is strictly ancient; the principles of the sects are beautifully
+      and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and portraiture of
+      the interlocutors are of higher finish than any thing in that line left us
+      by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it is equal to the best
+      morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance, that Herculaneum is
+      likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of ancient genius; and
+      may we not hope more from the same pen?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disabled arm, I am
+      again in tolerable health, but extremely debilitated, so as to be scarcely
+      able to walk into my garden. The hebitude of age too, and extinguishment
+      of interest in the things around me, are weaning me from them, and dispose
+      me with cheerfulness to resign them to the existing generation, satisfied
+      that the daily advance of science will enable them to administer the
+      commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still many valuable years to
+      give to your country, and with my prayers that, they may be years of
+      health and happiness, and especially that they may see the establishment
+      of the principles of government which you have cherished through life,
+      accept the assurance of my affectionate and constant friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0178" id="link2H_4_0178">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 3, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and am
+      glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
+      satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
+      nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
+      equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a-a = 0.
+      Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
+      do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
+      ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue, to
+      set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and if
+      foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our legislature,
+      no harm will have been done by the provisos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
+      legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
+      the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act was
+      expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that a
+      re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday, the
+      29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
+      meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
+      there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
+      fourth, &amp;c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give
+      it certainty enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
+      apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
+      dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text and
+      reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
+      Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
+      competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
+      whole sum at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
+      for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
+      certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
+      every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have all,
+      from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our Professors,
+      as the only means by which we can give to our institution splendor and
+      pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only question, therefore,
+      we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate, will be, Is he the most
+      highly qualified? The college of Philadelphia has lost its character of
+      primacy by indulging motives of favoritism and nepotism, and by conferring
+      the appointments as if the professorships were entrusted to them as
+      provisions for their friends. And even that of Edinburgh, you know, is
+      also much lowered from the same cause. We are next to observe, that a man
+      is not qualified for a Professor, knowing nothing but merely his own
+      profession. He should be otherwise well educated as to the sciences
+      generally; able to converse understandingly with the scientific men with
+      whom he is associated, and to assist in the councils of the Faculty on any
+      subject of science on which they may have occasion to deliberate. Without
+      this, he will incur their contempt, and bring disreputation on the
+      institution. With respect to the professorship you mention, I scarcely
+      know any of our judges personally; but I will name, for example, the late
+      Judge Roane, who, I believe, was generally admitted to be among the ablest
+      of them. His knowledge was confined to the common law chiefly, which does
+      not constitute one half of the qualification of a really learned lawyer,
+      much less that of a Professor of law for an University. And as to any
+      other branches of science, he must have stood mute in the presence of his
+      literary associates, or of any learned strangers or others visiting the
+      University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we propose to take?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of
+      appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I
+      never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I never
+      saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better qualified;
+      and I have the most unlimited confidence, that in the appointment of
+      Professors to our nursling institution, every individual of my associates
+      will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its character, and
+      adopt, as our sacred motto, &lsquo;<i>Detur digniori</i>? In this way it will
+      honor us, and bless our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities
+      beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let
+      them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely
+      to the present case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself
+      of my constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0179" id="link2H_4_0179">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIX.&mdash;TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JARED SPARKS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 4, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of the
+      North American Review. This has anticipated the one I should receive in
+      course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new
+      series. The article on the African colonization of the people of color, to
+      which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration. It
+      is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more, too,
+      than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of that
+      colony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational
+      objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. The establishment of a colony on
+      the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the arts of
+      cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science. By doing
+      this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course of injuries
+      we have been committing on their population. And considering that these
+      blessings will descend to the &lsquo;<i>nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis</i>,&rsquo;
+      we shall in the long run have rendered them perhaps more good than evil.
+      To fulfil this object, the colony of Sierra Leone promises well, and that
+      of Mesurado adds to our prospect of success. Under this view, the
+      Colonization Society is to be considered as a missionary society, having
+      in view, however, objects more humane, more justifiable, and less
+      aggressive on the peace of other nations, than the others of that
+      appellation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our
+      physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to provide
+      an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that population
+      from among us, and establish them under our patronage and protection, as a
+      separate, free, and independent people, in some country and climate
+      friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the coast of
+      Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed entirely
+      impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which have been
+      urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit no
+      controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate, yet
+      not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are in the
+      United States a million and a half of people of color in slavery. To send
+      off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be practicable for us,
+      or expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years for its
+      accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their estimated
+      value as property, in the first place, (for actual property has been
+      lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from the
+      possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and old,
+      would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must be paid or
+      lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their transportation by land
+      and sea to Mesurado, a year&rsquo;s provision of food and clothing, implements
+      of husbandry and of their trades, which will amount to three hundred
+      millions more, making thirty-six millions of dollars a year for
+      twenty-five years, with insurance of peace all that time, and it is
+      impossible to look at the question a second time. I am aware that at the
+      end of about sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will
+      commence, from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during the
+      remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still impossible
+      to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say this to induce an
+      inference that the getting rid of them is for ever impossible. For that is
+      neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be done in this
+      way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that is, by
+      emancipating the after born, leaving them, on due compensation, with their
+      mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance, and then
+      putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for
+      deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject five and
+      forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to conceive any other
+      practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on Virginia, under the
+      fourteenth query. The estimated value of the new-born infant is so low
+      (say twelve dollars and fifty cents), that it would probably be yielded by
+      the owner gratis, and would thus reduce the six hundred millions of
+      dollars, the first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions and a half:
+      leaving only the expenses of nourishment while with the mother, and of
+      transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to be furnished? Why
+      not from that of the lands which have been ceded by the very States now
+      needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration, for the most part, but
+      that of the general good of the whole. These cessions already constitute
+      one fourth of the States of the Union. It may be said that these lands
+      have been sold; are now the property of the citizens composing those
+      States; and the money long ago received and expended. But an equivalent of
+      lands in the territories since acquired may be appropriated to that
+      object, or so much at least, as may be sufficient; and the object,
+      although more important to the slave States, is highly so to the others
+      also, if they were serious in their arguments on the Missouri question.
+      The slave States, too, if more interested, would also contribute more by
+      their gratuitous liberation, thus taking on themselves alone the first and
+      heaviest item of expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular place of
+      asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that in the
+      revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might open to us
+      some one within practicable distance. This has now happened. St. Domingo
+      has become independent, and with a population of that color only; and if
+      the public papers are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay their
+      passage, to receive them as free citizens, and to provide them employment.
+      This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense but of nurture
+      with the mother a few years, and would call, of course, for a very
+      moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole annual
+      increase to be of sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels, of four
+      hundred tons burthen each, constantly employed in that short run, would
+      carry off the increase of every year, and the old stock would die off in
+      the ordinary course of nature, lessening from the commencement until its
+      final disappearance. In this way no violation of private rights is
+      proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in as fast as the means
+      to be provided for their care would be competent to it. Looking at my own
+      State only, (and I presume not to speak for the others,) I verily believe
+      that this surrender of property would not amount to more, annually, than
+      half our present direct taxes, to be continued fully about twenty or
+      twenty-five years, and then gradually diminishing for as many more until
+      their final extinction; and even this half tax would not be paid in cash,
+      but by the delivery of an object which they have never yet known or
+      counted as part of their property: and those not possessing the object
+      will be called on for nothing. I do not go into all the details of the
+      burthens and benefits of this operation. And who could estimate its
+      blessed effects? I leave this to those who will live to see their
+      accomplishment, and to enjoy a beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave
+      it with this admonition, to rise and be doing. A million and a half are
+      within their control; but six millions (which a majority of those now
+      living will see them attain), and one million of these fighting men, will
+      say, &lsquo;We will not go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scruples. But a
+      liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and an
+      amendment of the constitution, the whole length necessary. The separation
+      of infants from their mothers, too, would produce some scruples of
+      humanity. But this would be straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of the duty on
+      imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against it, until those
+      in power shall become sensible of this stain on our legislation and shall
+      wipe it from their code, and from the remembrance of man, if possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0180" id="link2H_4_0180">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXX.&mdash;TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 4, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with great pleasure I learned that the good people of New Orleans
+      had restored you again to the councils of our country. I did not doubt the
+      aid it would bring to the remains of our old school in Congress, in which
+      your early labors had been so useful. You will find, I suppose, on
+      revisiting our maritime States, the names of things more changed than the
+      things themselves; that though our old opponents have given up their
+      appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned their views, and
+      that they are as strong nearly as they ever were. These cares, however,
+      are no longer mine. I resign myself cheerfully to the managers of the
+      ship, and the more contentedly, as I am near the end of my voyage. I have
+      learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason, and give
+      more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical idea of the
+      character of the constitution of our government, which I have adopted as a
+      key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the whole field of
+      government is divided into two departments, domestic and foreign, (the
+      States in their mutual relations being of the latter) that the former
+      department is reserved exclusively to the respective States within their
+      own limits, and the latter assigned to a separate set of functionaries,
+      constituting what may be called the, foreign branch, which, instead of a
+      federal basis, is established as a distinct government <i>quo ad hoc</i>,
+      acting as the domestic branch does on the citizens directly and
+      coercively; that these departments have distinct directories, co-ordinate,
+      and equally independent and supreme, each within its own sphere of action.
+      Whenever a doubt arises to which of these branches a power belongs, I try
+      it by this test. I recollect no case where a question simply between
+      citizens of the same State has been transferred to the foreign department,
+      except that of inhibiting tenders but of metallic money, and <i>ex post
+      facto</i> legislation. The causes of these singularities are well
+      remembered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of national
+      improvement, which I have read with great pleasure, and recognise in it
+      those powers of reasoning and persuasion of which I had formerly seen from
+      you so many proofs. Yet, in candor, I must say it has not removed, in my
+      mind, all the difficulties of the question. And I should really be alarmed
+      at a difference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own, were it not
+      that I have, as companions in sentiment, the Madisons, the Monroes, the
+      Randolphs, the Macons, all good men and true, of primitive principles. In
+      one sentiment of the speech I particularly concur. &lsquo;If we have a doubt
+      relative to any power, we ought not to exercise it.&rsquo; When we consider the
+      extensive and deep-seated opposition to this assumption, the conviction
+      entertained by so many, that this deduction of powers by elaborate
+      construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the
+      difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise;
+      that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and
+      forwards, so that no undertaking under it will be safe; that there is not
+      a State in the Union which would not give the power willingly, by way of
+      amendment, with some little guard, perhaps, against abuse; I cannot but
+      think it would be the wisest course to ask an express grant of the power.
+      A government held together by the bands of reason only, requires much
+      compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should not be crammed
+      down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when they may be put
+      into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great deal of indulgence
+      is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and fraternity. In such a
+      case, it seems to me it would be safer and wiser to ask an express grant
+      of the power. This would render its exercise smooth and acceptable to all,
+      and insure to it all the facilities which the could contribute, to prevent
+      that kind of abuse which all will fear, because all know it is so much
+      practised in public bodies, I mean the bartering of votes. It would
+      reconcile every one, if limited by the proviso, that the federal
+      proportion of each State should be expended within the State. With this
+      single security against partiality and corrupt bargaining, I suppose there
+      is not a State, perhaps not a man in the Union, who would not consent to
+      add this to the powers of the General Government. But age has weaned me
+      from questions of this kind. My delight is now in the passive occupation
+      of reading; and it is with great reluctance I permit my mind ever to
+      encounter subjects of difficult investigation. You have many years yet to
+      come of vigorous activity, and I confidently trust they will be employed
+      in cherishing every measure which may foster our brotherly union, and
+      perpetuate a constitution of government destined to be the primitive and
+      precious model of what is to change the condition of man over the globe.
+      With this confidence, equally strong in your powers and purposes, I pray
+      you to accept the assurance of my cordial esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0181" id="link2H_4_0181">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXI.&mdash;TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 5,1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear and Venerable Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much indebted for your kind letter of February the 29th, and for your
+      valuable volume on the English constitution. I have, read this with
+      pleasure and much approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution
+      of the English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon, it is
+      really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed in
+      their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that Paine,
+      who thought more than he read, should have credited the great authorities
+      who have declared, that the will of Parliament is the constitution of
+      England. So Marbois, before the French revolution, observed to me, that
+      the Almanac Royal was the constitution of France. Your derivation of it
+      from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on legitimate principles. Having
+      driven out the former inhabitants of that part of the island called
+      England, they became aborigines as to you, and your lineal ancestors. They
+      doubtless had a constitution; and although they have not left it in a
+      written formula, to the precise text of which you may always appeal, yet
+      they have left fragments of their history and laws, from which it may be
+      inferred with considerable certainty. Whatever their history and laws show
+      to have been practised with approbation, we may presume was permitted by
+      their constitution; whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And
+      although this constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force,
+      yet force cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the
+      nation, by their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws;
+      which shows they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the
+      pullings and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation, and
+      its kings of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was
+      sometimes gain, and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their
+      rights from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke
+      the thread of pretended inheritance extinguished all regal usurpations,
+      and the nation reentered into all its rights; and although in their bill
+      of rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the
+      others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also,
+      whenever occasion should occur. The new King received no rights or powers,
+      but those expressly granted to him. It has ever appeared to me, that the
+      difference between the whig and the tory of England is, that the whig
+      deduces his rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory from the
+      Norman. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says in so many words,
+      (note AA to chapter 42,) that, in the reign of the Stuarts, &lsquo;it was the
+      people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who attempted,
+      as is pretended, to usurp upon the people.&rsquo; This supposes the Norman
+      usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,) &lsquo;the
+      Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and seems
+      specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the people are
+      the origin of all just power.&rsquo; And where else will this degenerate son of
+      science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the origin of just powers,
+      if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in
+      an individual of that minority?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
+      album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
+      to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
+      investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
+      appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet we
+      did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
+      never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
+      it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
+      little into our former education. We established however some, although
+      not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our States
+      assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise
+      it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent
+      (as in electing their functionaries, executive and legislative, and
+      deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact
+      is involved), or they may act by representatives, freely and equally
+      chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that
+      they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of
+      property, and freedom of the press. In the structure of our legislatures,
+      we think experience has proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two
+      separate bodies of deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right
+      has been mistaken, some making one of these bodies, and some both, the
+      representatives of property instead of persons; whereas the double
+      deliberation might be as well obtained without any violation of true
+      principle, either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by
+      electing a proper number of representatives of persons, dividing them by
+      lots into two chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals,
+      in order to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am myself a native
+      and resident, was not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
+      say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men
+      peaceably together to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to
+      writing, and place it among their archives, where every one should be free
+      to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other States,
+      as they proceeded successively to the same work, made successive
+      improvements; and several of them, still further corrected by experience,
+      have, by conventions, still further amended their first forms. My own
+      State has gone on so far with its <i>première ébauch</i>; but it is now
+      proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other improvements, I
+      hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties into wards. The
+      former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four miles square; the
+      latter should be about six miles square each, and would answer to the
+      hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these might be, 1. An elementary
+      school. 2. A company of militia, with its officers. 3. A justice of the
+      peace and constable. 4. Each ward should take care of their own poor. 5.
+      Their own roads. 6. Their own police. 7. Elect within themselves one or
+      more jurors to attend the courts of justice. And, 8. Give in at their
+      Folk-house, their votes for all functionaries reserved to their election.
+      Each ward would thus be a small republic within itself, and every man in
+      the State would thus become an acting member of the common government,
+      transacting in person a great portion of its rights and duties,
+      subordinate indeed, yet important and entirely within his competence. The
+      wit of man cannot devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and
+      well-administered republic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their
+      relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the
+      former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are
+      co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State
+      governments, are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs
+      which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government is
+      given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States; these
+      functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the
+      foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the
+      other, but within its own department. There are one or two exceptions only
+      to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two departments should
+      claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide
+      ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the
+      prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable
+      ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of
+      the States must be called, to ascribe the doubtful power to that
+      department which they may think best. You will perceive by these details,
+      that we have not yet so far perfected our constitutions as to venture to
+      make them unchangeable. But still, in their present state, we consider
+      them not otherwise changeable than by the authority of the people, on a
+      special election of representatives for that purpose expressly: they are
+      until then the <i>lex legum</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind another, and
+      all others, in succession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made the
+      earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powrers can only belong to
+      persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with will. The dead
+      are not even things. The particles of matter which composed their bodies,
+      make part now of the bodies of other animals, vegetables, or minerals, of
+      a thousand forms. To what then are attached the rights and powers they
+      held while in the form of men? A generation may bind itself as long as its
+      majority continues in life; when that has disappeared, another majority is
+      in place, holds all the rights and powers their predecessors once held,
+      and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing
+      then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of the
+      judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
+      usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of the
+      common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced, is
+      incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
+      Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the
+      name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever existed.
+      But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means, they stole this law
+      in upon us. In a case of <i>quare impedit</i> in the Year-book, 34. H. 6.
+      folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far the ecclesiastical law
+      was to be respected in a common law court. And Prisot, Chief Justice,
+      gives his opinion in these words. &lsquo;<i>A tiel leis qu&rsquo;ils de seint eglise
+      ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner credence; car ceo common
+      ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes. Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus
+      obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise: et semblablement ils sont
+      obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a nous que
+      Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo
+      adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy</i>,&rsquo; &amp;c. See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp.
+      89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his first book, c. 3. is the first
+      afterwards who quotes this case, and mistakes it thus. &lsquo;To such laws of
+      the church as have warrant in holy scripture, our law giveth credence.&rsquo;
+      And cites Prisot; mistranslating &lsquo;ancien scripture&rsquo; into &lsquo;holy scripture.&rsquo;
+      Whereas, Prisot palpably says, &lsquo;to such laws as those of holy church have
+      in ancient writing, it is proper for us to give credence;&rsquo; to wit, to
+      their ancient written laws. This was in 1613, a century and a half after
+      the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into
+      a maxim of the common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot.
+      Wing. Max. 3. and Sheppard, title, &lsquo;Religion,&rsquo; in 1675, copies the same
+      mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses it in
+      these words; &lsquo;Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.&rsquo; 1 Ventr.
+      293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings and
+      re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in 1728,
+      that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court would
+      not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity was
+      punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore, 409,
+      ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy and
+      profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra. Then
+      Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that &lsquo;Christianity
+      is part of the laws of England,&rsquo; citing Ventris and Strange. And finally,
+      Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in Evans&rsquo;s case, in 1767,
+      says, that &lsquo;the essential principles of revealed religion are part of the
+      common law.&rsquo; Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament, and all into the common
+      law, without citing any authority. And thus we find this chain of
+      authorities hanging link by link, one upon another, and all ultimately on
+      one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation of the words &lsquo;ancien
+      scripture,&rsquo; used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot; Wingate does the same.
+      Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate. Hale cites nobody. The court,
+      in Woolston&rsquo;s case, cite Hale. Wood cites Woolston&rsquo;s case. Blackstone
+      quotes Woolston&rsquo;s case and Hale. And Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures
+      it on his own authority. Here I might defy the best read lawyer to produce
+      another scrip of authority for this judiciary forgery; and I might go on
+      further to show, how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the
+      text of Alfred&rsquo;s laws, the 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus,
+      and the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th
+      verses. But this would lead my pen and your patience too far. What a
+      conspiracy this, between Church and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all,
+      rogues all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowledgments for
+      your good wishes to the University we are now establishing in this State.
+      There are some novelties in it. Of that of a professorship of the
+      principles of government, you express your approbation. They will be
+      founded in the rights of man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will
+      approve: and that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us
+      in that type and dialect, must be the text-books of the reading of the
+      learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles of
+      government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be placed
+      in the library of the University. Having at this time in England a person
+      sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr. Gilmer of my
+      neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage, counsel, and
+      guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the deceptions of
+      partial and false recommendations, in the selection of characters. He is a
+      gentleman of great worth and correctness, my particular friend, well
+      educated in various branches of science, and worthy of entire confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us a speedy
+      meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and
+      evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have.both witnessed; and
+      in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration
+      and esteem for your person and character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0182" id="link2H_4_0182">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXII.&mdash;TO MARTIN VAN BUREN, June 29, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 29, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering&rsquo;s elaborate philippic against Mr.
+      Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the acknowledgment
+      until I could read it and make some observations on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such a period of
+      advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and viperous.
+      It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been industriously
+      collecting materials for vituperating the characters he had marked for his
+      hatred; some of whom certainly, if enmities towards him had ever existed,
+      had forgotten them all, or buried them in the grave with themselves. As to
+      myself, there never had been any thing personal between us, nothing but
+      the general opposition of party sentiment; and our personal intercourse
+      had been that of urbanity, as himself says. But it seems he has been all
+      this time brooding over an enmity which I had never felt, and that with
+      respect to myself, as well as others, he has been writing far and near,
+      and in every direction, to get hold of original letters, where he could,
+      copies, where he could not, certificates and journals, catching at every
+      gossipping story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions
+      what he could find no where else, and then arguing on this motley farrago,
+      as if established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his wonder, &lsquo;at
+      the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. Adams should not have
+      cooled &lsquo;; that on the contrary, &lsquo;they had acquired the mastery of his
+      soul,&rsquo; (p. 100 ;) that &lsquo;where these were enlisted, no reliance could be
+      placed on his statements,&rsquo; (p. 104 ;) the facility and little truth with
+      which he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning persons who
+      were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that &lsquo;he is capable of making the
+      grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached facts, and often from bare
+      suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable inferences,&rsquo; if suited to his purpose
+      at the instant,&rsquo; (p. 174;) while making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams,
+      instead of his &lsquo;<i>ecce homo</i>,&rsquo; (p. 100;) how justly might we say to
+      him, &lsquo;<i>Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur</i>.&rsquo; For the assiduity and
+      industry he has employed in his benevolent researches after matter of
+      crimination against us, I refer to his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79,
+      90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. 104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146,150,151,153,
+      168, 171, 172. That Mr. Adams&rsquo;s strictures on him, written and pointed,
+      should have excited some notice on his part, was not perhaps to be
+      wondered at. But the sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me
+      may be more questionable. He says, (p. 4) &lsquo;of Mr. Jefferson I should have
+      said nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October the 12th, 1823.&rsquo;
+      Now the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend,
+      wounded by a publication which I thought an &lsquo;outrage on private
+      confidence.&rsquo; Not a word or allusion in it respecting Mr. Pickering, nor
+      was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of this
+      infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his
+      pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions, and my motives. The very
+      actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great majority
+      of my fellow-citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. Pickering, and
+      of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect. My motives he
+      chooses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a passion for
+      popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It is no office of
+      his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted my actions and
+      motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates, letters, journals,
+      and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary them. Nor shall I do this
+      on the present occasion, but leave still to them these antiquated party
+      diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded, as if they had not been already
+      a thousand times repeated, refuted, and adjudged against him, by the
+      nation itself. If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can
+      imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action; no, not
+      even in the life of our Savior himself. But he has taught us to judge the
+      tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to him who can alone see into
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the
+      thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than a
+      steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of his
+      which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the other myself.
+      He observes, that my letter of October the 12th, 1823, acknowledges the
+      receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September the 18th, which, having been
+      written a few days after Cunningham&rsquo;s publication, he says was no doubt
+      written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches he had uttered
+      against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham. And thus having &lsquo;no
+      doubt&rsquo; of his conjecture, he considers it as proven, goes on to suppose
+      the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place Mr. Adams at my feet
+      suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it, as an undoubted fact. Now
+      I do most solemnly declare, that so far from being a letter of apology, as
+      Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes, there was not a word or allusion in
+      it respecting Cunningham&rsquo;s publication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other allegation respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34, he
+      quotes Doctor Stuart, as having, twenty years ago, informed him that
+      General Washington, &lsquo;when he became a private citizen,&rsquo; called me to
+      account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of
+      unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, &lsquo;in
+      what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment
+      of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death, the
+      correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period of
+      his Presidency was also missing.&rsquo; The diary being of transactions during
+      his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some time after
+      he became a private citizen, and the pretended correspondence of course
+      after that, I know not why this lost diary and supposed correspondence are
+      brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy of the letter
+      itself. The correspondence could not be found, indeed, because it had
+      never existed. I do affirm, that there never passed a word, written or
+      verbal, directly or indirectly, between General Washington and myself on
+      the subject of that letter. He would never have degraded himself so far as
+      to take to himself the imputation in that letter on the &lsquo;Samsons in
+      combat.&rsquo; The whole story is a fabrication, and I defy the framers of it,
+      and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a pen between General Washington
+      and myself on the subject, or any other evidence more worthy of credit
+      than the suspicions, suppositions, and presumptions of the two persons
+      here quoting and quoted for it. With Doctor Stuart I had not much
+      acquaintance. I supposed him to be an honest man, knew him to be a very
+      weak one, and, like Mr. Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with
+      party passions, and, under the dominion of these, readily welcoming
+      fancies for facts. But, come the story from whomsoever it might, it is an
+      unqualified falsehood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for federal
+      malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted a single
+      paragraph only of political information as to the state of our country. In
+      this information there was not one word which would not then have been, or
+      would not now be approved by every republican in the United States,
+      looking back to those times, as you will see by a faithful copy now
+      enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the subject of the
+      United States, or of its government. This paragraph, extracted and
+      translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the persons in power
+      there were laboring under very general disfavor, and their friends were
+      eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. &lsquo;To them, therefore, I have
+      always imputed the interpolation of an entire paragraph additional to
+      mine, which makes me charge my own country with ingratitude and injustice
+      to France. There was not a word in my letter respecting France, or any of
+      the proceedings or relations between this country and that. Yet this
+      interpolated paragraph has been the burden of federal calumny, has been
+      constantly quoted by them, made the subject of unceasing and virulent
+      abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by Mr. Pickering, (page 33,) as if
+      it were genuine, and really written by me. And even Judge Marshall makes
+      history descend from its dignity, and the ermine from its sanctity, to
+      exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this forgery. In the very last note
+      of his book, he says, &lsquo;A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an
+      Italian, was published in Florence, and republished in the Moniteur, with
+      very severe strictures on the conduct of the United States.&rsquo; And instead
+      of the letter itself, he copies what he says are the remarks of the
+      editor, which are an exaggerated commentary on the fabricated paragraph
+      itself, and silently leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that
+      these were the sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of the
+      affirmative side. A negative cannot be possibly proved. But, in defect of
+      impossible proof of what was not in the original letter, I have its
+      press-copy still in my possession. It has been shown to several, and is
+      open to any one who wishes to see it. I have presumed only that the
+      interpolation was done in Paris. But I never saw the letter in either its
+      Italian or French dress, and it may have been done here, with the
+      commentary handed down to posterity by the judge. The genuine paragraph,
+      re-translated through Italian and French into English, as it appeared here
+      in a federal paper, besides the mutilated hue which these translations and
+      re-translations of it produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a
+      single word, which entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant
+      and fertile text of misrepresentation of my political principles. The
+      original, speaking of an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party,
+      which had sprung up since he had left us, states their object to be &lsquo;to
+      draw over us the substance, as they had already done the forms of the
+      British government.&rsquo; Now the &lsquo;forms&rsquo; here meant, were the levees,
+      birth-days, the pompous cavalcade to the State House on the meeting of
+      Congress, the formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in
+      a body to re-echo the speech in an answer, &amp;c. &amp;c. But the
+      translator here, by substituting form in the singular number, for forms in
+      the plural, made it mean the frame or organization of our government, or
+      its form of legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities, co-ordinate
+      and independent: to which form it was to be inferred that I was an enemy.
+      In this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering still
+      quotes, it (pages 34, 35, 38), and countenances the inference. Now General
+      Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms, as they were
+      frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my return from
+      Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York, I was much
+      astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established of royal forms and
+      ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected phenomenon, by the
+      monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly maintained in every
+      company, and among others by the high members of the government, executive
+      and judiciary (General Washington alone excepted), and by a great part of
+      the legislature, save only some members who had been of the old Congress,
+      and a very few of recent introduction. I took occasion, at various times,
+      of expressing to General Washington my disappointment at these symptoms of
+      a change of principle, and that I thought them encouraged by the forms and
+      ceremonies, which I found prevailing, not at all in character with the
+      simplicity of republican government, and looking as if wishfully to those
+      of European courts. His general explanations to me were, that when he
+      arrived at New York to enter on the executive administration of the new
+      government, he observed to those who were to assist him, that placed as he
+      was in an office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms and
+      ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of those which might
+      be properly established here, and himself perfectly indifferent to all
+      forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what they should be; and
+      the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, a man of parade, and
+      to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at a foreign court. They,
+      he said, were the author&rsquo;s of the present regulations, and that others
+      were proposed so highly strained, that he absolutely rejected them.
+      Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject, when
+      the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
+      departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had been
+      at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and the
+      course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion had
+      now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any particulars
+      not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult together, agree
+      on any changes we should think for the better, and that he should
+      willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at my office. Hamilton
+      and myself agreed at once that there was too much ceremony for the
+      character of our government, and, particularly, that the parade of the
+      installation at New York ought not to be copied on the present occasion,
+      that the President should desire the Chief Justice to attend him at his
+      chambers, that he should administer the oath of office to him in the
+      presence of the higher officers of the government, and that the
+      certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary of State to
+      be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the latter vehemently:
+      they thought it not advisable to change any of the established forms, and
+      we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to the President. As these
+      opinions were divided, and no positive advice given as to any change, no
+      change was made. Thus the forms, which I had censured in my letter to
+      Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General Washington, and were those
+      which he himself but barely tolerated. He had furnished me a proper
+      occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my opinion not prevailing,
+      he knew I could not have meant any part of the censure for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of &lsquo;the
+      men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
+      had had their heads shorn by the harlot England&rsquo; or, as expressed in their
+      re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons in
+      combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.&rsquo; Now this
+      expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He knew
+      that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what had
+      passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could not
+      mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
+      establishment, I was a member of the Congress then sitting at Annapolis.
+      General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that proposition, and
+      the course, if any, which I thought Congress would observe respecting it.
+      I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation of it; that I found the members
+      of Congress generally in the same sentiment; that I thought they would
+      take no express notice of it, but that in all appointments of trust,
+      honor, or profit, they would silently pass by all candidates of that
+      order, and give an uniform preference to others. On his way to the first
+      meeting in Philadelphia, which I think was in the spring of 1784, he
+      called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after candle-light, and he sat
+      with me till after midnight, conversing, almost exclusively, on that
+      subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to the motives which might
+      induce the officers to promote it, he concurred with me entirely in
+      condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that, if the hereditary
+      quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps be indulged during
+      the lives of the officers now living, and who had actually served; &lsquo;No,&rsquo;
+      he said, &lsquo;not a fibre of it ought, to be left, to be an eye-sore to the
+      public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of separation between them
+      and their country&rsquo;: and he left me with a determination to use all his
+      influence for its entire suppression. On his return from the meeting, he
+      called on me again, and related to me the course the thing had taken. He.
+      said, that, from the beginning, he had used every endeavor to prevail on
+      the officers to renounce the project altogether, urging the many
+      considerations which would render it odious to their fellow-citizens, and
+      disreputable and injurious to themselves; that he had at length prevailed
+      on most of the old officers to reject it, although with great and warm
+      opposition from others, and especially the younger ones, among whom he
+      named Colonel W. S. Smith as particularly intemperate. But that in this
+      state of things, when he thought the question safe, and the meeting
+      drawing to a close, Major L&rsquo;Enfant arrived from France with a bundle of
+      eagles, for which he had been sent there, with letters from the French
+      officers who had served in. America, praying for admission into the order,
+      and a solemn act of their King permitting them to wear its ensign. This,
+      he said, changed the face of matters at once, produced an entire
+      revolution of sentiment, and turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite
+      direction, that it could be no longer withstood: all he could then obtain,
+      was a suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, that it was the
+      French applications, and respect for the approbation of the King, which
+      saved the establishment in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving
+      thus of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to
+      do so, he could never suppose that I meant to include him among the
+      Samsons in the field, whose object was to draw over us the form, as they
+      made the letter say, of the British government, and especially its
+      aristocractic member, an hereditary House of Lords. Add to this, that the
+      letter saying, &lsquo;that two out of the three branches of legislature were
+      against us,&rsquo; was an obvious exception of him; it being well known that the
+      majorities in the two branches of Senate and Representatives were the very
+      instruments which carried, in opposition to the old and real republicans,
+      the measures which were the subjects of condemnation in this letter.
+      General Washington, then, understanding perfectly what and whom I meant to
+      designate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any application
+      or view to himself, could find in neither any cause of offence to himself;
+      and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any explanation of them from
+      me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know very little of General
+      Washington, who should believe to be within the laws of his character what
+      Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to him. Be this, however, as it may,
+      the story is infamously false in every article of it. My last parting with
+      General Washington was at the inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797,
+      and was warmly affectionate; and I never had any reason to believe any
+      change on his part, as there certainly was none on mine. But one session
+      of Congress intervened between that and his death, the year following, in
+      my passage to and from which, as it happened to be not convenient to call
+      on him, I never had another opportunity; and as to the cessation of
+      correspondence observed during that short interval, no particular
+      circumstance occurred for epistolary communication, and both of us were
+      too much oppressed with letter-writing, to trouble either the other, with
+      a letter about nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive friends
+      of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink his
+      character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy of
+      republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation of
+      the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, and
+      the republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
+      proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
+      republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend to
+      the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in its
+      duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly
+      declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair chance for
+      success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in its support,
+      against any attempt which, might be made to change it from its republican
+      form. He made these declarations the oftener, because he knew my
+      suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my
+      jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he
+      considered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of its
+      administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever
+      been devised by the wit of man; professing, however, at the same time,
+      that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that it
+      would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that,
+      therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the
+      principles their constituents had elected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the
+      composition of his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which was
+      Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of any
+      question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party in
+      whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the
+      republicans; yet were they not imputed, to him, but to the counsellors
+      around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course
+      and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his
+      administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time
+      after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views into
+      which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the party drew
+      him into the vortex of their intemperate career; separated him still
+      farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and expressions
+      of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen their
+      affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary aberration to
+      weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and although they
+      tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his memory embalmed
+      in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion; and there it for
+      ever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing
+      which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It is vain, then, for
+      Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify his character, by
+      representing him as an enemy to republicans and republican principles, and
+      as exclusively the friend of those who were so; and had he lived longer,
+      he would have returned to his ancient and unbiassed opinions, would have
+      replaced his confidence in those whom the people approved and supported,
+      and would have seen that they were only restoring and acting on the
+      principles of his own first administration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter or rather
+      a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr. Pickering&rsquo;s
+      diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do not publish
+      these things, because my rule of life has been never to harass the public
+      with fendings and provings of personal slanders; and least of all would I
+      descend into the arena of slander with such a champion as Mr. Pickering. I
+      have ever trusted to the justice and consideration of my fellow-citizens,
+      and have no reason to repent it, or to change my course. At this time of
+      life, too, tranquillity is the <i>summum bonum</i>. But although I decline
+      all newspaper controversy, yet when falsehoods have been advanced, within
+      the knowledge of no one so much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a
+      contradiction in the hands of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may,
+      when I am no more, nor those whom I might offend, throw light on history,
+      and recall that into the path of truth. And if of no other value, the
+      present communication may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to
+      which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name,
+      but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may
+      be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close it
+      here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0183" id="link2H_4_0183">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIII.&mdash;TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO EDWARD EVERETT.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 15, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have yet to thank you for your O. B. K. oration, delivered in presence
+      of General la Fayette. It is all excellent, much of it sublimely so, well
+      worthy of its author and his subject, of whom we may truly say, as was
+      said of Germanicus, &lsquo;<i>Fruitur famâ sui</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of September the 10th gave me the first information that mine
+      to Major Cartwright had got into the newspapers; and the first notice,
+      indeed, that he had received it. I was a stranger to his person, but not
+      to his respectable and patriotic character. I received from him a long and
+      interesting letter, and answered it with frankness, going without reserve
+      into several subjects, to which his letter had led, but on which I did not
+      suppose I was writing for the newspapers. The publication of a letter in
+      such a case, without the consent of the writer, is not a fair practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
+      They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot&rsquo;s opinion with
+      a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake its
+      meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The opinions
+      of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or memoranda, and
+      not with all the developement which they probably used in delivering them.
+      Prisot&rsquo;s opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus paraphrased. &lsquo;To
+      such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and preserved in their
+      ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to give credence; for so
+      is, or so says, the common law, or law of the land, on which all manner of
+      other laws rest for their authority, or are founded; that is to say, the
+      common law, or the law of the land common to us all, and established by
+      the authority of us all, is that from which is derived the authority of
+      all other special and subordinate branches of law, such as the canon law,
+      law merchant, law maritime, law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation
+      laws, local customs and usages, to all of which the common law requires
+      its judges to permit authority in the special or local cases belonging to
+      them. The evidence of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises,
+      books, and writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known,
+      the text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its
+      substance only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it
+      appears, from their ancient books, writings, and records, that the bishop,
+      in this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has
+      done what an ordinary would have done, in such case, then we should
+      adjudge it good, otherwise not.&rsquo; To decide this question, they would have
+      to turn to the ancient writings and records of the canon law, in which
+      they would find evidence of the laws of advowsons, <i>quare impedit</i>,
+      the duties of bishops and ordinaries, for which terms Prisot could never
+      have meant to refer them to the Old or New Testament, <i>les saincts
+      scriptures</i>, where surely they would not be found. A license which
+      should permit &lsquo;ancien scripture&rsquo; to be translated &lsquo;holy scripture,&rsquo;
+      annihilates at once all the evidence of language. With such a license, we
+      might reverse the sixth commandment into &lsquo;Thou shalt not omit murder.&rsquo; It
+      would be the more extraordinary in this case, where the mistranslation was
+      to effect the adoption of the whole code of the Jewish and Christian laws
+      into the text of our statutes, to convert religious offences into temporal
+      crimes, to make the breach of every religious precept a subject of
+      indictment, submit the question of idolatry, for example, to the trial of
+      a jury, and to a court, its punishment, to the third and fourth generation
+      of the offender. Do we allow to our judges this lumping legislation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The term &lsquo;common law,&rsquo; although it has more than one meaning, is perfectly
+      definite, <i>secundum subjectam materiem</i>. Its most probable origin was
+      on the conquest of the Heptarchy by Alfred, and the amalgamation of their
+      several codes of law into one, which became common to them all. The
+      authentic text of these enactments has not been preserved; but their
+      substance has been committed to many ancient books and writings, so
+      faithfully as to have been deemed genuine from generation to generation,
+      and obeyed as such by all. We have some fragments of them collected by
+      Lambard, Wilkins, and others, but abounding with proofs of their spurious
+      authenticity. Magna Charta is the earliest statute, the text of which has
+      come down to us in an authentic form, and thence downward we have them
+      entire. We do not know exactly when the common law and statute law, the <i>lex
+      scripta et non scripta</i>, began to be contra-distinguished, so as to
+      give a second acceptation to the former term; whether before or after
+      Prisot&rsquo;s day, at which time we know that nearly two centuries and a half
+      of statutes were in preservation. In later times, on the introduction of
+      the chancery branch of law, the term common law began to be used in a
+      third sense, as the correlative of chancery law. This, however, having
+      been long after Prisot&rsquo;s time, could not have been the sense in which he
+      used the term. He must have meant the ancient <i>lex, non scripta</i>,
+      because, had he used it as inclusive of the <i>lex scripta</i>, he would
+      have put his finger on the statute which had enjoined on the judges a
+      deference to the laws of holy church. But no such statute existing, he
+      must have referred to the common law in the sense of a <i>lex non scripta</i>.
+      Whenever, then, the term common law is used in either of these senses, and
+      it is never employed in any other, it is readily known in which of them by
+      the context and subject matter under consideration; which, in the present
+      case, leave no room for doubt. I do not remember the occasion which led me
+      to take up this subject, while a practitioner of the law. But I know I
+      went into it with all the research which a very copious law library
+      enabled me to indulge; and I fear not for the accuracy of any of my
+      quotations. The doctrine might be disproved by many other and different
+      topics of reasoning; but having satisfied myself of the origin of the
+      forgery, and found how, like a rolling snow-ball, it had gathered volume,
+      I leave its further pursuit to those who need further proof, and perhaps I
+      have already gone further than the feeble doubt you expressed might
+      require, I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0184" id="link2H_4_0184">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIV.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 11, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 11, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are dreadfully nonplussed here by the non-arrival of our three
+      Professors. We apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st of
+      February prevails so much abroad (although we have always mentioned it
+      doubtfully), as that the students will assemble on that day without
+      awaiting the further notice which was promised. To send them away will be
+      discouraging, and to open an University without Mathematics or Natural
+      Philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. We therefore publish
+      an advertisement, stating that on the arrival of these Professors, notice
+      will be given of the day of opening the institution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Governor Barbour writes me hopefully of getting our fifty thousand dollars
+      from Congress. The proposition has been originated in the House of
+      Representatives, referred to the committee of claims, the chairman of
+      which has prepared a very favorable report, and a bill conformable,
+      assuming the repayment of all interest which the State has actually paid.
+      The legislature will certainly owe to us the recovery of this money; for
+      had they not given it in some measure the reverenced character of a
+      donation for the promotion of learning, it would never have been paid. It
+      is to be hoped, therefore, that the displeasure incurred by wringing it
+      from them at the last session, will now give way to a contrary feeling,
+      and even place us on a ground of some merit. Should this sentiment take
+      place, and the arrival of our Professors, and filling our dormitories with
+      students on the 1st of February, encourage them to look more favorably
+      towards us, perhaps it might dispose them to enlarge somewhat their order
+      on the same fund. You observe the Proctor has stated in a letter
+      accompanying our Report, that it will take about twenty-five thousand
+      dollars more than we have to finish the Rotunda. Besides this, an
+      Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our hotels, say about
+      five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school of Anatomy. There
+      cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre is prepared, giving
+      an advantageous view of the operation to those within, and effectually
+      excluding observation from without. Either the additional sums, therefore,
+      of twenty-five thousand and five thousand dollars will be wanting, or we
+      must be permitted to appropriate a part of the fifty thousand to a
+      theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for the present. Yet I should
+      think neither of these objects an equivalent for renewing the displeasure
+      of the legislature. Unless we can carry their hearty patronage with us,
+      the institution can never flourish. I would not, therefore, hint at this
+      additional aid, unless it were agreeable to our friends generally, and
+      tolerably sure of being carried without irritation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In your letter of December the 31st, you say my &lsquo;hand-writing and my
+      letters have great effect there,&rsquo; i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my dear
+      Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to me. But
+      my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from the
+      administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that I
+      retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in office
+      had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation, and with
+      acquiescence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have embarked so
+      earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition of my native
+      State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have strengthened good
+      dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within our own. The attempt
+      ran foul of so many local interests, of so many personal views, and so
+      much ignorance, and I have been considered as so particularly its
+      promoter, that I see evidently a great change of sentiment towards myself.
+      I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied with myself a respectable minority,
+      if not a majority of the House of Delegates. I feel it deeply, and very
+      discouragingly. Yet I shall not give way. I have ever found in my progress
+      through life, that, acting for the public, if we do always what is right,
+      the approbation denied in the beginning will surely follow us in the end.
+      It is from posterity we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we
+      are making for their service, of time, quiet, and good will. And I fear
+      not the appeal. The multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from
+      ignorance, who will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of
+      character, and station they will be able to attain from the result of our
+      efforts, will insure their remembering us with gratitude. We will not,
+      then, be &lsquo;weary in well-doing.&rsquo; <i>Usque ad aras amicus tuus</i>,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0185" id="link2H_4_0185">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXV.&mdash;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in
+      the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
+      excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which
+      might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have
+      to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few
+      words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God.
+      Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and
+      your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways
+      of Providence. So shall the life, into which you have entered, be the
+      portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is
+      permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life
+      will be under my regard. Farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 21, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, for your
+      imitation</i>.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Lord, who&rsquo;s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
+     Not stranger-like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
+     &lsquo;Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
+     Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart
+          disproves.
+     Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor&rsquo;s fame to wound;
+     Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
+     Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
+     And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
+     Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
+     And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
+     Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
+     Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
+     The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
+     When earth&rsquo;s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. Never spend your money before you have it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0186" id="link2H_4_0186">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 24, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have for sometime considered the question of internal improvement as
+      desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so strongly in favor of it
+      as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even the opposition in Congress
+      will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless something can be done which
+      may give a gleam of encouragement to our friends, or alarm their opponents
+      in their fancied security. I learn from Richmond, that those who think
+      with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not knowing what to do, or
+      what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative, particularly, has written
+      to me in very desponding terms, not disposed to yield, indeed, but
+      pressing for opinions and advice on the subject. I have no doubt you are
+      pressed in the same way, and I hope you have devised and recommended
+      something to them. If you have, stop here and read no more, but consider
+      all that follows as <i>non avenue</i>. I shall be better satisfied to
+      adopt implicitly any thing which you may have advised, than any thing
+      occurring to myself. For I have long ceased to think on subjects of this
+      kind, and pay little attention to public proceedings. But if you have done
+      nothing in it, then I risk for your consideration what has occurred to me,
+      and is expressed in the enclosed paper. Bailey&rsquo;s propositions, which came
+      to hand since I wrote the paper, and which I suppose to have come from the
+      President himself, show a little hesitation in the purposes of his party;
+      and in that state of mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest,
+      by its effect on the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this
+      moment may be accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate
+      sacrifice. I say nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The
+      following heads of consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may intimidate the wavering. It may break the western coalition, by
+      offering the same thing in a different form. It will be viewed with favor
+      in contrast with the Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening that. It
+      will be an example of a temperate mode of opposition in future and similar
+      cases. It will delay the measure a year at least. It will give us the
+      chance of better times and of intervening accidents; and in no way place
+      us in a worse than our present situation. I do not dwell on these topics;
+      your mind will develope them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first question is, whether you approve of doing any thing of the kind.
+      If not, send it back to me, and it shall be suppressed; for I would not
+      hazard so important a measure against your opinion, nor even without its
+      support. If you think it may be a canvass on which to put something good,
+      make what alterations you please, and I will forward it to Gordon, under
+      the most sacred injunctions that it shall be so used as that not a shadow
+      of suspicion shall fall on you or myself, that it has come from either of
+      us. But what you do, do as promptly as your convenience will admit, lest
+      it should be anticipated by something worse. Ever and affectionately
+      yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on
+      the Principles of the Constitution of the United, States of America, and
+      on the Violations of them</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf and in the name of the
+      people thereof, do declare as follows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The States in North America which confederated to establish their
+      independence on the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
+      one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and, as
+      such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such form
+      as it thought best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the
+      United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single
+      government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
+      nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified. They
+      retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of independent
+      government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint, in
+      conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive, and
+      judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each, severally
+      and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each for itself,
+      a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive, and judiciary,
+      also, for administering the domestic branch of their respective
+      governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute thus
+      a whole of government, for each State separately; the powers ascribed to
+      the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over the whole, the
+      residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable exclusively over its
+      particular State, foreign herein, each to the others, as they were before
+      the original compact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
+      Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
+      opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either set
+      of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others, a
+      right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
+      indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this Assembly does
+      declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
+      branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
+      construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
+      within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
+      several States, which this Assembly does declare has not been given to
+      that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State among
+      its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself and by its
+      domestic authorities alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Assembly does further disavow, and declare to be most false and
+      unfounded, the doctrine, that the compact, in authorizing its federal
+      branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay the
+      debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United
+      States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may think, or
+      pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction would make
+      that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation of powers; but
+      that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the
+      taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by the various acts of
+      power therein specified and delegated to them, and by no others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States, by
+      not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering their
+      condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that purpose;
+      since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to that branch
+      those which belong to its department, and to the States have reserved
+      separately the residue which belong to them separately: and thus by the
+      organization of the two branches taken together, have completely secured
+      the first object of human association, the full improvement of their
+      condition, and reserved to themselves all the faculties of multiplying
+      their own blessings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
+      States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State will
+      never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
+      disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
+      themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
+      of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
+      themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
+      resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
+      possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
+      difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
+      indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
+      could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
+      submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope
+      of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
+      forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
+      therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly, prefer,
+      at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal
+      member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under the
+      confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the
+      bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the
+      mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate from them,
+      every misfortune, save that only of living under a government of unlimited
+      powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal
+      brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
+      perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of
+      living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to
+      its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace; and
+      further to show, that even when the government of its choice shall
+      manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that
+      the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its
+      aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain
+      it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are the
+      objects of this Declaration and Protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of its
+      co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals should
+      be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more likely to
+      be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the independent
+      action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from respect to these
+      opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its co-States, will consent,
+      in concurrence with them, to make this addition, provided it be done
+      regularly by an amendment of the compact, in the way established by that
+      instrument, and provided also, it be sufficiently guarded against abuses,
+      compromises, and corrupt practices, not only of possible, but of probable
+      occurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
+      Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented to by
+      the compact called &lsquo;The Constitution of the United States of America,&rsquo;
+      (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its language, to
+      the common intendment of the time, and of those who framed it;) to give
+      also to all parties and authorities, time for reflection and for
+      consideration, whether, under a temperate view of the possible
+      consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions which an
+      equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the
+      assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the free will of
+      their constituents; and to preserve peace in the mean while, we proceed to
+      make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature shall otherwise
+      and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts of the federal branch
+      of our government which we have declared to be usurpations, and against
+      which, in point of right, we do protest as null and void, and never to be
+      quoted as precedents of right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
+      Virginia, that all citizens of this Commonwealth, and persons and
+      authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to the
+      acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the object
+      of which shall be the construction of post-roads, making canals of
+      navigation, and maintaining the same, in any part of the United States, in
+      like manner as if the said acts were, <i>totidem verbis</i>, passed by the
+      legislature of this Commonwealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0187" id="link2H_4_0187">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 25, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 15th was received four days ago. It found me engaged in
+      what I could not lay aside till this day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far advanced in my eighty-third year, worn down with infirmities which
+      have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight months
+      past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for transactions
+      so far back as that which is the subject of your letter. My memory is
+      indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can probably be
+      given you than by my solemn protestation, that I have not the least
+      recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams and myself, in
+      what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the slightest trace of it
+      remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the exactitude of the statement
+      in your letter. And the less, as I recollect the interview with Mr. Adams,
+      to which the previous communications which had passed between him and
+      yourself were probably and naturally the preliminary. That interview I
+      remember well; not indeed in the very words which passed between us, but
+      in their substance, which was of a character too awful, too deeply
+      engraved in my mind, and influencing too materially the course I had to
+      pursue, ever to be forgotten. Mr. Adams called on me pending the embargo,
+      and while endeavors were making to obtain its repeal. He made some
+      apologies for the call, on the ground of our not being then in the habit
+      of confidential communications, but that that which he had then to make,
+      involved too seriously the interest of our country not to overrule all
+      other considerations with him, and make it his duty to reveal it to myself
+      particularly. I assured him there was no occasion for any apology for his
+      visit; that, on the contrary, his communications would be thankfully
+      received, and would add a confirmation the more to my entire confidence in
+      the rectitude and patriotism of his conduct and principles. He spoke then
+      of the dissatisfaction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the
+      restraints of the embargo then existing, and their restlessness under it.
+      That there was nothing which might not be attempted, to rid themselves of
+      it. That he had information of the most unquestionable certainty, that
+      certain citizens of the Eastern States (I think he named Massachusetts
+      particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the British government,
+      the object of which was an agreement that the New England States should
+      take no further part in the war then going on; that, without formally
+      declaring their separation from the Union of the States, they should
+      withdraw from all aid and obedience to them, that their navigation and
+      commerce should be free from restraint and interruption by the British;
+      that they should be considered and treated by them as neutrals, and as
+      such might conduct themselves towards both parties; and, at the close of
+      the war, be at liberty to rejoin the confederacy. He assured me that there
+      was imminent danger that the convention would take place; that the
+      temptations were such as might debauch many from their fidelity to the
+      Union; and that, to enable its friends to make head against it, the repeal
+      of the embargo was absolutely necessary. I expressed a just sense of the
+      merit of this information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the
+      safety and even the salvation of our country: and however reluctant I was
+      to abandon the measure (a measure which persevered in a little longer, we
+      had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object
+      completely), from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw
+      the necessity of abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by
+      this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then
+      recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the
+      embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in
+      which they could procure a general concurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be in
+      the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the impression
+      remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are too transient
+      and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But the substance was
+      too important to be forgotten, not only from the revolution of measures it
+      obliged me to adopt, but also from the renewals of it in my memory on the
+      frequent occasions I have had of doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating
+      this proof of his fidelity to his country, and of his superiority over all
+      ordinary considerations when the safety of that was brought into question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept
+      assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0188" id="link2H_4_0188">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 26, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will be free to make what use
+      you please. This will contain matters not intended for the public eye. I
+      see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with
+      which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the
+      usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation
+      in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that too, by
+      constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. Take
+      together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the
+      President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on
+      by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too evident, that
+      the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip
+      their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them,
+      and to exercise themselves all functions, foreign and domestic. Under the
+      power to regulate commerce, they assume indefinitely that also over
+      agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings
+      of one of these branches of industry, and that too the most depressed, and
+      put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all. Under
+      the authority to establish post-roads, they claim that of cutting down
+      mountains for the construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a
+      little sophistry on the words &lsquo;general welfare,&rsquo; a right to do, not only
+      the acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted,
+      but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general
+      welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the
+      constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue with
+      the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by
+      ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from incorrect views
+      of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together, to
+      outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or three,
+      bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand to our arms,
+      with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last resource, not to
+      be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every
+      infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a
+      dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last one year. We
+      must have patience and longer endurance then with our brethren while under
+      delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences;
+      keep ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and
+      separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the
+      dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without
+      limitation of powers. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice,
+      there can be no hesitation. But in the mean while, the States should be
+      watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce
+      them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them
+      as wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as
+      acknowledgments or precedents of right, but as a temporary yielding to the
+      lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh that of separation.
+      I would go still further, and give to the federal member, by a regular
+      amendment of the constitution, a right to make roads and canals of
+      intercommunication between the States, providing sufficiently against
+      corrupt practices in Congress (log-rolling, &amp;c.), by declaring that
+      the federal proportion of each State of the monies so employed, shall be
+      in works within the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due
+      <i>salvo</i> of jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and
+      best as yet. You ask my opinion of the propriety of giving publicity to
+      what is stated in your letter, as having passed between Mr. John Q. Adams
+      and yourself. Of this no one can judge but yourself. It is one of those
+      questions which belong to the forum of feeling. This alone can decide on
+      the degree of confidence implied in the disclosure; whether under no
+      circumstances it was to be communicated to others. It does not seem to be
+      of that character, or at all to wear that aspect. They are historical
+      facts, which belong to the present, as well as future times. I doubt
+      whether a single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear conviction
+      to it, of the correctness of our knowledge of the treasonable views of the
+      federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the most nefarious
+      and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the Hartford Convention
+      was a subsequent chapter: and both of these having failed, consolidation
+      becomes the first chapter of the next book of their history. But this
+      opens with a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who,
+      having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of &lsquo;76, now look to a
+      single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking
+      institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their
+      favored branches of manufactures, commerce, and navigation, riding and
+      ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. This will be to
+      them a next best blessing to the monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps
+      the surest stepping-stone to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving well, and
+      that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is one of three or
+      four whom I can hear of in the State. We were obliged the last year to
+      receive shameful Latinists into the classical school of the University;
+      such as we will certainly refuse as soon as we can get from better schools
+      a sufficiency of those properly instructed to form a class. We must get
+      rid of this Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous confusion of long and
+      short syllables, which renders doubtful whether we are listening to a
+      reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our University has been
+      most fortunate in the five Professors procured from England. A finer
+      selection could not have been made. Besides their being of a grade of
+      science which has left little superior behind, the correctness of their
+      moral character, their accommodating dispositions, and zeal for the
+      prosperity of the institution, leave us nothing more to wish. I verily
+      believe that as high a degree of, education can now be obtained here, as
+      in the country they left. And a finer set of youths I never saw assembled
+      for instruction. They committed some irregularities at first, until they
+      learned the lawful length of their tether; since which it has never been
+      transgressed in the smallest degree. A great proportion of them are
+      severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say, that within twelve or
+      fifteen years from this time, a majority of the rulers of our State will
+      have been educated here. They shall carry hence the correct principles of
+      our day, and you may count assuredly that they will exhibit their country
+      in a degree of sound respectability it has never known, either in our
+      days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot live to see it. My joy must
+      only be that of anticipation. But that you may see it in full fruition, is
+      the probable consequence of the twenty years I am ahead of you in time,
+      and is the sincere prayer of your affectionate and constant friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0189" id="link2H_4_0189">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIX.&mdash;TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 9, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of December the 31st, and fear, with you,
+      all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political horizon
+      so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped to be very
+      distant, the free principles of our government might change, with the
+      change of circumstances, was to be expected. But I certainly did not
+      expect that they would not over-live the generation which established
+      them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite western country
+      was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever and fondly cherished
+      the interests of that country, relying on it as a barrier against the
+      degeneracy of public opinion from our original and free principles. But
+      the bait of local interests, artfully prepared for their palate, has
+      decoyed them from their kindred attachments, to alliances alien to them.
+      Yet, although I have little hope that the torrent of consolidation can be
+      withstood, I should not be for giving up the ship without efforts to save
+      her. She lived well through the first squall, and may weather the present
+      one. But, Dear Sir, I am not the champion called for by our present
+      dangers; <i>Non tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis, tempus eget</i>.&rsquo; A
+      waning body, a waning mind, and waning memory, with habitual ill health,
+      warn me to withdraw and relinquish the arena to younger and abler
+      athletes. I am sensible myself, if others are not, that this is my duty.
+      If my distant friends know it not, those around me can inform them that
+      they should not, in friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing
+      only the decays which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and
+      injuring the common cause by a senile and puny defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will, however, say one word on the subject. The South Carolina
+      resolutions, Van Buren&rsquo;s motion, and above all Bailey&rsquo;s propositions, show
+      that other States are coming forward on the subject, and better for any
+      one to take the lead than Virginia, where opposition is considered as
+      common-place, and a mere matter of form and habit. We shall see what our
+      co-States propose, and before the close of the session we may shape our
+      own course more understandingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0190" id="link2H_4_0190">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXC.&mdash;TO [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 21, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of January the 15th is received, and I am entirely sensible of
+      the kindness of the motives which suggested the caution it recommended.
+      But I believe what I have done is the only thing I could have done with
+      honor or conscience. Mr. Giles requested me to state a fact which he knew
+      himself, and of which he knew me to be possessed. What use he intended to
+      make of it I knew not, nor had I a right to inquire, or to indicate any
+      suspicion that he would make an unfair one. That was his concern, not
+      mine, and his character was sufficient to sustain the responsibility for
+      it. I knew, too, that if an uncandid use should be made of it, there would
+      be found those who would so prove it. Independent of the terms of intimate
+      friendship on which Mr. Giles and myself have ever lived together, the
+      world&rsquo;s respect entitled him to the justice of my testimony to any truth
+      he might call for; and how that testimony should connect me with whatever
+      he may do or write hereafter, and with his whole career, as you apprehend,
+      is not understood by me. With his personal controversies I have nothing to
+      do. I never took any part in them, or in those of any other person. Add to
+      this, that the statement I have given him on the subject of Mr. Adams, is
+      entirely honorable to him in every sentiment and fact it contains. There
+      is not a word in it which I would wish to recall. It is one which Mr.
+      Adams himself might willingly quote, did he need to quote any thing. It
+      was simply, that during the continuance of the embargo, Mr. Adams informed
+      me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had
+      for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. That Mr.
+      Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and
+      confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his
+      patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when the
+      safety of his country was endangered. Nor have I kept this honorable fact
+      to myself. During the late canvass, particularly, I had more than one
+      occasion to quote it to persons who were expressing opinions respecting
+      him, of which this was a direct corrective. I have never entertained for
+      Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and if we have not
+      thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted the honesty of
+      his opinions, of which the letter in question, if published, will be an
+      additional proof. Still, I recognise your friendship in suggesting a
+      review of it, and am glad of this, as of every other occasion, of
+      repeating to you the assurance of my constant attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0191" id="link2H_4_0191">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 17,1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of
+      Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the University
+      and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to stop every
+      thing on hand which could be done without, and to employ all his force and
+      funds in finishing the circular room for the books, and the Anatomical
+      theatre. These cannot be done without; and for these and all our debts, we
+      have funds enough. But I think it prudent then to clear the decks
+      thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and what we may accomplish further.
+      In the mean time, there have arrived for us in different ports of the
+      United States, ten boxes of books, from Paris, seven from London, and from
+      Germany I know not how many; in all, perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not
+      one of these can be opened until the book-room is completely finished, and
+      all the shelves ready to receive their charge directly from the boxes, as
+      they shall be opened. This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definitive
+      of the three thousand dollars duty of which we are asking the remission
+      from Congress. In the selection of our Law Professor, we must be
+      rigorously attentive to his political principles. You will recollect,
+      that, before the Revolution, Coke Littleton was the universal elementary
+      book of law students, and a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder
+      learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what
+      were called English liberties. You remember also that our lawyers were
+      then all whigs. But when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning
+      learning got out of fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone
+      became the students&rsquo; hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the
+      nursery of our Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the
+      young brood of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves,
+      indeed, to be whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or
+      republicanism means. It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be
+      kept alive; it is thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister
+      States. If we are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty
+      years a majority of our own legislature will be from our school, and many
+      disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their several
+      States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. New York has taken
+      strong ground in vindication of the constitution; South Carolina had
+      already done the same. Although I was against our leading, I am equally
+      against omitting to follow in the same line, and backing them firmly; and
+      i hope that yourself or some other will mark out the track to be pursued
+      by us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the legislature,
+      which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had become
+      considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of property, which
+      would have been little felt, when our friend &mdash;&mdash; gave me the
+      coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred dollars a
+      year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing so much of my
+      annual income, as that the maintenance of my family was making deep and
+      rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it. Still, sales at a
+      fair price would leave me competently provided. Had crops and prices for
+      several years been such as to maintain a steady competition of substantial
+      bidders at market, all would have been safe. But the long succession of
+      years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the
+      farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &amp;c,
+      with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept
+      agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the western
+      States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the
+      land-market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things,
+      property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in
+      Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty
+      to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not
+      now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter or one
+      fifth of its former price. Reflecting on these things, the practice
+      occurred to me, of selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery,
+      often resorted to before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still
+      in constant usage in every State for individual as well as corporation
+      purposes. If it is permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the
+      mills, he, will pay every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free.
+      If refused, I must sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bedford,
+      move thither with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my
+      head into, and whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations
+      which, under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property.
+      The question then with me was, <i>Utrum horum?</i> But why afflict you
+      with these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by
+      communication with a friend. The friendship which has subsisted between
+      us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and
+      pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long
+      period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the University,
+      or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a comfort to
+      leave that institution under your care, and an assurance that it will not
+      be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that you are
+      engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for
+      preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government,
+      which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has
+      beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast
+      eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one
+      which, protected by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which
+      our lives have been devoted. To myself you have been a pillar of support
+      through life. Take care of me when dead, and be assured that I shall leave
+      with you my last affections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
+     because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
+     led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
+     his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
+     character.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0192" id="link2H_4_0192">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is chance?
+      Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the cause, we do
+      not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was produced by
+      chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up, we know the
+      cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever side an
+      unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is the effect of
+      chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our knowledge or
+      ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side of an unloaded
+      die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of betting on it,
+      immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then every pursuit of
+      human industry is immoral, for there is not a single one that is not
+      subject to chance; not one wherein you do not risk a loss for the chance
+      of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks his ship in the hope (if
+      she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an advantageous freight. The
+      merchant risks his cargo to gain a better price for it. A landholder
+      builds a house on the risk of indemnifying himself by a rent. The hunter
+      hazards his time and trouble in the hope of killing game. In all these
+      pursuits, you stake some one thing against another which you hope to win.
+      But the greatest of all gamblers is the farmer. He risks the seed he puts
+      into the ground, the rent he pays for the ground itself, the year&rsquo;s labor
+      on it, and the wear and tear of his cattle and gear, to win a crop, which
+      the chances of too much or too little rain, and general uncertainties of
+      weather, insects, waste, &amp;c. often make a total or partial loss.
+      These, then, are games of chance. Yet so far from being immoral, they are
+      indispensable to the existence of man, and every one has a natural right
+      to choose for his pursuit such one of them as he thinks most likely to
+      furnish him subsistence. Almost all these pursuits of chance produce
+      something useful to society. But there are some which produce nothing, and
+      endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them, or of others
+      depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, &amp;c. And
+      although the pursuit of them is a matter of natural right, yet society,
+      perceiving the irresistible bent of some of its members to pursue them,
+      and the ruin produced by them to the families depending on these
+      individuals, consider it as a case of insanity, <i>quoad hoc</i>, step in
+      to protect the family and the party himself, as in other cases of
+      insanity, infancy, imbecility, &amp;c, and suppress the pursuit
+      altogether, and the natural right of following it. There are some other
+      games of chance, useful on certain occasions, and injurious only when
+      carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are insurances, lotteries,
+      raffles, &amp;tc. These they do not suppress, but take their regulation
+      under their own discretion. The insurance of ships on voyages is a
+      vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to exercise it therefore is
+      left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful debts, the continuance of a
+      particular life, and similar cases. Money is wanting for an useful
+      undertaking, as a school, &amp;c. for which a direct tax would be
+      disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein the tax is laid
+      on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the price of a
+      ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility of a higher prize. An
+      article of property, insusceptible of division at all, or not without
+      great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so large value as that no
+      purchaser can be found, while the owner owes debts, has no other means of
+      payment, and his creditors no other chance of obtaining it, but by its
+      sale at a full and fair price. The lottery is here a salutary instrument
+      for disposing of it, where many run small risks for the chance of
+      obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great estate of the late Colonel
+      Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his debts, which, had the whole
+      been brought into the market at once, would have overdone the demand,
+      would have sold at half or quarter the value, and sacrificed the
+      creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have lost their debts. This
+      method of selling was formerly very much resorted to, until it was thought
+      to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The legislature Were therefore
+      induced, not to suppress it altogether, but to take it under their own
+      special regulation. This they did, for the first time, by their act of
+      1769, c.17., before which time, every person exercised the right freely;
+      and since which time, it is made unlawful but when approved and authorized
+      by a special act of the legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised only
+      under the discretion of the legislature. Let us examine the purposes for
+      which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond the date of our
+      independence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1813. c. 1. § 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and
+      c. 2. § 10.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1814. Dec. c. 1. § 3. 1814. Feb. c. 1. § 3. 1818. c. 1. § 1. 1819. c. 1.
+      1820. c. 1.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This then is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral, of
+      which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the regular
+      means of supporting the government: the tax on the vender of tickets was
+      their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent, his could not
+      be criminal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. It has been abundantly permitted, to raise money by lottery for the
+      purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery has
+      been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
+      fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied. So
+      that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
+      received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only, in the form of prizes,
+      the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their own
+      consent. Examples are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise £2000 for a
+      grammar school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, £1000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, £500. c. 74. For the Fredericksburg
+      Academy, £4000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For the Transylvania Seminary, £500. For the Southampton
+      Academy, £300.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. c» 50. For finishing
+      the Strasburg Seminary. c. 58. For William and Mary College. c. 62. For
+      the Bannister Academy.c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. c. 82. For the
+      Petersburg Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. c. 76. For the Stevensburg
+      Academy. c.100. For William and Mary College.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for $30,000
+      annually, for seven years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000. Norfolk Female Society, $2000.
+      Lancastrian School, $6000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth, £400.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 42. For a toll-bridge over Cheat River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. For roads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, £200. For cutting a road from
+      Rockfish gap to Scott&rsquo;s and Nicholas&rsquo;s landing, £400. 1796. c. 85. To
+      repair certain roads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger&rsquo;s and Ashby&rsquo;s gaps. c. 61. For
+      opening a road to Brock&rsquo;s gap. c. 65. For opening a road from the town of
+      Monroe to Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 71. For improving the road to Brock&rsquo;s gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg. c. 26. For opening a
+      road from Monongalia Glades to Fishing Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton&rsquo;s gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah. c. 84. To
+      authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not limited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, £1500.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. do. do. £5000. 1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries
+      authorized., c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 12. Woodstock, a lottery authorized c. 48. Fredericksburg, for
+      improving its main street. c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1785. c.lll. Completing a church in Winchester. For rebuilding a church in
+      the parish of Elizabeth River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, £200. in Halifax, £200.
+      in Alexandria, £500. in Petersburg, £750. in Shepherdstown, £250.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. Lotteries for private societies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, £1000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason&rsquo;s hall in Charlotte, £750.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money for
+      them.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd&rsquo;s lottery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. To erect a paper-mill in Staunton, £300. To raise £2000 for
+      Nathaniel Twining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 13. To raise £4000 for William Tatham, to enable him to complete
+      his geographical work. To enable&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-to complete a
+      literary work.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been able
+      to find it again. But there is such an one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
+      influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
+      admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account, man
+      could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural right
+      to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
+      subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
+      productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
+      life, others again, such as cards, dice, &amp;ic, are entirely
+      unproductive, doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so
+      seducing in practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they
+      cannot resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in
+      this case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &amp;c, it is the
+      duty of society to take them under its protection, even against their own
+      acts, and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by
+      suppressing them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries
+      particularly, which, although liable to chance also, are useful for many
+      purposes, and are therefore retained and placed under the discretion of
+      the legislature, to be permitted or refused according to the circumstances
+      of every special case, of which they are to judge: that between the years
+      1782 and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed
+      seventy case&rsquo;s, where the permission of them has been found useful by the
+      legislature, some of which are in progress at this time. These cases
+      relate to the emolument of the whole State, to local benefits of
+      education, of navigation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious
+      assemblies, private societies, and of individuals under particular
+      circumstances which may claim indulgence or favor. The latter is the case
+      now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether the
+      individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may merit that
+      degree of consideration, which will justify the legislature in permitting
+      him to avail himself of the mode of selling by lottery, for the purpose of
+      paying his debts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and in
+      the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known. Lands
+      in this State will not now sell for more than a third or fourth of what
+      they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time of the
+      contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold. The low price
+      in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of agricultural produce,
+      of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and the accumulation of
+      duties on the articles of consumption not produced within our State, not
+      only disable the farmer or planter from adding to his farm by purchase,
+      but reduce him to sell his own, and remove to the western country,
+      glutting the market he leave&rsquo;s, while he lessens the number of bidders. To
+      be protected against this sacrifice is the object of the present
+      application, and whether the applicant has any particular claim to this
+      protection, is the present question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
+      may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
+      have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
+      of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election
+      following I became one of its representatives in the legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was thence sent to the old Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then employed two years, with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the revisal
+      and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British statutes,
+      the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then elected Governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next to the legislature, and to Congress again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elected Vice President, and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I
+      have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far
+      greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every
+      one knows how inevitably a Virginia estate, goes to ruin, when the owner
+      is so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and the
+      more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character to
+      abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary to
+      good, and even to saving management.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
+      rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
+      legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from the
+      Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant&rsquo;s
+      Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
+      most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion of
+      my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal principles
+      and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations
+      and violations of the constitution at that period, and their majority in
+      both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that
+      after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the
+      least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be
+      best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into
+      their respective legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be
+      formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch.
+      All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of
+      Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as
+      Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the
+      brow-beatings and insults by which they endeavored to drive us off also,
+      we kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the
+      legislatures could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is
+      more certain, than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of
+      Vice-President at the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn
+      from my post, the republicans throughout the Union would have given up in
+      despair, and the cause would have been lost for ever. By holding on, we
+      obtained time for the legislatures to come up with their weight; and those
+      of Virginia and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by
+      their celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution, at its last gasp. No
+      person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form
+      any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to
+      brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people were so
+      much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture, and other
+      stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy and
+      monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality
+      and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws in the first
+      crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find that the
+      leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by myself, and
+      carried chiefly by my efforts; supported, indeed, by able and faithful
+      coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as seconds, but who
+      would not have taken the field as leaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prohibition of the further importation of slaves, was the first of
+      these measures in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
+      hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
+      masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
+      into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
+      the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish the
+      principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
+      inheritance to sons and daughters which made a part of the revised code.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made by
+      myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for
+      one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and
+      so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill for
+      establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised code
+      also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts
+      chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was
+      brought forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of our
+      University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time, as I
+      do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
+      Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me the
+      chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of the
+      general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this institution
+      on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet be
+      seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated youths, which it will
+      turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with men of
+      superior qualifications, and raise it from its humble state to an eminence
+      among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not in its
+      brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its youth to an
+      order of science unequalled in any other State; and this superiority will
+      be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged there, and the
+      restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering
+      hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits. Those now on the
+      theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable happiness of seeing themselves
+      succeeded by sons of a grade of science beyond their own ken. Our sister
+      States will also be repairing to the same fountains of instruction, will
+      bring hither their genius to be kindled at our fire, and will carry back
+      the fraternal affections which, nourished by the same alma mater, will
+      knit us to them by the indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships.
+      The good Old Dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her
+      head with pride among the nations, will present to them that splendor of
+      genius which she has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest
+      uncultivated and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the
+      States whose youths she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
+      whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
+      pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And
+      what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask
+      nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow-citizens. I wish no man&rsquo;s
+      comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the services
+      rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
+      satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed on.
+      My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely to pay
+      my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not to have it
+      gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves, leaving unpaid
+      those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself without resource in
+      the last and most helpless stage of life. If permitted to sell it in a way
+      which will bring me a fair price, all will be honestly and honorably paid,
+      and a competence left for myself, and for those who look to me for
+      subsistence. To sell it in a way which will offend no moral principle, and
+      expose none to risk but the willing, and those wishing to be permitted to
+      take the chance of gain. To give me, in short, that permission which you
+      often allow to others for purposes not more moral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
+      precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent bring
+      their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case, devoted
+      three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to the service
+      of their country? Have the times of those services been as trying as those
+      which have embraced our Revolution, our transition from a colonial to a
+      free structure of government? Have the stations of their trial been of
+      equal importance? Has the share they have borne in holding their new
+      government to its genuine principles, been equally marked? And has the
+      cause of the distress, against which they seek a remedy, proceeded, not
+      merely from themselves, but from errors of the public authorities,
+      disordering the circulating medium, over which they had no control, and
+      which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by reducing, in that
+      proportion, the value of the property which was to pay them? If all these
+      circumstances, which characterize the present case, have taken place in
+      theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured, the cases will be so
+      rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to settle into an injurious
+      habit. The single feature of a sixty years&rsquo; service, as no other instance
+      of it has yet occurred in our country, so it probably never may again. And
+      should it occur, even once and again, it will not impoverish your
+      treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and asks but a simple permission,
+      by an act of natural right, to do one of moral justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the &lsquo;Thoughts on Lotteries,&rsquo; the following paper is referred to. It is
+      here copied to spare the trouble of seeking for the-book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Farewell Address To Th: Jefferson, President Of The United States</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir, The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their session,
+      without acknowledging your services in the office which you are just about
+      to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on the
+      purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
+      patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
+      officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that &lsquo;a national debt is a
+      national blessing,&rsquo; renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of our
+      debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions of acres
+      of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or calamities
+      of conquest, a vast and, fertile region added to our country, far more
+      extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with it the
+      Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the Pacific
+      Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source of
+      permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
+      administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand, and
+      teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our peace
+      with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
+      difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate
+      aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
+      them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that we
+      have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing them
+      into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the historic
+      genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the press,
+      preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to man in
+      vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
+      only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
+      which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
+      first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
+      until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
+      uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment to
+      liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her rights,
+      her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
+      deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
+      rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
+      country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
+      veneration of your countrymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
+      useful; that our youth may see, in the blissful close of your days, an
+      additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and
+      earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General Assembly of
+      Virginia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0193" id="link2H_4_0193">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCII.&mdash;TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, March 30, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 30, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of which you
+      have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my recollections as
+      to the particular passage of the message to which you ask my attention. On
+      the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of their right to assume
+      independence, would not condescend to ask its acknowledgment from other
+      nations, yet were willing, by some of the ordinary international
+      transactions, to receive what would imply that acknowledgment. They
+      appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose treaties of commerce to the
+      principal nations of Europe. I was then a member of Congress, was of the
+      committee appointed to prepare instructions for the commissioners, was, as
+      you suppose, the draughtsman of those actually agreed to, and was joined
+      with your father and Doctor Franklin to carry them into execution. But the
+      stipulations making part of these instructions, which respected
+      privateering, blockades, contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were
+      not original conceptions of mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor
+      Franklin, in some of his papers in possession of the public, and had I
+      think, been recommended in some letter of his to Congress I happen only to
+      have been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the
+      formal sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our
+      treaties, containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of
+      Europe. But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the
+      nations had as yet known nothing of us and had not yet reflected on the
+      relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of
+      them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve;
+      old Frederic alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of
+      Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did not
+      ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible,
+      however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers, we
+      thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those of
+      less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing any
+      other negotiation. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty with us,
+      and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce with her being
+      no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these governments been
+      then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy among nations, all,
+      I believe, would have met us promptly and with frankness. These principles
+      would then have been established with all, and from being the conventional
+      law with us alone, would have slid into their engagements with one
+      another, and become general. These are the facts within my recollection.
+      They have not yet got into written history; but their adoption by our
+      southern brethren will bring them into observance, and make them, what
+      they should be, a part of the law of the world and of the reformation of
+      principles for which they will be indebted to us. I pray you to accept the
+      homage of my friendly and high consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0194" id="link2H_4_0194">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCIII.&mdash;TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. WEIGHTMAN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 24, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respected Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of the
+      city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration on the
+      fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the surviving
+      signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world,
+      is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable
+      accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly
+      to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal
+      participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a duty,
+      under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to control. I
+      should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there
+      congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host
+      of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful
+      election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword;
+      and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our
+      fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity,
+      continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I
+      believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to
+      all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish
+      ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to
+      assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we
+      have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of
+      reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the
+      rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid
+      open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not
+      been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and
+      spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are
+      grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this
+      day for ever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an
+      undiminished devotion to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should
+      have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its
+      vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
+      intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
+      public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections, as
+      never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the
+      gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself, and
+      those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and friendly
+      attachments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0195" id="link2H_4_0195">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      ANA.&mdash;EXPLANATION OF THE THREE VOLUMES BOUND IN MARBLED PAPER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Explanation of the Three Volumes bound in Marbled Paper</i>.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In these three volumes will be found copies of the official opinions given
+      in writing by me to General Washington, while I was Secretary of State,
+      with sometimes the documents belonging to the case. Some of these are the
+      rough draughts, some press copies, some fair ones. In the earlier part of
+      my acting in that office, I took no other note of the passing
+      transactions; but after a while, I saw the importance of doing it in aid
+      of my memory. Very often, therefore, I made memorandums on loose scraps of
+      paper, taken out of my pocket in the moment, and laid by to be copied fair
+      at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were. These scraps,
+      therefore, ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they were, I had bound with
+      the others by a binder, who came into my cabinet, did it under my own eye,
+      and without the opportunity of reading a single paper. At this day, after
+      the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their dates, I have given to
+      the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of the time are passed away,
+      and the reasons of the transactions act alone on the judgment. Some of the
+      informations I had recorded, are now cut out from the rest, because I have
+      seen that they were incorrect, or doubtful, or merely personal or private,
+      with which we have nothing to do. I should perhaps have thought the rest
+      not worth preserving, but for their testimony against the only history of
+      that period, which pretends to have been compiled from authentic and
+      unpublished documents.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      [* These are the volumes containing the Ana to the time that the Author
+      retired from the office of Secretary of State. The official opinions and
+      documents referred to, being very voluminous, are for the most part
+      omitted, to make room for the conversations which the same volumes
+      comprise.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a short review of facts ***** will show, that the contests of that day
+      were contests of principle between the advocates of republican, and those
+      of kingly government, and that, had not the former made the efforts they
+      did, our government would have been even at this early day, a very
+      different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts have made
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation,
+      for the purpose of joint defence against the aggressions of Great Britain,
+      was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are, to enforce
+      compliance with their mutual stipulations; and these, once fulfilled, that
+      bond was to expire of itself, and each State to become sovereign and
+      independent in all things. Yet, it could not but occur to every one, that
+      these separate independencies, like the petty States of Greece, would be
+      eternally at war with each other, and would become at length the mere
+      partisans and satellites of the leading powers of Europe. All, then, must
+      have looked forward to some further bond of union, which would insure
+      internal peace, and a political system of our own, independent of that of
+      Europe. Whether all should be consolidated into a single government, or
+      each remain independent as to internal matters, and the whole form a
+      single nation as to what was foreign only, and whether that national
+      government should be a monarchy or republic, would of course divide
+      opinions, according to the constitutions, the habits, and the
+      circumstances of each individual. Some officers of the army, as it has
+      always been said and believed, (and Steuben and Knox have ever been named
+      as the leading agents,) trained to monarchy by military habits, are
+      understood to have proposed to General Washington, to decide this great
+      question by the army before its disbandment, and to assume himself the
+      crown, on the assurance of their support. The indignity with which he is
+      said to have scouted this parricide proposition, was equally worthy of his
+      virtue and wisdom. The next effort was, (on suggestion of the same
+      individuals, in the moment of their separation,) the establishment of an
+      hereditary order, under the name of the Cincinnati, ready prepared by that
+      distinction to be engrafted into the future frame of government, and
+      placing General Washington still at their head. The General wrote to me on
+      this subject, while I was in Congress at Annapolis, and an extract from my
+      letter is inserted in 5th Marshall&rsquo;s History, page 28. He afterwards
+      called on me at that place, on his way to a meeting of the society, and
+      after a whole evening of consultation, he left that place fully determined
+      to use all his endeavors for its total suppression. But he found it so
+      firmly riveted in the affections of the members, that, strengthened as
+      they happened to be by an adventitious occurrence of the moment, he could
+      effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary principle. He called
+      again on his return, and explained to me fully the opposition which had
+      been made, the effect of the occurrence from France, and the difficulty
+      with which its duration had been limited to the lives of the present
+      members. Further details will be found among my papers, in his and my
+      letters, and some in the <i>Encyclopédic Méthodique et Dictionnaire
+      d&rsquo;Economic Politique</i>, communicated by myself to M. Meusnier, its
+      author, who had made the establishment of this society the ground, in that
+      work, of a libel on our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The want of some authority which should procure justice to the public
+      creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced,
+      some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis.
+      Although, at this meeting, a difference of opinion was evident on the
+      question of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general through the
+      States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends of the
+      latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and delay, to
+      every thing proposed; they hoped, that nothing being done, and all things
+      going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be usurped, and
+      submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy and wars, internal and
+      external, the certain consequences of the present want of a general
+      government. The effect of their manoeuvres, with the defective attendance
+      of Deputies from the States, resulted in the measure of calling a more
+      general convention, to be held at Philadelphia. At this the same party
+      exhibited the same practices, and with the same views of preventing a
+      government of concord, which they foresaw would be republican, and of
+      forcing: through anarchy their way to monarchy. But the mass of that
+      convention was too honest, too wise, and too steady, to be baffled and
+      misled by their manoeuvres. One of these was a form of government proposed
+      by Colonel Hamilton, which would have been in fact a compromise between
+      the two parties of royalism and republicanism. According to this, the
+      executive and one branch of the legislature were to be during good
+      behavior, i.e. for life, and the governors of the States were to be named
+      by these two permanent organs. This, however, was rejected; on which
+      Hamilton left the convention, as desperate, and never returned again until
+      near its final conclusion. These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed,
+      of the advocates for monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the
+      States generally; and this jealousy it was, which excited the strong
+      opposition to the conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at
+      last only to a general determination to establish certain amendments, as
+      barriers against a government either monarchical or consolidated. In what
+      passed through the whole period of these conventions, I have gone on the
+      information of those who were members of them, being absent myself on my
+      mission to France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned from that mission in the first year of the new government,
+      having landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to New York in
+      March, 1790, to enter on the office of Secretary of State. Here,
+      certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had ever
+      contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the first year of
+      her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for reformation.
+      My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be heightened, but it
+      had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The President received me
+      cordially, and my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens,
+      apparently with welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a
+      stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at once in their familiar
+      society. But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the
+      table conversations filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a
+      preference of kingly over republican government, was evidently the
+      favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I
+      found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the republican side
+      of the question, unless among the guests there chanced to be some member
+      of that party from the legislative Houses. Hamilton&rsquo;s financial system had
+      then passed. It had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular
+      understanding and inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the
+      legislature: for he avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one
+      of two motives only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this
+      country, was out of the question, and the interests, therefore, of the
+      members must be laid hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the
+      executive. And with grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his
+      machine was not without effect; that even in this, the birth of our
+      government, some members were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to
+      their interests, and to look after personal rather than public good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
+      encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
+      fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
+      necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
+      paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
+      individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
+      States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
+      them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of their
+      value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the holders,
+      by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they would never be
+      paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton made no
+      difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent purchasers of
+      this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting these two classes
+      of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions were used to pay the
+      former the full value, and to the latter, the price only which they had
+      paid, with interest. But this would have prevented the game which was to
+      be played, and for which the minds of greedy members were already tutored
+      and prepared. When the trial of strength, on these several efforts, had
+      indicated the form in which the bill would finally pass, this being known
+      within doors sooner than without, and especially, than to those who were
+      in distant parts of the Union, the base scramble began. Couriers and
+      relay-horses by land, and swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in
+      all directions. Active partners and agents were associated and employed in
+      every State, town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up
+      at five shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before
+      the holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
+      par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
+      fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough before.
+      Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of course the
+      chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous instruments
+      of all his enterprises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This game was over, and another was on the carpet at the moment of my
+      arrival; and to this I was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold the
+      candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known by the name of the Assumption.
+      Independently of the debts of Congress, the States had, during the war,
+      contracted separate and heavy debts; and Massachusetts particularly, in an
+      absurd attempt, absurdly conducted, on the British post of Penobscot: and
+      the more debt Hamilton could rake up, the more plunder for his
+      mercenaries. This money, whether wisely or foolishly spent, was pretended
+      to have been spent for general purposes, and ought, therefore, to be paid
+      from the general purse. But it was objected, that nobody knew what these
+      debts were, what their amount, or what their proofs. No matter; we will
+      guess them to be twenty millions. But of these twenty millions, we do not
+      know how much should be reimbursed to one State, or how much to another.
+      No matter; we will guess. And so another scramble was set on foot among
+      the several States, and some got much, some little, some nothing. But the
+      main object was obtained, the phalanx of the Treasury was reinforced by
+      additional recruits. This measure produced the most bitter and angry
+      contests ever known in Congress, before or since the Union of the States.
+      I arrived in the midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to
+      the actors on it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity with the
+      subject, and as yet unaware of its object, I took no concern in it. The
+      great and trying question, however, was lost in the House of
+      Representatives. So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on
+      its rejection business was suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day
+      to day without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of temper
+      to do business together. The eastern members particularly, who, with Smith
+      from South Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes,
+      threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I was
+      going to the President&rsquo;s one day, I met him in the street. He walked me
+      backwards and forwards before the President&rsquo;s door for half an hour. He
+      painted pathetically the temper into which the legislature had been
+      wrought; the disgust of those who were called the creditor States; the
+      danger of the secession of their members, and the separation of the
+      States. He observed that the members of the administration ought to act in
+      concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet a common
+      duty should make it a common concern; that the President was the centre on
+      which all administrative questions ultimately rested, and that all of us
+      should rally around him, and support, with joint efforts, measures
+      approved by him; and that the question having been lost by a small
+      majority only, it was probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and
+      discretion of some of my friends, might effect a change in the vote, and
+      the machine of government, now suspended, might be again set into motion.
+      I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole subject; that not
+      having yet informed myself of the system of finance adopted, I knew not
+      how far this was a necessary sequence; that undoubtedly, if its rejection
+      endangered a dissolution of our Union at this incipient stage, I should
+      deem that the most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert which all
+      partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I proposed to him, however,
+      to dine with me the next day, and I would invite another friend or two,
+      bring them into conference together, and I thought it impossible that
+      reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some mutual
+      sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to save the Union.
+      The discussion took place. I could take no part in it but an exhortatory
+      one, because I was a stranger to the circumstances which should govern it.
+      But it was finally agreed, that whatever importance had been attached to
+      the rejection of this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of
+      concord among the States was more important, and that therefore it would
+      be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which,
+      some members should change their votes. But it was observed that this pill
+      would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some
+      concomitant measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them.
+      There had before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
+      Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought that by
+      giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently
+      afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree the ferment
+      which might be excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac
+      members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach almost
+      convulsive,) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton undertook to carry
+      the other point. In doing this, the influence he had established over the
+      eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris with those of the middle
+      States, effected his side of the engagement; and so the Assumption was
+      passed, and twenty millions of stock divided among favored States, and
+      thrown in as a pabulum to the stock-jobbing herd. This added to the number
+      of votaries to the Treasury, and made its chief the master of every vote
+      in the legislature, which might give to the government the direction
+      suited to his political views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing like a majority in
+      Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a division, not
+      very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part of that body,
+      between the parties styled republican and federal. The latter being
+      monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton of course, as their leader
+      in that principle, and this mercenary phalanx added to them, insured him
+      always a majority in both Houses: so that the whole action of the
+      legislature was now under the direction of the Treasury. Still the machine
+      was not complete. The effect of the funding system, and of the Assumption,
+      would be temporary; it would be lost with the loss of the individual
+      members whom it had enriched, and some engine of influence more permanent
+      must be contrived, while these myrmidons were yet in place to carry it
+      through all opposition. This engine was the Bank of the United States. All
+      that history is known, so I shall say nothing about it. While the
+      government remained at Philadelphia, a selection of members of both Houses
+      were constantly kept as directors, who, on every question interesting to
+      that institution, or to the views of the federal head, voted at the will
+      of that head; and, together with the stock-holding members, could always
+      make the federal vote that of the majority. By this combination,
+      legislative expositions were given to the constitution, and all the
+      administrative laws were shaped on the model of England and so passed. And
+      from this influence we were not relieved, until the removal from the
+      precincts of the bank, to Washington. Here then was the real ground of the
+      opposition which was made to the course of administration. Its object was
+      to preserve the legislature pure and independent of the executive, to
+      restrain, the administration to republican forms and principles, and not
+      permit the constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be warped,
+      in practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their favorite
+      English model. Nor was this an opposition to General Washington. He was
+      true to the republican charge confided to him; and has solemnly and
+      repeatedly protested to me, in our conversations, that he would lose the
+      last drop of his blood in support of it; and he did this the oftener and
+      with the more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions of Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      designs against it, and wished to quiet them. For he was not aware of the
+      drift, or of the effect of Hamilton&rsquo;s schemes. Unversed in financial
+      projects and calculations and budgets, his approbation of them was
+      bottomed on his confidence in the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
+      corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, for the truth of
+      which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on his
+      southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth of that
+      month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and War,
+      desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise during his
+      absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested that the
+      Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only occasion on
+      which that officer was ever requested to take part in a cabinet question.
+      Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited those gentlemen (and the
+      Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to dine with me, in order to
+      confer on the subject. After the cloth was removed, and our question
+      agreed and dismissed, conversation began on other matters, and, by some
+      circumstance, was led to the British constitution, on which Mr. Adams
+      observed, &lsquo;Purge that constitution of its corruption, and give to its
+      popular branch equality of representation, and it would be the most
+      perfect constitution ever devised by the wit of man.&rsquo; Hamilton paused and
+      said, &lsquo;Purge it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality
+      of representation, and it would become an impracticable government: as it
+      stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect
+      government which ever existed.&rsquo; And this was assuredly the exact line
+      which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
+      for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one: the other, for an
+      hereditary King, with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted to his will,
+      and standing between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a singular
+      character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in
+      all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in
+      private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the British example, as to
+      be under thorough conviction that corruption was essential to the
+      government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally been a republican. The
+      glare of royalty and nobility, during his mission to England, had made him
+      believe their fascination a necessary ingredient in government; and
+      Shays&rsquo;s rebellion, not sufficiently understood where he then was, seemed
+      to prove that the absence of want and oppression, was not a sufficient
+      guarantee of order. His book on the American Constitutions having made
+      known his political bias, he was taken up by the monarchical federalists
+      in his absence, and, on his return to the United States, he was by them
+      made to believe that the general disposition of our citizens was favorable
+      to monarchy. He here wrote his Davila, as a supplement to the former work,
+      and his election to the Presidency confirmed him in his errors.
+      Innumerable addresses too, artfully and industriously poured in upon him,
+      deceived him into a confidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity,
+      when the gulph was yawning at his feet, which was to swallow up him and
+      his deceivers. For when General Washington was withdrawn, these <i>energumeni</i>
+      of royalism, kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his
+      firmness, his patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on
+      the car of State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun,
+      drove headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding
+      any thing but the objects they were driving at; until, displaying these
+      fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disbandment of
+      them from the public councils took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the treacheries
+      with which he was surrounded during his administration. He has since
+      thoroughly seen, that his constituents were devoted to republican
+      government, and whether his judgment is resettled on its ancient basis, or
+      not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the will of the majority, and
+      would now, I am persuaded, maintain its republican structure with the zeal
+      and fidelity belonging to his character. For even an enemy has said, &lsquo;He
+      is always an honest man, and often a great one.&rsquo; But in the fervor of the
+      fury and follies of those who made him their stalking-horse, no man who
+      did not witness it can form an idea of their unbridled madness, and the
+      terrorism with which they surrounded themselves. The horrors of the French
+      revolution, then raging, aided them mainly, and using that as a raw-head
+      and bloody-bones, they were enabled by their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in
+      which &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; was a leading mountebank, their tales of
+      tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody-buoys, and pulpit-lyings and
+      slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardiners, their Osgoods, and
+      Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the firmest breasts. Their Attorney
+      General had the impudence to say to a republican member, that deportation
+      must be resorted to, of which, said he, &lsquo;you republicans have set the
+      example&rsquo;; thus daring to identify us with the murderous Jacobins of
+      France. These transactions, now recollected but as dreams of the night,
+      were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us from their liberticide
+      effect, but the unyielding opposition of those firm spirits who sternly
+      maintained their post in defiance of terror, until their fellow-citizens
+      could be aroused to their own danger, and rally and rescue the standard of
+      the constitution. This has been happily done. Federalism and monarchism
+      have languished from that moment, until their treasonable combinations
+      with the enemies of their country during the late war, their plots of
+      dismembering the Union, and their Hartford Convention, have consigned them
+      to the tomb of the dead: and I fondly hope, &lsquo;we may now truly say, We are
+      all republicans, all federalists,&rsquo; and that the motto of the standard to
+      which our country will for ever rally, will be, &lsquo;Federal union, and
+      republican government&rsquo;: and sure I am we may say, that we are indebted for
+      the preservation of this point of ralliance, to that opposition of which
+      so injurious an idea is so artfully insinuated and excited in this
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate proofs
+      of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they end, of my
+      retiring from the administration, the federalists * got unchecked hold of
+      General Washington. His memory was already sensibly impaired by age, the
+      firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable, was beginning to
+      relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor, a desire for
+      tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let others act, and
+      even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he was disgusted with
+      atrocities of the French revolution, and was not sufficiently aware of the
+      difference between the rabble who were used as instruments of their
+      perpetration, and the steady and rational character of the American
+      people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The opposition too of
+      the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous support of the
+      federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of theirs, had made him
+      all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I disapproved of that treaty,
+      and copiously nourished with falsehoods by a malignant neighbor of mine,
+      who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he had become alienated from
+      myself personally, as from the republican body generally of his
+      fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams and Mr. Carroll,
+      over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we must for ever weep as
+      monuments of mortal decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ****
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander Hamilton
+      and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter received
+      from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
+      entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive, or
+      introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &amp;c. See his letter.
+      Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams&rsquo;s writings, and most particularly
+      Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present government, declared in
+      substance as follows: &lsquo;I own it is my own opinion, though I do not publish
+      it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which will
+      answer the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its
+      rights, and that it will probably be found expedient to go into the
+      British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for
+      giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success,
+      indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore, at present,
+      success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are
+      still other and other stages of improvement, which, if the present does
+      not succeed, may be tried, and ought to be tried, before we give up the
+      republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved, which
+      would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation
+      of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order.
+      Therefore, whoever by his writings disturbs the present order of things,
+      is really blameable, however pure his intentions may be, and he was sure
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s were pure.&rsquo; This is the substance of a declaration made in
+      much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for
+      a private conversation between two, and as if intended to qualify some
+      less guarded expressions which had been dropped on former occasions. Th:
+      Jefferson has committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      leaving the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 25th, 1791. Colonel Gunn (of Georgia), dining the other day
+      with Colonel Hamilton, said to him, with that plain freedom he is known to
+      use, &lsquo;I wish, Sir, you would advise your friend King to observe some kind
+      of consistency in his votes. There has been scarcely a question before the
+      Senate on which he has not voted both ways. On the representation bill,
+      for instance, he first voted for the proposition of the Representatives,
+      and ultimately voted against it.&rsquo; &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; says Colonel Hamilton, &lsquo;I &lsquo;ll
+      tell you as to that, Colonel Gunn, that it never was intended that bill
+      should pass.&rsquo; Gunn told this to Butler, who told it to Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 28th, 1792. I was to have been with him long enough before
+      three o&rsquo;clock (which was the hour and day he received visits) to have
+      opened to him a proposition for doubling the velocity of the post-riders,
+      who now travel about fifty miles a day, and might, without difficulty, go
+      one hundred, and for taking measures (by way-bills) to know where the
+      delay is, when there is any. I was delayed by business, so as to have
+      scarcely time to give him the outlines. I run over them rapidly, and
+      observed afterwards, that I had hitherto never spoken to him on the
+      subject of the post-office, not knowing whether it was considered as a
+      revenue law, or a law for the general accommodation of the citizens: that
+      the law just passed seemed to have removed the doubt, by declaring that
+      the whole profits of the office should be applied to extending the posts,
+      and that even the past profits should be refunded by the Treasury for the
+      same purpose: that I therefore conceived it was now in the department of
+      the Secretary of State: that I thought it would be advantageous so to
+      declare it for another reason, to wit, that the department of the Treasury
+      possessed already such an influence as to swallow up the whole executive
+      powers, and that even the future Presidents (not supported by the weight
+      of character which himself possessed) would not be able to make head
+      against this department. That in urging this measure I had certainly no
+      personal interest, since, if I was supposed to have any appetite for
+      power, yet, as my career would certainly be exactly as short as his own,
+      the intervening time was too short to be an object. My real wish was to
+      avail the public of every occasion, during the residue of the President&rsquo;s
+      period, to place things on a safe footing. He was now called on to attend
+      his company, and he desired me to come and breakfast with him the next
+      morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 29th. I did so; and after breakfast we retired to his room,
+      and I unfolded my plan for the post-office, and after such an approbation
+      of it as he usually permitted himself on the first presentment of any
+      idea, and desiring me to commit it to writing, he, during that pause of
+      conversation which follows a business closed, said, in an affectionate
+      tone, that he had felt much concern at an expression which dropped from me
+      yesterday, and which marked my intention of retiring when he should. That
+      as to himself, many motives obliged him to it. He had, through the whole
+      course of the war, and most particularly at the close of it, uniformly
+      declared his resolution to retire from public affairs, and never to act in
+      any public office; that he had retired under that firm resolution: that
+      the government however, which had been formed, being found evidently too
+      inefficacious, and it being supposed that his aid was of some consequence
+      towards bringing the people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for
+      their own good, he consented to come into the convention, and on the same
+      motive, after much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get
+      it under way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say,
+      that having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them:
+      that he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his
+      memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of his
+      mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself; that
+      this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found, moreover, his
+      activity lessened, business therefore more irksome, and tranquillity and
+      retirement become an irresistible passion. That, however he felt himself
+      obliged, for these reasons, to retire from the government, yet he should
+      consider it as unfortunate, if that should bring on the retirement of the
+      great officers of the government, and that this might produce a shock on
+      the public mind of dangerous consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him that no man had ever had less desire of entering into public
+      offices than myself; that the circumstance of a perilous war, which
+      brought every thing into danger, and called for all the services which
+      every citizen could render, had induced me to undertake the administration
+      of the government of Virginia; that I had both before and after refused
+      repeated appointments of Congress to go abroad in that sort of office,
+      which, if I had consulted my own gratification, would always have been the
+      most agreeable to me; that at the end of two years, I resigned the
+      government of Virginia, and retired with a firm resolution never more to
+      appear in public life; that a domestic loss, however, happened, and made
+      me fancy that absence and a change of scene for a time might be expedient
+      for me; that I therefore accepted a foreign appointment, limited to two
+      years; that at the close of that, Doctor Franklin having left France, I
+      was appointed to supply his place, which I had accepted, and though I
+      continued in it three or four years, it was under the constant idea of
+      remaining only a year or two longer; that the revolution in France coming
+      on, I had so interested myself in the event of that, that when obliged to
+      bring my family home, I had still an idea of returning and awaiting the
+      close of that, to fix the era of my final retirement; that on my arrival
+      here I found he had appointed me to my present office; that he knew I had
+      not come into it without some reluctance; that it was, on my part, a
+      sacrifice of inclination to the opinion that I might be more serviceable
+      here than in France, and with a firm resolution in my mind, to indulge my
+      constant wish for retirement at no very distant day; that when, therefore,
+      I had received his letter, written from Mount Vernon, on his way to
+      Carolina and Georgia (April the 1st, 1791), and discovered, from an
+      expression in that, that he meant to retire from the government ere long,
+      and as to the precise epoch there could be no doubt, my mind was
+      immediately made up, to make that the epoch of my own retirement from
+      those labors of which I was heartily tired. That, however, I did not
+      believe there was any idea in either of my brethren in the administration
+      of retiring; that on the contrary, I had perceived at a late meeting of
+      the trustees of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury had
+      developed the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in
+      its view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, that he considered the Treasury department as a much more limited
+      one, going only to the single object of revenue, while that of the
+      Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the objects of administration,
+      was much more important, and the retirement of the officer therefore,
+      would be more noticed: that though the government had set out with a
+      pretty general good will of the public, yet that symptoms of
+      dissatisfaction had lately shown themselves far beyond what he could have
+      expected, and to what height these might arise, in case of too great a
+      change in the administration, could not be foreseen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him that in my opinion, there was only a single source of these
+      discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to spread themselves over the
+      War department also, yet I considered that as an overflowing only from
+      their real channel, which would never have taken place, if they had not
+      first been generated in another department, to wit, that of the Treasury.
+      That a system had there been contrived, for deluging the States with
+      paper-money instead of gold and silver, for withdrawing our citizens from
+      the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and other branches of
+      useful industry, to occupy themselves and their capitals in a species of
+      gambling, destructive of morality, and which had introduced its poison
+      into the government itself. That it was a fact, as certainly known as that
+      he and I were then conversing, that particular members of the legislature,
+      while those laws were on the carpet, had feathered their nests with paper,
+      had then voted for the laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of
+      their talents, and instrumentality of their offices, to the establishment
+      and enlargement of this system; that they had chained it about our necks
+      for a great length of time, and in order to keep the game in their hands,
+      had, from time to time, aided in making such legislative constructions of
+      the constitution, as made it a very different thing from what the people
+      thought they had submitted to; that they had now brought forward a
+      proposition far beyond every one ever yet advanced, and to which the eyes
+      of many were turned, as the decision which was to let us know, whether we
+      live under a limited or an unlimited government. He asked me to what
+      proposition I alluded; I answered, to that in the report on manufactures,
+      which, under color of giving bounties for the encouragement of particular
+      manufactures, meant to establish the doctrine, that the power given by the
+      constitution to collect taxes to provide for the general welfare of the
+      United States, permitted Congress to take every thing under their
+      management which they should deem for the public welfare, and which is
+      susceptible of the application of money; consequently, that the subsequent
+      enumeration of their powers was not the description to which resort must
+      be had, and did not at all constitute the limits of their authority: that
+      this was a very different question from that of the bank, which was
+      thought an incident to an enumerated power: that, therefore, this decision
+      was expected with great anxiety; that, indeed, I hoped the proposition
+      would be rejected, believing there was a majority in both Houses against
+      it, and that if it should be, it would be considered as a proof that
+      things were returning into their true channel: and that, at any rate, I
+      looked forward to the broad representation which would shortly take place,
+      for keeping the general constitution on its true ground; and that this
+      would remove a great deal of the discontent which had shown itself. The
+      conversation ended with this last topic. It is here stated nearly as much
+      at length as it really was; the expressions preserved where I could
+      recollect them, and their substance always faithfully stated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March 1, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 2nd of January, 1792, Messrs. Fitzsimmons and Gerry (among others)
+      dined with me. These two staid, with a Mr. Learned of Connecticut, after
+      the company was gone. We got on the subject of references by the
+      legislature to the Heads of departments, considering their mischief in
+      every direction. Gerry and Fitzsimmons clearly opposed to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days afterwards (January the 4th), Mr. Bourne from Rhode Island
+      presented a memorial from his State, complaining of inequality in the
+      Assumption, and moved to refer it to the Secretary of the Treasury.
+      Fitzsimmons, Gerry, and others opposed it; but it was carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 19th. Fitzsimmons moved, that the President of the United
+      States be requested to direct the Secretary of the Treasury, to lay before
+      the House information to enable the legislature to judge of the additional
+      revenue necessary on the increase of the military establishment. The
+      House, on debate, struck out the words, &lsquo;President of the United States.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 7th. The subject resumed. An animated debate took place on the
+      tendency of references to the Heads of departments; and it seemed that a
+      great majority would be against it: the House adjourned. Treasury greatly
+      alarmed, and much industry supposed to be used before next morning, when
+      it was brought on again, and debated through the day, and on the question,
+      the Treasury carried it by thirty-one to twenty-seven: but deeply wounded,
+      since it was seen that all Pennsylvania, except Jacobs, voted against the
+      reference; that Tucker of South Carolina voted for it, and Sumpter
+      absented himself, debauched for the moment only, because of the connection
+      of the question with a further assumption which South Carolina favored;
+      but showing that they never were to be counted on among the Treasury
+      votes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some others absented themselves. Gerry changed sides. On the whole, it
+      showed that Treasury influence was tottering. Committed to writing this
+      10th of March, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th, 1792. Consulted verbally by the President, on whom a
+      committee of the Senate (Izard, Morris, and King) are to wait to-morrow
+      morning, to know whether he will think it proper to redeem our Algerine
+      captives, and make a treaty with the Algerines, on the single vote of the
+      Senate, without taking that of the Representatives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My opinions run on the following heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must go to Algiers with cash in our hands. Where shall we get it? By
+      loan? By converting money now in the treasury?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably a loan might be obtained on the President&rsquo;s authority: but as
+      this could not be repaid without a subsequent act of legislature, the
+      Representatives might refuse it. So if money in the treasury be converted,
+      they may refuse to sanction it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subsequent approbation of the Senate being necessary to validate a
+      treaty, they expect to be consulted beforehand, if the case admits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the subsequent act of the Representatives being necessary where money
+      is given, why should not they expect to be consulted in like manner, when
+      the case admits? A treaty is a law of the land. But prudence will point
+      out this difference to be attended to in making them; viz. where a treaty
+      contains such articles only as will go into execution of themselves, or be
+      carried into execution by the judges, they may be safely made; but where
+      there are articles which require a law to be passed afterwards by the
+      legislature, great caution is requisite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For example; the consular convention with France required a very small
+      legislative regulation. This convention was unanimously ratified by the
+      Senate. Yet the same identical men threw by the law to enforce it at the
+      last session, and the Representatives at this session have placed it among
+      the laws which they may take up or not, at their own convenience, as if
+      that was a higher motive than the public faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore, against hazarding this transaction without the sanction of both
+      Houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President concurred. The Senate express the motive for this
+      proposition, to be a fear that the Representatives would not keep the
+      secret. He has no opinion of the secrecy of the Senate. In this very case,
+      Mr. Izard made the communication to him, sitting next to him at table, on
+      one hand, while a lady (Mrs. McLane) was on his other hand, and the French
+      minister next to her; and as Mr. Izard got on with his communication, his
+      voice kept rising, and his stutter bolting the words out loudly at
+      intervals, so that the minister might hear if he would. He said he had a
+      great mind at one time to have got up, in order to put a stop to Mr.
+      Izard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th, 1792. Mr. Sterret tells me that sitting round a fire the
+      other day with four or five others, Mr. Smith (of South Carolina) was one.
+      Somebody mentioned that the murderers of Hogeboom, sheriff of Columbia
+      county, New York, were acquitted. &lsquo;Ay,&rsquo; says Smith, &lsquo;this is what comes of
+      your damned trial by jury.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. Towards the latter end of November, Hamilton had drawn Ternant into
+      a conversation on the subject of the treaty of commerce recommended by the
+      National Assembly of France to be negotiated with us, and, as he had no
+      ready instructions on the subject, he led him into a proposal that Ternant
+      should take the thing up as a volunteer with me, that we should arrange
+      conditions, and let them go for confirmation or refusal. Hamilton
+      communicated this to the President, who came into it, and proposed it to
+      me. I disapproved of it, observing, that such a volunteer project would be
+      binding on us, and not them; that it would enable them to find out how far
+      we would go, and avail themselves of it. However, the President thought it
+      worth trying, and I acquiesced. I prepared a plan of treaty for exchanging
+      the privileges of native subjects, and fixing all duties for ever as they
+      now stood. Hamilton did not like this way of fixing the duties, because,
+      he said, many articles here would bear to be raised, and therefore, he
+      would prepare a tariff. He did so, raising duties for the French, from
+      twenty-five to fifty per cent. So they were to give us the privileges of
+      native subjects, and we, as a compensation, were to make them pay higher
+      duties. Hamilton, having made his arrangements with Hammond to pretend
+      that though he had no powers to conclude a treaty of commerce, yet his
+      general commission authorized him to enter into the discussion of one,
+      then proposed to the President at one of our meetings, that the business
+      should be taken up with Hammond in the same informal way. I now discovered
+      the trap which he had laid, by first getting the President into the step
+      with Ternant. I opposed the thing warmly. Hamilton observed, if we did it
+      with Ternant we should also with Hammond. The President thought this
+      reasonable. I desired him to recollect, I had been against it with
+      Ternant, and only acquiesced under his opinion. So the matter went off as
+      to both. His scheme evidently was, to get us engaged first with Ternant,
+      merely that he might have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with
+      Hammond, taking care, at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, to
+      render it impossible we should come to any conclusion with Ternant:
+      probably meaning, at the same time, to propose terms so favorable to Great
+      Britain, as would attach us to that country by treaty. On one of those
+      occasions he asserted, that our commerce with Great Britain and her
+      colonies was put on a much more favorable footing than with France and her
+      colonies. I therefore prepared the tabular comparative view of the
+      footing-of our commerce with those nations, which see among my papers. See
+      also my project of a treaty and Hamilton&rsquo;s tariff. Committed to writing
+      March the 11th, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was observable, that whenever, at any of our consultations, any thing
+      was proposed as to Great Britain, Hamilton had constantly ready something
+      which Mr. Hammond had communicated to him, which suited the subject and
+      proved the intimacy of their communications; insomuch, that I believe he
+      communicated to Hammond all our views, and knew from him, in return, the
+      views of the British court. Many evidences of this occurred; I will state
+      some. I delivered to the President my report of instructions for
+      Carmichael and Short, on the subject of navigation, boundary, and
+      commerce, and desired him to submit it to Hamilton. Hamilton made several
+      just criticisms on different parts of it. But where I asserted that the
+      United States had no right to alienate an inch of the territory of any
+      State, he attacked and denied the doctrine. See my report, his note, and
+      my answer. A few days after came to hand Kirkland&rsquo;s letter, informing us
+      that the British, at Niagara, expected to run a new line between
+      themselves and us; and the reports of Pond and Stedman, informing us it
+      was understood at Niagara, that Captain Stevenson had been sent here by
+      Simcoe to settle that plan with Hammond. Hence Hamilton&rsquo;s attack of the
+      principle I had laid down, in order to prepare the way for this new line.
+      See minute of March the 9th. Another proof. At one of our consultations,
+      about the last of December, I mentioned that I wished to give in my report
+      on commerce, in which I could not avoid recommending a commercial
+      retaliation against Great Britain. Hamilton opposed it violently: and
+      among other arguments, observed, that it was of more importance to us to
+      have the posts than to commence a commercial war; that this, and this
+      alone, would free us from the expense of the Indian wars; that it would
+      therefore be the height of imprudence in us, while treating for the
+      surrender of the posts, to engage in any thing which would irritate them;
+      that if we did so, they would naturally say, &lsquo;These people mean war; let
+      us therefore hold what we have in our hands.&rsquo; This argument, struck me
+      forcibly, and I said, &lsquo;If there is a hope of obtaining the posts, I agree
+      it would be imprudent to risk that hope by a commercial retaliation. I
+      will, therefore, wait till Mr. Hammond gives me in his assignment of
+      breaches, and if that gives a glimmering of hope that they mean to
+      surrender the posts, I will not give in my report till the next session.&rsquo;
+      Now, Hammond had received my assignment of breaches on the 15th of
+      December, and about the 22nd or 23rd had made me an apology for not having
+      been able to send me his counter-assignment of breaches; but in terms
+      which showed I might expect it in a few days. From the moment it escaped
+      my lips in the presence of Hamilton, that I would not give in my report
+      till I should see Hammond&rsquo;s counter-complaint, and judge if there was a
+      hope of the posts, Hammond never said a word to me on any occasion, as to
+      the time he should be ready. At length the President got out of patience,
+      and insisted I should jog him. This I did on the 21st of February, at the
+      President&rsquo;s assembly: he immediately promised I should have it in a few
+      days, and accordingly, on the 5th of March I received it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written March the 11th, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 12th, 1792. Sent for by the President, and desired to bring the
+      letter he had signed to the King of France. Went. He said the House of
+      Representatives had, on Saturday, taken up the communication he had made
+      of the King&rsquo;s letter to him, and come to a vote in their own name; that he
+      did not expect this when he sent this message and the letter, otherwise he
+      would have sent the message without the letter, as I had proposed. That he
+      apprehended the legislature would be endeavoring to invade the executive.
+      I told him, I had understood the House had resolved to request him to join
+      their congratulations to his on the completion and acceptance of the
+      constitution; on which part of the vote, there were only two dissentients
+      (Barnwell and Benson); that the vote was thirty-five to sixteen on the
+      part which expressed an approbation of the wisdom of the constitution;
+      that in the letter he had signed, I had avoided saying a word in
+      approbation of the constitution, not knowing whether the King, in his
+      heart, approved it. &lsquo;Why, indeed,&rsquo; says he,&rsquo; I begin to doubt very much of
+      the affairs of France; there are papers from London as late as the 10th of
+      January, which represent them as going into confusion. He read over the
+      letter he had signed, found there was not a word which could commit his
+      judgment about the constitution, and gave it to me back again. This is one
+      of many proofs I have had, of his want of confidence in the event of the
+      French revolution. The fact is, that Gouverneur Morris, a highflying
+      monarchy man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against his
+      wishes, and believing every thing he desires to be true, has kept the
+      President&rsquo;s mind constantly poisoned with his forebodings. That the
+      President wishes the revolution may be established, I believe from several
+      indications. I remember, when I received the news of the King&rsquo;s flight and
+      capture, I first told him of it at his assembly. I never saw him so much
+      dejected by any event in my life. He expressed clearly, on this occasion,
+      his disapprobation of the legislature referring things to the Heads of
+      departments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written March the 12th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die. Ten o&rsquo;clock, A. M. The preceding was about nine o&rsquo;clock. The
+      President now sends Lear to me, to ask what answer he shall give to the
+      committee, and particularly, whether he shall add to it, that, &lsquo;in making
+      the communication, it was not his expectation that the House should give
+      any answer.&rsquo; I told Mr. Lear, that I thought the House had a right,
+      independently of legislation, to express sentiments on other subjects.
+      That when these subjects did not belong to any other branch particularly,
+      they would publish them by their own authority; that in the present case,
+      which respected a foreign nation, the President being the organ of our
+      nation with other nations, the House would satisfy their duty, if, instead
+      of a direct communication, they should pass their sentiments through the
+      President: that if expressing a sentiment were really an invasion of the
+      executive power, it was so faint a one, that it would be difficult to
+      demonstrate it to the public, and to a public partial to the French
+      revolution, and not disposed to considered the approbation of it from any
+      quarter is improper. That the Senate, indeed, had given many indications
+      of their wish to invade the executive power: the Representatives had done
+      it in one case, which was indeed mischievous and alarming; that of giving
+      orders to the Heads of the executive departments, without consulting the
+      President; but that the late vote for directing the Secretary of the
+      Treasury to report ways and means, though carried, was carried by so small
+      a majority, and with the aid of members so notoriously under local
+      influence on that question, as to give a hope that the practice would be
+      arrested, and the constitutional course be taken up, of asking the
+      President to have information laid before them. But that in the present
+      instance, it was so far from being clearly an invasion of the executive,
+      and would be so little approved by the general voice, that I could not
+      advise the President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the
+      House; and I gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers.
+      See it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 31st. A meeting at the President&rsquo;s; present, Thomas Jefferson,
+      Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was the
+      resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to appoint
+      a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the late
+      expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call for such
+      persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist their
+      inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original letters,
+      instructions, &amp;tc. The President had called us to consult, merely
+      because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as it should
+      become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
+      acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the House
+      were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted with
+      subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be papers of
+      so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We were not
+      prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 2nd. Met again at the President&rsquo;s, on the same subject. We had
+      all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was an
+      inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it might
+      call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
+      communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought to
+      refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
+      consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
+      committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
+      and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
+      should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the President.
+      We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons in the case of
+      Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler&rsquo;s Debates. For the first point, seepages
+      161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153, 173,207; for the
+      third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page 246. Note:
+      Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the power of the
+      House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that as to his
+      department, the act constituting it had made it subject to Congress, in
+      some points, but he thought himself not so far subject, as to be obliged
+      to produce all the papers they might call for. They might demand secrets
+      of a very mischievous nature. [Here I thought he began to fear they would
+      go to examining how far their own members and other persons in the
+      government had been dabbling in stocks, banks, &amp;c. and that he
+      probably would choose in this case to deny their power; and, in short, he
+      endeavored to place himself subject to the House, when the executive
+      should propose what he did not like, and subject to the executive, when
+      the House should propose any thing disagreeable.] I observed here a
+      difference between the British parliament and our Congress; that the
+      former was a legislature, an inquest, and a council (S. C. page 91.) for
+      the King. The latter was, by the constitution, a legislature and an
+      inquest, but not a council. Finally agreed, to speak separately to the
+      members of the committee, and bring them by persuasion into the right
+      channel. It was agreed in this case, that there was not a paper which
+      might not be properly produced; that copies only should be sent, with an
+      assurance, that if they should desire it, a clerk should attend with the
+      originals to be verified by themselves. The committee were Fitzsimmons,
+      Steele, Mercer, Clarke, Sedgwick, Giles, and Vining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 9th, 1792. The President had wished to redeem our captives at
+      Algiers, and to make a peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The
+      Senate were willing to approve this, but unwilling to have the lower House
+      applied to previously to furnish the money; they wished the President to
+      take the money from the treasury, or open a loan for it. They thought that
+      to consult the Representatives on one occasion, would give them a handle
+      always to claim it, and would let them into a participation of the power
+      of making treaties, which the constitution had given exclusively to the
+      President and Senate. They said, too, that if the particular sum was noted
+      by the Representatives, it would not be a secret. The President had no
+      confidence in the secrecy of the Senate, and did not choose to take money
+      from the treasury or to borrow. But he agreed he would enter into
+      provisional treaties with the Algerines, not to be binding on us till
+      ratified here. I prepared questions for consultation with the Senate, and
+      added, that the Senate were to be apprized, that on the return of the
+      provisional treaty, and after they should advise the ratification, he
+      would not have the seal put to it till the two Houses should vote the
+      money. He asked me, if the treaty stipulating a sum and ratified by him,
+      with the advice of the Senate, would not be good under the constitution,
+      and obligatory on the Representatives to furnish the money. I answered, it
+      certainly would, and that it would be the duty of the Representatives to
+      raise the money; but that they might decline to do what was their duty,
+      and I thought it might be incautious to commit himself by a ratification
+      with a foreign nation, where he might be left in the lurch in the
+      execution: it was possible too, to conceive a treaty, which it would not
+      be their duty to provide for. He said that he did not like throwing too
+      much into democratic hands, that if they would not do what the
+      constitution called on them to do, the government would be at an end, and
+      must then assume another form. He stopped here; and I kept silence to see
+      whether he would say any thing more in the same line, or add any
+      qualifying expression to soften what he had said: but he did neither. I
+      had observed, that wherever the agency of either, or both Houses would be
+      requisite subsequent to a treaty, to carry it into effect, it would be
+      prudent to consult them previously, if the occasion admitted. That thus it
+      was, we were in the habit of consulting the Senate previously, when the
+      occasion permitted, because their subsequent ratification would be
+      necessary. That there was the same reason for consulting the lower House
+      previously, where they were to be called on afterwards, and especially in
+      the case of money, as they held the purse-strings, and would be jealous of
+      them. However, he desired me to strike out the intimation that the seal
+      would not be put till both Houses should have voted the money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 6th. The President called on me before breakfast, and first
+      introduced some other matter, then fell on the representation bill, which
+      he had now in his possession for the tenth day. I had before given him my
+      opinion in writing, that the method of apportionment was contrary to the
+      constitution. He agreed that it was contrary to the common understanding
+      of that instrument, and to what was understood at the time by the makers
+      of it: that, yet it would bear the construction which the bill put, and he
+      observed that the vote for and against the bill was perfectly
+      geographical, a northern against a southern vote, and he feared he should
+      be thought to be taking side with a southern party. I admitted the motive
+      of delicacy, but that it should not induce him to do wrong: urged the
+      dangers to which the scramble for the fractionary members would always
+      lead. He here expressed his fear that there would, ere long, be a
+      separation of the Union; that the public mind seemed dissatisfied and
+      tending to this. He went home, sent for Randolph, the Attorney General,
+      desired him to get Mr. Madison immediately and come to me, and if we three
+      concurred in opinion that he should negative the bill, he desired to hear
+      nothing more about it, but that we would draw the instrument for him to
+      sign. They came. Our minds had been before made up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We drew the instrument. Randolph carried it to him, and told him we all
+      concurred in it. He walked with him to the door, and as if he still wished
+      to get off, he said, &lsquo;And you say you approve of this yourself.&rsquo; &lsquo;Yes,
+      Sir,&rsquo; says Randolph, &lsquo;I do upon my honor.&rsquo; He sent it to the House of
+      Representatives instantly. A few of the hottest friends of the bill
+      expressed passion, but the majority were satisfied, and both in and out of
+      doors it gave pleasure to have, at length, an instance of the negative
+      being exercised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written this the 9th of April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July the 10th, 1792. My letter of &mdash;&mdash; to the President,
+      directed to him at Mount Vernon, had not found him there, but came to him
+      here. He told me of this, and that he would take an occasion of speaking
+      with me on the subject. He did so this day. He began by observing that he
+      had put it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit,
+      his remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
+      declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
+      again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
+      called on to come forward to set the present government in motion, it
+      appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a change
+      in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all would be
+      well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years he found some
+      things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he thought it was
+      not worth while to disturb the course of things, as in one year more his
+      office would expire, and he was decided then to retire. Now he was told
+      there would still be danger in it. Certainly, if he thought so, he would
+      conquer his longing for retirement. But he feared it would be said his
+      former professions of retirement had been mere affectation, and that he
+      was like other men, when once in office he could not quit it. He was
+      sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing, perhaps his other faculties
+      might fall off and he not be sensible of it. That with respect to the
+      existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there we&rsquo;re suspicions against a
+      particular party, which had been carried a great deal too far: there might
+      be desires, but he did not believe there were designs to change the form
+      of government into a monarchy: that there might be a few who wished it in
+      the higher walks of life, particularly in the great cities; but that the
+      main body of the people in the eastern States were as steadily for
+      republicanism as in the southern. That the pieces lately published, and
+      particularly in Freneau&rsquo;s paper, seemed to have in view the exciting
+      opposition to the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as
+      to the excise-law, according to information he had received from General
+      Hand. That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most
+      dreadful of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy,
+      tended, of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He
+      considered those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool
+      indeed to swallow the little sugar-plumbs here and there thrown out to
+      him. That in condemning the administration of the government, they
+      condemned him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to
+      his sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or
+      too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many
+      acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put his
+      name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That as to
+      the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there was some
+      infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be tolerated.
+      He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat of
+      government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and
+      Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and happy. He
+      wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the discontents
+      were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the desire that he
+      should remain in the government was not general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My observations to him tended principally to enforce the topics of my
+      letter. I will not, therefore, repeat them, except where they produced
+      observations from him. I said, that the two great complaints were, that
+      the national debt was unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished
+      the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature; that he must
+      know, and every body knew, there was a considerable squadron in both,
+      whose votes were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest, that the
+      names of a weighty number were known, and several others suspected on good
+      grounds. That on examining the votes of these men, they would be found
+      uniformly for every Treasury measure, and that as most of these measures
+      had been carried by small majorities, they were carried by these very
+      votes. That, therefore, it was a cause of just uneasiness, when we saw a
+      legislature legislating for their own interests, in opposition to those of
+      the people. He said not a word on the corruption of the legislature, but
+      took up the other point, defended the Assumption, and argued that it had
+      not increased the debt, for that all of it was honest debt. He justified
+      the excise-law, as one of the best laws which could be passed, as nobody
+      would pay the tax who did not choose to do it. With respect to the
+      increase of the debt by the Assumption, I observed to him, that what was
+      meant and objected to was, that it increased the debt of the General
+      Government, and carried it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the
+      balances had been settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their
+      deficiencies to the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and
+      by resources of taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by
+      a direct tax in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it
+      would be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
+      argument with him on those points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I had
+      the following conversation with the President. He opened it by expressing
+      his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in the letter I
+      had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said, that he should
+      be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he was in office, and
+      that he could not see where he should find another character to fill my
+      office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether to retire in March or
+      not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it. Nobody disliked more the
+      ceremonies of his office, and he had not the least taste or gratification
+      in the execution of its functions. That he was happy at home alone, and
+      that his presence there was now peculiarly called for by the situation of
+      Major Washington, whom he thought irrecoverable, and should he get well,
+      he would remove into another part of the country, which might better agree
+      with him. That he did not believe his presence necessary; that there were
+      other characters who would do the business as well or better. Still,
+      however, if his aid was thought necessary to save the cause to which he
+      had devoted his life principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer
+      continuance. That he therefore reserved himself for future decision, as
+      his declaration would be in time if made a month before the day of
+      election. He had desired Mr. Lear to find out from conversation, without
+      appearing to make the inquiry, whether any other person would be desired
+      by any body. He had informed him, he judged from conversations that it was
+      the universal desire he should continue, and he believed that those who
+      expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language of
+      apprehension, and not of desire. But this, says he, is only from the
+      north; it may be very different in the south. I thought this meant as an
+      opening to me to say what was the sentiment in the south, from which
+      quarter I came. I told him, that as far as I knew, there was but one voice
+      there, which was for his continuance. That as to myself, I had ever
+      preferred the pursuits of private life to those of public, which had
+      nothing in them agreeable to me. I explained to him the circumstances of
+      the war which had first called me into public life, and those following
+      the war, which had called me from a retirement on which I had determined.
+      That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home, and could no longer
+      refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his presence was important;
+      that he was the only man in the United States who possessed the confidence
+      of the whole; that government was founded in opinion and confidence, and
+      that the longer he remained, the stronger would become the habits of the
+      people in submitting to the government, and in thinking it a thing to be
+      maintained; that there was no other person, who would be thought any thing
+      more than the head of a party. He then expressed his concern at the
+      difference which he found to subsist between the Secretary of the Treasury
+      and myself, of which he said he had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that
+      there was a marked difference in our political sentiments, but he had
+      never suspected it had gone so far in producing a personal difference, and
+      he wished he could be the mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it
+      important to preserve the check of my opinions in the administration, in
+      order to keep things in their proper channel, and prevent them from going
+      too far. That as to the idea of transforming this government into a
+      monarchy, he did not believe there were ten men in the United States whose
+      opinions were worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him
+      there were many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute
+      at his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
+      Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
+      former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
+      produce good magistrates as election. I told him, that though the people
+      were sound, there were a numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation;
+      that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. That I had heard him
+      say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of mere milk and
+      water, which could not last, and was only good as a step to something
+      better. That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in the convention,
+      to make an English constitution of it, and when failing in that, we saw
+      all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing, it was natural for
+      us to be jealous; and particularly, when we saw that these measures had
+      established corruption in the legislature, where there was a squadron
+      devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever he had directed, and
+      ready to do what he should direct. That if the equilibrium of the three
+      great bodies, legislative, executive, and judiciary, could be preserved,
+      if the legislature could be kept independent, I should never fear the
+      result of such a government; but that I could not but be uneasy, when I
+      saw that the executive had swallowed up the legislative branch. He said,
+      that as to that interested spirit in the legislature, it was what could
+      not be avoided in any government, unless we were to exclude particular
+      descriptions of men, such as the holders of the funds, from all office. I
+      told him, there was great difference between the little accidental schemes
+      of self-interest, which would take place in every body of men, and
+      influence their votes, and a regular system for forming a corps of
+      interested persons, who should be steadily at the orders of the Treasury.
+      He touched on the merits of the funding system, observed there was a
+      difference of opinion about it, some thinking it very bad, others very
+      good; that experience was the only criterion of right which he knew, and
+      this alone would decide which opinion was right. That for himself, he had
+      seen our affairs desperate and our credit lost, and that this was in a
+      sudden and extraordinary degree raised to the highest pitch. I told him,
+      all that was ever necessary to establish our credit, was an efficient
+      government and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay our debts,
+      laying taxes for this purpose, and applying them to it. I avoided going
+      further into the subject. He finished by another exhortation to me not to
+      decide too positively on retirement, and here we were called to breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October the 31st, 1792. I had sent to the President, Viar and Jaudenes&rsquo;s
+      letter of the 29th instant, whereupon he desired a consultation of
+      Hamilton, Knox, E. Randolph, and myself, on these points. 1. What notice
+      was to be taken hereof to Spain. 2. Whether it should make part of the
+      communication to the legislature. I delivered my opinion, that it ought to
+      be communicated to both Houses, because the communications intended to be
+      made, being to bring on the question, whether they would declare war
+      against any, and which of the nations or parts of the nations of Indians
+      to the south, it would be proper this information should be before them,
+      that they might know how far such a declaration would lead them. There
+      might be some who would be for war against the Indians, if it were to stop
+      there, but who would not be for it, if it were to lead to a war against
+      Spain. I thought it should be laid before both Houses, because it
+      concerned the question of declaring war, which was the function equally of
+      both Houses. I thought a simple acknowledgment of the receipt of the
+      letter should be made by me to the Spanish Charges, expressing that it
+      contained some things very unexpected to us, but that we should refer the
+      whole, as they had proposed, to the negotiators at Madrid. This would
+      secure to us a continuation of the suspension of Indian hostilities, which
+      the Governor of New Orleans said he had brought about till the result of
+      the negotiation at Madrid should be known; would not commit us as to
+      running or not running the line, or imply any admission of doubt about our
+      tentorial right; and would avoid a rupture with Spain, which was much to
+      be desired, while we had similar points to discuss with Great Britain.
+      Hamilton declared himself the advocate for peace. War would derange our
+      affairs greatly; throw us back many years in the march towards prosperity;
+      be difficult for us to pursue, our countrymen not being disposed to become
+      soldiers; a part of the Union feeling no interest in the war, would with
+      difficulty be brought to exert itself; and we had no navy. He was for
+      every thing which would procrastinate the event. A year, even, was a great
+      gain to a nation strengthening as we were. It laid open to us, too, the
+      chapter of accidents, which in the present state of Europe, was a very
+      pregnant one. That while, however, he was for delaying the event of war,
+      he had no doubt it was to take place between us for the object in
+      question: that jealousy and perseverance were remarkable features in the
+      character of the Spanish government, with respect to their American
+      possessions; that so far from receding as to their claims against us, they
+      had been strengthening themselves in them. He had no doubt the present
+      communication was by authority from the court. Under this impression he
+      thought we should be looking forward to the day of rupture, and preparing
+      for it. That if we were unequal to the contest ourselves, it behoved us to
+      provide allies for our aid. That in this view, but two nations could be
+      named, France and England. France was too intimately connected with Spain
+      in other points, and of too great mutual value, ever to separate for us.
+      Her affairs too, were such, that whatever issue they had, she could not be
+      in a situation to make a respectable mediation for us. England alone,
+      then, remained. It would not be easy to effect it with her; however, he
+      was for trying it, and for sounding them on the proposition of a defensive
+      treaty of alliance. The inducements to such a treaty, on their part, might
+      be, 1. The desire of breaking up our former connections, which we knew
+      they had long wished. 2. A continuance of the statu quo in commerce for
+      ten years, which he believed would be desirable to them. 3. An admission
+      to some navigable part of the Mississippi, by some line drawn from the
+      Lake of the Woods to such navigable part. He had not, he said, examined
+      the map to see how such a line might be run, so as not to make too great a
+      sacrifice. The navigation of the Mississippi being a joint possession, we
+      might then take measures in concert for the joint security of it. He was,
+      therefore, for immediately sounding them on this subject through our
+      minister at London; yet so as to keep ourselves unengaged as long as
+      possible, in hopes a favorable issue with Spain might be otherwise
+      effected. But he was for sounding immediately, and for not letting slip an
+      opportunity of securing our object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. Randolph concurred, in general, with me. He objected that such a
+      reliance could not be effected without pecuniary consideration probably,
+      which he could not give. And what was to be their aid? If men, our
+      citizens would see their armies get foothold in the United States, with
+      great jealousy; it would be difficult to protect them. Even the French,
+      during the distresses of the late war, excited some jealous sentiments,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton said, money was often but not always demanded, and the aid he
+      should propose to stipulate would be in ships. Knox <i>non dissentiente</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President said the remedy would be worse than the disease, and stated
+      some of the disagreeable circumstances which would attend our making such
+      overtures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November, 1792. Hamilton called on me to speak about our furnishing
+      supplies to the French colony of St. Domingo. He expressed his opinion,
+      that we ought to be cautious, and not go too far in our application of
+      money to their use, lest it should not be recognised by the mother
+      country. He did not even think that some kinds of government they might
+      establish could give a sufficient sanction.* I observed, that the National
+      Convention was now met, and would certainly establish a form of
+      government; that as we had recognised the former government because
+      established by authority of the nation, so we must recognise any other
+      which should be established by the authority of the nation. He said we had
+      recognised the former, because it contained an important member of the
+      ancient, to wit, the King, and wore the appearance of his consent; but if,
+      in any future form, they should omit the King, he did not know that we
+      could with safety recognise it, or pay money to its order.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * There had been a previous consultation at the President&rsquo;s
+     (about the first week in November) on the expediency of
+     suspending payments to France, under her present situation.
+     I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by
+     the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs
+     surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an
+     integral legislature, and therefore not competent to give a
+     legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought
+     consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate
+     body came into place; and that I should consider the
+     National Convention, called, but not met as we had yet
+     heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it
+     would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should
+     be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on
+     good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
+     and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a
+     convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be
+     competent to do any thing. It ended by agreeing, that I
+     should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment
+     generally, till further orders.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      November the 19th, 1792. Beckley brings me the pamphlet written by
+      Hamilton, before the war, in answer to &lsquo;Common Sense.&rsquo; It is entitled
+      &lsquo;Plain Truth.&rsquo; Melancthon Smith sends it to Beckley, and in his letter
+      says, it was not printed in New York by Loudon, because prevented by a
+      mob, and was printed in Philadelphia, and that he has these facts from
+      Loudon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 21st, 1792. Mr. Butler tells me, that he dined last winter
+      with Mr. Campbell from Denmark, in company with Hamilton, Lawrence, Dr.
+      Shippen, T. Shippen, and one other person whom he cannot recollect. That
+      after dinner political principles became the subject of conversation; that
+      Hamilton declared openly, that &lsquo;there was no stability, no security in any
+      kind of government but a monarchy.&rsquo; That Lawrence took him up, and entered
+      the lists of argument against him; that the dispute continued long, and
+      grew warm, remarkably so as between them; that Shippen, at length, joined
+      Lawrence in it; and in fine, that it broke up the company. Butler
+      recommended to the company, that the dispute having probably gone farther
+      than was intended, it ought to be considered as confined to the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thursday, December the 27th, 1792. I waited on the President on some
+      current business. After this was over, he observed to me, that he thought
+      it was time to endeavor to effect a stricter connection with France, and
+      that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on this subject. He went into
+      the circumstances of dissatisfaction between Spain and Great Britain, and
+      us, and observed, there was no nation on whom we could rely, at all times,
+      but France; and that, if we did not prepare in time some support, in the
+      event of rupture with Spain and England, we might be charged with a
+      criminal negligence. I was much pleased with the tone of these
+      observations. It was the very doctrine which had been my polar star, and I
+      did not need the successes of the republican arms in France, lately
+      announced to us, to bring me to these sentiments. For it is to be noted,
+      that on Saturday last, (the 22nd) I received Mr. Short&rsquo;s letters of
+      October the 9th and 12th, with the Leyden gazettes to October the 13th,
+      giving us the first news of the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, and the
+      capture of Spires and Worms by Custine, and that of Nice by Anselme. I
+      therefore expressed to the President my cordial approbation of these
+      ideas; told him, I had meant on that day (as an opportunity of writing by
+      the British packet would occur immediately) to take his orders for
+      removing the suspension of payments to France, which had been imposed by
+      my last letter to Gouverneur Morris, but was meant, as I supposed, only
+      for the interval between the abolition of the late constitution by the
+      dethronement of the King, and the meeting of some other body, invested by
+      the will of the nation with powers to transact their affairs; that I
+      considered the National Convention, then assembled, as such a body; and
+      that, therefore, we ought to go on with the payments to them, or to any
+      government they should establish; that, however, I had learned last night,
+      that some clause in the bill for providing reimbursement of the loan made
+      by the bank to the United States, had given rise to a question before the
+      House of Representatives yesterday, which might affect these payments; a
+      clause in that bill proposing, that the money formerly borrowed in
+      Amsterdam, to pay the French debt, and appropriated by law (1790, August
+      4th, c. 34. § 2.) to that purpose, lying dead as was suggested, should be
+      taken to pay the bank, and the President be authorized to borrow two
+      millions of dollars more, out of which it should be replaced: and if this
+      should be done, the removal of our suspension of payments, as I had been
+      about to propose, would be premature. He expressed his disapprobation of
+      the clause above mentioned; thought it highly improper in the legislature
+      to change an appropriation once made, and added, that no one could tell in
+      what that would end. I concurred, but observed, that on a division of the
+      House, the ayes for striking out the clause were twenty-seven, the noes
+      twenty-six; whereon the Speaker gave his vote against striking out, which
+      divides the House: the clause for the disappropriation remained of course.
+      I mentioned suspicions, that the whole of this was a trick to serve the
+      bank under a great existing embarrassment; that the debt to the bank was
+      to be repaid by instalments; that the first instalment was of two hundred
+      thousand dollars only, or rather one hundred and sixty thousand dollars,
+      (because forty thousand of the two hundred thousand dollars would be the
+      United States&rsquo; own dividend of the instalment.) Yet here were two millions
+      to be paid them at once, and to be taken from a purpose of gratitude and
+      honor, to which it had been appropriated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 30th, 1792. I took the occasion furnished by Pinckney&rsquo;s
+      letter of September the 19th, asking instructions how to conduct himself
+      as to the French revolution, to lay down the catholic principle of
+      republicanism, to wit, that every people may establish what form of
+      government they please, and change it as they please; the will of the
+      nation being the only thing essential. I was induced to do this, in order
+      to extract the President&rsquo;s opinion on the question which divided Hamilton
+      and myself in the conversation of November, 1792, and the previous one of
+      the first week of November, on the suspension of payments to France: and
+      if favorable to mine, to place the principle on record in the letter-books
+      of my office. I therefore wrote the letter of December the 30th, to
+      Pinckney, and sent it to the President, and he returned me his approbation
+      in writing, in his note of the same date, which see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 7th, 1793. I waited on the President with letters and papers
+      from Lisbon. After going through these, I told him that I had for some
+      time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out of office,
+      because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with foreign
+      nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate, in which case, the
+      remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable to make
+      it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now passed, I was
+      freed from the considerations of propriety which had embarrassed me. That
+      &amp;c. [nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T. M. Randolph, of a few
+      days ago,] and that I should be willing, if he had taken no arrangements
+      to the contrary, to continue somewhat longer, how long I could not say,
+      perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He said, so far from taking
+      arrangements on the subject, he had never mentioned to any mortal the
+      design of retiring which I had expressed to him, till yesterday, when
+      having heard that I had given up my house, and that it was rented by
+      another, he thereupon mentioned it to Mr. E. Randolph, and asked him, as
+      he knew my retirement had been talked of, whether he had heard any persons
+      suggested in conversation to succeed me. He expressed his satisfaction at
+      my change of purpose and his apprehensions that my retirement would be a
+      new source of uneasiness to the public. He said Governor Lee had that day
+      informed him of the general discontent prevailing in Virginia, of which he
+      never had had any conception, much less sound information. That it
+      appeared to him very alarming. He proceeded to express his earnest wish
+      that Hamilton and myself could coalesce in the measures of the government,
+      and urged here the general reasons for it, which he had done to me in two
+      former conversations. He said he had proposed the same thing to Hamilton,
+      who expressed his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the
+      general acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of much
+      less importance than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself aloof from
+      all cabal and correspondence on the subject with the government, and saw
+      and spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr.
+      Hamilton, if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his general
+      system to the other, it was impossible. We had both, no doubt, formed our
+      conclusions after the most mature consideration; and principles
+      conscientiously adopted, could not be given up on either side. My wish
+      was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested in
+      the bank or public stocks: and that a pure legislature being given us, I
+      should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations, even if
+      contrary to my own opinions; for that I subscribe to the principle, that
+      the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should give law. I confirmed
+      him in the fact of the great discontents to the south; that they were
+      grounded on seeing that their judgments and interests were sacrificed to
+      those of the eastern States on every occasion, and their belief that it
+      was the effect of a corrupt squadron of voters in Congress, at the command
+      of the Treasury; and they see that if the votes of those members who had
+      any interest distinct from, and contrary to the general interest of their
+      constituents, had been withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should
+      have been, the laws would have been the reverse of what they are on all
+      the great questions. I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House
+      of Representatives by the Speaker&rsquo;s vote. On this subject he made no
+      reply. He explained his remaining in office to have been the effect of
+      strong solicitations after he returned here; declaring that he had never
+      mentioned his purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr.
+      Madison; he expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in
+      office, and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &amp;c.
+      and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
+      consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of the
+      public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
+      curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New York,
+      he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees. At length he
+      yielded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle the forms.
+      Accordingly, an antechamber and presence-room were provided, and when
+      those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President set out,
+      preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the antechamber, the door of
+      the inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered first, calling out
+      with a loud voice, &lsquo;The President of the United States.&rsquo; The President was
+      so much disconcerted with it, that he did not recover it the whole time of
+      the levee, and when the company was gone, he said to Humphreys, &lsquo;Well, you
+      have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second
+      time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is reason to believe that the rejection of the late additional
+      Assumption by the Senate was effected by the President through Lear,
+      operating on Langdon. Beckley knows this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 26th, 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [See the
+      formal opinions given to the President in writing, and signed.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First question. We were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed
+      merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of
+      success. I expressed myself strongly, that the event was so unpromising,
+      that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on without the
+      least relaxation, and that a day should be fixed with the commissioners
+      for the treaty, beyond which they should not permit the treaty to be
+      protracted, by which day, orders should be given for our forces to enter
+      into action. The President took up the thing instantly, after I had said
+      this, and declared he was so much in the opinion that the treaty would end
+      in nothing, that he then, in the presence of us all, gave orders to
+      General Knox, not to slacken the preparations for the campaign in the
+      least, but to exert every nerve in preparing for it. Knox said something
+      about the ultimate day for continuing the negotiations. I acknowledged
+      myself not a judge on what day the campaign should begin, but that
+      whatever it was, that day should terminate the treaty. Knox said he
+      thought a winter campaign was always the most efficacious against the
+      Indians. I was of opinion, since Great Britain insisted on furnishing
+      provisions, that we should offer to repay. Hamilton thought we should not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second question. I considered our right of preemption of the Indian lands,
+      not as amounting to any dominion, or jurisdiction, or paramountship
+      whatever, but merely in the nature of a remainder after the extinguishment
+      of a present right, which gave us no present right whatever, but of
+      preventing other nations from taking possession, and so defeating our
+      expectancy; that the Indians had the full, undivided, and independent
+      sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, and that this might be for
+      ever; that as fast as we extend our rights by purchase from them, so fast
+      we extend the limits of our society, and as soon as a new portion became
+      encircled within our line, it became a fixed limit of our society: that
+      the executive, with either or both branches of the legislature, could not
+      alien any part of our territory; that by the law of nations it was
+      settled, that the unity and indivisibility of the society was so
+      fundamental, that it could not be dismembered by the constituted
+      authorities, except, 1. where all power was delegated to them (as in the
+      case of despotic governments,) or, 2. where it was expressly delegated;
+      that neither of these delegations had been made to our General Government,
+      and, therefore, that it had no right to dismember or alienate any portion
+      of territory once ultimately consolidated with us; and that we could no
+      more cede to the Indians than to the English or Spaniards, as it might,
+      according to acknowledged principles, remain as irrevocably and eternally
+      with the one as the other. But I thought, that, as we had a right to sell
+      and settle lands once comprehended within our lines, so we might forbear
+      to exercise that right, retaining the property, till circumstances should
+      be more favorable to the settlement, and this I agreed to do in the
+      present instance, if necessary for peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton agreed to the doctrine of the law of nations, as laid down in
+      Europe, but that it was founded on the universality of settlement there;
+      consequently that no lopping-off of territory could be made without a
+      lopping-off of citizens, which required their consent; but that the law of
+      nations for us, must be adapted to the circumstance of our unsettled
+      country, which he conceived the President and Senate may cede: that the
+      power of treaty was given to them by the constitution, without restraining
+      it to particular objects; consequently that it was given in as
+      plenipotentiary a form as held by any sovereign in any other society.
+      Randolph was of opinion, there was a difference between a cession to
+      Indians and to any others, because it only restored the ceded part to the
+      condition in which it was before we bought it, and consequently, that we
+      might buy it again hereafter: therefore, he thought the executive and
+      Senate could cede it. Knox joined in the main opinion. The President
+      discovered no opinion, but he made some efforts to get us to join in some
+      terms which could unite us all, and he seemed to direct those efforts more
+      towards me: but the thing could not be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Third question. We agreed in idea as to the line to be drawn; to wit, so
+      as to retain all lands appropriated, or granted, or reserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourth question. We all thought, if the Senate should be consulted, and
+      consequently apprized of our line, it would become known to Hammond, and
+      we should lose all chance of saving any thing more at the treaty than our
+      ultimatum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President, at this meeting, mentioned the declaration of some person,
+      in a paper of Fenno, that he would commence an attack on the character of
+      Dr. Franklin. He said, the theme was to him excessively disagreeable on
+      other considerations, but most particularly so, as the party seemed to do
+      it as a means of defending him (the President) against the late attacks on
+      him: that such a mode of defence would be peculiarly painful to him, and
+      he wished it could be stopped. Hamilton and Randolph undertook to speak to
+      Fenno to suppress it, without mentioning it as the President&rsquo;s wish. Both
+      observed, that they had heard this declaration mentioned in many
+      companies, and that it had excited universal horror and detestation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The paper in Fenno must lie between two persons, viz. Adams and Izard,
+      because they are the only persons who could know such facts as are there
+      promised to be unfolded. Adams is an enemy to both characters, and might
+      choose this ground as an effectual position to injure both. Izard hated
+      Franklin with unparalleled bitterness, but humbly adores the President,
+      because he is in <i>loco regis</i>. If the paper proceeds, we shall easily
+      discover which of these two gentlemen is the champion. In the mean time,
+      the first paper leads our suspicions more towards Izard than Adams, from
+      the circumstance of style, and because he is quite booby enough not to see
+      the injury he would do to the President by such a mode of defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 28th. Knox, E. Randolph, and myself met at Knox&rsquo;s, where
+      Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time, manner, and place of
+      the President&rsquo;s swearing in. Hamilton had been there before, and had left
+      his opinion with Knox; to wit, that the President should ask a judge to
+      attend him in his own house to administer the oath, in the presence of the
+      Heads of departments; which oath should be deposited in the Secretary of
+      State&rsquo;s office. I concurred in this opinion. Randolph was for the
+      President&rsquo;s going to the Senate chamber to take the oath, attended by the
+      marshal of the United States, who should then make proclamation, &amp;c.
+      Knox was for this, and for adding the House of Representatives to the
+      presence, as they would not yet be departed. Our individual opinions were
+      written, to be communicated to the President, out of which he might form
+      one. In the course of our conversation, Knox, stickling for parade, got
+      into great warmth, and swore that our government must either be entirely
+      new modeled, or it would be knocked to pieces in less than ten years; and
+      that, as it is at present, he would not give a copper for it; that it is
+      the President&rsquo;s character, and not the written constitution which keeps it
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Same day. Conversation with Lear. He expressed the strongest confidence
+      that republicanism was the universal creed of America, except of a very
+      few; that a republican administration must of necessity immediately
+      overbear the contrary faction; said that he had seen with extreme regret,
+      that a number of gentlemen had for a long time been endeavoring to instil
+      into the President, that the noise against the administration of the
+      government was that of a little faction, which would soon be silent, and
+      which was detested by the people, who were contented and prosperous: that
+      this very party, however, began to see their error, and that the sense of
+      America was bursting forth to their conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 2nd, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles&rsquo;s
+      resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe,
+      that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the
+      House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1.
+      of bank directors, 2. holders of bank stock, 3. stock-jobbers, 4. blind
+      devotees, 5. ignorant persons who did not comprehend them, 6. lazy and
+      good-humored persons, who comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were too
+      lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure; the persons who knew
+      these characters, foresaw, that the three first descriptions making one
+      third of the House, the three latter would make one half of the residue;
+      and of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of two to one.
+      But they thought, that even this rejection would do good, by showing the
+      public the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which their affairs
+      were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, and nothing spared to
+      present them in the fulness of demonstration. There were not more than
+      three or four who voted otherwise than had been expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 30th, 1793. At our meeting at the President&rsquo;s, February the
+      25th, in discussing the question, whether we should furnish to France the
+      three millions of livres desired, Hamilton, in speaking on the subject,
+      used this expression; &lsquo;When Mr. Genet arrives, whether we shall receive
+      him or not, will then be a question for discussion&rsquo;; which expression I
+      did not recollect till E. Randolph reminded me of it a few days after.
+      Therefore, on the 20th instant, as the President was shortly to set out
+      for Mount Vernon, I observed to him, that as Genet might arrive in his
+      absence, I wished to know beforehand how I should treat him, whether as a
+      person who would or would not be received. He said, he could see no ground
+      of doubt, but that he ought to be received. On the 24th, he asked E.
+      Randolph&rsquo;s opinion on the subject, saying, he had consulted Colonel
+      Hamilton thereon, who went into lengthy considerations of doubt and
+      difficulty, and viewing it as a very unfortunate thing, that the President
+      should have the decision of so critical a point forced on him; but in
+      conclusion, said, since he was brought into that situation, he did not see
+      but that he must receive Mr. Genet. Randolph told the President, he was
+      clear he should be received, and the President said, he had never had any
+      doubt on the subject in his mind. Afterwards on the same day, he spoke to
+      me again on it, and said, Mr. Genet should unquestionably be received; but
+      he thought not with too much warmth or Cordiality, so only as to be
+      satisfactory to him. I wondered at first at this restriction: but when
+      Randolph afterwards communicated to me his conversation of the 24th, I
+      became satisfied it was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 31st. Mr. Beckley tells me, that the merchants&rsquo; bonds for duties
+      on six months&rsquo; credit became due the 1st instant, to a very great amount;
+      that Hamilton went to the bank on that day, and directed the bank to
+      discount for those merchants all their bonds at thirty days, and that he
+      would have the collectors credited for the money at the treasury. Hence,
+      the treasury lumping its receipts by the month in its printed accounts,
+      these sums will be considered by the public as only received on the last
+      day; consequently, the bank makes the month&rsquo;s interest out of it. Beckley
+      had this from a merchant, who had a bond discounted, and who supposes a
+      million of dollars were discounted at the bank here. Mr. Brown got the
+      same information from another merchant, who supposed only six hundred
+      thousand dollars discounted here. But they suppose the same orders went to
+      all the branch banks to a great amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die. Mr. Brown tells me he has it from a merchant here, that during
+      the last winter, the directors of the bank ordered the freest discounts.
+      Every man could obtain it. Money being so flush, the six per cents run up
+      to twenty-one and twenty-two shillings. Then the directors sold out their
+      private stocks. When the discounted notes were becoming due, they stopped
+      discounts, and not a dollar was to be had. This reduced six per cents to
+      eighteen shillings and three pence; then the same directors bought in
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 7th, 1793. Mr. Lear called on me, and introduced of himself a
+      conversation on the affairs of the United States. He laughed at the cry of
+      prosperity, and the deriving it from the establishment of the treasury: he
+      said, that, so far from giving in to this opinion, and that we were paying
+      off our national debt, he was clear the debt was growing on us: that he
+      had lately expressed this opinion to the President, who appeared much
+      astonished at it. I told him I had given the same hint to the President
+      last summer, and lately again had suggested, that we were even depending
+      for the daily subsistence of government on borrowed money. He said, that
+      was certain, and was the only way of accounting for what was become of the
+      money drawn over from Holland to this country. He regretted that the
+      President was not in the way of hearing full information, declared he
+      communicated to him every thing he could learn himself; that the men who
+      vaunted the present government so much on some occasions, were the very
+      men who at other times declared it was a poor thing, and such a one as
+      could not stand, and he was sensible they only esteemed it as a
+      stepping-stone to something else, and had availed themselves of the first
+      moments of the enthusiasm in favor of it, to pervert its principles and
+      make of it what they wanted: and that though they raised the cry of
+      anti-federalism against those who censured the mode of administration, yet
+      he was satisfied, whenever it should come to be tried, that the very men
+      whom they called anti-federalists, were the men who would save the
+      government, and he looked to the next Congress for much rectification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 18th. The President sends a set of questions to be considered,
+      and calls a meeting. Though those sent me were in his own hand-writing,
+      yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissue and suite, that
+      they were not the President&rsquo;s, that they were raised upon a prepared chain
+      of argument, in short, that the language was Hamilton&rsquo;s, and the doubts
+      his alone. They led to a declaration of the executive, that our treaty
+      with France is void. E. Randolph, the next day, told me that the day
+      before the date of these questions, Hamilton went with him through the
+      whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the skeleton, and
+      that he recognised them the moment he saw them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We met. The first question, whether we should receive the French minister,
+      Genet, was proposed, and we agreed unanimously that he should be received;
+      Hamilton, at the same time, expressing his great regret that any accident
+      had happened, which should oblige us to recognise the government. The next
+      question was, whether he should be received absolutely, or with
+      qualifications. Here Hamilton took up the whole subject, and went through
+      it in the order in which the questions sketch it. See the chain of his
+      reasoning in my opinion of April the 28th. Knox subscribed at once to
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion that we ought to declare the treaty void,
+      acknowledging, at the same time, like a fool as he is, that he knew
+      nothing about it. I was clear it remained valid. Randolph declared himself
+      of the same opinion, but on Hamilton&rsquo;s undertaking to present to him the
+      authority in Vattel (which we had not present), and to prove to him, that
+      if the authority was admitted, the treaty might be declared void, Randolph
+      agreed to take further time to consider. It was adjourned. We determined
+      unanimously the last question, that Congress should not be called. There
+      having been an intimation by Randolph, that in so great a question he
+      should choose to give a written opinion, and this being approved by the
+      President, I gave in mine April the 28th. Hamilton gave in his. I believe
+      Knox&rsquo;s was never thought worth offering or asking for. Randolph gave his
+      May the 6th, concurring with mine. The President told me, the same day, he
+      had never had a doubt about the validity of the treaty; but that since a
+      question had been suggested, he thought it ought to be considered: that
+      this being done, I might now issue passports to sea-vessels in the form
+      prescribed by the French treaty. I had for a week past only issued the
+      Dutch form; to have issued the French, would have been presupposing the
+      treaty to be in existence. The President suggested, that he thought it
+      would be as well that nothing should be said of such a question having
+      been under consideration. Written May the 6th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 6th, 1793. When the question was, whether the proclamation of
+      April the 22nd should be issued, Randolph observed, that there should be a
+      letter written by me to the ministers of the belligerent powers, to
+      declare that it should not be taken as conclusive evidence against our
+      citizens in foreign courts of admiralty, for contraband goods. Knox
+      suddenly adopted the opinion before Hamilton delivered his. Hamilton
+      opposed it pretty strongly. I thought it an indifferent thing, but rather
+      approved Randolph&rsquo;s opinion. The President was against it; but observed
+      that, as there were three for it, it should go. This was the first
+      instance I had seen of an opportunity to decide by a mere majority,
+      including his own vote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 12th. Lear called on me to-day. Speaking of the lowness of stocks
+      (sixteen shillings), I observed it was a pity we had not money to buy on
+      public account. He said, yes, and that it was the more provoking, as two
+      millions had been borrowed for that purpose, and drawn over here, and yet
+      were not here. That he had no doubt those would take notice of the
+      circumstance whose duty it was to do so. I suppose he must mean the
+      President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 23rd. I had sent to the President, yesterday, draughts of a letter
+      from him to the Provisory Executive Council of France, and of one from
+      myself to Mr. Ternant, both on the occasion of his recall. I called on him
+      to-day. He said there was an expression in one of them, which he had never
+      before seen in any of our public communications, to wit, &lsquo;our republic&rsquo;
+      The letter prepared for him to the Council, began thus: &lsquo;The Citizen
+      Ternant has delivered to me the letter wherein you inform me, that
+      yielding &amp;c. you had determined to recall him from his mission, as
+      your Minister Plenipotentiary to our republic.&rsquo; He had underscored the
+      words our republic. He said that certainly ours was a republican
+      government, but yet we had not used that style in this way; that if any
+      body wanted to change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it was only a
+      few individuals, and that no man in the United States would set his face
+      against it more than himself: but that this was not what he was afraid of;
+      his fears were from another quarter; that there was more danger of anarchy
+      being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau&rsquo;s paper of yesterday;
+      he said he despised all their attacks on him personally, but that there
+      never had been an act of the government, not meaning in the executive line
+      only, but in any line, which that paper had not abused. He had also marked
+      the word republic thus X, where it was applied to the French republic.
+      (See the original paper.) He was evidently sore and warm, and I took his
+      intention to be, that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps
+      withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my office. But I will not
+      do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which was galloping fast into
+      monarchy, and has been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that
+      paper. It is well and universally known, that it has been that paper which
+      has checked the career of the monocrats; and the President, not sensible
+      of the designs of the party, has not, with his usual good sense and <i>sang
+      froid</i>, looked on the efforts and effects of this free press, and seen
+      that, though some bad things have passed through it to the public, yet the
+      good have preponderated immensely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned from New York within a
+      few days, tells me that, while he was there, Sir John Temple, Consul
+      General of the northern States for Great Britain showed him a letter from
+      Sir Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a borough in
+      Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member for twenty-five years, and
+      always confidential for the ministers in which he permitted him to read
+      particular passages of the following purport: that the government was well
+      apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in the United States;
+      that they considered Colonel Hamilton, Mr. King, and Mr. Smith of South
+      Carolina, as the main supports of that interest; that particularly, they
+      considered Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond as their effective
+      minister here; that if the anti-federal interest (that was his term) at
+      the head of which they considered Mr. Jefferson to be should prevail,
+      these gentlemen had secured an asylum to themselves in England.&rsquo; Beckley
+      could not understand whether they had secured it themselves* or whether
+      they were only notified that it was secured to them. So that they
+      understand that they may go on boldly in their machinations to change the
+      government, and if they should be overset and choose to withdraw, they
+      will be secure of a pension in England, as Arnold, Deane, &amp;c. had. Sir
+      John read passages of a letter (which he did not put into Beckley&rsquo;s hand,
+      as he did the other) from Lord Grenville, saying nearly the same things.
+      This letter mentions Sir John, that though they had divided the
+      Consul-Generalship, and given the southern department to Bond, yet he Sir
+      John, was to retain his whole salary. [By this it would seem, as if,
+      wanting to use Bond, they had covered his employment with this cloak.] Mr.
+      Beckley says that Sir John Temple is a strong republican. I had a proof of
+      his intimacy with Sir John in this circumstance. Sir John received his new
+      commission of Consul General for the northern department, and, instead of
+      sending it through Mr. Hammond, got Beckley to enclose it to me for his
+      exequatur I wrote to Sir John that it must come through Mr Hammond
+      enclosing it back to him. He accordingly then sent it to Mr. Hammond.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson; &lsquo;Impossible
+     as to Hamilton; he was far above that.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In conversation with the President to-day, and speaking about General
+      Greene, he said that he and General Greene had always differed in opinion
+      about the manner of using militia. Greene always placed them in his front:
+      himself was of opinion, they should always be used as a reserve to improve
+      any advantage, for which purpose they were the finest fellows in the
+      world. He said he was on the ground of the battle of Guilford, with a
+      person who was in the action, and who explained the whole of it to him.
+      That General Greene&rsquo;s front was behind a fence at the edge of a large
+      field, through which the enemy were obliged to pass to get at them; and
+      that, in their passage through this, they must have been torn all to
+      pieces, if troops had been posted there who would have stood their ground;
+      and that the retreat from that position was through a thicket, perfectly
+      secure. Instead of this he posted the North Carolina militia there who
+      only gave one fire and fell back, so that the whole benefit of their
+      position was lost. He thinks that the regulars, with their field-pieces,
+      would have hardly let a single man get through that field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die (June the 7th). Beckley tells me that he has the following fact
+      from Governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the present General
+      Government, i.e. a little before Hamilton conceived a plan for
+      establishing a monarchical government in the United States, he wrote a
+      draught of a circular letter, which was to be sent to about &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-persons,
+      to bring it about. One of these letters in Hamilton&rsquo;s hand-writing, is now
+      in possession of an old militia General up the North River, who, at that
+      time, was thought orthodox enough to be entrusted in the execution. This
+      General has given notice to Governor Clinton, that he has this paper, and
+      that he will deliver it into his hands, and no one&rsquo;s else. Clinton
+      intends, the first interval of leisure, to go for it, and he will bring it
+      to Philadelphia. Beckley is a man of perfect truth as to what he affirms
+      of his own knowledge, but too credulous as to what he hears from others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 10th, 1793. Mr. Brown gives me the following specimen of the
+      phrenzy which prevailed at New York on the opening of the new government.
+      The first public ball which took place after the President&rsquo;s arrival
+      there, Colonel Humphreys, Colonel W. S. Smith, and Mrs. Knox were to
+      arrange the ceremonials. These arrangements were as follows: a sofa at the
+      head of the room, raised on several steps whereon the President and Mrs.
+      Washington were to be seated. The gentlemen were to dance in swords. Each
+      one, when going to dance, was to lead his partner to the foot of the sofa,
+      make a low obeisance to the President and his lady, then go and dance, and
+      when done, bring his partner again to the foot of the sofa for new
+      obeisances, and then to retire to their chairs. It was to be understood,
+      too, that gentlemen should be dressed in bags. Mrs. Knox contrived to come
+      with the President, and to follow him and Mrs. Washington to their
+      destination, and she had the design of forcing an invitation from the
+      President to a seat on the sofa. She mounted up the steps after them
+      unbidden, but unfortunately the wicked sofa was so short, that when the
+      President and Mrs. Washington were seated, there was not room for a third
+      person; she was obliged therefore to descend in the face of the company,
+      and to sit where she could. In other respects the ceremony was conducted
+      rigorously according to the arrangements, and the President made to pass
+      an evening which his good sense rendered a very miserable one to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 12th. Beckley tells me that Klingham has been with him to-day,
+      and relates to him the following fact. A certificate of the old Congress
+      had been offered at the treasury and refused payment and so endorsed in
+      red ink as usual. This certificate came to the hands of Francis, (the
+      quondam clerk of the treasury who, on account of his being dipped in the
+      infamous case of the Baron Glaubec, Hamilton had been obliged to dismiss,
+      to save appearances, but with an assurance of all future service, and he
+      accordingly got him established in New York). Francis wrote to Hamilton
+      that such a ticket was offered him, but he could not buy it unless he
+      would inform him and give him his certificate that it was good. Hamilton
+      wrote him a most friendly letter, and sent him the certificate. He bought
+      the paper, and came on here and got it recognised, whereby he made
+      twenty-five hundred dollars Klingham saw both the letter and certificate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Irving, a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the pieces
+      now coming out under the signature of Verita&rsquo;s and attacking the
+      President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the
+      fiscal party, to place the President on their side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July the 18th, 1793. Lear calls on me. I told him that Irving, an
+      Irishman, and a writer in the treasury, who, on a former occasion, had
+      given the most decisive proofs of his devotion to his principal, was the
+      author of the pieces signed Veritas: and I wished he could get at some of
+      Irving&rsquo;s acquaintances and inform himself of the fact, as the person who
+      told me of it would not permit the name of his informer to be mentioned.
+      [Note. Beckley told me of it, and he had it from Swaine, the printer to
+      whom the pieces were delivered]; that I had long before suspected this
+      excessive foul play in that party of writing themselves in the character
+      of the most exaggerated democrats and incorporating with it a great deal
+      of abuse on the President to make him believe it was that party who were
+      his enemies, and so throw him entirely into the scale of the monocrats.
+      Lear said he no longer ago than yesterday expressed to the President his
+      suspicions of the artifices of that party to work on him. He mentioned the
+      following fact as a proof of their writing in the character of their
+      adversaries; to wit, the day after the little incident of Richet&rsquo;s
+      toasting &lsquo;the man of the people&rsquo; (see the gazettes), Mrs. Washington was
+      at Mrs. Powel&rsquo;s, who mentioned to her that, when the toast was given,
+      there was a good deal of disapprobation appeared in the audience, and that
+      many put on their hats and went out: on inquiry, he had not found the fact
+      true, and yet it was put into &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s paper, and written
+      under the character of a republican, though he is satisfied it is
+      altogether a slander of the monocrats. He mentioned this to the President,
+      but he did not mention to him the following fact, which he knows; that in
+      New York, the last summer, when the parties of Jay and Clinton were
+      running so high, it was an agreed point with the former, that if any
+      circumstances should ever bring it to a question, whether to drop Hamilton
+      or the President, they had decided to drop the President. He said that
+      lately one of the loudest pretended friends to the government, damned it,
+      and said it was good for nothing, that it could not support itself, and it
+      was time to put it down and set up a better; and yet the same person, in
+      speaking to the President, puffed off that party as the only friends to
+      the government. He said he really feared, that by their artifices and
+      industry, they would aggravate the President so much against the
+      republicans, as to separate him from the body of the people. I told him
+      what the same cabals had decided to do, if the President had refused his
+      assent to the bank bill; also what Brockhurst Livingston said to &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;,
+      that Hamilton&rsquo;s life was much more precious to the community than the
+      President&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 1st. Met at the President&rsquo;s, to consider what was to be done
+      with Mr. Genet. All his correspondence with me was read over. The
+      following propositions were made. 1. That a full statement of Mr. Genet&rsquo;s
+      conduct be made in a letter to G. Morris, and be sent with his
+      correspondence, to be communicated to the Executive Council of France; the
+      letter to be so prepared, as to serve for the form of communication to the
+      Council. Agreed unanimously. 2. That in that letter his recall be
+      required. Agreed by all, though I expressed a preference of expressing
+      that desire with great delicacy; the others were for peremptory terms. 3.
+      To send him off. This was proposed by Knox; but rejected by every other.
+      4. To write a letter to Mr. Genet, the same in substance with that written
+      to G. Morris, and let him know we had applied for his recall. I was
+      against this, because I thought it would render him extremely active in
+      his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was overruled by the other three
+      gentlemen and the President. 5. That a publication of the whole
+      correspondence, and statement of the proceedings should be made by way of
+      appeal to the people. Hamilton made a jury speech of three quarters of an
+      hour, as inflammatory and declamatory as if he had been speaking to a
+      jury. E. Randolph opposed it. I chose to leave the contest between them.
+      Adjourned to next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 2nd. Met again. Hamilton spoke again three quarters of an hour.
+      I answered on these topics. Object of the appeal. The democratic society;
+      this the great circumstance of alarm; afraid it would extend its
+      connections over the continent; chiefly meant for the local object of the
+      ensuing election of Governor. If left alone, would die away after that is
+      over. If opposed, if proscribed, would give it importance and vigor; would
+      give it a new object, and multitudes would join it merely to assert the
+      right of voluntary associations. That the measure was calculated to make
+      the President assume the station of the head of a party, instead of the
+      head of the nation. Plan of the appeal. To consist of facts and the
+      decisions of the President. As to facts we are agreed; but as to the
+      decisions, there have been great differences of opinion among us.
+      Sometimes as many opinions as persons. This proves there will be ground to
+      attack the decision. Genet will appeal also; it will become a contest
+      between the President and Genet&mdash;anonymous writers&mdash;will be same
+      difference of opinion in public, as in our cabinet&mdash;will be same
+      difference in Congress, lot it must be laid before them&mdash;would,
+      therefore, work very unpleasantly at home. How would it work abroad?
+      France&mdash;unkind&mdash;after such proofs of her friendship, should rely
+      on that friendship and her justice. Why appeal to the world? Friendly
+      nations always negotiate little differences in private. Never appeal to
+      the world, but when they appeal to the sword. Confederacy of Pilnitz was
+      to overthrow the government of France. The interference of France to
+      disturb other governments and excite insurrections, was a measure of
+      reprisal. Yet these Princes have been able to make it believed to be the
+      system of France. Colonel Hamilton supposes Mr. Genet&rsquo;s proceedings here
+      are in pursuance of that system: and we are so to declare it to the world,
+      and to add our testimony to this base calumny of the Princes. What a
+      triumph to them to be backed by our testimony. What a fatal stroke at the
+      cause of liberty; <i>Et tu, Brute?</i> We indispose the French government,
+      and they will retract their offer of the treaty of commerce. The President
+      manifestly inclined to the appeal to the people.* Knox, in a foolish,
+      incoherent sort of a speech, introduced the pasquinade lately printed,
+      called the funeral of George W&mdash;n and James W&mdash;-n, King and
+      Judge, &amp;c, where the President was placed on a guillotine. The
+      President was much inflamed; got into one of those passions when he cannot
+      command himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed
+      on him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he
+      had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives; that
+      he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of resigning
+      his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he had rather be
+      in his grave than in his present situation; that he had rather be on his
+      farm than to be made Emperor of the world; and yet that they were charging
+      him with wanting to be a King. That that rascal Freneau sent him three of
+      his papers every day, as if he thought he would become the distributor of
+      his papers; that he could see in this, nothing but an impudent design to
+      insult him: he ended in this high tone. There was a pause. Some difficulty
+      in resuming our question; it was, however, after a little while, presented
+      again, and he said there seemed to be no necessity for deciding it now;
+      the propositions before agreed on might be put into a train of execution,
+      and perhaps events would show whether the appeal would be necessary or
+      not. He desired we would meet at my office the next day, to consider what
+      should be done with the vessels armed in our ports by Mr. Genet, and their
+      prizes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him
+     the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into
+     this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the
+     President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and
+     engage for all his connections. The President repeated this
+     twice, and with an air of importance. Now Mr. Morris has no
+     family connections; he engaged then for his political
+     friends. This shows that the President has not confidence
+     enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide
+     in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props
+     necessary.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      August the 3rd. We met. The President wrote to take our opinions, whether
+      Congress should be called. Knox pronounced at once against it. Randolph
+      was against it. Hamilton said his judgment was against it, but that if any
+      two were for it, or against it, he would join them to make a majority. I
+      was for it. We agreed to give separate opinions to the President. Knox
+      said we should have had fine work, if Congress had been sitting these two
+      last months. The fool thus let out the secret. Hamilton endeavored to
+      patch up the indiscretion of this blabber, by saying &lsquo;he did not know; he
+      rather thought they would have strengthened the executive arm.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is evident they do not wish to lengthen the session of the next
+      Congress, and probably they particularly wish it should not meet till
+      Genet is gone. At this meeting I received a letter from Mr. Remsen at New
+      York, informing me of the event of the combat between the Ambuscade and
+      the Boston. Knox broke out into the most unqualified abuse of Captain
+      Courtnay. Hamilton, with less fury, but with the deepest vexation, loaded
+      him with censures. Both showed the most unequivocal mortification at the
+      event.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 6th, 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
+      country, and introduces my letter of July the 31st, announcing that I
+      should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
+      repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased
+      by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had counted:
+      that he did not know where he should look to find characters to fill up
+      the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the department of
+      State, but it required a person conversant in foreign affairs, perhaps
+      acquainted with foreign courts; that without this, the best talents would
+      be awkward and at a loss. He told me that Colonel Hamilton had three or
+      four weeks ago written to him, informing him that private as well as
+      public reasons had brought him to the determination to retire, and that he
+      should do it towards the close of the next session. He said he had often
+      before intimated dispositions to resign, but never as decisively before;
+      that he supposed he had fixed on the latter part of next session, to give
+      an opportunity to Congress to examine into his conduct: that our going out
+      at times so different, increased his difficulty; for if he had both places
+      to fill at once, he might consult both the particular talents and
+      geographical situation of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions
+      at the fermentation which seemed to be working in the mind of the public;
+      that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared
+      to be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to
+      assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first
+      expressions of their sentiment would be important; if I would only stay to
+      the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the particular
+      uneasiness of my situation in this place, where the laws of society oblige
+      me always to move exactly in the circle which I know to bear me peculiar
+      hatred; that is to say, the wealthy aristocrats, the merchants connected
+      closely with England, the new created paper fortunes; that thus
+      surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied, misconstrued, and even
+      fabricated and spread abroad to my injury; that he saw also, that there
+      was such an opposition of views between myself and another part of the
+      administration, as to render it peculiarly unpleasing, and to destroy the
+      necessary harmony. Without knowing the views of what is called the
+      republican party here, or having any communication with them, I could,
+      undertake to assure him, from my intimacy with that party in the late
+      Congress, that there was not a view in the republican party as spread over
+      the United States, which went to the frame of the government; that I
+      believed the next Congress would attempt nothing material, but to render
+      their own body independent; that that party were firm in their
+      dispositions to support the government; that the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet
+      might produce some little embarrassment, but that he would be abandoned by
+      the republicans the moment they knew the nature of his conduct; and on the
+      whole, no crisis existed which threatened any thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, he believed the views of the republican party were perfectly
+      pure, but when men put a machine into motion, it is impossible for them to
+      stop it exactly where they would choose, or to say where it will stop.
+      That the constitution we have is an excellent one, if we can keep it where
+      it is; that it was, indeed, supposed there was a party disposed to change
+      it into a monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously declare
+      there was not a man in the United States who would set his face more
+      decidedly against it than himself. Here I interrupted him by saying, &lsquo;No
+      rational man in the United States suspects you of any other disposition;
+      but there does not pass a week, in which we cannot prove declarations
+      dropping from the monarchical party, that our government is good for
+      nothing, is a milk-and-water thing which cannot support itself, we must
+      knock it down, and set up something of more energy. He said, if that was
+      the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the republican
+      spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was astonishing
+      how any one could expect to move it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr. Madison
+      would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to him such a
+      decision against public office, that he could not expect he would
+      undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said that Mr.
+      Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there was also
+      Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed, that, name
+      whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be called
+      speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to mention any
+      characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson of Maryland
+      had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man of great good
+      sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of speculations: but this,
+      says he, is an instance of what I was observing; with all these
+      qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of familiarity with foreign
+      affairs, would be in them like a fish out of water; every thing would be
+      new to him, and he awkward in every thing. I confessed to him that I had
+      considered Johnson rather as fit for the Treasury department. &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; says
+      he, &lsquo;for that he would be the fittest appointment that could be made; he
+      is a man acquainted with figures, and having as good a knowledge of the
+      resources of this country as any man.&rsquo; I asked him if Chancellor
+      Livingston had occurred to him. He said yes; but he was from New York, and
+      to appoint him while Hamilton was in, and before it should be known he was
+      going out, would excite a newspaper conflagration, as the ultimate
+      arrangement would not be known. He said McLurg had occurred to him as a
+      man of first-rate abilities, but it is said that he is a speculator. He
+      asked me what sort of a man Wolcot was. I told him I knew nothing of him
+      myself; I had heard him characterized as a cunning man. I asked him
+      whether some person could not take my office per interim, till he should
+      make an appointment; as Mr. Randolph, for instance. &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; says he; &lsquo;but
+      there you would raise the expectation of keeping it, and I do not know
+      that he is fit for it, nor what is thought of Mr. Randolph.&rsquo; I avoided
+      noticing the last observation, and he put the question to me directly. I
+      then told him, I went into society so little as to be unable to answer it.
+      I knew that the embarrassments in his private affairs had obliged him to
+      use expedients, which had injured him with the merchants and shop-keepers,
+      and affected his character of independence; that these embarrassments were
+      serious, and not likely to cease soon. He said, if I would only stay in
+      till the end of another quarter (the last of December), it would get us
+      through the difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied that the
+      affairs of Europe would be settled with this campaign: for that either
+      France would be overwhelmed by it, or the confederacy would give up the
+      contest. By that time, too, Congress will have manifested its character
+      and views. I told him that I had set my private affairs in motion in a
+      line which had powerfully called for my presence the last spring, and that
+      they had suffered immensely from my not going home; that I had now
+      calculated them to my return in the fall, and to fail in going then, would
+      be the loss of another year, and prejudicial beyond measure. I asked him
+      whether he could not name Governor Johnson to my office, under an express
+      arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that of the
+      Treasury. He said that men never chose to descend; that being once in a
+      higher department, he would not like to go into a lower one. He asked me
+      whether I could not arrange my affairs by going home. I told him I did not
+      think the public business would admit of it; that there never was a day
+      now, in which the absence of the Secretary of State would not be
+      inconvenient to the public. And he concluded by desiring that I would take
+      two or three days to consider whether I could not stay in till the end of
+      another quarter, for that, like a man going, to the gallows, he was
+      willing to put it off as long as he could; but if I persisted, he must
+      then look about him and make up his mind to do the best he could: and so
+      he took leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 5th, 1793. E. Randolph tells me, that Hamilton, in
+      conversation with him yesterday, said, &lsquo;Sir, if all the people in America
+      were now assembled, and to call on me to say whether I am a friend to the
+      French revolution, I would declare that I have it in abhorrence?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 8th, 1793. At a conference at the President&rsquo;s, where I read
+      several letters of Mr. Genet; on finishing one of them, I asked what
+      should be the answer. The President thereupon took occasion to observe,
+      that Mr. Genet&rsquo;s conduct continued to be of so extraordinary a nature,
+      that he meant to propose to our serious consideration, whether he should
+      not have his functions discontinued, and be ordered away. He went
+      lengthily into observations on his conduct, to raise against the
+      executive, 1. the people, 2. the State governments, 3. the Congress. He
+      showed he felt the venom of Genet&rsquo;s pen, but declared he would not choose
+      his insolence should be regarded any farther, than as might be thought to
+      affect the honor of the country. Hamilton and Knox readily and zealously
+      argued for dismissing Mr. Genet. Randolph opposed it with firmness, and
+      pretty lengthily. The President replied to him lengthily, and concluded by
+      saying he did not wish to have the thing hastily decided, but that we
+      should consider of it, and give our opinions on his return from Reading
+      and Lancaster. Accordingly, November the 18th, we met at his house; read
+      new volumes of Genet&rsquo;s letters, received since the President&rsquo;s departure;
+      then took up the discussion of the subjects of communication to Congress.
+      1. The Proclamation. E. Randolph read the statement he had prepared;
+      Hamilton did not like it; said much about his own views; that the
+      President had a right to declare his opinion to our citizens and foreign
+      nations; that it was not the interest of this country to join in the war,
+      and that we were under no obligation to join in it; that though the
+      declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet the President had a right
+      to give his opinion of it, and he was against any explanation in the
+      speech, which should yield that he did not intend that foreign nations
+      should consider it as a declaration of neutrality, future as well as
+      present; that he understood it as meant to give them that sort of
+      assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now, would be a deception
+      on them. He was for the President&rsquo;s using such expressions, as should
+      neither affirm his right to make such a declaration to foreign nations,
+      nor yield it. Randolph and myself opposed the right of the President to
+      declare any thing future on the question, Shall there or shall there not
+      be a war? and that no such thing was intended; that Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      construction of the effect of the proclamation would have been a
+      determination of the question of the guarantee, which we both denied to
+      have intended, and I had at the time declared the executive incompetent
+      to. Randolph said he meant that foreign nations should understand it as an
+      intimation of the President&rsquo;s opinion, that neutrality would be our
+      interest. I declared my meaning to have been, that foreign nations should
+      understand no such thing; that, on the contrary, I would have chosen them
+      to be doubtful, and to come and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the
+      President, having received the nation at the close of Congress in a state
+      of peace, was bound to preserve them in that state till Congress should
+      meet again, and might proclaim any thing which went no farther. The
+      President declared he never had an idea that he could bind Congress
+      against declaring war, or that any thing contained in his proclamation
+      could look beyond the first day of their meeting. His main view was to
+      keep our people in peace; he apologized for the use of the term neutrality
+      in his answers, and justified it, by having submitted the first of them
+      (that to the merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we
+      had not objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel
+      Hamilton should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it
+      should then be considered. We were here called to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner, the <i>renvoi</i> of Genet was proposed by himself. I
+      opposed it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our
+      friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced where it
+      has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone eighty-four
+      days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and to be relieved by
+      their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it would be eight or ten
+      days before the matter on which the order should be founded, could be
+      selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This would bring us within
+      four or five days of the meeting of Congress. Would it not be better to
+      wait and see how the pulse of that body, new as it is, would beat. They
+      are with us now, probably, but such a step as this may carry many over to
+      Genet&rsquo;s side. Genet will not obey the order, &amp;c. &amp;c. The President
+      asked me what I would do if Genet sent the accusation to us to be
+      communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the letter to Moultrie. I
+      said I would not send it to Congress; but either put it in the newspapers,
+      or send it back to him to be published if he pleased. Other questions and
+      answers were put and returned in a quicker altercation than I ever before
+      saw the President use. Hamilton was for the <i>renvoi</i>; spoke much of
+      the dignity of the nation; that they were now to form their character;
+      that our conduct now would tempt or deter other foreign ministers from
+      treating us in the same manner; touched on the President&rsquo;s personal
+      feelings; did not believe France would make it a cause of war; if she did,
+      we ought to do what was right, and meet the consequences, &amp;c. Knox on
+      the same side, and said he thought it very possible Mr. Genet would either
+      declare us a department of France, or levy troops here and endeavor to
+      reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my opinion, and argued chiefly on the
+      resurrection of popularity to Genet, which might be produced by this
+      measure. That at present he was dead in the public opinion, if we would
+      but leave him so. The President lamented there was not unanimity among us;
+      that as it was, we had left him exactly where we found him; and so it
+      ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 21st. We met at the President&rsquo;s. The manner of explaining to
+      Congress the intentions of the proclamation, was the matter of debate.
+      Randolph produced his way of stating it. This expressed its views to have
+      been, 1. to keep our citizens quiet; 2. to intimate to foreign nations
+      that it was the President&rsquo;s opinion, that the interests and dispositions
+      of this country were for peace. Hamilton produced his statement, in which
+      he declared his intention to be, to say nothing which could be laid hold
+      of for any purpose; to leave the proclamation to explain itself. He
+      entered pretty fully into all the argumentation of Pacificus; he justified
+      the right of the President to declare his opinion for a future neutrality,
+      and that there existed no circumstances to oblige the United States to
+      enter into the war on account of the guarantee; and that in agreeing to
+      the proclamation, he meant it to be understood as conveying both those
+      declarations; viz. neutrality, and that the <i>casus foederis</i> on the
+      guarantee did not exist. He admitted the Congress might declare war,
+      notwithstanding these declarations of the President. In like manner, they
+      might declare war in the face of a treaty, and in direct infraction of it.
+      Among other positions laid down by him, this was with great positiveness;
+      that the constitution having given power to the President and Senate to
+      make treaties, they might make a treaty of neutrality which should take
+      from Congress the right to declare war in that particular case, and that
+      under the form of a treaty they might exercise any powers whatever, even
+      those exclusively given by the constitution to the House of
+      Representatives. Randolph opposed this position, and seemed to think that
+      where they undertook to do acts by treaty (as to settle a tariff of
+      duties), which were exclusively given to the legislature, that an act of
+      the legislature would be necessary to confirm them, as happens in England,
+      when a treaty interferes with duties established by law. I insisted that
+      in giving to the President and Senate a power to make treaties, the
+      constitution meant only to authorize them to carry into effect, by way of
+      treaty, any powers they might constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of
+      the weak points in this position, but there were still weaker in the other
+      hypothesis; and if it be impossible to discover a rational measure of
+      authority to have been given by this clause, I would rather suppose that
+      the cases which my hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not thought of
+      by the convention, or if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were
+      thought of and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. Of
+      this last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties offensive and
+      defensive, &amp;c. In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as
+      to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would
+      agree to yield, than too broadly, and, indeed, so broadly as to enable the
+      executive and Senate to do things which the constitution forbids. On the
+      question, which form of explaining the principles of the proclamation
+      should be adopted, I declared for Randolph&rsquo;s, though it gave to that
+      instrument more objects than I had contemplated. Knox declared for
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s. The President said he had had but one object, the keeping our
+      people quiet till Congress should meet; that nevertheless, to declare he
+      did not mean a declaration of neutrality, in the technical sense of the
+      phrase, might perhaps be crying <i>peccavi</i> before he was charged.
+      However, he did not decide between the two draughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 23rd. At the President&rsquo;s. Present, Knox, Randolph, and Th:
+      Jefferson. Subject, the heads of the speech. One was, a proposition to
+      Congress to fortify the principal harbors. I opposed the expediency of the
+      General Government&rsquo;s undertaking it, and the expediency of the President&rsquo;s
+      proposing it. It was amended, by substituting a proposition to adopt means
+      for enforcing respect to the jurisdiction of the United States within its
+      waters. It was proposed to recommend the establishment of a military
+      academy. I objected that none of the specified powers given by the
+      constitution to Congress, would authorize this. It was, therefore,
+      referred for further consideration and inquiry. Knox was for both
+      propositions. Randolph against the former, but said nothing as to the
+      latter. The President acknowledged he had doubted of the expediency of
+      undertaking the former; and as to the latter, though it would be a good
+      thing, he did not wish to bring on any thing which might generate heat and
+      ill-humor. It was agreed that Randolph should draw the speech and the
+      messages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 28th. Met at the President&rsquo;s. I read over a list of the
+      papers copying, to be communicated to Congress on the subject of Mr.
+      Genet. It was agreed that Genet&rsquo;s letter of August the 13th to the
+      President, mine of August the 16th, and Genet&rsquo;s of November to myself and
+      the Attorney General, desiring a prosecution of Jay and King, should not
+      be sent to the legislature: on a general opinion, that the discussion of
+      the fact certified by Jay and King had better be left to the channel of
+      the newspapers, and in the private hands in which it now is, than for the
+      President to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion of it in Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Randolph had prepared a draught of the speech. The clause recommending
+      fortifications was left out; but that for a military academy was inserted.
+      I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitution. Hamilton and Knox
+      approved it without discussion. Randolph was for it, saying that the words
+      of the constitution anthorizing Congress to lay taxes, &amp;c. for the
+      common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he would not
+      choose to recommend any thing against the constitution, but if it was
+      doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure, that he
+      would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves whether the
+      constitution authorized it or not. It was, therefore, left in. I was happy
+      to see that Randolph had, by accident, used the expression &lsquo;our republic,&rsquo;
+      in the speech. The President, however, made no objection to it, and so, as
+      much as it had disconcerted him on a former occasion with me, it was now
+      put into his own mouth to be pronounced to the two Houses of legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No material alterations were proposed or made in any part of the draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner, I produced the draught of messages on the subject of France
+      and England, proposing that that relative to Spain should be subsequent
+      and secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton objected to the draught in toto; said that the contrast drawn
+      between the conduct of France and England amounted to a declaration of
+      war; he denied that France had ever done us favors; that it was mean for a
+      nation to acknowledge favors; that the dispositions of the people of this
+      country towards France, he considered as a serious calamity; that the
+      executive ought not, by an echo of this language, to nourish that
+      disposition in the people; that the offers in commerce made us by France,
+      were the offspring of the moment, of circumstances which would not last,
+      and it was wrong to receive as permanent, things merely temporary; that he
+      could demonstrate that Great Britain showed us more favors than France. In
+      complaisance to him I whittled down the expressions without opposition;
+      struck out that of &lsquo;favors ancient and recent&rsquo; from France; softened some
+      terms, and omitted some sentiments respecting Great Britain. He still was
+      against the whole, but insisted that, at any rate, it should be a secret
+      communication, because the matters it stated were still depending. These
+      were, 1. the inexecution of the treaty; 2. the restraining our commerce to
+      their own ports and those of their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every
+      thing. Randolph was for the communications; that the documents respecting
+      the first should be given in as public; but that those respecting the
+      second should not be given to the legislature at all, but kept secret. I
+      began to tremble now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. I
+      urged, especially, the duty now incumbent on the President, to lay before
+      the legislature and the public what had passed on the inexecution of the
+      treaty, since Mr. Hammond&rsquo;s answer of this month might be considered as
+      the last we should ever have; that, therefore, it could no longer be
+      considered as a negotiation pending. I urged that the documents respecting
+      the stopping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that if it should be
+      thought better to withhold them, the restrictions should not go to those
+      respecting the treaty; that neither of these subjects was more in a state
+      of pendency than the recall of Mr. Genet, on which, nevertheless, no
+      scruples had been expressed. The President took up the subject with more
+      vehemence than I have seen him show, and decided without reserve, that not
+      only what had passed on the inexecution of the treaty should go in as
+      public (in which Hamilton and Knox had divided in opinion from Randolph
+      and myself), but also that those respecting the stopping our corn should
+      go in as public (wherein Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph had been against
+      me.) This was the first instance I had seen of his deciding on the opinion
+      of one against that of three others, which proved his own to have been
+      very strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 1st, 1793. Beckley tells me he had the following fact from
+      Lear. Langdon, Cabot, and some others of the Senate, standing in a knot
+      before the fire after the Senate had adjourned, and growling together
+      about some measure which they had just lost; &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Cabot, &lsquo;things
+      will never go right till you have a President for life, and an hereditary
+      Senate.&rsquo; Langdon told this to Lear, who mentioned it to the President. The
+      President seemed struck with it, and declared he had not supposed there
+      was a man in the United States who could have entertained such an idea.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      March the 2nd, 1797. I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as
+      Vice-President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who lodged at
+      Francis&rsquo;s, in Fourth street. The next morning he returned my visit at Mr.
+      Madison&rsquo;s, where I lodged. He found me alone in my room, and shutting the
+      door himself, he said he was glad to find me alone, for that he wished a
+      free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an explanation of the
+      situation of our affairs with France, and the danger of rupture with that
+      nation, a rupture which would convulse the attachments of this country;
+      that he was impressed with the necessity of an immediate mission to the
+      Directory; that it would have been the first wish of his heart to have got
+      me to go there, but that he supposed it was out of the question, as it did
+      not seem justifiable for him to send away the person destined to take his
+      place in case of accident to himself, nor decent to remove from
+      competition one who was a rival in the public favor. That he had,
+      therefore, concluded to send a mission, which, by its dignity, should
+      satisfy France, and by its selection from the three great divisions of the
+      continent, should satisfy all parts of the United States; in short, that
+      he had determined to join Gerry and Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me
+      to consult Mr. Madison for him. I told him that, as to myself, I concurred
+      in the opinion of the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned me, and
+      that my inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross the
+      Atlantic again; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. Madison, but I
+      feared it was desperate, as he had refused that mission on my leaving it,
+      in General Washington&rsquo;s time, though it was kept open a twelvemonth for
+      him. He said that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint
+      him, and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madison, who
+      declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday the 6th of March, Mr.
+      Adams and myself met at dinner at General Washington&rsquo;s, and we happened,
+      in the evening, to rise from table and come away together. As soon as we
+      got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr.
+      Madison. He immediately said, that, on consultation, some objections to
+      that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was
+      going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to
+      Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street, mine
+      off along Fifth, and we took leave: and he never after that said one word
+      to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures of the
+      government. The opinion I formed at the time on this transaction was, that
+      Mr. Adams, in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the occasion (his
+      inauguration), forgot party sentiments, and, as he never acted on any
+      system, but was always governed by the feeling of the moment, he thought,
+      for a moment, to steer impartially between the parties; that Monday, the
+      6th of March, being the first time he had met his cabinet, on expressing
+      ideas of this kind, he had been at once diverted from them, and returned
+      to his former party views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
+      Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
+      Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
+      Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, &lsquo;<i>Mais vraiment, Monsieur
+      Hamilton, ce n&rsquo;est pas Men honnete</i>, after making the Senate ratify the
+      treaty, to advise the President to reject it.&rsquo; &lsquo;The treaty,&rsquo; says
+      Hamilton, &lsquo;is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making it;
+      but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the President.&rsquo;
+      After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the President also must
+      ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, &lsquo;Though the treaty is a most
+      execrable one, yet when once we have come to a determination on it, we
+      must carry it through thick and thin, right or wrong.&rsquo; Talleyrand told
+      this to Volney, who told it to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
+      dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton. He
+      was in Philadelphia at that date.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election of
+      President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
+      considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
+      occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
+      Adams, who gritting his teeth, said, &lsquo;Damn &lsquo;em, damn &lsquo;em, damn &lsquo;em, you
+      see that an elective government will not do.&rsquo; He also tells me that Mr.
+      Adams, in a late conversation,said,&rsquo; Republicanism must be disgraced,
+      &lsquo;Sir.&rsquo; The Chevalier Yrujo called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
+      French affairs, and Yrujo expressing his belief of their stability, in
+      opposition to Mr. Adamses, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger at
+      him, said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what, the French republic will not last three
+      months.&rsquo; This I had from Yrujo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
+      friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of their
+      monarch. &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; says a by-stander, &lsquo;the best thing we could do, I
+      suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the United
+      States.&rsquo; &lsquo;Qur people,&rsquo; says Harper, &lsquo;are not yet ripe for it, but it is
+      the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.&rsquo; Something like
+      this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the public
+      papers, though it can be proved by several members.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton went
+      out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his last
+      conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their differences,
+      &lsquo;For my part,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;I avow myself a monarchist; I have no objection
+      to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,&rsquo; &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in our
+      history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our present
+      government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New York and
+      the eastern States, among that description of people who were partly
+      monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays&rsquo;s rebellion and the
+      impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had actually
+      had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of a government,
+      and establishing them by force; had corresponded with one another, and had
+      sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his co-operation. He
+      refused to join them. The new convention was in the mean time proposed by
+      Virginia and appointed. These people believed it impossible the States
+      should ever agree on a government, as this must include the impost and all
+      the other powers which the States had, a thousand times, refused to the
+      general authority. They therefore let the proposed convention go on, not
+      doubting its failure, and confiding that on its failure would be a still
+      more favorable moment for their enterprise. They therefore wished it to
+      fail, and especially, when Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his
+      plan of government, failed entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust
+      from the convention. His associates then took every method to prevent any
+      form of government being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased
+      trying, first one thing, then another, till they could get something
+      agreed to. The final passage and adoption of the constitution completely
+      defeated the views of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to
+      establish a government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light
+      on the conduct of several members from New York and the eastern States in
+      the convention of Annapolis, and the grand convention. At that of
+      Annapolis, several eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison&rsquo;s
+      proposition for a more general convention, with more general powers. They
+      wished things to get more and more into confusion, to justify the violent
+      measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by reasoning
+      and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project, visionary
+      and unexampled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 6th, 1798. Mr. Baldwin tells me, that in a conversation
+      yesterday with Goodhue, on the state of our affairs, Goodhue said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      tell you what, I have made up my mind on this subject; I would rather the
+      old ship should go down than not&rsquo;; (meaning the Union of the States.) Mr.
+      Hillhouse coming up, &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; says Mr. Baldwin, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll tell my old friend
+      Hillhouse what you say &lsquo;; and he told him. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; says Goodhue, &lsquo;I
+      repeat, that I would rather the old ship should go down, if we are to be
+      always kept pumping so.&rsquo; &lsquo;Mr. Hillhouse,&rsquo; says Baldwin, &lsquo;you remember when
+      we were learning logic together at school, there was the case categorical
+      and the case hypothetical. Mr. Goodhue stated it to me first as the case
+      categorical. I am glad to see that he now changes it to the case
+      hypothetical, by adding, &lsquo;if we are always to be kept pumping so.&rsquo; Baldwin
+      went on then to remind Goodhue what an advocate he had been for our
+      tonnage duty, wanting to make it one dollar instead of fifty cents; and
+      how impatiently he bore the delays of Congress in proceeding to retaliate
+      on Great Britain before Mr. Madison&rsquo;s propositions came on. Goodhue
+      acknowledged that his opinions had changed since that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 15th, 1798. I dined this day with Mr. Adams, (the President.)
+      The company was large. After dinner I was sitting next to him, and our
+      conversation was first on the enormous price of labor,* house rent, and
+      other things. We both concurred in ascribing it chiefly to the flood of
+      bank paper now afloat, and in condemning those institutions. We then got
+      on the constitution; and in the course of our conversation he said, that
+      no republic could ever last which had not a Senate, and a Senate deeply
+      and strongly rooted, strong enough to bear up against all popular storms
+      and passions; that he thought our Senate as well constituted as it could
+      have been, being chosen by the legislatures; for if these could not
+      support them, he did not know what could do it; that perhaps it might have
+      been as well for them to be chosen by the State at large, as that would
+      insure a choice of distinguished men, since none but such could be known
+      to a whole people; that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not
+      durable enough; that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was
+      afraid they would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular
+      assembly for the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera
+      imaginable; they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that
+      he would as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety,
+      who made the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been
+      observed by some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more
+      mischief in one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we
+      might say with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one
+      night, than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or
+      thirty years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of
+      the constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
+      two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
+      conduct they pursue.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
+     fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
+     food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
+     dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for the
+      British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower House,
+      there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of committees of
+      the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want of them, he, in
+      his place, called on the committees to report, and particularly on Mr.
+      King, who was of most of them. King said that it was true the committees
+      kept back their reports, waiting the event of the question about
+      appropriation: that if that was not carried, they considered legislation
+      as at an end; that they might as well break up and consider the Union as
+      dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment at these ideas, and called
+      on King to know if he had misapprehended him. King rose again and repeated
+      the same words. The next day, Cabot took an occasion in debate, and so
+      awkward a one as to show it was a thing agreed to be done, to repeat the
+      same sentiments in stronger terms, and carried further, by declaring a
+      determination on their side to break up and dissolve the government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th. In conversation with Baldwin and Brown of Kentucky, Brown
+      says that in a private company once, consisting of Hamilton, King,
+      Madison, himself, and some one else making a fifth, speaking of the
+      &lsquo;federal government&rsquo;; &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; says Hamilton, &lsquo;say the federal monarchy; let
+      us call things by their right names, for a monarchy it is.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Baldwin mentions at table the following fact. When the bank bill was under
+      discussion in the House of Representatives, Judge Wilson came in, and was
+      standing by Baldwin. Baldwin reminded him of the following fact which
+      passed in the grand convention. Among the enumerated powers given to
+      Congress, was one to erect corporations. It was on debate struck out.
+      Several particular powers were then proposed. Among others, Robert Morris
+      proposed to give Congress a power to establish a national bank. Gouverneur
+      Morris opposed it, observing that it was extremely doubtful whether the
+      constitution they were framing could ever be passed at all by the people
+      of America; that to give it its best chance, however, they should make it
+      as palatable as possible and put nothing into it not very essential, which
+      might raise up enemies; that his colleague (Robert Morris) well knew that
+      &lsquo;a bank&rsquo; was, in their State (Pennsylvania) the very watch-word of party;
+      that a bank had been the great bone of contention between the two parties
+      of the State, from the establishment of their constitution, having been
+      erected, put down, and erected again, as either party preponderated; that
+      therefore, to insert this power, would instantly enlist against the whole
+      instrument, the whole of the anti-bank party in Pennsylvania. Whereupon it
+      was rejected, as was every other special power, except that of giving
+      copyrights to authors, and patents to inventors; the general power of
+      incorporating being whittled down to this shred. Wilson agreed to the
+      fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hunter of South Carolina, who lodges with Rutledge, [* J. Rutledge,
+      junior] tells me, that Rutledge was explaining to him the plan they
+      proposed to pursue as to war measures, when Otis came in. Rutledge
+      addressed Otis. &lsquo;Now, Sir,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;you must come forward with something
+      liberal for the southern States, fortify their harbors and build galleys,
+      in order to obtain their concurrence.&rsquo; Otis said, &lsquo;We insist on convoys
+      for our European trade, and <i>guarda-costas</i>, on which condition
+      alone, we will give them galleys and fortifications.&rsquo; Rutledge observed,
+      that in the event of war, McHenry and Pickering must go out; Wolcott, he
+      thought, might remain, but the others were incapable of conducting a war.
+      Otis said the eastern people would never abandon Pickering; he must be
+      retained; McHenry might go. They considered together whether General
+      Pinckney would accept the office of Secretary of War. They apprehended he
+      would not. It was agreed in this conversation, that Sewall had more the
+      ear of the President than any other person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 12th. When the bill for appropriations was before the Senate,
+      Anderson moved to strike out a clause recognising (by way of
+      appropriation) the appointment of a committee by the House of
+      Representatives, to sit during their recess to collect evidence on
+      Blount&rsquo;s case, denying they had power, but by a law, to authorize a
+      committee to sit during recess. Tracy advocated the motion, and said, &lsquo;We
+      may as well speak out. The committee was appointed by the House of
+      Representatives, to take care of the British minister, to take care of the
+      Spanish minister, to take care of the Secretary of State, in short, to
+      take care of the President of the United States. They were afraid the
+      President and Secretary of State would not perform the office of
+      collecting evidence faithfully; that there would be collusion, &amp;c.
+      Therefore, the House appointed a committee of their own. We shall have
+      them next sending a committee to Europe to make a treaty, &amp;c. Suppose
+      that the House of Representatives should resolve, that after the
+      adjournment of Congress, they should continue to sit as a committee of the
+      whole House during the whole recess.&rsquo; This shows how the appointment of
+      that committee has been viewed by the President&rsquo;s friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 5th. Doctor Rush tells me he had it from Mrs. Adams, that not a
+      scrip of a pen has passed between the late and present President, since he
+      came into office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 13th. New instructions of the British government to their armed
+      ships now appear, which clearly infringe their treaty with us, by
+      authorizing them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French
+      colonies from those colonies to Europe, and to lake vessels bound to a
+      blockaded port. See them in Brown&rsquo;s paper, of April the 18th, in due form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President has sent a government brig to France, probably to carry
+      despatches. He has chosen as the bearer of these, one Humphreys, the son
+      of a ship-carpenter, ignorant, under age, not speaking a word of French,
+      most abusive of that nation; whose only merit is, the having mobbed and
+      beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted
+      and punished by fine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 25th. At a dinner given by the bar to the federal judges, Chase
+      and Peters, present about twenty-four lawyers, and William Tilghman in the
+      chair, this toast was given; &lsquo;Our <i>King</i> in old England.&rsquo; Observe the
+      double entendre on the word King. Du Ponceau, who was one of the bar
+      present, told this to Tench Coxe, who told me in presence of H. Tazewell.
+      Dallas was at the dinner; so was Colonel Charles Sims of Alexandria, who
+      is here on a law-suit vs. General Irving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 3rd. The President some time ago appointed Steele, of Virginia, a
+      commissioner to the Indians, and recently Secretary of the Mississippi
+      Territory. Steele was a Counsellor of Virginia, and was voted out by the
+      Assembly because he turned tory. He then offered for Congress, and was
+      rejected by the people. Then offered for the Senate of Virginia, and was
+      rejected. The President has also appointed Joseph Hopkinson commissioner
+      to make a treaty with the Oneida Indians. He is a youth of about
+      twenty-two or twenty-three, and has no other claims to such an appointment
+      than extreme toryism, and the having made a poor song to the tune of the
+      President&rsquo;s March.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October the 13th, 1798. Littlepage, who has been on one or two missions
+      from Poland to Spain, said that when Gardoqui returned from America, he
+      settled with his court an account of secret service money, of six hundred
+      thousand dollars. <i>Ex relatione</i> Colonel Monroe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January, 1799. In a conversation between Doctor Ewen and the President,
+      the former said one of his sons was an aristocrat, the other a democrat.
+      The President asked if it were not the youngest who was the democrat.
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Ewen. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said the President, &lsquo;a boy of fifteen who is not
+      a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at
+      twenty.&rsquo; Ewen told Hurt, and Hurt told me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 14th. Logan tells me that in his conversation with Pickering
+      on his arrival, the latter abused Gerry very much; said he was a traitor
+      to his country, and had deserted the post to which he was appointed; that
+      the French temporized at first with Pinckney, but found him too much of a
+      man for their purpose. Logan observing, that, notwithstanding the pacific
+      declarations of France, it might still be well to keep up. the military
+      ardor of our citizens, and to have the militia in good order: &lsquo;The
+      militia,&rsquo; said Pickering, &lsquo;the militia never did any good to this country,
+      except in the single affair of Bunker&rsquo;s Hill; that we must have a standing
+      army of fifty thousand men, which being stationed in different parts of
+      the continent, might serve as rallying points for the militia, and so
+      render them of some service.&rsquo; In his conversation with Mr. Adams, Logan
+      mentioned the willingness of the French to treat with Gerry. &lsquo;And do you
+      know why,&rsquo; said Mr. Adams. &lsquo;Why, Sir?&rsquo; said Logan. &lsquo;Because,&rsquo; said Mr.
+      Adams, &lsquo;they know him to have been an anti-federalist, against the
+      constitution.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 2nd, 1800. Information from Tench Coxe. Mr. Liston had sent
+      two letters to the Governor of Canada by one Sweezy. He had sent copies of
+      them, together with a third, (original) by one Cribs. Sweezy was arrested
+      (being an old horse-thief), and his papers examined. T. Coxe had a sight
+      of them. As soon as a rumor got out that there were letters of Mr. Liston
+      disclosed, but no particulars yet mentioned, Mr. Liston suspecting that
+      Cribs had betrayed him, thought it best to bring all his three letters,
+      and lay them before Pickering, Secretary of State. Pickering thought them
+      all very innocent. In his office they were seen by Mr. Hodgen of New
+      Jersey, commissary of military stores, and the intimate friend of
+      Pickering. It happens that there is some land partnership between
+      Pickering, Hodgen, and Coxe, so that the latter is freely and intimately
+      visited by Hodgen, who, moreover, speaks freely with him on political
+      subjects. They were talking the news of the day, when Mr. Coxe observed
+      that these intercepted letters of Liston were serious things; (nothing
+      being yet out but a general rumor.) Hodgen asked which he thought the most
+      serious. Coxe said the second; (for he knew yet of no other.) Hodgen said
+      he thought little of any of them, but that the third was the most
+      exceptionable. This struck Coxe, who, not betraying his ignorance of a
+      third letter, asked generally what part of that he alluded to. Hodgen said
+      to that wherein he assured the Governor of Canada, that if the French
+      invaded Canada, an army would be marched from these States to his
+      assistance. After this it became known that it was Sweezy who was
+      arrested, and not Cribs; so that Mr. Liston had made an unnecessary
+      disclosure of his third letter to Mr. Pickering, who, however, keeps his
+      secret for him. In the beginning of the conversation between Hodgen and
+      Coxe, Coxe happened to name Sweezy as the bearer of the letters. &lsquo;That &lsquo;s
+      not his name,&rsquo; says Hodgen, (for he did not know that two of the letters
+      had been sent by Sweezy also) &lsquo;his name is Cribs.&rsquo; This put Coxe on his
+      guard, and set him to fishing for the new matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 10th. Doctor Rush tells me, that he had it from Samuel Lyman,
+      that during the X. Y. Z. Congress, the federal members held the largest
+      caucus they have ever had, at which he was present, and the question was
+      proposed and debated, whether they should declare war against France, and
+      determined in the negative. Lyman was against it. He tells me, that Mr.
+      Adams told him, that when he came on in the fall to Trenton, he was there
+      surrounded constantly by the opponents of the late mission to France. That
+      Hamilton pressing him to delay it, said, &lsquo;Why, Sir, by Christmas, Louis
+      the XVIII. will be seated on his throne.&rsquo; Mr. A. &lsquo;By whom?&rsquo; H. &lsquo;By the
+      coalition.&rsquo; Mr. A. &lsquo;Ah! then farewell to the independence of Europe. If a
+      coalition, moved by the finger of England, is to give a government to
+      France, there is an end to the independence of every country.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 12th. General Samuel Smith says that Pickering, Wolcott, and
+      McHenry, wrote a joint letter from Trenton to the President, then at
+      Braintree, dissuading him from the mission to France. Stoddard refused to
+      join it. Stoddard says the instructions are such, that if the Directory
+      have any disposition to reconciliation, a treaty will be made. He observed
+      to him also, that Ellsworth looks beyond this mission to the Presidential
+      chair. That with this view, he will endeavor to make a treaty, and a good
+      one. That Davie has the same vanity and views. All this communicated by
+      Stoddard to S. Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 13th. Baer and Harrison G. Otis told J. Nicholas, that in the
+      caucus mentioned ante 10th, there wanted but five votes to produce a
+      declaration of war. Baer was against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 19th. W. C. Nicholas tells me, that in a conversation with
+      Dexter three or four days ago, he asked Dexter whether it would not be
+      practicable for the States to agree on some uniform mode of choosing
+      electors of President. Dexter said, &lsquo;I suppose you would prefer an
+      election by districts.&rsquo; &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Nicholas, &lsquo;I think it would be best;
+      but would nevertheless agree to any other consistent with the
+      constitution.&rsquo; Dexter said he did not know what might be the opinion of
+      his State, but his own was, that no mode of election would answer any good
+      purpose; that he should prefer one for life. &lsquo;On that reasoning,&rsquo; said
+      Nicholas, &lsquo;you should prefer an hereditary one.&rsquo; &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;we are
+      not ripe for that yet. I suppose,&rsquo; added he, &lsquo;this doctrine is not very
+      popular with you.&rsquo; &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Nicholas, &lsquo;it would effectually damn any man
+      in my State.&rsquo; &lsquo;So it would in mine,&rsquo; said Dexter; &lsquo;but I am under no
+      inducement to belie my sentiment; I have nothing to ask from any body; I
+      had rather be at home than here, therefore I speak my sentiments freely.&rsquo;
+      Mr. Nicholas, a little before or after this, made the same proposition of
+      a uniform election to Rossr who replied that he saw no good in any kind of
+      election. &lsquo;Perhaps,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;the present one may last a while.&rsquo; On the
+      whole, Mr. Nicholas thinks he perceives, in that party, a willingness and
+      a wish to let every thing go from bad to worse, to amend nothing, in hopes
+      it may bring on confusion, and open a door to the kind of government they
+      wish. In a conversation with Gunn, who goes with them, but thinks in some
+      degree with us, Gunn told him that the very game which the minority of
+      Pennsylvania is now playing with McKean (see substitute of minority in
+      lower House, and address of Senate in upper), was meditated by the same
+      party in the federal government, in case of the election of a republican
+      President; and that the eastern States would in that case throw things
+      into confusion, and break the Union. That they have in a great degree got
+      rid of their paper, so as no longer to be creditors, and the moment they
+      cease to enjoy the plunder of the immense appropriations now exclusively
+      theirs, they would aim at some other order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 24th. Mr. Smith, a merchant of Hamburg, gives me the following
+      information. The St. Andrew&rsquo;s Club, of New York, (all of Scotch tories,)
+      gave a public dinner lately. Among other guests Alexander Hamilton was
+      one. After dinner, the first toast was &lsquo;The President of the United
+      States.&rsquo; It was drunk without any particular approbation. The next was,
+      &lsquo;George the Third.&rsquo; Hamilton started up on his feet, and insisted on a
+      bumper and three cheers. The whole company accordingly rose and gave the
+      cheers. One of them, though a federalist, was so disgusted at the
+      partiality shown by Hamilton to a foreign sovereign over his own
+      President, that he mentioned it to a Mr. Schwart-house, an American
+      merchant of New York, who mentioned it to Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Smith also tells me, that calling one evening on Mr. Evans, then
+      Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and asking the
+      news, Evans said, Harper had just been there, and speaking of the
+      President&rsquo;s setting out to Braintree, said, &lsquo;he prayed to God that his
+      horses might run away with him, or some other accident happen to break his
+      neck before he reached Braintree.&rsquo; This was in indignation at his having
+      named Murray, &amp;c. to negotiate with France. Evans approved of the
+      wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 1st. Doctor Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green, that
+      when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the
+      government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had never, on
+      any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the
+      Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address, as
+      to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or
+      not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for
+      them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that,
+      which he passed over without notice. Rush observes, he never did say a
+      word on the subject in any of his public papers, except in his valedictory
+      letter to the Governors of the States when he resigned his commission in
+      the army, wherein he speaks of &lsquo;the benign influence of the Christian
+      religion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
+      believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
+      believed no more of that system than he himself did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March, 1800. Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate, on the motion
+      against the Aurora. That there is in every legal body of men a right of
+      self-preservation, authorizing them to do whatever is necessary for that
+      purpose: by Tracy, Read, and Lawrence. That the common law authorizes the
+      proceeding proposed against the Aurora, and is in force here: by Read.
+      That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite: by Read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tracy says, he would not say exactly that the common law of England in all
+      its extent is in force here; but common sense reason, and morality, which
+      are the foundations of the common law, are in force here, and establish a
+      common law. He held himself so nearly half way between the common law of
+      England and what every body else has called natural law, and not common
+      law, that he could hold to either the one or the other, as he should find
+      expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
+      in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life had,
+      directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which is an
+      absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty well
+      ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on Davila.
+      This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though long and
+      universally understood to be so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws in
+      his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney&rsquo;s letters on Robbins&rsquo;s case.
+      Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of that
+      place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to about
+      one hundred dollars a year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that Thatcher,
+      on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had been for a
+      declaration of war against France, and many others also; but that on
+      counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore did not
+      attempt it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information. He
+      and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found him
+      keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the study of
+      the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator, and
+      particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still were in
+      concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed him there
+      was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the government,
+      who were in league with France; that France, by a secret article of treaty
+      with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great Britain was likely to be
+      our best friend and dependence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
+      for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
+      General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on him, and
+      he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on their grievances
+      under the government, and particularly the western expedition; that he
+      spoke to him of the advantages that country would have in joining France
+      when she should hold Louisiana; showed him a map he had drawn of that part
+      of the country; pointed out the passes in the mountain, and the facility
+      with which they might hold them against the United States, and with which
+      France could support them from New Orleans. He says, that in these
+      conversations, Collot let himself out without common prudence. He says,
+      Michaux (to whom I, at the request of Genet, had given a letter of
+      introduction to the Governor of Kentucky as a botanist, which was his real
+      profession,) called on him; that Michaux had a commissary&rsquo;s commission for
+      the expedition, which Genet had planned from that quarter against the
+      Spaniards; that &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, the late Spanish
+      commandant of St. Genevieve, with one Powers, an Englishman, called on
+      him. That from all these circumstances, together with Ross&rsquo;s stories, he
+      did believe that there was a conspiracy to deliver our country, or some
+      part of it at least, to the French; that he made notes of what passed
+      between himself and Collot and the others, and lent them to Mr. Ross, who
+      gave them to the President, by whom they were deposited in the office of
+      the Board of War; that when he complained to Ross of this breach of
+      confidence, he endeavored to get off by compliments on the utility and
+      importance of his notes. They now cooled towards each other; and his
+      opposition to Ross&rsquo;s election as Governor has separated them in truth,
+      though not entirely to appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Rush tells me, that within a few days he has heard a member of
+      Congress lament our separation from Great Britain, and express his sincere
+      wishes that we were again dependent on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 25th, 1800. Colonel Hitchburn tells me what Colonel Monroe
+      had before told me of, as coming from Hitchburn. He was giving me the
+      characters of persons in Massachusetts. Speaking of Lowell, he said he
+      was, in the beginning of the Revolution, a timid whig, but as soon as he
+      found we were likely to prevail, he became a great office-hunter. And in
+      the very breath of speaking of Lowell, he stopped: says he, I will give
+      you a piece of information which I do not venture to speak of to others.
+      There was a Mr. Hale in Massachusetts, a reputable, worthy man, who
+      becoming a little embarrassed in his affairs, I aided him, which made him
+      very friendly to me. He went to Canada on some business. The Governor
+      there took great notice of him. On his return, he took occasion to mention
+      to me that he was authorized by the Governor of Canada to give from three
+      to five thousand guineas each to himself and some others, to induce them
+      not to do any thing to the injury of their country, but to befriend a good
+      connection between England and it. Hitchburn said he would think of it,
+      and asked Hale to come and dine with him to-morrow. After dinner he drew
+      Hale fully out. He told him he had his doubts, but particularly, that he
+      should not like to be alone in such a business. On that, Hale named to him
+      four others who were to be engaged, two of whom, said Hitchburn, are now
+      dead, and two living. Hitchburn, when he had got all he wanted out of
+      Hale, declined in a friendly way. But he observed those, four men, from
+      that moment, to espouse the interests of England in every point and on
+      every occasion. Though he did not name the men to me, yet as the speaking
+      of Lowell was what brought into his Read to tell me this anecdote, I
+      concluded he was one. From other circumstances respecting Stephen
+      Higginson, of whom he spoke, I conjectured him to be the other living one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 26th. In another conversation, I mentioned to Colonel
+      Hitchburn, that though he had not named names, I had strongly suspected
+      Higginson to be one of Hale&rsquo;s men. He smiled and said, if I had strongly
+      suspected any man wrongfully from his information, he would undeceive me:
+      that there were no persons he thought more strongly to be suspected
+      himself, than Higginson and Lowell. I considered this as saying they were
+      the men. Higginson is employed in an important business about our navy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 12th, 1801. Edward Livingston tells me, that Bayard applied
+      to-day or last night to General Samuel Smith, and represented to him the
+      expediency of his coming over to the States who vote for Burr, that there
+      was nothing in the way of appointment which he might not command, and
+      particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. Smith asked him if
+      he was authorized to make the offer. He said he was authorized. Smith told
+      this to Livingston, and to W. C. Nicholas, who confirms it to me. Bayard
+      in like manner tempted Livingston, not by offering any particular office,
+      but by representing to him his (Livingston&rsquo;s) intimacy and connection with
+      Burr; that from him he had every thing to expect, if he would come over to
+      him. To Doctor Linn of New Jersey, they have offered the government of New
+      Jersey. See a paragraph in Martin&rsquo;s Baltimore paper of February the 10th,
+      signed, &lsquo;a looker on,&rsquo; staling an intimacy of views between Harper and
+      Burr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 14th. General Armstrong tells me, that Gouverneur Morris, in
+      conversation with him to-day on the scene which is passing, expressed
+      himself thus. &lsquo;How comes it,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;that Burr, who is four hundred
+      miles off (at Albany), has agents here at work with great activity, while
+      Mr. Jefferson, who is on the spot, does nothing?&rsquo; This explains the
+      ambiguous conduct of himself and his nephew, Lewis Morris, and that they
+      were holding themselves free for a price; i.e. some office, either to the
+      uncle or nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 16th. See in the Wilmington Mirror of February the 14th, Mr.
+      Bayard&rsquo;s elaborate argument to prove that the common law, as modified by
+      the laws of the respective States at the epoch of the ratification of the
+      constitution, attached to the courts of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 23rd, 1801. Andrew Ellicot tells me, that in a conversation last
+      summer with Major William Jackson of Philadelphia, on the subject of our
+      intercourse with Spain, Jackson said we had managed our affairs badly;
+      that he himself was the author of the papers against the Spanish minister
+      signed Americanus; that his object was irritation; that he was anxious, if
+      it could have been brought, about, to have plunged us into a war with
+      Spain, that the people might have been occupied with that, and not with
+      the conduct of the administration, and other things they had no business
+      to meddle with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 13th, 1803. The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who is
+      now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in
+      Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this
+      enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which he
+      meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in a civil
+      character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his name, he
+      being then President, and the application going only for his name, and not
+      for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and considering, said,
+      &lsquo;he saw no possibility of continuing the union of the States; that their
+      dissolution must necessarily take place; that he therefore saw no
+      propriety in recommending to New England men to promote a literary
+      institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength to those who
+      were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have nothing to do with
+      it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 31st. After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of
+      Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed the
+      insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the
+      Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was spoken
+      out which was known; that it would then appear on which side there was a
+      bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode Island, urging
+      him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words. &lsquo;What is it you want,
+      Colonel Lyon? Is it office, is it money? Only say what you want, and you
+      shall have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 2nd, 1804. Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding me
+      of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the Presidential
+      election, says he did not therein give the details. That he was in company
+      at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; that in the
+      course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, &lsquo;We must
+      have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.&rsquo; &lsquo;How is it to be
+      done,&rsquo; says Hitchburn; &lsquo;Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s friends will not quit him, and his
+      enemies are not strong enough to carry another.&rsquo; &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; says Burr, &lsquo;our
+      friends must join the federalists, and give the President.&rsquo; &lsquo;The next
+      morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same, saying, &lsquo;We
+      cannot be without a President, our friends must join the federal vote.&rsquo;
+      &lsquo;But,&rsquo; says Hitchburn, &lsquo;we shall then be without a Vice-President; who is
+      to be our Vice-President?&rsquo; Colonel Burr answered, &lsquo;Mr. Jefferson.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 26th. Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the
+      evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me. He
+      began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a
+      stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two
+      rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not
+      political, and he meddled not. When the crisis, however, of 1800 came on,
+      they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the
+      people. He lent it without any views of promotion. That his being named as
+      a candidate for Vice-President was unexpected by him. He acceded to it
+      with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to be
+      with me, whose company and conversation had always been fascinating to
+      him. That, since, those great families had become hostile to him, and had
+      excited the calumnies which I had seen published. That in this Hamilton
+      had joined, and had even written some of the pieces against him. That his
+      attachment to me had been sincere, and was still unchanged, although many
+      little stories had been carried to him, and he supposed to me also, which
+      he despised; but that attachments must be reciprocal, or cease to exist,
+      and therefore he asked if any change had taken place in mine towards him;
+      that he had chosen to have this conversation with myself directly, and not
+      through any intermediate agent. He reminded me of a letter written to him
+      about the time of counting the votes (say February, 1801), mentioning that
+      his election had left a chasm in my arrangements; that I had lost him from
+      my list in the administration, &amp;c. He observed, he believed it would
+      be for the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a
+      disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place; but that were he to
+      retire, it would be said he shrunk from the public sentence, which he
+      never would do; that his enemies were using my name to destroy him, and
+      something was necessary from me to prevent and deprive them of that
+      weapon, some mark of favor from me which would declare to the world that
+      he retired with my confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered by recapitulating to him what had been my conduct previous to
+      the election of 1800. That I had never interfered directly or indirectly,
+      with my friends or any others, to influence the election either for him or
+      myself; that I considered it as my duty to be merely passive, except that
+      in Virginia I had taken some measures to procure for him the unanimous
+      vote of that State, because I thought any failure there might be imputed
+      to me. That in the election now coming on, I was observing the same
+      conduct, held no councils with any body respecting it, nor suffered any
+      one to speak to me on the subject, believing it my duty to leave myself to
+      the free discussion of the public; that I do not at this moment know, nor
+      have ever heard, who were to be proposed as candidates for the public
+      choice, except so far as could be gathered from the newspapers. That as to
+      the attack excited against him in the newspapers, I had noticed it but as
+      the passing wind; that I had seen complaints that Cheetham, employed in
+      publishing the laws, should be permitted to eat the public bread and abuse
+      its second officer: that as to this, the publishers of the laws were
+      appointed by the Secretary of State, without any reference to me; that to
+      make the notice general, it was often given to one republican and one
+      federal printer of the same place; that these federal printers did not in
+      the least intermit their abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the
+      government, and that I have never thought it proper to interfere for
+      myself, and consequently not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to
+      the letter he referred to, I remembered it, and believed he had only
+      mistaken the date at which it was written; that I thought it must have
+      been on the first notice of the event of the election of South Carolina;
+      and that I had taken that occasion to mention to him, that I had intended
+      to have proposed to him one of the great offices, if he had not been
+      elected; but that his election, in giving him a higher station, had
+      deprived me of his aid in the administration. The letter alluded to was,
+      in fact, mine to him of December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain
+      to him verbally, what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That
+      in General Washington&rsquo;s time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams,
+      the Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
+      Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams was
+      a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts, indeed,
+      his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away the person
+      who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution to take his
+      place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be disposing of
+      the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor for the public
+      favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I recollect rightly,
+      Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave the same opinions.
+      That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in his first interview
+      with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to France, and how
+      desirable it would have been to him if he could have got me to undertake
+      it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to send me away, and
+      assigned the same reasons General Washington had done; and therefore, he
+      should appoint Mr. Madison, &amp;c. That I had myself contemplated his
+      (Colonel Burr&rsquo;s) appointment to one of the great offices, in case he was
+      not elected Vice-President; but that as soon as that election was known, I
+      saw it could not be done, for the good reasons which had led General
+      Washington and Mr. Adams to the same conclusion; and therefore, in my
+      first letter to Colonel Burr, after the issue was known, I had mentioned
+      to him that a chasm in my arrangements had been produced by this event. I
+      was thus particular in rectifying the date of this letter, because it gave
+      me an opportunity of explaining the grounds on which it was written, which
+      were, indirectly, an answer to his present hints. He left the matter with
+      me for consideration, and the conversation was turned to indifferent
+      subjects. I should here notice, that Colonel Burr must have thought I
+      could swallow strong things in my own favor, when he founded his
+      acquiescence to the nomination as Vice-President, to his desire of
+      promoting my honor, the being with me, whose company and conversation had
+      always been fascinating with him, &amp;c. I had never seen Colonel Burr
+      till he came as a member of Senate. His conduct very soon inspired me with
+      distrust. I habitually cautioned Mr. Madison against trusting him too
+      much. I saw afterwards, that under General Washington&rsquo;s and Mr. Adams&rsquo;s
+      administrations, whenever a great military appointment or a diplomatic one
+      was to be made, he came post to Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact
+      that he was always at market, if they had wanted him. He was indeed told
+      by Dayton in 1800, he might be Secretary at War; but this bid was too
+      late! His election as Vice-President was then foreseen. With these
+      impressions of Colonel Burr, there never had been an intimacy between us,
+      and but little association. When I destined him for a high appointment, it
+      was out of respect for the favor he had obtained with the republican
+      party, by his extraordinary exertions and success in the New York election
+      in 1800.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 15th, 1806. About a month ago, Colonel Burr called on me, and
+      entered into a conversation, in which he mentioned, that a little before
+      my coming into office, I had written to him a letter intimating that I had
+      destined him for a high employ, had he not been placed by the people in a
+      different one; that he had signified his willingness to resign as
+      Vice-President, to give aid to the administration in any other place; that
+      he had never asked an office, however; he asked aid of nobody, but could
+      walk on his own legs and take care of himself; that I had always used him
+      with politeness, but nothing more; that he aided in bringing on the
+      present order of things; that he had supported the administration; and
+      that he could do me much harm: he wished, however, to be on different
+      ground: he was now disengaged from all particular business&mdash;willing
+      to engage in something&mdash;should be in town some days, if I should have
+      any thing to propose to him. I observed to him, that I had always been
+      sensible that he possessed talents which might be employed greatly to the
+      advantage of the public, and that, as to myself, I had a confidence that
+      if he were employed, he would use his talents for the public good: but
+      that he must be sensible the public had withdrawn their confidence from
+      him, and that in a government like ours it was necessary to embrace in its
+      administration as great a mass of public confidence as possible, by
+      employing those who had a character with the public, of their own, and not
+      merely a secondary one through the executive. He observed, that if we
+      believed a few newspapers, it might be supposed he had lost the public
+      confidence, but that I knew how easy it was to engage newspapers in any
+      thing. I observed, that I did not refer to that kind of evidence of his
+      having lost the public confidence, but to the late Presidential election,
+      when, though in possession of the office of Vice-President, there was not
+      a single voice heard for his retaining it. That as to any harm he could do
+      me, I knew no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I
+      feared no injury which any man could do me: that I never had done a single
+      act, or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully
+      laid open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated: that I had
+      never done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of
+      any friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:
+      that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive of
+      action with me. He has continued in town to this time; dined with me this
+      day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now,
+      because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of Mr.
+      Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor to any
+      other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to have addressed to
+      me, during the pending of the Presidential election in February, 1801,
+      through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on which my election
+      might be obtained, and that General Smith, after conversing with me, gave
+      answers from me. This is absolutely false. No proposition of any kind was
+      ever made to me on that occasion by General Smith, nor any answer
+      authorized by me. And this fact General Smith affirms at this moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th
+      and 14th, 1801, made at the moment. But the following transactions took
+      place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential election
+      was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at the time,
+      they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now as fresh, as to
+      their principal circumstances, as if they had happened yesterday. Coming
+      out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur Morris on the steps.
+      He stopped me, and began a conversation on the strange and portentous
+      state of things then existing, and went on to observe, that the reasons
+      why the minority of States was so opposed to my being elected, were, that
+      they apprehended that, 1. I would turn all federalists out of office; 2.
+      put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public debt. That I need only to
+      declare, or authorize my friends to declare, that I would not take these
+      steps, and instantly the event of the election would be fixed. I told him,
+      that I should leave the world to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by
+      that which I had pursued hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be
+      passive and silent during the present scene; that I should certainly make
+      no terms; should never go into the office of President by capitulation,
+      nor with my hands tied by any conditions which should hinder me from
+      pursuing the measures which I should deem for the public good. It was
+      understood that Gouverneur Morris had entirely the direction of the vote
+      of Lewis Morris of Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would
+      have added another vote, and decided the election. About the same time, I
+      called on Mr. Adams. We conversed on the state of things. I observed to
+      him, that a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to defeat
+      the Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the right of the
+      Senate to name a President of the Senate, to devolve on him the government
+      during any interregnum: that such a measure would probably produce
+      resistance by force, and incalculable consequences, which it would be in
+      his power to prevent by negativing such an act. He seemed to think such an
+      act justifiable, and observed, it was in my power to fix the election by a
+      word in an instant, by declaring I would not turn out the federal
+      officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national debt. Finding his
+      mind made up as to the usurpation of the government by the President of
+      the Senate, I urged it no further, observed, the world must judge as to
+      myself of the future by the past, and turned the conversation to something
+      else. About the same time, Dwight Foster of Massachusetts called on me in
+      my room one night, and went into a very long conversation on the state of
+      affairs, the drift of which was to let me understand, that the fears above
+      mentioned were the only obstacle to my election, to all of which I avoided
+      giving any answer the one way or the other. From this moment he became
+      most bitterly and personally opposed to me, and so has ever continued. I
+      do not recollect that I ever had any particular conversation with General
+      Samuel Smith on this subject. Very possibly I had, however, as the general
+      subject and all its parts were the constant themes of conversation in the
+      private tête-à-têtes with our friends. But certain I am, that neither he
+      nor any other republican ever uttered the most distant hint to me about
+      submitting to any conditions, or giving any assurances to any body; and
+      still more certainly, was neither he nor any other person ever authorized
+      by me to say what I would or would not do.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      [The following official opinion, though inadvertently omitted in its
+      proper place, is deemed of sufficient importance to be inserted here.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bill for establishing a National Bank, undertakes, among other things,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of
+      land; and so far, is against the laws of <i>Mortmain</i>.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Though the constitution controls the laws of Mortmain, so
+     far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain
+     purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a
+     similar right to other corporate bodies.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far, is
+      against the laws of Alienage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain
+      line of successors; and so far, changes the course of Descents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat; and so far,
+      is against the laws of <i>Forfeiture</i> and <i>Escheat</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain line; and so
+      far, is against the laws of Distribution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the national
+      authority; and so far, is against the laws of Monopoly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws of
+      the States; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution from
+      the control of the State legislatures; and so, probably, they will be
+      construed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this ground, that
+      all powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution nor
+      prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the
+      people.&rsquo; (Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond the boundaries
+      thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession
+      of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have
+      not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. They are not among the powers specially, enumerated. For these are,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. A power to <i>lay taxes</i> for the purpose of paying the debts of the
+      United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were it
+      a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it by
+      the constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. To &lsquo;borrow money.&rsquo; But this bill neither borrows money, nor insures the
+      borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free as any
+      other money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to the public. The
+      operation proposed in the bill, first to lend them two millions, and then
+      borrow them back again cannot change the nature of the latter act, which
+      will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by what name you please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. &lsquo;To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the States, and
+      with the Indian tribes.&rsquo; To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are
+      very different acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject of commerce in
+      its bills: so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar out of
+      the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce thereby. To
+      make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to prescribe regulations
+      for buying and selling. Besides, if this were an exercise of the power of
+      regulating commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the
+      internal commerce of every State, as to its external. For the power given
+      to Congress by the constitution, does not extend to the internal
+      regulation, of the commerce of a State (that is to say, of the commerce
+      between citizen and citizen), which remains exclusively with its own
+      legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its
+      commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian
+      tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not propose the measure as a
+      &lsquo;regulation of trade,&rsquo; but as &lsquo;productive of considerable advantage to
+      trade.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
+      enumerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
+      following.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. &lsquo;To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States&rsquo;;
+      that is to say, &lsquo;to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general
+      welfare.&rsquo; For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare
+      the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. Congress are not to
+      lay taxes, <i>ad libitum</i>, for any purpose they please: but only to pay
+      the debts, or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they
+      are not to do any thing they please, to provide for the general welfare,
+      but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not
+      as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and
+      independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good
+      of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations
+      of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a
+      single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever
+      would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole
+      judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil
+      they pleased. It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase
+      will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some
+      meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will
+      render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant
+      to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the
+      enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could
+      not be carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed
+      as a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which formed the
+      constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to
+      open parials, and an amendatory one, to empower them to incorporate. But
+      the whole was rejected; and one of the reasons of rejection urged in
+      debate was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank, which would
+      render the great cities, where there were prejudices and jealousies on
+      that subject, adverse to the reception of the constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The second general phrase is, &lsquo;to make all laws necessary and proper
+      for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.&rsquo; But they can all be
+      carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not
+      necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or
+      convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the
+      constitution allows only the means which are &lsquo;necessary&rsquo; not those which
+      are merely &lsquo;convenient&rsquo; for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a
+      latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any
+      non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which
+      ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to
+      some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all
+      the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before
+      observed. Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them to the
+      necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant of
+      the power would be nugatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But let us examine this &lsquo;convenience,&rsquo; and see what it is. The report on
+      this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience to be, the
+      preventing the transportation and re-transportation of money between the
+      States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase of circulating
+      medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, according to my ideas of
+      paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every State will have to pay a sum of
+      tax-money into the treasury; and the treasury will have to pay in every
+      State a part of the interest on the public debt, and salaries to the
+      officers of government resident in that State. In most of the States,
+      there will be still a surplus of tax-money, to come up to the seat of
+      government, for the officers residing there. The payments of interest and
+      salary in each State, may be made by treasury orders on the state
+      collector. This will take up the greater part of the money he has
+      collected in his State and consequently prevent the great mass of it from
+      being drawn out of the state. If there be a balance of commerce in favor
+      of that State, against the one in which the government resides, the
+      surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for that
+      commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. But if there
+      be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the banks in
+      the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but in the form of
+      money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of exchange, may prevent the
+      displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the aid of
+      any bank: and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with that aid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than treasury
+      orders. But a little difference in the degree of convenience, cannot
+      constitute the necessity which the constitution makes the ground for
+      assuming any non-enumerated power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides; the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into arrangements
+      for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a
+      competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill delivers us up bound to
+      the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangements but on their
+      own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal to employ any other
+      bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by their
+      post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasury, are paid by any
+      State collector to whom they are presented. This expedient alone, suffices
+      to prevent the existence of that necessity which may justify the
+      assumption of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into effect
+      an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, and well
+      done, without this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that degree
+      of necessity which can honestly justify it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency all over
+      the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency is limited to
+      a single State. So it would be still more convenient, that there should be
+      a bank whose bills should have a currency all over the world. But it does
+      not follow from this superior conveniency, that there exists any where a
+      power to establish such a bank, or that the world may not go on very well
+      without it. Can it be thought that the constitution intended, that for a
+      shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress should be authorized
+      to break down the most ancient and fundamental laws of the several States,
+      such as those against mortmain, the laws of alienage, the rules of
+      descent, the acts of distribution, the laws of escheat and forfeiture, and
+      the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a necessity invincible by any other
+      means, can justify such a prostration of laws, which constitute the
+      pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence. Will Congress be too
+      strait-laced to carry the constitution into honest effect, unless they may
+      pass over the foundation laws of the State governments, for the slightest
+      convenience to theirs?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negative of the President is the shield provided by the constitution,
+      to protect against the invasions of the legislature, 1. the rights of the
+      Executive; 2. of the Judiciary; 3. of the States and State legislatures.
+      The present is the case of a right remaining exclusively with the States,
+      and is, consequently, one of those intended by the constitution to be
+      placed under his protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be added, however, that unless the President&rsquo;s mind, on a view of
+      every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear
+      that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the pro and the con hang
+      so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the
+      legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of their opinion.
+      It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by error, ambition,
+      or interest, that the constitution has placed a check in the negative of
+      the President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February 15, 1791.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And
+Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,23454 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies,
+From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Editor: Thomas Jefferson Randolph
+
+Illustrator: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2005 [EBook #16784]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book Spines, 1829 set of Jefferson Papers]
+
+MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS
+JEFFERSON.
+
+Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
+
+
+[Illustration: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage of Volume Three (of four)]
+
+
+VOLUME IV.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, August 30, 1803
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1803.
+
+Deak. Sir,
+
+The enclosed letter came to hand by yesterday's post. You will be
+sensible of the circumstances which make it improper that I should
+hazard a formal answer, as well as of the desire its friendly aspect
+naturally excites, that those concerned in it should understand that
+the spirit they express is friendly viewed. You can judge also from your
+knowledge of the ground, whether it may be usefully encouraged. I take
+the liberty, therefore, of availing myself of your neighborhood to
+Boston, and of your friendship to me, to request you to say to the
+Captain and others verbally whatever you think would be proper, as
+expressive of my sentiments on the subject. With respect to the day
+on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may be told, that
+disapproving myself of transferring the honors and veneration for the
+great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of dividing them
+with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be known, and
+have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the uniform
+answer to every application of the kind.
+
+On further consideration as to the amendment to our constitution
+respecting Louisiana, I have thought it better, instead of enumerating
+the powers which Congress may exercise, to give them the same powers
+they have as to other portions of the Union generally, and to enumerate
+the special exceptions, in some such form as the following.
+
+'Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of
+the United States, its white inhabitants shall be citizens, and stand,
+as to their rights and obligations, on the same footing with other
+citizens of the United States, in analogous situations. Save only that
+as to the portion thereof lying north of an east and west line drawn
+through the mouth of Arkansas river, no new State shall be established,
+nor any grants of land made, other than to Indians, in exchange for
+equivalent portions of land occupied by them, until an amendment of the
+constitution shall be made for these purposes.
+
+'Florida also, whensoever it may be rightfully obtained, shall become
+a part of the United States, its white inhabitants shall thereupon be
+citizens, and shall stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the
+same footing with other citizens of the United States, in analogous
+situations.'
+
+I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is
+said about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will
+be desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence. I find
+but one opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the country for
+some time. We meet in Washington the 25th of September to prepare for
+Congress. Accept my affectionate salutations, and great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.--TO WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803
+
+
+TO WILSON C NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 3rd was delivered me at court; but we were much
+disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison and the Governor being
+here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of
+the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what
+we are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers,
+to believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
+obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
+treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and
+an unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
+State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should
+be done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
+respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of
+the observations you make on the power given by the constitution to
+Congress, to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the
+subject to the territory then constituting the United States. But when I
+consider that the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the
+treaty of 1783, that the constitution expressly declares itself to be
+made for the United States, I cannot help believing the intention was
+not to permit Congress to admit into the Union new States, which should
+be formed out of the territory for which, and under whose authority
+alone, they were then acting. I do not believe it was meant that they
+might receive England, Ireland, Holland, &tc. into it, which would
+be the case on your construction. When an instrument admits two
+constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the
+other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise. I had
+rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found
+necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our
+powers boundless. Our peculiar security is in the possession of a
+written constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
+I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of
+the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no
+constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the
+definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies and
+delineates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives
+all the powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of
+these enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
+whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President and
+Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a judicial
+sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more likely than
+that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case
+of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting it, by adding, by way
+of amendment to the constitution, those powers which time and trial show
+are still wanting. But it has been taken too much for granted, that by
+this rigorous construction the treaty power would be reduced to nothing.
+I had occasion once to examine its effect on the French treaty, made by
+the old Congress, and found that out of thirty odd articles which that
+contained, there were one, two, or three only, which could not now be
+stipulated under our present constitution. I confess, then, I think
+it important, in the present case, to set an example against broad
+construction, by appealing for new power to the people. If, however,
+our friends shall think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with
+satisfaction; confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct
+the evil of construction when it shall produce ill effects.
+
+No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the
+contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, and proves to me
+their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their
+sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
+and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that
+due reflection which ought to precede action. I leave this about the
+21st, and shall hope the District Court will give me an opportunity
+of seeing you. Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Washington, October 4, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+No one would more willingly than myself pay the just tribute due to
+the services of Captain Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his
+widow, as you suggest. But when one undertakes to administer justice,
+it must be with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be
+done for every one in equal degree. To what a train of attentions
+would this draw a President? How difficult would it be to draw the line
+between that degree of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and
+that not so entitled? If drawn in a particular case differently from
+what the friends of the deceased would judge right, what offence would
+it give, and of the most tender kind? How much offence would be given
+by accidental inattentions, or want of information? The first step
+into such an undertaking ought to be well weighed. On the death of Dr.
+Franklin, the King and Convention of France went into mourning. So did
+the House of Representatives of the United States: the Senate refused.
+I proposed to General Washington that the executive departments should
+wear mourning; he declined it, because he said he should not know where
+to draw the line, if he once began that ceremony. Mr. Adams was then
+Vice-President, and I thought General Washington had his eye on him,
+whom he certainly did not love. I told him the world had drawn so
+broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on the one side, and the
+residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear mourning for them,
+and the question still remain new and undecided as to all others. He
+thought it best, however, to avoid it. On these considerations alone,
+however well affected to the merit of Commodore Barry, I think
+it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may become
+embarrassing.
+
+Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers?
+With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With
+no partialities certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to
+destroy their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the
+waters, the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.
+
+Affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, November 1, 1803.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
+with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
+so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
+here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
+ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with
+the world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
+difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
+speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
+thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
+having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings
+to unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on
+the globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
+America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
+horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of
+France to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and
+that this may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as
+France there, and the United States here, what she can expect from so
+gross a compound of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the
+book of wisdom. She is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more
+than we are. Our policy will be to form New Orleans and the country on
+both sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all
+above that, to transplant our Indians into it, constituting them a
+Marechaussee to prevent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall
+have filled up all the vacant country on this side. This will secure
+both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for half a century, and we
+may safely trust the provisions for that time to the men who shall live
+in it.
+
+I have communicated with Mr. Gallatin on the subject of using your
+house in any matters of consequence we may have to do at Paris. He
+is impressed with the same desire I feel to give this mark of our
+confidence in you, and the sense we entertain of your friendship and
+fidelity. Mr. Behring informs him that none of the money which will be
+due from us to him, as the assignee of France, will be wanting at Paris.
+Be assured that our dispositions are such as to let no occasion pass
+unimproved, of serving you, where occurrences will permit it.
+
+Present my respects to Madame Dupont, and accept yourself assurances of
+my constant and warm friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.--TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803
+
+TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, November 4,1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A report reaches us this day from Baltimore (on probable, but not
+certain grounds), that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First
+Consul, was yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The
+effect of this measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to
+suppose; but as it might occur to him _prima facie_, that the executive
+of the United States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it
+advisable to mention the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by
+explanations set that idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all
+persons are free to enter into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age,
+no one having a power to restrain it, not even their parents; and that
+under that age, no one can prevent it but the parent or guardian. The
+lady is under age, and the parents, placed between her affections
+which were strongly fixed, and the considerations opposing the measure,
+yielded with pain and anxiety to the former.
+
+     * November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
+     the 3rd, but will this day.
+
+Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
+man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
+of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
+of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
+society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
+rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
+obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
+against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be
+nothing. The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by
+twenty-four against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in
+the House of Representatives for making provision for its execution,
+was carried by eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority
+of sixty-six, and the necessary bills are going through the Houses
+by greater majorities. Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his
+government, proposed to have added to the ratification a protestation
+against any failure in time or other circumstances of execution, on
+our part. He was told, that in that case we should annex a counter
+protestation, which would leave the thing exactly where it was; that
+this transaction had been conducted from the commencement of the
+negotiation to this stage of it, with a frankness and sincerity
+honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the heart of an honest man
+to review; that to annex to this last chapter of the transaction such an
+evidence of mutual distrust, was to change its aspect dishonorably
+for us both, and contrary to truth as to us; for that we had not the
+smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its part; and I
+assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence in the word of the First
+Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. He saw that we had
+ratified the treaty; that both branches had passed by great majorities
+one of the bills for execution, and would soon pass the other two;
+that no circumstances remained that could leave a doubt of our punctual
+performance; and like an able and an honest minister (which he is in the
+highest degree) he undertook to do, what he knew his employers would do
+themselves, were they here spectators of all the existing circumstances,
+and exchanged the ratification's purely and simply; so that this
+instrument goes to the world as an evidence of the candor and confidence
+of the nations in each other, which will have the best effects. This was
+the more justifiable, as Mr. Pichon knew that Spain had entered with us
+a protestation against our ratification of the treaty, grounded, first,
+on the assertion that the First Consul had not executed the conditions
+of the treaties of cession, and secondly, that he had broken a solemn
+promise not to alienate the country to any nation. We answered, that
+these were private questions between France and Spain, which they must
+settle together; that we derived our title from the First Consul, and
+did not doubt his guarantee of it: and we, four days ago, sent off
+orders to the Governor of the Mississippi territory and General
+Wilkinson, to move down with the troops at hand to New Orleans, to
+receive the possession from Mr. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to
+carry the order of the Consul into execution, he can probably command a
+volunteer force at New Orleans, and will have the aid of ours also, if
+he desires it, to take the possession and deliver it to us. If he is
+not so disposed, we shall take the possession, and it will rest with the
+government of France, by adopting the act as their own and obtaining the
+confirmation of Spain, to supply the non-execution of their stipulation
+to deliver, and to entitle themselves to the complete execution of our
+part of the agreements. In the mean time, the legislature is passing the
+bills, and we are preparing every thing to be done on our part towards
+execution, and we shall not avail ourselves of the three months' delay
+after possession of the province, allowed by the treaty for the delivery
+of the stock, but shall deliver it the moment that possession is known
+here, which will be on the eighteenth day after it has taken place.
+
+*****
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.--TO DAVID WILLIAMS, November 14, 1803
+
+TO DAVID WILLIAMS.
+
+Washington, November 14, 1803.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received the volume on the claims of literature; which
+you did me the favor to send me through Mr. Monroe: and have read
+with satisfaction the many judicious reflections it contains, on the
+condition of the respectable class of literary men. The efforts for
+their relief, made by a society of private citizens, are truly laudable:
+but they are, as you justly observe, but a palliation of an evil, the
+cure of which calls for all the wisdom and the means of the nation. The
+greatest evils of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring
+from the vicious distribution of its members among the occupations
+called for. I have no doubt that those nations are essentially
+right, which leave this to individual choice, as a better guide to an
+advantageous distribution, than any other which could be devised.
+But when, by a blind concourse, particular occupations are ruinously
+overcharged, and others left in want of hands, the national authorities
+can do much towards restoring the equilibrium. On the revival of
+letters, learning became the universal favorite. And with reason,
+because there was not enough of it existing to manage the affairs of
+a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its individuals to the
+happiness of which they were susceptible, by improvements in their
+minds, their morals, their health, and in those conveniences which
+contribute to the comfort and embellishment of life. All the efforts of
+the society, therefore, were directed to the increase of learning,
+and the inducements of respect, ease, and profit were held up for its
+encouragement. Even the charities of the nation forgot that misery was
+their object, and spent themselves in founding schools to transfer to
+science the hardy sons of the plough. To these incitements were added
+the powerful fascinations of great cities. These circumstances have long
+since produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned
+occupation, and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and
+the more, as their habits of life have disqualified them for re-entering
+into the laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever
+entirely cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it may be
+cured. Doubtless there are many engines which the nation might bring to
+bear on this object. Public opinion and public encouragement are among
+these. The class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is
+the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same
+artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in
+learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its
+primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first
+order. It counts among its handmaids the most respectable sciences,
+such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics
+generally, Natural History, Botany. In every College and University, a
+professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be
+honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with
+this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid
+charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of
+crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers,
+their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling,
+now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools,
+instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present state of
+society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might
+restore them to that branch, qualified to enrich and honor themselves,
+and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them.
+A gradual abolition of the useless offices, so much accumulated in all
+governments, might close this drain also from the labors of the field,
+and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these, and the better means
+which will occur to others, the surcharge of the learned, might in
+time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizenss the sum of
+industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.
+
+Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked
+by exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane
+resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come
+here. Those who can labor do well, for the most part. Of the learned
+class of emigrants, a small portion find employments analogous to their
+talents. But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in
+the scenes where it began. Even here we find too strong a current from
+the country to the towns; and instances beginning to appear of that
+species of misery, which you are so humanely endeavoring to relieve with
+you. Although we have in the old countries of Europe the lesson of their
+experience to warn us, yet I am not satisfied we shall have the firmness
+and wisdom to profit by it. The general desire of men to live by their
+heads rather than their hands, and the strong allurements of great
+cities to those who have any turn for dissipation, threaten to make them
+here, as in Europe, the sinks of voluntary misery. I perceive, however,
+that I have suffered my pen to run into a disquisition, when I had taken
+it up only to thank you for the volume you had been so kind as to send
+me, and to express my approbation of it. After apologizing, therefore,
+for having touched on a subject so much more familiar to you, and better
+understood, I beg leave to assure you of my high consideration and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.--TO JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803
+
+TO JOHN RANDOLH.
+
+Washington, December 1, 1803.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The explanations in your letter of yesterday were quite unnecessary to
+me. I have had too satisfactory proofs of your friendly regard, to be
+disposed to suspect any thing of a contrary aspect.
+
+I understood perfectly the expressions stated in the newspaper to
+which you allude, to mean, that 'though the proposition came from the
+republican quarter of the House, yet you should not concur with it.' I
+am aware, that in parts of the Union, and even with persons to whom Mr.
+Eppes and Mr. Randolph are unknown, and myself little known, it will be
+presumed from their connection, that what comes from them comes from me.
+No men on earth are more independent in their sentiments than they are,
+nor any one less disposed than I am to influence the opinions of others.
+We rarely speak of politics, or of the proceedings of the House, but
+merely historically; and I carefully avoid expressing an opinion on them
+in their presence, that we may all be at our ease. With other members, I
+have believed that more unreserved communications would be advantageous
+to the public. This has been, perhaps, prevented by mutual delicacy. I
+have been afraid to express opinions unasked, lest I should be suspected
+of wishing to direct the legislative action of members. They have
+avoided asking communications from me, probably, lest they should be
+suspected of wishing to fish out executive secrets. I see too many
+proofs of the imperfection of human reason, to entertain wonder or
+intolerance at any difference of opinion on any subject; and acquiesce
+in that difference as easily as on a difference of feature or form:
+experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices
+of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object,
+and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we cannot do all we
+would wish.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.--TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR. GALLATIN.
+
+The Attorney General having considered and decided, that the
+prescription in the law for establishing a bank, that the officers in
+the subordinate offices of discount and deposit, shall be appointed 'on
+the same terms and in the same manner practised in the principal bank,'
+does not extend to them the principle of rotation, established by the
+legislature in the body of directors in the principal bank, it follows
+that the extension of that principle has been merely a voluntary and
+prudential act of the principal bank, from which they are free to
+depart. I think the extension was wise and proper on their part, because
+the legislature having deemed rotation useful in the principal bank
+constituted by them, there would be the same reason for it in the
+subordinate banks to be established by the principal. It breaks in upon
+the _esprit de corps_, so apt to prevail in permanent bodies; it gives
+a chance for the public eye penetrating into the sanctuary of those
+proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the directors may
+introduce for their personal emolument, and which the resentments of
+excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted, might betray
+to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the year, or at
+other periods, of correcting a choice, which, on trial, proves to have
+been unfortunate; an evil of which themselves complain in their distant
+institutions. Whether, however, they have a power to alter this or not,
+the executive has no right to decide; and their consultation with you
+has been merely an act of complaisance, or from a desire to shield so
+important an innovation under the cover of executive sanction. But
+ought we to volunteer our sanction in such a case? Ought we to disarm
+ourselves of any fair right of animadversion, whenever that institution
+shall be a legitimate subject of consideration? I own I think the most
+proper answer would be, that we do not think ourselves authorized to
+give an opinion on the question.
+
+From a passage in the letter of the President, I observe an idea of
+establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This
+institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the
+principles and form of our constitution. The nation is, at this time,
+so strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this
+moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient
+to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet
+a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in
+the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its
+branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may,
+in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe
+which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any
+other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
+What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all
+its branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace
+we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further
+growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile
+we know, 1. from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing
+the body of directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of
+most of the stock-holders: 2. from their opposition to the measures and
+principles of the government, and to the election of those friendly to
+them: and, 3. from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now,
+while we are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our
+constitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination
+under its authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an
+equal footing only with other banks, as to the favors of the government.
+But, in order to be able to meet a general combination of the banks
+against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make a beginning
+towards an independent use of our own money, towards holding our own
+bank in all the deposits where it is received, and letting the Treasurer
+give his draft or note for payment at any particular place, which, in a
+well conducted government, ought to have as much credit as any private
+draft, or bank note, or bill, and would give us the same facilities
+which we derive from the banks? I pray you to turn this subject in your
+mind, and to give it the benefit of your knowledge of details; whereas,
+I have only very general views of the subject. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Washington, December 13, 1803.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.--TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804
+
+
+TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
+letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
+you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
+together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who
+departs in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
+Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have
+also to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your
+Harmony, which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is
+the first I have been able to meet with, which is clear of those long
+repetitions of the same transaction, as if it were a different one
+because related with some different circumstances.
+
+I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
+doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so
+much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and
+better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving,
+as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines,
+extracted in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every
+thing relative to his personal history and character. It would be short
+and precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent
+to Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and
+two English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality, and paste
+them on the leaves of a book, in the manner you describe as having been
+pursued in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by
+better hands.
+
+I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our horizon, which
+was to burst in a tornado; and the public are un-apprized how near this
+catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank and friendly developement of causes
+and effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte to see that
+the train was unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved
+us from that storm. I did not expect he would yield till a war took
+place between France and England, and my hope was to palliate and
+endure, if Messrs. Ross, Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture
+until that event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge
+it came on sooner than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense
+of Bonaparte might not see the course predicted to be necessary and
+unavoidable, even before a war should be imminent, was a chance which
+we thought it our duty to try: but the immediate prospect of rupture
+brought the case to immediate decision. The denouement has been happy:
+and I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a
+government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to
+the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one
+confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I
+believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of
+the western confederacy will be as much our children and descendants
+as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with
+that country, in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a
+separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire
+to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all
+the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within
+my power.
+
+Have you seen the new work of Malthus on Population? It is one of the
+ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate
+the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws
+of England, and other palliations for that evil, several important
+questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are
+treated with a masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have
+been only able to read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard
+of. Probably our friends in England will think of you, and give you an
+opportunity of reading it.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Washington, March 3, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Although it is long since I received your favor of October the 27th,
+yet I have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it. In the Middle and
+Southern States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place
+as is perhaps desirable. For as there will always be an opposition, I
+believe it had better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New
+York seems to be in danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly
+with us; Rhode Island with us on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on
+the verge of the republican shore; Connecticut advancing towards it very
+slowly, but with steady step; your State only uncertain of making port
+at all. I had forgotten Delaware, which will be always uncertain
+from the divided character of her citizens. If the amendment of the
+constitution passes Rhode Island (and we expect to hear in a day or
+two), the election for the ensuing four years seems to present nothing
+formidable. I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies of the
+federal party have obliged me to throw myself on the verdict of my
+country for trial, my great desire having been to retire at the end
+of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it was my decided
+purpose when I entered into office. They force my continuance. If we
+can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her course for another four
+years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall be free
+to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my books. That your
+enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I sincerely
+pray, and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI.--TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804
+
+
+TO GIDEON GRANGER.
+
+Monticello, April 16, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of
+forming a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what
+they called the seven eastern States. The idea was new to me, and after
+time for reflection, I had no opportunity of conversing with you again.
+The federalists know that, _eo nomine_, they are gone for ever. Their
+object, therefore, is, how to return into power under some other form.
+Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans,
+join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name.
+I say, join the minority; because the majority of the republicans, not
+needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of
+ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
+must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their
+numbers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they
+must pay in. Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on
+the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when this party
+is formed, who will constitute the majority of it, which majority is
+then to dictate? Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of
+putting themselves into gear with the republican minority, is exactly
+like Roger Sherman's proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island.
+The idea of forming seven eastern States is moreover clearly to form the
+basis of a separation of the Union. Is it possible that real republicans
+can be gulled by such a bait? And for what? What do they wish, that they
+have not? Federal measures? That is impossible. Republican measures?
+Have they them not? Can any one deny, that in all important questions
+of principle, republicanism prevails? But do they want that their
+individual will shall govern the majority? They may purchase the
+gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price;
+but the federalists must not have the passions of other men, if, after
+getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be
+governed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they
+relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the
+seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the mean time,
+all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them
+a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to eject
+the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power. I
+cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this
+trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass
+of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of
+principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all
+other similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their
+authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict
+and upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others
+should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly
+overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be
+the conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your
+health and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, June 13,1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, June 13,1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to express
+in your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
+awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled
+your kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and
+friendship. I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible
+impression on her mind, and that to the last, on our meetings after long
+separations, whether I had heard lately of you, and how you did, were
+among the earliest of her inquiries. In giving you this assurance, I
+perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same time, am thankful for
+the occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that circumstances
+should have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of separation
+between us. The friendship with which you honored me has ever been
+valued, and fully reciprocated; and although events have been passing
+which might be trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be
+of that kind, nor felt that my own was. Neither my estimate of your
+character, nor the esteem founded in that, has ever been lessened for a
+single moment, although doubts whether it would be acceptable may have
+forbidden manifestations of it.
+
+Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began at an earlier date. It accompanied
+us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had
+drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to
+lessen mutual esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of
+an honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing
+among our fellow citizens, attached them to the one or the other of us,
+and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We
+never stood in one another's way. For if either had been withdrawn at
+any time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would
+have sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration
+was sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
+friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can
+say with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams's life, and one only, ever
+gave me a moment's personal displeasure. I did consider his last
+appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from among my
+most ardent political enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation could
+ever be expected; and laid me under the embarrassment of acting through
+men, whose views were to defeat mine, or to encounter the odium of
+putting others in their places. It seems but common justice to leave a
+successor free to act by instruments of his own choice. If my respect
+for him did not permit me to ascribe the whole blame to the influence of
+others, it left something for friendship to forgive, and after brooding
+over it for some little time, and not always resisting the expression of
+it, I forgave it cordially, and returned to the same state of esteem
+and respect for him which had so long subsisted. Having come into life
+a little later than Mr. Adams, his career has preceded mine, as mine
+is followed by some other; and it will probably be closed at the same
+distance after him which time originally placed between us. I maintain
+for him, and shall carry into private life, an uniform and high measure
+of respect and good will, and for yourself a sincere attachment.
+
+I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which
+I have long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it
+will be received, I feal[sp.] relief from being unbosomed. And I have
+now only to entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject
+of domestic affliction, to one which seems of a different aspect. But
+though connected with political events, it has been viewed by me most
+strongly in its unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The
+injury these have sustained has been a heavy price for what has never
+given me equal pleasure. That you may both be favored with health,
+tranquillity, and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the
+assurance of his highest consideration and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII.--TO GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR PAGE.
+
+Washington, June 25, 1804.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of
+the goodness of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an
+affectionate concern for the greatness of it. It is great indeed. Others
+may lose of their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half
+of all I had. My evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of
+a single life. Perhaps I maybe destined to see even this last cord of
+parental affection broken! The hope with which I had looked forward
+to the moment, when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to
+retire to that domestic comfort from which the last great step is to be
+taken, is fearfully blighted. When you and I look back on the country
+over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit!
+Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the
+inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of
+war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce
+a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet,
+by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable
+thing to bear up through the heat of the action to witness the death of
+all our companions, and merely be the last victim? I doubt it. We have,
+however, the traveller's consolation. Every step shortens the distance
+we have to go; the end of our journey is in sight, the bed wherein we
+are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the friends we have lost. 'We
+sorrow not, then, as others who have no hope'; but look forward to the
+day which 'joins us to the great majority.' But whatever is to be our
+destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we should acquiesce in
+the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in
+the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with us. Of those
+connected by blood, the number does not depend on us. But friends we
+have, if we have merited them. Those of our earliest years stand nearest
+in our affections. But in this too, you and I have been unlucky. Of our
+college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have stood with us in
+the great political questions which have agitated our country: and these
+were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not believe the Lilliputian
+fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so many. Will not Mrs.
+Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a healthier region
+for the months of August and September? And may we not flatter ourselves
+that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not many summers
+to live. While fortune places us then within striking distance, let us
+avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of other times.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
+salutations, and assurances of constant affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, XIV.--TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804
+
+
+TO P. MAZZEI.
+
+Washington, July 18, 1804.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure
+of business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something
+of public importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a
+principle of conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely
+from all private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic;
+I scarcely write a letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another
+consideration has led to this, which is the liability of my letters to
+miscarry, be opened, and made ill use of. Although the great body of our
+country are perfectly returned to their ancient principles, yet there
+remains a phalanx of old tories and monarchists, more envenomed, as all
+their hopes become more desperate. Every word of mine which they can get
+hold of, however innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted, tormented,
+perverted, and, like the words of holy writ, are made to mean every
+thing but what they were intended to mean. I trust little, therefore,
+unnecessarily in their way, and especially on political subjects. I
+shall not, therefore, be free to answer all the several articles of your
+letters.
+
+On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation,
+as far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not
+been renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been
+declined. We believe, that with nations as with individuals, dealings
+may be carried on as anvantageously[sp.], perhaps more so, while their
+continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a
+contract, which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced
+constructions, to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war
+instead of a bond of peace.
+
+We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we
+will prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels, and goods all the
+privileges of the most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily,
+we cannot doubt they will voluntarily do the same for us. Our interests
+against the Barbaresques being also the same, we have little doubt she
+will give us every facility to insure them, which our situation may ask
+and hers admit. It is not, then, from a want of friendship that we do
+not propose a treaty with Naples, but because it is against our system
+to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at
+all with the affairs of Europe. The kind offices we receive from that
+government are more sensibly felt, as such, than they would be, if
+rendered only as due to us by treaty.
+
+Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli,
+which, in addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the
+credit which Commodore Morris's two years' sleep lost us, and for which
+he has been broke. I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they
+mistake their interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should
+she have declared war, as we expect, and almost wish.
+
+Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
+dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge
+it in twelve years more. That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen
+millions of dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay
+the expenses of any war we may be forced into, without new taxes or
+loans. The spirit of republicanism is now in almost all its ancient
+vigor, five sixths of the people being with us. Fourteen of the
+seventeen States are completely with us, and two of the other three will
+be in one year. We have now got back to the ground on which you left us.
+I should have retired at the end of the first four years, but that the
+immense load of tory calumnies which have been manufactured respecting
+me, and have filled the European market, have obliged me to appeal once
+more to my country for a justification. I have no fear but that I shall
+receive honorable testimony by their verdict on those calumnies. At the
+end of the next four years I shall certainly retire. Age, inclination,
+and principle all dictate this. My health, which at one time threatened
+an unfavorable turn, is now firm. The acquisition of Louisiana, besides
+doubling our extent, and trebling our quantity of fertile country, is
+of incalculable value, as relieving us from the danger of war. It has
+enabled us to do a handsome thing for Fayette. He had received a grant
+of between eleven and twelve thousand acres north of the Ohio, worth,
+perhaps, a dollar an acre. We have obtained permission of Congress to
+locate it in Louisiana. Locations can be found adjacent to the city of
+New Orleans, in the island of New Orleans and in its vicinity, the value
+of which cannot be calculated. I hope it will induce him to come over
+and settle there with his family. Mr. Livingston having asked leave to
+return, General Armstrong, his brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is
+of the first order of talents.
+
+Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
+Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson
+Andrews. To these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of
+my youngest daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has
+left two children. My eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six
+children. This loss has increased my anxiety to retire, while it has
+dreadfully lessened the comfort of doing it. Wythe, Dickinson, and
+Charles Thomson are all living, and are firm republicans. You informed
+me formerly of your marriage, and your having a daughter, but have said
+nothing in you late letters on that subject. Yet whatever concerns your
+happiness is sincerely interesting to me, and is a subject of anxiety,
+retaining, as I do, cordial sentiments of esteem and affection for you.
+Accept, I pray you, my sincere assurances of this, with my most friendly
+salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.--TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Washington, July 22, 1804.
+
+Dear Madam,
+
+Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not again
+have intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to
+have been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to
+Callendar are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I
+think, as 1796, I was told in Philadelphia, that Callendar, the author
+of the 'Political Progress of Britain,' was in that city, a fugitive
+from persecution for having written that book, and in distress. I
+had read and approved the book; I considered him as a man of genius,
+unjustly persecuted. I knew nothing of his private character, and
+immediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his relief, and to
+serve him. It was a considerable time after, that, on application from
+a person who thought of him as I did, I contributed to his relief, and
+afterwards repeated the contribution. Himself I did not see till long
+after, nor ever more than two or three times. When he first began to
+write, he told some useful truths in his coarse way; but nobody sooner
+disapproved of his writing than I did, or wished more that he would be
+silent. My charities to him were no more meant as encouragements to his
+scurrilities, than those I give to the beggar at my door are meant
+as rewards for the vices of his life, and to make them chargeable to
+myself. In truth, they would have been greater to him, had he never
+written a word after the work for which he fled from Britain. With
+respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and printers at
+large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping to any
+concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those of
+Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who published volumes against me for
+every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I never
+supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these
+editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable of that base warfare,
+and believed him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I may have thought
+of the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne
+testimony to Mr. Adams's personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my
+presence, without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed
+that any person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us
+meddled in that dirty work. But another fact is, that I 'liberated a
+wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.' I do not know
+who was the particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every person
+under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I
+considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and
+as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a
+golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution
+in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery
+furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship
+the image. It was accordingly done in every instance, without asking
+what the offenders had done, or against whom they had offended, but
+whether the pains they were suffering were inflicted under the pretended
+sedition law. It was certainly possible that my motives for contributing
+to the relief of Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition
+law might have been to protect, encourage, and reward slander; but they
+may also have been those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of
+distress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect
+the constitution, violated by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which of
+these were my motives, must be decided by a regard to the general tenor
+of my life. On this I am not afraid to appeal to the nation at large,
+to posterity, and still less to that Being who sees himself our motives,
+who will judge us from his own knowledge of them, and not on the
+testimony of Porcupine or Fenno.
+
+You observe, there has been one other act of my administration
+personally unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me. I
+declare on my honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act is
+alluded to. I never did a single one with an unkind intention. My sole
+object in this letter being to place before your attention, that the
+acts imputed to me are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might
+flow from good as well as bad motives, I shall make no other addition,
+than the assurances of my continued wishes for the health and happiness
+of yourself and Mr. Adams.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
+received it only by that day's post. I return you Monroe's letter, which
+is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
+contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
+surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the
+greater wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes
+on their enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France
+and England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and
+deadly hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that
+England should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get
+footing on our continent, and that France should willingly see the
+United States re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons
+should be replaced on their throne and agree to any terms of
+restitution, is possible: but that they and England joined, could
+recover us to British dominion, is impossible. If these things are
+not so, then human reason is of no aid in conjecturing the conduct of
+nations. Still, however, it is our unquestionable interest and duty to
+conduct ourselves with such sincere friendship and impartiality towards
+both nations, as that each may see unequivocally, what is unquestionably
+true, that we may be very possibly driven into her scale by unjust
+conduct in the other. I am so much impressed with the expediency of
+putting a termination to the right of France to patronize the rights of
+Louisiana, which will cease with their complete adoption as citizens of
+the United States, that I hope to see that take place on the meeting
+of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from a newspaper respecting St.
+Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I conceive the British insults
+in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot be respected by France as a
+neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves as an independent one,
+if we do not take effectual measures to support, at every risk, our
+authority in our own harbors. I shall write to Mr. Wagner directly
+(that a post may not be lost by passing through you) to send us blank
+commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to be filled up,
+signed, and forwarded by us. Affectionate salutations and constant
+esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII.--TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804
+
+
+TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
+
+Monticello, August 30, 1804.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till now
+the general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans.
+Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions. Among these is one
+for yourself as Governor. With respect to this I will enter into frank
+explanations. This office was originally destined for a person * whose
+great services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly
+acceptable to the nation at large. Circumstances, however, exist,
+which do not now permit his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time
+hereafter. That, therefore, being suspended, and entirely contingent,
+your services have been so much approved, as to leave no desire to
+look elsewhere to fill the office. Should the doubts you have sometimes
+expressed, whether it would be eligible for you to continue, still exist
+in your mind, the acceptance of the commission gives you time to satisfy
+yourself by further experience, and to make the time and manner of
+withdrawing, should you ultimately determine on that, agreeable to
+yourself. Be assured, that whether you continue or retire, it will be
+with every disposition on my part to be just and friendly to you.
+
+*****
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [* In the margin is written by the author, 'La Fayette.']
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.--TO MRS. ADAMS, September 11, 1804
+
+
+TO MRS. ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 11, 1804,
+
+Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received,
+but a press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps,
+indeed, I may have already trespassed too far on your attention. With
+those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly
+indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only
+truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive. The act of personal
+unkindness alluded to in your former letter, is said in your last to
+have been the removal of your eldest son from some office to which
+the judges had appointed him. I conclude, then, he must have been a
+commissioner of bankruptcy. But I declare to you, on my honor, that
+this is the first knowledge I have ever had that he was so. It may be
+thought, perhaps, that I ought to have inquired who were such, before
+I appointed others. But it is to be observed, that the former law
+permitted the judges to name commissioners occasionally only, for every
+case as it arose, and not to make them permanent officers. Nobody,
+therefore, being in office, there could be no removal. The judges, you
+well know, have been considered as highly federal; and it was noted
+that they confined their nominations exclusively to federalists. The
+legislature, dissatisfied with this, transferred the nomination to the
+President, and made the offices permanent. The very object in passing
+the law was, that he should correct, not confirm, what was deemed the
+partiality of the judges. I thought it therefore proper to inquire,
+not whom they had employed, but whom I ought to appoint to fulfil
+the intentions of the law. In making these appointments, I put in a
+proportion of federalists, equal, I believe, to the proportion they bear
+in numbers through the Union generally. Had I known that your son had
+acted, it would have been a real pleasure to me to have preferred him
+to some who were named in Boston, in what was deemed the same line
+of politics. To this I should have been led by my knowledge of his
+integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards yourself and Mr.
+Adams.
+
+You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of
+the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right
+to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for
+them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action
+assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a
+right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was
+placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing
+the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;
+because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That
+instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each
+other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide
+what laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in
+their own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also
+in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch. Nor does
+the opinion of the unconstitutionality, and consequent nullity of that
+law, remove all restraint from the overwhelming torrent of slander,
+which is confounding all vice and virtue, all truth and falsehood,
+in the United States. The power to do that is fully possessed by the
+several State legislatures. It was reserved to them, and was denied
+to the General Government, by the constitution, according to our
+construction of it. While we deny that Congress have a right to control
+the freedom of the press, we have ever asserted the right of the States,
+and their exclusive right, to do so. They have, accordingly, all of them
+made provisions for punishing slander, which those who have time and
+inclination resort to for the vindication of their characters. In
+general, the State laws appear to have made the presses responsible for
+slander as far as is consistent with its useful freedom. In those States
+where they do not admit even the truth of allegations to protect the
+printer, they have gone too far.
+
+The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to
+possess, has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention once
+more to those circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be
+judged. I hope you will see these intrusions on your time to be, what
+they really are, proofs of my great, respect for you. I tolerate with
+the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion,
+without imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and
+uncertainty of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both
+of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree
+conscientiously in the same object, the public good: but they differ
+essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side
+believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the
+other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people;
+the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is
+right, time and experience will prove. We think that one side of this
+experiment has been long enough tried, and proved not to promote
+the good of the many: and that the other has not been fairly and
+sufficiently tried. Our opponents think the reverse. With whichever
+opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must prevail. My anxieties
+on this subject will never carry me beyond the use of fair and honorable
+means of truth and reason; nor have they ever lessened my esteem for
+moral worth, nor alienated my affections from a single friend, who did
+not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has happened, I confess I have
+not been insensible to it: yet have ever kept myself open to a return
+of their justice. I conclude with sincere prayers for your health and
+happiness, that yourself and Mr. Adams may long enjoy the tranquillity
+you desire and merit, and see in the prosperity of your family what is
+the consummation of the last and warmest of human wishes,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.--TO MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. NICHOLSON.
+
+Washington, January 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of yesterday,
+asking information on the subject of the gun-boats proposed to be built.
+I lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting
+them, premising a few words on the system of fortifications. Considering
+the harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to
+defence, and the estimates we have seen of the fortifications planned
+for some of them, this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale
+for less than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of war with
+less than fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. And when
+done, they avail little; because all military men agree, that wherever a
+vessel may pass a fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case
+at all our sea-port towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according
+to the advantages of the position, but can never be prevented. Our
+own experience during the war proved this on different occasions. Our
+predecessors have, nevertheless, proposed to go into this system, and
+had commenced it. But, no law requiring us to proceed, we have suspended
+it.
+
+If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn
+our attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to,
+before a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in
+aid of each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages, which may be
+moved to any point on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging
+the vessel. A sufficient number of these should be lent to each sea-port
+town, and their militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to
+do this; it has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more
+competently.
+
+2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so
+stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her
+after entering to depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the United
+States, which ought to be in a state of substantial defence. The whole
+of these would require, according to the best opinions, two hundred
+and forty gun-boats. Their cost was estimated by Captain Rogers at two
+thousand dollars each; but we had better say four thousand dollars. The
+whole would cost one million of dollars. But we should allow ourselves
+ten years to complete it, unless circumstances should force it sooner.
+There are three situations in which the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up
+under a shed, in readiness to be launched and manned by the seamen and
+militia of the town on short notice. In this situation she costs nothing
+but an enclosure, or a centinel to see that no mischief is done to her.
+2. Afloat, and with men enough to navigate her in harbor and take care
+of her, but depending on receiving her crew from the town on short
+warning. In this situation, her annual expense is about two thousand
+dollars, as by an official estimate at the end of this letter. 3. Fully
+manned for action. Her annual expense in this situation is about eight
+thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined. 'When there is general
+peace, we should probably keep about six or seven afloat in the second
+situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen thousand dollars; the
+rest all hauled up. When France and England are at war, we should keep,
+at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation, their annual expense
+fifty thousand dollars. When we should be at war ourselves, some of them
+would probably be kept in the third situation, at an annual expense of
+eight thousand dollars; but how many, must depend on the circumstances
+of the war. We now possess ten, built and building. It is the opinion of
+those consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to put every harbor
+under our view into a respectable condition; and that this should limit
+the views of the present year. This would require an appropriation of
+sixty thousand dollars, and I suppose that the best way of limiting it,
+without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would build more. I
+should think it best not to give a detailed report, which exposes our
+policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, will suffice for the
+information of the House. I do not know whether General Wilkinson would
+approve the printing his paper. If he would, it would be useful. Accept
+affectionate and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.--TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805
+
+
+TO MR. VOLNEY.
+
+Washington, February 8, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the books
+some time after, which were all distributed according to direction.
+The copy for the East Indies went immediately by a safe conveyance. The
+letter of April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying
+that, did not come to hand till August. That copy was deposited in the
+Congressional library. It was not till my return here from my autumnal
+visit to Monticello, that I had an opportunity of reading your work. I
+have read it, and with great satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a
+judge than most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton,
+so as to know any thing of the face of the country; nor much indulged
+myself in geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep
+scratches, which we can make or find on the surface of the earth, do not
+repay our time with as certain and useful deductions, as our pursuits in
+some other branches. The subject of our winds is more familiar to me.
+On that, the views you have taken are always great, supported in their
+outlines by your facts; and though more extensive observations, and
+longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will probably
+take their place in this first great canvass which you have sketched. In
+no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or judgment more than
+in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in his sleigh and snow,
+the very idea of which gives me the shivers. The comparison of climate
+between Europe and North America, taking together its corresponding
+parts, hangs chiefly on three great points. 1. The changes between heat
+and cold in America are greater and more frequent, and the extremes
+comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer in America than in Europe.
+Habit, however, prevents these from affecting us more than the smaller
+changes of Europe affect the European. But he is greatly affected by
+ours. 2. Our sky is always clear; that of Europe always cloudy. Hence a
+greater accumulation of heat here than there, in the same parallel. 3.
+The changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and sudden in
+Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls in half
+the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate of the
+United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It
+is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all
+disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited
+from our English ancestors. During a residence of between six and seven
+years in Paris, I never but once saw the sun shine through a whole day,
+without being obscured by a cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the
+moment, in which, viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could
+say there was not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at
+Monticello, on my return from France, in January, and during only two
+months' stay there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to
+France, that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of
+a cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an European
+should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our taste in
+this, as in most other cases.
+
+The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to what
+we then knew of it. Further experience has developed more and more
+its peculiar character. Facts appear to have established, that it is
+originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never generated but
+in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large cities, in the
+neighborhood of the water; and that, to catch the disease, you must
+enter the local atmosphere. Persons having taken the disease in the
+infected quarter, and going into the country, are nursed and buried by
+their friends, without an example of communicating it. A vessel going
+from the infected quarter, and carrying its atmosphere in its hold into
+another State, has given the disease to every person who there entered
+her. These have died in the arms of their families, without a single
+communication of the disease. It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic,
+not a contagious disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode
+of purifying the vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if
+ventilation be found insufficient. In the long scale of bilious fevers,
+graduated by many shades, this is probably the last and most mortal
+term. It seizes the native of the place equally with strangers. It has
+not been long known in any part of the United States. The shade
+next above it, called the stranger's fever, has been coeval with the
+settlement of the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit, Norfolk,
+Charleston, New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the months
+of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine
+yellow fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them
+some time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
+respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger's
+fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black vomit,
+that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear of yellow
+fever on the Allegany mountains, in Kentucky, &c. This is a matter
+of definition only: but it leads into error those who do not know how
+loosely and how interestedly some physicians think and speak. So far
+as we have yet seen, I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow
+fever, which seizes on all indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of
+bilious fever, never known in the United States till lately, nor farther
+south, as yet, than Alexandria, and that what they have recently called
+the yellow fever in New Orleans, Charleston, and Norfolk, is what has
+always been known in those places as confined chiefly to strangers, and
+nearly as mortal to them, as the other is to all its subjects. But both
+grades are local: the stranger's fever less so, as it sometimes extends
+a little into the neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so,
+confined within narrow and well defined limits, and not communicable
+out of those limits. Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite
+to originate this disease as is generated only in low, close, and
+ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have supposed it practicable to prevent
+its generation by building our cities on a more open plan. Take, for
+instance, the chequer-board for a plan. Let the black squares only be
+building squares, and the white ones be left open, in turf and trees.
+Every square of houses will be surrounded by four open squares, and
+every house will front an open square. The atmosphere of such a town
+would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the miasmata which
+produce yellow fever. I have accordingly proposed that the enlargements
+of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be
+on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of
+cities to be built, that his means of prevention can be employed.
+
+The _genus irritabile vatum_ could not let the author of the Ruins
+publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of discrediting that
+puzzling composition. Some one of those holy calumniators has selected
+from your new work every scrap of a sentence, which, detached from its
+context, could displease an American reader. A cento has been made of
+these, which has run through a particular description of newspapers, and
+excited a disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the
+reading of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
+error.
+
+Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, that
+they have little time to write or invent. A good invention here,
+therefore, is such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the acceptance
+of a friend. A Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, has invented
+a machine, which he calls a polygraph, and which carries two, three, or
+four pens. That of two pens, with which I am now writing, is best;
+and is so perfect that I have laid aside the copying-press, for a
+twelvemonth past, and write always with the polygraph. I have directed
+one to be made, of which I ask your acceptance. By what conveyance I
+shall send it while Havre is blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you
+will be pleased with it, and will use it habitually as I do; because it
+requires only that degree of mechanical attention which I know you to
+possess. I am glad to hear that M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the
+reformation of medicine. It needs the hand of a reformer, and cannot
+be in better hands than his. Will you permit my respects to him and the
+Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
+
+A word now on our political state. The two parties which prevailed with
+so much violence when you were here, are almost wholly melted into
+one. At the late Presidential election I have received one hundred and
+sixty-two votes against fourteen only. Connecticut is still federal by a
+small majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she has been since 1775, and
+will be till Anglomany with her yields to Americanism. Connecticut will
+be with us in a short time. Though the people in mass have joined us,
+their leaders had committed themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps
+them hostile; they brood over their angry passions, and give them vent
+in the newspapers which they maintain. They still make as much noise as
+if they were the whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile
+papers, published chiefly in the seaports, are the only ones which find
+their way to Europe, and make very false impressions there. I am happy
+to hear that the late derangement of your health is going off, and that
+you are reestablished. I sincerely pray for the continuance of that
+blessing, and with my affectionate salutations, tender you assurances of
+great respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying-pen of the
+polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.--TO JUDGE TYLER, March 29, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, March 29, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 17th found me on a short visit to this place, and I
+observe in it with great pleasure a continuance of your approbation
+of the course we are pursuing, and particularly the satisfaction you
+express with the last inaugural address. The first was, from the nature
+of the case, all profession and promise. Performance, therefore, seemed
+to be the proper office of the second. But the occasion restricted me to
+mention only the most prominent heads, and the strongest justification
+of these in the fewest words possible. The crusade preached against
+philosophy by the modern disciples of steady habits, induced me to dwell
+more in showing its effect with the Indians than the subject otherwise
+justified.
+
+The war with Tripoli stands on two grounds of fact. 1st. It is made
+known to us by our agents with the three other Barbary States, that they
+only wait to see the event of this, to shape their conduct accordingly.
+If the war is ended by additional tribute, they mean to offer us the
+same alternative. 2ndly. If peace was made, we should still, and shall
+ever, be obliged to keep a frigate in the Mediterranean to overawe
+rupture, or we must abandon that market. Our intention in sending Morris
+with a respectable force, was to try whether peace could be forced by
+a coercive enterprise on their town. His inexecution of orders baffled
+that effort. Having broke him, we try the same experiment under a better
+commander. If in the course of the summer they cannot produce peace, we
+shall recall our force, except one frigate and two small vessels, which
+will keep up a perpetual blockade. Such a blockade will cost us no more
+than a state of peace, and will save us from increased tributes, and
+the disgrace attached to them. There is reason to believe the example
+we have set, begins already to work on the dispositions of the powers
+of Europe to emancipate themselves from that degrading yoke. Should we
+produce such a revolution there, we shall be amply rewarded for what
+we have done. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
+respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.--TO DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
+
+Washington, May 11, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among
+our friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place
+in other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their
+good intentions will produce great public evil. The minority,
+whichever section shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the
+federalists, and some compromise of principle; because these will not
+sell their aid for nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism
+gain, some portion of that ground which we thought we had rescued to
+good government. I do not express my sense of our misfortunes from any
+idea that they are remediable. I know that the passions of men will take
+their course, that they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and
+that this melancholy truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an
+upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing
+of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of
+both parties. The war _ad internecionem_ which we have waged against
+federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and unhappiness. We
+have met it, with pain indeed, but with firmness, because we believed it
+the last convulsive effort of that Hydra, which in earlier times we had
+conquered in the field. But if any degeneracy of principle should ever
+render it necessary to give ascendancy to one of the rising sections
+over the other, I thank my God it will fall to some other to perform
+that operation. The only cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is
+the undivided good will of all those with whom I have acted.
+
+Present me affectionately to Mrs. Logan, and accept my salutations, and
+assurances of constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.--TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805
+
+
+TO JUDGE SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, May 21, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An accumulation of business, which I found on my return here from a
+short visit to Monticello, has prevented till now my acknowledgment of
+your favor of the 14th _ultimo_. This delay has given time to see the
+result of the contest in your State, and I cannot but congratulate you
+on the advance it manifests, and the certain prospect it offers that
+another year restores Massachusetts to the general body of the nation.
+You have indeed received the federal unction of lying and slandering.
+But who has not? Who will ever again come into eminent office,
+unanointed with this chrism? It seems to be fixed that falsehood and
+calumny are to be their ordinary engines of opposition; engines which
+will not be entirely without effect. The circle of characters equal
+to the first stations is not too large, and will be lessened by the
+voluntary retreat of those whose sensibilities are stronger than their
+confidence in the justice of public opinion. I certainly have known, and
+still know, characters eminently qualified for the most exalted trusts,
+who could not bear up against the brutal hackings and hewings of these
+heroes of Billingsgate. I may say, from intimate knowledge, that we
+should have lost the services of the greatest character of our country,
+had he been assailed with the degree of abandoned licentiousness now
+practised. The torture he felt under rare and slight attacks, proved
+that under those of which the federal bands have shown themselves
+capable, he would have thrown up the helm in a burst of indignation.
+Yet this effect of sensibility must not be yielded to. If we suffer
+ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the enemy
+will use that weapon; for what one so cheap to those of whose system of
+politics morality makes no part? The patriot, like the Christian, must
+learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty;
+and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more
+requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But
+that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are
+repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good
+example. To the other falsehoods they have brought forward, should they
+add, as you expect, insinuations of want of confidence in you from the
+administration generally, or myself particularly, it will, like their
+other falsehoods, produce in the public mind a contrary inference.
+
+*********
+
+I tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.--TO THOMAS PAINE, June 5, 1805
+
+
+TO THOMAS PAINE.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1805.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
+received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to
+your farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
+attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
+answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which
+it will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian
+blinds, can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you
+propose will have advantages. You know it has been practised on the
+cloth market at Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs
+in his book, to which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a
+dome, being one hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in
+the capitol we unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all
+framed in De Lorme's manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has
+it been tried and persevered in by any workman?
+
+France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
+truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become
+a mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however,
+expressed satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the
+subject of that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners,
+you know I can do nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a
+question in Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which
+the constitution authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would
+cover an expenditure for importing settlers to Orleans. The letter of
+the revolutionary sergeant was attended to by General Dearborn, who
+wrote to him informing him how to proceed to obtain his land.
+
+Doctor Eustis's observation to you, that 'certain paragraphs in the
+National Intelligencer,' respecting my letter to you, 'supposed to be
+under Mr. Jefferson's direction, had embarrassed Mr. Jefferson's friends
+in Massachusetts; that they appeared like a half denial of the letter,
+or as if there was something in it not proper to be owned, or that
+needed an apology,' is one of those mysterious half confidences
+difficult to be understood. That tory printers should think it
+advantageous to identify me with that paper, the Aurora, &c. in order to
+obtain ground for abusing me, is perhaps fair warfare. But that any one
+who knows me personally should listen one moment to such an insinuation,
+is what I did not expect. I neither have, nor ever had, any more
+connection with those papers than our antipodes have; nor know what is
+to be in them until I see it in them, except proclamations and other
+documents sent for publication. The friends in Massachusetts who could
+be embarrassed by so weak a weapon as this, must be feeble friends
+indeed. With respect to the letter, I never hesitated to avow and to
+justify it in conversation. In no other way do I trouble myself to
+contradict any thing which is said. At that time, however, there were
+certain anomalies in the motions of some of our friends, which events
+have at length reduced to regularity.
+
+It seems very difficult to find out what turn things are to take in
+Europe. I suppose it depends on Austria, which knowing it is to stand in
+the way of receiving the first hard blows, is cautious of entering into
+a coalition. As to France and England we can have but one wish, that
+they may disable one another from injuring others.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+[The following, in the hand-writing of the Author, is inserted in his
+MS. of this period. Whether it was published, or where, is not stated.]
+
+Richmond, 1780, December 31. At 8 A. M. the Governor receives the first
+intelligence that twenty-seven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay,
+and were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby's point (the
+southern cape of James river); their destination unknown.
+
+
+1781, January 2. At 10 A. M. information received that they had entered
+James river, their advance being at Warrasqueak bay. Orders were
+immediately given for calling in the militia, one fourth from some,
+and one half from other counties. The members of the legislature,
+which rises this day, are the bearers of the orders to their respective
+counties. The Governor directs the removal of the records into the
+country, and the transportation of the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham (on the river seven miles above); there to be carried across the
+river.
+
+
+January 3. At 8 P. M. the enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown;
+convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.
+
+
+January 4. At 5 A. M. information is received that they had passed
+Kennon's and Hood's the evening before, with a strong; easterly wind,
+which determines their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The
+Governor now calls in the whole militia from the adjacent counties.
+
+
+At 5 P. M. information, that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up
+at Westover (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
+Richmond); and consequently Richmond their destination. Orders are
+now given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to
+Westham, and to throw them across the river directly at Richmond.
+
+The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the
+night, then rode up to the foundery (one mile below Westham), ordered
+Captains Boush and Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to continue all night wagoning
+to Westham the arms and stores still at the foundery, to be thrown
+across the river at Westham, then proceeded to Westham to urge the
+pressing the transportation there across the river, and thence went to
+Tuckahoe (eight miles above and on the same side of the river) to see
+after his family, which he had sent that far in the course of the day.
+He arrived there at 1 o'clock in the night.
+
+
+January 5. Early in the morning, he carried his family across the river
+there, and sending them to Fine Creek (eight miles higher up) went
+himself to Britton's on the south side of the river, (opposite to
+Westham). Finding the arms, &c. in a heap near the shore, and exposed
+to be destroyed by cannon from the north bank, he had them removed under
+cover of a point of land near by. He proceeded to Manchester (opposite
+to Richmond). The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1 P. M. Having found
+that nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond, he set out
+for Chetwood's to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that
+place as a rendezvous and head-quarters; but not finding him there,
+and understanding he would be at Colonel Fleming's (six miles above
+Britton's), he proceeded thither. The enemy had now a detachment
+at Westham, and sent a deputation from the city of Richmond to the
+Governor, at Colonel Fleming's, to propose terms for ransoming the
+safety of the city, which terms he rejected.
+
+
+January 6. The Governor returned to Britton's, had measures taken more
+effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy, having
+burnt some houses and stores, left Richmond after twenty-four hours'
+stay there, and encamped at Four Mile Creek (eight or ten miles below);
+and the Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.
+
+
+January 7. He returned to Britton's to see further to the arms there,
+exposed on the ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before,
+and thence proceeded to Manchester and lodged there. The enemy encamped
+at Westover.
+
+
+January 8. At half after 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and
+resumed his residence there. The enemy are still retained in their
+encampment at Westover by an easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has
+now three hundred militia at the Forest (six miles off from Westover);
+General Nelson, two hundred at Charles City Court-House (eight miles
+below Westover); Gibson, one thousand, and Baron Steuben, eight hundred,
+on the south side of the river.
+
+
+January 9. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.
+
+
+January 10. At 1 P. M. they embark: and the wind having shifted a little
+to the north of west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
+Steuben marches for Hood's, where their passage may be checked. He
+reaches Bland's mills in the evening, within nine miles of Hood's.
+
+
+January 11. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they make good
+their retreat.
+
+
+During this period, time and place have been minutely cited, in order
+that those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the
+Governor, may lay their finger on the point, and say, when and where it
+was. Hereafter, less detail will suffice.
+
+Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold with a
+reinforcement of two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg,
+and about the last of April to Manchester. The Governor had remained
+constantly in and about Richmond, exerting all his powers for collecting
+militia, and providing such means for the defence of the State as its
+exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, and with only the
+river between him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within
+four, five, or six miles of them.
+
+M. de la Fayette about this time arrived at Richmond with some
+continental troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued
+to occupy that place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips
+and Arnold held Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis,
+about the middle of May, joining them with the main southern army, M.
+de la Fayette was obliged to retire. The enemy crossed the river, and
+advanced up into the country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles
+of Charlottesville, at which place the legislature being to meet in
+June, the Governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or three
+miles from it. His office was now near expiring, the country under
+invasion by a powerful army, no services but military of any avail;
+unprepared by his line of life and education for the command of armies,
+he believed it right not to stand in the way of talents better fitted
+than his own to the circumstances under which the country was placed.
+He therefore himself proposed to his friends in the legislature, that
+General Nelson, who commanded the militia of the State, should be
+appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the union of the civil and
+military power in the same hands, at this time, would greatly facilitate
+military measures. This appointment accordingly took place on the 12th
+of June, 1781.
+
+This was the state of things, when, his office having actually expired,
+and no successor yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment, of
+horse, was detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson
+(whom they thought still in office) and the legislature now sitting in
+Charlottesville. The Speakers of the two Houses, and some other members
+of the legislature, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello.
+Tarleton, early in the morning, (June 23, I believe,) when within ten
+miles of that place, detached a company of horse to secure him and
+his guests, and proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to
+Charlottesville, where he hoped to find the legislature unapprized of
+his movement. Notice of it, however, had been brought both to Monticello
+and Charlottesville about sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues,
+returned to Charlottesville, and, with the other members of the
+legislature, had barely time to get out of his way. Mr. Jefferson sent
+off his family, to secure them from danger, and was himself still at
+Monticello, making arrangements for his own departure, when Lieutenant
+Hudson arrived there at half speed, and informed him the enemy were then
+ascending the hill of Monticello. He departed immediately, and knowing
+that he would be pursued if he took the high road, he plunged into the
+woods of the adjoining mountain, where, being at once safe, he proceeded
+to overtake his family. This is the famous adventure of Carter's
+Mountain, which has been so often resounded through the slanderous
+chronicles of Federalism. But they have taken care never to detail the
+facts, lest these should show that this favorite charge amounted to
+nothing more, than that he did not remain in his house, and there singly
+fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be taken prisoner.
+Having accompanied his family one day's journey, he returned to
+Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours' stay in
+Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded
+with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest,
+where, riding in his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse,
+and disabled from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr.
+Turner finds it more convenient to give him this fall in his retreat
+before Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof that
+he withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which Don Quixote
+would not have practised.
+
+The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place,
+are taken from the notes made by the writer hereof, for his own
+satisfaction, at the time: the others are from memory, but so well
+recollected, that he is satisfied there is no material fact misstated.
+Should any person undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence
+which may at all merit the public respect, the writer will take the
+trouble (though not at all in the best situation for it) to produce the
+proofs in support of it. He finds, indeed, that, of the persons whom he
+recollects to have been present on these occasions, few have survived
+the intermediate lapse of four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that
+some, as well as himself, are yet among the living; and he is positively
+certain, that no man can falsify any material fact here stated. He well
+remembers, indeed, that there were then, as there are at all times,
+some who blamed every thing done contrary to their own opinion, although
+their opinions were formed on a very partial knowledge of facts. The
+censures, which have been hazarded by such men as Mr. Turner, are
+nothing but revivals of these half-informed opinions. Mr. George
+Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very honest one, was
+prompted by these persons to bring specific charges against Mr.
+Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were communicated through a
+mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also the
+heads of justification on each of them. I well remember this paper, and
+believe the original of it still exists; and though framed when every
+real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabricated
+flight from Richmond was not among the charges stated in this paper, nor
+any charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting, singly, the troop of
+horse. Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House
+of Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable sentence of
+entire approbation of Mr. Jefferson's conduct, and so much the more
+honorable, as themselves had been witnesses to it. And Mr. George
+Nicholas took a conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will,
+and when the matter was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the
+erroneous opinions he had been led into on that occasion, and to make
+just reparation by a candid acknowledgment of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.--TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806
+
+
+TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1806.
+
+Gentlemen,
+
+I have received the favor of your letter of February the 2nd, and read
+with thankfulness its obliging expressions respecting myself. I regret
+that the object of a letter from persons whom I so much esteem, and
+patronized by so many other respectable names, should be beyond the
+law which a mature consideration of circumstances has prescribed for my
+conduct. I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of
+his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to
+see it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This
+I believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
+inquiry and information, the subjects of distress to whose relief his
+contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
+life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it
+would leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind
+from different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far
+beyond any resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in the
+East Indies, the object of the present application, is but one of many
+items. However disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our means
+having limits, we are necessarily circumscribed by them. They are too
+narrow to relieve even the distresses under our own eye: and to desert
+these for others which we neither see nor know, is to omit doing a
+certain good for one which is uncertain. I know, indeed, there have
+been splendid associations for effecting benevolent purposes in remote
+regions of the earth. But no experience of their effect has proved that
+more good would not have been done by the same means employed nearer
+home. In explaining, however, my own motives of action, I must not be
+understood as impeaching those of others. Their views are those of
+an expanded liberality. Mine may be too much restrained by the law of
+usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with minds like yours, will be
+felt as a justification. With this apology, I pray you to accept my
+salutations, and assurances of high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.--TO MR. DUANE, March 22, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. DUANE.
+
+Washington, March 22, 1806.
+
+I thank you, my good Sir, cordially, for your letter of the 12th; which,
+however, I did not receive till the 20th. It is a proof of sincerity,
+which I value above all things; as, between those who practise it,
+falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. There is an enemy
+somewhere endeavoring to sow discord among us. Instead of listening
+first, then doubting, and lastly believing anile tales handed round
+without an atom of evidence, if my friends will address themselves to
+me directly, as you have done, they shall be informed with frankness
+and thankfulness. There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would
+disguise. But secret slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are
+secret. Although you desire no answer, I shall give you one to those
+articles admitting a short answer, reserving those which require more
+explanation than the compass of a letter admits, to conversation on your
+arrival here. And as I write this for your personal satisfaction, I
+rely that my letter will, under no circumstances, be communicated to any
+mortal, because you well know how every syllable from me is distorted by
+the ingenuity of political enemies.
+
+In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or
+indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever
+had before. This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from
+design. And if there be any coolness between those of the south and
+myself, it has not been from me towards them. Certainly there has been
+no other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among
+our friends. That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is
+sufficiently known. We were not disposed to join in league with Britain,
+under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind,
+and to enter into war with Spain, and consequently France. The House of
+Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.'s
+resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western
+service. We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if
+it can be effected honorably. This, perhaps, is not the only ground
+of his alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of
+eighty-seven to eleven republicans may satisfy you: but you will better
+satisfy yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things
+can be known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied
+on all essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.
+
+That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is
+totally unfounded. There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial
+administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise. And while
+differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm,
+that as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my
+message to Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was
+not a unanimity of concurrence in the members of the administration. The
+fact is, that in ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me
+on those of his department, and where any thing arises too difficult or
+important to be decided between us, the consultation becomes general.
+
+That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public
+profession and concealed counteraction, is false.
+
+That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and
+declared I would appoint none but those called moderates of both
+parties, and that I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those
+called the third party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.
+
+That the expedition of Miranda was countenanced by me is an absolute
+falsehood, let it have gone from whom it might; and I am satisfied it is
+equally so as to Mr. Madison. To know as much of it as we could was our
+duty, but not to encourage it.
+
+Our situation is difficult; and whatever we do, is liable to the
+criticisms of those who wish to represent it awry. If we recommend
+measures in a public message, it may be said that members are not sent
+here to obey the mandates of the President, or to register the edicts
+of a sovereign. If we express opinions in conversation, we have then our
+Charles Jenkinsons, and back-door counsellors. If we say nothing, 'we
+have no opinions, no plans, no cabinet.' In truth, it is the fable of
+the old man, his son, and ass, over again.
+
+These are short facts, which may suffice to inspire you with caution,
+until you can come here and examine for yourself. No other information
+can give you a true insight into the state of things; but you will have
+no difficulty in understanding them when on the spot. In the mean time,
+accept my friendly salutations and cordial good wishes.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.--[Confidential.]
+
+Washington, March 24,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed to be made
+at Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose, General
+Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint
+commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
+Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
+stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add
+a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
+confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
+Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be
+a southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated
+are almost entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet
+ultimately decided on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted.
+Under this expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake
+it, I give you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may
+be preparing both your mind and your measures for the mission. The
+departure would be required to be very prompt; though the absence,
+I think, will not be long, Bonaparte not being in the practice of
+procrastination. This particular consideration will, I hope, reconcile
+the voyage to your affairs and your feelings. The allowance to an extra
+mission, is salary from the day of leaving home, and expenses to
+the place of destination, or in lieu of the latter, and to avoid
+settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For the return, a
+continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment of the
+commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as possible,
+and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure as proposed
+provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal until we
+see it proper. Affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, April 13, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause for your
+not acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe. My only
+hope had been, that they could have gone on one summer without you.
+An unjust hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid,
+show itself whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for
+ratification. I wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a
+person who would have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General
+Smith was so prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be
+impossible for them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave
+the matter with Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish
+sincerely you were back in the Senate; and that you would take the
+necessary measures to get yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you
+should go to our legislature. Giles's absence has been a most serious
+misfortune. A majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard
+are too dexterous for them, and have very much influenced their
+proceedings. Tracy has been of nearly every committee during the
+session, and for the most part the chairman, and of course drawer of the
+reports. Seven federalists voting always in phalanx, and joined by some
+discontented republicans, some oblique ones, some capricious, have so
+often made a majority, as to produce very serious embarrassment to the
+public operations; and very much do I dread the submitting to them, at
+the next session, any treaty which can be made with either England or
+Spain, when I consider that five joining the federalists, can defeat a
+friendly settlement of our affairs. The House of Representatives is as
+well disposed as I ever saw one. The defection of so prominent a leader
+threw them into dismay and confusion for a moment; but they soon rallied
+to their own principles, and let him go off with five or six followers
+only. One half of these are from Virginia. His late declaration of
+perpetual opposition to this administration, drew off a few others, who
+at first had joined him, supposing his opposition occasional only,
+and not systematic. The alarm the House has had from this schism, has
+produced a rallying together, and a harmony, which carelessness and
+security had begun to endanger. On the whole, this little trial of the
+firmness of our representatives in their principles, and that of the
+people also, which is declaring itself in support of their public
+functionaries, has added much to my confidence in the stability of our
+government; and to my conviction, that should things go wrong at any
+time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable exercise of
+their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this schism,
+its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation; and
+must be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably
+be about the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there.
+Congress has agreed to rise on Monday the 21st.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.--TO MR. HARRIS, April 18, 1806
+
+TO MR. HARRIS.
+
+Washington, April 18, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+It is now some time since I received from you, through the house of
+Smith and Buchanan, at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander,
+for which I have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial,
+because of the value the bust derives from the great estimation in which
+its original is held by the world, and by none more than by myself.
+It will constitute one of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am
+preparing for myself at my native home. Accept, at the same time, my
+acknowledgments for the elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the
+customs of the Russians. I had laid it down as a law for my conduct
+while in office, and hitherto scrupulously observed, to accept of no
+present beyond a book, a pamphlet, or other curiosity of minor value;
+as well to avoid imputations on my motives of action, as to shut out
+a practice susceptible of such abuse. But my particular esteem for the
+character of the Emperor places his image in my mind above the scope of
+law. I receive it, therefore, and shall cherish it with affection. It
+nourishes the contemplation of all the good placed in his power, and of
+his disposition to do it.
+
+A little before Dr. Priestley's death, he informed me that he had
+received intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the
+Emperor entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have
+therefore selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which
+I pray you to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to
+occupy his time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to
+be made by others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the
+compass of the time which his higher callings can yield to such an
+object.
+
+At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
+aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there
+had ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia,
+traces of it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore
+availed myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain
+vocabularies of such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding
+to a list then formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I
+have made such progress, that within a year or two more I think to give
+to the public what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a
+report of Mr. Volney's to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas,
+entitled _Vocabulaires Compares des Langues de toute la Terre_; with
+a list of one hundred and thirty words, to which the vocabulary is
+limited. I find that seventy-three of these words are common to that
+and to my vocabulary, and therefore will enable us, by a comparison of
+language, to make the inquiry so long desired, as to the probability
+of a common origin between the people of color of the two continents. I
+have to ask the favor of you to procure me a copy of the above work of
+Pallas, to inform me of the cost, and permit me to pay it here to your
+use; for I presume you have some mercantile correspondent here, to whom
+a payment can be made for you. A want of knowledge what the book may
+cost, as well as of the means of making so small a remittance, obliges
+me to make this proposition, and to restrain it to the sole condition
+that I be permitted to reimburse it here.
+
+I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
+have delivered: it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
+State will explain to you.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.--TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
+
+
+TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
+
+Washington, April 19, 1806.
+
+I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty, of the great
+satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,
+and sincere expressions of the respect and veneration I entertain for
+your character. It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts
+of my life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a
+portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign,
+whose ruling passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity
+of his people; and not of his own people only, but who can extend his
+eye and his good will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its
+course, unambitious in its views.
+
+The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
+observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of
+their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect
+that your Majesty's interposition in them has been disinterested and
+generous, and having in view only the general good of the great
+European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is to
+re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead
+you to think of the general intercourse of nations, and to make that
+provision for its future maintenance, which, in times past, it has so
+much needed. The northern nations of Europe, at the head of which your
+Majesty is distinguished, are habitually peaceable. The United States
+of America, like them, are attached to peace. We have then with them
+a common interest in the neutral rights. Every nation, indeed, on the
+continent of Europe, belligerent as well as neutral, is interested in
+maintaining these rights, in liberalizing them progressively with the
+progress of science and refinement of morality, and in relieving
+them from restrictions which the extension of the arts has long since
+rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
+
+Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their
+power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
+nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
+correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such
+a definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent,
+would give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them
+with an authority, which would protect them in an important degree
+against future violation; and should any further sanction be necessary,
+that of an exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse
+with all the others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to
+the offence, more easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The
+essential articles of these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily
+to be defined.
+
+Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
+no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
+in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that
+they are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond
+the narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of
+his equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a
+happy concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step
+can now and then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the
+present occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty's character will not be
+wanting to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may
+your life become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and
+may He who called it into being for the good of the human family, give
+it length of days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, May 4, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected
+to have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar
+confidence to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying
+trip to London, on private business. But I believe he does not find it
+convenient. He could have let you into the _arcana rerum_, which you
+have interests in knowing. Mr. Pinckney's pursuits having been confined
+to his peculiar line, he has only that general knowledge of what has
+passed here, which the public possess. He has a just view of things so
+far as known to him. Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time
+ago, at first professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from
+the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.
+Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state
+of as perfect obscurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
+Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
+has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
+weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
+demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
+eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
+of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph's popular eloquence gave him
+such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
+and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
+and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
+them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
+himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
+momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
+good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and, without any
+leader, pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
+by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
+questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
+voting with him, has been from four to six or eight, against from
+ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with
+ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal opposition to this
+administration, and consequently associated with them in his votes, he
+will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from this is that
+there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the body of the
+nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and
+to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and
+that no _ignis faiuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the
+present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have
+yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence to the
+administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal
+ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
+Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
+carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
+this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than
+him who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground
+of opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
+advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
+among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support
+of you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
+former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would
+lead me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be
+embarrassed with such a _soi-disant_ friend. You must not commit
+yourself to him. These views may assist you to understand such details
+as Mr. Pinckney will give you. If you are here at any time before the
+fall, it will be in time for any object you may have, and by that time
+the public sentiment will be more decisively declared. I wish you were
+here at present, to take your choice of the two governments of Orleans
+and Louisiana, in either of which I could now place you; and I verily
+believe it would be to your advantage to be just that much withdrawn
+from the focus of the ensuing contest, until its event should be known.
+The one has a salary of five thousand dollars, the other of two thousand
+dollars; both with excellent hotels for the Governor. The latter at St.
+Louis, where there is good society, both French and American, a healthy
+climate, and the finest field in the United States for acquiring
+property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a residence there
+in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their connections are
+established there. As I think you can within four months inform me what
+you say to this, I will keep things in their present state till the last
+day of August, for your answer.
+
+The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
+settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox,
+personally, I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it
+is founded in what, through unquestionable channels, I have had
+opportunities of knowing of his honesty and his good sense. While he
+shall be in the administration, my reliance on that government will be
+solid. We had committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to
+meet Mr. Pitt's policy and hostility, before we heard of his death,
+which self-respect did not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late
+unparalleled outrage on us at New York excited such sentiments in the
+public at large, as did not permit us to do less than has been done. It
+ought not to be viewed by the ministry as looking towards them at all,
+but merely as the consequences of the measures of their predecessors,
+which their nation has called on them to correct. I hope, therefore,
+they will come to just arrangements. No two countries upon earth have so
+many points of common interest and friendship; and their rulers must
+be great bunglers indeed, if, with such dispositions, they break them
+asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is on the ocean. England
+may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that element a little, but
+nothing she can do will retard us there one year's growth. We shall be
+supported there by other nations, and thrown into their scale to make a
+part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on the other hand, she
+is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the sentiment of family
+feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the security of both.
+We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the line, and half
+that number of frigates, and were France to give us the money, and
+England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to England
+serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
+school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
+immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
+state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
+England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us
+on the sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent
+of Europe, might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these
+scenes. We ask for peace and justice from all nations, and we will
+remain uprightly neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the
+opinion that an English ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than
+that of France. We begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole
+Gulf Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to
+be frowned on for the present, and prohibited so soon as either consent
+or force will permit us. We shall never permit another privateer to
+cruise within it, and shall forbid our harbors to national cruisers.
+This is essential for our tranquillity and commerce. Be so good as to
+have the enclosed letters delivered, to present me to your family, and
+be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
+
+For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
+name.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII.--TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
+
+
+TO GENERAL SMITH.
+
+Washington, May 4,1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I
+have repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper
+I see overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a
+single fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have
+made a fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle
+I acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
+authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
+lodging together at Conrad's, he was pressed on me to be made Governor
+of the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very
+principle. When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that
+ground, I was not insensible to its having some weight. But in the
+appointment to Louisiana, I did not think myself departing from my own
+principle, because I consider it not as a civil government, but merely
+a military station. The legislature had sanctioned that idea by the
+establishment of the office of Commandant, in which were completely
+blended the civil and military powers. It seemed, therefore, that the
+Governor should be in suit with them. I observed too, that the House of
+Representatives, on the very day they passed the stricture on this union
+of authorities, passed a bill making the Governor of Michigan, commander
+of the regular troops which should at any time be within his government.
+However, on the subject of General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation
+at this time. We shall see what turn things take at home and abroad in
+the course of the summer. Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr.
+Fox, which gives me hopes that we shall have an amicable arrangement
+with that government. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of
+great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII.--TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
+
+Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and
+sends him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the
+latter part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to
+see, is in them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on
+the fourth of July, and to join in congratulations on the return of
+the day which divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a
+dollar in the pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from
+all the ruin of Mr. Pitt's administration. We, too, shall encounter
+follies; but if great, they will be short, if long, they will be light:
+and the vigor of our country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt's
+follies have been great, long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with
+age, and exhausted by excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV.--TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BIDWELL.
+
+Washington, July 5, 1806.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
+heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons
+are proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under
+circumstances of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between
+them. But it shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on
+the triumph of republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism
+has now lost all its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow
+Massachusetts. Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a
+mere county of England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but
+always disposed to counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
+
+Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an
+accommodation there on both the points of 'accustomed commerce and
+impressment.' In this there must probably be some mutual concession,
+because we cannot expect to obtain every thing and yield nothing. But
+I hope it will be such an one as may be accepted. The arrival of the
+Hornet in France is so recently known, that it will yet be some time
+before we learn our prospects there. Notwithstanding the efforts made
+here, and made professedly to assassinate that negotiation in embryo, if
+the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail over his temper, the present
+state of things in Europe may induce him to require of Spain, that she
+should do us justice at least. That he should require her to sell us
+East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there are not wanting
+considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent foundation for
+peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall be, our old
+enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find enough to carp
+at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error where they
+found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their rallying point
+is 'war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great Britain':
+and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor to be
+fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted. There
+one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
+
+I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
+part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than
+all others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say,
+there never was a time when the services of those who possess talents,
+integrity, firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress.
+Some one of that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in
+the House of Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as
+his own business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it,
+and carry it through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing
+his own judgment, should implicitly support all the measures of the
+administration; but that, where he does not disapprove of them, he
+should not suffer them to go off in sleep, but bring them to the
+attention of the House, and give them a fair chance. Where he
+disapproves, he will of course leave them to be brought forward by those
+who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain my idea by an example? The
+classification of the militia was communicated to General Varnum and
+yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you approved, it was trusted
+you would support. I knew, indeed, that General Varnum was opposed to
+any thing which might break up the present organization of the militia:
+but when so modified as to avoid this, I thought he might, perhaps,
+be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did not coincide with your
+sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but using the same
+freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward elsewhere.
+It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail: but a
+militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
+Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
+composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
+them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
+public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
+shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
+while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
+the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
+respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
+important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
+to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all
+other information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it
+becomes a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one
+of those artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual
+arms; and men of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this
+order. The last session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time:
+but as soon as the members penetrated into the views of those who were
+taking a new course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have
+ever seen act together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better
+dispositions.
+
+*****
+
+Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it
+proceeds from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness.
+Opportunities of candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I
+must not lose them when they occur. The information I receive from your
+quarter agrees with that from the south; that the late schism has made
+not the smallest impression on the public, and that the seceders are
+obliged to give to it other grounds than those which we know to be the
+true ones. All we have to wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every
+one may take the part openly which he secretly befriends. I recollect
+nothing new and true, worthy communicating to you. As for what is not
+true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers. Among other
+things, are those perpetual alarms as to the Indians, for no one of
+which has there ever been the slightest ground. They are the suggestions
+of hostile traders, always wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to
+perpetuate their own extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
+not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
+with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or
+exertion to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present
+age, and so much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will
+never be continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was
+invented by a Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in
+England, turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit
+of writing much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to
+your daily convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful
+machines. I have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its
+perfection I have used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction
+to find it the best one I have ever tried; and in the course of two
+years' daily use of them, I have had opportunities of trying several.
+As a secretary, which copies for us what we write without the power
+of revealing it, I find it a most precious possession to a man in
+public-business. I enclose directions for unpacking and using the
+machine when you receive it; but the machine itself must await a special
+and sure conveyance under the care of some person going to Paris. It is
+ready packed, and shall go by the first proper conveyance.
+
+As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet
+at L'Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first
+impressions on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida,
+and a good western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy.
+It will secure to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a
+long peace with Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with
+them and alliance with England, which, at the last session of Congress,
+drew off from the republican band about half a dozen of its members,
+is universally reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I
+have never seen the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally
+so firmly to its constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the
+opposition to them. With England, I think we shall cut off the resource
+of impressing our seamen to fight her battles, and establish the
+inviolability of our flag in its commerce with her enemies.
+
+We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
+truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
+for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded
+from all the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by
+securing for her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan
+or colonial, while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may,
+therefore, be employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more
+useful friends to France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope
+they will be sensible of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of
+future misunderstanding to another age, enable you to present us such
+an arrangement, as will insure to our fellow-citizens long and permanent
+peace and friendship with them. With respect to our western boundary,
+your instructions will be your guide. I will only add, as a comment
+to them, that we are attached to the retaining the Bay of St. Bernard,
+because it was the first establishment of the unfortunate La Sale, was
+the cradle of Louisiana, and more incontestibly covered and conveyed to
+us by France, under that name, than any other spot in the country. This
+will be secured to us by taking for our western boundary the Guadaloupe,
+and from its head around the sources of all waters eastward of it,
+to the highlands embracing the waters running into the Mississippi.
+However, all these things I presume will be settled before you receive
+this; and I hope so settled as to give peace and satisfaction to us all.
+
+Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
+nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did
+little injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want
+of rain; and even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many
+chances to run.
+
+This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
+order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will
+so provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be _hors
+d'insulte_. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
+to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
+competent.
+
+I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.--TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
+
+
+TO W. A. BURWELL.
+
+Monticello, September 17, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands till the
+9th instant. About the same time, I received the Enquirer in which
+Decius was so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper observed,
+that the matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly, of
+inferences from these facts: that he was not well enough informed to
+affirm or deny his facts, and he therefore examines his inferences,
+and in a very masterly manner shows that even were his facts true, the
+reasonable inferences from them are very different from those drawn by
+Decius. But his facts are far from truth, and should be corrected. It
+happened that Mr. Madison and General Dearborn were here when I received
+your letter. I therefore, with them, took up Decius and read him
+deliberately; and our memories aided one another in correcting his bold
+and unauthorized assertions. I shall note the most material of them in
+the order of the paper.
+
+1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note,
+had proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish
+spoliations, or even for French. Their instructions were to make no
+treaty in which Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although
+they were permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into
+Spanish ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is
+not true that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as
+our western boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their
+instructions. Although we considered our title good as far as the
+Rio Bravo, yet in proportion to what they could obtain east of the
+Mississippi, they were to relinquish to the westward, and successive
+sacrifices were marked out, of which even the Colorado was not the last.
+3. It is not true that the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great
+Britain should consider our supplying her enemies with money as a breach
+of neutrality. After the very words of the treaty were finally agreed
+to, it took some time, perhaps some days, to make out all the copies in
+the very splendid manner of Bonaparte's treaties. Whether the 30th of
+April, 1803, the date expressed, was the day of the actual compact, or
+that on which it was signed, our memories do not enable us to say. If
+the former, then it is strictly conformable to the day of the compact;
+if the latter, then it was postdated, instead of being antedated. The
+motive assigned, too, is as incorrect as the fact. It was so far from
+being thought, by any party, a breach of neutrality, that the British
+minister congratulated Mr. King on the acquisition, and declared that
+the King had learned it with great pleasure: and when Baring, the
+British banker, asked leave of the minister to purchase the debt and
+furnish the money to France, the minister declared to him, that so far
+from throwing obstacles in the way, if there were any difficulty in the
+payment of the money, it was the interest of Great Britain to aid it.
+4. He speaks of a double set of opinions and principles; the one
+ostensible, to go on the journals and before the public, the other
+efficient, and the real motives to action. But where are these double
+opinions and principles? The executive informed the legislature of the
+wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be made to repel them, by
+force, if necessary. But as it might still be possible to negotiate
+a settlement, they asked such means as might enable them to meet the
+negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first part of this system
+was communicated publicly, the second, privately; but both were equally
+official, equally involved the responsibility of the executive, and were
+equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase of the Floridas was
+in direct opposition to the views of the executive, as expressed in the
+President's official communication. It was not in opposition even to the
+public part of the communication, which did not recommend war, but only
+to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized with the private part,
+which asked the means of negotiation in such terms as covered the
+purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak it out. He
+speaks of secret communications between the executive and members, of
+backstairs influence, &tc.. But he never spoke of this while he and
+Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it almost solely. But when he differed from the
+executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting to
+him, expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit,
+for the purchase of Florida), which he acknowledges they expressed to
+him, then he roars out upon backstairs influence. 6. The committee, he
+says, forbore to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not
+they recommend the raising ------- regiments? Besides, if it was proper
+for the committee to forbear recommending offensive measures, was it
+not proper for the executive and legislature to exercise the same
+forbearance? 7. He says Monroe's letter had a most important bearing on
+our Spanish relations. Monroe's letter related, almost entirely, to our
+British relations. Of those with Spain he knew nothing particular since
+he left that country. Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed
+an opinion on our affairs with Spain, of which he knew we had better
+information than he could possess. His opinion was no more than that
+of any other sensible man; and his letter was proper to be communicated
+with the English papers, and with them only. That the executive did not
+hold it up on account of any bearing on Spanish affairs, is evident from
+the fact, that it was communicated when the Senate had not yet entered
+on the Spanish affairs, and had not yet received the papers relating to
+them from the other House. The moment the Representatives were ready to
+enter on the British affairs, Monroe's letter, which peculiarly related
+to them, and was official solely as to them, was communicated to both
+Houses, the Senate being then about entering on the Spanish affairs.
+
+*****
+
+These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any
+use of them you think best, without letting your source of information
+be known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber-tree?
+Accept affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Washington, October 12, 1806.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You witnessed, in the earlier part of the administration, the malignant
+and long continued efforts which the federalists exerted in their
+newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and myself.
+These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made, through
+other channels, to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn and
+myself, but with no more success. The machinations of the last session
+to put you at cross questions with us all, were so obvious as to be seen
+at the first glance of every eye. In order to destroy one member of the
+administration, the whole were to be set to loggerheads to destroy one
+another. I observe in the papers lately, new attempts to revive this
+stale artifice, and that they squint more directly towards you and
+myself. I cannot, therefore, be satisfied, till I declare to you
+explicitly, that my affections and confidence in you are nothing
+impaired, and that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the
+notice of candid and honorable minds. I make the declaration, that no
+doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts they fear, may find a
+moment's harbor in either of our minds. I have so much reliance on the
+superior good sense and candor of all those associated with me, as to be
+satisfied they will not suffer either friend or foe to sow tares among
+us. Our administration now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime
+pleasure in believing it will be distinguished as much by having placed
+itself above all the passions which could disturb its harmony, as by the
+great operations by which it will have advanced the well-being of the
+nation.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
+unalterable respect and attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII.--TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN DICKINSON.
+
+Washington, January 13, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 1st instant, and am ever thankful
+for communications which may guide me in the duties which I wish to
+perform as well as I am able. It is but too true, that great discontents
+exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have
+for their sources, 1. the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be
+partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the
+other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger. 2.
+The administration of justice in our forms, principles, and language,
+with all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more abhorrent,
+because of the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption
+of bankrupt and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the United
+States and engrossed the practice. 3. The call on them by the land
+commissioners to produce the titles of their lands. The object of this
+is really to record and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on
+rights so ancient that the title papers are lost, they expect the
+land is to be taken from them wherever they cannot produce a regular
+deduction of title in writing. In this they will be undeceived by the
+final result, which will evince to them a liberal disposition of the
+government towards them. Among the American inhabitants it is the old
+division of federalists and republicans. The former, are as hostile
+there as they are every where, and are the most numerous and wealthy.
+They have been long endeavoring to batter down the Governor, who has
+always been a firm republican. There were characters superior to him,
+whom I wished to appoint, but they refused the office: I know no better
+man who would accept of it, and it would not be right to turn him out
+for one not better. But it is the second cause, above mentioned, which
+is deep seated and permanent. The French members of the legislature,
+being the majority in both Houses, lately passed an act, declaring
+that the civil, or French laws, should be the laws of their land, and
+enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in Latin, as the depositories of
+these laws. The Governor negatived the act. One of the Houses thereupon
+passed a vote for self-dissolution of the legislature as a useless body,
+which failed in the other House by a single vote only. They separated,
+however, and have disseminated all the discontent they could. I propose
+to the members of Congress in conversation, the enlisting thirty
+thousand volunteers, Americans by birth, to be carried at the public
+expense, and settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred and
+sixty acres of land each, on the west side of the Mississippi, on the
+condition of giving two years of military service, if that country
+should be attacked within seven years. The defence of the country would
+thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number would entitle the
+territory to become a State, would make the majority American, and make
+it an American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten the
+pill to the French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to
+our own good as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both
+will be promoted by whatever will amalgamate us together.
+
+I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will
+end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired
+of an office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be
+glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but
+unceasing drudgery, and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming
+vacant, every appointment made, _me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis_.
+My only consolation is in the belief, that my fellow-citizens at large
+give me credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit
+the continuance of that good will which follows well intended actions,
+and their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into
+retirement.
+
+God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and
+happy years.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX,--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, February 28,1807
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Washington, February 28,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But such has
+been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of my power
+to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond the
+extent of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello,
+it can then be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however,
+generally, that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so
+acceptable a favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts
+and opinions. I have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it;
+indeed, both self-love and the desire to do what is best strongly invite
+unreserved communication. There is one subject which will not admit a
+delay till I see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to
+retire from Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here,
+that you should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more
+loudly assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists,
+who will be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who
+will be three or four (all tongue), the residue of the House of
+Representatives is as well disposed a body of men as I ever saw
+collected. But there is no one whose talents and standing, taken
+together, have weight enough to give him the lead. The consequence is,
+that there is no one who will undertake to do the public business, and
+it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would rally round you in an
+instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for the public good.
+Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery in the House. There are
+enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying point is all that is
+wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself. You never will have
+it so much in your power again to render such eminent service.
+
+Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.--TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807
+
+
+TO JAMES MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine's hands
+on the last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately
+communicated to us; and since that, Mr. Purviance has arrived with
+an original. On the subject of it you will receive a letter from
+the Secretary of State, of about this date, and one more in detail
+hereafter. I should not have written, but that I perceive uncommon
+efforts, and with uncommon wickedness, are making by the federal papers
+to produce mischief between myself, personally, and our negotiators; and
+also to irritate the British government, by putting a thousand speeches
+into my mouth, not one word of which I ever uttered. I have, therefore,
+thought it safe to guard you, by stating the view which we have given
+out on the subject of the treaty, in conversation and otherwise; for
+ours, as you know, is a government which will not tolerate the being
+kept entirely in the dark, and especially on a subject so interesting
+as this treaty. We immediately stated in conversation, to the members
+of the legislature and others, that having, by a letter received in
+January, perceived that our ministers might sign a treaty not providing
+satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3rd
+of February, informed you, that should such an one have been forwarded,
+it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore, that you should
+resume negotiations for inserting an article to that effect; that we
+should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn from you the
+result of our instructions, which probably would not be till summer,
+and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We observed, too,
+that a written declaration of the British commissioners, given in at
+the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the
+acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us bound by
+the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement we
+have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
+made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as
+a hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to
+have screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every
+thing, and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil
+of all the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to
+expunge the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we
+may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present
+hostilities. If peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the
+benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years,
+to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any
+other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the
+British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the
+treaty cannot be put into an acceptable form, then the next best thing
+is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting that die
+away insensibly; but, in the mean time, agreeing informally, that both
+parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve
+that friendly understanding which we so sincerely desire, until the one
+or the other may be disposed to yield the points which divide us. This
+will leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see
+that the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of
+continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to Mr. Pinckney, who, by
+procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us time, the most
+precious of all things to us. The government of New Orleans is still
+without such a head as I wish. The salary of five thousand dollars
+is too small; but I am assured the Orleans legislature would make it
+adequate, would you accept it. It is the second office in the United
+States in importance, and I am still in hopes you will accept it. It is
+impossible to let you stay at home while the public has so much need
+of talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of periodical
+headache, without scarcely command enough of my mind to know what
+I write. As a part of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as
+yourself, be so good as to communicate so much of it to him; and with
+my best respects to him, to Mrs. Monroe, and your daughter, be assured
+yourself, in all cases, of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI.--M. LE COMTE DIODATI, March 29, 1807
+
+
+M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
+
+Washington, March 29, 1807.
+
+My Dear and Antient Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 29th reached me the 18th of February. It
+enclosed a duplicate of that written from Brunswick five years before,
+but which I never received, or had notice of, but by this duplicate. Be
+assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such negligence towards
+you, as a failure to answer it would have implied. It would illy have
+accorded with those sentiments of friendship I entertained for you at
+Paris, and which neither time nor distance has lessened. I often pass in
+review the many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati and yourself on
+the banks of the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count them among
+the most pleasing I enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days of
+tranquillity and happiness. They had begun to cloud a little before I
+left you; but I had no apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the
+beginning, was to spread over such an extent of space and time. I have
+often thought of you with anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered
+the storm, and into what port you had retired. The letters now received
+give me the first information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your
+safe and quiet retreat. Were I in Europe, _pax et panis_ would certainly
+be my motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history
+with more matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of
+happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition
+for my own country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed now upwards of
+twenty years, while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption. I
+again, my friend, repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming
+torrent of its lava.
+
+At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
+propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
+of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed
+uniform health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy
+for me, and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my
+farms, and my family. Having performed my _quadragena stipendia_, I
+am entitled to my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others
+should be sooner sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have,
+therefore, requested my fellow-citizens to think of a successor for
+me, to whom I shall deliver the public concerns with greater joy than I
+received them. I have the consolation too of having added nothing to my
+private fortune, during my public service, and of retiring with hands
+as clean as they are empty. Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever
+excusable, are so when writing to a friend to whom our concerns are
+not uninteresting. I shall always be glad to hear of your health and
+happiness, and having been out of the way of hearing of any of our
+cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_ at Paris, any details of their
+subsequent history, which you will favor me with, will be thankfully
+received. I pray you to make my friendly respects acceptable to Madame
+la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my continued esteem,
+and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, April 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
+the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
+fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
+to go under cover of the Secretary of State's despatches by any vessel
+going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned
+for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that the United
+States' armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is to touch
+at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London, and at Brest,
+with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
+
+You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
+between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received in
+January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up
+their minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
+impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received
+in the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators,
+assuring them of the discretion with which impressments should be
+conducted, which could be construed into a covenant only by inferences,
+against which its omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in
+its terms totally unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3rd, they
+were immediately informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory
+article on that head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the
+negotiations on that point. The treaty having come to as actually in the
+inadmissible shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know
+the result of the instructions of February the 3rd. I have but little
+expectation that the British government will retire from their habitual
+wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without
+that we will never tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing
+a non-importation or non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to
+become just. This may bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To
+show, however, the sincerity of our desire for conciliation, I have
+suspended the non-importation act. This state of things should be
+understood at Paris, and every effort used on your part to accommodate
+our differences with Spain, under the auspices of France, with whom
+it is all-important that we should stand in terms of the strictest
+cordiality. In fact, we are to depend on her and Russia for the
+establishment of neutral rights by the treaty of peace, among which
+should be that of taking no persons by a belligerent out of a neutral
+ship, unless they be the soldiers of an enemy. Never did a nation
+act towards another with more perfidy and injustice than Spain has
+constantly practised against us: and if we have kept our hands off of
+her till now, it has been purely out of respect to France, and from the
+value we set on the friendship of France. We expect, therefore, from
+the friendship of the Emperor, that he will either compel Spain to do us
+justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be in possession
+of the city of Mexico.
+
+No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have
+been given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense
+incurred, in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against
+Mexico. Although at first he proposed a separation of the western
+country, and on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo,
+according to the usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very
+early saw that the fidelity of the western country was not to be
+shaken, and turned himself wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an
+enterprise on that country in this, that we had only to lie still, and
+he would have had followers enough to have been in the city of Mexico
+in six weeks. You have doubtless seen my several messages to Congress,
+which gave a faithful narrative of that conspiracy. Burr himself, after
+being disarmed by our endeavors of all his followers, escaped from the
+custody of the court of Mississippi, but was taken near Fort Stoddart,
+making his way to Mobile, by some country people, who brought him on
+as a prisoner to Richmond, where he is now under a course for trial.
+Hitherto we have believed our law to be, that suspicion on probable
+grounds was sufficient cause to commit a person for trial, allowing time
+to collect witnesses till the trial. But the judges here have decided,
+that conclusive evidence of guilt must be ready in the moment of arrest,
+or they will discharge the malefactor. If this is still insisted on,
+Burr will be discharged; because his crimes having been sown from Maine,
+through the whole line of the western waters, to New Orleans, we cannot
+bring the witnesses here under four months. The fact is, that the
+federalists make Burr's cause their own, and exert their whole influence
+to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents of Miranda. And
+it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominent in our judiciary
+department, which is consequently in opposition to the legislative and
+executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures often.
+
+Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr's offences, was
+received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety and doubt in
+the public mind, in the present defective state of the proof, is not
+wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the
+judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,
+dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans.
+The federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr's cause their
+own, mortified only that he did not separate the union or overturn the
+government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they
+would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy,
+as they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them
+of this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.
+
+The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
+administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The
+present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,
+so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I
+believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,
+we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on
+foot an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the
+scene of these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they
+will give time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress,
+what the real facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to
+appeal to the patriotism of particular persons in different places, of
+whom we have requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on
+such information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process
+or facilities from the federal courts, but frowned on by their new-born
+zeal for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow
+the liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the
+accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the
+judges have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What
+loop-hole they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot
+foresee. Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not
+name, will satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr's guilt. And I
+do suppose the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment
+of men, in a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round
+Blannerhassett's island, when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to be
+on them _modo guerrino arraiati_. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his
+men at the mouth of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of
+Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation,
+regularly signed with the aid of the Governor, as between two
+independent and hostile commanders.
+
+But a moment's calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
+collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
+when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
+inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
+'More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme
+Court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they
+exist. Why are they not proved.' In what terms of decency can we
+speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of
+Cumberland, and return in five weeks, to do which has never taken less
+than twelve. Again, 'If, in November or December last, a body of
+troops had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the
+affidavits, establishing the fact, could not have been obtained by the
+last of March.' But I ask the Judge, where they should have been lodged?
+At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New
+Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension and examination.
+It was not known at Washington till the 26th of March, that Burr would
+escape from the western tribunals, be retaken and brought to an eastern
+one: and in five days after (neither five months nor five weeks, as the
+Judge calculated) he says, it is 'impossible to suppose the affidavits
+could not have been obtained.' Where? At Richmond he certainly meant,
+or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his audience. But all the
+principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on the
+favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this odious republic. 'I
+understand,' says the Judge, 'probable cause of guilt to be a case
+made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,' &c. Speaking as a
+lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at least. But this
+is confounding probability and proof. We had always before understood
+that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender
+must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the
+Judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters
+of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published in
+the local newspapers, Burr's flight, and the universal belief or rumor
+of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of enlistment,
+military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or capitulation, so as
+to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the United States who
+does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt acts to have taken
+place?
+
+If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
+administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to
+condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged
+them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work
+well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.
+If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never
+far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then, and
+amend the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent
+of the nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches
+of the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and
+to the common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class
+of offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are
+themselves protected in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment
+is a farce which will not be tried again. If their protection of Burr
+produces this amendment, it will do more good than his condemnation
+would have done. Against Burr, personally, I never had one hostile
+sentiment. I never, indeed, thought him an honest, frank-dealing man,
+but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose
+aim or shot you could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the
+confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their
+confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it: and if his punishment
+can be commuted now for an useful amendment of the constitution, I shall
+rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to
+offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 2, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 2, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While Burr's case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from
+time to time with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury
+v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the
+threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be
+law. 1. Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed all cognizance of
+the case; although they then went on to say what would have been their
+opinion, had they had cognizance of it. This then was confessedly an
+extra-judicial opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2. Because, had
+it been judicially pronounced, it would have been against law; for to
+a commission, a deed, a bond, delivery is essential to give validity.
+Until, therefore, the commission is delivered out of the hands of the
+executive and his agents, it is not his deed. He may withhold or cancel
+it at pleasure, as he might his private deed in the same situation. The
+constitution intended that the three great branches of the government
+should be co-ordinate, and independent of each other. As to acts,
+therefore, which are to be done by either, it has given no control to
+another branch. A judge, I presume, cannot sit on a bench without a
+commission, or a record of a commission: and the constitution having
+given to the judiciary branch no means of compelling the executive
+either to deliver a commission, or to make a record of it, shows it did
+not intend to give the judiciary that control over the executive, but
+that it should remain in the power of the latter to do it or not. Where
+different branches have to act in their respective lines, finally
+and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it different and
+opposite constructions. Thus in the case of William Smith, the House of
+Representatives determined he was a citizen, and in the case of William
+Duane (precisely the same in every material circumstance) the judges
+determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callender and others, the
+judges determined the sedition act was valid under the constitution,
+and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
+imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was
+a nullity under the constitution, and exercised his regular power of
+prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing
+the real law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these
+different constructions of the same act by different branches, less
+mischief arises, than from giving to any one of them a control over the
+others. The executive and Senate act on the construction, that until
+delivery from the executive department, a commission is in their
+possession, and within their rightful power; and in cases of commissions
+not revocable at will, where, after the Senate's approbation and the
+President's signing and sealing, new information of the unfitness of
+the person has come to hand before the delivery of the commission,
+new nominations have been made and approved, and new commissions have
+issued.
+
+On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act,
+and maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control
+which may be attempted by the judges in subversion of the independence
+of the executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
+therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the constitution
+the supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
+constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was
+_coram non judice_, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried
+into effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the
+gratuitous opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, and
+denounced as not law: and I think the present a fortunate one, because
+it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad,
+therefore, if, in noticing that case, you could take occasion to express
+the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were
+given extra-judicially and against law, and that their reverse will be
+the rule of action with the executive. If this opinion should not
+be your own, I would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the
+executive. If it is your own also, you would of course give to the
+arguments such a developement, as a case, incidental only, might render
+proper.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines,
+than that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the
+faulty classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with
+attention, and according to the best information I possess, classing
+them more rigorously. I am persuaded, that were the duty on cheap wines
+put on the same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge
+the field of those who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The
+introduction of a very cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood,
+within two years past, has quadrupled in that time the number of those
+who keep wine, and will ere long increase them tenfold. This would be a
+great gain to the treasury, and to the sobriety of our country. I will
+here add my tariff, wherein you will be able to choose any rate of duty
+you please; and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be
+proper for legislative attention. Affectionate salutations.
+
+[Illustration: page77]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 5, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think it will be
+fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of the present
+scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller: though the same
+views of protecting the offender may again reduce the number to sixteen,
+in order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur. It is
+understood, that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not choose to
+embark in his projects, unless approved by their government, he asserted
+that he had that approbation. Most of them took his word for it, but
+it is said that with those who would not, the following stratagem was
+practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from General Dearborn,
+was made to express his approbation, and to say that I was absent
+at Monticello, but that there was no doubt that, on my return, my
+approbation of his enterprises would be given. This letter was spread
+open on his table, so as to invite the eye of whoever entered his room;
+and he contrived occasions of sending up into his room, those whom he
+wished to become witnesses of his acting under sanction. By this means,
+he avoided committing himself to any liability to prosecution for
+forgery, and gave another proof of being a great man in little things,
+while he is really small in great ones. I must add General Dearborn's
+declaration, that he never wrote a letter to Burr in his life, except
+that when here, once in a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of
+invitation to dine. The only object of sending you the enclosed letters
+is to possess you of the fact, that you may know how to pursue it,
+if any of your witnesses should know any thing of it. My intention in
+writing to you several times, has been to convey facts or observations
+occurring in the absence of the Attorney General, and not to make to
+the dreadful drudgery you are going through the unnecessary addition of
+writing me letters in answer, which I beg you to relieve yourself from,
+except when some necessity calls for it.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVII.--TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN, June 10, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
+
+Washington, June 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
+capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to yourself,
+I may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided to
+others, on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of
+making it subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it
+has been no sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence
+of my fellow-citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards
+excluding merit from office, merely because it was related to me.
+However, I have thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may
+be satisfied, that, in selecting persons for the management of their
+affairs, I am influenced by neither personal nor family interests, and
+especially, that the field of public office will not be perverted by
+me into a family property. On this subject, I had the benefit of useful
+lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them, marking what was to be
+imitated and what avoided. But, in truth, the nature of our government
+is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence of the
+people, in their Chief Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing
+which can strengthen him with that confidence.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLVIII.--TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807
+
+TO JOHN NORVELL.
+
+Washington, June 11, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
+proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
+occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
+not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society
+into civil government: I mean a work which presents in one full
+and comprehensive view the system of principles on which such an
+organization should be founded, according to the rights of nature. For
+want of a single work of that character, I should recommend Locke
+on Government, Sidney, Priestley's Essay on the First Principles of
+Government, Chipman's Principles of Government, and the Federalist.
+Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, because of the
+demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch of the subject.
+If your views of political inquiry go further, to the subjects of money
+and commerce, Smith's Wealth of Nations is the best book to be read,
+unless Say's Political Economy can be had, which treats the same
+subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass, and more
+lucid manner. But I believe this work has not been translated into our
+language.
+
+History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
+have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in
+the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history
+becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general
+history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of
+Hume seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the
+government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner,
+as to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary
+readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the
+text of Hume as his ground-work, abridging it by the omission of some
+details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to
+mislead, by either the suppression of a truth, or by giving it a false
+coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we
+may properly call it Hume's history republicanized. He has, moreover,
+continued the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it,
+to the year 1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is
+republican; and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a
+single quarto volume. Adding to this Ludlow's Memoirs, Mrs. Macaulay's
+and Belknap's histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free
+principles of the English constitution.
+
+To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should
+be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, 'by restraining
+it to true, facts and sound principles only.' Yet I fear such a paper
+would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression
+of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its
+benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.
+Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself
+becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real
+extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in
+situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of
+the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my
+fellow-citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief,
+that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
+their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just
+as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
+except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
+General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
+now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
+subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
+can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a
+newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he
+who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with
+falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
+facts, and the details are all false.
+
+Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
+Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
+Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
+very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
+information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk
+his own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a
+mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude
+to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little
+than too much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers
+who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they
+would occupy.
+
+Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
+practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
+depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation
+is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the
+morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those
+who do not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance
+to their auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which
+should fill a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility
+that some may believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to
+escape them, that it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing
+a slander, who is its real author.
+
+These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
+request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
+intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
+enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their
+own wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty
+communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public
+papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoided putting
+myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer
+away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties
+will permit me to enjoy.
+
+I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIX.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, June 12, 1807
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+******
+
+The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to
+our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it,
+and reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
+therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
+For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
+unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a
+very different thing in practice. The minor business in each department
+is done by the Head of the department, on consultation with the
+President alone. But all matters of importance or difficulty are
+submitted to all the Heads of departments composing the cabinet;
+sometimes by the President's consulting them separately and
+successively, as they happen to call on him; but in the greatest cases,
+by calling them together, discussing the subject maturely, and finally
+taking the vote, in which the President counts himself but as one. So
+that in all important cases the executive is, in fact, a directory,
+which certainly the President might control: but of this there was never
+an example either in the first or the present administration. I have
+heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes decided things against his
+council.
+
+*****
+
+I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
+opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of
+a third negotiator was not at this time advisable. For the present,
+therefore, the question must rest. Mr. Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to
+come home, and is detained only by the delicacy of not deserting his
+post. In the existing temper between him and his colleague, it would
+certainly be better that one of them should make an opening for
+re-composing the commission more harmoniously. I salute you with
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER L.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 12, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving the necessary
+right of the President of the United States to decide, independently of
+all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public
+interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I assure you of
+my readiness, under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish, on all
+occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But the letter
+of General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the defence
+of Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges against
+him, which were in my possession when the Attorney General went on to
+Richmond in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken for
+granted he left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains
+the order in which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter
+desired, under the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th: but
+lest the Attorney General should not have left those papers with you,
+I this day write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty
+whether he is at Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce
+delay in his receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be
+apprized. But, as I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter,
+I must beg leave to devolve on you the exercise of that discretion
+which it would be my right and duty to exercise, by withholding the
+communication of any parts of the letter, which are not directly
+material for the purposes of justice.
+
+With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
+practicable. But when the request goes to 'copies of the orders issued
+in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.
+by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,' it seems to cover
+a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil
+and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying
+open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to
+examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be
+able to judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with
+the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular
+order, which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then
+he must know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer
+can be given. If the object had been specified, we might then have had
+some guide for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records
+might be useful to him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is
+right, we are without the indications which may enable us to do it. If
+the researches of the Secretary at War should produce any thing proper
+for communication, and pertinent to any point we can conceive in the
+defence before the court, it shall be forwarded to you. I salute you
+with respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 17, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication of
+one to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed
+you in mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers
+respecting the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General,
+when he went to Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in
+your possession, but would immediately write to him, if he had not, to
+forward that particular letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly
+on the same day, but having no answer, I know not whether he has
+forwarded the letter. I stated in the same letter, that I had desired
+the Secretary at War, to examine his office, in order to comply with
+your further request, to furnish copies of the orders which had been
+given respecting Aaron Burr and his property; and in a subsequent letter
+of the same day, I forwarded to you copies of two letters from the
+Secretary at War, which appeared to be within the description expressed
+in your letter. The order from the Secretary of the Navy, you said, you
+were in possession of. The receipt of these papers had, I presume, so
+far anticipated, and others this day forwarded will have substantially
+fulfilled, the object of a subpoena from the District Court of Richmond,
+requiring that those officers and myself should attend the Court in
+Richmond, with the letter of General Wilkinson, the answer to that
+letter, and the orders of the departments of War and the Navy, therein
+generally described. No answer to General Wilkinson's letter, other
+than a mere acknowledgment of its receipt, in a letter written for a
+different purpose, was ever written by myself or any other. To these
+communications of papers, I will add, that if the defendant supposes
+there are any facts within the knowledge of the Heads of departments, or
+of myself, which can be useful for his defence, from a desire of doing
+any thing our situation will permit in furtherance of justice, we shall
+be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of deposition, through
+any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our testimony at
+this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by consent of
+parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the part of
+the United States. Mr. Burr's consent will be given of course, if he
+supposes the testimony useful.
+
+As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court
+is sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
+obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
+should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
+and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
+and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
+seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
+without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood
+to be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
+constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then
+mean that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate
+authority.
+
+With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private
+side to our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for
+inventions, certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent
+in their nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All
+nations have found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of
+their affairs, some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known
+to their executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of
+the case, must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests
+will permit publication. Hence, under our constitution, in requests of
+papers, from the legislative to the executive branch, an exception is
+carefully expressed, as to those which he may deem the public welfare
+may require not to be disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed
+resolution of the House of Representatives, which produced the message
+of January 22nd, respecting this case. The respect mutually due between
+the constituted authorities, in their official intercourse, as well
+as sincere dispositions to do for every one what is just, will always
+insure from the executive, in exercising the duty of discrimination
+confided to him, the same candor and integrity to which the nation has
+in like manner trusted in the disposal of its judiciary authorities.
+Considering you as the organ for communicating these sentiments to
+the Court, I address them to you for that purpose, and salute you with
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LII.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 19,1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 19,1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons had been
+(as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and I have
+desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask what is to
+be done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge decides
+it to have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason or
+misdemeanor, as you think the evidence will support; let the court
+decide where he shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have
+the marshal aided in his transportation, with the executive means. And
+we think it proper, further, that when Burr shall have been convicted of
+either treason or misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed all
+those persons against whom you should find evidence sufficient, whose
+agency has been so prominent as to mark them as proper objects of
+punishment, and especially where their boldness has betrayed an
+inveteracy of criminal disposition. As to obscure offenders and
+repenting ones, let them lie for consideration.
+
+I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
+singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
+was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore,
+of the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
+implicitly as any man's for whatever he affirms. The letter-writer,
+also, is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for
+more than a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally,
+that Burr was engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther
+Martin knew all about it. We think you should immediately despatch a
+subpoena for Graybell; and while that is on the road, you will have time
+to consider in what form you will use his testimony; e.g. shall Luther
+Martin be summoned as a witness against Burr, and Graybell held ready
+to confront him? It may be doubted whether we could examine a witness
+to discredit our own witness. Besides, the lawyers say that they are
+privileged from being forced to breaches of confidence, and that
+no others are. Shall we move to commit Luther Martin, as _particeps
+criminis_ with Burr? Graybell will fix upon him misprision of treason at
+least. And at any rate, his evidence will put down this unprincipled and
+impudent federal bull-dog, and add another proof that the most clamorous
+defenders of Burr are all his accomplices. It will explain why Luther
+Martin flew so hastily to the aid of 'his honorable friend,' abandoning
+his clients and their property during a session of a principal court
+in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with the clamors and ruin of his
+clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as a witness. He will prove
+that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage several thousand men,
+chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the habit of employing in
+the works he directs, under pretence of a canal opposite Louisville,
+or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he could with that force
+alone have carried every thing before him, and would not have been where
+he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr, Bollman, Yrujo,
+and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him not the less in
+our view.
+
+I salute you with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpoenas?
+
+Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
+it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were to
+work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses
+will some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and
+that consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from
+the men themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of
+to-morrow evening, and be with you Monday evening. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIII.--TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807
+
+TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
+
+Washington, June 19, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3rd instant, I avail
+myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to Mr.
+Lincoln, and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late happy
+event of the election of a republican executive to preside over its
+councils. The harmony it has introduced between the legislative and
+executive branches, between the people and both of them, and between
+all and the General Government, are so many steps towards securing that
+union of action and effort in all its parts, without which no nation can
+be happy or safe. The just respect, with which all the States have ever
+looked to Massachusetts, could leave none of them without anxiety while
+she was in a state of alienation from her family and friends. Your
+opinion of the propriety and advantage of a more intimate correspondence
+between the executives of the several States, and that of the Union, as
+a central point, is precisely that which I have ever entertained; and
+on coming into office I felt the advantages which would result from that
+harmony. I had it even in contemplation, after the annual recommendation
+to Congress of those measures called for by the times, which the
+constitution had placed under their power, to make communications in
+like manner to the executives of the States, as to any parts of them
+to which their legislatures might be alone competent. For many are the
+exercises of power reserved to the States, wherein an uniformity of
+proceeding would be advantageous to all. Such are quarantines, health
+laws, regulations of the press, banking institutions, training militia,
+&c. &c. But you know what was the state of the several governments when
+I came into office. That a great proportion of them were federal, and
+would have been delighted with such opportunities of proclaiming their
+contempt, and of opposing republican men and measures. Opportunities so
+furnished and used by some of the State governments, would have produced
+an ill effect, and would have insured the failure of the object of
+uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured even now (Connecticut and
+Delaware being still hostile) it must be on some greater occasion than
+is likely to arise within my time. I look to it, therefore, as a course
+which will probably be to be left to the consideration of my successor.
+
+I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and
+never more to take the field under their own banners. They will now
+reserve themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to
+earn favors from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over
+their more numerous antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely
+accept their votes, no great harm will be done; because it will only
+place in power one shade of republicanism, instead of another. But
+when they purchase the votes of the federalists, by giving them
+a participation of office, trust, and power, it is a proof that
+anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion. I do not think that the
+republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen into this heresy, nor
+that there are in your State materials of which a minority can be made
+who will fall into it.
+
+With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
+should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
+course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military,
+the services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
+affections of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of
+precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
+claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
+as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present.
+I confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
+parading himself through the several States as an object of public gaze,
+and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable, should be purely
+voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
+of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
+of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland,
+I must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have
+never yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me
+to be so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have
+no reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office.
+A journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen,
+would much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and,
+founded in curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I
+should see my friends, too, more at our mutual ease, and be left more
+exclusively to their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring
+I have made up no opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a
+question for future consideration and advice.
+
+In the mean time, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
+esteem,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIV.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Washington, June 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His presence here
+is with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred and fifty
+workmen require his constant directions on various public works of
+pressing importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon as
+possible. How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I
+know not; but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and
+his principal accomplices should come fully out, and judicially, as they
+will establish the just complaints we have against his nation.
+
+I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the _subpoena
+duces tecum_ against the President. Considering the question there as
+_coram non judice_, I did not read his argument with much attention.
+Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual, where an opinion is to be
+supported, right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and
+passes over those which are solid. Laying down the position generally,
+that all persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no exception
+unless it can be produced in his law books. But if the constitution
+enjoins on a particular officer to be always engaged in a particular
+set of duties imposed on him, does not this supersede the general law,
+subjecting him to minor duties inconsistent with these? The constitution
+enjoins his constant agency in the concerns of six millions of people.
+Is the law paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single
+one? Let us apply the Judge's own doctrine to the case of himself and
+his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to
+quell a riot somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the
+general law, a part of the posse of the State sheriff. Would the Judge
+abandon major duties to perform lesser ones? Again; the court of Orleans
+or Maine commands, by subpoenas, the attendance of all the judges of
+the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their posts as judges, and the
+interests of millions committed to them, to serve the purposes of a
+single individual? The leading principle of our constitution is the
+independence of the legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each
+other, and none are more jealous of this than the judiciary. But would
+the executive be independent of the judiciary, if he were subject to
+the commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for disobedience; if the
+several courts could bandy him from pillar to post, keep him constantly
+trudging from north to south, and east to west, and withdraw him
+entirely from his constitutional duties? The intention of the
+constitution, that each branch should be independent of the others, is
+further manifested by the means it has furnished to each, to protect
+itself from enterprises of force attempted on them by the others, and
+to none has it given more effectual or diversified means than to the
+executive. Again; because ministers can go into a court in London,
+as witnesses, without interruption to their executive duties, it is
+inferred that they would go to a court one thousand or one thousand five
+hundred miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans
+by every criminal who will swear that their testimony 'may be of use to
+him.' The Judge says, 'it is apparent that the President's duties,
+as chief magistrate, do not demand his whole time, and are not
+unremitting.' If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat
+of government, during the sickly season, he should be told that such
+arrangements are made for carrying on the public business, at and
+between the several stations we take, that it goes on as unremittingly
+there, as if we were at the seat of government. I pass more hours in
+public business at Monticello than I do here, every day; and it is much
+more laborious, because all must be done in writing. Our stations being
+known, all communications come to them regularly, as to fixed points.
+It would be very different were we always on the road, or placed in the
+noisy and crowded taverns where courts are held. Mr. Rodney is expected
+here every hour, having been kept away by a sick child. I salute you
+with friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LV.--TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June 21, 1807
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
+
+Washington, June 21, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen years of
+age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
+
+*****
+
+I am not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they
+acquire there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the
+happiness of their after life. But there are particular branches of
+science, which are not so advantageously taught any where else in
+the United States as in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for
+Botany, Mr. Peale's Museum for Natural History, your Medical School for
+Anatomy, and the able professors in all of them, give advantages not to
+be found elsewhere. We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia
+to attend the schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps
+Surgery; but not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask?
+Being led to the subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express
+my opinions on that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to
+finish first with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask
+of you, and which is the object of this letter.
+
+*****
+
+This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
+further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
+most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
+less enlightened.
+
+We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its
+organs and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and
+tending to its destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature
+providing for the re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary
+evacuation of the morbific matter, or by some other operation which
+escapes our imperfect senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by
+stools, vomiting, sweat, urine, expectoration, bleeding, &c, which, for
+the most part, ends in the restoration of healthy action. Experience has
+taught us also, that there are certain substances, by which, applied to
+the living body, internally or externally, we can at will produce these
+same evacuations, and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but
+slowly, and do effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength
+to accomplish. Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized
+by specific signs or phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural
+evacuation or process, whenever that disease recurs under the same
+appearances, we may reasonably count on producing a solution of it, by
+the use of such substances as we have found produce the same evacuation
+or movement. Thus, fulness of the stomach we can relieve by emetics;
+diseases of the bowels, by purgatives; inflammatory cases, by bleeding;
+intermittents, by the Peruvian bark; syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness,
+by opium; &c. So far, I bow to the utility of medicine. It goes to the
+well defined forms of disease, and happily, to those the most frequent.
+But the disorders of the animal body, and the symptoms indicating
+them, are as various as the elements of which the body is composed. The
+combinations, too, of these symptoms are so infinitely diversified,
+that many associations of them appear too rarely to establish a definite
+disease: and to an unknown disease, there cannot be a known remedy.
+Here, then, the judicious, the moral, the humane physician should stop.
+Having been so often a witness to the salutary efforts which nature
+makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he should rather trust
+to their action, than hazard the interruption of that, and a greater
+derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a machine so
+complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject so sacred
+as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be necessary to
+keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be of the most
+innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I have ever
+known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of colored
+water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put
+together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous physician
+goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the scanty
+field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region of what
+is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory of
+corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of
+stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the
+lancet, and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which
+lets him into all nature's secrets at short hand. On the principle which
+he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases
+into families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all
+the cases he has thus arbitrarily marshaled together. I have lived
+myself to see the disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown,
+succeed one another like the shifting figures of a magic-lanthern, and
+their fancies like the dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris,
+becoming, from their novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to
+the next novelty their ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the
+fashionable theory, sometimes gets well in spite of the medicine. The
+medicine therefore restored him, and the young doctor receives new
+courage to proceed in his bold experiments on the lives of his fellow
+creatures. I believe we may safely affirm, that the inexperienced and
+presumptuous band of medical tyros let loose upon the world, destroys
+more of human life in one year, than all the Robin-hoods, Cartouches,
+and Macheaths do in a century. It is in this part of medicine that I
+wish to see a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis for sober facts, the
+first degree of value set on clinical observation, and the lowest on
+visionary theories. I would wish the young practitioner, especially, to
+have deeply impressed on his mind the real limits of his art, and that
+when the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office is to be a
+watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving them
+fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they can
+derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient.
+I have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
+transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I
+would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than
+hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my
+hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge
+of the human body, and observation on the effects of medicinal
+substances on that. The anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are
+those in which the young physician should be formed. If he enters with
+innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely possible he
+should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong indeed,
+if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity
+against the authority of his instructers, and the bewitching delusions
+of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion of
+instruction, which our medical students derive from your labors; and,
+associating with it one of the chairs which my old and able friend,
+Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them as the two fundamental
+pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an opinion of the talents
+of the professors in the other branches which constitute the school of
+medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that it is from this side
+of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so many other things,
+will at length be led into sound principles in this branch of science,
+the most important of all others, being that to which we commit the care
+of health and life.
+
+I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
+heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
+presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
+credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology
+I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too,
+to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so
+familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give
+a confession of my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps,
+at times, to him as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine,
+without defining its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted
+me, for a moment, to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste
+of politics, into which I have been impressed by the times on which I
+happened, and to indulge in the rich fields of nature, where alone I
+should have served as a volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations
+and partialities.
+
+I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVI.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807
+
+
+TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+
+Washington, July 10, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806; but supposing, from your not
+acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried, I sent
+a duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2nd. These having gone
+by the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours
+of May the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
+department of State, carried by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what
+a critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by
+their armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them
+two-deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority
+under which this aggression is committed, their minister here is
+unapprized. You will see by the proclamation of July the 2nd, that
+(while we are not omitting such measures of force as are immediately
+necessary) we propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal
+and reparation, and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or
+other measures, uncommitted, to the legislature. This country has never
+been in such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In
+this state of things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at
+least with Spain, become more interesting. You know the circumstances
+respecting this last power, which have rendered it ineligible that you
+should have proceeded heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle
+is now removed by their recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another
+minister, and, in the mean time, of a _charge des affaires_, who has
+been received. The way being now open for taking your station at Madrid,
+it is certainly our wish you should do so, and that this may be more
+agreeable to you than your return home, as is solicited in yours of May
+the 1st. It is with real unwillingness we should relinquish the benefit
+of your services. Nevertheless, if your mind is decidedly bent on that,
+we shall regret, but not oppose your return. The choice, therefore,
+remains with yourself. In the mean time, your place in the joint
+commission being vacated by either event, we shall take the measures
+rendered necessary by that. We have seen, with real grief, the
+misunderstanding which has taken place between yourself and General
+Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to form an opinion
+between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt by persons,
+both of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have not been
+without fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has seemed,
+however, that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little to be
+done, in matters so distant from them.
+
+The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
+No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it
+probable this will continue very much the case till we get an answer
+from England. Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is
+now secured south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
+
+Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Washington, July 14, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+I received last night your letters of February the 20th and April the
+29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to
+acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I receive
+whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate esteem
+for yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the state of
+Madame de la Fayette's health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of
+learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give great
+confidence to that hope.
+
+Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of
+yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established on this
+side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
+found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
+been formed from infancy. Certainly had you been, as I wished, at the
+head of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one
+moment's uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious
+of which history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the
+western States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their
+head, establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus
+provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom.
+The man who could expect to effect this, with American materials, must
+be a fit subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however,
+demands more serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the
+United States who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of
+our laws in favor of the accused against the accuser, that I question
+if he is convicted. Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to
+select the twelve who are to try him, and if there be any one who will
+not concur in finding him guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry
+to tell you that Bollman was Burr's right hand man in all his guilty
+schemes. On being brought to prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison
+and myself the whole of the plans, always, however, apologetically for
+Burr as far as they would bear. But his subsequent tergiversations
+have proved him conspicuously base. I gave him a pardon, however, which
+covers him from every thing but infamy. I was the more astonished at his
+engaging in this business, from the peculiar motives he should have
+felt for fidelity. When I came into the government, I sought him out on
+account of the services he has rendered you, cherished him, offered
+him two different appointments of value, which, after keeping them long
+under consideration, he declined for commercial views, and would have
+given him any thing for which he was fit. Be assured he is unworthy of
+ever occupying again the care of any honest man. Nothing has ever so
+strongly proved the innate force of our form of government, as this
+conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men to follow his
+fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by
+assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation
+was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty
+desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was or was
+suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in
+one instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of
+the military but to take care of their respective stations. His first
+enterprise was to have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed
+would powerfully bridle the upper country, and place him at the door
+of Mexico. It is with pleasure I inform you that not a single native
+Creole, and but one American of those settled there before we received
+the place, took any part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants
+from the United States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt,
+and adventurers and speculators of all descriptions.
+
+I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing
+on which we stand, at present, with England. Never, since the battle of
+Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation
+as at present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The
+federalists themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they
+will return to their old trade of condemning every step we take towards
+obtaining it. 'Reparation for the past, and security for the future,' is
+our motto. Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort
+to non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near
+two thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast,
+and cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
+
+I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve
+Madame de Tesse in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &c. which I
+sent her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England,
+and discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit, for that
+season. Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has,
+I fear, been equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will
+persevere in my endeavors.
+
+Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tesse, Madame de la Fayette, and
+your family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LVIII.--TO JOHN PAGE, July 17, 1807
+
+
+TO JOHN PAGE.
+
+Washington, July 17, 1807.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public offices of mere
+profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or
+second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments
+on that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen that
+confidence so necessary to enable the executive to direct the whole
+public force to the best, advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Boiling
+Robertson's talents and integrity I have long been apprized, and would
+gladly use them where talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought
+of him for the vacant place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but
+supposing the salary of two thousand dollars not more than he makes
+by his profession, and while remaining with his friends, I have, in
+despair, not proposed it to him. If he would accept it, I should name
+him instantly with the greatest satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform
+me on this point.
+
+With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some
+casual conversation, it was said that the most conspicuous accomplices
+of Burr were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on
+me, that neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this
+subject, I have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a
+wish they might be understood by the federalists in office. I have never
+removed a man merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished
+them to give a vote at an election, but according to their own wishes.
+But as no government could discharge its duties to the best advantage
+of its citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting
+instead of executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage
+and influence of their offices against the government and its measures,
+I have only requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe: and
+if their conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in
+opposition, it ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they
+could not conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed
+in them; and on failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say,
+those who maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government.
+Nothing which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger
+from these principles.
+
+I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the
+late British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the
+demand of reparation for the past, and security for the future, that is
+to say, an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest
+should produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war: but if they
+are refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and
+property, and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean,
+and who may man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these
+to us would be worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile
+and Trafalgar. The mean time may also be importantly employed in
+preparations to enable us to give quick and deep blows.
+
+Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and
+respectful salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LIX.--TO WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807
+
+
+TO WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Washington, July 20, 1807.
+
+Sir,
+
+Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications, yet
+I merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which they
+are susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others will
+be considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us to
+hear every thing, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all
+their confidence that every thing is doing which can be done, and when
+our greatest praise shall be, that we appear to be doing nothing. The
+law for detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation
+for it, and that for fortifications, enable us to do every thing for
+land service, as well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters,
+their opinion is known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our
+merchants a precious interval to call in their property and our seamen,
+and the postponing the summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give
+too quick an alarm to the adversary. They will be called, however,
+in good time. Although we demand of England what is merely of right,
+reparation for the past, security for the future, yet as their pride
+will possibly, nay probably, prevent their yielding them to the extent
+we shall require, my opinion is, that the public mind, which I believe
+is made up for war, should maintain itself at that point. They have
+often enough, God knows, given us cause of war before; but it has been
+on points which would not have united the nation. But now they have
+touched a chord which vibrates in every heart. Now then is the time to
+settle the old and the new.
+
+I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the
+subject of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I
+suspect you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe,
+does not exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better
+the condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to
+it, as a monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse.
+He is not of the very first order of understanding, but he is of a
+high one. He has taken a peculiar affection to this country and its
+government, of which he has given me public as well as personal proofs.
+Our nation being like his, habitually neutral, our interests as to
+neutral rights, and our sentiments, agree. And whenever conferences
+for peace shall take place, we are assured of a friend in him. In fact,
+although in questions of restitution he will be with England, in those
+of neutral rights he will be with Bonaparte and every other power in
+the world, except England: and I do presume that England will never have
+peace until she subscribes to a just code of marine law. I have gone
+into this subject, because I am confident that Russia (while her present
+monarch lives) is the most cordially friendly to us of any power on
+earth, will go furthest to serve us, and is most worthy of conciliation.
+And although the source of this information must be a matter of
+confidence with you, yet it is desirable that the sentiments should
+become those of the nation. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LX.--TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, August 20, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the post-office
+had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury Burr's conduct would
+convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be offered against
+him. But to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings in
+those who administer it? Why do not Blannerhasset, Dayton, &c.
+demand private and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal
+application of law to every condition of man is fundamental, how could
+it be denied to them? How can it ever be denied to the most degraded
+malefactor? The enclosed letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of
+one from Alston to Blannerhasset, came to hand yesterday. I enclose
+them, because it is proper all these papers should be in one deposite,
+and because you should know the case and all its bearings, that you may
+understand whatever turns up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the
+letter-writer is sound, may be doubted. For however these, and other
+circumstances which have come to us, may induce us to believe that the
+bouncing letter he published, and the insolent one he wrote to me, were
+intended as blinds, yet they are not sufficient for legal conviction.
+Blannerhasset and his wife could possibly tell us enough. I commiserate
+the sufferings you have to go through in such a season, and salute you
+with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXI.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 4, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been ------
+that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from
+ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place.
+It is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single
+witness be paid or permitted to depart, until his testimony has been
+committed to writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by
+yourself in the presence of any of Burr's counsel, who may choose to
+attend to cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before
+Congress, that they may decide, whether the defect has been in the
+evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of the law, and
+that they may provide the proper remedy for the past and the future. I
+must pray you also to have an authentic copy of the record made out
+(without saying for what) and to send it to me: if the Judge's opinions
+make not a part of it, then I must ask a copy of them, either under his
+hand, if he delivers one signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
+
+This criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
+disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the
+pivot on which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign
+governments may wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted
+of the misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some
+short confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short.
+Be assured yourself, and communicate the same assurances to your
+colleagues, that your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed
+in this affair to my entire satisfaction and your own honor.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXII.--TO GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807
+
+
+TO GEORGE HAY.
+
+Monticello, September 7, 1807.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now
+re-enclose you the subpoena. As I do not believe that the district
+courts have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon
+superior duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am
+unwilling, by any notice of the subpoena, to set a precedent which
+might sanction a proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a
+letter, public and for the court, covering substantially all they ought
+to desire. If the papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson's letter may,
+in your judgment, be communicated without injury, you will be pleased to
+communicate them. I return you the original letter.
+
+I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison's counsel on this
+occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of
+opinion, that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should
+proceed at Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the
+head of the Judge: if successful, it will give time to see whether a
+prosecution for treason against him can be instituted in any, and
+what other court. But, we incline to think, it may be best to send
+Blannerhasset and Smith (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the
+treason and misdemeanor. The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well
+go on at Richmond.
+
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIII.--TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+
+
+TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR,
+
+Washington, January 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of the 18th, and am thankful to you
+for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to
+refuse what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider
+the government of the United States as interdicted by the constitution
+from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
+discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that
+no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of
+religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers
+not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any
+religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has
+been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the
+States, as far as it can be in any human authority. But it is only
+proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and
+prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an
+authority over religious exercises, which the constitution has directly
+precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is
+to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those
+who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some
+degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does the change
+in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less a law of
+conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for
+the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct
+its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious
+societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power
+of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and
+prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline.
+Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times
+for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their
+own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their
+own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
+
+I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I
+have ever believed, that the example of State executives led to the
+assumption of that authority by the General Government, without due
+examination, which would have discovered that what might be a right in a
+State government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another.
+Be this as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his
+own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given
+to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the
+religious exercises of his constituents.
+
+I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give
+me an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which
+I could give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a
+public answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, February 18, 1808.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as to bring
+for me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage, and you
+wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the
+favor of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them
+to Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must intreat you
+to send me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be
+enabled to reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between
+us, against which this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my
+recollection or knowledge, there were any thing, I pray that that may
+be left to be settled by itself. If I could have known the amount
+beforehand, I should have remitted it, and asked the advance only
+under the idea that it should be the same as ready money to you on your
+arrival. I must again, therefore, beseech you to let me know its amount.
+
+I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and
+another, who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I
+sincerely pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you;
+with me I confidently trust they will not. For independently of the
+dictates of public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere
+friendship for you both will insure its sacred observance. I suffer no
+one to converse with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend
+Clinton estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him,
+as they will be to the other two candidates, under forms, which, however
+false he can scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to
+him also, never to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest
+is a fair and honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no
+doubt the personal conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no
+ground of dissatisfaction with each other. But your friends will not be
+as delicate. I know too well from experience the progress of political
+controversy, and the exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates,
+not to fear for the continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing
+thing said, draws on another, that a third, and always with increasing
+acrimony, until all restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult
+for yourselves to keep clear of the toils in which your friends will
+endeavor to interlace you, and to avoid the participation in their
+passions which they will endeavor to produce. A candid recollection of
+what you know of each other will be the true corrective. With respect
+to myself, I hope they will spare me. My longings for retirement are
+so strong, that I with difficulty encounter the daily drudgeries of my
+duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not stronger than that of
+carrying into it the affections of all my friends. I have ever viewed
+Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of my happiness.
+Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among the greatest
+calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I have great
+confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will guard
+me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
+weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
+
+Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
+assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
+have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had
+never entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds,
+because explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1.
+You consider the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been
+in some way injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself,
+I might say in its justification, that it has been the regular and
+habitual practice of the United States to do this, under every form
+in which their government has existed. I need not recapitulate the
+multiplied instances, because you will readily recollect them. I went as
+an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, yourself as an adjunct first
+to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr. Pinckney, and I really believe
+there has scarcely been a great occasion which has not produced an
+extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is well known, that I was
+strongly opposed to it in the case of which you complain. A committee of
+the Senate called on me with two resolutions of that body on the subject
+of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain, and requesting that
+I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the resolutions, the
+committee entered into free conversation, and observed, that although
+the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary mission,
+yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them on the
+measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave them
+so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
+end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set
+upon me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as
+myself, and represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain
+redress would throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the
+opinion of nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary,
+at length, to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national
+council, and it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from
+any want of confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an
+extraordinary mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating
+the degree of importance which this country attached to the rights which
+we considered as infracted.
+
+2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
+was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment's credit
+to the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public
+papers, or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word
+of which I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of
+the views to mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my
+confidence was firm, that neither yourself nor the British government,
+equally outraged by them, would believe me capable of making the editors
+of newspapers the confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact
+was this. The treaty was communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day
+Congress was to rise. Two of the Senators inquired of me in the evening,
+whether it was my purpose to detain them on account of the treaty. My
+answer was, 'that it was not: that the treaty containing no provision
+against the impressment of our seamen, and being accompanied by a
+kind of protestation of the British ministers, which would leave that
+government free to consider it as a treaty or no treaty, according
+to their own convenience, I should not give them the trouble of
+deliberating on it.' This was substantially, and almost verbally, what
+I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never failed when the occasion
+would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing
+my conviction, that it was all that could be obtained from the British
+government; that you had told their commissioners that your government
+could not be pledged to ratify, because it was contrary to their
+instructions; of course, that it should be considered but as a projet;
+and in this light I stated it publicly in my message to Congress on the
+opening of the session. Not a single article of the treaty was ever made
+known beyond the members of the administration, nor would an article of
+it be known at this day, but for its publication in the newspapers,
+as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as we have always
+understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as the most sacred
+of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your reputation and
+favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to justify your
+failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably unattainable.
+Reviewing, therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you will become
+sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground. I cannot,
+indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you; and
+that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find,
+my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us,
+that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If
+you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs
+of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren
+and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without
+ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that
+the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are
+brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated
+so positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the
+narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view
+of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge
+of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any
+affirmative which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own
+ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you
+will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing
+passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not
+then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the
+ocean of slander, of falsehood, and of malice, on which our credulous
+friends are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did,
+said, or thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me
+injury as causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in
+which you are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no
+sentiment. Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the
+nation, I know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and
+as far as my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially
+supported,
+
+For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve
+in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and
+to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and
+friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor
+myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be
+in their place) those who are still buffeting the storm, uncertain
+of their fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it
+may continue with entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that
+friendship which I have ever borne you, and of which I now assure you,
+with the tender of my high respect and affectionate salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson,
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVI.--TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
+
+
+TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
+
+Washington, March 10, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
+for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I
+cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to
+express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This
+approbation of my fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I
+am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them: and
+never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest
+of my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with
+so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish
+between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to
+the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose,
+indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any
+decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must
+always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse
+principles. But I came to the government under circumstances calculated
+to generate peculiar acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession
+of a political sect, who wished to transform it ultimately into the
+shape of their darling model, the English government; and in the mean
+time, to familiarize the public mind to the change, by administering it
+on English principles, and in English forms. The elective interposition
+of the people had blown all their designs, and they found themselves and
+their fortresses of power and profit put in a moment into the hands of
+other trustees. Lamentations and invective were all that remained to
+them. This last was naturally directed against the agent selected to
+execute the multiplied reformations, which their heresies had rendered
+necessary. I became of course the butt of every thing which reason,
+ridicule, malice, and falsehood could supply. They have concentrated all
+their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded themselves, that I
+am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I hope, therefore, that
+my retirement will abate some of their disaffection to the government of
+their country, and that my successor will enter on a calmer sea than
+I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the hands of his
+friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without even the hope
+of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed, retain their
+rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated with us
+in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow-citizens, now solidly
+republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation
+of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a
+degeneracy in our government.
+
+*****
+
+I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVII.--TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808
+
+
+TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, March 23, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand. You know
+our principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not employ
+their influence in opposing the government, but only give their own vote
+according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well with
+those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
+
+We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
+denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
+beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
+flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
+punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination
+of Mr. Rose's mission, _re infecta_, put it in my power to communicate
+to Congress yesterday, every thing respecting our relations with England
+and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his
+worthy coadjutor Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really
+their persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The
+embargo appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter
+except yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact,
+it is the last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does
+not take place in Europe, and if France and England will not consent
+to withdraw the operation of their decrees and orders from us, when
+Congress shall meet in December, they will have to consider at what
+point of time the embargo, continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I
+am inclined to believe, we shall have this summer and autumn to prepare
+for the defence of our sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the
+works of defence will be completed, which have been provided for by the
+legislature. I think Congress will rise within three weeks. I salute you
+with great affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXVIII.--TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808
+
+TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
+
+Washington, March 30, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I proceed to state
+to you my views of the present state and prospect of foreign affairs,
+under the confidence that you will use them for your own government and
+opinions only, and by no means let them get out as from me. With France
+we are in no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible
+to estimate. The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England,
+is postponed for this year. This is effected by the embargo, as the
+question was simply between that and war. That may go on a certain time,
+perhaps through the year, without the loss of their property to our
+citizens, but only its remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would
+come, however, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the
+embargo. Of this Congress may have to decide at their next meeting. In
+the mean time, we have good information, that a negotiation for peace
+between France and England is commencing through the medium of Austria.
+The way for it has been smoothed by a determination expressed by France
+(through the Moniteur, which is their government paper), that herself
+and her allies will demand from Great Britain no renunciation of her
+maritime principles; nor will they renounce theirs. Nothing shall be
+said about them in the treaty, and both sides will be left in the next
+war to act on their own. No doubt the meaning of this is, that all
+the Continental powers of Europe will form themselves into an armed
+neutrality, to enforce their own principles. Should peace be made, we
+shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and prosperity. If we have
+any thing to fear, it will be after that. Nothing should be spared from
+this moment in putting our militia into the best condition possible,
+and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer, we shall get our whole
+sea-ports put into that state of defence, which Congress has thought
+proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say, put
+_hors d'insulte_ from a maritime attack, by a moderate squadron. If
+armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be provided,
+but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven regiments only
+for the present year, depending always on our militia for the operations
+of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be obliged always
+to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn in about three
+weeks. I hope Captain McComb is going on well with your defensive works.
+We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient number of
+gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessels which can cross the
+bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
+complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
+shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
+ten good seamen. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXIX.--TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR LEIB.
+
+Washington, June 23, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the
+Tammany society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the
+favorable sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will
+so much sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the
+knowledge that I carry with me the good will and approbation of my
+republican fellow-citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison
+with whom I have so long acted. With respect to the federalists, I
+believe we think alike; for when speaking of them, we never mean to
+include a worthy portion of our fellow-citizens, who consider themselves
+as in duty bound to support the constituted authorities of every branch,
+and to reserve their opposition to the period of election. These having
+acquired the appellation of federalists, while a federal administration
+was in place, have not cared about throwing off their name, but,
+adhering to their principle, are the supporters of the present order
+of things. The other branch of the federalists, those who are so in
+principle as well as in name, disapprove of the republican principles
+and features of our constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any
+public calamity (war with England excepted) which might lessen the
+confidence of our country in those principles and forms. I have
+generally considered them rather as subjects for a madhouse. But they
+are now playing a game of the most mischievous tendency, without perhaps
+being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring to convince England,
+that we suffer more by the embargo than they do, and that, if they will
+but hold out a while, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come
+when we must abandon it. But if this is before the repeal of the orders
+of council, we must abandon it only for a state of war. The day is not
+distant, when that will be preferable to a longer continuance of the
+embargo. But we can never remove that, and let our vessels go out and be
+taken under these orders, without making reprisal. Yet this is the very
+state of things which these federal monarchists are endeavoring to bring
+about; and in this it is but too possible they may succeed. But the
+fact is, that if we have war with England, it will be solely produced by
+their manoeuvres. I think that in two or three months we shall know what
+will be the issue. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXX.--TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808
+
+
+TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
+
+Washington, October 15, 1808.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of September the 22nd waited here for my return, and it is
+not till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation
+of his principles, given you by the French Emperor, in conversation,
+is correct as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with
+England, knowing we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay
+to England the tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders
+of council, would be to aid her in the war against him, and would give
+him just ground to declare war with us. He concludes, therefore,
+as every rational man must, that the embargo, the only remaining
+alternative, was a wise measure. These are acknowledged principles, and
+should circumstances arise, which may offer advantage to our country in
+making them public, we shall avail ourselves of them. But as it is not
+usual nor agreeable to governments to bring their conversations before
+the public, I think it would be well to consider this on your part as
+confidential, leaving to the government to retain or make it public,
+as the general good may require. Had the Emperor gone further, and said
+that he condemned our vessels going voluntarily into his ports in breach
+of his municipal laws, we might have admitted it rigorously legal,
+though not friendly. But his condemnation of vessels taken on the high
+seas by his privateers, and carried involuntarily into his ports, is
+justifiable by no law, is piracy, and this is the wrong we complain of
+against him.
+
+Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
+dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
+friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston.
+
+I salute you with esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXI.--TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
+
+Washington, October 27, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+You will wonder that your letter of June the 3rd should not be
+acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the
+12th, and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business
+I found here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever
+participated in any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one
+moment believed. I knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise
+against Mexico was of a very different character, I had supposed what I
+heard on that subject to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for
+me, and I for ever dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend
+my belief of innocence to a very different description of men in New
+Orleans; but I think there is sufficient evidence of there being there a
+set of foreign adventurers, and native malcontents, who would concur
+in any enterprise to separate that country from this. I did wish to
+see these people get what they deserved; and under the maxim of the law
+itself, that _inter arma silent leges_, that in an encampment expecting
+daily attack from a powerful enemy, self-preservation is paramount to
+all law, I expected that instead of invoking the forms of the law to
+cover traitors, all good citizens would have concurred in securing them.
+Should we have ever gained our Revolution, if we had bound our hands by
+manacles of the law, not only in the beginning, but in any part of the
+revolutionary conflict? There are extreme cases where the laws become
+inadequate even to their own preservation, and where the universal
+resource is a dictator, or martial law. Was New Orleans in that
+situation? Although we knew here that the force destined against it was
+suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this unknown at New Orleans at
+the time that Burr's accomplices were calling in the aid of the law to
+enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that it was reasonable,
+according to the state of information there, to act on the expectation
+of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
+
+Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
+offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
+rebellion as big as an handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
+this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
+it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
+periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment's fear. My
+long and intimate knowledge of my countrymen satisfied and satisfies me,
+that, let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law,
+and the world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array
+themselves in opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have
+indeed thought it a duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful,
+that of a Bonaparte, for instance, by the only means competent, that of
+a classification of the militia, and placing the junior classes at the
+public disposal: but the lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all
+apprehensions from my mind. If, in a peninsula, the neck of which is
+adjacent to him, and at his command, where he can march any army without
+the possibility of interception or obstruction from any foreign power,
+he finds it necessary to begin with an army of three hundred thousand
+men, to subdue a nation of five millions, brutalized by ignorance, and
+enervated by long peace, and should find constant reinforcements of
+thousands after thousands necessary to effect at last a conquest as
+doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be necessary against eight
+millions of free Americans, spread over such an extent of country
+as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of food, autumnal
+diseases, &c.? How would they be brought, and how reinforced, across an
+ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a bitter enemy, whose
+peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than momentary? And for
+what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese Creoles would but
+contemplate these truths, they would cling to the American Union, soul
+and body, as their first affection, and we should be as safe there as
+we are every where else. I have no doubt of their attachment to us in
+preference of the English.
+
+I salute you with sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXII.--TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808
+
+
+TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
+
+Washington, November 13, 1808.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision.
+Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in
+smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away
+what it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to
+bear in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State
+encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are
+made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I
+presume there can be no want in Massachusetts, as yet, as I am informed
+that Governor Sullivan's permits are openly bought and sold here and
+in Alexandria, and at other markets. The Congressional campaign is just
+opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2.
+War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will
+not want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
+first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
+most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
+the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
+general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their
+edicts by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores
+peace without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On
+this occasion, I think it fair to leave to those who are to act on them,
+the decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should
+not feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute
+them would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been
+pressed by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
+impracticable. I salute you with sincere friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIII.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24, 1808
+
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, November 24, 1808.
+
+My Dear Jefferson,
+
+Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but
+give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you,
+by your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
+recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers
+which surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers,
+without a friend or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so
+little experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your
+safety must rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is
+wrong, prudence, and good humor, will go far towards securing to you the
+estimation of the world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age,
+the whole care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely,
+without a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and
+recollect the various sorts of bad company with which I associated from
+time to time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and
+become as worthless to society as they were. I had the good fortune to
+become acquainted very early with some characters of very high standing,
+and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever become what they were.
+Under temptations and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr.
+Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in this situation? What course
+in it will insure me their approbation? I am certain that this mode
+of deciding on my conduct, tended more to its correctness than any
+reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they
+pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two courses would
+be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through
+a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I
+should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I
+was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players,
+fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and
+many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the
+death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question
+eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation,
+well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a
+horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an orator? or the honest advocate of my
+country's rights? Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that these little
+returns into ourselves, this self-catechizing habit, is not trifling,
+nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of
+what is right.
+
+I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
+tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
+imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes
+an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial
+good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering
+habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the
+practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little
+conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of
+nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and
+flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and
+make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for
+the good will of another! When this is in return for a rude thing said
+by another, it brings him to his senses, it mortifies and corrects
+him in the most salutary way, and places him at the feet of your good
+nature, in the eyes of the company. But in stating prudential rules for
+our government in society I must not omit the important one of never
+entering into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an
+instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I
+have seen many, of their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one
+another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning,
+either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what
+we hear from others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was
+one of the rules, which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most
+amiable of men in society, 'never to contradict any body.' If he was
+urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as
+if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express
+an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his
+opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no
+injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of
+argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is
+gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the
+gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I will
+give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, and
+shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him, and say nothing.
+It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two classes
+of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of
+young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view
+of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications
+which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other
+consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up
+a passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce
+into mixed society a question on which they foresee there will be a
+difference of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my
+dear Jefferson, keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of
+yellow fever or pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among
+the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be
+a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with
+yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered
+state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set
+one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They
+are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on
+which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry
+bull: it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an
+animal. You will be more exposed than others to have these animals
+shaking their horns at you, because of the relation in which you stand
+with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me and to hate me
+as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be to them what
+the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing ejaculation.
+Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as objects to whom
+you can administer only occasional ease. My character is not within
+their power. It is in the hands of my fellow-citizens at large, and will
+be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican mass of
+our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what
+their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these
+puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show,
+that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of
+public opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you
+to Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself
+to, avoid taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons
+generally; for it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and
+you will find your path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper
+warn me that it is time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing the same to
+Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
+mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it. T. J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIV.--TO DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
+
+Washington, January 14, 1809.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
+December the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens
+of Boston, of the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient
+character of the sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord
+with her sister States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully
+through the revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national
+government, which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for
+its protection the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these
+united powers, to repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe,
+seems likely to be pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce
+with nearly the whole world. They have declared it shall be carried on
+with such places, in such articles, and in such measure only, as they
+shall dictate; thus prostrating all the principles of right, which
+have hitherto protected it. After exhausting the cup of forbearance
+and conciliation to its dregs, we found it necessary, on behalf of that
+commerce, to take time to call it home into a state of safety, to put
+the towns and harbors which carry it on into a condition of defence, and
+to make further preparation for enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and
+restoring it to its rightful freedom. This required a certain measure of
+time, which, although not admitting specific limitation, must, from its
+avowed objects, have been obvious to all: and the progress actually made
+towards the accomplishment of these objects, proves it now to be near
+its term.
+
+While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
+commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary
+and necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended
+for its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so
+kind as to enclose me, show that those who have concurred in them, have
+judged with more candor the intentions of their government, and
+are sufficiently aware of the tendency of the excitements and
+misrepresentations which have been practised on this occasion. And such,
+I am persuaded, will be the disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts
+at large, whenever truth can reach them. Associated with her sister
+States in a common government, the fundamental principle of which is,
+that the will of the majority is to prevail, sensible, that in the
+present difficulty, that will has been governed by no local interests
+or jealousies, that to save permanent rights, temporary sacrifices
+were necessary, that these have fallen as impartially on all, as in a
+situation so peculiar they could be made to do, she will see, in the
+existing measures, a legitimate and honest exercise of the will and
+wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful to themselves and
+their associates, will not, to avoid a transient pressure, yield to the
+seductions of enemies to their independence, foreign or domestic, and
+take a course equally subversive of their well-being, as of that of
+their brethren.
+
+The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
+Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
+consoling to its members: and, encouraged by the declaration of the
+continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
+they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according
+to the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to
+the good of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of
+tendering you personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXV.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809
+
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Washington, January 28, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer has been
+delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation of your
+absence from Richmond.
+
+The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
+entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the
+former, and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect
+as an extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all
+minds revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives
+a few days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another,
+but rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very
+generally in conversation by all others: and I am satisfied such a
+proposition would get no vote in the Senate. The course the legislature
+means to pursue, may be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting
+in May, and a proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June,
+and then resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation.
+There will be considerable opposition to this last proposition, not
+only from the federalists, old and new, who oppose every thing, but from
+sound members of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good
+majority, and that it is the only proposition which can be devised
+that could obtain a majority of any kind. Final propositions, will,
+therefore, be soon despatched to both the belligerents through the
+resident ministers, so that their answers will be received before the
+meeting in May, and will decide what is to be done. This last trial for
+peace is not thought desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should
+be successful in Spain, however every virtuous and liberal sentiment
+revolts at it, it may induce both powers to be more accommodating
+with us. England will see here the only asylum for her commerce
+and manufactures, worth more to her than her orders of council. And
+Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look immediately to the
+Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply purchased by a repeal
+of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps the Floridas thrown
+into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of affairs in Europe
+produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and prosperity may
+be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take the tented
+field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
+
+There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
+endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is
+probable there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear
+we may renounce for ever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt.
+If we can keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from
+debt, will be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our
+position and increasing strength will put us _hors d'insulte_ from any
+nation. I am now so near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in
+affairs beyond the expression of an opinion. I think it fair, that
+my successor should now originate those measures of which he will be
+charged with the execution and responsibility, and that it is my duty to
+clothe them with the forms of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me
+from a drudgery to which I am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene
+of tranquillity, amidst my family and friends, more congenial to my
+age and natural inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a
+pleasure to me to see you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVI.--TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809
+
+
+TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
+
+Washington, February 7, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing
+their embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable
+revolution of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New
+England and New York members, and in a kind of panic, they voted the 4th
+of March for removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave
+all reason to believe, they would not agree either to war or
+non-intercourse. This, too, was after we had become satisfied, that
+the Essex Junto had found their expectation desperate, of inducing the
+people there to either separation or forcible opposition. The majority
+of Congress, however, has now rallied to the removing the embargo on the
+4th of March, non-intercourse with France and Great Britain, trade every
+where else, and continuing war preparations. The further details are not
+yet settled, but I believe it is perfectly certain that the embargo
+will be taken off the 4th of March. Present my warmest affections to my
+dearest Martha, and the young ones, and accept the assurances of them to
+yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVII.--TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLLINS.
+
+Washington, February 19, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one as I ever entered into,
+and where an improper construction was never less expected, is making
+some noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain it to you,
+because I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the Agricultural
+Society of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough presented
+to them, which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal work
+with half the force of their best ploughs, they thought it would be a
+benefit to mankind to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me,
+with a view to its being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke
+of Bedford also, who is one of their members, to be made use of for
+England, although the two nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now
+going to France, I have given permission to two individuals in Delaware
+and New York, to import two parcels of Merino sheep from France, which
+they have procured there, and to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a
+very valuable machine which spins cotton, wool, and flax equally. The
+last spring, the Society informed me they were cultivating the cotton of
+the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean, and wished to try also
+that of our southern States. I immediately got a friend to have two
+tierces of seed forwarded to me. They were consigned to Messrs. Falls
+and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it being given me, I immediately
+wrote to them to re-ship them to New York, to be sent by the Mentor.
+Their first object was to make a show of my letter, as something very
+criminal, and to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like
+request, some time ago (but before the embargo), from the President of
+the Board of Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send
+them some of the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or
+three barrels of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the
+same Society the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had
+carried over from France to England, and I have since received from a
+member of it the seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known
+here. I mention these things, to show the nature of the correspondence
+which is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent
+purpose of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is
+discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace,
+however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters,
+they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and their
+correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. Vaccination
+has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal diffusion of a
+blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it is mortifying, to be
+obliged to note these things, which are known to every one who knows any
+thing, and felt with approbation by every one who has any feeling. But
+we have a faction to whose hostile passions the torture even of right
+into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their malice I have long
+learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise. But I observe,
+that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are receiving
+liberally from others) that this small return should be made. They will
+think more justly at another day: but, in the mean time, I wish to avoid
+offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so good,
+under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed from
+Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &c. which
+I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed, when
+received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted with
+a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
+I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
+should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
+it, I know nothing.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXVIII.--TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809
+
+
+TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+
+Washington, March 2, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
+May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
+and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are
+read with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.
+
+After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being
+entangled in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The
+edicts of the two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean,
+we met by an embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships,
+and property, to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state
+of defence. We have now taken off the embargo, except as to France
+and England and their territories, because fifty millions of exports
+annually sacrificed, are the treble of what war would cost us; besides,
+that by war we should take something, and lose less than at present. But
+to give you a true description of the state of things here, I must
+refer you to Mr. Coles, the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy,
+intelligent, and well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your
+notice, and conversation on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity
+may be relied on. I expect he will find you with Spain at your feet,
+but England still afloat, and a barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all
+these concerns I am now leaving to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison.
+Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and having
+gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting
+the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner,
+released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off
+the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of
+science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the
+times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting
+them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political
+passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without
+censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public
+approbation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so able to take
+care of them, that if we are destined to meet misfortunes, it will
+be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should you return to the
+United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit
+of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and delight; hailing
+you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations, and assurances
+of constant esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred
+shepherd's dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now
+beginning to pay great attention to the raising sheep.
+
+T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXIX.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my departure from
+Washington, I found from their signatures that they were from literary
+characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset
+that it was private, and that his public communications were in the
+letter to the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however, on
+reading his letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a passage
+of some length, proper to be communicated to you, and which I have
+therefore extracted.
+
+I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
+although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better
+to be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable
+a snow storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the
+expedition but fatigue, I have more confidence in my _vis vitae_ than I
+had before entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats
+sown, not much tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has
+suffered considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple,
+weeping-willow, and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at
+Richmond, and all produce is hurrying down.
+
+I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
+months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have
+a smooth administration. I know no government which would be so
+embarrassing in war as ours. This would proceed very much from the
+lying and licentious character of our papers; but much, also, from the
+wonderful credulity of the members of Congress in the floating lies of
+the day. And in this no experience seems to correct them. I have never
+seen a Congress during the last eight years, a great majority of which
+I would not implicitly have relied on in any question, could their minds
+have been purged of all errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly
+with the protraction of the session, and I apprehend, in case of war,
+their session would have a tendency to become permanent. It is much,
+therefore, to be desired that war may be avoided, if circumstances will
+admit. Nor in the present maniac state of Europe, should I estimate
+the point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we shall, on the
+contrary, have credit with the world, for having made the avoidance
+of being engaged in the present unexampled war, our first object. War,
+however, may become a less losing business than unresisted depredation.
+With every wish that events may be propitious to your administration, I
+salute you with sincere affection and every sympathy of the heart.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXX.--TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809
+
+
+TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA,
+
+Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society
+of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
+receive, fellow-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure,
+the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties
+which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to
+them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office, have
+drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of
+private life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with
+you, my neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which
+nature has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I
+gladly lay down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my
+fellow-citizens, repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors,
+and perplexities of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express
+to administer to my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness;
+and the measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in
+the several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained
+for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on the
+theatre of public life, has been before them; and to their sentence I
+submit it: but the testimony of my native county, of the individuals who
+have known me in private life, to my conduct in its various duties and
+relations, is the more grateful, as proceeding from eye-witnesses and
+observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I
+may ask, in the face of the world, 'Whose ox have I taken, or whom have
+I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received
+a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?' On your verdict I rest with
+conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness are received with
+just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+April 3, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXI.--TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809
+
+
+TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, June 13, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you
+had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed in the debates of
+Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations
+more fully in conversation, which I will now do by abridgment in
+writing. Mr. Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain prosecutions
+at common law in Connecticut, for libels on the government, and not only
+himself, but others have stated them with such affected caution, and
+such hints at the same time, as to leave on every mind the impression
+that they had been instituted either by my direction, or with my
+acquiescence, at least. This has not been denied by my friends, because
+probably the fact is unknown to them. I shall state it for their
+satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed of as they think best.
+
+I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the
+time exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
+obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
+time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
+prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies
+uttered from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote
+to Mr. Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating
+that I had laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the
+thousand calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my
+own conduct, and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that
+I had found no reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I
+was unwilling it should be broke through by others as to any matter
+concerning me; and I therefore requested him to desire the district
+attorney to dismiss the prosecution. Some time after this, 1 heard of
+subpoenas being served on General Lee, David M. Randolph, and others, as
+witnesses to attend the trial. I then, for the first time, conjectured
+the subject of the libel. I immediately wrote to Mr. Granger, to
+require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The answer of Mr.
+Huntington, the district attorney, was, that these subpoenas had been
+issued by the defendant without his knowledge, that it had been his
+intention to dismiss all the prosecutions at the first meeting of the
+court, and to accompany it with an avowal of his opinion, that they
+could not be maintained, because the federal court had no jurisdiction
+over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till then know that
+there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I now know what
+were their subjects. But all went off together; and I afterwards saw, in
+the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the clergyman, disavowing
+any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly declaring he had never
+uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger either showed me, or said
+there were affidavits of at least half a dozen respectable men who were
+present at the sermon, and swore no such expressions were uttered, and
+as many equally respectable who swore the contrary. But the clergyman
+expressed his gratification at the dismission of the prosecution. I
+write all this from memory, and after too long an interval of time to be
+certain of the exactness of all the details; but I am sure there is no
+variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small lapses of
+memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that the
+prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
+without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
+and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground
+on which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and
+others; to wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null,
+and that my obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not
+suffering rights secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no
+law. I always understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if
+not instituted, by Judge Edwards, and the marshal, being republican,
+had summoned a grand jury partly or wholly republican: but that Mr.
+Huntington declared from the beginning against the jurisdiction of the
+court, and had determined to enter _nolle-prosequis_ before he received
+my directions.
+
+I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
+goes to those to me only, not those from me. The bill had got to its
+passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana),
+and the house under too much pressure of business near the close of the
+session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was given
+to the letters from as well as to both my predecessors, I suppose
+no reason exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive a
+correspondence as I am subject to, and still considerably on public
+matters, it would be a sensible convenience to myself, as well as those
+who have occasion to receive letters from me. It happens, too, as I was
+told at the time (for I have never looked into it myself), that it was
+done by two distinct acts on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I
+think, mentioned this to me. I know from the Post Master General, that
+Mr. Adams franks all his letters. I state this matter to you as being my
+representative, which must apologize for the trouble of it. We have been
+seasonable since you left us. Yesterday evening and this morning we have
+had refreshing showers, which will close and confirm the business of
+planting. Affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, August 17, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen, on whatsoever measures
+you should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am
+satisfied that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has
+been sanctioned by universal approbation; and although it was not
+literally the case foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper
+extension of their provision to a case similar, though not the same.
+It proved to the whole world our desire of accommodation, and must have
+satisfied every candid federalist on that head. It was not only proper
+on the well-grounded confidence that the arrangement would be honestly
+executed, but ought to have taken place even had the perfidy of England
+been foreseen. Their dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our
+placing them so shamefully in the wrong, and by the union it must
+produce among ourselves. The last proclamation admits of quibbles, of
+which advantage will doubtless be endeavored to be taken, by those to
+whom gain is their god, and their country nothing. But it is soundly
+defensible. The British minister assured us, that the orders of council
+would be revoked before the 10th of June. The executive, trusting in
+that assurance, declared by proclamation that the revocation was to take
+place, and that on that event the law was to be suspended. But the event
+did not take place, and the consequence, of course, could not follow.
+This view is derived from the former non-intercourse law only, having
+never read the latter one. I had doubted whether Congress must not be
+called; but that arose from another doubt, whether their second law had
+not changed the ground, so as to require their agency to give operation
+to the law. Should Bonaparte have the wisdom to correct his injustice
+towards us, I consider war with England as inevitable. Our ships will
+go to France and its dependencies, and they will take them. This will
+be war on their part, and leaves no alternative but reprisal. I have no
+doubt you will think it safe to act on this hypothesis, and with energy.
+The moment that open war shall be apprehended from them, we should take
+possession of Baton Rouge. If we do not, they will, and New Orleans
+becomes irrecoverable, and the western country blockaded during the war.
+It would be justifiable towards Spain on this ground, and equally so on
+that of title to West Florida, and reprisal extended to East Florida.
+Whatever turn our present difficulty may take, I look upon all cordial
+conciliation with England as desperate during the life of the present
+King. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify himself. My
+confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in the ------
+of Canning. I consider the present as the most shameless ministry which
+ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will immortalize their infamy. In
+general their administrations are so changeable, and they are obliged
+to descend to such tricks to keep themselves in place, that nothing like
+honor or morality can ever be counted on in transactions with them. I
+salute you with all possible affection.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIII.--TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BARTON.
+
+Monticello, September 21, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with all
+possible pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole of the
+Indian vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable misfortune
+has deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing myself of
+every possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same
+set of words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur
+again to any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty,
+and had digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have
+printed them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet
+digested Captain Lewis's collection, nor having leisure then to do it,
+I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as
+originals, were packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water
+with about thirty other packages of my effects, from Washington, and
+while ascending James river, this package, on account of its weight and
+presumed precious contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being
+disappointed on opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of
+which he thought he could make no use. Among these were the whole of the
+vocabularies. Some leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud;
+but these were very few, and so defaced by the mud and water, that no
+general use can ever be made of them. On the receipt of your letter I
+turned to them, and was very happy to find, that the only morsel of
+an original vocabulary among them, was Captain Lewis's of the Pani
+language, of which you say you have not one word. I therefore enclose it
+to you as it is, and a little fragment of some other, which I see is in
+his hand-writing, but no indication remains on it of what language it
+is. It is a specimen of the condition of the little which was recovered.
+I am the more concerned at this accident, as of the two hundred and
+fifty words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty words of
+the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the other quarters of
+the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and would have furnished
+materials for a comparison, from which something might have resulted.
+Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the wrecks of my
+loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary when you are done
+with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect, although I am
+too old to expect to make much progress in it.
+
+I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the
+astronomy of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or
+modern and rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most
+interesting countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
+
+I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
+perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
+and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
+that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a
+greater adept in the language than I am.
+
+Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIV.--TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809
+
+
+TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
+
+Monticello, October 4, 1809.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding month, and
+have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I have read it with
+pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would probably be as free
+as is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has one feature
+which I like much; that which provides that when the three co-ordinate
+branches differ in their construction of the constitution, the opinion
+of two branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not
+sufficiently solved this difficulty.
+
+Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
+official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal
+worth marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish
+to select for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the
+present occasion, of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with
+your merit and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a
+particular respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a
+great comfort to have to do business with frank and honorable minds.
+And here give me leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present
+retirement, there can be no motive but a regard for truth.
+Your predecessor, soured on a question of etiquette against the
+administration of this country, wished to impute wrong to them in all
+their actions, even where he did not believe it himself. In this spirit,
+he wished it to be believed that we were in unjustifiable co-operation
+in Miranda's expedition. I solemnly, and on my personal truth and honor,
+declare to you, that this was entirely without foundation, and that
+there was neither co-operation nor connivance on our part. He informed
+us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native country from
+bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance at least. He was
+at once informed, that, although we had great cause of complaint against
+Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think proper to act as
+her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that our hostility
+should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no suspicion that
+he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase military stores.
+Against this there was no law, nor consequently any authority for us to
+interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it improper to
+betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain. Although his
+measures were many days in preparation at New York, we never had the
+least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his enterprise,
+until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his proceedings kept
+them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at Philadelphia, and
+the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of them gave us any
+information of the enlistment of men, until it was too late for any
+measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure. The officer
+in the Customs, who participated in this transaction with Miranda,
+we immediately removed, and should have had him and others further
+punished, had it not been for the protection given them by private
+citizens at New York, in opposition to the government, who, by their
+impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able to overbear the minds of
+the jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could induce me, at this
+time, to make this declaration so gratuitously, were it not founded in
+sacred truth: and I will add further, that I never did, or countenanced,
+in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith;
+having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and
+another for a private man.
+
+I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
+breathe through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
+sincere with which I now salute you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXV.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, October 11, 1809.
+
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the
+enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of
+whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me
+to place it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right,
+neither more nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three
+lines, in such form as I may forward him by way of answer.
+
+I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions
+which has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
+arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It
+would be, indeed, a great public calamity, were it to fix you in the
+purpose which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of
+our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment
+of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we
+shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it
+in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt
+should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge
+will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of
+debt, corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge
+of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and
+it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another
+President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects
+subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
+great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix
+on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our
+country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary
+considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never
+can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated
+by our fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to
+admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was,
+that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress
+than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel
+your aid to be still as important for the future, as it has been for the
+past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of
+Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the
+most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope,
+then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that
+you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political
+career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement,
+as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In
+addition to the common interest in this question, I feel particularly
+for myself the considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you
+for your valuable aid during my administration of the public affairs,
+a just sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was
+earned by your labors, and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship
+and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to promote the
+common good; and of which I pray you now to accept the most cordial and
+respectful assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVI.--TO CAESAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810
+
+
+TO CAESAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, February 10, 1810.
+
+My Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
+received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that
+the portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a
+share in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has
+never before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice
+we have observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit
+their esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise,
+would have preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence
+of all other nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which
+is now blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the
+mounds of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any
+other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a
+moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection
+which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his
+interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men,
+have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if
+it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that others could be
+honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when is this state
+of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the
+first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and
+might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order
+and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only
+stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are
+ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the
+tyrant of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become
+the principle of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest
+minister, were accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their
+system of lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with
+you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity you.
+
+It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
+kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
+to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain
+their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
+functionaries. _Macte virtute_ therefore. Continue to go straight
+forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can
+lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or
+passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock
+of our safety. In times of peace the people look most to their
+representatives; but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that
+their confidence is even now veering in that direction; that they are
+looking to the executive to give the proper direction to their affairs,
+with a confidence as auspicious as it is well founded.
+
+I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
+all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
+faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for
+the valuable aids I received from you. Though separated from my
+fellow-laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all,
+and I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVII.*--TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
+
+Monticello, February 19,1810.
+
+     [* This letter is endorsed, 'not sent.']
+
+Sir,
+
+Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet
+enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
+and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time
+elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
+before his principles were departed from by those who professed to
+be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving
+mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that
+the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been
+adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere
+contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men
+not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force
+them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while
+themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real
+doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.
+
+You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices
+which the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
+administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends
+are men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
+principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
+neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of
+their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions
+are no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
+administration conducted the government on principles professed by the
+Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians,
+as to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with
+their professions. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them,
+and in this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle
+in this, to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the
+professions of religious sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is
+a very obvious one. The mother society is in England. Its members are
+English by birth and residence, devoted to their own country, as good
+citizens ought to be. The Quakers of these States are colonies or
+filiations from the mother society, to whom that society sends its
+yearly lessons. On these the filiated societies model their opinions,
+their conduct, their passions, and attachments. A Quaker is, essentially
+an Englishman, in whatever part of the earth he is born or lives. The
+outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce have kept us in
+perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against
+their own government; not on their profession of peace, for they saw
+that peace was our object also; but from devotion to the views of the
+mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an administration sought war with
+France, the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of
+peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to
+the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original became
+treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old
+leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress,
+against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of
+Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration. He
+accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must
+not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more effect on the
+society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled among
+us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. I know
+individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
+
+I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
+in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXVIII.--TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+
+
+TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
+
+Monticello, February 26, 1810.
+
+My Dear General and Friend,
+
+I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and
+avoiding every thing political, lest coming from one in the station I
+then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps
+even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry.
+Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and
+avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended, what I say is
+from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.
+
+The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
+justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
+devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
+worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
+and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which
+might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not
+been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment
+that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent,
+every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may
+venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree,
+prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the
+necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them
+among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than
+will ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly
+added, of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from
+Europe; heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of
+field-pieces, several founderies casting one every other day each; a
+military school of about fifty students, which has been in operation a
+dozen years; and the manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding
+forty thousand young soldiers to our force every year that the war is
+deferred: at all our sea-port towns of the least consequence we have
+erected works of defence, and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or
+two heavy pieces, either eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders,
+sufficient in the smallest harbors to repel the predatory attacks of
+privateers or single armed ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors
+to such more serious attacks as they may probably be exposed to. All
+these were nearly completed, and their gunboats in readiness, when
+I retired from the government. The works of New York and New Orleans
+alone, being on a much larger scale, are not yet completed. The former
+will be finished this summer, mounting four hundred and thirty-eight
+guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one hundred gunboats, will
+be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which will ever be trusted
+across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are less advanced. These
+are our preparations. They are very different from what you will be told
+by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But it is not to them
+the government communicates the public condition. Ask one of them if
+he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you will find
+probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes from. You
+will ask, perhaps, where are the proofs of these preparations for
+one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
+authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
+authorized, they would be executed.
+
+Two measures have not been adopted which I pressed on Congress
+repeatedly at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted
+territory of Orleans, by donations of land to able bodied young men, to
+be engaged and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute
+a force always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was,
+to class the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all
+those from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into
+service at a moment's warning. This would have given us a force of three
+hundred thousand young men, prepared, by proper training, for service in
+any part of the United States; while those who had passed through that
+period would remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent
+States. These two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary
+for the entire security of our country. They would have given me, on
+my retirement from the government of the nation, the consolatory
+reflection, that having found, when I was called to it, not a single
+sea-port town in a condition to repel a levy of contribution by a single
+privateer or pirate, I had left every harbor so prepared by works
+and gun-boats, as to be in a reasonable state of security against any
+probable attack; the territory of Orleans acquired, and planted with an
+internal force sufficient for its protection; and the whole territory of
+the United States organized by such a classification of its male force,
+as would give it the benefit of all its young population for active
+service, and that of a middle and advanced age for stationary defence.
+But these measures will, I hope, be completed by my successor, who,
+to the purest principles of republican patriotism, adds a wisdom and
+foresight second to no man on earth.
+
+So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
+Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my
+books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My
+mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am
+in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to
+dark, I give to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends;
+and from candle-light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect;
+and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course
+I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near
+sixty-seven years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and
+harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose,
+with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at
+length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without
+being responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and
+by no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such
+young men as ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring village,
+and have the use of my library and counsel, and make a part of my
+society. In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor to keep
+their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom
+and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils
+and government of their country, they will keep ever in view the sole
+objects of all legitimate government.
+
+*****
+
+Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
+independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my
+limited views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of
+mind never before known to me. Except, for this, my happiness would have
+been perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may
+enjoy as many years of life, health, and ease as yourself shall wish, is
+the sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER LXXXIX.--TO DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810
+
+
+TO DOCTOR JONES.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with
+all antient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned,
+with real sorrow, that circumstances have risen among our executive
+counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were friends.
+To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and
+therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both
+parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient: but to the
+nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to
+believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out.
+That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States: but I hope
+that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no
+cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done
+by consultation between the President and the Head of the department
+alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a
+consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled, or
+by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing. The
+latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because the
+President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an
+opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it
+is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This
+was General Washington's practice for the first two or three years of
+his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened
+to embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In
+these discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet
+like two cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the
+majority, which of course was three to one, the President decided.
+The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no
+inconvenience. I practised this last method, because the harmony was so
+cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual
+views of the subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I
+think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any case of
+consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into a
+directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is
+better calculated, too, to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure
+it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place.
+It is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present case, and will
+doubtless be resorted to.
+
+Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But
+when viewed in comparison with those of Europe, they are the joys of
+Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed
+our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no
+other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but
+one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over
+the earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin
+over the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses.
+And the system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst this
+wreck of the world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be
+sure, our petty squabbles and heart-burnings, and we have something of
+the blue devils at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are
+eating up other nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim,
+nor the Leviathan move on dry land: and if we will keep out of their
+way, they cannot get at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves
+within the scope of their tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the
+tail, may be our fortune. Our business certainly was to be still. But
+a part of our nation chose to declare against this, in such a way as to
+control the wisdom of the government. I yielded with others, to avoid
+a greater evil. But from that moment, I have seen no system which could
+keep us entirely aloof from these agents of destruction. If there be
+any, I am certain that you, my friends, now charged with the care of us
+all, will see and pursue it. I give myself, therefore, no trouble with
+thinking or puzzling about it. Being confident in my watchmen, I sleep
+soundly. God bless you all, and send you a safe deliverance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XC.--TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810
+
+TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
+
+Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+
+Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the
+refreshing dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient as
+well as recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty
+years we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these
+have passed away, and so I trust will those of the present day. The
+toryism with which we struggled in '77, differed but in name from the
+federalism of '99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism, of
+1808, against which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still,
+in another form. It is a longing for a King, and an English King, rather
+than any other. This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
+
+The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is
+too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
+Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
+never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear;
+and especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the
+embers, merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two
+subdued (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England
+alone a short work), ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of
+Alexander, his prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the
+world, would glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged
+forests. Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more
+than half a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria,
+you know, he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come 'Pontus and
+Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,' the fine countries on the
+Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis,
+which bounded the glories of his Macedonian rival; with the invitations
+of his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after
+receiving under his protection the mother country, he cannot refuse to
+visit. When all this is done and settled, and nothing of the old world
+remains unsubdued, he may turn to the new one. But will he attack us
+first, from whom he will get but hard knocks, and no money? Or will
+he first lay hold of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, and
+the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from his affection to
+republics, independent of motives of expediency, must grant to ours the
+Cyclops' boon of being the last devoured. While all this is doing, we
+are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that nothing can
+happen to cut short or disturb his enterprises.
+
+But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence, than
+all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
+first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
+Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
+the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided
+by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now
+to destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
+alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be
+our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
+separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith
+of a nation of merchants! The _Punica fides_ of modern Carthage! Of the
+friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
+chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
+that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
+morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But,
+in addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of
+itself, reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been
+the least faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since
+the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her
+commerce and corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and
+Brunswick. To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her
+Methuin treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable
+to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits
+England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her
+King is a cipher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
+to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument
+of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the
+government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The
+nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once,
+the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this
+purpose they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs,
+so equal in weight, that a small matter turns the balance. To keep
+themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
+every artifice used, which may flatter the pride, the passions, or power
+of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of
+keeping themselves in place. The question, whether a measure is moral,
+is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
+merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other
+effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements,
+however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they
+were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse
+every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true
+character of the English government in practice, however different
+its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the
+individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
+duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
+whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In
+an absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties.
+The despot is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition,
+maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted,
+therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith;
+and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.
+
+When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did
+not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that
+throne. The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings,
+has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of
+animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a
+stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their
+sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions,
+let every thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
+think, and in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and
+this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the
+constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the
+animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
+Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe,
+I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
+reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own
+knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial.
+The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their
+lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand
+miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding
+days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The
+Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was
+the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of
+government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was
+a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph
+of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know was in a
+straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine, who
+had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
+state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
+lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind
+and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
+generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an
+exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third
+generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of
+Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us and have you, my friend, and
+all such good men and true, in his holy keeping.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCI.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, July 16,1810
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, July 16,1810.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in
+congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles
+in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of
+these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The
+federalists, during their short-lived ascendancy, have, nevertheless,
+by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which
+can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to
+cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came
+on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days;
+long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who giving in to
+his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to
+his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress.
+They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced
+the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our
+present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the
+world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be
+made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the
+embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of
+our enemies; and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise
+and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove
+genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they,
+too, are gone: and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first
+breeze of success which England shall feel: for it has now been some
+years, that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim
+the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it,
+but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy
+as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself
+out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in
+no situation done any thing which might amount to an acknowledged
+relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid
+a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war
+itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable
+means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced
+her, had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that
+occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country, as to
+control the will of its government and three fourths of its people,
+and oblige the three fourths to submit to one fourth, is to me the most
+mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of
+our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence,
+is in her own conduct, and not from any thing in our power. Radically
+hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she
+will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture,
+not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her
+conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not
+injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing
+out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.
+
+But these are views which concern the present and future generation,
+among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in
+our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
+effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving
+her to agriculture, manufactures, and emigration, will lessen her
+happiness. But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs.
+Dearborn do? How do you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself
+with a garden, a farm, or what? That your pursuits, whatever they
+be, may make you both easy, healthy, and happy, is the prayer of your
+sincere friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCII.--TO J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810
+
+TO J. B. COLVIN.
+
+Monticello, September 20, 1810.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you
+for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it.
+If I have left in the breasts of my fellow-citizens a sentiment of
+satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it
+will soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.
+
+The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
+which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
+beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
+embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws, is
+doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the
+highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
+country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by
+a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself,
+with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with
+us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle
+of Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's
+house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although
+the property of a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the
+suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the
+safety of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of
+Virginia took horses, carriages, provisions, and even men, by force, to
+enable that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy;
+and he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions,
+meets another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of
+self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by
+force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of
+self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
+_meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state an
+hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the executive of
+the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for
+a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated
+by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might
+appropriate it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he,
+for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself by
+transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage
+offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense: but a reverence
+for law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally
+accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons
+against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph
+would find means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the
+ensuing spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind
+of the other party. Ought the executive, in that case, and with that
+foreknowledge, to have secured the good to his country, and to have
+trusted to their justice for the transgression of the law? I think he
+ought, and that the act would have been approved. After the affair of
+the Chesapeake, we thought war a very possible result. Our magazines
+were illy provided with some necessary articles, nor had any
+appropriations been made for their purchase. We ventured, however, to
+provide them, and to place our country in safety; and stating the case
+to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
+
+To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
+Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
+to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which
+he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British
+fleet from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within
+the city. Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1. In seizing
+notorious conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of
+the guilty and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men.
+2. In sending them to the seat of government, when the written law gave
+them a right to trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of
+their continuing their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of
+the law, apathy of the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of
+lawyers, unknown disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the
+enemy, salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have
+been convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these
+constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the
+_salus populi_ supreme over the written law. The officer who is called
+to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice
+of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes
+it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and
+his fellow-citizens generally, are bound to judge according to the
+circumstances under which he acted. They are not to transfer the
+information of this place or moment to the time and place of his action;
+but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that there never
+was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr's band was
+crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson's
+information was very different, and he could act on no other.
+
+From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
+question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
+petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for
+a legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the
+written law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of
+greater evil than a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is
+incumbent on those only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves
+on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of its very
+high interests are at stake.
+
+An officer is bound to obey orders: yet he would be a bad one who should
+do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the
+most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases
+may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his
+own peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country, and the
+rectitude of his motives.
+
+I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that
+they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the
+hands of news-writers. I met their scurrilities without concern, while
+in pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my
+present retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
+
+Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIII.--TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811
+
+TO MR. LAW.
+
+Monticello, January 15, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner
+acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet,
+which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which
+I know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22nd
+is also received.
+
+Mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
+printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
+When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
+mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
+than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as
+to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I
+felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to
+England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of
+the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
+circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that
+if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our
+connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both
+our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them,
+and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and
+intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship
+with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington,
+I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that
+government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
+administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
+their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox's power.
+But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally
+wanton in their injuries and insults, and has manifested equal hatred
+and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose
+principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have
+adopted the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying
+themselves with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and
+unprincipled, and which never can come into power while republicanism is
+the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such
+a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require
+centuries. Whereas, the good will of the government itself would give
+them, and immediately, every benefit which reason or justice would
+permit it to give. With respect to myself, I saw great reason to believe
+their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a
+supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. This wretched party
+imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a
+personal injury, other than in open war, and for numerous individuals
+there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I must have had a
+mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national
+partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. My
+affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all
+mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in
+the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the
+war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. The
+war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of their
+population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers
+wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a powerful
+opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the
+expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial interest,
+and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be
+neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so
+infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice,
+and the well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the
+English constitution, renders a dependance on that government very
+unsafe. The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us,
+have added another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This
+obstacle to friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and
+I verily believe the successor will come in with fairer and wiser
+dispositions towards us; perhaps on that event their conduct may be
+changed. But what England is to become on the crush of her internal
+structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her monied
+interest, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless
+mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear
+with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing,
+her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by
+permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute
+on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
+relinquished, every nation must contest, even _ad internecionem_. And
+yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to
+take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element,
+would be the desire of every nation.
+
+I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
+myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
+Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
+Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
+which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person,
+should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIV.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
+
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Monticello, January 16, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a
+letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received
+your welcome favor of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the
+heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with
+your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because
+I knew that condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and
+still think, this is one of the cases wherein we should 'not sorrow,
+even as others who have no hope.'
+
+*****
+
+You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. 'My present course of life
+admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest,
+to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other
+concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the
+few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences;
+not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange
+sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their
+own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and
+approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of
+good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of retirement
+will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may at
+length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but
+revolutionary duties would ever have called me.
+
+I shall receive your proposed publication, and read it with the pleasure
+which every thing gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in
+the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
+
+I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
+friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern
+you take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from
+me, nor from the want of sincere desire, and of effort on my part, to
+renew our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and
+of action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high
+degree of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself.
+Certainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those
+principles of rational republicanism, which, after the necessity of
+throwing off our monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment
+of a new government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the
+principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on
+that account. While he was Vice-President, and I Secretary of State,
+I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon,
+desiring me to call together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr.
+Adams to join us (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being
+done) in order to determine on some measure which required despatch; and
+he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him.
+I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine,
+having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a
+collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton,
+on the merits of the British Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his
+opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it
+would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by
+man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices,
+it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed;
+and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable
+government. And this you may be assured was the real line of difference
+between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another
+incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate
+Hamilton's political principles. The room being hung around with a
+collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of
+Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they were. I told
+him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever
+produced, naming them. He paused for some time: 'The greatest man,'
+said he, 'that ever lived, was Julius Caesar.' Mr. Adams was honest as
+a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
+politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
+govern men.
+
+You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about
+that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our
+constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to
+bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to
+homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know,
+was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often
+by the pen of the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced by them into some open
+indications of his new principles of government, and in fact, was so
+elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards
+me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly
+flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and
+the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to
+bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial
+satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the
+political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr.
+Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia
+the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide
+the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called
+on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly affected,
+and accosted me with these words. 'Well, I understand that you are to
+beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will be as faithful
+a subject as any you will have.' 'Mr. Adams,' said I, 'this is no
+personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles on the
+subject of government divide our fellow-citizens into two parties. With
+one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on
+the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be
+more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name
+at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two
+other names would be in the place of ours, without any change in the
+motion of the machine. Its motion is from its principle, not from you
+or myself.''I believe you are right,' said he, 'that we are but passive
+instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal
+dispositions.' But he did not long retain this just view of the
+subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which
+the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
+ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
+intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
+myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
+to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
+called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
+by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence
+he had not used towards me before, 'Sir, the event of the election is
+within your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to
+the public creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding
+offices, and the government will instantly be put into your hands. We
+know it is the wish of the people it should be so.''Mr. Adams,' said I,
+'I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or private life,
+can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements.
+I say, however, I will not come into the government by capitulation. I
+will not enter on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates
+of my own judgment.' I had before given the same answer to the same
+intimation from Gouverneur Morris. 'Then,' said he, 'things must take
+their course.' I turned the conversation to something else, and soon
+took my leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted
+with any thing like dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of
+midnight appointment, which have been condemned by all men. The last day
+of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the midnight,
+were employed in filling all offices and especially permanent ones, with
+the bitterest federalists, and providing for me the alternative, either
+to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it would be
+to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such
+numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A little time and
+reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisfaction with
+Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and
+passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first
+wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means in my power;
+for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some republican
+members of the delegation from his State, the giving him, either
+directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State,
+and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it
+affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the
+offer; and, moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such
+a step in the outset, as auguring very ill of the course I meant to
+pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for
+some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
+
+Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
+between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment,
+she made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the
+tenderest expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a
+single one of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with
+the wishes 'of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your
+friend, Abigail Adams.' Unpromising as was the complexion of this
+letter, I determined to make an effort towards removing the clouds from
+between us. This brought on a correspondence which I now enclose for
+your perusal, after which be so good as to return it to me, as I have
+never communicated it to any mortal breathing, before. I send it to you,
+to convince you I have not been wanting either in the desire, or the
+endeavor to remove this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly
+disgraceful to us both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to
+prevent a public competition from affecting our personal friendship. I
+soon found from the correspondence that conciliation was desperate,
+and yielding to an intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further
+explanation. I have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had.
+I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a
+powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from
+me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering
+purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the
+occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly
+passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but
+no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever
+misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence without my asserting his just
+character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved
+of the principles and practices of his administration. This was
+unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury.
+Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had
+not: and I am satisfied Mr. Adams's conduct was equally honorable
+towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play
+in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
+suspicions.
+
+I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know
+every thing which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of
+the state of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they
+admit a revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
+solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in any thing on my part
+which may second your efforts; which will be the easier with me,
+inasmuch as I do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression
+of which could give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to
+yourself, with the assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship
+and respect for yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCV.--TO M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811
+
+TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
+
+Monticello, January 26, 1811.
+
+Sir,
+
+The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way
+to me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed
+very much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which
+accompanied it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I
+received from its perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu's
+a work of much merit; but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of
+paradox, of false principle, and misapplied fact, as to render its value
+equivocal on the whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at
+its errors. A radical correction of them, therefore, was a great
+desideratum. This want is now supplied, and with a depth of thought,
+precision; of idea, of language, and of logic, which will force
+conviction into every mind. I declare to you, Sir, in the spirit of
+truth and sincerity, that I consider it the most precious gift the
+present age has received. But what would it have been, had the author,
+or would the author, take up the whole scheme of Montesquieu's work, and
+following the correct analysis he has here developed, fill up all its
+parts according to his sound views of them. Montesquieu's celebrity
+would be but a small portion of that which would immortalize the author.
+And with whom? With the rational and high-minded spirits of the present
+and all future ages. With those whose approbation is both incitement
+and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope desperate? To what
+object can the occupation of his future life be devoted so usefully to
+the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to others who have
+higher claims on his attention, to press these considerations.
+
+My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to
+the object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is
+the least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists
+any enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following
+the receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its
+execution. The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me
+by post, from time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by
+the original, I could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however,
+it is substantially correct, without being an adequate representation
+of the excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I
+found it impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition
+in our language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the
+author towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view,
+propose to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy
+of the work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret
+of the author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint
+lives; and those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death will
+be equally worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his
+living consent shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both
+his and my papers will furnish the evidence. In the mean time, the many
+important truths the works so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it
+the political rudiment of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
+
+One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
+executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
+government was first established, we had many doubts on this question,
+and many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that
+at that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France,
+while the single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions
+and effects of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety
+proportioned to the importance of a. choice between them. The experiment
+in France failed after a short course, and not from any circumstance
+peculiar to the times or nation, but from those internal jealousies and
+dissensions in the Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in
+power, without a principal to decide and control their differences. We
+had tried a similar experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of
+the States, composed of a member from every State, then thirteen, to
+exercise the executive functions during the recess of Congress. They
+fell immediately into schisms and dissensions, which became at length so
+inveterate as to render all co-operation among them impracticable:
+they dissolved themselves, abandoning the helm of government, and it
+continued without a head, until Congress met the ensuing winter. This
+was then imputed to the temper of two or three individuals; but the wise
+ascribed it to the nature of man. The failure of the French Directory,
+and from the same cause, seems to have authorized a belief that the form
+of a plurality, however promising in theory, is impracticable with men
+constituted with the ordinary passions. While the tranquil and steady
+tenor of our single executive, during a course of twenty-two years of
+the most tempestuous times the history of the world has ever presented,
+gives a rational hope that this important problem is at length solved.
+Aided by the counsels of a cabinet of Heads of departments, originally
+four, but now five, with whom the President consults, either singly or
+all together, he has the benefit of their wisdom and information, brings
+their views to one centre, and produces an unity of action and
+direction in all the branches of the government. The excellence of this
+construction of the executive power has already manifested itself here
+under very opposite circumstances. During the administration of our
+first President, his cabinet of four members was equally divided, by as
+marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism and republicanism could
+bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a directory, like positive
+and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing wills would have
+balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute inaction. But the
+President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons of each, decided
+the course to be pursued, and kept the government steadily in it,
+unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the dissensions of the
+cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their account; because they
+knew also they had provided a regulating power, which would keep the
+machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate knowledge of these
+scenes, _quorum pars fui_; as I may of others of a character entirely
+opposite. The third administration, which was of eight years, presented
+an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to which perhaps
+history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during the whole
+time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the members.
+We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever failed,
+by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other's ideas, as to
+produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
+were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
+equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
+departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and
+strengthened by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of
+designing persons to build an importance to themselves on the divisions
+of others, might, from small beginnings, have produced persevering
+oppositions. But the power of decision in the President left no object
+for internal dissension, and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by
+the knowledge which incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they
+could foment would change the course of the executive power. I am not
+conscious that my participations in executive authority have produced
+any bias in favor of the single executive; because the parts I have
+acted have been in the subordinate, as well as superior stations, and
+because, if I know myself, what I have felt, and what I have wished, I
+know that I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power
+from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to
+conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from
+the exercise of power over others.
+
+I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that,
+to insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be
+subject to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without
+suspending or disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of
+government. You apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of
+talent, and destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by
+usurpation, render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes
+as many examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a
+plurality, as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered
+permanent by usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger
+is lessened in the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly
+increased, by the state of inefficiency to which they are liable from
+feuds and divisions among themselves. The conservative body you propose
+might be so constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in
+a variety of smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check
+on the liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to
+this idea. But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our
+State governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by
+man, is that of which our Revolution and present government found us
+possessed. Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their
+foreign concerns, but single and independent as to their internal
+administration, regularly organized with a legislature and governor
+resting on the choice of the people, and enlightened by a free press,
+can never be so fascinated by the arts of one man, as to submit
+voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor can they be constrained to it by any
+force he can possess. While that may paralyze the single State in which
+it happens to be encamped, sixteen others, spread over a country of
+two thousand miles diameter, rise up on every side, ready organized for
+deliberation by a constitutional legislature, and for action by their
+governor, constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State,
+that is to say, of every man in it, able to bear arms; and that militia,
+too, regularly formed into regiments and battalions, into infantry,
+cavalry, and artillery, trained under officers general and subordinate,
+legally appointed, always in readiness, and to whom they are already
+in habits of obedience. The republican government of France was lost
+without a struggle, because the party of '_un et indivisible_' had
+prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to which the people
+might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the directory were
+virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the legislature out
+of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the nation. But
+with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under regular
+organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by their
+Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention, present
+such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the first
+conception of that object.
+
+Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
+perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
+wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
+attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would
+be befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that
+local discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face
+the sound parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach
+the majority, they would then become the regular government, acquire the
+ascendancy in Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by
+laws peaceably and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which
+local discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would
+be paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into
+which we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at
+liberty to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities
+of their individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential
+to preserve the purity of the government, by the censorship which these
+parties habitually exercise over each other.
+
+You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the
+grounds on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from
+yours. They prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my
+own, which have forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion
+questioned by you. Permit me now to render my portion of the general
+debt of gratitude, by acknowledgments in advance for the singular
+benefaction which is the subject of this letter, to tender my wishes
+for the continuance of a life so usefully employed, and to add the
+assurances of my perfect esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
+Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
+sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
+councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those
+whom personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
+Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that
+the dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
+occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
+affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony
+and affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our
+country than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of
+their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers
+and the public are very different personages. The former may lead the
+latter a little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible:
+but the moment they usurp their direction and that of their government,
+they will be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have
+been the theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting
+after war, some against France, and some against England. But the people
+wish for peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become
+the reformers of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and
+sword, a return to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more
+losing than war, they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes
+are clamoring for on false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by
+these clamors, as the re-election of their legislators shows, and they
+are firm to their executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
+
+We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
+lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton
+this year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market.
+This is the case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears
+alarmingly in our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want
+of rain.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances
+of my constant and affectionate esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVII.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
+
+Dear General and Friend,
+
+*****
+
+I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will
+long continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the
+way. I sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and
+because it multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have
+been able to judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against
+the government. Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now;
+but the mass of our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an
+incident, another proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of
+self-government, and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The
+spirit, indeed, which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter,
+although I believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down
+in peaceable times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the
+determination of England, now formally expressed, to take possession of
+the ocean, and to suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force
+a war upon us, I foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between
+her and your Essex men, on the principles of neutrality and commerce.
+Pickering here, and his nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate
+this. Such a lure to the quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit
+theirs to a majority. Yet, excluded as they would be from intercourse
+with the rest of the Union and of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they
+would propose to themselves, even for the moment. The defection would
+certainly disconcert the other States, but it could not ultimately
+endanger their safety. They are adequate, in all points, to a defensive
+war. However, I hope your majority, with the aid it is entitled to, will
+save us from this trial, to which I think it possible we are advancing.
+The death of George may come to our relief; but I fear the dominion
+of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also. Perhaps, if some
+stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from the Mammoth of
+the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people of England
+might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again. Tell my
+old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping with
+which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice
+and protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
+pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
+assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust
+can go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem
+it timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it
+flows. Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to
+come, when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the
+more gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now
+_hors de combat_ myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack
+of rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not
+very long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in
+the focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue
+out of all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long
+health, and friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCVIII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+
+Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that
+I can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as
+I have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
+therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams
+and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I
+communicated to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and
+myself, in proof that I could not give friendship in exchange for such
+sentiments as she had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and
+maintained in her letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of
+these could admit a reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in
+proportion as the return to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In
+these jaundiced sentiments of hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing
+the weight which her opinions had with him, and notwithstanding she
+declared in her letters that they were not communicated to him. A late
+incident has satisfied me that I wronged him as well as her in not
+yielding entire confidence to this assurance on her part. Two of the Mr.
+------, my neighbors and friends, took a tour to the northward during
+the last summer. In Boston they fell into company with Mr. Adams, and by
+his invitation passed a day with him at Braintree. He spoke out to
+them every thing which came uppermost, and as it occurred to his mind,
+without any reserve, and seemed most disposed to dwell on those things
+which happened during his own administration. He spoke of his masters,
+as he called his Heads of departments, as acting above his control, and
+often against his opinions. Among many other topics, he adverted to
+the unprincipled licentiousness of the press against myself, adding, 'I
+always loved Jefferson, and still love him.'
+
+This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards
+him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives.
+Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin's character of him, I
+knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes
+incorrect and precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who
+have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice
+myself, and defended him when assailed by others, with the single
+exception as to his political opinions. But with a man possessing so
+many other estimable qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere
+differences of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any
+thing else. His opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our different
+views of the same subject are the result of a difference in our
+organization and experience. I never withdrew from the society of any
+man on this account, although many have done it from me; much less
+should I do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand and
+heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite
+occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There
+is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so
+long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call for a
+letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which
+I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion
+of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
+necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you can,
+perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and knowing this,
+should an occasion of writing first present itself to him, he will
+perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first occur
+to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give fair
+play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
+in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
+greatest intimacy with him.
+
+I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
+kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
+which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God
+ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XCIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens
+of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not
+their excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things
+in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse
+and middling goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a
+manufactory within itself, and is very generally able to make within
+itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own clothing and
+household use. We consider a sheep for every person in the family as
+sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax,
+which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on your
+northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company
+establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning
+jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family; but
+nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting from
+our household manufactures are such that they will never again be laid
+aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened than the
+British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures. Restore free
+intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have totally
+changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from them
+will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
+
+A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It
+carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers,
+we were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most
+valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the
+same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet
+passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the
+storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not
+expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First
+the detention of the western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz,
+outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the
+outlawry. In your day, French depredations: in mine, English, and the
+Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the English orders of council, and
+the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will be the
+impressment of our seamen, or something else: and so we have gone on,
+and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in
+the history of man. And I do believe we shall continue to growl, to
+multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise,
+and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men. As for France and
+England, with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of
+robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science produces no better
+fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of national
+morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
+and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
+garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave.
+I think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in
+exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I
+find myself much the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former
+occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers,
+who have fallen before us. Of the signers of the Declaration of
+Independence, I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side
+of the Potomac, and on this side, myself alone. You and I have
+been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarkable health, and a
+considerable activity of body and mind. I am on horseback three or four
+hours of every day; visit three or four times a year a possession I have
+ninety miles distant, performing the winter journey on horseback. I walk
+little, however, a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the
+midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a
+great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good
+health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do. But I
+would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a letter
+like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits,
+occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure of knowing, that
+in the race of life, you do not keep, in its physical decline, the
+same distance ahead of me, which you have done in political honors and
+achievements. No circumstances have lessened the interest I feel in
+these particulars respecting yourself; none have suspended for one
+moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you with unchanged
+affection and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER C.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 20, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for
+that I received from you. Not of the fine texture, or delicate character
+of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that
+display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles Lettres,
+but a mere sober, dry, and formal piece of logic. _Ornari res ipsa
+negat_. Yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading,
+to cast an eye over some of the questions it discusses. At any rate,
+accept it as the offering of esteem and friendship.
+
+You wish to know something of the Richmond and Wabash prophets. Of
+Nimrod Hews I never before heard. Christopher Macpherson I have known
+for twenty years. He is a man of color, brought up as a book-keeper by a
+merchant, his master, and afterwards enfranchised. He had understanding
+enough to post up his leger from his journal, but not enough to bear
+up against hypochrondriac affections, and the gloomy forebodings they
+inspire. He became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and
+rhapsodizing what neither himself nor any one else could understand.
+I think he told me he had visited you personally while you were in the
+administration, and wrote you letters, which you have probably forgotten
+in the mass of the correspondences of that crazy class, of whose
+complaints, and terrors, and mysticisms, the several Presidents have
+been the regular depositories. Macpherson was too honest to be molested
+by any body, and too inoffensive to be a subject for the mad-house;
+although, I believe, we are told in the old book, that 'every man that
+is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, thou shouldst put him in prison
+and in the stocks.'
+
+The Wabash prophet is a very different character, more rogue than fool,
+if to be a rogue is not the greatest of all follies. He arose to notice
+while I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper
+subject of inquiry for me. The inquiry was made with diligence. His
+declared object was the reformation of his red brethren, and their
+return to their pristine manner of living. He pretended to be in
+constant communication with the Great Spirit; that he was instructed by
+him to make known to the Indians that they were created by him distinct
+from the whites, of different natures, for different purposes, and
+placed under different circumstances, adapted to their nature and
+destinies; that they must return from all the ways of the whites to the
+habits and opinions of their forefathers; they must not eat the flesh
+of hogs, of bullocks, of sheep, &c. the deer and buffalo having been
+created for their food; they must not make bread of wheat, but of Indian
+corn; they must not wear linen nor woollen, but dress like their fathers
+in the skins and furs of animals; they must not drink ardent spirits:
+and I do not remember whether he extended his inhibitions to the gun and
+gunpowder, in favor of the bow and arrow. I concluded from all this that
+he was a visionary, enveloped in the clouds of their antiquities, and
+vainly endeavoring to lead back his brethren to the fancied beatitudes
+of their golden age. I thought there was little danger of his making
+many proselytes from the habits and comforts they had learned from the
+whites, to the hardships and privations of savagism, and no great harm
+if he did. We let him go on, therefore, unmolested. But his followers
+increased till the English thought him worth corruption, and found him
+corruptible. I suppose his views were then changed; but his proceedings
+in consequence of them were after I left the administration, and are,
+therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been informed what were the
+particular acts on his part, which produced, an actual commencement
+of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that his subsequent
+proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and Lord
+Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
+
+Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
+embargo, and communicated it to me. But he had learned nothing of the
+particular agent, although, of his workings, the information he had
+obtained appears now to have been correct. He stated a particular which
+Henry has not distinctly brought forward, which was, that the eastern
+States were not to be required to make a formal act of separation from
+the Union, and to take a part in the war against it; a measure deemed
+much too strong for their people: but to declare themselves in a state
+of neutrality, in consideration of which they were to have peace and
+free commerce, the lure most likely to insure popular acquiescence.
+Having no indications of Henry as the intermediate in this negotiation
+of the Essex junto, suspicions fell on Pickering, and his nephew
+Williams in London. If he was wronged in this, the ground of the
+suspicion is to be found in his known practices and avowed opinions,
+as that of his accomplices in the sameness of sentiment and of language
+with Henry, and subsequently by the fluttering of the wounded pigeons.
+
+This letter, with what it encloses, has given you enough, I presume, of
+law and the prophets. I will only add to it, therefore, the homage of my
+respects to Mrs. Adams, and to yourself the assurances of affectionate
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CI.--TO JAMES MAURY, April 25, 1812
+
+
+TO JAMES MAURY.
+
+Monticello, April 25, 1812.
+
+My Dear and Ancient Friend and Classmate,
+
+Often has my heart smote me for delaying acknowledgments to you,
+receiving, as I do, such frequent proofs of your kind recollection in
+the transmission of papers to me. But instead of acting on the good old
+maxim of not putting off to to-morrow what we can do to-day, we are too
+apt to reverse it, and not to do today what we can put off to to-morrow.
+But this duty can be no longer put off. To-day we are at peace;
+to-morrow war. The curtain of separation is drawing between us, and
+probably will not be withdrawn till one, if not both of us, will be at
+rest with our fathers. Let me now, then, while I may, renew to you the
+declarations of my warm attachment, which in no period of life has ever
+been weakened, and seems to become stronger as the remaining objects of
+our youthful affections are fewer.
+
+Our two countries are to be at war, but not you and I. And why should
+our two countries be at war, when by peace we can be so much more useful
+to one another? Surely the world will acquit our government of having
+sought it. Never before has there been an instance of a nation's bearing
+so much as we have borne. Two items alone in our catalogue of wrongs
+will for ever acquit us of being the aggressors; the impressment of our
+seamen, and the excluding us from the ocean. The first foundations of
+the social compact would be broken up, were we definitively to refuse to
+its members the protection of their persons and property, while in their
+lawful pursuits. I think the war will not be short, because the object
+of England, long obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain, and to
+exact transit duties from every vessel traversing it. This is the sum of
+her orders of council, which were only a step in this bold experiment,
+never meant to be retracted if it could be permanently maintained. And
+this object must continue her in war with all the world. To this I
+see no termination, until her exaggerated efforts, so much beyond her
+natural strength and resources, shall have exhausted her to bankruptcy.
+The approach of this crisis is, I think, visible in the departure of her
+precious metals, and depreciation of her paper medium. We, who have gone
+through that operation, know its symptoms, its course, and consequences.
+In England they will be more serious than elsewhere, because half the
+wealth of her people is now in that medium, the private revenue of her
+money-holders, or rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe, greater
+than that of her land-holders. Such a proportion of property, imaginary
+and baseless as it is, cannot be reduced to vapor, but with great
+explosion. She will rise out of its ruins, however, because her lands,
+her houses, her arts, will remain, and the greater part of her men. And
+these will give her again that place among nations which is proportioned
+to her natural means, and which we all wish her to hold. We believe that
+the just standing of all nations is the health and security of all. We
+consider the overwhelming power of England on the ocean, and of France
+on the land, as destructive of the prosperity and happiness of the
+world, and wish both to be reduced only to the necessity of observing
+moral duties. We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the
+liberty of the seas, than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties
+of mankind. The object of both is the same, to draw to themselves the
+power, the wealth, and the resources of other nations. We resist the
+enterprises of England first, because they first come vitally home to
+us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing the lash of George the
+III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future day. When the wrongs
+of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall resist them
+also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice to the
+champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
+
+The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I
+am not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If
+I could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct
+of England would have permitted them to be directed towards her,
+they would have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr.
+Addington, I discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even
+friendship and respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing
+these dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will.
+But we had then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe
+himself, and to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his
+subsequent conduct has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English
+minister here, had learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions,
+without head enough to distinguish when they were misplaced. Mr.
+Addington and Mr. Fox passed away too soon to avail the two countries
+of their dispositions. Had I been personally hostile to England,
+and biassed in favor of either the character or views of her great
+antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand. I had
+only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if ever I was gratified
+with the possession of power, and of the confidence of those who had
+entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was enabled to
+use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion
+here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another person in
+the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could have
+resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments and
+orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer is,
+that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
+other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
+England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
+Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
+our neighborhood.
+
+I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics,
+to possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes
+which are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself
+from all political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life
+with what have been the passions of every portion of it, books, science,
+my farms, my family, and friends.
+
+To these every hour of the day is now devoted. I retain a good activity
+of mind, not quite as much of body, but uninterrupted health. Still the
+hand of age is upon me. All my old friends are nearly gone. Of those in
+my neighborhood, Mr. Divers and Mr. Lindsay alone remain. If you could
+make it a _partie quarree_, it would be a comfort indeed. We would
+beguile our lingering hours with talking over our youthful exploits, our
+hunts on Peter's Mountain, with a long train of _et cetera_ in addition,
+and feel, by recollection at least, a momentary flash of youth.
+Reviewing the course of a long and sufficiently successful life, I find
+in no portion of it happier moments than those were. I think the old
+hulk in which you are, is near her wreck, and that like a prudent rat,
+you should escape in time. However, here, there, and every where, in
+peace or in war, you will have my sincere affections, and prayers for
+your life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, May 30, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Another communication is enclosed, and the letter of the applicant is
+the only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember
+such a person as the secretary of Mr. Adams, and messenger to the Senate
+while I was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding
+to it a strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the
+Anglomen and malcontents; in other words, the federalists and quids. Yet
+it would reconcile neither. It would only change the topic of abuse
+with the former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter. It
+would prevent our eastern capitalists and seamen from employment in
+privateering, take away the only chance of conciliating them, and keep
+them at home, idle, to swell the discontents; it would completely disarm
+us of the most powerful weapon we can employ against Great Britain, by
+shutting every port to our prizes, and yet would not add a single
+vessel to their number; it would shut every market to our agricultural
+productions, and engender impatience and discontent with that class
+which, in fact, composes the nation; it would insulate us in general
+negotiations for peace, making all the parties our opposers, and very
+indifferent about peace with us, if they have it with the rest of the
+world; and would exhibit a solecism worthy of Don Quixotte only, that
+of a choice to fight two enemies at a time, rather than to take them
+by succession. And the only motive for all this is a sublimated
+impartiality, at which the world will laugh, and our own people will
+turn upon us in mass as soon as it is explained to them, as it will be
+by the very persons who are now laying that snare. These are the hasty
+views of one who rarely thinks on these subjects. Your own will
+be better, and I pray to them every success, and to yourself every
+felicity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIII.--TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812
+
+
+TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It has given me great pleasure to receive a letter from you. It seems as
+if, our ancient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections
+of the heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our
+acquaintance commenced in 1764, both then just of age. We happened to
+take lodgings in the same house in New York. Our next meeting was in
+the Congress of 1775, and at various times afterwards in the exercise of
+that and other public functions, until your mission to Europe. Since we
+have ceased to meet, we have still thought and acted together, '_et idem
+velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum amicitia est_.' Of this harmony of
+principle, the papers you enclosed me are proof sufficient. I do not
+condole with you on your release from your government. The vote of your
+opponents is the most honorable mark by which the soundness of your
+conduct could be stamped. I claim the same honorable testimonial. There
+was but a single act of my whole administration of which that party
+approved. That was the proclamation on the attack of the Chesapeake.
+And when I found they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to
+apprehend I had done wrong, and to exclaim with the Psalmist, 'Lord,
+what have I done, that the wicked should praise me!'
+
+What, then, does this English faction with you mean? Their newspapers
+say rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we
+will permit them to govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their
+anti-republican spirit, it ought to be met at once. But a government
+like ours should be slow in believing this, should put forth its whole
+might when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
+reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the
+vindictive passions of the petty incorporations of Greece. I rather
+suspect that the principal office of the other seventeen States will be
+to moderate and restrain the local excitement of our friends with you,
+when they (with the aid of their brethren of the other States, if they
+need it) shall have brought the rebellious to their feet. They count on
+British aid. But what can that avail them by land? They would separate
+from their friends, who alone furnish employment for their navigation,
+to unite with their only rival for that employment. When interdicted
+the harbors of their quondam brethren, they will go, I suppose, to ask
+a share in the carrying-trade of their rivals, and a dispensation with
+their navigation act. They think they will be happier in an association
+under the rulers of Ireland, the East and West Indies, than in an
+independent government, where they are obliged to put up with their
+proportional share only in the direction of its affairs. But I trust
+that such perverseness will not be that of the honest and well meaning
+mass of the federalists of Massachusetts; and that when the questions
+of separation and rebellion shall be nakedly proposed to them, the Gores
+and the Pickerings will find their levees crowded with silk-stocking
+gentry, but no yeomanry; an army of officers without soldiers. I hope,
+then, all will still end well: the Anglomen will consent to make peace
+with their bread and butter, and you and I shall sink to rest, without
+having been actors or spectators in another civil war.
+
+How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count; but I
+you in that of our grand-children. We have not timed these things well
+together, or we might have begun a re-alliance between Massachusetts
+and the Old Dominion, faithful companions in the war of Independence,
+peculiarly tallied in interests, by each wanting exactly what the other
+has to spare; and estranged to each other, in latter times, only by the
+practices of a third nation, the common enemy of both. Let us live only
+to see this re-union, and I will say with old Simeon, 'Lord, now
+lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy
+salvation.' In that peace may you long remain, my friend, and depart
+only in the fulness of years, all passed in health and prosperity. God
+bless you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. June 13. I did not condole with you on the reprobation of your
+opponents, because it proved your orthodoxy. Yesterday's post brought
+me the resolution of the republicans of Congress, to propose you as
+Vice-President. On this I sincerely congratulate you. It is a stamp of
+double proof. It is a notification to the factionaries that their nay is
+the yea of truth, and its best test. We shall be almost within striking
+distance of each other. Who knows but you may fill up some short recess
+of Congress with a visit to Monticello, where a numerous family will
+hail you with a hearty country welcome. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIV.--TO JUDGE TYLER, June 17,1812
+
+
+TO JUDGE TYLER.
+
+Monticello, June 17,1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+*****
+
+On the other subject of your letter, the application of the common law
+to our present situation, I deride with you the ordinary doctrine,
+that we brought with us from England the common law rights. This narrow
+notion was a favorite in the first moment of rallying to our rights
+against Great Britain. But it was that of men who felt their rights
+before they had thought of their explanation. The truth is, that we
+brought with us the rights of men; of expatriated men. On our arrival
+here, the question would at once arise, by what law will we govern
+ourselves? The resolution seems to have been, by that system with which
+we are familiar, to be altered by ourselves occasionally, and adapted to
+our new situation. The proofs of this resolution are to be found in
+the form of the oaths of the judges, 1 Hening's Stat. 169, 187; of the
+Governor, ib. 504; in the act for a provisional government, ib. 372; in
+the preamble to the laws of 1661-2; the uniform current of opinions and
+decisions; and in the general recognition of all our statutes framed
+on that basis. But the state of the English law at the date of
+our emigration, constituted the system adopted here. We may doubt,
+therefore, the propriety of quoting in our courts English authorities
+subsequent to that adoption; still more, the admission of authorities
+posterior to the Declaration of Independence, or rather to the accession
+of that King, whose reign, _ab initio_, was that very tissue of wrongs
+which rendered the Declaration at length necessary. The reason for it
+had inception at least as far back as the commencement of his reign.
+This relation to the beginning of his reign, would add the advantage of
+getting us rid of all Mansfield's innovations, or civilizations of the
+common law. For however I admit the superiority of the civil, over the
+common law code, as a system of perfect justice, yet an incorporation of
+the two would be like Nebuchadnezzar's image of metals and clay, a thing
+without cohesion of parts. The only natural improvement of the common
+law, is through its homogeneous ally, the chancery, in which new
+principles are to be examined, concocted, and digested. But when,
+by repeated decisions and modifications, they are rendered pure and
+certain, they should be transferred by statute to the courts of common
+law, and placed within the pale of juries. The exclusion from the courts
+of the malign influence of all authorities after the _Georgium sidus_
+became ascendant, would uncanonize Blackstone, whose book, although the
+most elegant and best digested of our law catalogue, has been perverted
+more than all others to the degeneracy of legal science. A student finds
+there a smattering of every thing, and his indolence easily persuades
+him, that if he understands that book, he is master of the whole body
+of the law. The distinction between these and those who have drawn their
+stores from the deep and rich mines of Coke's Littleton, seems
+well understood even by the unlettered common people, who apply the
+appellation of Blackstone-lawyers to these ephemeral insects of the law.
+
+Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and
+so much of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a
+question of transcendant difficulty. It was discussed at the first
+meeting of the committee of the revised code, in 1776, and decided
+in the negative, by the opinions of Wythe, Mason, and myself, against
+Pendleton and Thomas Lee. Pendleton proposed to take Blackstone for that
+text, only purging him of what was inapplicable, or unsuitable to us. In
+that case, the meaning of every word of Blackstone would have become
+a source of litigation, until it had been settled by repeated legal
+decisions. And to come at that meaning, we should have had produced, on
+all occasions, that very pile of authorities from which it would be said
+he drew his conclusion, and which, of course, would explain it, and
+the terms in which it is couched. Thus we should have retained the same
+chaos of law-lore from which we wished to be emancipated, added to the
+evils of the uncertainty which a new text and new phrases would have
+generated. An example of this may be found in the old statutes, and
+commentaries on them, in Coke's second institute; but more remarkably,
+in the institute of Justinian, and the vast masses, explanatory or
+supplementary of that, which fill the libraries of the civilians. We
+were deterred from the attempt by these considerations, added to which,
+the bustle of the times did not permit leisure for such an undertaking.
+
+Your request of my opinion on this subject has given you the trouble of
+these observations. If your firmer mind in encountering difficulties,
+would have added your vote to the minority of the committee, you would
+have had on your side one of the greatest men of our age, and, like him,
+have detracted nothing from the sentiments of esteem and respect which I
+bore to him, and tender with sincerity the assurance of to yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CV.--TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812
+
+
+TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
+
+Monticello, October 1, 1812.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of September the 20th has been duly received, and I cannot
+but be gratified by the assurance it expresses, that my aid in the
+councils of our government would increase the public confidence in them;
+because it admits an inference that they have approved of the course
+pursued, when I heretofore bore a part in those councils. I profess,
+too, so much of the Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the
+general of yesterday to act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be
+useful to his country; holding that to be false pride, which postpones
+the public good to any private or personal considerations. But I am
+past service. The hand of age is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties
+apprizes me that those of the mind cannot be unimpaired, had I not still
+better proofs. Every year counts by increased debility, and departing
+faculties keep the score. The last year it was the sight, this it is the
+hearing, the next something else will be going, until all is gone.
+Of all this I was sensible before I left Washington, and probably my
+fellow-laborers saw it before I did. The decay of memory was obvious:
+it is now become distressing. But the mind, too, is weakened. When I
+was young, mathematics was the passion of my life. The same passion has
+returned upon me, but with unequal powers. Processes which I then read
+off with the facility of common discourse, now cost me labor, and time,
+and slow investigation. When I offered this, therefore, as one of the
+reasons deciding my retirement from office, it was offered in sincerity
+and a consciousness of its truth. And I think it a great blessing that
+I retain understanding enough to be sensible how much of it I have lost,
+and to avoid exposing myself as a spectacle for the pity of my friends;
+that I have surmounted the difficult point of knowing when to retire. As
+a compensation for faculties departed, nature gives me good health, and
+a perfect resignation to the laws of decay which she has prescribed to
+all the forms and combinations of matter.
+
+The detestable treason of Hull has, indeed, excited a deep anxiety
+in all breasts. The depression was in the first moment gloomy and
+portentous. But it has been succeeded by a revived animation, and a
+determination to meet the occurrence with increased efforts; and I have
+so much confidence in the vigorous minds and bodies of our countrymen,
+as to be fearless as to the final issue. The treachery of Hull, like
+that of Arnold, cannot be matter of blame on our government. His
+character, as an officer of skill and bravery, was established on the
+trials of the last war, and no previous act of his life had led to doubt
+his fidelity. Whether the Head of the war department is equal to his
+charge, I am not qualified to decide. I knew him only as a pleasant,
+gentlemanly man in society; and the indecision of his character rather
+added to the amenity of his conversation. But when translated from
+the colloquial circle to the great stage of national concerns, and the
+direction of the extensive operations of war, whether he has been able
+to seize at one glance the long line of defenceless border presented by
+our enemy, the masses of strength which we hold on different points of
+it, the facility this gave us of attacking him, on the same day, on
+all his points, from the extremity of the lakes to the neighborhood
+of Quebec, and the perfect indifference with which this last place,
+impregnable as it is, might be left in the hands of the enemy to fall
+of itself; whether, I say, he could see and prepare vigorously for
+all this, or merely wrapped himself in the cloak of cold defence, I
+am uninformed. I clearly think with you on the competence of Monroe
+to embrace great views of action. The decision of his character, his
+enterprise, firmness, industry, and unceasing vigilance, would, I
+believe, secure, as I am sure they would merit, the public confidence,
+and give us all the success which our means can accomplish. If our
+operations have suffered or languished from any want of energy in the
+present head which directs them, I have so much confidence in the wisdom
+and conscientious integrity of Mr. Madison, as to be satisfied, that,
+however torturing to his feelings, he will fulfil his duty to the public
+and to his own reputation, by making the necessary change. Perhaps he
+may be preparing it while we are talking about it: for of all these
+things I am uninformed. I fear that Hull's surrender has been more than
+the mere loss of a year to us. Besides bringing on us the whole mass of
+savage nations, whom fear and not affection had kept in quiet, there is
+danger that in giving time to an enemy who can send reinforcements of
+regulars faster than we can raise them, they may strengthen Canada and
+Halifax beyond the assailment of our lax and divided powers. Perhaps,
+however, the patriotic efforts from Kentucky and Ohio, by recalling
+the British force to its upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to
+strike a blow below. Effectual possession of the river from Montreal to
+the Chaudiere, which is practicable, would give us the upper country
+at our leisure, and close for ever the scenes of the tomahawk and
+scalping-knife.
+
+But these things are for others to plan and achieve. The only succor
+from the old, must lie in their prayers. These I offer up with sincere
+devotion; and in my concern for the great public, I do not overlook my
+friends, but supplicate for them, as I do for yourself, a long course of
+freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVI.--TO MR. MELISH, January 13, 1813
+
+
+TO MR. MELISH.
+
+Monticello, January 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received duly your favor of December the 15th, and with it the copies
+of your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. The
+book I have read with extreme satisfaction and information. As to the
+western States, particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the
+actual condition of that interesting portion of our country, I had not
+an adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the
+condition of the maritime States. I had no conception that manufactures
+had made such progress there, and particularly of the number of carding
+and spinning machines dispersed through the whole country. We are
+but beginning here to have them in our private families. Small
+spinning-jennies of from half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon,
+however, make their way into the humblest cottages, as well as the
+richest houses; and nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and
+middling clothing for our families, will for ever hereafter continue to
+be made within ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on
+foreign manufactures: but I have now thirty-five spindles a going, a
+hand carding-machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply
+of my own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The
+continuance of the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the
+evils of impressment and of the orders of council, a great blessing
+for us will grow. I have not formerly been an advocate for great
+manufactories. I doubted whether our labor, employed in agriculture,
+and aided by the spontaneous energies of the earth, would not procure
+us more than we could make ourselves of other necessaries. But other
+considerations entering into the question, have settled my doubts.
+
+The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition of our
+citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and English
+travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners and habits
+of their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed every thing
+differing from that test as boorish and barbarous, that your work will
+be read here extensively, and operate great good.
+
+Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other part of
+the work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to
+bring to what I think the correct one; and, on a point so interesting,
+I value your opinion too highly not to ambition its concurrence with
+my own. Stating in volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of
+difference between the two great political parties here, you conclude
+it to be, 'whether the controlling power shall be vested in this or that
+set of men.' That each party endeavors to get into the administration of
+the government, and to exclude the other from power, is true, and may
+be stated as a motive of action: but this is only secondary; the primary
+motive being a real and radical difference of political principle. I
+sincerely wish our differences were but personally who should govern
+and that the principles of our constitution were those of both parties.
+Unfortunately, it is otherwise; and the question of preference between
+monarchy and republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere,
+threatens a permanent division here.
+
+Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
+shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
+compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
+perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
+corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton's opinion,
+which others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that
+a correction of what are called its vices, would render the English
+an impracticable government.. This government they wished to have
+established here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the
+present constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of
+their favorite model. This party has therefore always clung to England,
+as their prototype, and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this
+change. A weighty minority, however, of these leaders, considering the
+voluntary conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant,
+if not desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment,
+as being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a
+commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other States
+may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to the
+desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is
+the last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being of all
+the most dependant on the others. Not raising bread for the sustenance
+her own inhabitants, not having a stick of timber for the construction
+of vessels, her principal occupation, nor an article to export in them,
+where would she be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and
+thrown into dependance on England, her direct and natural, but now
+insidious, rival? At the head of this minority is what is called the
+Essex Junto of Massachusetts. But the majority of these leaders do not
+aim at separation. In this they adhere to the known principle of
+General Hamilton, never, under any views, to break the Union. Anglomany,
+monarchy, and separation, then, are the principles of the Essex
+federalists; Anglomany and monarchy, those of the Hamiltonians,
+and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among the people who call
+themselves federalists. These last are as good republicans as the
+brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in the devotion
+to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from their
+leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
+separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
+popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
+standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
+thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
+
+The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
+constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to
+it they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have
+any ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further,
+by shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
+responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment.
+They esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest
+the governing powers of both.
+
+This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
+councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which
+they are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for
+power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over
+his fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
+conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
+legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
+refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient
+that power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the
+primary principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that
+on which I have acted; and had it been a mere contest who should
+be permitted to administer the government according to its genuine
+republican principles, there has never been a moment of my life, in
+which I should not have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family,
+my farm, my friends, and books.
+
+You expected to discover the difference of our party principles in
+General Washington's Valedictory, and my Inaugural Address. Not at all.
+General Washington did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was
+neither an Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished
+the people to have as much self-government as they were competent to
+exercise themselves. The only point in which he and I ever differed
+in opinion, was, that I had more confidence than he had in the natural
+integrity and discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to
+which they might trust themselves with a control over their government.
+He has asseverated to me a thousand times his determination that the
+existing government should have a fair trial, and that in support of
+it he would spend the last drop of his blood. He did this the more
+repeatedly, because he knew General Hamilton's political bias, and
+my apprehensions from it. It is a mere calumny, therefore, in the
+monarchists, to associate General Washington with their principles.
+But that may have happened in this case which has been often seen in
+ordinary cases, that, by often repeating an untruth, men come to
+believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this party, to bolster
+themselves up on the revered name of that first of our worthies. If
+I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, it proves the
+estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and my desire of
+placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I am certain I risk
+no use of the communication which may draw me into contention before the
+public. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of a _Septagenaire_.
+
+To return to the merits of your work; I consider it as so lively a
+picture of the real state of our country, that if I can possibly obtain
+opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy to a friend in
+France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will translate
+and circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations of former
+travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political faith may
+have on your general opinion, a part of my object will be obtained, if
+it satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, and of the high
+respect and consideration with which I tender you my salutations.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVII.--TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818
+
+
+TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.
+
+United States of America,
+
+May 24, 1818.
+
+I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your letter
+of November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely gratified by the
+occasion it gives me of expressing to you the sentiments of high respect
+and esteem which I entertain for you. It recalls to my remembrance a
+happy portion of my life, passed in your native city; then the seat
+of the most amiable and polished society of the world, and of which
+yourself and your venerable father were such distinguished members. But
+of what scenes has it since been the theatre, and with what havoc has
+it overspread the earth! Robespierre met the fate, and his memory
+the execration, he so justly merited. The rich were his victims, and
+perished by thousands. It is by millions that Bonaparte destroys
+the poor, and he is eulogized and deified by the sycophants--even of
+science. These merit more than the mere oblivion to which they will
+be consigned; and the day will come when a just posterity will give to
+their hero the only pre-eminence he has earned, that of having been the
+greatest of the destroyers of the human race. What year of his military
+life has not consigned a million of human beings to death, to poverty,
+and wretchedness? What field in Europe may not raise a monument of the
+murders, the burnings, the desolations, the famines, and miseries, it
+has witnessed from him! And all this to acquire a reputation, which
+Cartouche attained with less injury to mankind, of being fearless of God
+or man.
+
+To complete and universalize the desolation of the globe, it has been
+the will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a tyrant as
+unprincipled and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in the poor maniac
+George, but in his government and nation. Bonaparte will die, and his
+tyrannies with him. But a nation never dies. The English government and
+its piratical principles and practices, have no fixed term of duration.
+Europe feels, and is writhing under the scorpion whips of Bonaparte. We
+are assailed by those of England. The one continent thus placed under
+the gripe of England, and the other of Bonaparte, each has to grapple
+with the enemy immediately pressing on itself. We must extinguish the
+fire kindled in our own house, and leave to our friends beyond the water
+that which is consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one
+thousand of our ships, and impressed into her service more than six
+thousand of our citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of
+her Prince Regent, that she would not repeal her aggressive orders as to
+us, until Bonaparte should have repealed his as to all nations; till her
+minister, in formal conference with ours, declared, that no proposition
+for protecting our seamen from being impressed, under color of taking
+their own, was practicable or admissible; that, the door to justice and
+to all amicable arrangement being closed, and negotiation become both
+desperate and dishonorable, we concluded that the war she had been for
+years waging against us, might as well become a war on both sides. She
+takes fewer vessels from us since the declaration of war than before,
+because they venture more cautiously; and we now make full reprisals
+where before we made none. England is, in principle, the enemy of all
+maritime nations, as Bonaparte is of the continental; and I place in
+the same line of insult to the human understanding, the pretension
+of conquering the ocean, to establish continental rights, as that of
+conquering the continent, to restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam;
+the object of England is the permanent dominion of the ocean, and the
+monopoly of the trade of the world. To secure this, she must keep a
+larger fleet than her own resources will maintain. The resources of
+other nations, then, must be impressed to supply the deficiency of her
+own. This is sufficiently developed and evidenced by her successive
+strides towards the usurpation of the sea. Mark them, from her first war
+after William Pitt, the little, came into her administration. She first
+forbade to neutrals all trade with her enemies in time of war, which
+they had not in time of peace. This deprived them of their trade from
+port to port of the same nation. Then she forbade them to trade from
+the port of one nation to that of any other at war with her, although a
+right fully exercised in time of peace. Next, instead of taking vessels
+only entering a blockaded port, she took them over the whole ocean, if
+destined to that port, although ignorant of the blockade, and without
+intention to violate it. Then she took them returning from that port,
+as if infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came her paper
+blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without sending
+a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they must, of
+course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her orders of
+council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other, without
+coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute to
+her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed to
+the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
+the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could
+not send a vessel from St. Mary's to St. Augustine, distant six hour's
+sail, on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice
+with the outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this
+too daring and outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain
+articles of commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute
+important branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no
+longer rest on inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in
+open parliament, that the object of the present war is a monopoly of
+commerce.
+
+In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
+speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
+execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
+with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might retaliate
+on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each other. To
+make war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, therefore, to
+single out an enemy, we offered to both, that if either would revoke
+its hostile decrees, and the other should refuse, we would interdict all
+intercourse whatever with that other; which would be war of course, as
+being an avowed departure from neutrality. France accepted the offer,
+and revoked her decrees as to us. England not only refused, but declared
+by a solemn proclamation of her Prince Regent, that she would not revoke
+her orders even as to us, until those of France should be annulled as to
+the whole world. We thereon declared war, and with abundant additional
+cause.
+
+In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the ruinous
+effects of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing them to the
+nation and to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial proclamation,
+suspending the orders on certain conditions, but claiming to renew them
+at pleasure, as a matter of right. Even this might have prevented the
+war, if done and known here before its declaration. But the sword being
+once drawn, the expense of arming incurred, and hostilities in full
+course, it would have been unwise to discontinue them, until effectual
+provision should be agreed to by England, for protecting our citizens on
+the high seas from impressment by her naval commanders, through, error,
+voluntary or involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers,
+entering our ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen,
+(which they have no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which
+they neither do, nor ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and
+which no nation ever before pretended to do in any case), entering
+our ships, I say, under pretext of searching for and taking out their
+seamen, they took ours, native as well as naturalized, knowing them to
+be ours, merely because they wanted them; insomuch, that no American
+could safely cross the ocean, or venture to pass by sea from one to
+another of our own ports. It is not long since they impressed at sea two
+nephews of General Washington, returning from Europe, and put them,
+as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of their ships of war.
+There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between England and us;
+but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirit of conciliation on
+both sides would not permit to continue them at war. The sword, however,
+can never again be sheathed, until the personal safety of an American
+on the ocean, among the most important and most vital of the rights we
+possess, is completely provided for.
+
+As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of council, we
+offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, if she would
+suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements for securing our
+citizens against them. She refused to do it, because impracticable by
+any arrangement, as she pretends; but, in truth, because a body of sixty
+to eighty thousand of the finest seamen in the world, which we possess,
+is too great a resource for manning her exaggerated navy, to be
+relinquished, as long as she can keep it open. Peace is in her hand,
+whenever she will renounce the practice of aggression on the persons of
+our citizens. If she thinks it worth eternal war, eternal war we
+must have. She alleges that the sameness of language, of manners, of
+appearance, renders it impossible to distinguish us from her subjects.
+But because we speak English, and look like them, are we to be punished?
+Are free and independent men to be submitted to their bondage?
+
+England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the war. She
+has called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of her orders
+of council. She knows there has never been a moment of suspension of our
+reclamations against it, from General Washington's time inclusive, to
+the present day: and that it is distinctly stated in our declaration of
+war, as one of its principal causes. She has pretended we have entered
+into the war, to establish the principle of 'free bottoms, free goods,'
+or to protect her seamen against her own right over them. We contend for
+neither of these. She pretends we are partial to France; that we have
+observed a fraudulent and unfaithful neutrality between her and her
+enemy. She knows this to be false, and that if there has been any
+inequality in our proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in
+her favor. Her ministers are in possession of full proofs of this.
+Our accepting at once, and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous
+Alexander, their greatest friend, and the most aggravated enemy of
+Bonaparte, sufficiently proves whether we have partialities on the side
+of her enemy. I sincerely pray that this mediation may produce a just
+peace. It will prove that the immortal character, which has first
+stopped by war the career of the destroyer of mankind, is the friend of
+peace, of justice, of human happiness, and the patron of unoffending
+and injured nations. He is too honest and impartial to countenance
+propositions of peace derogatory to the freedom of the seas.
+
+Shall I apologize to you, my dear Madam, for this long political letter?
+But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings must plead for the
+unreserved expression of them; and they have been the less reserved,
+as being from a private citizen, retired from all connection with
+the government of his country, and whose ideas, expressed without
+communication with any one, are neither known, nor imputable to them.
+
+The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities of
+interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name to
+this letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference to the
+date of time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in answer to
+that. This omission must not lessen in your view the assurances of my
+great esteem, of my sincere sympathies for the share which you bear in
+the afflictions of your country, and the deprivations to which a lawless
+will has subjected you. In return, you enjoy the dignified satisfaction
+of having met them, rather than be yoked, with the abject, to his car;
+and that, in withdrawing from oppression, you have followed the virtuous
+example of a father, whose name will ever be dear to your country and
+to mankind. With my prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may
+see it re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does
+not infer either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of
+prosperity which would be the consequence of such a government, in
+that, in short, which the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, if
+wisdom could have stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent zeal of
+men, who did not know the character of their own countrymen, and that
+you may long live in health and happiness under it, and leave to the
+world a well educated and virtuous representative and descendant of
+your honored father, is the ardent prayer of the sincere and respectful
+friend who writes this letter.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 27, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 27, 1813.
+
+Another of our friends of seventy-six is gone, my Dear Sir, another of
+the co-signers of the Independence of our country. And a better man than
+Rush could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer
+genius, or more honest. We too must go; and that ere long. I believe
+we are under half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the
+Declaration. Yourself, Gerry, Carroll, and myself, are all I know to be
+living. I am the only one south of the Potomac. Is Robert Treat Paine,
+or Floyd living? It is long since I heard of them, and yet I do not
+recollect to have heard of their deaths.
+
+Moreton's deduction of the origin of our Indians from the fugitive
+Trojans, stated in your letter of January the 26th, and his manner
+of accounting for the sprinkling of their Latin with Greeks is really
+amusing. Adair makes them talk Hebrew. Reinold Foster derives them from
+the soldiers sent by Kouli Khan to conquer Japan. Brerewood, from the
+Tartars, as well as our bears, wolves, foxes, &c. which, he says, 'must
+of necessity fetch their beginning from Noah's ark, which rested after
+the deluge, in Asia, seeing they could not proceed by the course
+of nature, as the imperfect sort of living creatures do, from
+putrefaction.' Bernard Romans is of opinion that God created an original
+man and woman in this part of the globe. Doctor Barton thinks they are
+not specifically different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a
+broader range, he thinks, 'that in all the vast countries of America,
+there is but one language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered
+highly probable, that all the languages of the earth bear some affinity
+together.' This reduces it to a question of definition, in which every
+one is free to use his own: to wit, What constitutes identity, or
+difference in two things, in the common acceptation of sameness? All
+languages may be called the same, as being all made up of the same
+primitive sounds, expressed by the letters of the different alphabets.
+But, in this sense, all things on earth are the same, as consisting of
+matter. This gives up the useful distribution into genera and species,
+which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief of our imperfect
+memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian tribes descended,
+some have gone into their religion, their morals, their manners,
+customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be learnedly
+proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended from
+those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
+draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves
+in spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of
+winter, he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe,
+because our wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard,
+&c. But when, for convenience, we distribute languages, according to
+common understanding, into classes originally different, as we choose
+to consider them, as the Hebrew, the Greek, the Celtic, the Gothic; and
+these again into genera, or families, as the Icelandic, German, Swedish,
+Danish, English; and these last into species, or dialects, as English,
+Scotch, Irish, we then ascribe other meanings to the terms, 'same' and
+'different.' In some one of these senses, Barton, and Adair, and Foster,
+and Brerewood, and Moreton, may be right, every one according to his
+own definition of what constitutes 'identity.' Romans, indeed, takes a
+higher stand, and supposes a separate creation. On the same unscriptural
+ground, he had but to mount one step higher, to suppose no creation at
+all, but that all things have existed without beginning in time, as
+they now exist, and may for ever exist, producing and reproducing in a
+circle, without end. This would very summarily dispose of Mr. Moreton's
+learning, and show that the question of Indian origin, like many others,
+pushed to a certain height, must receive the same answer, 'Ignoro.' You
+ask if the usage of hunting in circles has ever been known among any of
+our tribes of Indians? It has been practised by them all; and is to this
+day, by those still remote from the settlements of the whites. But their
+numbers not enabling them, like Genghis Khan's seven hundred thousand,
+to form themselves into circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make
+their circle by firing the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually
+forcing the animals to a centre, they there slaughter them with arrows,
+darts, and other missiles. This is called fire-hunting, and has been
+practised in this State within my time, by the white inhabitants. This
+is the most probable cause of the origin and extension of the vast
+prairies in the western country, where the grass having been of
+extraordinary luxuriance, has made a conflagration sufficient to kill
+even the old as well as the young timber.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
+must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the
+early and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with
+you on this ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing
+that we cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall
+into the same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but
+even those of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these
+can be resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that
+we can turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In
+the mean time, one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is
+necessary; these being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel
+with us. But I respect too much the weighty opinions of others to be
+unyielding on this point, and acquiesce with the prayer, '_quod
+felix faustumque sit_'; adding ever a sincere one for your health and
+happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 15, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
+about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of
+May. Of Lindsay's Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed
+of himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters
+of mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his
+editor was new to me, and certainly presents itself for the first time
+under unfavorable circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of
+his book; and that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the
+world in the very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing
+private letters which passed between two friends, with no views to their
+ever being made public, is an instance of inconsistency as well as of
+infidelity, of which I would rather be the victim than the author.
+
+By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters, I have been
+enabled to turn to them. They had completely vanished from my memory.
+The last is on the subject of religion, and by its publication will
+gratify the priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations
+against me. They wish it to be believed, that he can have no religion
+who advocates its freedom. This was not the doctrine of Priestley; and I
+honored him for the example of liberality he set to his order. The
+first letter is political. It recalls to our recollection the gloomy
+transactions of the times, the doctrines they witnessed, and the
+sensibilities they excited. It was a confidential communication of
+reflections on these from one friend to another, deposited in his bosom,
+and never meant to trouble the public mind. Whether the character of
+the times is justly portrayed or not, posterity will decide. But on one
+feature of them, they can never decide, the sensations excited in free
+yet firm minds by the terrorism of the day. None can conceive who did
+not witness them, and they were felt by one party only. This letter
+exhibits their side of the medal. The federalists, no doubt, have
+presented the other, in their private correspondences, as well as open
+action. If these correspondences should ever be laid open to the public
+eye, they will probably be found not models of comity towards their
+adversaries. The readers of my letter should be cautioned not to confine
+its view to this country alone. England and its alarmists were equally
+under consideration. Still less must they consider it as looking
+personally towards you. You happen, indeed, to be quoted, because you
+happened to express more pithily than had been done by themselves, one
+of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer to the address of
+the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of Patriotic Addresses,
+page 198.] One of the questions, you know, on which our parties took
+different sides, was on the improvability of the human mind, in science,
+in ethics, in government, &c. Those who advocated reformation of
+institutions, _pari passu_ with the progress of science, maintained that
+no definite limits could be assigned to that progress. The enemies of
+reform, on the other hand, denied improvement, and advocated steady
+adherence to the principles, practices, and institutions of our fathers,
+which they represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of
+excellence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. Although in
+the passage of your answer alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish
+to influence the freedom of inquiry, you predict that that will produce
+nothing more worthy of transmission to posterity than the principles,
+institutions, and systems of education received from their ancestors.
+I do not consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess yourself
+too much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained
+and unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before
+our ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an
+expression lent to the prejudices of your friends; and although I
+happened to cite it from you, the whole letter shows I had them only
+in view. In truth, my dear Sir, we were far from considering you as
+the author of all the measures we blamed. They were placed under the
+protection of your name, but we were satisfied they wanted much of your
+approbation. We ascribed them to their real authors, the Pickerings, the
+Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks, _et id genus omne_, with whom we
+supposed you in a state of _duresse_. I well remember a conversation
+with you in the morning of the day on which you nominated to the Senate
+a substitute for Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience
+under 'the legacy of Secretaries which General Washington had left you,'
+and whom you seemed, therefore, to consider as under public protection.
+Many other incidents showed how differently you would have acted with
+less impassioned advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your
+minds were not together. You would do me great injustice, therefore, by
+taking to yourself what was intended for men who were then your secret,
+as they are now your open enemies. Should you write on the subject, as
+you propose, I am sure we shall see you place yourself farther from them
+than from us.
+
+As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave others to
+judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
+shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
+others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
+sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
+reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
+the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
+in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
+truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should
+be different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
+indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
+sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
+tender you the assurance.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CX.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
+myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
+suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
+the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
+that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
+trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.
+
+It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed
+to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it
+within the limits of its faculties, 'never to borrow a dollar without
+laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and
+the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged
+to the creditors on the public faith.' On such a pledge as this,
+sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable
+interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the
+necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and
+their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable
+consequence, revolution. But the term of redemption must be moderate,
+and, at any rate, within the limits of their rightful powers. But what
+limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is
+to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I
+answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and
+the power of man expire with his life, by nature's law. Some societies
+give it an artificial continuance, for the encouragement of industry;
+some refuse it, as our aboriginal neighbors, whom we call barbarians.
+The generations of men may be considered as bodies or corporations.
+Each generation has the usufruct of the earth during the period of its
+continuance. When it ceases to exist, the usufruct passes on to the
+succeeding generation, free and unincumbered, and so on, successively,
+from one generation to another for ever. We may consider each generation
+as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind
+themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than
+the inhabitants of another country. Or the case may be likened to the
+ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may hypothecate the land for his
+debts, during the continuance of his usufruct; but at his death, the
+reversioner (who is also for life only) receives it exonerated from
+all burthen. The period of a generation, or the term of its life, is
+determined by the laws of mortality, which, varying a little only in
+different climates, offer a general average, to be found by observation.
+I turn, for instance, to Buffon's tables, of twenty-three thousand nine
+hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at which they happened, and
+I find that of the numbers of all ages living at one moment, half will
+be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. Bat (leaving out minors,
+who have not the power of self-government) of the adults (of twenty-one
+years of age) living at one moment, a majority of whom act for the
+society, one half will be dead in eighteen years and eight months. At
+nineteen years then from the date of a contract, the majority of the
+contractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let this general
+theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual births of
+the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred and
+ninety-four: the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon,
+will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of
+all ages. Of these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine
+thousand two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and
+forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last,
+one hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a
+majority. Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had
+borrowed a sum of money equal to the fee simple value of the State, and
+to have consumed it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day;
+or, if you please, in quarrelling and fighting with their unoffending
+neighbors. Within eighteen years and eight months, one half of the adult
+citizens were dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully
+levy the interest of their debt annually on themselves and their
+fellow-revellers, or fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this
+moment, a new majority have come into place, in their own right, and
+not under the rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are
+they bound to acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation
+as having had a right to eat up the whole soil of their country in
+the course of a life, to alienate it from them (for it would be an
+alienation to the creditors), and would they think themselves either
+legally or morally bound to give up their country, and emigrate to
+another for subsistence? Every one will say no: that the soil is the
+gift of God to the living, as much as it had been to the deceased
+generation; and that the laws of nature impose no obligation on them to
+pay this debt. And although, like some other natural rights, this has
+not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no less a law, and
+ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the same time,
+a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the
+modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with
+blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever accumulating.
+Had this principle been declared in the British bill of rights, England
+would have been placed under the happy disability of waging eternal war,
+and of contracting her thousand millions of public debt. In seeking,
+then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our debts, let us rally
+to this principle, and provide for their payment within the term of
+nineteen years, at the farthest. Our government has not, as yet, begun
+to act on the rule, of loans and taxation going hand in hand. Had any
+loan taken place in my time, I should have strongly urged a redeeming
+tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of
+Congress, we should now set the example of appropriating some particular
+tax, sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within
+a fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your
+committee will render the immortal service of introducing this practice.
+Not that it is expected that Congress should formally declare such a
+principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But
+they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits.
+
+I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet,
+even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. We are an
+agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or
+improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly
+that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and
+that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in
+view. In such a nation there is one and one only resource for loans,
+sufficient to carry them through the expense of a war; and that will
+always be sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual
+in the preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of
+circulating coin. Every one knows, that, although not literally, it is
+nearly true, that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from
+the circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments
+with bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out
+of circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the
+vendor, receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his
+purchases or payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may
+continue to issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits
+of the circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend
+with us, at present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum
+than would be necessary for any war. But this, the only resource
+which the government could command with certainty, the States have
+unfortunately fooled away, nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and
+shavers, under the cover of private banks. Say, too, as an additional
+evil, that the disposable funds of individuals, to this great amount,
+have thus been withdrawn from improvement and useful enterprise, and
+employed in the useless, usurious, and demoralizing practices of bank
+directors and their accomplices. In the war of 1755, our State availed
+itself of this fund by issuing a paper money, bottomed on a specific tax
+for its redemption, and, to insure its credit, bearing an interest of
+five per cent. Within a very short time, not a bill of this emission was
+to be found in circulation. It was locked up in the chests of executors,
+guardians, widows, farmers, &tc. We then issued bills, bottomed on a
+redeeming tax, but bearing no interest. These were readily received, and
+never depreciated a single farthing. In the revolutionary war, the old
+Congress and the States issued bills without interest, and without
+tax. They occupied the channels of circulation very freely, till
+those channels were overflowed by an excess beyond all the calls of
+circulation. But although we have so improvidently suffered the field of
+circulating medium to be filched from us by private individuals, yet I
+think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole, if the States
+will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a tax
+appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure
+preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of
+six per cent., there is no one who would not take them in preference
+to the bank-paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as
+interest: and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private
+hoards to a considerable amount. Their credit once established, others
+might be emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest: and
+if ever their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills
+alone should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund,
+would reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an
+equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which,
+in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their
+possession of the circulation: but a steady and judicious alternation of
+emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going
+on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right
+to the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer
+the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, _in
+perpetuum_, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of
+charter rights. I believe that every State west and south of Connecticut
+river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would
+follow in time.
+
+Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind
+up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters
+expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they
+would supply with their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate
+tax, and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public
+pulse should indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills
+would make their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks,
+by their solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their
+receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to
+curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering
+up their paper, and running it constantly on them. The national paper
+might thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I
+am not without a hope, that this great, this sole resource for loans
+in an agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the
+nation during war: and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be
+sufficient to carry us through any war; provided, that, in the interval
+between war and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in,
+coin be permitted to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation
+until another war should require its yielding place again to the
+national medium.
+
+But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and
+others to be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found
+so convenient? I answer, let us have banks: but let them be such as are
+alone to be found in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There
+is not a bank of discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was
+not one when I was there), which offers any thing but cash in exchange
+for discounted bills. No one has a natural right to the trade of a
+money-lender, but he who has the money to lend. Let those then among us,
+who have a monied capital, and who prefer employing it in loans rather
+than otherwise, set up banks, and give cash or national bills for the
+notes they discount. Perhaps, to encourage them, a larger interest than
+is legal in the other cases might be allowed them, on the condition of
+their lending for short periods only. It is from Great Britain we copy
+the idea of giving paper in exchange for discounted bills: and while we
+have derived from that country some good principles of government and
+legislation, we unfortunately run into the most servile imitation of all
+her practices, ruinous as they prove to her, and with the gulph yawning
+before us into which those very practices are precipitating her. The
+unlimited emission of bank-paper has banished all her specie, and is
+now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own statesmen, carrying her
+rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did us, and will do us
+again, and every country permitting paper to be circulated, other than
+that by public authority, rigorously limited to the just measure for
+circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation,
+are at the mercy of those self-created money-lenders, and are prostrated
+by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.
+He who lent his money to the public or to an individual, before the
+institution of the United States bank, twenty years ago, when wheat was
+well sold at a dollar the bushel, and receives now his nominal sum when
+it sells at two dollars, is cheated of half his fortune: and by whom? By
+the banks, which, since that, have thrown into circulation ten dollars
+of their nominal money where there was one at that time.
+
+Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as they
+appear to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point out a
+resource ample enough, without overwhelming war-taxes, for the expense
+of the war, and possibly still recoverable; and that they hold up to
+all future time a resource within ourselves, ever at the command of
+government, and competent to any wars into which we may be forced. Nor
+is it a slight object to equalize taxes through peace and war.
+
+*****
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 21, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 21, 1813.
+
+
+[Illustration: page201]
+
+
+And I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where
+to begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions,
+and contentions which have occurred in our day. I should say with
+Theocritus,
+
+[Illustration: page201a]
+
+But I shall not do it. The _summum bonum_ with me is now truly
+epicurean, ease of body and tranquillity of mind; and to these I wish
+to consign my remaining days. Men have differed in opinion, and been
+divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of
+societies; and in all governments, where they have been permitted freely
+to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the
+United States, have existed through all time. Whether the power of the
+people, or that of the
+
+[Illustration: page202]
+
+should prevail, were questions which kept the States of Greece and Rome
+in eternal convulsions; as they now schismatize every people whose minds
+and mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. And in fact, the
+terms of whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil
+history. They denote the temper and constitution of mind of different
+individuals. To come to our own country, and to the times when you and
+I became first acquainted: we well remember the violent parties which
+agitated the old Congress, and their bitter contests. There you and
+I were together, and the Jays, and the Dickinsons, and other
+anti-independents were arrayed against us. They cherished the monarchy
+of England, and we the rights of our countrymen. When our present
+government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to Union, how
+bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and I were
+together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the Atlantic
+from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States should
+confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others hold
+off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should
+be made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
+Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
+delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and
+all were reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into
+motion, the line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties,
+each wishing to give the government a different direction; the one
+to strengthen the most popular branch, the other the more permanent
+branches, and to extend their permanence. Here you and I separated for
+the first time: and as we had been longer than most others on the public
+theatre, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen,
+the party which considered you as thinking with them, placed your
+name at their head; the other, for the same reason, selected mine. But
+neither decency nor inclination permitted us to become the advocates
+of ourselves, or to take part personally in the violent contests which
+followed. We suffered ourselves, as you so well expressed it, to be
+passive subjects of public discussion. And these discussions, whether
+relating to men, measures, or opinions, were conducted by the parties
+with an animosity, a bitterness, and an indecency, which had never been
+exceeded. All the resources of reason and of wrath were exhausted
+by each party in support of its own, and to prostrate the adversary
+opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the anti-federalists, the
+other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom. Of this acrimony,
+the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in the debates
+of Congress, of State legislatures, of stump-orators, in addresses,
+answers, and newspaper essays; and to these, without question, may be
+added the private correspondences of individuals; and the less guarded
+in these, because not meant for the public eye, not restrained by the
+respect due to that, but poured forth from the overflowings of the heart
+into the bosom of a friend, as a momentary easement of our feelings.
+In this way and in answers to addresses, you and I could indulge
+ourselves. We have probably done it, sometimes with warmth, often with
+prejudice, but always, as we believed, adhering to truth. I have not
+examined my letters of that day. I have no stomach to revive the memory
+of its feelings. But one of these letters, it seems, has got before the
+public, by accident and infidelity, by the death of one friend to whom
+it was written, and of his friend to whom it had been communicated,
+and by the malice and treachery of a third person, of whom I had never
+before heard, merely to make mischief, and in the same Satanic spirit,
+in which the same enemy had intercepted and published, in 1776, your
+letter animadverting on Dickinson's character. How it happened that I
+quoted you in my letter to Doctor Priestley, and for whom, and not for
+yourself, the strictures were meant, has been explained to you in my
+letter of the 15th, which had been committed to the post eight days
+before I received yours of the 10th, 11th, and 14th. That gave you the
+reference which these asked to the particular answer alluded to in the
+one to Priestley. The renewal of these old discussions, my friend, would
+be equally useless and irksome. To the volumes then written on these
+subjects, human ingenuity can add nothing new, and the rather, as lapse
+of time has obliterated many of the facts. And shall you and I, my Dear
+Sir, at our age, like Priam of old, gird on the
+
+[Illustration: page203]
+
+Shall we, at our age, become the athletes of party, and exhibit
+ourselves, as gladiators, in the arena of the newspapers? Nothing in the
+universe could induce me to it. My mind has been long fixed to bow to
+the judgment of the world, who will judge by my acts, and will never
+take counsel from me as to what that judgment shall be. If your objects
+and opinions have been misunderstood, if the measures and principles of
+others have been wrongfully imputed to you, as I believe they have been,
+that you should leave an explanation of them, would be an set of justice
+to yourself. I will add, that it has been hoped that you would leave such
+explanations as would place every saddle on its right horse, and replace
+on the shoulders of others the burdens they shifted to yours.
+
+But all this, my friend, is offered merely for your consideration and
+judgment, without presuming to anticipate what you alone are qualified
+to decide for yourself. I mean to express my own purpose only, and the
+reflections which have led to it. To me, then, it appears, that there
+have been differences of opinion and party differences, from the
+first establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same
+question which now divides our own country: that these will continue
+through all future time: that every one takes his side in favor of
+the many, or of the few, according to his constitution, and the
+circumstances in which he is placed: that opinions, which are equally
+honest on both sides, should not affect personal esteem or social
+intercourse: that as we judge between the Claudii and the Gracchi, the
+Wentworths and the Hampdens of past ages, so, of those among us whose
+names may happen to be remembered for a while, the next generations
+will judge, favorably or unfavorably, according to the complexion of
+individual minds, and the side they shall themselves have taken: that
+nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by others,
+and will be said in every age in support of the conflicting opinions on
+government: and that wisdom and duty dictate an humble resignation to
+the verdict of our future peers. I doing this myself, I shall certainly
+not suffer moot questions to affect the sentiments of sincere friendship
+and respect, consecrated to you by so long a course of time, and of
+which I now repeat sincere assurances,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 22, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since my letter of June the 27th, I am in your debt for many; all of
+which I have read with infinite delight. They open a wide field for
+reflection, and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen
+indefinitely. I must follow the good example you have set; and when
+I have not time to take up every subject, take up a single one. Your
+approbation of my outline to Dr. Priestley is a great gratification to
+me; and I very much suspect that if thinking men would have the courage
+to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found
+they do not differ in religious opinions, as much as is supposed. I
+remember to have heard Dr. Priestley say, that if all England would
+candidly examine themselves, and confess, they would find that
+Unitarianism was really the religion of all: and I observe a bill is now
+depending in parliament for the relief of Anti-Trinitarians. It is too
+late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the
+Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that
+the one is not three, and the three are not one: to divide mankind by a
+single letter into
+
+[Illustration: page205]
+
+But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the
+priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and
+they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers,
+live without an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the
+oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand,
+nor therefore believe; for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind
+to an intelligible proposition.
+
+It is with great pleasure I can inform you, that Priestley finished the
+comparative view of the doctrines of the philosophers of antiquity, and
+of Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after. And with
+still greater pleasure, that I can have a copy of his work forwarded
+from Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your
+acceptance, by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after.
+The branch of the work which the title announces, is executed with
+learning and candor, as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a
+little hastily; for he felt himself pressed by the hand of death. The
+Abbe Batteux had, in fact, laid the foundation of this part in his
+'Causes Premieres'; with which he has given us the originals of Ocellus
+and Timzeus, who first committed the doctrines of Pythagoras to writing:
+and Enfield, to whom the Doctor refers, had done it more copiously. But
+he has omitted the important branch, which, in your letter of August the
+9th, you say you have never seen executed, a comparison of the morality
+of the Old Testament with that of the New. And yet, no two things were
+ever more unlike. I ought not to have asked him to give it. He dared
+not. He would have been eaten alive by his intolerant brethren, the
+Cannibal priests. And yet, this was really the most interesting branch
+of the work.
+
+Very soon after my letter to Doctor Priestley, the subject being still
+in my mind, I had leisure, during an abstraction from business for a day
+or two, while on the road, to think a little more on it, and to sketch
+more fully than I had done to him, a syllabus of the matter which I
+thought should enter into the work. I wrote it to Doctor Rush; and there
+ended all my labor on the subject; himself and Doctor Priestley being
+the only depositories of my secret. The fate of my letter to Priestley,
+after his death, was a warning to me on that of Doctor Rush; and at my
+request, his family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original
+letter and syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much interest I
+take in keeping myself clear of religious disputes before the public;
+and especially of seeing my syllabus disembowelled by the Aruspices of
+the modern Paganism. Yet I enclose it to you with entire confidence,
+free to be perused by yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and
+to be returned to me.
+
+You are right in supposing, in one of yours, that I had not read much of
+Priestley's Predestination, his no-soul system, or his controversy with
+Horsley. But I have read his Corruptions of Christianity, and Early
+Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them, and
+on Middleton's writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to
+Waterland, as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been
+answered, nor can be answered by quoting historical proofs, as they have
+done. For these facts, therefore, I cling to their learning, so much
+superior to my own.
+
+I now fly off in a tangent to another subject. Marshall, in the first
+volume of his history, chapter 3, p. 180, ascribes the petition to the
+King, of 1774, (1 Journ. Cong. 67) to the pen of Richard Henry Lee. I
+think myself certain, it was not written by him, as well from what I
+recollect to have heard, as from the internal evidence of style. He
+was loose, vague, frothy, rhetorical. He was a poorer writer than his
+brother Arthur; and Arthur's standing may be seen in his Monitor's
+Letters, to insure the sale of which, they took the precaution of
+tacking to them a new edition of the Farmer's Letters; like Mezentius,
+who '_mortua jungebat corpora vivis_.' You were of the committee, and
+can tell me who wrote this petition; and who wrote the Address to the
+Inhabitants of the Colonies, ib. 45. Of the papers of July 1775, I
+recollect well that Mr. Dickinson drew the petition to the King, ib.
+149; I think Robert R. Livingston drew the Address to the Inhabitants of
+Great Britain, ib. 152. Am I right in this? And who drew the Address to
+the People of Ireland, ib. 180? On these questions, I ask of your memory
+to help mine. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIII.--TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813
+
+TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+
+Monticello, November 6, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance;
+but since the date of my last, I have received from Mr. Law a letter
+covering a memorial on that subject, which, from its tenor, I conjecture
+must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. This paper
+contains two propositions; the one for issuing treasury notes, bearing
+interest, and to be circulated as money; the other for the establishment
+of a national bank. The first was considered in my former letter; and
+the second shall be the subject of the present.
+
+The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank, suppose of
+thirty millions capital, of which they shall contribute ten millions in
+new six per cent, stock, the States ten millions, and individuals ten
+millions, one half of the two last contributions to be of similar stock,
+for which the parties are to give cash to Congress: the whole, however,
+to be under the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who
+are to name all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having
+any power of interference in its administration. Discounts are to be
+at five per cent., but the profits are expected to be seven per cent.
+Congress then will be paying six per cent, on twenty millions, and
+receiving seven per cent, on ten millions, being its third of the
+institution: so that on the ten millions cash which they receive from
+the States and individuals, they will, in fact, have to pay but five
+per cent, interest. This is the bait. The charter is proposed to be for
+forty or fifty years, and if any future augmentations should take place,
+the individual proprietors are to have the privilege of being the sole
+subscribers for that. Congress are further allowed to issue to the
+amount of three millions of notes, bearing interest, which they are to
+receive back in payment for lands at a premium of five or ten per
+cent., or as subscriptions for canals, roads, and bridges, in which
+undertakings they are, of course, to be engaged. This is a summary
+of the scheme, as I understand it: but it is very possible I may
+not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made
+Unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them. The advantages
+and disadvantages shall be noted promiscuously as they occur; leaving
+out the speculation of canals, &c. which, being an episode only in the
+scheme, may be omitted, to disentangle it as much as we can.
+
+1. Congress are to receive five millions from the States (if they will
+enter into this partnership, which few probably will), and five millions
+from the individual subscribers, in exchange for ten millions of six per
+cent, stock, one per cent, of which, however, they will make on their
+ten millions of stock remaining in bank, and so reduce it, in effect, to
+a loan of ten millions at five per cent, interest. This is good: but
+
+2. They authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions
+of dollars, (three times the capital), which increases our circulating
+medium fifty per cent., depreciates proportionably the present value
+of the dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same
+proportion.
+
+3. This loan of ten millions at five per cent., is to be once for all,
+only. Neither the terms of the scheme, nor their own prudence could ever
+permit them to add to the circulation in the same, or any other way, for
+the supplies of the succeeding years of the war. These succeeding years
+then are to be left unprovided for, and the means of doing it in a great
+measure precluded.
+
+4. The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash
+to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging
+to Congress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to
+themselves, say twenty millions, with which, as no one has a right ever
+to see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time
+for running away, after adding to their booty the proceeds of as much of
+their own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation.
+
+5. The subscribers may be one, two, or three, or more individuals, (many
+single individuals being able to pay in the five millions,) whereupon
+this bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions
+of dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the
+influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it
+will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England herself
+may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal
+and sole subscriber.
+
+6. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of
+relief, for forty or fifty years. That is to say, the eight millions
+of people now existing, for the sake of receiving one dollar and
+twenty-five cents apiece at five per cent, interest, are to subject the
+fifty millions of people who are to succeed them within that term, to
+the payment of forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest,
+which will be payable in the course of the fifty years.
+
+7. But the great and national advantage is to be the relief of the
+present scarcity of money, which is produced and proved by,
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+the troops, ammunition, he.
+
+2. By the cash sent to the frontiers, and the vacuum occasioned in the
+trading towns by that.
+
+3. By the late loans.
+
+4. By the necessity of recurring to shavers with good paper, which the
+existing banks are not able to take up; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications for bank charters, showing that an
+increase of circulating medium is wanting.
+
+Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of an increase of
+medium, one by one.
+
+1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+troops, ammunition, &c. Now I had always supposed that war produced
+a diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from
+industrious pursuits, for employment in arms &c. which are totally
+unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of
+ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from
+other branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it
+is but a shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.
+
+2. The cash sent to the frontiers occasions a vacuum in the trading
+towns, which requires a new supply. Let us examine what are the calls
+for money to the frontiers. Not for clothing, tents, ammunition, arms,
+which are all bought in the trading towns. Not for provisions; for
+although these are bought partly in the intermediate country, bank-bills
+are more acceptable there than even in the trading towns. The pay of
+the army calls for some cash; but not a great deal, as bank-notes are as
+acceptable with the military men, perhaps more so; and what cash is sent
+must find its way back again, in exchange for the wants of the upper
+from the lower country. For we are not to suppose that cash stays
+accumulating there for ever.
+
+3. This scarcity has been occasioned by the late loans. But does the
+government borrow money to keep it in their coffers? Is it not instantly
+restored to circulation by payment for its necessary supplies? And are
+we to restore a vacuum of twenty millions of dollars by an emission of
+ninety millions?
+
+4. The want of medium is proved by the recurrence of individuals with
+good paper to brokers at exorbitant interest; and
+
+5. By the numerous applications to the State governments for additional
+banks; New York wanting eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions,
+&c. But say more correctly, the speculators and spendthrifts of New York
+and Pennsylvania, but never consider them as being the States of New
+York and Pennsylvania. These two items shall be considered together.
+
+It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather
+than of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and
+of English writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an
+evil; and excepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is
+not a nation existing, I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation.
+The experiment is going on, however, desperately in England, pretty
+boldly with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which
+opinion experience approves: for I believe it to be one of those cases
+where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by
+ruin. In the mean time, however, let us reason on this new call for a
+national bank.
+
+After the solemn decision of Congress against the renewal of the charter
+of the bank of the United States, and the grounds of that decision (the
+want of constitutional power), I had imagined that question at rest, and
+that no more applications would be made to them for the incorporation
+of banks. The opposition on that ground to its first establishment, the
+small majority by which it was overborne, and the means practised
+for obtaining it, cannot be already forgotten. The law having passed,
+however, by a majority, its opponents, true to the sacred principle
+of submission to a majority, suffered the law to flow through its term
+without obstruction. During this, the nation had time to consider
+the constitutional question, and when the renewal was proposed, they
+condemned it, not by their representatives in Congress only, but by
+express instructions from different organs of their will. Here then
+we might stop, and consider the memorial as answered. But, setting
+authority apart, we will examine whether the legislature ought to comply
+with it, even if they had the power.
+
+Proceeding to reason on this subject, some principles must be premised
+as forming its basis. The adequate price of a thing depends on the
+capital and labor necessary to produce it. (In the term capital, I mean
+to include science, because capital as well as labor has been employed
+to acquire it.) Two things requiring the same capital and labor should
+be of the same price. If a gallon of wine requires for its production
+the same capital and labor with a bushel of wheat, they should be
+expressed by the same price, derived from the application of a common
+measure to them. The comparative prices of things being thus to be
+estimated, and expressed by a common measure, we may proceed to observe,
+that were a country so insulated as to have no commercial intercourse
+with any other, to confine the interchange of all its wants and supplies
+within itself, the amount of circulating medium, as a common measure
+for adjusting these exchanges, would be quite immaterial. If their
+circulation, for instance, were of a million of dollars, and the annual
+produce of their industry equivalent to ten millions of bushels of
+wheat, the price of a bushel of wheat might be one dollar. If, then, by
+a progressive coinage, their medium should be doubled, the price of a
+bushel of wheat might become progressively two dollars, and without,
+inconvenience. Whatever be the proportion of the circulating medium to
+the value of the annual produce of industry, it may be considered as the
+representative of that industry. In the first case, a bushel of wheat
+will be represented by one dollar; in the second, by two dollars. This
+is well explained by Hume, and seems admitted by Adam Smith, (B. 2. c.
+2. 436, 441, 490.) But where a nation is in a full course of interchange
+of wants and supplies with all others, the proportion of its medium
+to its produce is no longer indifferent, (lb. 441.) To trade on equal
+terms, the common measure of values should be as nearly as possible on
+a par with that of its corresponding nations, whose medium is in a
+sound state; that is to say, not in an accidental state of excess or
+deficiency. Now, one of the great advantages of specie as a medium is,
+that being of universal value, it will keep itself at a general level,
+flowing out from where it is too high into parts where it is lower.
+Whereas, if the medium be of local value only, as paper-money, if too
+little, indeed, gold and silver will flow in to supply the deficiency;
+but if too much, it accumulates, banishes the gold and silver not locked
+up in vaults and hoards, and depreciates itself; that is to say, its
+proportion to the annual produce of industry being raised, more of it
+is required to represent any particular article of produce than in
+the other countries. This is agreed by Smith (B. 2. c. 2. 437.), the
+principal advocate for a paper circulation; but advocating it on the
+sole condition that it be strictly regulated. He admits, nevertheless,
+that 'the commerce and industry of a country cannot be so secure when
+suspended on the Daedalian wings of paper-money, as on the solid ground
+of gold and silver; and that in time of war the insecurity is greatly
+increased, and great confusion possible where the circulation is for the
+greater part in paper.'(B. 2. c. 2. 484.) But in a country where loans
+are uncertain, and a specie circulation the only sure resource for them,
+the preference of that circulation assumes a far different degree of
+importance, as is explained in my former letters.
+
+The only advantage which Smith proposes by substituting paper in the
+room of gold and silver money (B. 2. c. 2. 434.), is, 'to replace an
+expensive instrument with one much less costly, and sometimes equally
+convenient'; that is to say, (page 437,) to allow the gold and silver
+to be sent abroad and converted into foreign goods,' and to substitute
+paper as being a cheaper measure. But this makes no addition to the
+stock or capital of the nation. The coin sent out was worth as much,
+while in the country, as the goods imported and taking its place. It
+is only, then, a change of form in a part of the national capital, from
+that of gold and silver to other goods. He admits, too, that while a
+part of the goods received in exchange for the coin exported, may be
+materials, tools, and provisions for the employment of an additional
+industry, a part also may be taken back in foreign wines, silks, &c.
+to be consumed by idle people who produce nothing; and so far the
+substitution promotes prodigality, increases expense and consumption,
+without increasing production. So far also, then, it lessens the capital
+of the nation. What may be the amount which the conversion of the part
+exchanged for productive goods, may add to the former productive mass,
+it is not easy to ascertain, because, as he says, (page 441,) 'It is
+impossible to determine what is the proportion which the circulating
+money of any country bears to the whole value of the annual produce. It
+has been computed by different authors, from a fifth* to a thirtieth of
+that value.'
+
+     * The real cash or money necessary to carry on the
+     circulation and barter of a State, is nearly one third part
+     of all the annual rents of the proprietors of the said
+     State; that is, one ninth of the whole produce of the land.
+     Sir William Petty supposes one tenth part of the value of
+     the whole produce sufficient. Postlethwayt, _voce_, Cash.
+
+In the United States it must be less than in any other part of the
+commercial world; because the great mass of their inhabitants being
+in responsible circumstances, the great mass of their exchanges in the
+country is effected on credit, in their merchant's ledger, who supplies
+all their wants through the year, and at the end of it receives the
+produce of their farms, or other articles of their industry. It is a
+fact, that a farmer, with a revenue of ten thousand dollars a year, may
+obtain all his supplies from his merchant, and liquidate them at the end
+of the year, by the sale of his produce to him, without the intervention
+of a single dollar of cash. This, then, is merely barter, and in this
+way of barter a great portion of the annual produce of the United States
+is exchanged without the intermediation of cash. We might safely,
+then, state our medium at the minimum of one thirtieth. But what is
+one thirtieth of the value of the annual produce of the industry of the
+United States? Or what is the whole value of the annual produce of the
+United States? An able writer and competent judge of the subject, in
+1799, on as good grounds as probably could be taken, estimated it, on
+the then population of four and a half millions of inhabitants, to
+be thirty-seven and a half millions sterling, or one hundred and
+sixty-eight and three fourths millions of dollars. See Cooper's
+Political Arithmetic, page 47. According to the same estimate, for our
+present population it will be three hundred millions of dollars, one
+thirtieth of which, Smith's minimum, would be ten millions, and
+one fifth, his maximum, would be sixty millions for the quantum of
+circulation. But suppose, that, instead of our needing the least
+circulating medium of any nation, from the circumstance before
+mentioned, we should place ourselves in the middle term of the
+calculation, to wit, at thirty-five millions. One fifth of this, at
+the least, Smith thinks should be retained in specie, which would leave
+twenty-eight millions of specie to be exported in exchange for other
+commodities; and if fifteen millions of that should be returned in
+productive goods, and not in articles of prodigality, that would be the
+amount of capital which this operation would add to the existing mass.
+But to what mass? Not that of the three hundred millions, which is only
+its gross annual produce; but to that capital of which the three hundred
+millions are but the annual produce. But this being gross, we may infer
+from it the value of the capital by considering that the rent of lands
+is generally fixed at one third of the gross produce, and is deemed its
+nett profit, and twenty times that its fee simple value. The profits on
+landed capital may, with accuracy enough for our purpose, be supposed
+on a par with those of other capital. This would give us then for
+the United States, a capital of two thousand millions, all in active
+employment, and exclusive of unimproved lands lying in a great degree
+dormant. Of this, fifteen millions would be the hundred and thirty-third
+part. And it is for this petty addition to the capital of the nation,
+this minimum of one dollar, added to one hundred and thirty-three and a
+third, or three fourths per cent., that we are to give up our gold and
+silver medium, its intrinsic solidity, its universal value, and its
+saving powers in time of war, and to substitute for it paper, with all
+its train of evils, moral, political, and physical, which I will not
+pretend to enumerate.
+
+There is another authority to which we may appeal for the proper
+quantity of circulating medium for the United States. The old Congress,
+when we were estimated at about two millions of people, on a long and
+able discussion, June the 22nd, 1775, decided the sufficient quantity to
+be two millions of dollars, which sum they then emitted.* According to
+this, it should be eight millions, now that we are eight millions of
+people. This differs little from Smith's minimum of ten millions, and
+strengthens our respect for that estimate.
+
+     * Within five months after this they were compelled, by the
+     necessities of the war, to abandon the idea of emitting only
+     an adequate circulation, and to make those necessities the
+     sole measure of their emissions.
+
+There is, indeed, a convenience in paper; its easy transmission from one
+place to another. But this may be mainly supplied by bills of exchange,
+so as to prevent any great displacement of actual coin. Two places
+trading together balance their dealings, for the most part, by their
+mutual supplies, and the debtor individuals of either may, instead of
+cash, remit the bills of those who are creditors in the same dealings;
+or may obtain them through some third place with which both have
+dealings. The cases would be rare where such bills could not be
+obtained, either directly or circuitously, and too unimportant to the
+nation to overweigh the train of evils flowing from paper circulation.
+
+From eight to thirty-five millions then being our proper circulation,
+and two hundred millions the actual one, the memorial proposes to issue
+ninety millions more, because, it says, a great scarcity of money is
+proved by the numerous applications for banks; to wit, New York for
+eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions, &c. The answer to this
+shall be quoted, from Adam Smith (B. 2, c. 2, page 462), where speaking
+of the complaints of the traders against the Scotch bankers, who had
+already gone too far in their issues of paper, he says, 'Those traders
+and other undertakers having got so much assistance from banks, wished
+to get still more. The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend
+their credits to whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any
+other expense besides that of a few reams of paper. They complained
+of the contracted views and dastardly spirit of the directors of those
+banks, which did not, they said, extend their credits in proportion to
+the extension of the trade of the country; meaning, no doubt, by the
+extension of that trade, the extension of their own projects beyond what
+they could carry on, either with their own capital, or with what they
+had credit to borrow of private people in the usual way of bond or
+mortgage. The banks, they seem to have thought, were in honor bound to
+supply the deficiency, and to provide them with all the capital
+which they wanted to trade with.' And again (page 470): 'When bankers
+discovered that certain projectors were trading, not with any capital
+of their own, but with that which they advanced them, they endeavored
+to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and greater difficulties
+about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and enraged in the highest
+degree those projectors. Their own distress, of which this prudent and
+necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the immediate occasion, they
+called the distress of the country; and this distress of the country,
+they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity, and bad
+conduct of the banks, which did not give a sufficiently liberal aid to
+the spirited undertakings of those who exerted themselves in order to
+beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was the duty of the banks,
+they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time, and to as great an
+extent, as they might wish to borrow.' It is, probably, the good paper
+of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks being unable to
+discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the risk of this
+good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal interest, to
+the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had rather try
+trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other laborious
+calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) 'That the industry of Scotland
+languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the famous
+Mr. Law. By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which he seems to
+have imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value of all
+the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money. It
+was afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the Duke of Orleans, at
+that time Regent of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying
+paper to almost any extent, was the real foundation of what is called
+the Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project both of banking and
+stockjobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw. The principles upon
+which it was founded are explained by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse
+concerning money and trade, which he published in Scotland when he first
+proposed his project. The splendid but visionary ideas which are set
+forth in that and some other works upon the same principles, still
+continue to make an impression upon many people, and have perhaps,
+in part, contributed to that excess of banking which has of late been
+complained of both in Scotland and in other places.' The Mississippi
+scheme, it is well known, ended in France in the bankruptcy of the
+public treasury, the crush of thousands and thousands of private
+fortunes, and scenes of desolation and distress equal to those of an
+invading army, burning and laying waste all before it.
+
+At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about 'a
+public debt being a public blessing'; that the stock representing it was
+a creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers
+in dreams, and the gulls of that size entered _bona fide_ into it. But
+the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It
+is established on the principle, that 'private debts are a public
+blessing;' that the evidences of those private debts, called bank-notes,
+become active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures,
+and agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for
+instance, who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our
+debt about two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they
+are, where they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when
+called on; nay, who have made us so sensible of the blessings of
+letting them run in our debt, that we have exempted them by law from the
+repayment of these debts beyond a given proportion, (generally estimated
+at one third.) And to fill up the measure of blessing, instead of
+paying, they receive an interest on what they owe from those to whom
+they owe; for all the notes, or evidences of what they owe, which we
+see in circulation, have been lent to somebody on an interest which is
+levied again on us through the medium of commerce. And they are so ready
+still to deal out their liberalities to us, that they are now willing to
+let themselves run in our debt ninety millions more, on our paying them
+the same premium of six or eight per cent, interest, and on the same
+legal exemption from the repayment of more than thirty millions of the
+debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look at this principle
+in its original form, and its copy will then be equally understood.
+'A public debt is a public blessing.' That our debt was juggled from
+forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount, according
+to this opinion, was a great public blessing, because the evidences of
+it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into active capital,
+and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active capital was
+created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in commerce the
+money due them from the public, and make from it an annual profit of
+five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that the
+public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the
+same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to
+either party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in
+the state of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from
+the public, of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on
+which he is receiving an annual interest. He wishes, however, to have
+the money itself, and to go into business with it. B has an equal sum of
+money in business, but wishes now to retire, and live on the interest.
+He therefore gives it to A, in exchange for A's certificates of public
+stock. Now, then, A has the money to employ in business, which B so
+employed before. B has the money on interest to live on, which A lived
+on before: and the public pays the interest to B, which they paid to
+A before. Here is no new creation of capital, no additional money
+employed, nor even a change in the employment of a single dollar.
+The only change is of place between A and B, in which we discover no
+creation of capital, nor public blessing. Suppose, again, the public to
+owe nothing. Then A not having lent his money to the public, would be
+in possession of it himself, and would go into business without the
+previous operation of selling stock. Here again, the same quantity of
+capital is employed as in the former case, though no public debt exists.
+In neither case is there any creation of active capital, nor other
+difference than that there is a public debt in the first case, and none
+in the last; and we may safely ask which of the two situations is most
+truly a public blessing? If, then, a public debt be no public blessing,
+we may pronounce _a fortiori_, that a private one cannot be so. If the
+debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to any body, it is to
+themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of eight or ten
+per cent, on it. As to the public, these companies have banished all our
+gold and silver medium, which, before their institution, we had without
+interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and would have
+been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of which, they have
+given us two hundred millions of froth and bubble, on which we are to
+pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air, as Morris's
+notes did. We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody on the
+principle of 'a public debt being a public blessing,' and its mutation
+into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as ridiculous
+as the original principle itself. In both cases, the truth is, that
+capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy: but
+jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with
+paper. I have called the actual circulation of bank paper in the United
+States, two hundred millions of dollars. I do not recollect where I have
+seen this estimate; but I retain the impression that I thought it just
+at the time. It may be tested, however, by a list of the banks now in
+the United States, and the amount of their capital. I have no means of
+recurring to such a list for the present day: but I turn to two lists in
+my possession for the years of 1803 and 1804.
+
+In 1803, there were thirty-four banks, whose capital was $28,902,000
+
+In 1804, there were sixty-six, consequently thirty-two additional ones.
+Their capital is not stated, but at the average of the others (excluding
+the highest, that of the United States, which was of ten millions)
+they would be of six hundred thousand dollars each, and
+add.........19,200,000
+
+Making a total of........ $48,102,000
+
+or say, of fifty millions in round numbers. Now every one knows the
+immense multiplication of these institutions since 1804. If they have
+only doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if
+trebled, as I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty
+millions, on which they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount.
+I should sooner, therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below
+than above the actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary
+document, (see Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other
+public papers of about that date) it appears that six years ago, the
+bank of England had twelve millions of pounds sterling in circulation,
+which had increased to forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and
+eighty-nine millions of dollars. What proportion all the other banks may
+add to this, I do not know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal
+it, this would give a circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight
+millions, or the double of ours on a double population. But that nation
+is essentially commercial, ours essentially agricultural, and needing,
+therefore, less circulating medium, because the produce of the
+husbandman comes but once a year, and is then partly consumed at home,
+partly exchanged by barter. The dollar, which was of four shillings and
+six pence sterling, was, by the same document, stated to be then six
+shillings and nine pence, a depreciation of exactly fifty per cent. The
+average price of wheat on the continent of Europe, at the commencement
+of its present war with England, was about a French crown, of one
+hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it was one hundred cents, and
+consequently we could send it there in competition with their own.
+That ordinary price has now doubled with us, and more than doubled in
+England; and although a part of this augmentation may proceed from the
+war demand, yet from the extraordinary nominal rise in the prices of
+land and labor here, both of which have nearly doubled in that period,
+and are still rising with every new bank, it is evident that were
+a general peace to take place to-morrow, and time allowed for the
+re-establishment of commerce, justice, and order, we could not afford
+to raise wheat for much less than two dollars, while the continent of
+Europe, having no paper circulation, and that of its specie not being
+augmented, would raise it at their former price of one hundred and ten
+cents. It follows, then, that with our redundancy of paper, we cannot,
+after peace, send a bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary
+circumstances double its price in particular places, and that then the
+exporting countries of Europe could undersell us. It is said our paper
+is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank
+where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have
+it: but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave
+a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form.
+It is a fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants of the
+banking cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of
+the vaults would hold out; but distance puts it out of the power of the
+country to do this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston
+bank, distant hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash.
+And while these calls are impracticable for the country, the banks have
+no fear of their being made from the towns; because their inhabitants
+are mostly on their books, and there on sufferance only and during good
+behavior.
+
+In this state of things, we are called on to add ninety millions more
+to the circulation. Proceeding in this career, it is infallible, that we
+must end where the revolutionary paper ended. Two hundred millions was
+the whole amount of all the emissions of the old Congress, at which
+point their bills ceased to circulate. We are now at that sum; but with
+treble the population, and of course a longer tether. Our depreciation
+is, as yet, but at about two for one. Owing to the support its credit
+receives from the small reservoirs of specie in the vaults of the banks,
+it is impossible to say at what point their notes will stop. Nothing
+is necessary to effect it but a general alarm; and that may take
+place whenever the public shall begin to reflect on, and perceive, the
+impossibility that the banks should repay this sum. At present, caution
+is inspired no farther than to keep prudent men from selling property
+on long payments. Let us suppose the panic to arise at three hundred
+millions, a point to which every session of the legislatures hastens
+us by long strides. Nobody dreams that they would have three hundred
+millions of specie to satisfy the holders of their notes. Were they even
+to stop now, no one supposes they have two hundred millions in cash, or
+even the sixty-six and two-thirds millions, to which amount alone the
+law obliges them to repay. One hundred and thirty-three and one-third
+millions of loss, then, is thrown on the public by law; and as to the
+sixty-six and two-thirds, which they are legally bound to pay, and ought
+to have in their vaults, every one knows there is no such amount of cash
+in the United States, and what would be the course with what they really
+have there? Their notes are refused. Cash is called for. The inhabitants
+of the banking towns will get what is in the vaults, until a few banks
+declare their insolvency; when, the general crush becoming evident, the
+others will withdraw even the cash they have, declare their bankruptcy
+at once, and leave an empty house and empty coffers for the holders of
+their notes. In this scramble of creditors, the country gets nothing,
+the towns but little. What are they to do? Bring suits? A million of
+creditors bring a million of suits against John Nokes and Robert Styles,
+wheresoever to be found? All nonsense. The loss is total. And a sum is
+thus swindled from our citizens, of seven times the amount of the real
+debt, and four times that of the factitious one of the United States,
+at the close of the war. All this they will justly charge on their
+legislatures; but this will be poor satisfaction for the two or three
+hundred millions they will have lost. It is time, then, for the public
+functionaries to look to this. Perhaps it may not be too late. Perhaps,
+by giving time to the banks, they may call in and pay off their paper
+by degrees. But no remedy is ever to be expected while it rests with
+the State legislatures. Personal motives can be excited through so many
+avenues to their will, that, in their hands, it will continue to go on
+from bad to worse, until the catastrophe overwhelms us. I still
+believe, however, that on proper representations of the subject, a great
+proportion of these legislatures would cede to Congress their power of
+establishing banks, saving the charter rights already granted. And this
+should be asked, not by way of amendment to the constitution, because
+until three fourths should consent, nothing could be done; but accepted
+from them one by one, singly, as their consent might be obtained. Any
+single State, even if no other should come into the measure, would find
+its interest in arresting foreign bank-paper immediately, and its own
+by degrees. Specie would flow in on them as paper disappeared. Their
+own banks would call in and pay off their notes gradually, and their
+constituents would thus be saved from the general wreck. Should the
+greater part of the States concede, as is expected, their power over
+banks to Congress, besides insuring their own safety, the paper of
+the non-conceding States might be so checked and circumscribed, by
+prohibiting its receipt in any of the conceding States, and even in the
+non-conceding as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other demands of the
+United States, or of the citizens of other States, that it would
+soon die of itself, and the medium of gold and silver be universally
+restored. This is what ought to be done. But it will not be done.
+_Carthago non delebitur_. The overbearing clamor of merchants,
+speculators, and projectors, will drive us before them with our eyes
+open, until, as in France, under the Mississippi bubble, our citizens
+will be overtaken by the crash of this baseless fabric, without
+other satisfaction than that of execrations on the heads of those
+functionaries, who, from ignorance, pusillanimity, or corruption, have
+betrayed the fruits of their industry into the hands of projectors and
+swindlers.
+
+When I speak comparatively of the paper emissions of the old Congress
+and the present banks, let it not be imagined that I cover them under
+the same mantle. The object of the former was a holy one; for if ever
+there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us
+independence. The object of the latter, is to enrich swindlers at the
+expense of the honest and industrious part of the nation.
+
+The sum of what has been said is, that pretermitting the constitutional
+question on the authority of Congress, and considering this application
+on the grounds of reason alone, it would be best that our medium should
+be so proportioned to our produce, as to be on a par with that of the
+countries with which we trade, and whose medium is in a sound state:
+that specie is the most perfect medium, because it will preserve its own
+level; because, having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die
+in our hands, and it is the surest resource of reliance in time of
+war: that the trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its
+convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the
+advantages of the precious metals: that it is liable to be abused, has
+been, is, and for ever will be abused, in every country in which it is
+permitted; that it is already at a term of abuse in these States, which
+has never been reached by any other nation, France excepted, whose
+dreadful catastrophe should be a warning against the instrument which
+produced it: that we are already at ten or twenty times the due quantity
+of medium; insomuch, that no man knows what his property is now worth,
+because it is bloating while he is calculating; and still less what
+it will be worth when the medium shall be relieved from its present
+dropsical state: and that it is a palpable falsehood to say we can have
+specie for our paper whenever demanded. Instead, then, of yielding to
+the cries of scarcity of medium set up by speculators, projectors, and
+commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be spared to begin the work of
+reducing it by such gradual means as may give time to private fortunes
+to preserve their poise, and settle down with the subsiding medium; and
+that, for this purpose, the States should be urged to concede to the
+General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive
+power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
+
+To the existence of banks of discount for cash, as on the continent of
+Europe, there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of
+abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals.
+I think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than
+legal, interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion
+as the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those
+of a year or more. Even banks of deposite, where cash should be lodged,
+and a paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled
+to a return of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances,
+travelling persons, he. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered
+and robbed, and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued
+without deposite, it would require skilful and strict regulation. This
+would differ from the bank of Amsterdam, in the circumstance that the
+cash could be re-demanded on returning the note.
+
+When I commenced this letter to you, my dear Sir, on Mr. Law's memorial,
+I expected a short one would have answered that. But as I advanced, the
+subject branched itself before me into so many collateral questions,
+that even the rapid views I have taken of each have swelled the volume
+of my letter beyond my expectations, and, I fear, beyond your patience.
+Yet on a revisal of it, I find no part which has not so much bearing on
+the subject as to be worth merely the time of perusal. I leave it
+then as it is; and will add only the assurances of my constant and
+affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 13, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 13, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of August the 22nd, I have received your favors of August the
+16th, September the 2nd, 14th, 15th, and, and Mrs. Adams's, of September
+the 20th. I now send you, according to your request, a copy of the
+syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with
+nerves, muscles, and flesh, is really beyond my time and information.
+Whoever could undertake it, would find great aid in Enfield's judicious
+abridgment of Brucker's History of Philosophy, in which he has reduced
+five or six quarto volumes, of one thousand pages each of Latin closely
+printed, to two moderate octavos of English open type.
+
+To compare the morals of the Old, with those of the New Testament, would
+require an attentive study of the former, a search through all its books
+for its precepts, and through all its history for its practices, and the
+principles they prove. As commentaries, too, on these, the philosophy of
+the Hebrews must be inquired into, their Mishna, their Gemara,
+Cabbala, Jezirah, Sonar, Cosri, and their Talmud, must be examined and
+understood, in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it would seem,
+has gone deeply into these repositories of their ethics, and Enfield his
+epitomizer, concludes in these words. 'Ethics were so little understood
+among the Jews, that, in their whole compilation called the Talmud,
+there is only one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of morals
+chiefly consisted in a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of
+Moses were deduced six hundred and thirteen precepts, which were divided
+into two classes, affirmative and negative, two hundred and forty-eight
+in the former, and three hundred and sixty-five in the latter. It may
+serve to give the reader some idea of the low state of moral philosophy
+among the Jews in the middle age, to add, that of the two hundred
+and forty-eight affirmative precepts, only three were considered as
+obligatory upon women; and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was
+judged sufficient to fulfil any one single law in the hour of death;
+the observance of the rest being deemed necessary, only to increase the
+felicity of the future life. What a wretched depravity of sentiment
+and manners must have prevailed, before such corrupt maxims could have
+obtained credit! It is impossible to collect from these writings a
+consistent series of moral doctrine. (Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.) It
+was the reformation of this wretched depravity of morals which Jesus
+undertook. In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should
+have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been
+muffled by priests who have travestied them into various forms, as
+instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the
+Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the
+Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations,
+their Logos and Demiurgos, AEons, and Daemons, male and female, with a
+long train of &c. &c. &c. or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must
+reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the
+very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphiboligisms into which
+they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had
+fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta,
+and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood
+themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and
+benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have
+performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out
+of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his,
+and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds, in a dunghill. The
+result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated
+doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the unlettered
+Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians, of the first
+century. Their Platonizing successors, indeed, in after times, in order
+to legitimate the corruptions which they had incorporated into the
+doctrines of Jesus, found it necessary to disavow the primitive
+Christians, who had taken their principles from the mouth of Jesus
+himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers cotemporary with them. They
+excommunicated their followers as heretics, branding them with the
+opprobrious name of Ebionites and Beggars. For a comparison of the
+Grecian philosophy with that of Jesus, materials might be largely drawn
+from the same source. Enfield gives a history and detailed account of
+the opinions and principles of the different sects. These relate to
+the Gods, their natures, grades, places, and powers; the demi-Gods and
+Demons, and their agency with man; the universe, its structure, extent,
+and duration; the origin of things from the elements of fire, water,
+air, and earth; the human soul, its essence and derivation; the _summum
+bonum_, and _finis bonorum_; with a thousand idle dreams and fancies on
+these and other subjects, the knowledge of which is withheld from man;
+leaving but a short chapter for his moral duties, and the principal
+section of that given to what he owes himself, to precepts for
+rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the evils of life, and for
+preserving his mind in a state of constant serenity.
+
+Such a canvass is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of
+one whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life.
+We must leave, therefore, to others, younger and more learned than
+we are, to prepare this euthanasia for Platonic Christianity, and its
+restoration to the primitive simplicity of its founder. I think you give
+a just outline of the theism of the three religions, when you say that
+the principle of the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and
+of the Christian the love of God.
+
+An expression in your letter of September the 14th, that 'the human
+understanding is a revelation from its maker,' gives the best solution
+that I believe can be given of the question, 'What did Socrates mean by
+his Daemon?' He was too wise to believe, and too honest to pretend, that
+he had real and familiar converse with a superior and invisible being.
+He probably considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason,
+as revelations, or inspirations from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on
+important occasions, by a special superintending providence.
+
+I acknowledge all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which
+you ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct
+imagination can permit itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being
+so superlative, the hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be
+followed with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation
+in giving him the palm over all the hymnists of every language, and of
+every time. Turn to the 148th psalm in Brady and Tate's version. Have
+such conceptions been ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th
+psalm is more to be esteemed for its pithiness than its poetry. Even
+Sternhold, the leaden Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the
+sublimity of his original, and expresses the majesty of God descending
+on the earth, in terms not unworthy of the subject.
+
+[Illustration: page225]
+
+The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are but
+mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
+
+The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian dissenters
+of Liverpool, in their printed form of prayer; but they are not always
+the best versions. Indeed, bad is the best of the English versions; not
+a ray of poetical genius having ever been employed on them. And how much
+depends on this, may be seen by comparing Brady and Tate's 15th psalm
+with Blacklock's _Justum et tenacem propositi virum_ of Horace, quoted
+in Hume's History, Car. 2. ch. 66. A translation of David in this style,
+or in that of Pompei's Cleanthes, might give us some idea of the merit
+of the original. The character, too, of the poetry of these hymns is
+singular to us; written in monostichs, each divided into strophe
+and antistrophe, the sentiment of the first member responded with
+amplification or antithesis in the second.
+
+On the subject of the Postscript of yours of August the 16th and of Mrs.
+Adams's letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has
+caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there
+is no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us,
+which experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time
+and silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can
+suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings
+up, until recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 28, 1813.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the
+subjects of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of
+August the 16th and September the 2nd.
+
+The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than
+a political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
+
+[Illustration: page226]
+
+and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who,
+while with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by
+employing always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement
+of his own race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the
+old, for considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with
+the principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by
+Ocellus in another form;
+
+[Illustration: page226a
+
+which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus
+translated; 'Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it
+shall be, in a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and
+sanctity, conjointly, this is what I think right. First, to lay it down
+that we do not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation
+of children. For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have
+not been given by God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the
+procreation of the race. For as it were incongruous for a mortal born
+to partake of divine life, the immortality of the race being taken away,
+God fulfilled the purpose by making the generations uninterrupted
+and continuous. This, therefore, we are especially to lay down as a
+principle, that coition is not for the sake of pleasure.' But nature,
+not trusting to this moral and abstract motive, seems to have provided
+more securely for the perpetuation of the species, by making it the
+effect of the _oestrum_ implanted in the constitution of both sexes.
+And not only has the commerce of love been indulged on this unhallowed
+impulse, but made subservient also to wealth and ambition by marriages,
+without regard to the beauty, the healthiness, the understanding, or
+virtue of the subject from which we are to breed. The selecting the best
+male for a Haram of well chosen females, also, which Theognis seems
+to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless
+improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of
+veritable
+
+[Illustration: page227].
+
+For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
+whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father
+to son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against
+this privileged Solomon and his Haram, and oblige us to continue
+acquiescence under the
+
+[Illustration: page227a],
+
+which Theognis complains of, and to content ourselves with the
+accidental _aristoi_ produced by the fortuitous concourse of breeders.
+For I agree with you, that there is a natural aristocracy among men.
+The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly, bodily powers
+gave place among the _aristoi_. But since the invention of gunpowder
+has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death,
+bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness, and other
+accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction.
+There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth,
+without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the
+first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious
+gift of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of
+society. And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to
+have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue
+and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even
+say, that that form of government is the best, which provides the most
+effectually for a pure selection of these natural _aristoi_ into the
+offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous
+ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its
+ascendancy. On the question, what is the best provision, you and I
+differ; but we differ as rational friends, using the free exercise of
+our own reason, and mutually indulging its errors. You think it best
+to put the pseudo-aristoi into a separate chamber of legislation, where
+they may be hindered from doing mischief by their co-ordinate branches,
+and where, also, they may be a protection to wealth against the Agrarian
+and plundering enterprises of the majority of the people. I think that
+to give them power in order to prevent them from doing mischief, is
+arming them for it, and increasing instead of remedying the evil. For
+if the co-ordinate branches can arrest their action, so may they that of
+the co-ordinates. Mischief may be done negatively as well as positively.
+Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the United States has furnished many
+proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy;
+because enough of these will find their way into every branch of the
+legislation, to protect themselves. From fifteen to twenty legislatures
+of our own, in action for thirty years past, have proved that no fears
+of an equalization of property are to be apprehended from them. I think
+the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our constitutions, to
+leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the _aristoi_
+from the _pseudo-aristoi_, of the wheat from the chaff. In general,
+they will elect the really good and wise. In some instances, wealth may
+corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient degree to endanger
+the society.
+
+It is probable that our difference of opinion may, in some measure, be
+produced by a difference of character in those among whom we live. From
+what I have seen of Massachusetts and Connecticut myself, and still
+more from what I have heard, and the character given of the former by
+yourself, (Vol. I, page 111,) who know them so much better, there seems
+to be in those two States a traditionary reverence for certain families,
+which has rendered the offices of government nearly hereditary in those
+families. I presume that from an early period of your history, members
+of these families happening to possess virtue and talents, have honestly
+exercised them for the good of the people, and by their services have
+endeared their names to them. In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean
+it politically only, not morally. For having made the Bible the common
+law of their land, they seem to have modeled their morality on the story
+of Jacob and Laban. But although this hereditary succession to office
+with you may, in some degree, be founded in real family merit, yet in a
+much higher degree, it has proceeded from your strict alliance of Church
+and State. These families are canonized in the eyes of the people on the
+common principle, 'You tickle me, and I will tickle you.' In Virginia,
+we have nothing of this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having been
+secured against rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give themselves the
+trouble of acquiring influence over the people. Of wealth, there were
+great accumulations in particular families, handed down from generation
+to generation, under the English law of entails. But the only object
+of ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the King's Council. All their
+court then was paid to the crown and its creatures; and they Philipized
+in all collisions between the King and the people. Hence they were
+unpopular; and that unpopularity continues attached to their names. A
+Randolph, a Carter, or a Burwell must have great personal superiority
+over a common competitor, to be elected by the people, even at this
+day. At the first session of our legislature after the Declaration of
+Independence, we passed a law abolishing entails. And this was followed
+by one abolishing the privilege of primogeniture, and dividing the
+lands of intestates equally among all their children, or other
+representatives. These laws, drawn by myself, laid the axe to the root
+of pseudo-aristocracy. And had another which I prepared been adopted by
+the legislature, our work would have been complete. It was a bill for
+the more general diffusion of learning. This proposed to divide every
+county into wards of five or six miles square, like your townships; to
+establish in each ward a free school for reading, writing, and common
+arithmetic; to provide for the annual selection of the best subjects
+from these schools, who might receive, at the public expense, a higher
+degree of education at a district school; and from these district
+schools to select a certain number of the most promising subjects, to
+be completed at an University, where all the useful sciences should
+be taught. Worth and genius would thus have been sought out from every
+condition of life, and completely prepared by education for defeating
+the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts. My proposition
+had, for a further object, to impart to these wards those portions of
+self-government for which they are best qualified, by confiding to them
+the care of their poor, their roads, police, elections, the nomination
+of jurors, administration of justice in small cases, elementary
+exercises of militia; in short, to have made them little republics, with
+a warden at the head of each, for all those concerns which, being under
+their eye, they would better manage than the larger republics of the
+county or State. A general call of ward-meetings by their wardens on the
+same day through the State, would at any time produce the genuine sense
+of the people on any required point, and would enable the State to act
+in mass, as your people have so often done, and with so much effect, by
+their town-meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made a part of
+this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and restored
+to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails and
+descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on
+education would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground
+of moral respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly
+government; and would have completed the great object of qualifying them
+to select the veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, to the
+exclusion of the pseudalists: and the same Theognis, who has furnished
+the epigraphs of your two letters, assures us that
+
+[Illustration: page229]
+
+Although this law has not yet been acted on but in a small and
+inefficient degree, it is still considered as before the legislature,
+with other bills of the revised code, not yet taken up, and I have great
+hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment, call it up,
+and make it the key-stone of the arch of our government.
+
+With respect to aristocracy, we should further consider, that before the
+establishment of the American States, nothing was known to history
+but the man of the old world, crowded within limits either small or
+overcharged, and steeped in the vices which that situation generates. A
+government adapted to such men would be one thing; but a very different
+one, that for the man of these States. Here every one may have land to
+labor for himself, if he chooses; or, preferring the exercise of any
+other industry, may exact for it such compensation as not only to afford
+a comfortable subsistence, but wherewith to provide for a cessation
+from labor in old age. Every one, by his property or by his satisfactory
+situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men
+may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control
+over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands
+of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted
+to the demolition and destruction of every thing public and private. The
+history of the last twenty-five years of France, and of the last forty
+years in America, nay, of its last two hundred years, proves the truth
+of both parts of this observation.
+
+But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man.
+Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and
+the American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
+insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents, and courage,
+against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed
+in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used
+for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could
+not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from
+the panic of this first catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents
+and enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of
+the country, a more governable power from their principles and
+subordination; and rank and birth and tinsel-aristocracy will finally
+shrink into insignificance, even there. This, however, we have no right
+to meddle with. It suffices for us, if the moral and physical condition
+of our own citizens qualifies them to select the able and good for the
+direction of their government, with a recurrence of elections at such
+short periods as will enable them to displace an unfaithful servant,
+before the mischief he meditates may be irremediable, I have thus
+stated my opinion on a point on which we differ, not with a view to
+controversy, for we are both too old to change opinions which are the
+result of a long life of inquiry and reflection; but on the suggestion
+of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to die before we have
+explained ourselves to each other. We acted in perfect harmony,
+through a long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence.
+A constitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us thinks
+perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens
+the happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone. If we do
+not think exactly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to
+our country, which, after devoting to it long lives of disinterested
+labor we have delivered over to our successors in life, who will be able
+to take care of it and of themselves.
+
+Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or who may be
+its author, I have heard nothing but through your letter. If the person
+you suspect, it may be known from the quaint, mystical, and hyperbolical
+ideas, involved in affected, newfangled, and pedantic terms, which stamp
+his writings. Whatever it be, I hope your quiet is not to be affected at
+this day by the rudeness or intemperance of scribblers; but that you may
+continue in tranquillity to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of
+our country, until it shall be your own wish to take your seat among the
+_aristoi_ who have gone before you.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVI.--TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814
+
+
+TO THOMAS LIEPER.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had hoped, when I retired from the business of the world, that I
+should have been permitted to pass the evening of life in tranquillity,
+undisturbed by the peltings and passions of which the public papers
+are the vehicles. I see, however, that I have been dragged into the
+newspapers by the infidelity of one with whom I was formerly intimate,
+but who has abandoned the American principles out of which that intimacy
+grew, and become the bigoted partisan of England, and malcontent of his
+own government. In a letter which he wrote me, he earnestly besought me
+to avail our country of the good understanding which subsisted between
+the executive and myself, by recommending an offer of such terms to
+our enemy as might produce a peace, towards which he was confident that
+enemy was disposed. In my answer, I stated the aggressions, the insults,
+and injuries which England had been heaping on us for years, our long
+forbearance in the hope she might be led by time and reflection to a
+sounder view of her own interests, and of their connection with justice
+to us, the repeated propositions for accommodation made by us, and
+rejected by her, and at length her Prince Regent's solemn proclamation
+to the world, that he would never repeal the orders in council as to
+us, until France should have revoked her illegal decrees as to all
+the world, and her minister's declaration to ours, that no admissible
+precaution against the impressment of our seamen could be proposed: that
+the unavoidable declaration of war which followed these was accompanied
+by advances for peace, on terms which no American could dispense with,
+made through various channels, and unnoticed and unanswered through
+any: but that if he could suggest any other conditions which we ought
+to accept, and which had not been repeatedly offered and rejected, I was
+ready to be the channel of their conveyance to the government: and, to
+show him that neither that attachment to Bonaparte nor French influence,
+which they allege eternally without believing it, themselves, affected
+my mind, I threw in the two little sentences, of the printed extract
+enclosed in your friendly favor of the 9th ultimo, and exactly these two
+little sentences, from a letter of two or three pages, he has thought
+proper to publish, naked, alone, and with my name, although other parts
+of the letter would have shown that I wished such limits only to the
+successes of Bonaparte, as should not prevent his completely closing
+Europe against British manufactures and commerce; and thereby reducing
+her to just terms of peace with us.
+
+Thus am I situated. I receive letters from all quarters, some from known
+friends, some from those who write like friends, on various subjects.
+What am I to do? Am I to button myself up in Jesuitical reserve, rudely
+declining any answer, or answering in terms so unmeaning, as only
+to prove my distrust? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of
+sentiment with the world? I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits
+and temper. I cannot act as if all men were unfaithful, because some are
+so; nor believe that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather
+be the victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general
+confidence in the honesty of man.
+
+So far as to the breach of confidence which has brought me into the
+newspapers, with a view to embroil me with my friends, by a supposed
+separation in opinion and principle from them. But it is impossible
+there can be any difference of opinion among us on the two propositions
+contained in these two little sentences, when explained, as they were
+explained in the context from which they were insulated. That Bonaparte
+is an unprincipled tyrant, who is deluging the continent of Europe with
+blood, there is not a human being, not even the wife of his bosom, who
+does not see: nor can there, I think, be a doubt as to the line we ought
+to wish drawn between his successes and those of Alexander. Surely none
+of us wish to see Bonaparte conquer Russia, and lay thus at his feet the
+whole continent of Europe. This done, England would be but a breakfast:
+and although I am free from the visionary fears which the votaries of
+England have affected to entertain, because I believe he cannot effect
+the conquest of Europe; yet put all Europe into his hands, and he might
+spare such a force, to be sent in British ships, as I would as lieve
+not have to encounter, when I see how much trouble a handful of British
+soldiers in Canada has given us. No. It cannot be our interest that all
+Europe should be reduced to a single monarchy. The true line of
+interest for us is, that Bonaparte should be able to effect the complete
+exclusion of England from the whole continent of Europe, in order, as
+the same letter said, 'by this peaceable engine of constraint, to make
+her renounce her views of dominion over the ocean, of permitting no
+other nation to navigate it but with her license, and on tribute to her,
+and her aggressions on the persons of our citizens who may choose to
+exercise their right of passing over that element.' And this would be
+effected by Bonaparte's succeeding so far as to close the Baltic against
+her. This success I wished him the last year, this I wish him this
+year; but were he again advanced to Moscow, I should again wish him
+such disasters as would prevent his reaching Petersburg. And were the
+consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war, I would
+rather meet them, than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a single
+hand.
+
+I have gone into this explanation, my friend, because I know you will
+not carry my letter to the newspapers, and because I am willing
+to entrust to your discretion the explaining me to our honest
+fellow-laborers, and the bringing them to pause and reflect, if any of
+them have not sufficiently reflected on the extent of the success we
+ought to wish to Bonaparte, with a view to our own interests only; and
+even were we not men, to whom nothing human should be indifferent. But
+is our particular interest to make us insensible to all sentiments of
+morality? Is it then become criminal, the moral wish that the torrents
+of blood this man is shedding in Europe, the sufferings of so many human
+beings, good as ourselves, on whose necks he is trampling, the burnings
+of ancient cities, devastations of great countries, the destruction of
+law and order, and demoralization of the world, should be arrested, even
+if it should place our peace a little further distant? No. You and
+I cannot differ in wishing that Russia, and Sweden, and Denmark, and
+Germany, and Spain, and Portugal, and Italy, and even England, may
+retain their independence. And if we differ in our opinions about Towers
+and his four beasts and ten kingdoms, we differ as friends, indulging
+mutual errors, and doing justice to mutual sincerity and honesty. In
+this spirit of sincere confidence and affection, I pray God to bless you
+here and hereafter.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVII.--TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES.
+
+Monticello, January 2,1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of November the 25th reached this place December the 21st,
+having been near a month on the way. How this could happen I know not,
+as we have two mails a week both from Fredericksburg and Richmond. It
+found me just returned from a long journey and absence, during which
+so much business had accumulated, commanding the first attentions, that
+another week has been added to the delay.
+
+I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have
+passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
+who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of
+a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which
+we are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and
+lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and
+a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by
+forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been
+produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with
+you; and I have read with great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on
+that subject, which I now return. It is at the same time a perfect model
+of the style of discussion which candor and decency should observe,
+of the tone which renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a
+succinct, correct, and dispassionate history of the origin and progress
+of party among us. It might be incorporated, as it stands, and without
+changing a word, into the history of the present epoch, and would give
+to posterity a fairer view of the times than they will probably derive
+from other sources. In reading it, with great satisfaction, there was
+but a single passage where I wished a little more developement of a very
+sound and catholic idea; a single intercalation to rest it solidly on
+true bottom. It is near the end of the first page, where you make a
+statement of genuine republican maxims; saying, 'that the people ought
+to possess as much political power as can possibly consist with the
+order and security of society.' Instead of this, I would say, 'that
+the people, being the only safe depository of power, should exercise in
+person every function which their qualifications enable them to exercise
+consistently with the order and security of society; that we now find
+them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
+their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the
+judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that the range of their
+powers ought to be enlarged,' &c. This gives both the reason and
+exemplification of the maxim you express, 'that they ought to possess as
+much political power,' &c. I see nothing to correct either in your facts
+or principles.
+
+You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him
+harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic.
+I do not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of
+his mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
+seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think I knew
+General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to
+delineate his character, it should be in terms like these.
+
+His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order;
+his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon,
+or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was
+slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but
+sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of
+the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all
+suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no General
+ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the
+course of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden
+circumstances, he was slow in a re-adjustment. The consequence was, that
+he often failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as
+at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers
+with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his
+character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every
+consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but,
+when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles
+opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I
+have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship
+or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every
+sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was
+naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had
+obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it
+broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he
+was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised
+utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all
+unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections;
+but he exactly calculated every man's value, and gave him a solid esteem
+proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
+what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best
+horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that could be seen
+on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might
+be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
+his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
+copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on
+for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he
+wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This
+he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education
+was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added
+surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly,
+reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His
+correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing
+his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within
+doors. On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing
+bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did
+nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to
+place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited
+from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny
+and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an
+arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting
+its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and
+principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train;
+and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career,
+civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other
+example. How, then, can it be perilous for you to take such a man on
+your shoulders? I am satisfied the great body of republicans think of
+him as I do. We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on his ratification
+of the British treaty. But this was short-lived. We knew his honesty,
+the wiles with which he was encompassed, and that age had already begun
+to relax the firmness of his purposes; and I am convinced he is more
+deeply seated in the love and gratitude of the republicans, than in the
+Pharisaical homage of the federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist
+from preference of his judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct
+views of the rights of man, and his severe justice devoted him to them.
+He has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as
+an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with
+what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he was
+determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose
+the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these declarations he
+repeated to me the oftener and the more pointedly, because he knew my
+suspicions of Colonel Hamilton's views, and probably had heard from
+him the same declarations which I had, to wit, 'that the British
+constitution, with its unequal representation, corruption, and other
+existing abuses, was the most perfect government which had ever been
+established on earth, and that a reformation of these abuses would make
+it an impracticable government.' I do believe that General Washington
+had not a firm confidence in the durability of our government. He was
+naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy apprehensions:
+and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at length end in
+something like a British constitution, had some weight in his adoption
+of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with Congress,
+and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us
+gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on
+with as little shock as might be to the public mind.
+
+These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the
+judgment-seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty
+years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the
+Revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us
+to take command of the army. During the war and after it we corresponded
+Occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office
+of Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and
+cordial. After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains
+were taken by our federal monarchists, and not entirely without
+effect, to make him view me as a theorist, holding French principles of
+government, which would lead infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy.
+And to this he listened the more easily, from my known disapprobation
+of the British treaty. I never saw him afterwards, or these malignant
+insinuations should have been dissipated before his just judgment, as
+mists before the sun. I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that
+'verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.'
+
+More time and recollection would enable me to add many other traits of
+his character; but why add them to you, who knew him well? And I cannot
+justify to myself a longer detention of your paper.
+
+_Vale, proprieque tuum me esse tibi persuadeas_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1814.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 23d is received. Say had come to hand safely. But I
+regretted having asked the return of him; for I did not find in him one
+new idea on the subject I had been contemplating; nothing more than a
+succinct, judicious digest of the tedious pages of Smith.
+
+You ask my opinion on the question, whether the States can add any
+qualifications to those which the constitution has prescribed for their
+members of Congress? It is a question I had never before reflected on;
+yet had taken up an off-hand opinion, agreeing with your first,
+that they could not: that to add new qualifications to those of the
+constitution, would be as much an alteration, as to detract from them.
+And so I think the House of Representatives of Congress decided in some
+case; I believe that of a member from Baltimore. But your letter having
+induced me to look into the constitution, and to consider the question
+a little, I am again in your predicament, of doubting the correctness of
+my first opinion. Had the constitution been silent, nobody can doubt but
+that the right to prescribe all the qualifications and disqualifications
+of those they would send to represent them, would have belonged to the
+State. So also the constitution might have prescribed the whole, and
+excluded all others. It seems to have preferred the middle way. It has
+exercised the power in part, by declaring some disqualifications, to
+wit, those of not being twenty-five years of age, of not having been a
+citizen seven years, and of not being an inhabitant of the State at the
+time of election. But it does not declare, itself, that the member shall
+not be a lunatic, a pauper, a convict of treason, of murder, of felony,
+or other infamous crime, or a non-resident of his district; nor does
+it prohibit to the State the power of declaring these, or any other
+disqualifications which its particular circumstances may call for: and
+these may be different in different States. Of course, then, by the
+tenth amendment, the power is reserved to the State. If, wherever the
+constitution assumes a single power out of many which belong to the same
+subject, we should consider it as assuming the whole, it would vest
+the General Government with a mass of powers never contemplated. On the
+contrary, the assumption of particular powers seems an exclusion of all
+not assumed. This reasoning appears to me to be sound; but, on so recent
+a change of view, caution requires us not to be too confident, and that
+we admit this to be one of the doubtful questions on which honest men
+may differ with the purest motives; and the more readily, as we find we
+have differed from ourselves on it.
+
+I have always thought, that where the line of demarcation between
+the powers of the General and State governments was doubtfully or
+indistinctly drawn, it would be prudent and praiseworthy in both
+parties, never to approach it but under the most urgent necessity.
+Is the necessity now urgent, to declare that no non-resident of his
+district shall be eligible as a member of Congress? It seems to me that,
+in practice, the partialities of the people are a sufficient security
+against such an election; and that if, in any instance, they should
+ever choose a non-resident, it must be in one of such eminent merit and
+qualifications, as would make it a good, rather than an evil; and that,
+in any event, the examples will be so rare, as never to amount to a
+serious evil. If the case then be neither clear nor urgent, would it not
+be better to let it lie undisturbed? Perhaps its decision may never
+be called for. But if it be indispensable to establish this
+disqualification now, would it not look better to declare such others,
+at the same time, as may be proper? I frankly confide to yourself these
+opinions, or rather no-opinions, of mine; but would not wish to have
+them go any farther. I want to be quiet: and although some circumstances
+now and then excite me to notice them, I feel safe, and happier in
+leaving events to those whose turn it is to take care of them; and, in
+general, to let it be understood, that I meddle little or not at all
+with public affairs. There are two subjects, indeed, which I shall claim
+a right to further as long as I breathe, the public education and the
+subdivision of the counties into wards. I consider the continuance of
+republican government as absolutely hanging on these two hooks. Of the
+first, you will, I am sure, be an advocate, as having already
+reflected on it, and of the last, when you shall have reflected. Ever
+affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 5, 1814
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 5, 1814
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Since mine of January the 24th, yours of March the 14th has been
+received. It was not acknowledged in the short one of May the 18th, by
+Mr. Rives, the only object of that having been to enable one of our most
+promising young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. I
+learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned in your letter;
+and I hope Mr. Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored.
+But our machines have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we
+must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now
+a pinion, next a spring, will be giving way; and however we may tinker
+them up for a while, all will at length surcease motion. Our watches,
+with works of brass and steel, wear out within that period. Shall you
+and I last to see the course the seven-fold wonders of the times will
+take? The Attila of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of
+ten millions of the human race, whose thirst for blood appeared
+unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights and liberties of
+the world, shut up within the circuit of a little island of the
+Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and degraded
+pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. How miserably, how
+meanly, has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of the bathos
+will his history present! He should have perished on the swords of his
+enemies, under the walls of Paris.
+
+[Illustration: page240]
+
+But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a
+cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no
+statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil
+government, and supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed
+him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly _des Cinq Cens_,
+eighteenth _Brumaire_ (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as
+a great scoundrel only. To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add
+that of a Czar of Muscovy, dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all
+the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the balance in which the
+fortunes of this new world are suspended. I own, that while I rejoice,
+for the good of mankind, in the deliverance of Europe from the havoc
+which would have never ceased while Bonaparte should have lived in
+power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the ocean remaining in vigor,
+and even participating in the merit of crushing his brother tyrant.
+While the world is thus turned upside down, on which side of it are
+we? All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of peace; the
+interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and even the
+interests of England. Her passions alone are opposed to it. Peace would
+seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed. Her
+orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers,
+and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I
+fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public
+papers, of demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will
+Massachusetts say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered
+as speaking through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of
+its will. She chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens,
+in which we were all interested, and with them her obligations to the
+co-States, rather than war with England. Will she now sacrifice the
+fisheries to the same partialities? This question is interesting to her
+alone; for to the middle, the southern, and western States, they are
+of no direct concern; of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and
+cotton to Massachusetts. I am really at a loss to conjecture what our
+refractory sister will say on this occasion. I know what, as a citizen
+of the Union, I would say to her. 'Take this question ad referendum. It
+concerns you alone. If you would rather, give up the fisheries than war
+with England, we give them up. If you had rather fight for them, we will
+defend your interests to the last drop of our blood, choosing rather to
+set a good example than follow a bad one.' And I hope she will determine
+to fight for them. With this, however, you and I shall have nothing
+to do; ours being truly the case wherein '_Non tali auxilio, nec
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.' Quitting this subject, therefore, I
+will turn over another leaf.
+
+I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my
+other home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than here for
+reading, I amused myself with reading seriously Plato's Republic. I
+am wrong, however, in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest
+task-work I ever went through. I had occasionally before taken up some
+of his other works, but scarcely ever had patience to go through a
+whole dialogue. While wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and
+unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself,
+how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to
+give reputation to such nonsense as this. How the soi-disant Christian
+world, indeed, should have done it, is a piece of historical curiosity.
+But how could the Roman good sense do it? And particularly, how could
+Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? Although Cicero did not wield
+the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he was able, learned, laborious,
+practised in the business of the world and honest. He could not be the
+dupe of mere style, of which he was himself the first master in the
+world. With the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and
+authority. Education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their
+profession, have an interest in the reputation and the dreams of Plato.
+They give the tone while at school, and few in their after years have
+occasion to revise their college opinions. But fashion and authority
+apart, and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him, his
+sophisms, futilities, and incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In
+truth, he is one of the race of genuine sophists, who has escaped the
+oblivion of his brethren, first, by the elegance of his diction, but
+chiefly by the adoption and incorporation of his whimsies into the body
+of artificial Christianity. His foggy mind is for ever presenting the
+semblances of objects which, half seen through a mist, can be defined
+neither in form nor dimension. Yet this, which should have consigned
+him to early oblivion, really procured him immortality of fame and
+reverence. The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ
+levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw
+in the mysticisms of Plato materials with which they might build up
+an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, admit
+everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce
+it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from
+the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but
+thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on
+them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be explained.
+Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and it is
+now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle of
+Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
+of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
+arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
+it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
+the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
+living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts
+of the field or forest. Yet 'Plato is a great philosopher,' said La
+Fontaine. But, says Fontenelle, 'Do you find his ideas very clear.' 'Oh,
+no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.' 'Do you not find him full
+of contradictions?' 'Certainly,' replied La Fontaine, 'he is but a
+sophist.' Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, 'Oh, Plato was a
+great philosopher.' Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
+misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
+Socrates.
+
+But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I
+am glad to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not
+receive them as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth
+are born under happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all
+learning in their mother's womb, and bring it into the world ready made.
+The information of books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which
+is not innate is in contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must
+run its round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning and
+self-sufficiency; of rejecting the knowledge acquired in past ages, and
+starting on the new ground of intuition. When sobered by experience,
+I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of
+education. I mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the
+petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every
+neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, and sometimes
+Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the first six books of Euclid,
+imagine and communicate this as the sum of science. They commit their
+pupils to the theatre of the world, with just taste enough of learning
+to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and not enough to do service
+in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions, indeed. I presented
+one to you lately, and we have some others. But the terms I use are
+general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be seen of
+establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch of
+science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have
+you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I
+mean to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in
+human affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many
+professors only, as might bring them within the views of a just but
+enlightened economy? I should be happy in a communication of your ideas
+on this problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my being run
+away with by another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of
+the present letter, I will here present to Mrs. Adams and yourself, the
+assurance of my constant and sincere friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXX.--TO COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815
+
+TO COLONEL MONROE.
+
+Monticello, January 1, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been
+received with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the
+ocean of newspaper lies, serves like headlands to correct our course.
+Indeed, my scepticism as to every thing I see in a newspaper, makes me
+indifferent whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in
+August last, I expected would be great in any state of things; but they
+proved greater than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the
+President were wise and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1.
+To the insubordinate temper of Armstrong: and, 2. To the indecision of
+Winder. However, it ends well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check,
+perhaps, the silly boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the
+feelings of the world on our side: and the advantage of public opinion
+is like that of the weather-gage in a naval action. In Europe, the
+transient possession of our Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every
+Capital there was in possession of its enemy some often and long. But
+diabolical as they paint that enemy, he burnt neither public edifices
+nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show that
+Bonaparte, in atrocity, was an infant to their ministers and their
+generals. They are taking his place in the eyes of Europe, and have
+turned into our channel all its good will. This will be worth the
+million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost us.
+I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to
+counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English
+papers, the government will make it a standing instruction to
+their ministers at foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of
+occurrences here, by publishing in their papers the naked truth always,
+whether favorable or unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we
+candidly tell them the bad also.
+
+But you have two more serious causes of uneasiness; the want of men and
+money. For the former, nothing more wise or efficient could have been
+imagined than what you proposed. It would have filled our ranks with
+regulars, and that, too, by throwing a just share of the burthen on the
+purses of those whose persons are exempt either by age or office; and it
+would have rendered our militia, like those of the Greeks and Romans,
+a nation of warriors. But the go-by seems to have been given to your
+proposition, and longer sufferance is necessary to force us to what is
+best. We seem equally incorrigible in our financial course. Although a
+century of British experience has proved to what a wonderful extent the
+funding on specific redeeming taxes enables a nation to anticipitate
+in war the resources of peace, and although the other nations of Europe
+have tried and trodden every path of force or folly in fruitless quest
+of the same object, yet we still expect to find, in juggling tricks and
+banking dreams, that money can be made out of nothing, and in sufficient
+quantity to meet the expenses of a heavy war by sea and land. It is
+said, indeed, that money cannot be borrowed from our merchants as from
+those of England. But it can be borrowed from our people. They will give
+you all the necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt
+trash they now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will
+give them a paper-promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for
+common circulation. But you say the merchants will not take this paper.
+What the people take the merchants must take, or sell nothing. All these
+doubts and fears prove only the extent of the dominion which the
+banking institutions have obtained over the minds of our citizens, and
+especially of those inhabiting cities or other banking places; and this
+dominion must be broken, or it will break us. But here, as in the other
+case, we must make up our mind to suffer yet longer before we can
+get right. The misfortune is, that in the mean time, we shall plunge
+ourselves into inextinguishable debt, and entail on our posterity an
+inheritance of eternal taxes, which will bring our government and people
+into the condition of those of England, a nation of pikes and gudgeons,
+the latter bred merely as food for the former. But, however these two
+difficulties of men and money may be disposed of, it is fortunate that
+neither of them will affect our war by sea. Privateers will find their
+own men and money. Let nothing be spared to encourage them. They are the
+dagger which strikes at the heart of the enemy, their commerce. Frigates
+and seventy-fours are a sacrifice we must make, heavy as it is, to the
+prejudices of a part of our citizens. They have, indeed, rendered a
+great moral service, which has delighted me as much as any one in the
+United States. But they have had no physical effect sensible to the
+enemy; and now, while we must fortify them in our harbors, and keep
+armies to defend them, our privateers are bearding and blockading the
+enemy in their own sea-ports. Encourage them to burn all their prizes,
+and let the public pay for them. They will cheat us enormously. No
+matter; they will make the merchants of England feel, and squeal, and
+cry out for peace.
+
+I much regretted your acceptance of the war department. Not that I know
+a person who I think would better conduct it. But, conduct it ever so
+wisely, it will be a sacrifice of yourself. Were an angel from Heaven
+to undertake that office, all our miscarriages would be ascribed to
+him. Raw troops, no troops, insubordinate militia, want of arms, want of
+money, want of provisions, all will be charged to want of management in
+you. I speak from experience, when I was Governor of Virginia. Without a
+regular in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of
+the militia, invaded by two armies, Arnold's from the sea-board, and
+Cornwallis's from the southward,--when we were driven from Richmond and
+Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it
+was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them,
+which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.
+It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not
+till means were brought us by General Washington's army, and the French
+fleet and army. And although the legislature, who were personally
+intimate with both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and
+thanks, yet General Lee has put all those imputations among the
+romances of his historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and
+uninquisitive readers. Not that I have seen the least disposition to
+censure you. On the contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington
+has met the praises of every one, and your plan for regulars and
+militia, their approbation. But no campaign is as yet opened. No
+generals have yet an interest in shifting their own incompetence on you,
+no army agents, their rogueries. I sincerely pray you may never meet
+censure where you will deserve most praise, and that your own happiness
+and prosperity may be the result of your patriotic services.
+
+Ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, February 14, 1815.
+
+Mr Dear Friend,
+
+Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and
+again, with extraordinary pleasure. It is the first glimpse which has
+been furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but
+fortunate revolution of your country. The newspapers told us only that
+the great beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted,
+and what the egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were
+awake to their own interests only, the hireling scribblers of the
+English press said little, and knew less. I see now the mortifying
+alternative under which the patriot there is placed, of being either
+silent, or disgraced by an association in opposition with the remains
+of Bonaparteism. A full measure of liberty is not now perhaps to
+be expected by your nation; nor am I confident they are prepared
+to preserve it. More than a generation will be requisite, under the
+administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in
+the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent
+security of person and property, before they will be capable of
+estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence
+to the principles on which it rests for preservation. Instead of that
+liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of reason, if
+recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes, with an unprepared
+people, a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one. Possibly you
+may remember, at the date of the _jeu de paume_, how earnestly I urged
+yourself and the patriots of my acquaintance to enter then into a
+compact with the King, securing freedom of religion, freedom of the
+press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and a national legislature, all of
+which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and let these work
+on the amelioration of the condition of the people, until they should
+have rendered them capable of more, when occasions would not fail to
+arise for communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought
+them able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought
+otherwise, and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you were
+right; for subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitution
+of 1791. Unfortunately, some of the most honest and enlightened of our
+patriotic friends (but closet politicians merely, unpractised in the
+knowledge of man) thought more could still be obtained and borne. They
+did not weigh the hazards of a transition from one form of government to
+another, the value of what they had already rescued from those hazards,
+and might hold in security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving
+up the certainty of such a degree of liberty, under a limited monarch,
+for the uncertainty of a little more under the form of a republic. You
+differed from them. You were for stopping there, and for securing the
+constitution which the National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you
+were right; and from this fatal error of the republicans, from their
+separation from yourself and the constitutionalists, in their councils,
+flowed all the subsequent sufferings and crimes of the French nation.
+The hazards of a second change fell upon them by the way. The foreigner
+gained time to anarchize by gold the government he could not overthrow
+by arms, to crush in their own councils the genuine republicans, by the
+fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hired pretenders, and to turn the
+machine of Jacobinism from the change to the destruction of order: and,
+in the end, the limited monarchy they had secured was exchanged for
+the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of Robespierre, and the equally
+unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte. You are now rid of him,
+and I sincerely wish you may continue so. But this may depend on the
+wisdom and moderation of the restored dynasty. It is for them now to
+read a lesson in the fatal errors of the republicans; to be contented
+with a certain portion of power, secured by formal compact with the
+nation, rather than, grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty, and
+risk meeting the fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own
+exile. We are just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true,
+their most profound contemplation. The gazettes say, that Ferdinand of
+Spain is dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their
+new constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that
+although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their whole
+length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken place, yet
+that men have by no means fallen back to their former passiveness; but
+on the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a restlessness to
+obtain them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, and, if not quieted
+by reasonable relaxations of power, will break out like a volcano on
+the first occasion, and overwhelm every thing again in its way. I always
+thought the present King an honest and moderate man: and having
+no issue, he is under a motive the less for yielding to personal
+considerations. I cannot, therefore, but hope, that the patriots in and
+out of your legislature, acting in phalanx, but temperately and wisely,
+pressing unremittingly the principles omitted in the late capitulation
+of the King, and watching the occasions which the course of events will
+create, may get those principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by
+the solemnity of a national act.
+
+With us the affairs of war have taken the more favorable turn which
+was to be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, or
+superannuated, all our revolutionary officers of experience and grade;
+and our first draught in the lottery of untried characters had been
+most unfortunate. The delivery of the fort and army of Detroit, by the
+traitor Hull; the disgrace at Queenstown, under Van Rensellaer; the
+massacre at Frenchtown, under Winchester; and surrender of Boerstler
+in an open field to one third of his own numbers, were the inauspicious
+beginnings of the first year of our warfare. The second witnessed but
+the single miscarriage occasioned by the disagreement of Wilkinson and
+Hampton, mentioned in my letter to you of November the 30th, 1813; while
+it gave us the capture of York by Dearborn and Pike; the capture of Fort
+George by Dearborn also; the capture of Proctor's army on the Thames by
+Harrison, Shelby, and Johnson; and that of the whole British fleet
+on Lake Erie by Perry. The third year has been a continued series of
+victories; to wit, of Brown and Scott at Chippeway; of the same at
+Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie; that of Brown over
+Drummond at the same place; the capture of another fleet on Lake
+Champlain by M'Donough; the entire defeat of their army under Prevost,
+on the same day, by M'Comb, and recently their defeats at New Orleans by
+Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four thousand men out of
+nine thousand and six hundred, with their two Generals, Packingham and
+Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded, mortally, as is said.
+
+This series of successes has been tarnished only by the conflagrations
+at Washington, a _coup de main_ differing from that at Richmond, which
+you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the circumstance only, that
+we had, in that case, but forty-eight hour's notice that an enemy had
+arrived within our capes; whereas at Washington there was abundant
+previous notice. The force designated by the President was the double of
+what was necessary; but failed, as is the general opinion, through
+the insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack
+intended until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder
+before the occasion, and his indecision during it. Still, in the end,
+the transaction has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general
+indignation of our country, and by marking to the world of Europe the
+Vandalism and brutal character of the English government. It has merely
+served to immortalize their infamy. And add further, that through the
+whole period of the war, we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and
+so thoroughly established our superiority over them with equal force,
+that they retire from that kind of contest, and never suffer their
+frigates to cruise singly. The Endymion would never have engaged the
+frigate President, but knowing herself backed by three frigates and
+a razee, who, though somewhat slower sailors, would get up before she
+could be taken. The disclosure to the world of the fatal secret that
+they can be beaten at sea with an equal force, the evidence furnished by
+the military operations of the last year that experience is rearing us
+officers, who, when our means shall be fully under way, will plant our
+standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax, their recent and signal
+disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of their hopes from the
+Hartford Convention, will probably raise a clamor in the British nation,
+which will force their ministry into peace. I say force them; because,
+willingly, they would never be at peace. The British ministers find in
+a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the various contractors,
+and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of the war supplies,
+that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new ones, and therefore
+will not make peace, as long as by any delusions they can keep the
+temper of the nation up to the war point. They found some hopes on
+the state of our finances. It is true, that the excess of our banking
+institutions, and their present discredit, have shut us out from the
+best source of credit we could ever command with certainty. But the
+foundations of credit still remain to us, and need but skill, which
+experience will soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may
+carry us through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their
+Hartford Convention. Their fears of republican France being now done
+away, they are directed to republican America, and they are playing the
+same game for disorganization here, which they played in your country.
+The Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in
+the same pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to
+anarchize us, that their prototypes in France did there.
+
+I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same motives of
+money: nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, and wish to
+be Ins; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of their own party
+passions; while the Maratists alone are in the real secret: but they
+have very different materials to work on. The yeomanry of the United
+States are not the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them leave to
+go through the United States recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied
+they could not raise one single regiment (gambling merchants and
+silk-stocking clerks excepted), who would support them in any effort to
+separate from the Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood
+of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government
+established on so immovable a basis. Let them, in any State, even in
+Massachusetts itself, raise the standard of separation, and its citizens
+will rise in mass, and do justice themselves on their own incendiaries.
+If they could have induced the government to some effort of suppression,
+or even to enter into discussion with them, it would have given them
+some importance, have brought them into some notice. But they have not
+been able to make themselves even a subject of conversation, either of
+public or private societies. A silent contempt has been the sole notice
+they could excite; consoled, indeed, some of them, by the palpable
+favors of Philip. Have then no fears for us, my friend. The grounds
+of these exist only in English newspapers, endited or endowed by the
+Castlereaghs or the Cannings, or some other such models of pure and
+uncorrupted virtue. Their military heroes, by land and sea, may sink our
+oyster-boats, rob our hen-roosts, burn our negro-huts, and run off. But
+a campaign or two more will relieve them from further trouble or expense
+in defending their American possessions.
+
+You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in Virginia, in
+1781, which I must have lent to some one of the undertakers to write
+the history of the revolutionary war, and forgot to reclaim. I conclude
+this, because it is no longer among my papers, which I have very
+diligently searched for it, but in vain. An author of real ability
+is now writing that part of the history of Virginia. He does it in my
+neighborhood, and I lay open to him all my papers. But I possess none,
+nor has he any, which can enable him to do justice to your faithful and
+able services in that campaign. If you could be so good as to send me
+another copy, by the very first vessel bound to any port of the United
+States, it might be here in time; for although he expects to begin
+to print within a month or two, yet you know the delays of these
+undertakings. At any rate, it might be got in as a supplement. The old
+Count Rochambeau gave me also his memoire of the operations at York,
+which is gone the same way, and I have no means of applying to his
+family for it. Perhaps you could render them as well as us, the service
+of procuring another copy.
+
+I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Tesse.
+They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I have
+sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris once
+more, for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I never
+permitted myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of seventy-three
+at the loss of friends, may be the less, as the time is shorter within
+which we are to meet again, according to the creed of our education.
+
+This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young gentleman of
+Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and preparation for
+a life of distinction, in his own country. He passed a few days with
+me here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams and others, and
+appeared in every respect to merit them. He is well worthy of those
+attentions which you so kindly bestow on our countrymen, and for those
+he may receive I shall join him in acknowledging personal obligations.
+
+I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th; Jefferson.
+
+
+P.S. February 26. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I received
+news of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we closed our
+war with the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I consider it as an
+armistice only, because no security is provided against the impressment
+of our seamen. While this is unsettled we are in hostility of mind with
+England, although actual deeds of arms may be suspended by a truce. If
+she thinks the exercise of this outrage is worth eternal war, eternal
+war it must be, or extermination of the one or the other party. The
+first act of impressment she commits on an American, will be answered
+by reprisal, or by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be
+merely a state of preparation for it. In this we have much to do,
+in further fortifying our seaport towns, providing military stores,
+classing and disciplining our militia, arranging our financial, system,
+and above all, pushing our domestic manufactures, which have taken such
+root as never again can be shaken. Once more, God bless you. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXII.*--TO MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. WENDOVER.
+
+Monticello, March 13, 1815.
+
+     [* This is endorsed;' not sent.']
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 30th was received after long delay on the
+road, and I have to thank you for the volume of Discourses which you
+have been so kind as to send me. I have gone over them with great
+satisfaction, and concur with the able preacher in his estimate of
+the character of the belligerents in our late war, and lawfulness of
+defensive war. I consider the war, with him, as 'made on good advice,'
+that is, for just causes, and its dispensation as providential,
+inasmuch, as it has exercised our patriotism and submission to order,
+has planted and invigorated among us arts of urgent necessity, has
+manifested the strong and the weak parts of our republican institutions,
+and the excellence of a representative democracy compared with the
+misrule of Kings, has rallied the opinions of mankind to the natural
+rights of expatriation, and of a common property in the ocean, and
+raised us to that grade in the scale of nations which the bravery and
+liberality of our citizen soldiers, by land and by sea, the wisdom of
+our institutions and their observance of justice, entitled us to in the
+eyes of the world. All this Mr. McLeod has well proved, and from those
+sources of argument particularly which belong to his profession. On one
+question only I differ from him, and it is that which constitutes the
+subject of his first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs
+in the pulpit. I add the last words, because I admit the right in
+general conversation and in writing; in which last form it has been
+exercised in the valuable book you have now favored me with.
+
+The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the field of
+knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
+extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
+less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
+necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each
+of which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and
+attention of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages,
+teachers of Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of
+Medicine, of Law, of History, of Government, &c. Religion, too, is a
+separate department, and happens to be the only one deemed requisite
+for all men, however high or low. Collections of men associate together,
+under the name of congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the
+particular sect of opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute
+to make up a stipend as a compensation for the trouble of delivering
+them, at such periods as they agree on, lessons in the religion they
+profess. If they want instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply
+to other instructers; and this is generally the business of early life.
+But I suppose there is not an instance of a single congregation which
+has employed their preacher for the mixt purpose of lecturing them
+from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in Medicine, in Law, in the science and
+principles of Government, or in any thing but Religion exclusively.
+Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of a lesson in religion,
+put them off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical
+affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or
+conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving
+their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and
+giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if wanted, would
+rather seek from better sources in that particular art or science. In
+choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications, without
+inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we mean to
+have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which may
+twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
+they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example,
+it is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
+religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know
+how to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors:
+the preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
+understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
+religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and
+give us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And
+so ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the
+branches of science into any one of them, and the physician who is
+paid to visit the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and
+the merchant to whom money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief
+instead of it. But not withstanding this possible confusion of all
+sciences into one, common sense draws lines between them sufficiently
+distinct for the general purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to
+understand that a recipe in medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in
+geometry, is not a lesson in religion. I do not deny that a congregation
+may, if they please, agree with their preacher that he shall instruct
+them in Medicine also, or Law, or Politics. Then, lectures in these,
+from the pulpit, become not only a matter of right, but of duty also.
+But this must be with the consent of every individual; because the
+association being voluntary, the mere majority has no right to apply the
+contributions of the minority to purposes unspecified in the agreement
+of the congregation. I agree, too, that on all other occasions the
+preacher has the right, equally with every other citizen, to express his
+sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the subjects of Medicine, Law,
+Politics, he, his leisure time being his own, and his congregation not
+obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read his writings; and no
+one would have regretted more than myself, had any scruple as to this
+right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which have led to the
+expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the right. I feel
+my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the distinguished
+learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had proved that
+religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those principles
+on which our government has been founded and its rights asserted.
+
+These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those
+of the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
+doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry
+to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us
+both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
+constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
+ourselves.
+
+Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
+have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
+present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this
+mark of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly
+expressed in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations
+not intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
+happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
+While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not
+wish to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres
+of the priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners
+of Massachusetts.
+
+I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIII.--TO CAESAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
+
+
+TO CAESAR A. RODNEY.
+
+Monticello, March 16, 1815.
+
+My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
+
+Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
+pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
+harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
+during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed,
+the affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
+recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
+Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
+public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen;
+and he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out
+a hope of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your
+visits together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or
+as you can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a
+month's notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession
+ninety miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
+mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
+absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
+enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
+friendships.
+
+Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
+have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
+of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
+unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
+original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where
+it ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the
+tyrant of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his
+power still stalking over the deep. '_Quem deus vult perdere, prius
+dementat_.' The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course
+impending. Are we to be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a
+reasonable conduct on their part, might make us the main pillar of their
+prosperity and existence. But their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to
+be the means which Providence permits to lead them to their final
+catastrophe. '_Nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem
+populum, nomini Romano_, said the General who erased Capua from the list
+of powers. What nourishment and support would not England receive from
+an hundred millions of industrious descendants, whom some of her people
+now born will live to see here. What their energies are, she has lately
+tried. And what has she not to fear from an hundred millions of such
+men, if she continues her maniac course of hatred and hostility to them.
+I hope in God she will change. There is not a nation on the globe
+with whom I have more earnestly wished a friendly intercourse on equal
+conditions. On no other would I hold out the hand of friendship to
+any. I know that their creatures represent me as personally an enemy to
+England. But fools only can believe this, or those who think me a
+fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an enemy to the
+flagitious principles of her administration, and to those which govern
+her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to morality some
+place in her political code, and especially would she exercise decency,
+and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not, I repeat it, a
+people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friendship.
+They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other nation; and in
+peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us internally.
+Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our own are
+chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven with the
+whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war with
+her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
+experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have
+been able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and
+had the war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to
+command a single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay
+their own paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to
+avail themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
+circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
+for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
+rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government,
+I say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have
+even countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
+establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
+citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and
+which we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that
+of Britain.
+
+*****
+
+Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you
+with sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIV.--TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
+
+
+TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+
+Monticello, March 17, 1815.
+
+My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
+
+I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great
+pleasure, and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events.
+Peace was indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome
+without the successes of New Orleans. These last have established
+truths too important not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are
+sincerely attached to the Union; that their city can be defended; that
+the western States make its defence their peculiar concern; that the
+militia are brave; that their deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring
+skill of their enemy; that we have officers of natural genius now
+starting forward from the mass; and that, putting together all our
+conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by land, with equal
+numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the pacification of
+Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable arrangement
+against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of peace, and not
+a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the principle of the
+war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will we forget your
+services. After the disasters produced by the treason or the cowardice,
+or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your capture of York
+and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our favor; and the
+subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces of the
+first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only, your
+resolution to retire from all public business could not but be approved.
+But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public counsels
+too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish their
+claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own State.
+Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your apostacy!
+Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote was
+my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
+standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
+counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
+promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
+usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to
+be nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected.
+But should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we
+shall receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among
+the crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold
+what their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look
+forward, then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her
+venal traitors, shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the
+principles of her brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give
+her modesty enough to suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on
+a par with her in wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery,
+and even in honesty, although not in psalm-singing, she will more
+justly estimate her own relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient
+principles, she would really be great, if she did not think herself the
+whole. I should be pleased to hear that you go into her councils,
+and assist in bringing her back to those principles, and to a sober
+satisfaction with her proportionable share in the direction of our
+affairs.
+
+Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
+assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXV.--TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, March 23,1815.
+
+Deak Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
+causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it
+with great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be
+published. The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it
+are so easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between
+them. 1. We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character.
+Accustomed to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting,
+they will see in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under
+wrong, to a certain degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and
+that peace and happiness are preferable to that false honor, which,
+by eternal wars, keeps their people in eternal labor, want, and
+wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the people of England, who have
+been deceived as to the causes and conduct of the war, and do not
+entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and wicked on our part,
+and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their ideas, it will
+tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to the peace and
+prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own people, who,
+although they have known the details as they went along, yet have been
+so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists, that some
+impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be said
+that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
+character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
+Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
+things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
+every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
+show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative
+will present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its
+moderation, as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed
+at. Rubbing down these roughnesses (and they are neither many nor
+prominent), and preserving the original date, might, I think, remove all
+the offensiveness, and give more effect to the publication. Indeed,
+I think that a soothing postscript, addressed to the interests,
+the prospects, and the sober reason of both nations, would make it
+acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of reprinting it ought not
+to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have it translated into
+French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without either avowal or
+disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of an appendix,
+containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in libraries,
+and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history, the
+acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
+
+I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
+eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was
+fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends,
+and will powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of
+Europe. It will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and
+count no odds when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared
+to the pride of England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of
+impressment in an article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention
+for relinquishing it. Without this, she must understand that the present
+is but a truce, determinable on the first act of impressment of an
+American citizen, committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be
+better that this convention should be a separate act, unconnected with
+any treaty of commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all
+other treaty? If blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the
+price of injurious concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without
+such treaties with any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves
+from the European system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too
+sedulously cultivate an American system, essentially pacific. But if we
+go into commercial treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same
+time, with whom we have important commercial relations. France, Spain,
+Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed _pari
+passu_. Our ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and
+intercommunicating freely, each will be supported by the weight of the
+whole mass, and the facility with which the other nations will agree to
+equal terms of intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of
+England, or justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them
+it would be best to have but the single article _gentis amicissimae_,
+leaving every thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized
+nations. But all these things will occur to yourself, with their counter
+considerations.
+
+Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
+particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
+that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
+carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to
+a wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
+receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
+strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in
+its place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue,
+and shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ
+me a considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to
+attend, and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on
+the shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds.
+This would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty's
+business would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose
+you a letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not
+cost more than eight or ten days' reasonable compensation. This is
+necessary for my safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for
+the public. You know there are persons, both in and out of the public
+councils, who will seize every occasion of imputation on either of us,
+the more difficult to be repelled in this case, in which a negative
+could not be proved. If you approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am
+through the review, I will give notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other
+person whom you will name, to come on immediately. Indeed it would be
+well worth while to add to his duty, that of covering the books with a
+little paper (the good bindings at least), and filling the vacancies
+of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought from Washington. This
+would add little more to the time, as he could carry on both operations
+at once.
+
+Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+respect,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
+have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In
+the first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all
+again into a course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the
+Bourbons has proved to the world their incompetence to the functions
+of the station they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has
+clothed him with the semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity
+should have taught him wisdom, of which I have little expectation,
+he may yet render some service to mankind, by teaching the ancient
+dynasties that they can be changed for misrule, and by wearing down the
+maritime power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. But it is
+not possible he should love us; and of that our commerce had sufficient
+proofs during his power. Our military achievements, indeed, which he
+is capable of estimating, may in some degree moderate the effect of his
+aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that we are to become the natural
+enemies of England, as England herself has so steadily endeavored to
+make us, and as some of our own over-zealous patriots would be willing
+to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a cold toleration of some
+intercourse and commerce between the two nations. He has certainly
+had time to see the folly of turning the industry of France from the
+cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to those of sugar,
+cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power has given to
+other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the passions of his
+tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue from motives
+of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil happiness
+and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for human
+blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us. And if
+again some great man could arise in England, who could see and correct
+the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by exercising
+justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of temperate
+and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the place we
+ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded to the
+condition of mere partisans of either.
+
+A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper
+limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on
+the other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to
+attempt the forcing on the French, a ruler and government which they
+refuse; whether they will risk their own thrones to re-establish that
+of the Bourbons. If this is attempted, and the European world again
+committed to war, will the jealousy of England at the commerce which
+neutrality will give us, induce her again to add us to the number of
+her enemies, rather than see us prosper in the pursuit of peace and
+industry? And have our commercial citizens merited from their country
+its encountering another war to protect their gambling enterprises?
+That the persons of our citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the
+ocean, that the transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels,
+to the markets of our choice, and the return to us of the articles we
+want for our own use, shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental, and
+that the gauntlet must be for ever hurled at him who questions it. But
+whether we shall engage in every war of Europe, to protect the mere
+agency of our merchants and shipowners in carrying on the commerce of
+other nations, even were those merchants and ship-owners to take the
+side of their country in the contest, instead of that of the enemy, is a
+question of deep and serious consideration, with which, however, you and
+I shall have nothing to do; so we will leave it to those whom it will
+concern.
+
+I thank you for making known to me Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Gray. They are
+fine young men, indeed, and if Massachusetts can raise a few more such,
+it is probable she would be better counselled as to social rights and
+social duties. Mr. Ticknor is, particularly, the best bibliograph I
+have met with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of
+reprocuring some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded
+to Congress, to replace the devastations of British Vandalism at
+Washington. I cannot live without books. But fewer will suffice, where
+amusement, and not use, is the only future object. I am about sending
+him a catalogue, to which less than his critical knowledge of books
+would hardly be adequate.
+
+Present my high respects to Mrs. Adams, and accept yourself the
+assurances of my affectionate attachment.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVII.--TO MR. LEIPER, June 12, 1815
+
+
+TO MR. LEIPER.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+A journey soon after the receipt of your favor of April the 17th and
+an absence from home of some continuance, have prevented my earlier
+acknowledgment of it. In that came safely my letter of January the 2nd,
+1814. In our principles of government we differ not at all; nor in the
+general object and tenor of political measures. We concur in considering
+the government of England as totally without morality, insolent beyond
+bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive
+dominion of the sea, lost in corruption, of deep-rooted hatred towards
+us, hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and
+the eternal disturber of the peace of the world. In our estimate of
+Bonaparte, I suspect we differ. I view him as a political engine only,
+and a very wicked one; you, I believe, as both political and religious,
+and obeying, as an instrument, an unseen hand. I still deprecate his
+becoming sole lord of the continent of Europe, which he would have been,
+had he reached in triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment in
+our day of another Roman. empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over
+the face of the globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of Heaven.
+Nor does the return of Bonaparte give me pleasure unmixed; I see in his
+expulsion of the Bourbons, a valuable lesson to the world, as showing
+that its ancient dynasties may be changed for their misrule. Should the
+allied powers presume to dictate a ruler and government to France, and
+follow the example he had set of parcelling and usurping to themselves
+their neighbor nations, I hope he will give them another lesson in
+vindication of the rights of independence and self-government, which
+himself had heretofore so much abused, and that in this contest he
+will wear down the maritime power of England to limitable and safe
+dimensions. So far, good. It cannot be denied, on the other hand, that
+his successful perversion of the force (committed to him for vindicating
+the rights and liberties of his country) to usurp its government, and
+to enchain it under an hereditary despotism, is of baneful effect in
+encouraging future usurpations, and deterring those under oppression
+from rising to redress themselves. His restless spirit leaves no hope of
+peace to the world; and his hatred of us is only a little less than that
+he bears to England, and England to us. Our form of government is odious
+to him, as a standing contrast between republican and despotic rule; and
+as much from that hatred, as from ignorance in political economy, he had
+excluded intercourse between us and his people, by prohibiting the only
+articles they wanted from us, that is, cotton and tobacco. Whether the
+war we have had with England, the achievements of that war, and the hope
+that we may become his instruments and partisans against that enemy, may
+induce him, in future, to tolerate our commercial intercourse with his
+people, is still to be seen. For my part, I wish that all nations may
+recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown
+may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance
+may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce, and
+friendship may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our business to
+manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep all markets open for
+what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the amities
+or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no distant
+one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the
+stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our
+power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will
+be.
+
+The federal misrepresentation of my sentiments, which occasioned my
+former letter to you, was gross enough; but that and all others are
+exceeded by the impudence and falsehood of the printed extract you sent
+me from Ralph's paper. That a continuance of the embargo for two months
+longer would have prevented our war; that the non-importation law
+which succeeded it was a wise and powerful measure, I have constantly
+maintained. My friendship for Mr. Madison, my confidence in his wisdom
+and virtue, and my approbation of all his measures, and especially of
+his taking up at length the gauntlet against England, is known to all
+with whom I have ever conversed or corresponded on these measures. The
+word federal, or its synonyme &c., may therefore be written under every
+word of Mr. Ralph's paragraph. I have ransacked my memory to recollect
+any incident which might have given countenance to any particle of it,
+but I find none. For if you will except the bringing into power
+and importance those who were enemies to himself as well as to the
+principles of republican government, I do not recollect a single measure
+of the President which I have not approved. Of those under him, and
+of some very near him, there have been many acts of which we have all
+disapproved, and he more than we. We have at times dissented from the
+measures, and lamented the dilatoriness of Congress. I recollect an
+instance the first winter of the war, when, from sloth of proceedings,
+an embargo was permitted to run through the winter, while the enemy
+could not cruise, nor consequently restrain the exportation of our whole
+produce, and was taken off in the spring, as soon as they could resume
+their stations. But this procrastination is unavoidable. How can
+expedition be expected from a body which we have saddled with an hundred
+lawyers, whose trade is talking? But lies, to sow divisions among
+us, are so stale an artifice of the federal prints, and are so well
+understood, that they need neither contradiction nor explanation. As to
+myself, my confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the administration
+is so entire, that I scarcely notice what is passing, and have almost
+ceased to read newspapers. Mine remain in our post-office a week or ten
+days, sometimes, unasked for. I find more amusement in studies to which
+I was always more attached, and from which I was dragged by the events
+of the times in which I have happened to live.
+
+I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In
+that of the Revolution, we had France, Spain, and Holland on our side,
+and the credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion,
+unprepared and unexpecting war, we were compelled to declare it, and to
+receive the attack of England, just issuing from a general war, fully
+armed, and freed from all other enemies, and have not only made her
+sick of it, but glad to prevent, by a peace, the capture of her adjacent
+possessions, which one or two campaigns more would infallibly have made
+ours. She has found that we can do her more injury than any other enemy
+on earth, and henceforward will better estimate the value of our peace.
+But whether her government has power, in opposition to the aristocracy
+of her navy, to restrain their piracies within the limits of national
+rights, may well be doubted. I pray, therefore, for peace, as best for
+all the world, best for us, and best for me, who have already lived to
+see three wars, and now pant for nothing more than to be permitted to
+depart in peace. That you also, who have longer to live, may continue to
+enjoy this blessing with health and prosperity, through as long a life
+as you desire, is the prayer of yours affectionately.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+P. S. June the 14th. Before I had sent my letter to the post-office, I
+received the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French
+nation shall not have Bonaparte, and shall have Louis XVIII for their
+ruler. They are all then as great rascals, as Bonaparte himself. While
+he was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would
+answer our purposes, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in
+the right, he shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may
+dethrone every man of them.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 10,1815.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been remarkable on
+several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or state of
+the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on
+our mutual recollections. I had sat down to answer your letters of June
+the 19th, 20th, and 22nds with pen, ink, and paper, before me, when I
+received from our mail that of July the 30th. You ask information on
+the subject of Camus. All I recollect of him is, that he was one of the
+deputies sent to arrest Dumourier at the head of his army, who were,
+however, themselves arrested by Dumourier, and long detained as
+prisoners. I presume, therefore, he was a Jacobin. You will find his
+character in the most excellent revolutionary history of Toulongeon. I
+believe also, he may be the same person who has given us a translation
+of Aristotle's Natural History, from the Greek into French. Of his
+report to the National Institute on the subject of the Bollandists, your
+letter gives me the first information. I had supposed them defunct
+with the society of Jesuits, of which they were: and that their works,
+although above ground, were, from their bulk and insignificance, as
+effectually entombed on their shelves, as if in the graves of their
+authors. Fifty-two volumes in folio, of the _acta sanctorum_, in
+dog-Latin, would be a formidable enterprise to the most laborious
+German. I expect, with you, they are the most enormous mass of lies,
+frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture, that ever was heaped together on this
+globe. By what chemical process M. Camus supposed that an extract of
+truth could be obtained from such a farrago of falsehood, I must leave
+to the chemists and moralists of the age to divine.
+
+On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who
+shall write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it?
+Nobody; except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
+discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
+member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which
+are the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as
+you observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths
+of persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such
+speeches. In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made
+their great men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style,
+and in that of the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one,
+more judicious, more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the
+party diatribe of Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too
+much from him. I possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable
+portions of it, although I never read it through. But a very judicious
+and well informed neighbor of mine went through it with great attention,
+and spoke very highly of it. I have said that no member of the old
+Congress, as far as I knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not
+knew of the speeches you mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on
+the questions of Independence, and on the two articles of Confederation
+respecting taxes and voting, I took minutes of the heads of the
+arguments. On the first, I threw all into one mass, without ascribing
+to the speakers their respective arguments; pretty much in the manner of
+Hume's summary digests of the reasonings in parliament for and against
+a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of arguments used by each
+speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question of Independence does
+not occupy more than five pages, such as of this letter: and on the
+other questions, two such sheets. They have never been communicated to
+any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the ablest work
+of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the constitutional
+convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every thing said and
+done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and exactness
+beyond comprehension.
+
+I presume that our correspondence has been observed at the post-offices,
+and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe, that a printer has had
+the effrontery to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people
+think they have a right to every thing, however secret or sacred. I had
+not before heard of the Boston pamphlet with Priestley's Letters and
+mine.
+
+At length Bonaparte has got on the right side of a question. From the
+time of his entering the legislative hall to his retreat to Elba, no man
+has execrated him more than myself. I will not except even the members
+of the Essex Junto; although for very different reasons; I, because he
+was warring against the liberty of his own country, and independence
+of others; they, because he was the enemy of England, the Pope, and the
+Inquisition. But at length, and as far as we can judge, he seems to have
+become the choice of his nation. At least, he is defending the cause
+of his nation, and that of all mankind, the rights of every people to
+independence and self-government. He and the allies have now changed
+sides. They are parcelling out among themselves Poland, Belgium, Saxony,
+Italy, dictating a ruler and government to France, and looking askance
+at our republic, the splendid libel on their governments, and he is
+fighting for the principles of national independence, of which his whole
+life hitherto has been a continued violation. He has promised a free
+government to his own country, and to respect the rights of others; and
+although his former conduct inspires little confidence in his promises,
+yet we had better take the chance of his word for doing right, than the
+certainty of the wrong which his adversaries are doing and avowing. If
+they succeed, ours is only the boon of the Cyclops to Ulysses, of being
+the last devoured.
+
+Present me affectionately and respectfully to Mrs. Adams, and Heaven
+give you both as much more of life as you wish, and bless it with health
+and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+P. S. August the 11th. I had finished my letter yesterday, and this
+morning receive the news of Bonaparte's second abdication. Very
+well. For him personally, I have no feeling but reprobation. The
+representatives of the nation have deposed him. They have taken the
+allies at their word, that they had no object in the war but his
+removal. The nation is now free to give itself a good government, either
+with or without a Bourbon; and France unsubdued, will still be a bridle
+on the enterprises of the combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXIX.--TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816
+
+
+TO DABNEY CARR.
+
+Monticello, January 19, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
+since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
+been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been
+able to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in
+this neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke's History, I had
+suggested to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee
+of correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who
+introduced it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the
+press. My books, journals of the times, &c. being all gone, I have
+nothing now but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular
+statement you wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find
+that I remember old things better than new. The transaction took place
+in the session of Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry
+Lee, Frank Lee, your father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening,
+about the close of the session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on
+the measures which the circumstances of the times seemed to call for.
+We agreed, in result, that concert in the operations of the several
+Colonies was indispensable; and that to produce this, some channel of
+correspondence between them must be opened: that, therefore, we would
+propose to our House the appointment of a committee of correspondence,
+which should be authorized and instructed to write to the Speakers of
+the House of Representatives of the several Colonies, recommending the
+appointment of similar committees on their part, who, by a communication
+of sentiment on the transactions threatening us all, might promote
+a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the substance, not
+pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution, and your
+father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day, March
+the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by
+the reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was
+developed. It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some
+of us who proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed
+of the committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to
+the Speakers of all the other Assemblies. I remember that Mr. Carr and
+myself, returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the
+way, concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably
+beget the meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for
+the purpose of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the
+maintenance of our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm
+that we did it in consequence of no such proposition from any other
+Colony. No doubt, the resolution itself, and the journals of the day,
+will show that ours was original, and not merely responsive to one from
+any other quarter. Yet, I am certain I remember also, that a similar
+proposition, and nearly cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and
+that our northern messenger passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be
+settled by recurrence to the records of Massachusetts. The proposition
+was generally acceded to by the other Colonies, and the first effect,
+as expected, was the meeting of a Congress at New York the ensuing year.
+The committee of correspondence appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by
+you from Marshall, under the date of 1770, must have been for a special
+purpose, and _functus officio_ before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts
+herself would not then have proposed another. Records should be examined
+to settle this accurately. I well remember the pleasure expressed in the
+countenance and conversation of the members generally, on this _debut_
+of Mr. Carr, and the hopes they conceived as well from the talents as
+the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two months after, and
+in him we lost a powerful fellow-laborer. His character was of a high
+order. A spotless integrity, sound judgment, handsome imagination,
+enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in his conceptions,
+of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with the
+sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible
+in whatever he thought was right: but when no moral principle stood
+in the way, never had man more of the milk of human kindness, of
+indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The
+number of his friends, and the warmth of their affection, were proofs of
+his worth, and of their estimate of it. To give to those now living,
+an idea of the affliction produced by his death in the minds of all who
+knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by themselves on the death of
+his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all his endowments and moral
+qualities, and whose recollection can never recur without a deep-drawn
+sigh from the bosom of any one who knew him. You mention that I showed
+you an inscription I had proposed for the tomb-stone of your father. Did
+I leave it in your hands to be copied? I ask the question, not that I
+have any such recollection, but that I find it no longer in the place of
+its deposite, and think I never took it out but on that occasion. Ever
+and affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 8, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 8, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th and March the
+2nd, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and regret
+that distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation would be
+worth a volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.
+
+You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three
+years over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you that it is
+a good world on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of
+benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are,
+indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants
+of diseased bodies, disgusted with the present, and despairing of the
+future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may
+happen. To these I say, how much pain have cost us the evils which have
+never happened! My temperament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in
+the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not
+oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge,
+even in the happiest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs
+against the opposite page of the account. I have often wondered for
+what good end the sensations of grief could be intended. All our
+other passions, within proper bounds, have an useful object. And the
+perfection of the moral character is, not in a stoical apathy, so
+hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because impossible, but in a
+just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the pathologists then would
+tell us what is the use of grief in the economy, and of what good it is
+the cause, proximate or remote.
+
+Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the
+pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while I
+was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning, and egoism.
+No heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak
+its language: his forte was Belles-lettres, painting, and sculpture.
+In these he was the oracle of the society, and as such, was the
+Empress Catharine's private correspondent and factor, in all things not
+diplomatic. It was through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to
+go to Kamschatka, and cross over thence to the western coast of America,
+in order to penetrate across our continent in the opposite direction
+to that afterwards adopted for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she
+withdrew after he had got within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had
+him seized, brought back, and set down in Poland. Although I never heard
+Grimm express the opinion directly, yet I always supposed him to be
+of the school of Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach; the first of whom
+committed his system of atheism to writing in '_Le Bon Sens_,' and the
+last in his '_Systeme de la Nature_? It was a numerous school in
+the Catholic countries, while the infidelity of the Protestant took
+generally the form of theism. The former always insisted that it was
+a mere question of definition between them, the hypostasis of which on
+both sides, was '_Nature_,' or 'the _Universe_': that both agreed in the
+order of the existing system, but the one supposed it from eternity,
+the other as having begun in time. And when the atheist descanted on
+the unceasing motion and circulation of matter through the animal,
+vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated,
+always changing form, and under all forms gifted with the power of
+reproduction; the theist pointing 'to the heavens above, and to the
+earth beneath, and to the waters under the earth,' asked, if these did
+not proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence and power; power
+in the production, and intelligence in the design, and constant
+preservation of the system; urged the palpable existence of final
+causes; that the eye was made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that
+we see because we have eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer
+obvious to the senses, as that of walking across the room, was to
+the philosopher demonstrating the non-existence of motion. It was in
+D'Holbach's conventicles that Rousseau imagined all the machinations
+against him were contrived and he left, in his Confessions, the most
+biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after I left France; but I
+have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by them, that he kept
+his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of Grimm. Their
+volume has kept them out of our market.
+
+I have been lately amusing myself with Levi's book, in answer to Dr.
+Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and
+incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy
+enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his
+two resurrections: the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body
+as well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of
+perfect obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal
+punishment for the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he
+explains this resurrection of bodies to be only of the original stamen
+of Leibnitz, or the human _calus in semine masculino_, considering that
+as a mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The
+second resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to
+enjoy divine glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that
+the Jews alone preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God
+would be deemed a very indifferent man with us: and it was to correct
+their anamorphosis of the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to
+establish the doctrine of a future state. However, Levi insists, that
+that was taught in the Old Testament, and even by Moses himself and the
+prophets. He agrees that an anointed prince was prophesied and promised:
+but denies that the character and history of Jesus had any analogy with
+that of the person promised. He must be fearfully embarrassing to the
+Hierophants of fabricated Christianity; because it is their own armor in
+which he clothes himself for the attack. For example, he takes passages
+of scripture from their context (which would give them a very different
+meaning), strings them together, and makes them point towards what
+object he pleases; he interprets them figuratively, typically,
+analogically, hyperbolically; he calls in the aid of emendation,
+transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and every other figure of rhetoric;
+the name of one man is taken for another, one place for another, days
+and weeks for months and years; and finally he avails himself of all his
+advantage over his adversaries by his superior knowledge of the Hebrew,
+speaking in the very language of the divine communication, while they
+can only fumble on with conflicting and disputed translations. Such is
+this war of giants. And how can such pigmies as you and I decide
+between them? For myself, I confess, that my head is not formed _tantas
+componere lites_. And as you began yours of March the 2nd, with a
+declaration, that you were about to write me the most frivolous letter I
+had ever read, so I will close mine by saying, I have written you a full
+match for it, and by adding my affectionate respects to Mrs. Adams, and
+the assurance of my constant attachment and consideration for yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, May 28,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from home,
+I found here the copy of your 'Enquiry into the Principles of our
+Government,' which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I
+pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in
+our situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had
+prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated
+during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted
+me to give to the whole a thorough reading: yet certain that you and I
+could not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government,
+I was impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the
+writing-table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.
+
+I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should
+confirm our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our
+constitution, and fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The
+sixth section on the good moral principles of our government, I found
+so interesting and replete with sound principles, as to postpone my
+letter-writing to its thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much
+other good matter, it settles unanswerably the right of instructing
+representatives, and their duty to obey. The system of banking we have
+both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all
+our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction,
+which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping
+away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I
+consider as limited, rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the
+lives of a majority of the generation contracting it; every generation
+coming equally, by the laws of the Creator of the world, to the free
+possession of the earth he made for their subsistence, unincumbered by
+their predecessors, who, like them, were but tenants for life. You have
+successfully and completely pulverized Mr. Adams's system of orders,
+and his opening the mantle of republicanism to every government of
+laws, whether consistent or not with natural right. Indeed, it must be
+acknowledged, that the term republic is of very vague application
+in every language. Witness the self-styled republics of Holland,
+Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to assign to this term a
+precise and definite idea, I would say, that, purely and simply,
+it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and
+personally, according to rules established by the majority: and that
+every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it
+has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct
+action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to
+very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be
+practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first
+shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot
+sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government,
+being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen by the
+citizens either _pro hac vice_, or for such short terms as should render
+secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. This I
+should consider as the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is
+practicable on a large scale of country or population. And we have
+examples of it in some of our State constitutions, which, if not
+poisoned by priestcraft, would prove its excellence over all mixtures
+with other elements; and, with only equal doses of poison, would still
+be the best. Other shades of republicanism may be found in other
+forms of government, where the executive, judiciary, and legislative
+functions, and the different branches of the latter, are chosen by the
+people more or less directly, for longer terms of years, or for life,
+or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities, some
+dependent on, and others independent of the peopje. The further the
+departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has
+the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none
+where the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &c. or
+self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion as
+the life continues in being after the act of election.
+
+The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the
+House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less
+the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by
+the people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because
+for life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military
+leaders, irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious
+constitution of our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive
+administration, the taxation, police, the military appointments of the
+county, and nearly all our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed,
+self-continued, holding their authorities for life, and with an
+impossibility of breaking in on the perpetual succession of any faction
+once possessed of the bench. They are, in truth, the executive, the
+judiciary, and the military of their respective counties, and the sum
+of the counties makes the State. And add, also, that one half of our
+brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded, like Helots, from the
+rights of representation, as if society were instituted for the soil,
+and not for the men inhabiting it; or one half of these could dispose of
+the rights and the will of the other half, without their consent.
+
+     What constitutes a State?
+     Not high-raised battlements, or lahor'd mound,
+     Thick wall, or moated gate;
+     Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd;
+     No: men, high-minded men;
+     Men, who their duties know;
+     But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
+     These constitute a State.'
+
+In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
+republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
+directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
+Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
+election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
+assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also,
+a principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
+judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
+found nugatory.
+
+If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government
+be the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other
+measure), it must be agreed that our governments have much less of
+republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the
+people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights
+and their interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of
+republican dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to
+a submission of true principle to European authorities, to speculators
+on government, whose fears of the people have been inspired by the
+populace of their own great cities, and were unjustly entertained
+against the independent, the happy, and therefore orderly citizens of
+the United States. Much I apprehend that the golden moment is past
+for reforming these heresies. The functionaries of public power rarely
+strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it, and an unorganized
+call for timely amendment is not likely to prevail against an organized
+opposition to it. We are always told that things are going on well; why
+change them? '_Chi sta bene, non si muova_,' says the Italian, 'Let him
+who stands well, stand still.' This is true; and I verily believe they
+would go on well with us under an absolute monarch, while our
+present character remains, of order, industry, and love of peace, and
+restrained, as he would be, by the proper spirit of the people. But it
+is while it remains such, we should provide against the consequences of
+its deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it will yet be done,
+and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never happen.
+
+On this view of the import of the term republic, instead of saying, as
+has been said, 'that it may mean any thing or nothing,' we may say with
+truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as
+they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in
+their composition: and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens
+is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the
+evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than
+those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition
+of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I
+sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more
+dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money
+to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling
+futurity on a large scale.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXII.--TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816
+
+
+TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
+
+Monticello, June 7,1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received a few-days ago from Mr. Dupont the enclosed manuscript, with
+permission to read it, and a request, when read, to forward it to
+you, in expectation that you would translate it. It is well worthy of
+publication for the instruction of our citizens, being profound, sound,
+and short. Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful
+limits of their powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce
+only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.
+No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights
+of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him:
+every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities
+of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him: and, no
+man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another,
+it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third.
+When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled
+their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into
+society we give up any natural right. The trial of every law by one
+of these texts, would lessen much the labors of our legislators, and
+lighten equally our municipal codes. There is a work of the first
+order of merit now in the press at Washington, by Destutt Tracy, on the
+subject of political economy, which he brings into the compass of three
+hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary discourse on the origin of the
+right of property, he coincides much with the principles of the present
+manuscript; but is more developed, more demonstrative. He promises a
+future work on morals, in which I lament to see, that he will adopt the
+principles of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature; that the sense of
+justice and injustice is not derived from our natural organization,
+but founded on convention only. I lament this the more, as he is
+unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract subjects. Assuming
+the fact, that the earth has been created in time, and consequently the
+dogma of final causes, we yield, of course, to this short syllogism.
+Man was created for social intercourse; but social intercourse cannot be
+maintained without a sense of justice; then man must have been created
+with a sense of justice. There is an error into which most of the
+speculators on government have fallen, and which the well known state
+of society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In
+their hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have
+commenced in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are
+evidently in that state of nature which has passed the association of a
+single family; and not yet submitted to the authority of positive laws,
+or of any acknowledged magistrate. Every man, with them, is perfectly
+free to follow his own inclinations. But if, in doing this, he violates
+the rights of another, if the case be slight, he is punished by the
+disesteem of his society, or, as we say, by public opinion; if serious,
+he is tomahawked as a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by
+the influence of their character only; and they follow, or not, as they
+please, him of whose character for wisdom or war they have the highest
+opinion. Hence the origin of the parties among them adhering to
+different leaders, and governed by their advice, not by their
+command. The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the
+establishment of regular laws, magistrates, and government, propose
+a government of representatives, elected from every town. But of all
+things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will of one
+man. This, the only instance of actual fact within our knowledge, will
+be then a beginning by republican, and not by patriarchal or monarchical
+government, as speculative writers have generally conjectured.
+
+We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment of our
+friend Correa, to be Minister or Envoy of Portugal, here. This, I hope,
+will give him to us, for life. Nor will it at all interfere with
+his botanical rambles or journeys. The government of Portugal is so
+peaceable and inoffensive, that it has never any altercations with its
+friends. If their minister abroad writes them once a quarter that all is
+well, they desire no more. I learn (though not from Correa himself) that
+he thinks of paying us a visit as soon as he is through his course
+of lectures. Not to lose this happiness again by my absence, I have
+informed him I shall set out for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and
+be back the first week of July. I wish you and he could concert
+your movements so as to meet here, and that you would make this your
+headquarters. It is a good central point from which to visit your
+connections; and you know our practice of placing our guests at their
+ease, by showing them we are so ourselves, and that we follow our
+necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging unremittingly
+on their shoulders.
+
+I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIII.*--TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816
+
+
+TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1816.
+
+     [* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
+     inserted out of its regular order.]
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.
+
+Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are
+entirely just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we
+have reason to suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate
+termination. There is still an awful void between the present, and what
+is to be the last chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled
+with abominations, as frightful as those which have already disgraced
+it. That nation is too high-minded, has too much innate force,
+intelligence, and elasticity, to remain quiet under its present
+compression. Samson will arise in his strength, and probably will ere
+long burst asunder the cords and the webs of the Philistines. But what
+are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and how widely they may spread
+between the brethren of one family, our ignorance of the interior feuds
+and antipathies of the country places beyond our view. Whatever may be
+the convulsions, we cannot but indulge the pleasing hope, they will
+end in the permanent establishment of a representative government;
+a government in which the will of the people will be an effective
+ingredient. This important element has taken root in the European mind,
+and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of this, are already
+offering this modification of their governments, under the plausible
+pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part. Had Bonaparte
+used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment and support
+of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity and rest,
+and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every nation in
+Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the will
+of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper conduct,
+however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
+object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
+accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of
+man. What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and
+how faithfully should they cherish the parent tree at home. Chagrin and
+mortification are the punishments our enemies receive.
+
+You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence
+on England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so
+quoted with more candor. But within the thirty years which have since
+elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We were then in peace; our
+independent place among nations was acknowledged. A commerce which
+offered the raw material, in exchange for the same material after
+receiving the last touch of industry, was worthy of welcome to all
+nations. It was expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing
+industry was important, would cherish the friendship of such customers
+by every favor, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act
+of justice and friendship. Under this prospect, the question seemed
+legitimate, whether, with such an immensity of unimproved land,
+courting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that of
+manufactures, would add most to the national wealth. And the doubt
+on the utility of the American manufactures was entertained on this
+consideration, chiefly, that to the labor of the husbandman a vast
+addition is made by the spontaneous energies of the earth on which it
+is employed. For one grain of wheat committed to the earth, she renders
+twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold; whereas to the labor of the
+manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of flax, in his hands, on the
+contrary, yield but penny weights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious
+as it might seem, what a field did it promise for the occupation of the
+ocean; what a nursery for that class of citizens who were to exercise
+and maintain our equal rights on that element! This was the state of
+things in 1785, when the Notes on Virginia were first published; when,
+the ocean being open to all nations, and their common right in it
+acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the assent
+and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some
+consideration.
+
+But who, in 1785, could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render
+the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man? Who could
+have imagined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations,
+for science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from
+that honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws
+established by the Author of Nature between nation and nation, as
+between man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and
+piracies, merely because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity,
+and that under this disbandment of nations from social order, we should
+have been despoiled of a thousand ships, and have thousands of our
+citizens reduced to Algerine slavery. Yet all this has taken place. The
+British interdicted to our vessels all harbors of the globe, without
+having first proceeded to some one of hers, there paid a tribute
+proportioned to the cargo, and obtained her license to proceed to the
+port of destination. The French declared them to be lawful prize if they
+had touched at the port, or been visited by a ship of the enemy nation.
+Thus were we completely excluded from the ocean. Compare this state
+of things with that of '85, and say whether an opinion founded in
+the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to those of the
+present. We have experienced, what we did not then believe, that there
+exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the field of
+interchange with other nations. That to be independent for the comforts
+of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the
+manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former question
+is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry now is,
+Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a
+foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture,
+must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation,
+or to be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens
+and caverns. I am not one of these. Experience has taught me that
+manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort;
+and if those who quote me as of a different opinion, will keep pace with
+me in purchasing nothing foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric
+can be obtained, without regard to difference of price, it will not be
+our fault if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand,
+and wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has so long
+wantonly wielded it. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own
+supply, the question of '85 will then recur, Will our surplus labor be
+then more beneficially employed, in the culture of the earth, or in the
+fabrications of art? We have time yet for consideration, before that
+question will press upon us; and the axiom to be applied will depend
+on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in so complicated a
+science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid down as wise and
+expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to this is what
+has called for this explanation, which reflection would have rendered
+unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those who
+use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their disloyal
+propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly
+people.
+
+I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIV.--TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816
+
+
+TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.
+
+Monticello, June 20, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to
+the drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt
+of your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot,
+however, deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I
+have received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris,
+in yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had
+not before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the
+perusal of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the
+subject of drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted
+into ours from the British system, by a man whose mind was really
+powerful, but chained by native partialities to every thing English; who
+had formed exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English
+constitution, the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely
+believed it for the good of this country to make them their model in
+every thing; without considering that what might be wise and good for a
+nation essentially commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse
+with numerous and powerful neighbors, might not be so for one
+essentially agricultural, and insulated by nature from the abusive
+governments of the old world.
+
+The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice
+to exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
+whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it
+is the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry
+on the business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with
+the other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute
+its distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to
+that, is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the
+mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every society
+has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and
+to say to all individuals, that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond
+the limits of these principles, and involving dangers which the society
+chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that
+we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on
+such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons
+infected with disease. Such is the situation of our country. We have
+most abundant resources of happiness within ourselves, which we may
+enjoy in peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected
+with the mania of rambling and gambling, to bring danger on the great
+mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home. In your letter to
+Fisk, you have fairly stated the alternatives between which we are to
+choose: 1. licentious commerce and gambling speculations for a few, with
+eternal war for the many; or, 2. restricted commerce, peace, and steady
+occupations for all. If any State in the Union will declare that it
+prefers separation with the first alternative, to a continuance in union
+without it, I have no hesitation in saying, 'Let us separate.' I would
+rather the States should withdraw, which are for unlimited commerce
+and war, and confederate with those alone which are for peace and
+agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe would join in sincere
+amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm's length, by
+jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations, and war. No earthly
+consideration could induce my consent to contract such a debt as England
+has by her wars for commerce, to reduce our citizens by taxes to such
+wretchedness, as that laboring sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they
+are still unable to afford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much
+oatmeal or potatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this
+to feed the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up
+one thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial
+speculations. I returned from Europe after our government had got under
+way, and had adopted from the British code the law of drawbacks. I early
+saw its effects in the jealousies and vexations of Britain; and that,
+retaining it, we must become, like her, an essentially warring nation,
+and meet, in the end, the catastrophe impending over her. No one can
+doubt that this alone produced the orders of council, the depredations
+which preceded, and the war which followed them. Had we carried but our
+own produce, and brought back but our own wants, no nation would have
+troubled us. Our commercial dashers, then, have already cost us so many
+thousand lives, so many millions of dollars, more than their persons
+and all their commerce were worth. When war was declared, and especially
+after Massachusetts, who had produced it, took side with the enemy
+waging it, I pressed on some confidential friends in Congress to avail
+us of the happy opportunity of repealing the drawback; and I do rejoice
+to find that you are in that sentiment. You are young, and may be in the
+way of bringing it into effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and change of
+tone (for there are symptoms of that in Massachusetts), may not have
+obliterated altogether the sense of our late feelings and sufferings;
+may not have induced oblivion of the friends we have lost, the
+depredations and conflagrations we have suffered, and the debts we have
+incurred, and to have to labor for through the lives of the present
+generation. The earlier the repeal is proposed, the more it will be
+befriended by all these recollections and considerations. This is one of
+three great measures necessary to insure us permanent prosperity. This
+preserves our peace. A second should enable us to meet any war, by
+adopting the report of the war department, for placing the force of
+the nation at effectual command: and a third should insure resources
+of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during peace, and
+licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic medium of
+which we should be possessed at the commencement of a war, would be
+a sufficient fund for all the loans we should need through its
+continuance; and if the national bills issued, be bottomed (as is
+indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for their redemption
+within certain and moderate epochs, and be of proper denominations for
+circulation, no interest on them would be necessary or just, because
+they would answer to every one the purposes of the metallic money
+withdrawn and replaced by them. But possibly these may be the dreams of
+an old man, or that the occasions of realizing them may have passed away
+without return. A government regulating itself by what is wise and just
+for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few
+who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it
+existed, for a moment, at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix
+the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a
+greater degree than any where else; and for its growth and continuance,
+as well as for your personal health and happiness, I offer sincere
+prayers, with the homage of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXV.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816
+
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, July 12, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the copy of the
+letters on the calling a convention, on which you are pleased to ask
+my opinion. I have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any
+subject, nor of buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. On
+the contrary, while in public service especially, I thought the public
+entitled to frankness, and intimately to know whom they employed. But
+I am now retired: I resign myself, as a passenger, with confidence to
+those at present at the helm, and ask but for rest, peace, and good
+will. The question you propose, on equal representation, has become a
+party one, in which I wish to take no public share. Yet, if it be asked
+for your own satisfaction only, and not to be quoted before the public,
+I have no motive to withhold it, and the less from you, as it coincides
+with your own. At the birth of our republic, I committed that opinion
+to the world, in the draught of a constitution annexed to the Notes
+on Virginia, in which a provision was inserted for a representation
+permanently equal. The infancy of the subject at that moment, and our
+inexperience of self-government, occasioned gross departures in that
+draught from genuine republican canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy
+had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that we
+imagined every thing republican which was not monarchy. We had not yet
+penetrated to the mother principle, that 'governments are republican
+only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute
+it.' Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principle in
+them. But experience and reflection have but more and more confirmed me
+in the particular importance of the equal representation then proposed.
+On that point, then, I am entirely in sentiment with your letters; and
+only lament that a copyright of your pamphlet prevents their appearance
+in the newspapers, where alone they would be generally read, and produce
+general effect. The present vacancy too, of other matter, would give
+them place in every paper, and bring the question home to every man's
+conscience.
+
+But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legislature, is
+not the only republican heresy in this first essay of our revolutionary
+patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be agreed that a
+government is republican in proportion as every member composing it has
+his equal voice in the direction of its concerns, (not indeed in person,
+which would be impracticable beyond the limits of a city, or small
+township, but) by representatives chosen by himself, and responsible to
+him at short periods, and let us bring to the test of this canon every
+branch of our constitution.
+
+In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than
+half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose.
+The Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of
+irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent
+of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally
+so, and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the
+judges of the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves.
+In England, where judges were named and removable at the will of an
+hereditary executive, from which branch most misrule was feared, and has
+flowed, it was a great point gained, by fixing them for life, to make
+them independent of that executive. But in a government founded on
+the public will, this principle operates in an opposite direction,
+and against that will. There, too, they were still removable on a
+concurrence of the executive and legislative branches. But we have made
+them independent of the nation itself. They are irremovable, but by
+their own body, for any depravities of conduct, and even by their own
+body for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the inferior
+courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own body in
+succession for ever, so that a faction once possessing themselves of
+the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county in
+chains, for ever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real executive
+as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
+tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all
+the executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military
+leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The
+juries, our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are
+not selected by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an
+officer named by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up
+by the sheriff from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing
+respectable has retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be
+found? Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of
+our people. That would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly.
+Owing to this spirit, and to nothing in the form of our constitution,
+all things have gone well. But this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by
+the enemies of reformation, is not the fruit of our constitution, but
+has prevailed in spite of it. Our functionaries have done well, because
+generally honest men. If any were not so, they feared to show it.
+
+But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I
+do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down
+true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened
+into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of
+wealth against the ascendancy of the people. If experience be called
+for, appeal to that of our fifteen or twenty governments for forty
+years, and show me where the people have done half the mischief in these
+forty years, that a single despot would have done in a single year;
+or show half the riots and rebellions, the crimes and the punishments,
+which have taken place in any single nation, under Kingly government,
+during the same period. The true foundation of republican government
+is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and
+in their management. Try by this, as a tally, every provision of our
+constitution, and see if it hangs directly on the will of the people.
+Reduce your legislature to a convenient number for full, but orderly
+discussion. Let every man who fights or pays, exercise his just and
+equal right in their election. Submit them to approbation or rejection
+at short intervals. Let the executive be chosen in the same way, and for
+the same term, by those whose agent he is to be; and leave no screen of
+a council behind which to skulk from responsibility. It has been thought
+that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law.
+But I do not know that this is true, and if doubtful, we should follow
+principle. In this, as in many other elections, they would be guided by
+reputation, which would not err oftener, perhaps, than the present mode
+of appointment. In one State of the Union, at least, it has been long
+tried, and with the most satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut
+have been chosen by the people every six months, for nearly two
+centuries, and I believe there has hardly ever been an instance
+of change; so powerful is the curb of incessant responsibility. If
+prejudice, however, derived from a monarchical institution, is still
+to prevail against the vital elective principle of our own, and if the
+existing example among ourselves of periodical election of judges by
+the people be still mistrusted, let us at least not adopt the evil, and
+reject the good, of the English precedent; let us retain a movability
+on the concurrence of the executive and legislative branches, and
+nomination by the executive alone. Nomination to office is an executive
+function. To give it to the legislature, as we do, is a violation of
+the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves the members from
+correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office themselves, and to
+a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility by dividing it
+among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper place, among
+executive functions, the principle of the distribution of power is
+preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest force on a single
+head.
+
+The organization of our county administrations may be thought more
+difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. Divide the
+counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can attend when
+called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the government of their
+wards in all things relating to themselves exclusively. A justice,
+chosen by themselves, in each, a constable, a military company, a
+patrol, a school, the care of their own poor, their own portion of the
+public roads, the choice of one or more jurors to serve in some court,
+and the delivery, within their own wards, of their own votes for
+all elective officers of higher sphere, will relieve the county
+administration of nearly all its business, will have it better done, and
+by making every citizen an acting member of the government, and in the
+offices nearest and most interesting to him, will attach him by
+his strongest feelings to the independence of his country, and its
+republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by every ward, would
+constitute the county court, would do its judiciary business, direct
+roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates, and administer all the
+matters of common interest to the whole county. These wards, called
+townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments,
+and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the
+wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its
+preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1. The general
+federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2. That of the
+State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; 3. The county
+republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; and, 4. The ward
+republics, for the small, and yet numerous and interesting concerns of
+the neighborhood: and in government, as well as in every other business
+of life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all
+matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole
+is cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the
+administration of the public affairs.
+
+The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2. Equal
+representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the people.
+4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and sheriffs
+elective. 6. Ward divisions. And, 7. Periodical amendments of the
+constitution.
+
+I have thrown out these, as loose heads of amendment, for consideration
+and correction: and their object is to secure self-government by the
+republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the
+people; and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those
+who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for
+continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not
+let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election
+between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into
+such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in
+our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for
+our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people,
+like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the
+earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily
+expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we
+must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to
+think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to
+obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the
+necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our land-holders, too, like theirs,
+retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs,
+but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in
+foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and
+the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson
+that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well as by private
+extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A
+departure from principle in one instance, becomes a precedent for a
+second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society
+is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities
+left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the _bellum
+omnium in omnia_, which some philosophers observing to be so general
+in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive
+state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt.
+Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
+
+Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem
+them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They
+ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and
+suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I
+belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country.
+It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present;
+and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of
+book-reading: and this they would say themselves, were they to rise
+from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried
+changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had
+better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves
+to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But
+I know, also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with
+the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more
+enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed,
+and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances,
+institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might
+as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a
+boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their
+barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately
+deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding
+to the gradual changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive
+accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses,
+entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects
+to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous innovations, which,
+had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected
+wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary
+forms. Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one
+generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of
+ordering its own affairs. Let us, as our sister States have done, avail
+ourselves of our reason and experience, to correct the crude essays of
+our first and unexperienced, although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning
+councils. And, lastly, let us provide in our constitution for its
+revision at stated periods. What these periods should be, nature herself
+indicates. By the European tables of mortality, of the adults living at
+any one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years.
+At the end of that period, then, a new majority is come into place; or,
+in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent of
+the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. It has,
+then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government
+it believes most promotive of its own happiness; consequently, to
+accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds itself, that received
+from its predecessors: and it is for the peace and good of mankind,
+that a solemn opportunity of doing this every nineteen or twenty years,
+should be provided by the constitution; so that it may be handed on,
+with periodical repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of
+time, if any thing human can so long endure. It is now forty years since
+the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same tables inform us,
+that, within that period, two thirds of the adults then living are now
+dead. Have then the remaining third, even if they had the wish, the
+right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws heretofore made
+by them, the other two thirds, who, with themselves, compose the present
+mass of adults? If they have not, who has? The dead? But the dead have
+no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where
+there is no substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe,
+and every thing upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants,
+during their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is the
+concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of that direction:
+and this declaration can only be made by their majority. That majority,
+then, has a right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make
+the constitution what they think will be best for themselves. But how
+collect their voice? This is the real difficulty. If invited by private
+authority to county or district meetings, these divisions are so large,
+that few will attend; and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely
+pronounced. Here, then, would be one of the advantages of the ward
+divisions I have proposed. The mayor of every ward, on a question like
+the present, would call his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of
+its members, convey these to the county court, who would hand on those
+of all its wards to the proper general authority; and the voice of
+the whole people would be thus fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed,
+discussed, and decided by the common reason of the society. If this
+avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard
+through that of force, and we shall go on, as other nations are doing,
+in the endless circle of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and
+oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and so on, for ever.
+
+These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among men, and of
+the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from falling into
+the same dreadful track. I have given them at greater length than your
+letter called for. But I cannot say things by halves; and I confide them
+to your honor, so to use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the
+public papers. If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done
+that of equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them
+to yourself as the effusions of withered age, and useless time. I
+shall, with not the Less truth, assure you of my great respect and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVI.--TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+
+Monticello, July 21, 1816.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to acknowledge a copious
+supply of the turnip-seed requested. Besides taking care myself, I
+shall endeavor again to commit it to the depository of the neighborhood,
+generally found to be the best precaution against losing a good thing.
+I will add a word on the political part of our letters. I believe we do
+not differ on either of the points you suppose. On education certainly
+not; of which the proofs are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge,
+proposed near forty years ago, and my uniform endeavors, to this day,
+to get our counties divided into wards, one of the principal objects of
+which is, the establishment of a primary school in each. But education
+not being a branch of municipal government, but, like the other arts
+and sciences, an accident only, I did not place it, with election, as a
+fundamental member in the structure of government. Nor, I believe, do
+we differ as to the county courts. I acknowledge the value of this
+institution; that it is in truth our principal executive and judiciary,
+and that it does much for little pecuniary reward. It is their
+self-appointment I wish to correct; to find some means of breaking up
+a cabal, when such a one gets possession of the bench. When this takes
+place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies, because its powers
+are so various, and exercised on every thing most immediately around
+us. And how many instances have you and I known of these monopolies of
+county administration! I knew a county in which a particular family (a
+numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a whole generation.
+never admitted a man on it who was not of its clan or connection. 1 know
+a county now of one thousand and five hundred militia, of which sixty
+are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom twenty are
+federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large and populous
+districts in it without a justice, because without a federalist
+for appointment: the militia are as disproportionably under federal
+officers. And there is no authority on earth which can break up this
+junto, short of a general convention. The remaining one thousand four
+hundred and forty, free, fighting, and paying citizens, are governed
+by men neither of their choice nor confidence, and without a hope
+of relief. They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free
+government for life, and indefinitely, for aught the constitution has
+provided. This solecism may be called any thing but republican, and
+ought undoubtedly to be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVII.--TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816
+
+TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+
+Monticello, September 5, 1816.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That which I wrote to
+you under the address of H. Tompkinson, was intended for the author
+of the pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and therefore, in your
+hands, found its true destination. But I must beseech you, Sir, not to
+admit a possibility of its being published. Many good people will revolt
+from its doctrines, and my wish is to offend nobody; to leave to those
+who are to live under it, the settlement of their own constitution, and
+to pass in peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions are sound,
+they will occur to others, and will prevail by their own weight,
+without the aid of names. I am glad to see that the Staunton meeting has
+rejected the idea of a limited convention. The article, however, nearest
+my heart, is the division of the counties into wards. These will be pure
+and elementary republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes
+the State, and will make of the whole a true democracy as to the
+business of the wards, which is that of nearest and daily concern.
+The affairs of the larger sections, of counties, of States, and of
+the Union, not admitting personal transaction by the people, will be
+delegated to agents elected by themselves; and representation will thus
+be substituted, where personal action becomes impracticable. Yet,
+even over these representative organs, should they become corrupt and
+perverted, the division into wards constituting the people, in their
+wards, a regularly organized power, enables them by that organization
+to crush, regularly and peaceably, the usurpations of their unfaithful
+agents, and rescues them from the dreadful necessity of doing it
+insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as republican as a large
+society can be; and secure the continuance of purity in our government,
+by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the people. No other
+depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did not end in
+converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their
+charge. George the III., in execution of the trust confided to him, has,
+within his own day, loaded the inhabitants of Great Britain with debts
+equal to the whole fee-simple value of their island, and under pretext
+of governing it, has alienated its whole soil to creditors who could
+lend money to be lavished on priests, pensions, plunder, and perpetual
+war. This would not have been so, had the people retained organized
+means of acting on their agents. In this example, then, let us read a
+lesson for ourselves, and not 'go, and do likewise.'
+
+Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told, that on the
+question of equal representation, our fellow-citizens in some sections
+of the State claim peremptorily a right of representation for their
+slaves. Principle will, in this, as in most other cases, open the way
+for us to correct conclusion. Were our State a pure democracy, in which
+all its inhabitants should meet together to transact all their business,
+there would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until
+arrived at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation
+of morals, and ambiguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously in the
+public meetings of men. 3, Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of
+things with us takes away the rights of will and of property. Those,
+then, who have no will, could be permitted to exercise none in the
+popular assembly; and of course could delegate none to an agent in a
+representative assembly. The business, in the first case, would be done
+by qualified citizens only; and, in the second, by the representatives
+of qualified citizens only. It is true, that in the general
+constitution, our State is allowed a larger representation on account
+of its slaves. But every one knows, that that constitution was a
+matter of compromise; a capitulation between conflicting interests
+and opinions. In truth, the condition of different descriptions of
+inhabitants in any country is a matter of municipal arrangement, of
+which no foreign country has a right to take notice. All its inhabitants
+are men as to them. Thus, in the New England States, none have the
+powers of citizens but those whom they call freemen; and none are
+freemen Until admitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the
+General Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum of
+representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no powers as
+citizens; yet, in representation in the General Government, they count
+in the proportion of three to five; and so also in taxation. Whether
+this is equal, is not here the question. It is a capitulation of
+discordant sentiments and circumstances, and is obligatory on that
+ground. But this view shows there is no inconsistency in claiming
+representation for them from the other States, and refusing it within
+our own.
+
+Accept the renewal of assurances of my respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, October 14, 1816.
+
+Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well explained the
+uses of grief. That of September the 3rd, with equal truth, adduces
+instances of its abuse; and when we put into the same scale these
+abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even the uses of grief cost
+us, we may consider its value in the economy of the human being, as
+equivocal at least. Those afflictions cloud too great a portion of
+life, to find a counterpoise in any benefits derived from its uses. For
+setting aside its paroxyms on the occasions of special bereavements, all
+the latter years of aged men are overshadowed with its gloom. Whither,
+for instance, can you and I look without seeing the graves of those we
+have known? And whom can we call up, of our early companions, who has
+not left us to regret his loss? This, indeed, may be one of the salutary
+effects of grief; inasmuch as it prepares us to loose ourselves also
+without repugnance. Doctor Freeman's instances of female levity cured by
+grief, are certainly to the point, and constitute an item of credit in
+the account we examine. I was much mortified by the loss of the Doctor's
+visit, by my absence from home. To have shown how much I feel indebted
+to you for making good people known to me, would have been one pleasure;
+and to have enjoyed that of his conversation, and the benefits of
+his information, so favorably reported by my family, would have been
+another. I returned home on the third day after his departure. The loss
+of such visits is among the sacrifices which my divided residence costs
+me.
+
+Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism
+to which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. I have been
+contented with the humble achievement of reading the analysis of his
+work by Destutt Tracy, in two hundred pages, octavo. I believe I should
+have ventured on his own abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume,
+had it ever come to my hands; but the marrow of it in Tracy has
+satisfied my appetite: and even in that, the preliminary discourse of
+the analyzer himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than
+the body of the work. For the object of that seems to be to smother all
+history under the mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as those
+of Hercules and Jesus, can, by a fertile imagination and allegorical
+interpretations, be brought to the same tally, no line of distinction
+remains between fact and fancy. As this pithy morsel will not
+overburthen the mail in passing and repassing between Quincy and
+Monticello, I send it for your perusal. Perhaps it will satisfy you, as
+it has me; and may save you the labor of reading twenty-four times its
+volume. I have said to you that it was written by Tracy; and I had so
+entered it on the title-page, as I usually do on anonymous works whose
+authors are known to me. But Tracy requested me not to betray his
+anonyme, for reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have ceased to weigh. I
+am bound, then, to make the same reserve with you. Destutt-Tracy is, in
+my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual subjects, or the
+operations of the understanding. His three octavo volumes on Ideology,
+which constitute the foundation of what he has since written, I have not
+entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely abstract,
+and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte, with his
+repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has by
+this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without
+principle. The next work Tracy wrote was the Commentary on Montesquieu,
+never published in the original, because not safe; but translated and
+published in Philadelphia, yet without the author's name. He has since
+permitted his name to be mentioned. Although called a Commentary, it is,
+in truth, an elementary work on the principles of government, comprised
+in about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a third
+work on Political Economy, comprising the whole subject within about
+the same compass; in which all its principles are demonstrated with
+the severity of Euclid, and, like him, without ever using a superfluous
+word. I have procured this to be translated, and have been four years
+endeavoring to get it printed: but, as yet, without success. In the mean
+time, the author has published the original in France, which he thought
+unsafe while Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet
+reached this country. He has his fourth and last work now in the press
+at Paris, closing, as he conceives, the circle of metaphysical sciences.
+This work, which is on Ethics, I have not seen, but suspect I shall
+differ from it in its foundation, although not in its deductions. I
+gather from his other works that he adopts the principle of Hobbes,
+that justice is founded in contract solely, and does not result from the
+constitution of man. I believe, on the contrary, that it is instinct and
+innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as
+that of feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise creator must have seen to
+be necessary in an animal destined to live in society: that every human
+mind feels pleasure in doing good to another: that the non-existence of
+justice is not to be inferred from the fact that the same act is deemed
+virtuous and right in one society which is held vicious and wrong
+in another; because, as the circumstances and opinions of different
+societies vary, so the acts which may do them right or wrong must vary
+also; for virtue does not consist in the act we do, but in the end it
+is to effect. If it is to effect the happiness of him to whom it
+is directed, it is virtuous, while, in a society under different
+circumstances and opinions, the same act might produce pain, and would
+be vicious. The essence of virtue is in doing good to others, while what
+is good may be one thing in one society, and its contrary in another.
+Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of morals (and as
+many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on the subject
+nearly), so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound system of
+morals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers, setting out
+from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same conclusions.
+This looks as if they were guided unconsciously, by the unerring-hand of
+instinct.
+
+Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
+description is it to be inquired for?
+
+What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
+great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has
+been foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from
+mortal prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist
+which render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is
+now equal to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor
+of the island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those
+who labor. Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other
+countries, and the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him
+to cover his back and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now
+almost general, are of the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted
+but by food and raiment. But where are the means of feeding and clothing
+them? The landholder has nothing of his own to give; he is but the
+fiduciary of those who have lent him money; the lender is so taxed in
+his meat, drink, and clothing, that he has but a bare subsistence left.
+The landholder, then, must give up his land, or the lender his debt,
+or they must compromise by giving up each one half. But will either
+consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of property? Or must it not
+be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably compromised, will they agree
+to risk another ruin under the same government unreformed? I think not;
+but I would rather know what you think; because you have lived with
+John Bull, and know better than I do the character of his herd. I salute
+Mrs. Adams and yourself with every sentiment of affectionate cordiality
+and respect;
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXXXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear
+Sir, how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as
+much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long
+hours from my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by
+that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock, and often
+from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this
+to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part
+enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
+Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is
+the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must
+get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the
+subject of his book; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I
+constantly refuse; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a
+word for him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely
+my sufferings from this source; hoping it would have the effect of an
+indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others, who,
+in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their concerns,
+their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and speculations, political,
+moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical, &c. &c. &c.
+I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to,
+exercise and enjoy correspondence with the friends I love, and on
+subjects which they, or my own inclinations, present. In that case, your
+letters shall not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they
+have been to my great mortification.
+
+To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
+Tracy's Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
+original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
+years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now
+be had, I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
+Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
+under the word 'Ideology' all the subjects which the French term
+_Morale_, as the correlative to _Physique_, His works on Logic,
+Government, Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up
+the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the
+scope of the understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies
+exactly the ground of Locke's work on the Understanding. The translation
+of that on Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation
+of mine. I have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very
+laborious. _Le premier jet_ having been by some one who understood
+neither French nor English, it was impossible to make it more than
+faithful. But it is a valuable work.
+
+The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four
+words, 'Be just and good,' is that in which all our inquiries must end;
+as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, '_Ubi panis, ibi
+deus_.' What all agree in, is probably right; what no two agree in, most
+probably wrong. One of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small
+men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too,
+whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much
+spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had
+been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom
+I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was, 'Say
+nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its
+evidence before the world is to be sought in my life; if that has been
+honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it
+cannot be a bad one.' Affectionately adieu.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 5, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Absences and avocations had prevented my acknowledging your favor of
+February the 2nd, when that of April the 19th arrived. I had not the
+pleasure of receiving the former by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business
+probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, and
+distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities.
+Your recommendations are always welcome, for, indeed, the subjects of
+them always merit that welcome, and some of them in an extraordinary
+degree. They make us acquainted with what there is excellent in our
+ancient sister State of Massachusetts, once venerated and beloved,
+and still hanging on our hopes, for what need we despair of after the
+resurrection of Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that
+the last retreat of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those
+advances of the mind which had carried the other States a century ahead
+of them. They seemed still to be exactly where their forefathers were
+when they schismatized from the covenant of works, and to consider as
+dangerous heresies all innovations good or bad. I join you, therefore,
+in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length
+broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the
+American history and character. If by religion, we are to understand
+sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation
+on that hypothesis is just, 'that this would be the best of all possible
+worlds, if there were no religion in it.' But if the moral precepts,
+innate in man, and made a part of his physical constitution, as
+necessary for a social being, if the sublime doctrines of philanthropism
+and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute
+true religion, then, without it, this would be, as you again say,
+'something not fit to be named, even indeed, a hell.'
+
+You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the malice of
+Pickering could say of you. Were such things to be answered, our lives
+would be wasted in the filth of fendings and provings, instead of
+being employed in promoting the happiness and prosperity of our
+fellow-citizens. The tenor of your life is the proper and sufficient
+answer. It is fortunate for those in public trust, that posterity will
+judge them by their works, and not by the malignant vituperations and
+invectives of the Pickerings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men
+of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides
+to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with
+effect, those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion
+as they feel that effect. Thus, in the Revolution, Hancock and the
+Adamses were the raw-head and bloody bones of tories and traitors; who
+yet knew nothing of you personally but what was good. I do not entertain
+your apprehensions for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state
+of retirement. Such a mind as his, fraught with information and with
+matter for reflection, can never know _ennui_. Besides, there will
+always be work enough cut out for him to continue his active usefulness
+to his country. For example, he and Monroe (the President) are now
+here on the work of a collegiate institution to be established in our
+neighborhood, of which they and myself are three of six Visitors. This,
+if it succeeds, will raise up children for Mr. Madison to employ his
+attention through life. I say, if it succeeds; for we have two very
+essential wants in our way: 1. means to compass our views; and 2. men
+qualified to fulfil them. And these you will agree are essential wants
+indeed.
+
+I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his is a field
+familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His work is highly
+praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been occupied and delighted
+with reading another work, the title of which did not promise much
+useful information or amusement, '_L'Italia avanti il Dominio del
+Romani, dal Micali_. It has often, you know, been a subject of regret
+that Carthage had no writer to give her side of her own history,
+while her wealth, power, and splendor prove she must have had a very
+distinguished policy and government. Micali has given the counterpart
+of the Roman history, for the nations over which they extended their
+dominion. For this he has gleaned up matter from every quarter, and
+furnished materials for reflection and digestion to those who, thinking
+as they read, have perceived that there was a great deal of matter
+behind the curtain, could that be fully withdrawn. He certainly gives
+new views of a nation whose splendor has masked and palliated their
+barbarous ambition. I am now reading Botta's History of our own
+Revolution. Bating the ancient practice which he has adopted, of putting
+speeches into mouths which never made them, and fancying motives of
+action which we never felt, he has given that history with more detail,
+precision, and candor, than any writer I have yet met with. It is, to be
+sure, compiled from those writers; but it is a good secretion of their
+matter, the pure from the impure, and presented in a just sense of
+right, in opposition to usurpation.
+
+Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affectionate esteem
+and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLI.--TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817
+
+
+TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, May 14, 1817.
+
+Although, Dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling little in
+its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute at times
+my old friends, were it only to say and to know that 'all's well.'
+Our hobby has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so
+desperate, that little matter is furnished us for active attention. With
+you too, it has long been forbidden ground, and therefore imprudent
+for a foreign friend to tread, in writing to you. But although our
+speculations might be intrusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable,
+and mine are sincerely offered for the well-being of France. What
+government she can bear, depends not on the state of science, however
+exalted, in a select band of enlightened men, but on the condition of
+the general mind. That, I am sure, is advanced and will advance, and
+the last change of government was fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be
+less obstructive to the effects of that advancement. For I consider your
+foreign military oppression as an ephemeral obstacle only.
+
+Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but that is
+a cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment of the
+necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our government is
+solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even to civil schism,
+are precious facts for us; and of these the strongest proofs were
+furnished, when, with four eastern States tied to us, as dead to living
+bodies, all doubt was removed as to the achievements of the war, had
+it continued. But its best effect has been the complete suppression of
+party. The federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was
+so, have separated from their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are
+received with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut,
+as a State, and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which
+were essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen
+a republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts indeed
+still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide crimes and
+treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh
+advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut
+as the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my
+attention. That is essentially a Quaker State, the fragment of a
+religious sect which, there, in the other States, in England, are a
+homogeneous mass, acting with one mind, and that directed by the mother
+society in England. Dispersed, as the Jews, they still form, as those
+do, one nation, foreign to the land they live in. They are Protestant
+Jesuits, implicitly devoted to the will of their superior, and
+forgetting all duties to their country in the execution of the policy
+of their order. When war is proposed with England, they have religious
+scruples; but when with France, these are laid by, and they become
+clamorous for it. They are, however, silent, passive, and give no other
+trouble than of whipping them along. Nor is the election of Monroe an
+inefficient circumstance in our felicities. Four and twenty years,
+which he will accomplish, of administration in republican forms and
+principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people as
+to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition of party
+dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened society beyond
+imagination. The war then has done us all this good, and the further one
+of assuring the world, that although attached to peace from a sense of
+its blessings, we will meet war when it is made necessary.
+
+I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The
+achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. But
+it is a very serious one, what will then become of them. Ignorance and
+bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government. They
+will fall under military despotisms, and become the murderous tools of
+the ambition of their respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be
+for their greater happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to
+judge. No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind
+exercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the
+question is not what we wish, but what is practicable. As their sincere
+friend and brother, then, I do believe the best thing for them, would be
+for themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under the guarantee
+of France, Russia, Holland, and the United States, allowing to Spain
+a nominal supremacy, with authority only to keep the peace among them,
+leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government, until
+their experience in them, their emancipation from their priests,
+and advancement in information, shall prepare them for complete
+independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because her
+selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
+disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
+revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
+permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension
+of her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
+Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
+send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
+wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
+led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
+sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
+are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have still
+many years to be a spectator of these events. That these years may
+indeed be many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate
+friend.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLII.--TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 16, 1817
+
+
+TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+
+Monticello, June 16, 1817.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The importance that the enclosed letters should safely reach their
+destination, impels me to avail myself of the protection of your cover.
+This is an inconvenience to which your situation exposes you, while it
+adds to the opportunities of exercising yourself in works of charity.
+
+According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before your
+departure, we have had almost an entire change in the body of Congress.
+The unpopularity of the compensation law was completed, by the manner of
+repealing it as to all the world except themselves. In some States, it
+is said, every member is changed; in all, many. What opposition there
+was to the original law, was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of
+those have been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I
+have never known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation; and what
+is remarkable, is, that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost
+entirely silent, and the people not only unled by their leaders, but in
+opposition to them. I confess I was highly pleased with this proof
+of the innate good sense, the vigilance, and the determination of the
+people to act for themselves.
+
+Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note: a navigation
+act, particularly, applicable to those nations only who have navigation
+acts; pinching one of them especially, not only in the general way, but
+in the intercourse with her foreign possessions. This part may re-act
+on us, and it remains for trial which may bear longest. A law respecting
+our conduct as a neutral between Spain and her contending colonies,
+was passed by a majority of one only, I believe, and against the
+very general sentiment of our country. It is thought to strain our
+complaisance to Spain beyond her right or merit, and almost against the
+right of the other party, and certainly against the claims they have to
+our good wishes and neighborly relations. That we should wish to see
+the people of other countries free, is as natural, and at least as
+justifiable, as that one King should wish to see the Kings of other
+countries maintained in their despotism. Right to both parties, innocent
+favor to the juster cause, is our proper sentiment.
+
+You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after
+passing both houses, was negatived by the President. The act was
+founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution,
+which authorizes Congress 'to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide
+for the general welfare,' was an extension of the powers specifically
+enumerated to whatever would promote the general welfare; and this,
+you know, was the federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet ever was,
+and, indeed, it is almost the only land-mark which now divides the
+federalists from the republicans, that Congress had not unlimited
+powers to provide for the general welfare, but were restrained to those
+specifically enumerated; and that, as it was never meant they should
+provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers,
+so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes
+which the enumeration did not place under their action: consequently,
+that the specification of powers is a limitation of the purposes for
+which they may raise money. I think the passage and rejection of this
+bill a fortunate incident. Every State will certainly concede the power;
+and this will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal to
+them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a
+mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
+claim of universal power. For in the phrase, 'to lay taxes, to pay the
+debts and provide for the general welfare,' it is a mere question of
+syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first, or
+are distinct and co-ordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided
+by the exact definition of powers immediately following. It is fortunate
+for another reason, as the States, in conceding the power, will modify
+it, either by requiring the federal ratio of expense in each State, or
+otherwise, so as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this
+caution, intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
+habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have the
+appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called 'logging,' the
+term of the farmers for their exchanges of aid in rolling together the
+logs of their newly cleared grounds. Three of our papers have presented
+us the copy of an act of the legislature of New York, which, if it has
+really passed, will carry us back to the times of the darkest bigotry
+and barbarism to find a parallel. Its purport is, that all those who
+shall hereafter join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking
+Quakers, shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and
+all their children and property taken out of their hands. This act being
+published nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any
+history of the circumstances of its passage, I am not without a hope it
+may have been a mere abortive attempt. It contrasts singularly with a
+cotemporary vote of the Pennsylvania legislature, who, on a proposition
+to make the belief in a God a necessary qualification for office,
+rejected it by a great majority, although assuredly there was not a
+single atheist in their body. And you remember to have heard, that, when
+the act for religious freedom was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion
+to insert the name of Jesus Christ before the phrase, 'the author of our
+holy religion,' which stood in the bill, was rejected, although that was
+the creed of a great majority of them.
+
+I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now produces
+scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison's election there was little, on
+Monroe's all but none. In Mr. Adams's time and mine, parties were so
+nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful for our peace. But since
+the decided ascendancy of the republican body, federalism has looked
+on with silent but unresisting anguish. In the middle, southern, and
+western States, it is as low as it ever can be; for nature has made some
+men monarchists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course,
+there always will be.
+
+*****
+
+We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in Maine, the
+mercury was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit, which is
+sixteen degrees lower than it was in Paris in 1788-9. Here it was at six
+degrees above zero, which is our greatest degree of cold.
+
+Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my constant
+and affectionate friendship.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, May 17, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mr. Holly's own hand your
+favor of January the 28th, being then at my other home. He dined only
+with my family, and left them with an impression which has filled me
+with regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them.
+I am glad he is gone to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more
+rapidly there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are, and
+bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though neither you
+nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary people to them. Our
+greediness for wealth, and fantastical expense have degraded, and will
+degrade, the minds of our maritime citizens. These are the peculiar
+vices of commerce.
+
+I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of you
+through a letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to reclaim against
+an expression of Mr. Wirt's, as to the commencement of motion in
+the revolutionary ball. The lawyers say that words are always to be
+expounded _secundum subjectam materiem_, which, in Mr. Wirt's case, was
+Virginia. It would, moreover, be as difficult to say at what moment
+the Revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the
+moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him
+a beginning. But the most agreeable part of his letter was that which
+informed me of your health, your activity, and strength of memory;
+and the most wonderful, that which assured me that you retained your
+industry and promptness in epistolary correspondence. Here you have
+entire advantage over me. My repugnance to the writing-table becomes
+daily and hourly more deadly and insurmountable. In place of this has
+come on a canine appetite for reading. And I indulge it, because I see
+in it a relief against the _taedium senectutis_; a lamp to lighten my
+path through the dreary wilderness of time before me, whose bourne I see
+not. Losing daily all interest in the things around us, something else
+is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which occupies the
+mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own stock.
+
+I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of South
+America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is
+within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their
+minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it
+would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that
+would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to
+take charge of themselves understanding; with more certainty, if, in
+the mean time, under so much control as may keep them at peace with
+one another. Surely, it is our duty to wish them independence and
+self-government, because they wish it themselves, and they have the
+right, and we none, to choose for themselves: and I wish, moreover, that
+our ideas may be erroneous, and theirs prove well-founded. But these are
+speculations, my friend, which we may as well deliver over to those who
+are to see their developement. We shall only be lookers on, from the
+clouds above, as now we look down on the labors, the hurry, and bustle
+of the ants and bees. Perhaps, in that super-mundane region, we may
+be amused with seeing the fallacy of our own guesses, and even the
+nothingness of those labors which have filled and agitated our own time
+here.
+
+_En attendant_, with sincere affections to Mrs. Adams and yourself, I
+salute you both cordially.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, November 13, 1818
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 13, 1818.
+
+The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which
+your letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding.
+Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of
+connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what
+you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to
+endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable,
+time and silence are the only medicine. I will not, therefore, by
+useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor,
+although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more
+where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that
+the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same
+cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to
+an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we
+shall still love, and never lose again. God bless you, and support you
+under your heavy affliction.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLV.--TO ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818
+
+
+TO ROBERT WALSH.
+
+Monticello, December 4, 1818.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Yours of November the 8th has been some time received; but it is in my
+power to give little satisfaction as to its inquiries. Dr. Franklin had
+many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision
+enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on
+the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in
+Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of
+the proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
+Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which,
+spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr.
+Lee was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides
+enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the
+agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into
+that State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor's enemy
+also, but from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges
+against him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also,
+ever maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he
+would have waived the formal recognition of our independence, I never
+heard on any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was
+urgent to retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe, that
+had they been ultimately made a _sine qua non_, our commissioners (Mr.
+Adams excepted) would have relinquished them, rather than have broken
+off the treaty. To Mr. Adams's perseverance alone, on that point, I
+have always understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the
+charge of subservience to France, besides the evidence of his friendly
+colleagues before named, two years of my own service with him at Paris,
+daily visits, and the most friendly and confidential conversations,
+convince me it had not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the
+confidence of that government in the highest degree, insomuch, that
+it may truly be said, that they were more under his influence, than
+he under theirs. The fact is, that his temper was so amiable and
+conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or
+even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate
+and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his
+enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that reasonable disposition,
+which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding
+what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality
+and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual influence,
+and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the government
+of France.
+
+I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too
+much in detail for the scale of Delaplaine's work, but which may find a
+cadre in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is
+in a great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
+recollections and assurances of respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVI.--TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818
+
+
+TO M. DE NEUVILLE.
+
+Monticello, December 13, 1818.
+
+I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
+of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
+no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
+Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
+much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from
+the incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from
+her slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her
+central position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than
+she ever was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future
+day, remind of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most
+eagerly. I hope, however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk
+no new troubles. Her constitution, as now amended, gives as much of
+self-government as perhaps she can yet bear, and will give more, when
+the habits of order shall have prepared her to receive more. Besides the
+gratitude which every American owes her, as our sole ally during the
+war of independence, I am additionally affectioned by the friendships
+I contracted there, by the good dispositions I witnessed, and by the
+courtesies I received.
+
+I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties
+on wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on
+that liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use
+to the middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to
+the poison of whiskey, which is desolating their houses. No nation is
+drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine
+substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the
+only antidote to the bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of
+other merchandise, and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog:
+and who will not prefer it? Its extended use will carry health and
+comfort to a much enlarged circle. Every one in easy circumstances (as
+the bulk of our citizens are) will prefer it to the poison to which they
+are now driven by their government. And the treasury itself will find
+that a penny a piece from a dozen, is more than a groat from a single
+one. This reformation, however, will require time. Our merchants know
+nothing of the infinite variety of cheap and good wines to be had in
+Europe; and particularly in France, in Italy, and the Grecian islands:
+as they know little, also, of the variety of excellent manufactures and
+comforts to be had any where out of England. Nor will these things be
+known, nor of course called for here, until the native merchants of
+those countries, to whom they are known, shall bring them forward,
+exhibit, and vend them at the moderate profits they can afford. This
+alone will procure them familiarity with us, and the preference they
+merit in competition with corresponding articles now in use.
+
+Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your kind visit
+to Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assurances of the
+gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem and respectful
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVII.--TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY, March 21, 1819
+
+
+TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY.
+
+Monticello, March 21, 1819.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and
+the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me
+not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied
+it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like
+other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my
+own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little
+animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the
+vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the
+Doctor's glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend;
+but halve its effect by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I
+cannot drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors
+and cider are my table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of
+my friend, is of tea and coffee. I have been blest with organs of
+digestion, which accept and concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever
+the palate chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet lost a tooth
+by age. I was a hard student until I entered on the business of life,
+the duties of which leave no idle time to those disposed to fulfil
+them; and now, retired, and at the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard
+student. Indeed my fondness for reading and study revolts me from the
+drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist, the consequence of an
+early dislocation, makes writing both slow and painful. I am not so
+regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was, devoting to it from
+five to eight hours, according as my company or the book I am reading
+interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or half hour's
+previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the
+intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise
+with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the
+day, unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular
+conversation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
+unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate than
+my friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have
+not had one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight or ten years
+through life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of bathing my
+feet in cold water every morning for sixty years past. A fever of more
+than twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my
+life. A periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps,
+in six or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time, which seems
+now to have left me; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I
+enjoy good health; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without
+fatigue six or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may
+end these egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has
+been so much like that of other people, that I might say with Horace,
+to every one, '_Nomine mutato, narratur fabula de te_.' I must not end,
+however, without due thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are
+so good as to express towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for
+these, be pleased to accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLVIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, July 9, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June
+the 22nd. The first, delivered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the
+gratification of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is, to
+be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as
+I found Mr. Greenwood to be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams
+Wells, shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to
+his advantage.
+
+But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg
+county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Register, which you
+were so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you
+seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very
+unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us
+as having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago,
+in that part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of
+Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise locality. If this paper
+be really taken from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should
+have escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the
+bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, too, which is
+edited by a North-Carolinian: and that the fire should blaze out all at
+once in Essex, one thousand miles from where the spark is said to
+have fallen. But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is the
+narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious as the
+paper itself? It appeals, too, to an original book, which is burnt, to
+Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hughes, and
+Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent
+to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect,
+in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step
+of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his history of
+Marion, whose scene of action was the country bordering On Mecklenburg.
+Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent
+States, all silent. When Mr. Henry's resolutions, far short of
+independence, flew like lightning through every paper, and kindled both
+sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of the same date, of the
+independence of Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, absolving it from
+the British allegiance, and abjuring all political connection with that
+nation, although sent to Congress, too, is never heard of. It is not
+known even a twelvemonth after, when a similar proposition is first made
+in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not you have addressed
+our timid brethren in peals of thunder, on their tardy fears? Would
+not every advocate of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg
+county, in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting Dickinson and
+others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example of independent
+Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper
+speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delegation (Caswell,
+Hooper, Hughes,) 'in the cause of liberty and independence.' Now, you
+remember as well as I do, that we had not a greater tory in Congress
+than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes
+feeble, according as the day was clear or cloudy; that Caswell, indeed,
+was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was
+present; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then
+uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes, and the vote of the State.
+I must not be understood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State
+of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm,
+positively, that this paper is a fabrication: because the proof of a
+negative can only be presumptive. But I shall believe it such until
+positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced. And if
+the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs
+a vindication by the production of such proof. For the present, I must
+be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
+
+I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his friends;
+but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship
+in our University, which we should have offered him in form. Mr.
+Bowditch, too, refuses us; so fascinating is the _vinculum_ of the
+_dulce natale solum_. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can be
+found, like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement in
+their respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to
+natives of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our
+Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are.
+
+I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance
+of which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary
+communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there,
+here, and every where, I am and shall always be, affectionately and
+respectfully yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXLIX.--TO JUDGE ROANE, September 6,1819
+
+
+TO JUDGE ROANE.
+
+Poplar Forest, September 6,1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces
+signed Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation in
+the copies you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every
+tittle of them. They contain the true principles of the revolution
+of 1800, for that was as real a revolution in the principles of our
+government as that of 1776 was in its form; not effected indeed by the
+sword, as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform,
+the suffrage of the people. The nation declared its will by dismissing
+functionaries of one principle, and electing those of another, in the
+two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election.
+Over the judiciary department, the constitution had deprived them of
+their control. That, therefore, has continued the reprobated system: and
+although new matter has been occasionally incorporated into the old, yet
+the leaven of the old mass seems to assimilate to itself the new; and
+after twenty years' confirmation of the federated system by the voice
+of the nation, declared through the medium of elections, we find the
+judiciary, on every occasion, still driving us into consolidation.
+
+In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
+constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your
+quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that 'the judiciary is the
+last resort in relation _to the other departments of the government_,
+but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under
+which the judiciary is derived.' If this opinion be sound, then indeed
+is our constitution a complete _felo de se_. For intending to establish
+three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check
+and balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one
+of them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the
+others, and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of
+the nation. For experience has already shown that the impeachment it
+has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one
+you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not
+belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally
+the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line
+they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have
+excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted
+with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing
+of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape
+into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of
+eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is
+independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the
+spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.
+Independence can be trusted no where but with the people in mass. They
+are inherently independent of all but moral law. My construction of
+the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that each
+department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal right to
+decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in the cases
+submitted to its action; and especially, where it is to act ultimately
+and without appeal. I will explain myself by examples, which, having
+occurred while I was in office, are better known to me, and the
+principles which governed them.
+
+A legislature had passed the sedition-law. The federal courts
+had subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and
+imprisonment. On coming into office, I released these individuals by the
+power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could never be
+more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering without the
+authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorized
+by the constitution, and therefore null. In the case of Marbury and
+Madison, the federal judges declared that commissions, signed and sealed
+by the President, were valid, although not delivered. I deemed delivery
+essential to complete a deed, which, as long as it remains in the hands
+of the party, is as yet no deed, it is in posse only, but not in
+esse, and I withheld delivery of the commissions. They cannot issue a
+mandamus* to the President or legislature, or to any of their officers.
+When the British treaty of 180- arrived, without any provision against
+the impressment of our seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The Senate
+thought I should ask their advice. I thought that would be a mockery of
+them, when I was predetermined against following it, should they advise
+its ratification. The constitution had made their advice necessary to
+confirm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some;
+but I have never doubted its soundness. In the cases of two persons,
+antenati, under exactly similar circumstances, the federal court had
+determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen; the House of
+Representatives nevertheless determined that the other (Smith of South
+Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him to his seat in their body.
+Duane was a republican, and Smith a federalist, and these decisions were
+during the federal ascendancy.
+
+     * The constitution controlling the common law in this
+     particular.
+
+These are examples of my position, that each of the three departments
+has equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the
+constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided
+for themselves under a similar question. But you intimate a wish that my
+opinion should be known on this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw
+from all contests of opinion, and resign every thing cheerfully to
+the generation now in place. They are wiser than we were, and their
+successors will be wiser than they, from the progressive advance of
+science. Tranquillity is the _summum bonum_ of age. I wish, therefore,
+to offend no man's opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions
+on my own. While duty required it, I met opposition with a firm and
+fearless step. But, loving mankind in my individual relations with
+them, I pray to be permitted to depart in their peace; and like the
+superannuated soldier, '_quadragenis stipendiis emeritis_'to hang my
+arms on the post. I have unwisely, I fear, embarked in an enterprise of
+great public concern, but not to be accomplished within my term, without
+their liberal and prompt support. A severe illness the last year and
+another from which I am just emerged, admonish me that repetitions may
+be expected, against which a declining frame cannot long bear up. I am
+anxious therefore to get our University so far advanced as may encourage
+the public to persevere to its final accomplishment. That secured, I
+shall sing my _Nunc demittas_. I hope your labors will be long continued
+in the spirit in which they have always been exercised, in maintenance
+of those principles on which I verily believe the future happiness of
+our country essentially depends. I salute you with affectionate and
+great respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CL.--TO JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, December 10, 1819.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of November the 23rd.
+The banks, bankrupt-law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing.
+These are occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will pass under
+the ship. But the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the
+Missouri country by revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the
+battle of Bunker's Hill to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous
+a question. It even damps the joy with which I hear of your high health,
+and welcomes to me the consequences of my want of it. I thank God that I
+shall not live to witness its issue. _Sed haec hactenus_.
+
+I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters
+of Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effusions of an exalted
+patriot, while the parricide Caesar is lost in odious contrast. When the
+enthusiasm, however, kindled by Cicero's pen and principles, subsides
+into cool reflection, I ask myself, What was that government which the
+virtues of Cicero were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar
+to subvert? And if Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and
+sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power,
+have done to lead his fellow-citizens into good government? I do not say
+to restore it, because they never had it, from the rape of the Sabines
+to the ravages of the Caesars. If their people indeed had been, like
+ourselves, enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be
+obvious. 'Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve
+Italy from the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a
+nation entitled to self-government, and do its will.' But steeped in
+corruption, vice, and venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody
+had done more than Caesar to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero, Cato,
+Brutus, have done, had it been referred to them to establish a
+good government for their country? They had no ideas of government
+themselves, but of their degenerate Senate, nor the people of liberty,
+but of the factious opposition of their tribunes. They had afterwards
+their Tituses, their Trajans, and Antoninuses, who had the will to make
+them happy, and the power to mould their government into a good and
+permanent form. But it would seem as if they could not see their way
+clearly to do it. No government can continue good, but under the control
+of the people; and their people were so demoralized and depraved, as to
+be incapable of exercising a wholesome control. Their reformation then
+was to be taken up _ab incunabulis_. Their minds were to be informed by
+education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of
+virtue, and deterred from those of vice, by the dread of punishments,
+proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth
+as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one
+false consequence after another, in endless succession. These are
+the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the
+structure of order and good government. But this would have been an
+operation of a generation or two, at least, within which period would
+have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have quashed the
+whole process. I confess then, I can neither see what Cicero, Cato, and
+Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could have devised to lead their people
+into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved, nor how further
+shown why it has been the fate of that delightful country never to have
+known, to this day, and through a course of five and twenty hundred
+years, the history of which we possess, one single day of free and
+rational government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient, middle,
+and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in the science of
+government at this time, will enable you, if any body, to go back with
+our principles and opinions to the limes of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus,
+and tell us by what process these great and virtuous men could have led
+so unenlightened and vitiated a people into freedom and good government,
+_et eris mihi magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas
+carissimum te mihi esse_.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLI.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, April 13, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of March the 27th is received, and, as you request, a copy of
+the syllabus is now enclosed. It was originally written to Dr. Rush. On
+his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of
+it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied
+with. At the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent
+it to his friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it appeared
+in the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that repository is
+scarcely known in this country; and the syllabus, therefore, is still a
+secret, and in your hands I am sure it will continue so.
+
+But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its
+true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the
+Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with
+him in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of
+Spiritualism: he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness
+of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, &c. &c. It
+is the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral
+precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues
+in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed,
+needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be
+founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the
+sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many
+passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely
+benevolence; and others again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity,
+so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it
+impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same
+being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him
+the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery
+of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul
+was the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.
+These palpable interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me
+to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that
+his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been
+given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of his doctrine, not
+all of mine: I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern
+moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent.
+
+I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal
+improvement prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever expressed
+of the advantages of a western communication through the James River, I
+still entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links
+of communication.
+
+The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the ten
+pavilions destined for the Professors, and about thirty dormitories,
+will be completed this year, and three others, with six hotels for
+boarding, and seventy other dormitories, will be completed the next
+year, and the whole be in readiness then to receive those who are to
+occupy them. But means to bring these into place, and to set the machine
+into motion, must come from the legislature. An opposition, in the mean
+time, has been got up. That of our alma mater, William and Mary, is not
+of much weight. She must descend into the secondary rank of academies of
+preparation for the University. The serious enemies are the priests of
+the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind
+its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits are now resounding with
+denunciations against the appointment of Doctor Cooper, whom they charge
+as a monotheist in opposition to their tritheism. Hostile as these sects
+are, in every other point, to one another, they unite in maintaining
+their mystical theogony against those who believe there is one God only.
+The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most intolerant of all sects,
+the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the word of the lawgiver, if
+such a word could be now obtained, to put the torch to the pile, and
+to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere the flames in which their oracle
+Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because, he could not find in his
+Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three are one, and
+one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that magistrates have
+a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic creed. They pant to
+re-establish, by law, that holy inquisition, which they can now only
+infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to the
+hierophants of our particular superstition the direction of public
+opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and
+privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering
+their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as
+wax in the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations
+against endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason
+of the people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of
+this State will support this institution, and give fair play to the
+cultivation of reason. Can you ever find a more eligible occasion of
+visiting once more your native country, than that of accompanying Mr.
+Correa, and of seeing with him this beautiful and hopeful institution
+_in ovo_.
+
+Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or
+even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore
+had ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused
+and filled me with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican
+threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them
+together by the fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked
+principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once
+conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that
+it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irritations, until
+it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation
+preferable to eternal discord. I have been among the most sanguine in
+believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much,
+and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of
+this question: not by the line which has been so confidently counted on;
+the laws of nature control this; but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri,
+or more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My
+only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this; and I
+envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of
+their fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate
+the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of
+self-government. This treason against human hope will signalize their
+epoch in future history, as the counterpart of the medal of their
+predecessors.
+
+You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it immediately
+threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down mechanically, by
+bandages from the toe to the knee. These I have worn for six months. But
+the tendency to turgidity may proceed from debility alone. I can walk
+the round of my garden; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day
+without fatigue. I shall set out for Poplar Forest within three or four
+days; a journey from which my physician augurs much good.
+
+I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLII.--TO JOHN HOLMES, April 22, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN HOLMES.
+
+Monticello, April 22, 1820.
+
+I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send
+me of the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is
+a perfect justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read
+newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were
+in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore
+from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, like a
+fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered
+it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for
+the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A
+geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and
+political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will
+never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and
+deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is not a man on
+earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this
+heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The cession of that kind of
+property (for so it is misnamed) is a bagatelle which would not cost
+me a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and
+expatriation could be effected: and, gradually, and with due sacrifices,
+I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we
+can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale,
+and self-preservation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as
+the passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a
+slave of a single human being who would not be so without it, so their
+diffusion over a greater surface would make them individually happier,
+and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation,
+by dividing the burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An
+abstinence, too, from this act of power, would remove the jealousy
+excited by the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the
+different descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the
+exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the constitution has
+taken from them, and given to the General Government. Could Congress,
+for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen,
+or that they shall not emigrate into any other State?
+
+I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice
+of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government
+and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and
+unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be,
+that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh
+the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more
+likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before
+they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason
+against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
+the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIII.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820
+
+
+TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+
+Monticello, August 4, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, which was received
+in due time; and there being no subject of the day, of particular
+interest, I will make this a supplement to mine of April the 13th. My
+aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions
+of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of
+being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced
+the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers
+father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and
+theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter
+ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he
+was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions
+and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter
+asked only what is granted in reading every other historian. When
+Livy and Siculus, for example, tell us things which coincide with our
+experience of the order of nature, we credit them on their word, and
+place their narrations among the records of credible history. But when
+they tell us of calves speaking, of statues sweating blood, and other
+things against the course of nature, we reject these as fables not
+belonging to history. In like manner, when an historian, speaking of a
+character well known and established on satisfactory testimony, imputes
+to it things incompatible with that character, we reject them without
+hesitation, and assent to that only of which we have better evidence.
+Had Plutarch informed us that Caesar and Cicero passed their whole lives
+in religious exercises, and abstinence from the affairs of the world,
+we should reject what was so inconsistent with their established
+characters, still crediting what he relates in conformity with our ideas
+of them. So again, the superlative wisdom of Socrates is testified
+by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be questioned. When,
+therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on
+words, and sophisms, as a school-boy would be ashamed of, we conclude
+they were the whimsies of Plato's own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates
+of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking of Plato, I will add,
+that no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with more
+_ignes fatui_, than this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in Politics,
+and Physics. In the latter, to specify a single example, compare his
+views of the animal economy, in his Timasus, with those of Mrs. Bryan in
+her Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized
+philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But Plato's
+visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mystical theology,
+and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian saint. It is surely
+time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of
+names so artificially magnified. But to return from this parenthesis.) I
+say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication
+of the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers
+matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a ground-work of vulgar
+ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and
+fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the
+Supreme Being, aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morality and
+benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity
+of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors,
+with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed.
+These could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them.
+They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. They show that
+there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid
+conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their
+hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, and ascribing
+each to its genuine author? The difference is obvious to the eye and
+to the understanding, and we may read as we run to each his part; and I
+will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have done, will undertake to
+winnow this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a moment's
+consideration. The parts fall asunder of themselves, as would those of
+an image of metal and clay.
+
+There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we
+may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence
+from the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the
+reformation of some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by
+Moses. That sect had presented for the object of their worship, a being
+of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus,
+taking for his type the best qualities of the human head and heart,
+wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of
+these, but in infinite perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him
+really worthy of their adoration. Moses had either not believed in
+a future state of existence, or had not thought it essential to be
+explicitly taught to his people. Jesus inculcated that doctrine
+with emphasis and precision. Moses had bound the Jews to many idle
+ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no effect towards producing
+the social utilities which constitute the essence of virtue; Jesus
+exposed their futility and insignificance. The one instilled into his
+people the most anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other
+preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence. The office
+of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus
+had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step
+to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of
+the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the
+being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac,
+and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying
+snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He was
+justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by
+misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and
+in defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, _ad
+homines_, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind
+as the Son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the
+writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he might
+conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very possible.
+The whole religion of the Jews, inculcated on him from his infancy,
+was founded in the belief of divine inspiration. The fumes of the
+most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code,
+as special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen
+that, in the course of ages events would now and then turn up to which
+some of these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of
+allegories, figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not
+only preserved their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times,
+but are the foundation of much of the religions of those who have
+schismatized from them. Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure
+heart, conscious of the high strains of an eloquence which had not been
+taught him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of his own fine
+genius for inspirations of an higher order. This belief, carried,
+therefore, no more personal imputation, than the belief of Socrates,
+that himself was under the care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon.
+And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these
+inspirations, while perfectly sane on all other subjects. Excusing,
+therefore, on these considerations, those passages in the gospels which
+seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus, ascribing to him what alone is
+consistent with the great and pure character of which the same writings
+furnish proofs, and to their proper authors their own trivialities
+and imbecilities, I think myself authorized to conclude the purity and
+distinction of his character, in opposition to the impostures which
+those authors would fix upon him; and that the postulate of my former
+letter is no more than is granted in all other historical works.
+
+Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been much
+pleased with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some
+valuable hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good
+in his new country; the public instruction there, as I understand,
+being within the department destined for him. He is not without
+dissatisfaction, and reasonable dissatisfaction, too, with the piracies
+of Baltimore; but his justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure,
+distinguish between the iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound
+principles of our country at large, and of our government especially.
+From many conversations with him, I hope he sees, and will promote, in
+his new situation, the advantages of a cordial fraternization among
+all the American nations, and the importance of their coalescing in an
+American system of policy, totally independent of, and unconnected with
+that of Europe. The day is not distant, when we may formally require
+a meridian of partition through the ocean which separates the two
+hemispheres, on the hither side of which no European gun shall ever be
+heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the
+eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb, within our regions, shall
+lie down together in peace. The excess of population in Europe, and
+want of room, render war, in their opinion, necessary to keep down that
+excess of numbers. Here, room is abundant, population scanty, and peace
+the necessary means for producing men, to whom the redundant soil is
+offering the means of life and happiness. The principles of society
+there and here, then, are radically different, and I hope no American
+patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of interdicting in
+the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious and sanguinary
+contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I am earnest for
+an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning them the task
+of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the cannibalisms of
+the African coasts, and, to us, the suppression of the same enormities
+within our seas: and for this purpose, I should rejoice to see the
+fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren of
+the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be
+of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the
+invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be
+preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval
+collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
+
+*****
+
+Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and respect for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, August 15, 1820.
+
+I am a great defaulter, my Dear Sir, in our correspondence, but
+prostrate health rarely permits me to write; and when it does, matters
+of business imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however,
+slowly, swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I
+believe, proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I
+ride six or eight miles a day without fatigue; and within a few days,
+I shall endeavor to visit my other home, after a twelvemonth's absence
+from it. Our University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise,
+and the oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and
+it is becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have lately
+had an opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your
+North American Review of January last, having been not without anxiety
+to see what that able work would say of us: and I was relieved on
+finding in it much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms
+where indulged, I found they would have been obviated had the
+developements of our plan been fuller. But these were restrained by the
+character of the paper reviewed, being merely a report of outlines,
+not a detailed treatise, and addressed to a legislative body, not to
+a learned academy. For example, as an inducement to introduce the
+Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it would reward amply
+the few weeks of attention which alone would be requisite for its
+attainment; leaving both term and degree under an indefinite expression,
+because I know that not much time is necessary to attain it to an useful
+degree, sufficient to give such instruction in the etymologies of our
+language as may satisfy ordinary students, while more time would be
+requisite for those who should propose to attain a critical knowledge
+of it. In a letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts who sent
+you, I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the English
+and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary he
+meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for
+simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and
+difficulties presented by it's rude alphabet, and unformed orthography.
+But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond
+the bounds of a report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts died, I believe,
+before any progress was made in the work he had projected.
+
+The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our placing
+military and naval architecture in the department of pure mathematics.
+Military architecture embraces fortification and field works, which,
+with their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts, &c. are based on a
+technical combination of lines and angles. These are adapted to offence
+and defence, with and against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades,
+he. But lines and angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch
+of pure mathematics: and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other
+projectiles, the necessary appendages of military works, although no
+part of their architecture, belong to the conic sections, a branch of
+transcendental geometry. Diderot and D'Alembert, therefore, in their
+_Arbor scienciae_, have placed military architecture in the department
+of elementary geometry. Naval architecture teaches the best form and
+construction of vessels; for which best form it has recourse to the
+question of the solid of least resistance; a problem of transcendental
+geometry. And its appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch as
+in the preceding case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of
+the water on the rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may
+be placed in the department of mechanics, as Diderot and D'Alembert
+have done; but belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in its
+military character to military architecture, it simplified our plan to
+place both under the same head. These views are so obvious, that I am
+sure they would have required but a second thought to reconcile the
+reviewer to their location under the head of pure mathematics. For
+this word location, see Bailey, Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, &c. But if
+dictionaries are to be the arbiters of language, in which of them shall
+we find neologism? No matter. It is a good word, well sounding, obvious,
+and expresses an idea, which would otherwise require circumlocution. The
+reviewer was justifiable, therefore, in using it; although he noted
+at the same time, as unauthoritative, _centrality, grade, sparse_; all
+which have been long used in common speech and writing. I am a friend
+to neology. It is the only way to give to a language copiousness and
+euphony. Without it we should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred
+or of Ulphilas; and held to their state of science also: for I am
+sure they had no words which could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen,
+cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism, electricity, hyaline, and thousands of
+others expressing ideas not then existing, nor of possible communication
+in the state of their language. What a language has the French become
+since the date of their revolution, by the free introduction of new
+words! The most copious and eloquent in the living world; and equal to
+the Greek, had not that been regularly modifiable almost _ad infinitum_.
+Their rule was, that whenever their language furnished or adopted a
+root, all its branches in every part of speech, were legitimated by
+giving them their appropriate terminations:
+
+[Illustration: page331]
+
+And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the
+adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity,
+fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize,
+fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root,
+and it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist,
+neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical;
+its verb, neologize; and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but
+the depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the
+work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses
+a new word, if ill formed, it is rejected in society, if well formed,
+adopted, and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries.
+And if, in this process of sound neologization, our trans-Atlantic
+brethren shall not choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after
+the Ionians, a second example of a colonial dialect improving on its
+primitive.
+
+But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of May the
+12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &c. Its crowd of scepticisms kept me
+from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid it down,
+again and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur
+ultimately to my habitual anodyne, 'I feel, therefore I exist.' I feel
+bodies which are not myself: there are other existences then. I call
+them matter. I feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where
+there is an absence of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial
+space. On the basis of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect
+the fabric of all the certainties we can have or need. I can conceive
+thought to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed
+for that purpose by its creator, as well as that attraction is an action
+of matter, or magnetism of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator
+the power of endowing matter with the mode of action called thinking,
+shall show how he could endow the sun with the mode of action called
+attraction, which reins the planets in the track of their orbits, or how
+an absence of matter can have a will, and by that will put matter into
+motion, then the Materialist may be lawfully required to explain the
+process by which matter exercises the faculty of thinking. When once we
+quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of immaterial
+existences, is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels,
+God, are immaterial, is to say, they are nothings, or that there is no
+God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am
+supported in my creed of materialism by the Lockes, the Tracys, and
+the Stewarts. At what age* of the Christian church this heresy of
+immaterialism, or masked atheism, crept in, I do not exactly know. But a
+heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He told us, indeed,
+that 'God is a spirit,' but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor
+said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, of the
+three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and thin indeed, an
+ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. '_Deus reapse corporalis
+est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus_.' Tertullian,'
+_Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?_' And again, '_Quis negabit Deum esse
+corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est, sui generis in
+sua effigie_. St. Justin Martyr,
+
+[Illustration: 332]
+
+And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, '_Quamvis enim subtilia
+sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturas
+eorum, corpora sunt tenuia_.' And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius,
+Tatian, Athenagoras, and others, with whose writings I pretend not a
+familiarity, are said by those who are better acquainted with them,
+to deliver the same doctrine. (Enfield x. 3. 1.) Turn to your Ocellus
+d'Argens, 97, 105. and to his Timseus 17. for these quotations. In
+England, these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2.
+when the writ _de haeretico comburendo_ was abolished; and here until the
+Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies being
+now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing
+from the material atheist only in their belief, that 'nothing made
+something,' and from the material deist, who believes that matter alone
+can operate on matter.
+
+     [* That of Athanasius and the Council of Nicasa, anno 324]
+
+Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses, I rid
+myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations
+hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and disquiet the
+mind. A single sense may indeed be sometimes deceived, but rarely; and
+never all our senses together, with their faculty of reasoning. They
+evidence realities, and there are enough of these for all the purposes
+of life, without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and
+phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things
+which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may
+indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. I am sure that I really know
+many, many things, and none more surely than that I love you with all
+my heart, and pray for the continuance of your life until you shall be
+tired of it yourself.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, November 28, 1820
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor, with a
+request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary Board in time to
+lay it before the legislature on the second day of their session. It
+was enclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. If delivered
+before the crowd of other business presses on them, they may act on
+it immediately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly
+combinations and manoeuvres by the enemies of the institution. I enclose
+you now a paper presenting some views which may be useful to you in
+conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution
+is to cost, and reproaches of deceptive estimates. One hundred and
+sixty-two thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars will be about
+the cost of the whole establishment, when completed. Not an office
+at Washington has cost less. The single building of the courthouse of
+Henrico has cost nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of
+bricks of William and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
+
+Surely Governor Clinton's display of the gigantic efforts of New York
+towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate the pride as well
+as the patriotism of our legislature, to look to the reputation and
+safety of their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of
+becoming the Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our
+own negroes. To that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the
+hands of the other States, what our indigenous predecessors were when
+invaded by the science and arts of Europe. The mass of education in
+Virginia, before the Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her
+sister colonies. What is her education now? Where is it? The little
+we have, we import, like beggars, from other States; or import their
+beggars to bestow on us their miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to
+restore us to our station among our confederates? Not more money from
+the people. Enough has been raised by them, and appropriated to this
+very object. It is that it should be employed understandingly, and for
+their greatest good. That good requires, that while they are instructed
+in general, competently to the common business of life, others should
+employ their genius with necessary information to the useful arts, to
+inventions for saving labor and increasing our comforts, to nourishing
+our health, to civil government, military science, &c.
+
+Would it not have a good effect for the friends of the University
+to take the lead in proposing and effecting a practical scheme of
+elementary schools? to assume the character of the friends, rather than
+the opponents of that object? The present plan has appropriated to the
+primary schools forty-five thousand dollars for three years, making one
+hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. I should be glad to know if
+this sum has educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children? I doubt
+it much. And if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a
+piece for what might have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the
+literary revenue to be sixty thousand dollars, I think it demonstrable,
+that this sum, equally divided between the two objects, would amply
+suffice for both. One hundred counties, divided into about twelve wards
+each, on an average, and a school in each ward of perhaps ten
+children, would be one thousand and two hundred schools, distributed
+proportionably over the surface of the State. The inhabitants of each
+ward, meeting together (as when they work on the roads), building
+good log-houses for their school and teacher, and contributing for his
+provisions, rations of pork, beef, and corn, in the proportion, each of
+his other taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without feeling it;
+and those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of their own
+children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the tuition
+fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would still be fed and
+lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten dollars, and three
+hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an average (more or less duly
+proportioned), would there be thirty such paupers for every county? I
+think not. The truth is, that the want of common education with us is
+not from our poverty, but from want of an orderly system. More money is
+now paid for the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the
+whole, if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in New
+York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one
+hundred and sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty
+established academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen
+pupils; and five colleges, with seven hundred and eighteen students;
+to which last classes of institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand
+dollars have been given; and the whole appropriations for education
+estimated at two and a half millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is
+Virginia become, with a population almost equal to that of New York!
+And whence this difference? From the difference their rulers set on
+the value of knowledge, and the prosperity it produces. But still, if a
+pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may do. If among fifty children in each
+of the six thousand schools of New York, there are only paupers enough
+to employ twenty-five dollars of public money to each school, surely
+among the ten children of each of our one thousand and two hundred
+schools, the same sum of twenty-five dollars to each school will teach
+its paupers (five times as much as to the same number in New York), and
+will amount for the whole to thirty thousand dollars a year, the one
+half only of our literary revenue.
+
+Do then, Dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take in
+hand the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the elementary
+schools, and none are more warmly so than myself, lighten the
+difficulties of the University, and promote in every order of men the
+degree of instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their
+views in life. It will combine with the mass of our force, a wise
+direction of it, which will insure to our country its future prosperity
+and safety. I had formerly thought that visitors of the schools might
+be chosen by the county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward,
+and to superintend them. I now think it would be better for every ward
+to choose its own resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a
+teacher in the ward, to superintend the school, and to call meetings of
+the ward for all purposes relating to it: their accounts to be settled,
+and wards laid off by the courts. I think ward elections better for
+many reasons, one of which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary
+education out of the hands of fanaticizing preachers, who, in county
+elections, would be universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the
+county would possess itself of all its schools.
+
+A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the effect of
+age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with me. I cannot,
+therefore, present these views by separate letters to each of our
+colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to communicate them to
+Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge, and to request them to
+consider this as equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon, being the local
+representative of the University and among its most zealous friends,
+would be a more useful second to General Breckenridge in the House of
+Delegates, by a free communication of what concerns the University, with
+which he has had little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So also,
+would it be as to Mr. Rives, who would be a friendly advocate.
+
+Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVI.--TO THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820
+
+TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
+
+Monticello, December, 25, 1820.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+On my return home after a long absence, I find here your favor of
+November the 23rd, with Colonel Taylor's 'Construction Construed,' which
+you have been so kind as to send me, in the name of the author as well
+as yourself. Permit me, if you please, to use the same channel
+for conveying to him the thanks I render you also for this mark of
+attention. I shall read it, I know, with edification, as I did his
+Enquiry, to which I acknowledge myself indebted for many valuable ideas,
+and for the correction of some errors of early opinion, never seen in
+a correct light until presented to me in that work. That the present
+volume is equally orthodox I know before reading it, because I know
+that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any
+political principle of importance. Every act of his life, and every word
+he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to the two Presidents,
+late and now in office, I know them both to be of principles as truly
+republican as any men living. If there be any thing amiss, therefore,
+in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable deficit lately
+unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of Congress
+to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the public
+contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss
+for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the
+treasury. I had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my
+old fellow-laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
+minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries,
+the people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
+Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it,
+will, I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
+
+But it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. Taxes
+and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary of the United
+States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working
+under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric.
+They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general
+and special government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay
+all things at their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to
+forget the maxim, '_Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem._' We shall
+see if they are bold enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers
+have lately taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book in his
+address to the public, I will say, that against this every man should
+raise his voice, and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this
+admirable address? Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one
+which can be changed but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay bare
+these wounds of our constitution, expose these _decisions seriatim_,
+and arouse, as it is able, the attention of the nation to these bold
+speculators on its patience. Having found, from experience, that
+impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider
+themselves secure for life; they skulk from responsibility to public
+opinion, the only remaining hold on them, under a practice first
+introduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in
+conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as if unanimous and
+with the silent acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty
+chief judge, who sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his
+own reasoning. A judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General
+to Congress, requiring each judge to deliver his opinion _seriatim_ and
+openly, and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the
+record. A judiciary independent of a King or executive alone, is a good
+thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at
+least in a republican government.
+
+But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the work you
+send me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a
+point of declining (one or two instances only excepted). Complimentary
+thanks to writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me
+sometimes before the public, without my consent having been asked. But
+I am far from presuming to direct the reading of my fellow-citizens, who
+are good enough judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I am,
+also, too desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention.
+Against this I am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be
+unaccompanied by corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet
+sensible sufficiently to be unwilling to trust myself before the public,
+and when I cease to be so, I hope that my friends will be too careful
+of me to draw me forth and present me, like a Priam in armor, as a
+spectacle for public compassion. I hope our political bark will ride
+through all its dangers; but I can in future be but an inert passenger.
+
+I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVII.--TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, January 22, 1821.
+
+I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and spirits
+enough to take part in the late convention of your State, for revising
+its constitution, and to bear your share in its debates and labors.
+The amendments of which we have as yet heard, prove the advance of
+liberalism in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the
+human mind will some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand
+years ago. This country, which has given to the world the example of
+physical liberty, owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet
+it is but nominal with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms,
+in practice, the freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
+
+Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question, what
+does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the
+Missouri question? And this, by the bye, is but the name of the case, it
+is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. The real question,
+as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate population,
+is, Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and a dagger? For if
+Congress has the power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of
+the States, within the States, it will be but another exercise of that
+power, to declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again
+Athenian and Lacedaemonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian
+war to settle the ascendancy between them? Or is this the tocsin of
+merely a servile war? That remains to be seen: but not, I hope, by you
+or me. Surely, they will parley awhile, and give us time to get out
+of the way. What a Bedlamite is man? But let us turn from our own
+uneasiness to the miseries of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo,
+it seems, have come to a parley, with dispositions at length to stop
+the useless effusion of human blood in that quarter. I feared from the
+beginning, that these people were not yet sufficiently enlightened for
+self-government; and that after wading through blood and slaughter,
+they would end in military tyrannies, more or less numerous. Yet as they
+wished to try the experiment, I wished them success in it: they have
+now tried it, and will possibly find that their safest road will be an
+accommodation with the mother country, which shall hold them together
+by the single link of the same chief magistrate, leaving to him power
+enough to keep them in peace with one another, and to themselves the
+essential power of self-government and self-improvement, until they
+shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of freedom,
+to walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
+functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
+security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the press,
+habeas corpus, and trial by jury, would make a good beginning. This
+last would be the school in which their people might begin to learn the
+exercise of civic duties as well as rights. For freedom of religion they
+are not yet prepared. The scales of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen
+from their eyes, to accept it for themselves individually, much less to
+trust others with it. But that will come in time, as well as a general
+ripeness to break entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir,
+how easily we prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while
+we cannot cure our own. We must leave both, I believe, to Heaven, and
+wrap ourselves up in the mantle of resignation, and of that friendship
+of which I tender to you the most sincere assurances.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, January 31, 1821
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 31, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together, three days ago. They
+fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards
+the University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened. As
+to what had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust
+with entire confidence to what yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr.
+Johnson shall think best. You will see what is practicable, and give it
+such shape as you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think
+sixty thousand dollars will be necessary, including the library.
+Its instalments cannot begin until those of the former loan are
+accomplished; and they should not begin later, nor be less than thirteen
+thousand dollars a year. (I think it safe to retain two thousand dollars
+a year for care of the buildings, improvement of the grounds, and
+unavoidable contingencies.) To extinguish the second loan, will require
+between five and six instalments, which will carry us to the end of
+1833, or thirteen years from this time. My individual opinion is, that
+we had better not open the institution until the buildings, library, and
+all, are finished, and our funds cleared of incumbrance. These buildings
+once erected, will secure the full object infallibly at the end of
+thirteen years, and as much earlier as the legislature shall choose. And
+if we were to begin sooner, with half funds only, it would satisfy the
+common mind, prevent their aid beyond that point, and our institution,
+remaining at that for ever, would be no more than the paltry academies
+we now have. Even with the whole funds we shall be reduced to six
+Professors. While Harvard will still prime it over us with her twenty
+Professors. How many of our youths she now has, learning the lessons of
+anti-Missourianism, I know not; but a gentleman lately from Princeton
+told me he saw there the list of the students at that place, and that
+more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt,
+deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of
+restrictionists.
+
+But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best
+friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the
+necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you say, will
+explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself
+they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that yourself, General
+Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at your posts in the
+legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened.
+If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
+our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed
+at all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your
+country, and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or
+later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal
+to this? What object of our lives can we propose so important? What
+interest of our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health,
+time, labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us, can
+these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? The
+exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If
+any member of our college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from
+this sacred duty, it would be myself, who _quadragenis stipendiis
+jamdudum peractis_, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep
+the field: but I will die in the last ditch, and so I hope you will,
+my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr.
+Johnson and General Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life
+wherein to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear and very
+dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but view the sacrifices which
+seem to stand in your way, as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be
+postponed to this, the greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy
+labors, until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old
+Simeon, '_Nunc dimittas, Domine_. Under all circumstances, however, of
+praise or blame, I shall be affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLIX.--TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821
+
+
+TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
+
+Monticello, February 15, 1821.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I learn with deep affliction, that nothing is likely to be done for our
+University this year. So near as it is to the shore that one shove more
+would land it there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
+open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our
+country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections
+that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they
+should be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to
+deliver over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for
+them, we secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling
+this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of
+seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high
+promise; these are considerations which will occur to all; but all, I
+fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a
+tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between
+different portions of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear,
+be obliterated, and we are now trusting to those who are against us
+in position and principle, to fashion to their own form the minds
+and affections of our youth. If, as has been estimated, we send three
+hundred thousand dollars a year to the northern seminaries, for the
+instruction of our own sons, then we must have there five hundred of our
+sons, imbibing opinions and principles in discord with those of their
+own country. This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and
+if not arrested at once, will be beyond remedy. We are now certainly
+furnishing recruits to their school. If it be asked what are we to do,
+or said we cannot give the last lift to the University without stopping
+our primary schools, and these we think most important; I answer, I know
+their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for the general instruction
+of the people. Who first started that idea? I may surely say, Myself.
+Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew more than forty
+years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the education of the
+people, generally, had never been suggested in this State. There you
+will see developed the first rudiments of the whole system of general
+education we are now urging and acting on: and it is well known to those
+With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never have proposed a
+sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of instruction. Let us
+keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we cannot do every
+thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary schools need
+no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a considerable
+expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year or two on
+the primary schools, and an application of the whole income, during that
+time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the University,
+would enable us then to start both institutions at the same time. The
+intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private classical
+schools, for the middle grade, may hereafter receive any necessary aids
+when the funds shall become competent. In the mean time, they are going
+on sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the private expense
+of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are competent to
+their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I presume, left
+no doubt, that the present plan of primary schools, of putting money
+into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing, and under
+no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other must be thought
+of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, the whole revenue
+of that year, with that of the last three years which has not been
+already thrown away, would place our University in readiness to start
+with a better organization of primary schools, and both may then go on,
+hand in hand, for ever. No diminution of the capital will in this way
+have been incurred; a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A
+relinquishment of interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars,
+would so far, also, forward the University without lessening the
+capital.
+
+But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to yourself and
+your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I do the conditions
+of the literary fund and its wisest application; and I shall acquiesce
+with perfect resignation to their will. I have brooded, perhaps with
+fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to me the hope of
+continuing to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed that
+the course and circumstances of my life had placed within my power some
+services favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be
+egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my
+colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the legislature
+shall enable them to do.
+
+I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxieties,
+freely to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a different light. I
+am sure that all act conscientiously, and that all will be done honestly
+and wisely which can be done. I yield the concerns of the world with
+cheerfulness to those who are appointed in the order of nature to
+succeed to them; and for yourself, for our colleagues, and for all in
+charge of our country's future fame and fortune, I offer up sincere
+prayers.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLX.--TO --------- NICHOLAS, December 11,1821
+
+
+TO --------- NICHOLAS.
+
+Monticello, December 11,1821,
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of December the 19th places me under a dilemma, which I
+cannot solve but by an exposition of the naked truth. I would have
+wished this rather to have remained as hitherto, without inquiry; but
+your inquiries have a right to be answered. I will do it as exactly
+as the great lapse of time and a waning memory will enable me. I may
+misremember indifferent circumstances, but can be right in substance.
+
+At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed at
+the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the
+executive and the judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious
+consideration how head could be made against their enterprises on the
+constitution. The leading republicans in Congress found themselves of
+no use there, browbeaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelming
+majority. They concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in the
+State legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The
+alien and sedition laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy
+between Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately
+confidential, than between any other two States of republican policy.
+Mr. Madison came into the Virginia legislature. 1 was then in the
+Vice-Presidency, and could not leave my station. But your father,
+Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and myself happening to be together, the
+engaging the co-operation of Kentucky in an energetic protestation
+against the constitutionality of those laws, became a subject of
+consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to sketch resolutions
+for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce them to that
+legislature, with a solemn assurance, which I strictly required, that
+it should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered
+them to him, and, in keeping their origin secret, he fulfilled his
+pledge of honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas asked me if
+I would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn them.
+I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
+intimated it before to any one, I know not: but I afterwards observed in
+the papers repeated imputations of them to me; on which, as has been my
+practice on all occasions of imputation, I have observed entire silence.
+The question, indeed, has never before been put to me, nor should I
+answer it to any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed
+by it, and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be
+withdrawn from public notice. Your father's zeal and talents were too
+well known, to derive any additional distinction from the penning these
+resolutions. That circumstance, surely, was of far less merit than the,
+proposing and carrying them through the legislature of his State. The
+only fact in this statement, on which my memory is not distinct, is
+the time and occasion of the consultation with your father and Colonel
+Nicholas. It took place here I know; but whether any other person was
+present, or communicated with, is my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was
+either with us, or consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to minute
+details.
+
+I fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this
+difference only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in
+the present assaults on the constitution. But its assaults are more sure
+and deadly, as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you
+and your cotemporaries meet them with the same determination and effect,
+as your father and his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve
+inviolate a constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and
+purity, will prove in the end a blessing to all the nations of the
+earth. With these prayers, accept those for your own happiness and
+prosperity.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXI.--TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822
+
+
+TO JEDIDIAH MORSE.
+
+Monticello, March 6, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, and have now to
+express my sense of the honorable station proposed to my ex-brethren
+and myself, in the constitution of the society for the civilization and
+improvement of the Indian tribes. The object, too, expressed, as that of
+the association, is one which I have ever had much at heart, and never
+omitted an occasion of promoting, while I have been in situations to
+do it with effect, and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and
+retirement, would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable
+plan of raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state
+of physical and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by
+circumstances foreign to them. That the plan now proposed is entitled
+to unmixed approbation, I am not prepared to say, after mature
+consideration, and with all the partialities which its professed object
+would rightfully claim from me.
+
+I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private
+associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose
+magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government.
+Yet such a line does exist. I have seen the days, they were those which
+preceded the Revolution, when even this last and perilous engine became
+necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second
+time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government
+had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of
+correction remained to them, but to organize a collateral power, which,
+with their support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But
+such is not the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral
+power, which, by a change of its original views, and assumption of
+others we know not how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready
+organized, and in force sufficient to shake the established foundations
+of society, and endanger its peace and the principles on which it is
+based. Is not the machine now proposed of this gigantic stature? It
+is to consist of the ex-Presidents of the United States, the
+Vice-President, the Heads of all the executive departments, the members
+of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the several States and
+Territories, all the members of both Houses of Congress, all the general
+officers of the army, the commissioners of the navy, all Presidents and
+Professors of colleges and theological seminaries, all the clergy of
+the United States, the. Presidents and Secretaries of all associations
+having relation to Indians, all commanding officers within or near
+Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and agents; all these ex
+officio; and as many private individuals as will pay a certain price
+for membership. Observe, too, that the clergy will constitute * nineteen
+twentieths of this association, and, by the law of the majority, may
+command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the high authorities
+of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted and wielded
+by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both as to purpose and
+process. . Can this formidable array be reviewed without dismay?
+
+     * The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated
+     at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four
+     hundred; but if the former number be halved, the reasoning
+     will be the same.
+
+It will be said, that in this association will be all the confidential
+officers of the government; the choice of the people themselves. No man
+on earth has more implicit confidence than myself in the integrity
+and discretion of this chosen band of servants. But is confidence or
+discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our constitution? It
+will comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries of the government: but
+seceded from their consitutional stations as guardians of the nation,
+and acting not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary
+society, having no limit to their purposes but the same will which
+constitutes their existence. It will be the authorities of the people,
+and all influential characters from among them, arrayed on one side, and
+on the other, the people themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a
+fearful array. It will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know
+they are so at present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of
+our choice and unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against
+the adored principles of our constitution, as for gravity to change
+its direction, and gravid bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed
+imaginary: but the example is real. Under its authority, as a precedent,
+future associations will arise with objects at which we should
+shudder at this time. The society of Jacobins, in another country,
+was instituted on principles and views as virtuous as ever kindled the
+hearts of patriots. It was the pure patriotism of their purposes which
+extended their association to the limits of the nation, and rendered
+their power within it boundless; and it was this power which degenerated
+their principles and practices to such enormities, as never before could
+have been imagined. Yet these were men; and we and our descendants
+will be no more. The present is a case where, if ever, we are to guard
+against ourselves; not against ourselves as we are, but as we may be;
+for who can now imagine what we may become under circumstances not now
+imaginable? The object, too, of this institution, seems to require
+so hazardous an example as little as any which could be proposed. The
+government is, at this time, going on with the process of civilizing
+the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any one of us is able
+to devise, and with resources more competent than we could expect to
+command by voluntary taxation. Is it that the new characters called into
+association with those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it
+that a plan originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better
+than that prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not
+self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is it
+that there is no danger that a new authority, marching independently
+along side of the government, in the same line and to the same object,
+may not produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct the operations of
+the government, or wrest the object entirely from their hands? Might we
+not as well appoint a committee for each department of the government,
+to counsel and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to
+counsel and direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well
+for their foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian
+affairs? And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we
+expect to see spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate
+themselves in this and that of its functions? In a word, why not take
+the government out of its constitutional hands, associate them indeed
+with us, to preserve a semblance that the acts are theirs, but insuring
+them to be our own by allowing them a minor vote only?
+
+These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so
+irrresistible, that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, without
+which I should not have obtruded an opinion) I have not been able to
+withhold the expression of them. Not knowing the individuals who have
+proposed this plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining personal
+disrespect for them. On the contrary, I see in the printed list persons
+for whom I cherish sentiments of sincere friendship; and others, for
+whose opinions and purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet
+thinking, as I do, that this association is unnecessary; that the
+government is proceeding to the same object under control of the law;
+that they are competent to it in wisdom, in means, and inclination; that
+this association, this wheel within a wheel, is more likely to produce
+collision than aid; and that it is, in its magnitude, of dangerous
+example; I am bound to say, that, as a dutiful citizen, I cannot in
+conscience become a member of this society, possessing as it does my
+entire confidence in the integrity of its views. I feel with awe the
+weight of opinion to which I may be opposed, and that, for myself, I
+have need to ask the indulgence of a belief, that the opinion I have
+given is the best result I can deduce from my own reason and experience,
+and that it is sincerely conscientious. Repeating, therefore, my just
+acknowledgments for the honor proposed to me, I beg leave to add the
+assurances to the society and yourself of my highest confidence and
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXII.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822
+
+TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, June 26, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your
+denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in
+its principles, I expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will
+find it is as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the
+sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there
+is but one God. I wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn
+from you that the latter, at least, is making progress, and the more
+rapidly in proportion as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and
+noise about it. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the
+happiness of man.
+
+1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
+
+2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
+
+3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is
+the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored
+to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the
+demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
+
+1. That there are three Gods.
+
+2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
+
+3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the
+proposition, the more merit in its faith.
+
+4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
+
+5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be
+saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former
+can damn them; no virtues of the latter, save.
+
+Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who
+believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus; or the impious
+dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false
+shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but
+to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian
+name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy
+imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their
+blasphemies have driven thinking men into infidelity, who have too
+hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with the horrors so
+falsely imputed to him. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always
+as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would
+now have been Christian. I rejoice that in this blessed country of free
+inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience
+to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one only God is
+reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the
+United States, who will not die an Unitarian.
+
+But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its
+votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of
+creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the
+religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they
+will give up morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser
+are the Quakers, who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the
+Gospel, schismatize about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale
+of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any
+more than of feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the
+wisdom of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its
+charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love their
+neighbor! I conclude my sermon with sincere assurances of my friendly
+esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIII.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, June 27, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great satisfaction. For
+although I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily
+on you, as on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the
+degree of that pressure. Much reflection, too, has been produced by
+your suggestion of lending my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have
+generally great aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public
+papers; because of my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be
+exhibited in scene on the public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the
+precept of Horace, '_Solve senescentem, mature sanus, equum, ne
+peccet ad extremum ridendus_.' In the present case, however, I see a
+possibility that this might aid in producing the very quiet after
+which I pant. I do not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under the
+persecution of letters, of which every mail brings a fresh load.
+They are letters of inquiry, for the most part, always of good will,
+sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much oftener from persons
+whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and civilly, and to
+which, therefore, civility requires answers. Perhaps, the better known
+failure of your hand in its function of writing, may shield you in
+greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the misfortune of
+its disability. I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, and
+a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single year. It
+was the year before the last. I found the number to be one thousand two
+hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate
+research, and all to be answered with due attention and consideration.
+Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I will repeat
+the question suggested by other considerations in mine of the 1st. Is
+this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no
+end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is
+paradise. It occurs, then, that my condition of existence, truly stated
+in that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions
+which are so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a
+relief would, to me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the 11th,
+equally interesting and affecting, should accompany that to which it is
+an answer. The two, taken together, would excite a joint interest, and
+place before our fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient
+servants, who, having faithfully performed their forty or fifty
+campaigns, _stipendiis omnibus expletis_, have a reasonable claim
+to repose from all disturbance in the sanctuary of invalids and
+superannuates. But some device should be thought of for their getting
+before the public otherwise than by our own publication. Your printer,
+perhaps, could frame something plausible, ------'s name, should be left
+blank, as his picture, should it meet his eye, might give him pain. I
+consign, however, the whole subject to your consideration, to do in it
+whatever your own judgment shall approve, and repeat always, with truth,
+the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXIV.--TO WILLIAM T. BARRY, July 2, 1822
+
+
+TO WILLIAM T. BARRY.
+
+Monticello, July 2, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am very thankful for
+the kindness of its expressions respecting myself. But it ascribes to me
+merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause
+of independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for
+its success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition.
+So also in the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious
+were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government
+to its republican tack. To preserve it in that will require unremitting
+vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into
+our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to
+our objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of
+republicanism, may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider
+the party division of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist
+in any government, and well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those
+of a more dangerous character. We already see the power, installed
+for life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a
+scare-crow), advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great
+object of consolidation. The foundations are already deeply laid by
+their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights,
+and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing*
+power of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever this
+vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the
+most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care
+over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will
+have to choose between reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit
+of this country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the canker
+is become inveterate, before its venom has reached so much of the body
+politic as to get beyond control, remedy should be applied. Let the
+future appointments of judges be for four or six years, and renewable
+by the President and Senate. This will bring their conduct, at regular
+periods, under revision and probation, and may keep them in equipoise
+between the general and special governments. We have erred in this
+point, by copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to have
+the judges independent of the King. But we have omitted to copy their
+caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address of
+both legislative Houses. That there should be public functionaries
+independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism
+in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and inconsistency.
+
+To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my
+power to give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated, and now
+stiffened wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that I am obliged
+to decline every thing possible requiring writing. An act of our
+legislature will inform you of our plan of primary schools, and the
+annual reports show that it is becoming completely abortive, and must
+be abandoned very shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and
+eighty thousand dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars
+a year more until it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has
+received the elements of common education, it must be in some part of
+the country not known to me. Experience has but too fully confirmed the
+early predictions of its fate. But on this subject I must refer you
+to others more able than I am to go into the necessary details; and I
+conclude with the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXV.--TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
+
+Monticello, July 19, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist, makes writing an
+operation so slow and painful to me, that I should not so soon have
+troubled you with an acknowledgment of your favor of the 8th, but for
+the request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter
+of June the 26th. No, my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest
+of hornets would it thrust my head! the _genus irritabile vatum_, on
+whom argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in
+matters of religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily
+wrongs of the world, but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an
+enterprise more than Quixotic. I should as soon undertake to bring the
+crazy skulls of Bedlam to sound understanding, as inculcate reason into
+that of an Athanasian. I am old, and tranquillity is now my _summum
+bonum_. Keep me, therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his
+victim Servetus. Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive
+Christianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off
+the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mycologists
+of the middle and modern ages. I am not aware of the peculiar resistance
+to Unitarianism, which you ascribe to Pennsylvania. When I lived in
+Philadelphia there was a respectable congregation of that sect, with a
+meeting-house and regular service which I attended, and in which Doctor
+Priestley officiated to numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two
+churches, and their pastor, author of an inestimable book on this
+subject, was elected chaplain to the late Congress. That doctrine has
+not yet been preached to us: but the breeze begins to be felt which
+precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all in a bustle, shutting its
+doors and windows to keep it out. But it will come, and drive before it
+the foggy mists of Platonism which have so long obscured our atmosphere.
+I am in hopes that some of the disciples of your institution will become
+missionaries to us, of these doctrines truly evangelical, and open our
+eyes to what has been so long hidden from them. A bold and eloquent
+preacher would be no where listened to with more freedom than in this
+State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might need a preparatory
+discourse on the text of 'Prove all things, hold fast that which is
+good,' in order to unlearn the lesson that reason is an unlawful guide
+in religion. They might startle on being first awaked from the dreams of
+the night, but they would rub their eyes at once, and look the spectres
+boldly in the face. The preacher might be excluded by our hierophants
+from their churches and meeting-houses, but would be attended in
+the fields by whole acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from
+Cambridge would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the
+tritheistical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be my
+welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem and respect
+for you.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVI.--TO JOHN ADAMS
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, November 1, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to
+answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th; but to little
+purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only.
+I know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our
+seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
+treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the
+opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a
+naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this
+subject we communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to
+the United States and took part in the administration under General
+Washington, I constantly maintained that opinion; and in December, 1790,
+took advantage of a reference to me from the first Congress which met
+after I was in office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for
+the protection of our Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them
+an accurate statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private.
+I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to that
+extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colonel Hamilton's
+opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your recollections on that
+subject are certainly corroborated by his known anxieties for a close
+connection with Great Britain, to which he might apprehend danger from
+collisions between their vessels and ours. Randolph was then Attorney
+General; but his opinion on the question I also entirely forget. Some
+vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into the Mediterranean.
+The additions to these in your time, I need not note to you, who
+are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
+of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
+Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that
+the public safety might require some additional vessels of strength,
+to be prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided
+they could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept
+in the water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this
+view I proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level
+of the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that
+places for these docks should be selected where there was a command of
+water on a high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which
+the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the
+majority of the legislature was against any addition to the navy,
+and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against it on a
+principle of opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to
+remain on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be
+launched and finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour's
+notice. On this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
+
+This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That
+of the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations.
+Yet a navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or
+twelve years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs
+as much as would build a new one: and that a nation who could count on
+twelve or fifteen years' of peace, would gain by burning its navy and
+building a new one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by
+circumstances. Since my proposition for a force adequate to the piracies
+of the Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in our own seas
+for considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I wish we could have
+a convention with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down
+the pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of
+Africa, and for us to perform the same duties for the society of nations
+in our seas. In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the
+vessels of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
+weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection and
+respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The annexed is the letter to which the foregoing is a reply.]
+
+TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+
+Montezillo, October 15, 1822. Dear Sir,
+
+I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon a
+subject of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last.
+
+You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built, and the
+four captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry,
+&c, to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
+Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to you; for several
+reasons. First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we
+were at Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers.
+Secondly, because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only
+indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of
+the Navy; only four Heads of department. You were Secretary of State;
+Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and I
+believe Bradford was Attorney General. I have always suspected that you
+and Knox were in favor of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was
+clear. But Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment.
+But his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your opinion, for I
+know he had a great regard for you, might induce him to decide in favor
+of you and Knox, even though Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition
+to you. That Hamilton was averse to the measure, I have personal
+evidence; for while it was pending, he came in a hurry and a fit of
+impatience to make a visit to me. He said, he was likely to be called
+upon for a large sum of money to build ships of war, to fight the
+Algerines, and he asked my opinion of the measure. I answered him that
+I was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of opinion, from the
+commencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most powerful, the
+safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country. My advice,
+therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly be
+spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. The
+conversation was of some length, but it was manifest in his looks and in
+his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
+that I had expressed.
+
+Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, requesting
+him to procure a commision for her son, in the navy; 'that navy,' says
+her ladyship, 'of which his father was the parent.' 'For,' says she, 'I
+have frequently heard General Washington say to my husband, the navy was
+your child.' I have always believed it to be Jefferson's child, though
+Knox may have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton's hobby
+was the army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof
+from his own lips, in many different conversations, some of them of
+length, in which he always insisted that it was only building and
+arming ships for the English. '_Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus
+imperii; si non, his utere mecum_.'
+
+If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble servant.
+
+John Adams.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVII.--TO DOCTOR COOPER, November 2, 1822
+
+
+TO DOCTOR COOPER.
+
+Monticello, November 2, 1822.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere
+of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of
+fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy
+in all. I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of
+toleration and freedom of religion, it could have arisen to the height
+you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism.
+The blasphemy and absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the
+impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of
+reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation. In Boston, however, and
+its neighborhood, Unitarianism has advanced to so great strength, as now
+to humble this haughtiest of all religious sects; insomuch, that they
+condescend to interchange with them and the other sects, the civilities
+of preaching freely and frequently in each other's meeting-houses. In
+Rhode Island, on the other hand, no sectarian preacher will permit an
+Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our Richmond there is much fanaticism,
+but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and praying
+parties, where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked
+husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms
+as amatory and carnal, as their modesty would permit them to use to a
+mere earthly lover. In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good
+degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four
+sects, but without either church or meeting-house. The court-house is
+the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian
+and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in
+hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others'
+preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony. It is not so in
+the districts where Presbyterianism prevails undividedly. Their ambition
+and tyranny would tolerate no rival, if they had power. Systematical
+in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects, they aim, like the
+Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile to
+every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at seeing others
+begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of instruction, to
+which there is now so growing an attention, will be the remote remedy
+to this fever of fanaticism; while the more proximate one will be the
+progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the religion of
+the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
+
+In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A
+handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is
+an institution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion.
+Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward
+an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds
+of some honest friends to the institution. In our annual report to the
+legislature, after stating the constitutional reasons against a public
+establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of
+encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself,
+a professorship of their own tenets, on the confines of the University,
+so near as that the students may attend the lectures there, and have
+the free use our own library, and every other accommodation we can give
+them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of each other.
+This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution
+professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. I think the
+invitation will be accepted, by some sects from candid intentions,
+and by others from jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects
+together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall
+soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and
+make the general religion, a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
+
+The time of opening our University is still as uncertain as ever. All
+the pavilions, boarding-houses, and dormitories are done. Nothing is
+now wanting but the central building for a library and other general
+purposes. For this we have no funds, and the last legislature refused
+all aid. We have better hopes of the next. But all is uncertain. I have
+heard with regret of disturbances on the part of the students in your
+seminary. The article of discipline is the most difficult in American
+education. Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by
+parents, beget a spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle
+to science with us, and a principal cause of its decay since the
+Revolution. I look to it with dismay in our institution, as a breaker
+ahead, which I am far from being confident we shall be able to weather.
+The advance of age, and tardy pace of the public patronage, may probably
+spare me the pain of witnessing consequences.
+
+I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXVIII.--TO JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822
+
+
+TO JAMES SMITH.
+
+Monticello, December 8, 1822.
+
+Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject of Unitarianism,
+and to express my gratification with your efforts for the revival of
+primitive Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is better
+established, than that the doctrine of one God, pure and uncompounded,
+was that of the early ages of Christianity; and was amoung the
+efficacious doctrines which gave it triumph over the polytheism of the
+ancients, sickened with the absurdities of their own theology. Nor was
+the unity of the Supreme Being ousted from the Christian creed by the
+force of reason, but by the sword of civil government, wielded at the
+will of the fanatic Athanasius. The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like
+another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and
+growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs. And a strong
+proof of the solidity of the primitive faith, is its restoration,
+as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to itself the freedom of
+religious opinion, and its external divorce from the civil authority.
+The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe, is now all
+but ascendant in the eastern States; it is dawning in the west, and
+advancing towards the south; and I confidently expect that the present
+generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the
+United States. The eastern presses are giving us many excellent pieces
+on the subject, and Priestley's learned writings on it are, or should
+be, in every hand. In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three,
+and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no
+candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what
+presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He
+proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining
+guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without
+rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullability,
+which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the
+mind becomes a wreck.
+
+I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in
+one God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of
+believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that
+is the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual
+freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought
+in question before the public on this or any other subject, and I
+pray you to consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part
+in controversies, religious or political. At the age of eighty,
+tranquillity is the greatest good of life, and the strongest of our
+desires that of dying in the good-will of all mankind. And with the
+assurances of all my good-will to Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and
+Tory, accept for yourself that of my entire respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER, CLXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS,
+
+Monticello, February 25, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received, in due time, your two favors of December the 2nd and
+February the 10th, and have to acknowledge for the ladies of my native
+State their obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind
+as to bestow on them. They certainly claim no advantages over those of
+their sister States, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances
+existing with many of them, and happily availed, which our situation
+does not offer. But the paper respecting Monticello, to which you
+allude, was not written by a Virginian, but a visitant from another
+State; and written by memory at least a dozen years after the visit.
+This has occasioned some lapses of recollection, and a confusion of some
+things in the mind of our friend, and particularly as to the volume of
+slanders supposed to have been cut out of newspapers and preserved. It
+would not, indeed, have been a single volume, but an Encyclopaedia in
+bulk. But I never had such a volume; indeed, I rarely thought those
+libels worth reading, much less preserving and remembering. At the end
+of every year, I generally sorted all my pamphlets, and had them bound
+according to their subjects. One of these volumes consisted of personal
+altercations between individuals, and calumnies on each other. This
+was lettered on the back, 'Personalities,' and is now in the library of
+Congress. I was in the habit, also, while living apart from my family,
+of cutting out of the newspapers such morsels of poetry, or tales, as
+I thought would please, and of sending them to my grandchildren, who
+pasted them on leaves of blank paper and formed them into a book. These
+two volumes have been confounded into one in the recollection of our
+friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has heightened the scenes she
+visited, as well as the merits of the inhabitants, to whom her society
+was a delightful gratification.
+
+I have just finished reading O'Meara's Bonaparte. It places him in a
+higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him. I had thought him
+the greatest of all military captains, but an indifferent statesman, and
+misled by unworthy passions. The flashes, however, which escaped
+from him in these conversations with O'Meara, prove a mind of great
+expansion, although not of distinct developement and reasoning. He
+seizes results with rapidity and penetration, but never explains
+logically the process of reasoning by which he arrives at them. This
+book, too, makes us forget his atrocities for a moment, in commiseration
+of his sufferings. I will not say that the authorities of the world,
+charged with the care of their country and people, had not a right
+to confine him for life, as a lion or tiger, on the principles of
+self-preservation. There was no safety to nations while he was permitted
+to roam at large. But the putting him to death in cold blood, by
+lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults, and deprivations, was
+a degree of inhumanity to which the poisonings and assassinations of the
+school of Borgia and the den of Marat never attained. The book proves,
+also, that nature had denied him the moral sense, the first excellence
+of well-organized man. If he could seriously and repeatedly affirm, that
+he had raised himself to power without ever having committed a crime, it
+proves that he wanted totally the sense of right and wrong. If he could
+consider the millions of human lives which he had destroyed or caused to
+be destroyed, the desolations of countries by plunderings, burnings,
+and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of the world without the
+consent of their constituents, to place his brothers and sisters on
+their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of men and
+jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the demolition
+of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their rights and
+amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train of his
+other enormities; the man, I say, who could consider all these as no
+crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
+have been lifted to slay him.
+
+You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of my arm is
+well knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a discouraging condition,
+kept entirely useless by an oedematous swelling of slow amendment.
+
+God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, April 11, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, April 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may continue in life and
+health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of, '_Mon
+Dieu! jusqu'a quand?_' would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin
+in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be;
+or rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false
+God, he did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom
+you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of
+the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable
+to believe in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious
+attributes of Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives
+a great handle to atheism by their general dogma, that, without a
+revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a God.
+Now one sixth of mankind only are supposed to be Christians: the
+other five sixths then, who do not believe in the Jewish and Christian
+revelation, are without a knowledge of the existence of a God! This
+gives completely a _gain de cause_ to the disciples of Ocellus, Timasus,
+Spinosa, Diderot, and D'Holbach. The argument which they rest on as
+triumphant and unanswerable is, that in every hypothesis of cosmogony,
+you must admit an eternal pre-existence of something; and according to
+the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to employ two principles to
+solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They say then, that it is more
+simple to believe at once in the eternal pre-existence of the world,
+as it is now going on, and may for ever go on by the principle of
+reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe in the eternal
+pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the world, a being
+whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and mode, or
+place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no power of the
+mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. On the contrary, I hold
+(without appeal to revelation), that when we take a view of the
+universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the
+human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate
+skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The
+movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by
+the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our
+earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters, and atmosphere;
+animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles;
+insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or
+mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses; it is
+impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is
+in all this, design, cause, and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a
+fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and
+regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their
+regenerator into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of
+the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in
+its course and order. Stars, well known, have disappeared, new ones have
+come into view; comets, in their incalculable courses, may run foul of
+suns and planets, and require renovation under other laws; certain races
+of animals are become extinct; and were there no restoring power, all
+existences might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should
+be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are these evidences of
+an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men
+who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion
+of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal
+pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of a self-existent
+universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more probable,
+than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early Christians,
+indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of both the
+creator and the world, without changing their relation of cause and
+effect. That this was the opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by
+Cardinal Toleta, in these words; '_Deus ab terno fuit jam omnipotens,
+si cut cum produxit mundum. Ah aternopotuit producers mundum. Si sol ah
+czterno esset, lumen ah aeterno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium.
+At lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficients solis et pedis; potuit
+ergo cum causa aeterna effectus coaternus esse. Cujus sententia, est S.
+Thomas, theologorum primus_.'--Cardinal Toleta.
+
+[Illustration: page364]
+
+[Illustration: page365]
+
+Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us, that 'God
+is a spirit'(John iv. 24.), but without defining what a spirit is:
+[Greek phrase] Down to the third century, we know that it was still
+deemed material but of a lighter, subtler matter than our gross bodies.
+So says Origen; _Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Originem,
+reapte corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum
+incorporeus_.' These are the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen.
+Origen himself says, [Greek and Latin phrase]
+
+These two fathers were of the third century. Calvin's character of
+this Supreme Being seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the
+reformation of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those
+more worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of
+Jesus in his discourses to the Jews: and his doctrine of the cosmogony
+of the world is very clearly laid down in the three first verses of
+the first chapter of John, in these words: [Greek phrase] Which, truly
+translated, means, 'In the beginning God existed, and reason [or mind]
+was with God, and that mind was God. This was in the beginning with God.
+All things were created by it, and without it was made not one thing
+which was made.' Yet this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of
+Jesus, that the world was created by the supreme intelligent being, has
+been perverted by modern Christians to build up a second person of their
+tritheism, by a mistranslation of the word _Xoyog_. One of its legitimate
+meanings, indeed, is 'a word.' But in that sense it makes an unmeaning
+jargon: while the other meaning, 'reason,' equally legitimate, explains
+rationally the eternal pre-existence of God, and his creation of, the
+world. Knowing how incomprehensible it was that 'a word,' the mere
+action or articulation of the organs of speech could create a world,
+they undertook to make of this articulation a second pre-existing being,
+and ascribe to him, and not to God, the creation of the universe. The
+atheist here plumes himself on the uselessness of such a God, and the
+simpler hypothesis of a self-existent universe. The truth is, that the
+greatest enemies to the doctrines of Jesus are those calling themselves
+the expositors of them, who have perverted them for the structure of a
+system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation
+in his genuine words. And the day will come, when the mystical
+generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of
+a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva
+in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason,
+and freedom of thought, in these United States, will do away all this
+artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine
+doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
+
+So much for your quotation of Calvin's '_Mon Dieu! jusqu'a quand_'in
+which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I join you
+cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness than
+reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our ancient
+colleagues, and receive with them the seal of approbation, 'Well done,
+good and faithful servants.'
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, June 11, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a twelvemonth before,
+I thought myself singularly unfortunate in so timing my journey, as
+to have been absent exactly at the moment of your late visit to our
+neighborhood. The loss, indeed, was all my own; for in these short
+interviews with you. I generally get my political compass rectified,
+learn from you whereabouts we are, and correct my course again. In
+exchange for this, I can give you but newspaper ideas, and little indeed
+of these, for I read but a single paper, and that hastily. I find Horace
+and Tacitus so much better writers than the champions of the gazettes,
+that I lay those down, to take up these, with great reluctance. And on
+the question you propose, whether we can, in any form, take a bolder
+attitude than formerly in favor of liberty, I can give you but
+commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow's mite, and offered only
+because requested. The matter which now embroils Europe, the presumption
+of dictating to an independent nation the form of its government, is so
+arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as well as moral sentiment,
+enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our
+equal execrations against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all
+nations do not owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their
+sympathies with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of
+the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and indeed, for
+the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or draw
+on ourselves the power, of this formidable confederacy. I have ever
+deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take active
+part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely
+distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power,
+their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government,
+are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their
+energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and
+lives of their people. On our part, never had a people so favorable
+a chance of trying the opposite system, of peace and fraternity with
+mankind, and the direction of all our means and faculties to the
+purposes of improvement instead of destruction. With Europe we have
+few occasions of collision, and these, with a little prudence and
+forbearance, may be generally accommodated. Of the brethren of our own
+hemisphere, none are yet, or for an age to come will be, in a shape,
+condition, or disposition to war against us. And the foothold, which the
+nations of Europe had in either America, is slipping from under them,
+so that we shall soon be rid of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at
+present to hold up a speck of war to us. Its possession by Great Britain
+would indeed be a great calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us
+in guarantying its independence against all the world, except Spain, it
+would be nearly as valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she
+take it, I would not immediately go to war for it; because the first war
+on other accounts will give it to us; or the island will give itself to
+us, when, able to do so. While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take
+part in the present war of Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in
+reward for doing nothing, peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and
+interest. We may gratify ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial
+to Spain as would be justifiable without giving cause of war to her
+adversary; we might and ought to avail ourselves of the happy occasion
+of procuring and cementing a cordial reconciliation with her, by
+giving assurance of every friendly office which neutrality admits, and
+especially, against all apprehension of our intermeddling in the quarrel
+with her colonies. And I expect daily and confidently to hear of a spark
+kindled in France, which will employ her at home, and relieve Spain from
+all further apprehensions of danger.
+
+That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her
+government is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to look
+back a little on past events. During the ascendancy of Bonaparte, the
+word among the herd of Kings was, '_Sauve qui peut_.' Each shifted
+for himself, and left his brethren to squander and do the same as they
+could. After the battle of Waterloo, and the military possession of
+France, they rallied and combined in common cause, to maintain each
+other against any similar and future danger. And in this alliance,
+Louis, now avowedly, and George, secretly but solidly, were of the
+contracting parties; and there can be no doubt that the allies are bound
+by treaty to aid England with their armies, should insurrection take
+place among her people. The coquetry she is now playing off between
+her people and her allies is perfectly understood by the latter,
+and accordingly gives no apprehensions to France, to whom it is all
+explained. The diplomatic correspondence she is now displaying, these
+double papers fabricated merely for exhibition, in which she makes
+herself talk of morals and principle, as if her qualms of conscience
+would not permit her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies, are all to
+gull her own people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the five powers
+are the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the dupes. Playing
+thus so dextrously into each other's hands, and their own persons
+seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
+These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This war is
+evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England
+is also acting her part. 'Save but the Nobles, and there shall be no
+war,' says she, masking her measures at the same time under the form of
+friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party, offering
+herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not permitted openly to
+oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will
+get from her. And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks
+at it rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
+
+But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage of carrying
+coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude and uninformed notions
+of things beyond my cognizance, only be so good as to remember that it
+is at your request, and with as little confidence on my part as profit
+on yours. You will do what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act
+their follies and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith
+the paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are willingly
+resigned, with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXII.--TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
+
+Monticello, June 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Our correspondence is of that accommodating character, which admits of
+suspension at the convenience of either party, without inconvenience to
+the other. Hence this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the
+11th. I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on
+continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in
+preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet
+I hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry
+explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine
+monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what
+they endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on
+principle, but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the
+formation of our government, many had formed their political opinions
+on European writings and practices, believing the experience of old
+countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer
+guide than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men in
+numerous associations cannot be restrained within the limits of order
+and justice, but by forces physical and moral, wielded over them by
+authorities independent of their will. Hence their organization of
+kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still further to constrain the
+brute force of the people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by
+hard labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees,
+so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary
+to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable
+life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders
+in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and
+excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of
+superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths of
+opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And in
+the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw
+the cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the
+dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to
+subject to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of
+maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention
+had deemed salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover,
+therefore, in practice, the powers which the nation had refused, and to
+warp to their own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of
+the federal party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will
+of the majority of the convention, and of the people themselves. We
+believed, with them, that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature
+with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could
+be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers,
+confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties
+by dependence on his own will. We believed that the complicated
+organization of kings, nobles, and priests, was not the wisest nor best
+to effect the happiness of associated man; that wisdom and virtue were
+not hereditary; that the trappings of such a machinery consumed, by
+their expense, those earnings of industry they were meant to protect,
+and, by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance.
+We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of
+their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of
+law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their
+reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed, than
+with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in Europe,
+by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment of the people
+then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the other
+party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of the
+country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and order
+than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong holds of federalism.
+And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our
+constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
+order, and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort
+truth, and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at
+justification of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will
+the opening scenes of our present government be seen in their true
+aspect, until the letters of the day, now held in private hoards, shall
+be broken up and laid open to public view. What a treasure will be found
+in General Washington's cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of
+as candid a friend to truth as he was himself! When no longer, like
+Caesar's notes and memorandums in the hands of Anthony, it shall be open
+to the high priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so much, and
+no more, as suits their views.
+
+With respect to his Farewell Address, to the authorship of which, it
+seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you some facts. He
+had determined to decline a re-election at the end of his first term,
+and so far determined, that he had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for
+him something valedictory, to be addressed to his constituents on his
+retirement. This was done: but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce
+in a second election, to which no one more strenuously pressed him than
+myself, from a conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer
+habit, the respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his
+character only could effect. When, at the end of this second term, his
+Valedictory came out, Mr. Madison recognised in it several passages of
+his draught; several others we were both satisfied were from the pen
+of Hamilton, and others from that of the President himself. These he
+probably put into the hands of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence
+it may all appear in Hamilton's hand-writing, as if it were all of his
+composition.
+
+I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists were,
+1. To warp our government more to the form and principles of monarchy,
+and 2. To weaken the barriers of the State governments as co-ordinate
+powers. In the first they have been so completely foiled by the
+universal spirit of the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise,
+shrunk from the odium of their old appellation, taken to themselves a
+participation of ours, and under the pseudo-republican mask, are now
+aiming at their second object, and strengthened by unsuspecting
+or apostate recruits from our ranks, are advancing fast towards an
+ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that a prevalence of the
+doctrines of consolidation would one day call for reformation or
+revolution. I answer by asking, if a single State of the Union would
+have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers to the General
+Government? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from the
+jealousy and fear of every State, of being subjected to the other
+States, in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe
+the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general
+surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government,
+one and undivided?
+
+You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether the
+Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and
+trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, my
+dear Sir, because I am unable. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on
+it, have disqualified me from investigations so severe, and researches
+so laborious. And it is the less necessary in this case, as having been
+already done by others with a logic and learning to which I could
+add nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of
+Virginia, in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821,
+Judge Roane, under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for the
+Enquirer, a series of papers on the law of that case. I considered these
+papers maturely as they came out, and confess, that they appeared to me
+to pulverize every word which had been delivered by Judge Marshall,
+of the extra-judicial part of his opinion; and all was extra-judicial,
+except the decision that the act of Congress had not purported to
+give to the corporation of Washington the authority claimed by their
+lottery-law, of controlling the laws of the States within the States
+themselves. But unable to claim that case, he could not let it go
+entirely, but went on gratuitously to prove, that notwithstanding the
+eleventh amendment of the constitution, a State could be brought, as
+a defendant, to the bar of his court; and again, that Congress might
+authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise legislation within
+a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I cite the sum and
+result only of his doctrines, according to the impression made on my
+mind at the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate in
+circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely
+refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human reason
+as a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us.
+And I mention this particular case as one only of several, because it
+gave occasion to that thorough examination of the constitutional limits
+between the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for.
+There were two other writers in the same paper, under the signatures of
+Fletcher of Saltoun, and Somers, who in a few essays presented some very
+luminous and striking views of the question. And there was a particular
+paper which recapitulated all the cases in which it was thought the
+federal court had usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will
+be found in the Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th.
+It is not in my present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can
+furnish them, I will procure and forward them. If they had been read in
+the other States, as they were here, I think they would have left, there
+as here, no dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken up
+by our legislature of 1821-22, and two draughts of remonstrances were
+prepared and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference
+of opinion as to the matter of right; but there was as to the expediency
+of a remonstrance at that time, the general mind of the States being
+then under extraordinary excitement by the Missouri question; and it
+was dropped on that consideration. But this case is not dead; it only
+sleepeth. The Indian Chief said, he did not go to war for every petty
+injury by itself, but put it into his pouch, and when that was full,
+he then made war. Thank Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and
+rational mode of redress.
+
+This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case to
+prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the court, is
+very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect another instance, and
+the more particularly, perhaps, because it in some measure bore on
+myself. Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions
+to some federal justices of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed
+and sealed by him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the
+department of State, on my entrance into office, and 1 forbade their
+delivery. Marbury, named in one of them, applied to the Supreme Court
+for a Mandamus to the Secretary of State (Mr. Madison), to deliver the
+commission intended for him. The Court determined at once, that being an
+original process, they had no cognizance of it; and there the question
+before them was ended. But the Chief Justice went on to lay down what
+the law would be, had they jurisdiction of the case; to wit, that they
+should command the delivery.
+
+The object was clearly to instruct any other court having the
+jurisdiction, what they should do, if Marbury should apply to them.
+Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could any thing
+exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle of law never
+yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to
+the validity of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it
+remains in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is
+not a deed, and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of a
+third person it may be made an escrow. But whatever is in the executive
+offices is certainly deemed to be in the hands of the President; and, in
+this case, was actually in my hands, because, when I countermanded them,
+there was as yet no Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and
+Madison is continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were
+settled law, without any animadversion on its being merely an obiter
+dissertation of the Chief Justice.
+
+It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of words which
+shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, this limit of
+jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will guide us safely in
+most of the cases. 1. The capital and leading object of the constitution
+was, to leave with the States all authorities which respected their
+own citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which
+respected citizens of foreign or other States: to make us several as
+to ourselves, but one as to all others. In the latter case, then,
+constructions should lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will
+bear it; and in favor of the States in the former, if possible to be so
+construed. And indeed, between citizens and citizens of the same
+State, and under their own laws, I know but a single case in which a
+jurisdiction is given to the General Government. That is, where any
+thing but gold or silver is made a lawful tender, or the obligation of
+contracts is any otherwise impaired. The separate legislatures had so
+often abused that power, that the citizens themselves chose to trust
+it to the general, rather than to their own special authorities. 2. On
+every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when
+the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the
+debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the
+text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it
+was passed. Let us try Cohen's case by these canons only, referring
+always however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
+
+1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law of his
+State. It was a domestic case therefore, and not a foreign one.
+
+2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing against
+the General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, the States
+meant to surrender the authority of preserving order, of enforcing moral
+duties, and restraining vice, within their own territory? And this is
+the present case, that of Cohen being under the ancient and general law
+of gaming. Can any good be effected, by taking from the States the moral
+rule of their citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority,
+or to one of their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning
+of words, hunting after possible constructions, and hanging inference on
+inference, from heaven to earth, like Jacob's ladder? Such an intention
+was impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference,
+if exercised by, both governments, as may be done with equal right,
+would equally authorize both to claim all powers, general and
+particular, and break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made for
+men of ordinary understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by
+the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought
+for in metaphysical subtleties, which may make any thing mean every
+thing or nothing, at pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms of
+advocates, whose trade it is, to prove that a defendant is a plaintiff,
+though dragged into court, torto collo, like Bonaparte's volunteers into
+the field in chains, or that a power has been given, because it ought
+to have been given, et alia talia. The States supposed, that, by their
+tenth amendment, they had secured themselves against constructive
+powers. They were not lessoned yet by Cohen's case, nor aware of the
+slipperiness of the eels of the law. I ask for no straining of words
+against the General Government nor yet against the States. I believe the
+States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government
+our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome
+distribution of powers, established by the constitution for the
+limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to
+Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they
+may more secretly be bought and sold, as at market.
+
+But the Chief Justice says, 'there must be an ultimate arbiter
+somewhere.' True, there must; but does that prove it is either party?
+The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their
+deputies in convention, at the call of Congress, or of two thirds of the
+States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed
+by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity
+of our constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that
+of other nations is at once to force.
+
+I rejoice in the example you set of _seriatim_ opinions. I have heard it
+often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some of your brethren
+will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in time, it may be
+felt by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the primitive court
+be again restored. Why should not every judge be asked his opinion, and
+give it from the bench, if only by yea or nay? Besides ascertaining the
+fact of his opinion, which the public have a right to know, in order
+to judge whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the
+opinions were unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly the weight
+of their authority.
+
+The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to relieve
+you from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
+accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
+my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond
+the sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with
+me in principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
+consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in
+every feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the
+republican form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the
+salutary distribution of powers which that has established. These are
+the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be
+in danger of foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I
+add those for the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness
+to your country.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIII.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, August 30,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
+after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
+and to be returned then to him.
+
+You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering's fourth of July observations
+on the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
+personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
+quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
+should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams's memory
+has led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
+forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
+wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage
+of that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it
+not supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the
+spot. He says, 'The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin,
+Sherman, Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and
+then appointed him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a
+sub-committee, met, and after the urgencies of each on the other, I
+consented to undertake the task; that, the draught being made, we, the
+sub-committee, met, and conned the paper over, and he does not remember
+that he made or suggested a single alteration.' Now these details
+are quite incorrect. The committee of five met; no such thing as a
+sub-committee was proposed, but they unanimously pressed on myself alone
+to undertake the draught. I consented; I drew it: but before I reported
+it to the committee, I communicated it separately to Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections, because they were the two
+members of whose judgments and amendments I wished most to have the
+benefit, before presenting it to the committee: and you have seen the
+original paper now in my hands, with the corrections of Doctor Franklin
+and Mr. Adams interlined in their own hand-writings. Their alterations
+were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy,
+reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress.
+This personal communication and consultation with Mr. Adams, he
+has misremembered into the actings of a sub-committee. Pickering's
+observations, and Mr. Adams's in addition, 'that it contained no new
+ideas, that it is a common-place compilation, its sentiments hacknied
+in Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis's
+pamphlet,' may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard
+Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke's Treatise on Government.
+Otis's pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from
+reading or reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to
+neither book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as
+any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no
+sentiment which had ever been expressed before. Had Mr. Adams been
+so restrained, Congress would have lost the benefit of his bold and
+impressive advocations of the rights of Revolution. For no man's
+confident and fervid addresses, more than Mr. Adams's, encouraged and
+supported us through the difficulties surrounding us, which, like the
+ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night and by day. Yet, on
+the same ground, we may ask what of these elevated thoughts was new, or
+can be affirmed never before to have entered the conceptions of man?
+
+Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons for
+declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, had been
+hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of July, '76, or this
+dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of memory, let history
+say. This, however, I will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the
+Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of
+it. As to myself, I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive
+auditor of the opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could
+be, of its merits or demerits. During the debate I was sitting by
+Doctor Franklin, and he observed that I was writhing a little under
+the acrimonious criticisms on some of its parts; and it was on that
+occasion, that by way of comfort, he told me the story of John Thomson,
+the hatter, and his new sign.
+
+Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of it
+expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other three
+fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only one he
+approves), which recommends friendship to his dear England, whenever she
+is willing to be at peace with us. His insinuations are, that although
+'the high tone of the instrument was in unison with the warm feelings of
+the times, this sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never
+be forgotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne
+in mind on every celebration of this anniversary.' In other words, that
+the Declaration, as being a libel on the government of England, composed
+in times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare
+the feelings of our English friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. But it
+is not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind; but to cherish the
+principles of the instrument in the besoms of our own citizens: and it
+is a heavenly comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly
+felt, as to render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of
+memory of Mr. Adams's, worthy of being solemnly announced and supported
+at an anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-day. In
+opposition, however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that these principles
+may be eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for
+yourself of long life, health, and happiness.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, September 4, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your letter of August the 15th was received in due time, and with the
+welcome of every thing which comes from you. With its opinions on the
+difficulties of revolutions from despotism to freedom, I very much
+concur. The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.
+Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body fend mind
+to their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on,
+to think and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their
+ignorance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the
+Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This
+is the present situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is
+not desperate. The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of
+printing, has eminently changed the condition of the world. As yet, that
+light has dawned on the middling classes only of the men in Europe.
+The kings and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet received its
+rays; but it continues to spread, and while printing is preserved, it
+can no more recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt to
+recover the right of self-government may fail, so may a second, a third,
+&c. But as a younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment
+becomes more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some
+subsequent one of the ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed.
+In France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the second by
+Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII., and his holy allies; another is
+yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and
+all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. This
+is now well understood to be a necessary check on Kings, whom they will
+probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, than to exterminate.
+To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of
+desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years
+of desolation. For what inheritance so valuable, can man leave to his
+posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred
+to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that he will never submit, but
+finally defeat this atrocious violation of the laws of God and man,
+under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes,
+afford reasonable hope, that that nation will settle down in a temperate
+representative government, with an executive properly subordinated to
+that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece, will follow suit. You
+and I shall look down from another world on these glorious achievements
+to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.
+
+I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein you say that
+the omission of his signature to the Declaration of Independence was by
+accident. Our impressions as to this fact being different, I shall
+be glad to have mine corrected, if wrong. Jay, you know, had been in
+constant opposition to our laboring majority. Our estimate at the time
+was, that he, Dickinson, and Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity,
+perseverance, and partiality to our English connection, had constantly
+kept us a year behind where we ought to have been, in our preparations
+and proceedings. From about the date of the Virginia instructions of May
+the 15th, 1776, to declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented himself from
+Congress, and never came there again until December, 1778. Of course,
+he had no part in the discussions or decision of that question. The
+instructions to their Delegates by the convention of New York, then
+sitting, to sign the Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th
+of July only, and on that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay,
+by a letter received from him, as they had done as early as the 29th
+of May, by another letter. And I think he had been omitted by the
+convention on a new election of Delegates, when they changed their
+instructions. Of this last fact, however, having no evidence but an
+ancient impression, I shall not affirm it. But whether so or not, no
+agency of accident appears in the case. This error of fact, however,
+whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to the public. But
+truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it for our own
+satisfaction.
+
+I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
+month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
+
+Ever affectionately yours.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
+
+
+TO JOHN ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, October 12, 1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
+supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious.
+But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the
+recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out
+of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we
+can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid
+of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all
+at once. Against this _tedium vita_, however, I am fortunately mounted
+on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty
+or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give
+exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment
+of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more
+healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles
+have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness
+with which such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall
+live to see it go into action.
+
+Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this
+letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now
+attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new
+affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, dark
+hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a
+friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was
+to be made public by that friend or his representative. And now it is
+said to be actually published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts
+have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of
+separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that
+of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence,
+whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this
+would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that
+aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy
+and insensibility. With me, however, no such armor is needed. The
+circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the
+partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state
+of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also:
+and there might, not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by
+filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous
+phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name,
+to me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things
+concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had
+been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper
+to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of
+each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men,
+who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen
+the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and
+motives of others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time and
+reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring
+to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would
+be strange, indeed, if, at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt
+up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so
+sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I
+am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now
+made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to
+sow tares between friends who have been such for near half a century.
+Beseeching you, then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this
+wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among
+the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my
+unabated and constant attachment, friendship, and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVI.--TO THE PRESIDENT, October 24,1823
+
+
+TO THE PRESIDENT.
+
+Monticello, October 24,1823.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most
+momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of
+Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass, and points
+the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on
+us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious.
+Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves
+in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to
+intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a
+set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own.
+
+She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from
+that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of
+despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of
+freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit;
+she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
+proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty
+weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at
+one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.
+Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one,
+or all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole
+world. With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial
+friendship; and nothing would tend more to knit our affections, than to
+be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would
+purchase even her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the
+war in which the present proposition might engage us, should that be its
+consequence, is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and
+establish the American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign
+powers, of never permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the
+affairs of our nations. It is to maintain our own principle, not to
+depart from it. And if, to facilitate this, we can effect a division
+in the body of the European powers, and draw over to our side its
+most powerful member, surely we should do it. But I am clearly of Mr.
+Canning's opinion, that it will prevent instead of provoking war. With
+Great Britain withdrawn from their scale, and shifted into that of our
+two continents, all Europe combined would not undertake such a war. For
+how would they propose to get at either enemy without superior fleets?
+Nor is the occasion to be slighted which this proposition offers, of
+declaring our protest against the atrocious violations of the rights
+of nations, by the interference of any one in the internal affairs of
+another, so flagitiously begun by Bonaparte, and now continued by the
+equally lawless Alliance, calling itself Holy.
+
+But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to
+our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly
+confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting
+addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control
+which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of
+Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as
+all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our
+political well-being. Yet, as I am sensible that this can never be
+obtained, even with her own consent, but by war; and its independence,
+which is our second interest (and especially its independence of
+England), can be secured without it, I have no hesitation in abandoning
+my first wish to future chances, and accepting its independence, with
+peace and the friendship of England, rather than its association, at the
+expense of war and her enmity.
+
+I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we
+aim not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not
+stand in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother
+country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible
+interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under
+any other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any
+power by conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should
+think it, therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the
+British government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in
+these letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as
+his authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of
+which requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them
+for consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable
+aspect in which it is seen by himself.
+
+I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long
+ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not
+qualified to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the
+question now proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so
+decisive of our future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I
+have heretofore felt on such occasions, and to induce me to the hazard
+of opinions, which will prove only my wish to contribute still my mite
+towards any thing which may be useful to our country. And praying you to
+accept it at only what it is worth, I add the assurance of my constant
+and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+
+
+TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+
+Monticello, November 4, 1823.
+
+My Dear Friend,
+
+Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so
+slow and laborious, as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all
+correspondence: not, however, from yours, while I can make a stroke with
+a pen. We have gone through too many trying scenes together, to forget
+the sympathies and affections they nourished.
+
+Your trials have indeed been long and severe. When they will end, is yet
+unknown, but where they will end, cannot be doubted. Alliances, Holy or
+Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell
+the rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the
+scene, and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that
+Spain will prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines
+not to be so, and that her success will be the turning of the tide of
+liberty, no more to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of
+society in Europe can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know
+when with you, and I do now. A hereditary chief, strictly limited, the
+right of war vested in the legislative body, a rigid economy of the
+public contributions, and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses,
+will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.
+But the only security oL all, is in a free press. The force of public
+opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The
+agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary to keep the
+waters pure.
+
+We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful country. For
+in peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is
+to be the next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My
+opinion on that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter.
+The question will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and
+southernmost candidates. The former will get every federal vote in the
+Union, and many republicans; the latter, all those denominated of
+the old school; for you are not to believe that these two parties are
+amalgamated, that the lion and the lamb are lying down together.
+The Hartford convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of Ghent,
+prostrated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned it through
+shame and mortification; and now call themselves republicans. But the
+name alone is changed, the principles are the same. For in truth,
+the parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature. They exist in all
+countries, whether called by these names, or by those of Aristocrats and
+Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles
+and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the people, and is
+a tory by nature. The healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes them, and is
+formed a whig by nature. On the eclipse of federalism with us, although
+not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the
+false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view
+of producing a geographical division of parties, which might insure
+them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold into the
+snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral and
+laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead of
+aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used, merely
+as tools for electioneering purposes; and that trick of hypocrisy then
+fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now succeeding a
+distinction, which, like that of republican and federal, or whig and
+tory, being equally intermixed through every State, threatens none of
+those geographical schisms which go immediately to a separation. The
+line of division now is the preservation of State rights as reserved in
+the constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument,
+to merge all into a consolidated government. The tories are for
+strengthening the executive and General Government; the whigs cherish
+the representative branch, and the rights reserved by the States, as the
+bulwark against consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy.
+And although this division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists,
+is well understood, and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing
+election, with the reflecting men of both parties.
+
+I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr.
+Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of
+her American work: but her 'Few Days in Athens,' was entirely new, and
+has been a treat to me of the highest order. The matter and manner
+of the dialogue is strictly ancient; the principles of the sects are
+beautifully and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and
+portraiture of the interlocutors are of higher finish than any thing in
+that line left us by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it
+is equal to the best morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance,
+that Herculaneum is likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of
+ancient genius; and may we not hope more from the same pen?
+
+After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disabled arm, I
+am again in tolerable health, but extremely debilitated, so as to be
+scarcely able to walk into my garden. The hebitude of age too, and
+extinguishment of interest in the things around me, are weaning me from
+them, and dispose me with cheerfulness to resign them to the existing
+generation, satisfied that the daily advance of science will enable them
+to administer the commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still
+many valuable years to give to your country, and with my prayers that,
+they may be years of health and happiness, and especially that they may
+see the establishment of the principles of government which you have
+cherished through life, accept the assurance of my affectionate and
+constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXVIII.--TO JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+
+Monticello, February 3, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and
+am glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
+satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
+nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
+equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a--a = 0.
+Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
+do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
+ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue,
+to set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and
+if foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our
+legislature, no harm will have been done by the provisos.
+
+You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
+legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
+the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act
+was expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that
+a re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday,
+the 29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
+meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
+there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
+fourth, &c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give it
+certainty enough.
+
+You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
+apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
+dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text
+and reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
+Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
+competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
+whole sum at once.
+
+I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
+for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
+certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
+every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have
+all, from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our
+Professors, as the only means by which we can give to our institution
+splendor and pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only
+question, therefore, we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate,
+will be, Is he the most highly qualified? The college of Philadelphia
+has lost its character of primacy by indulging motives of favoritism and
+nepotism, and by conferring the appointments as if the professorships
+were entrusted to them as provisions for their friends. And even that
+of Edinburgh, you know, is also much lowered from the same cause. We are
+next to observe, that a man is not qualified for a Professor, knowing
+nothing but merely his own profession. He should be otherwise well
+educated as to the sciences generally; able to converse understandingly
+with the scientific men with whom he is associated, and to assist in the
+councils of the Faculty on any subject of science on which they may have
+occasion to deliberate. Without this, he will incur their contempt,
+and bring disreputation on the institution. With respect to the
+professorship you mention, I scarcely know any of our judges personally;
+but I will name, for example, the late Judge Roane, who, I believe, was
+generally admitted to be among the ablest of them. His knowledge was
+confined to the common law chiefly, which does not constitute one half
+of the qualification of a really learned lawyer, much less that of a
+Professor of law for an University. And as to any other branches
+of science, he must have stood mute in the presence of his literary
+associates, or of any learned strangers or others visiting the
+University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we propose to take?
+
+In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of
+appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I
+never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I
+never saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better
+qualified; and I have the most unlimited confidence, that in the
+appointment of Professors to our nursling institution, every individual
+of my associates will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its
+character, and adopt, as our sacred motto, '_Detur digniori_? In this
+way it will honor us, and bless our country.
+
+I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities
+beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let
+them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely
+to the present case.
+
+Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself
+of my constant friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXIX.--TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824
+
+
+TO JARED SPARKS.
+
+Monticello, February 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of
+the North American Review. This has anticipated the one I should receive
+in course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new
+series. The article on the African colonization of the people of color,
+to which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration.
+It is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more,
+too, than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of
+that colony.
+
+In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational
+objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. The establishment of a colony
+on the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the
+arts of cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science.
+By doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course
+of injuries we have been committing on their population. And considering
+that these blessings will descend to the '_nati natorum, et qui
+nascentur ab illis_,' we shall in the long run have rendered them
+perhaps more good than evil. To fulfil this object, the colony of
+Sierra Leone promises well, and that of Mesurado adds to our prospect of
+success. Under this view, the Colonization Society is to be considered
+as a missionary society, having in view, however, objects more humane,
+more justifiable, and less aggressive on the peace of other nations,
+than the others of that appellation.
+
+The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to
+our physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to
+provide an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that
+population from among us, and establish them under our patronage and
+protection, as a separate, free, and independent people, in some country
+and climate friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the
+coast of Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed
+entirely impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which
+have been urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit
+no controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate,
+yet not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are
+in the United States a million and a half of people of color in
+slavery. To send off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be
+practicable for us, or expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years
+for its accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their
+estimated value as property, in the first place, (for actual property
+has been lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from
+the possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and
+old, would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must be paid
+or lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their transportation
+by land and sea to Mesurado, a year's provision of food and clothing,
+implements of husbandry and of their trades, which will amount to three
+hundred millions more, making thirty-six millions of dollars a year
+for twenty-five years, with insurance of peace all that time, and it is
+impossible to look at the question a second time. I am aware that at
+the end of about sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will
+commence, from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during
+the remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still
+impossible to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say this to
+induce an inference that the getting rid of them is for ever impossible.
+For that is neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be
+done in this way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that
+is, by emancipating the after born, leaving them, on due compensation,
+with their mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance,
+and then putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for
+deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject five
+and forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to conceive any
+other practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on Virginia, under
+the fourteenth query. The estimated value of the new-born infant is
+so low (say twelve dollars and fifty cents), that it would probably
+be yielded by the owner gratis, and would thus reduce the six hundred
+millions of dollars, the first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions
+and a half: leaving only the expenses of nourishment while with the
+mother, and of transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to
+be furnished? Why not from that of the lands which have been ceded by
+the very States now needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration,
+for the most part, but that of the general good of the whole. These
+cessions already constitute one fourth of the States of the Union. It
+may be said that these lands have been sold; are now the property of
+the citizens composing those States; and the money long ago received and
+expended. But an equivalent of lands in the territories since acquired
+may be appropriated to that object, or so much at least, as may be
+sufficient; and the object, although more important to the slave States,
+is highly so to the others also, if they were serious in their arguments
+on the Missouri question. The slave States, too, if more interested,
+would also contribute more by their gratuitous liberation, thus taking
+on themselves alone the first and heaviest item of expense.
+
+In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular place
+of asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that in the
+revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might open to us
+some one within practicable distance. This has now happened. St. Domingo
+has become independent, and with a population of that color only; and
+if the public papers are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay
+their passage, to receive them as free citizens, and to provide them
+employment. This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense
+but of nurture with the mother a few years, and would call, of course,
+for a very moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole
+annual increase to be of sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels,
+of four hundred tons burthen each, constantly employed in that short
+run, would carry off the increase of every year, and the old stock
+would die off in the ordinary course of nature, lessening from the
+commencement until its final disappearance. In this way no violation of
+private rights is proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in
+as fast as the means to be provided for their care would be competent
+to it. Looking at my own State only, (and I presume not to speak for
+the others,) I verily believe that this surrender of property would
+not amount to more, annually, than half our present direct taxes, to be
+continued fully about twenty or twenty-five years, and then gradually
+diminishing for as many more until their final extinction; and even this
+half tax would not be paid in cash, but by the delivery of an object
+which they have never yet known or counted as part of their property:
+and those not possessing the object will be called on for nothing. I
+do not go into all the details of the burthens and benefits of this
+operation. And who could estimate its blessed effects? I leave this
+to those who will live to see their accomplishment, and to enjoy a
+beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave it with this admonition, to
+rise and be doing. A million and a half are within their control;
+but six millions (which a majority of those now living will see them
+attain), and one million of these fighting men, will say, 'We will not
+go.'
+
+I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scruples.
+But a liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and
+an amendment of the constitution, the whole length necessary. The
+separation of infants from their mothers, too, would produce some
+scruples of humanity. But this would be straining at a gnat, and
+swallowing a camel.
+
+I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of the duty
+on imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against it, until
+those in power shall become sensible of this stain on our legislation
+and shall wipe it from their code, and from the remembrance of man, if
+possible.
+
+I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
+
+Th: Jefferson"
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXX.--TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824
+
+
+TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
+
+Monticello, April 4, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+It was with great pleasure I learned that the good people of New Orleans
+had restored you again to the councils of our country. I did not doubt
+the aid it would bring to the remains of our old school in Congress, in
+which your early labors had been so useful. You will find, I suppose,
+on revisiting our maritime States, the names of things more changed than
+the things themselves; that though our old opponents have given up their
+appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned their views, and
+that they are as strong nearly as they ever were. These cares, however,
+are no longer mine. I resign myself cheerfully to the managers of the
+ship, and the more contentedly, as I am near the end of my voyage. I
+have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason,
+and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical
+idea of the character of the constitution of our government, which I
+have adopted as a key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the
+whole field of government is divided into two departments, domestic and
+foreign, (the States in their mutual relations being of the latter) that
+the former department is reserved exclusively to the respective States
+within their own limits, and the latter assigned to a separate set of
+functionaries, constituting what may be called the, foreign branch,
+which, instead of a federal basis, is established as a distinct
+government _quo ad hoc_, acting as the domestic branch does on the
+citizens directly and coercively; that these departments have distinct
+directories, co-ordinate, and equally independent and supreme, each
+within its own sphere of action. Whenever a doubt arises to which of
+these branches a power belongs, I try it by this test. I recollect no
+case where a question simply between citizens of the same State has been
+transferred to the foreign department, except that of inhibiting tenders
+but of metallic money, and _ex post facto_ legislation. The causes of
+these singularities are well remembered.
+
+I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of national
+improvement, which I have read with great pleasure, and recognise in it
+those powers of reasoning and persuasion of which I had formerly seen
+from you so many proofs. Yet, in candor, I must say it has not removed,
+in my mind, all the difficulties of the question. And I should really be
+alarmed at a difference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own,
+were it not that I have, as companions in sentiment, the Madisons, the
+Monroes, the Randolphs, the Macons, all good men and true, of primitive
+principles. In one sentiment of the speech I particularly concur. 'If we
+have a doubt relative to any power, we ought not to exercise it.' When
+we consider the extensive and deep-seated opposition to this assumption,
+the conviction entertained by so many, that this deduction of powers by
+elaborate construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the
+difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise;
+that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and
+forwards, so that no undertaking under it will be safe; that there is
+not a State in the Union which would not give the power willingly, by
+way of amendment, with some little guard, perhaps, against abuse; I
+cannot but think it would be the wisest course to ask an express grant
+of the power. A government held together by the bands of reason only,
+requires much compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should
+not be crammed down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when
+they may be put into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great
+deal of indulgence is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and
+fraternity. In such a case, it seems to me it would be safer and wiser
+to ask an express grant of the power. This would render its exercise
+smooth and acceptable to all, and insure to it all the facilities which
+the could contribute, to prevent that kind of abuse which all will fear,
+because all know it is so much practised in public bodies, I mean the
+bartering of votes. It would reconcile every one, if limited by the
+proviso, that the federal proportion of each State should be expended
+within the State. With this single security against partiality and
+corrupt bargaining, I suppose there is not a State, perhaps not a man
+in the Union, who would not consent to add this to the powers of the
+General Government. But age has weaned me from questions of this kind.
+My delight is now in the passive occupation of reading; and it is
+with great reluctance I permit my mind ever to encounter subjects of
+difficult investigation. You have many years yet to come of vigorous
+activity, and I confidently trust they will be employed in cherishing
+every measure which may foster our brotherly union, and perpetuate a
+constitution of government destined to be the primitive and precious
+model of what is to change the condition of man over the globe. With
+this confidence, equally strong in your powers and purposes, I pray you
+to accept the assurance of my cordial esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXI.--TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824
+
+
+TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT.
+
+Monticello, June 5,1824.
+
+Dear and Venerable Sir,
+
+I am much indebted for your kind letter of February the 29th, and for
+your valuable volume on the English constitution. I have, read this with
+pleasure and much approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution
+of the English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon, it is
+really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed
+in their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that
+Paine, who thought more than he read, should have credited the great
+authorities who have declared, that the will of Parliament is the
+constitution of England. So Marbois, before the French revolution,
+observed to me, that the Almanac Royal was the constitution of France.
+Your derivation of it from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on
+legitimate principles. Having driven out the former inhabitants of that
+part of the island called England, they became aborigines as to you, and
+your lineal ancestors. They doubtless had a constitution; and although
+they have not left it in a written formula, to the precise text of which
+you may always appeal, yet they have left fragments of their history
+and laws, from which it may be inferred with considerable certainty.
+Whatever their history and laws show to have been practised with
+approbation, we may presume was permitted by their constitution;
+whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And although this
+constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force, yet force
+cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the nation, by
+their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws; which shows
+they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the pullings
+and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation, and its kings
+of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was sometimes
+gain, and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their rights
+from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke the
+thread of pretended inheritance extinguished all regal usurpations, and
+the nation reentered into all its rights; and although in their bill of
+rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the
+others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also,
+whenever occasion should occur. The new King received no rights or
+powers, but those expressly granted to him. It has ever appeared to me,
+that the difference between the whig and the tory of England is, that
+the whig deduces his rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory
+from the Norman. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says in so many
+words, (note AA to chapter 42,) that, in the reign of the Stuarts, 'it
+was the people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who
+attempted, as is pretended, to usurp upon the people.' This supposes the
+Norman usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,)
+'the Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and
+seems specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the
+people are the origin of all just power.' And where else will this
+degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the
+origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be
+in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?
+
+Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
+album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
+to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
+investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
+appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet
+we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
+never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
+it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
+little into our former education. We established however some, although
+not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our
+States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may
+exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves
+competent (as in electing their functionaries, executive and
+legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all
+judiciary cases in which any fact is involved), or they may act by
+representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and
+duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of
+person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the
+press. In the structure of our legislatures, we think experience has
+proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two separate bodies of
+deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right has been mistaken,
+some making one of these bodies, and some both, the representatives of
+property instead of persons; whereas the double deliberation might be
+as well obtained without any violation of true principle, either by
+requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by electing a proper
+number of representatives of persons, dividing them by lots into two
+chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals, in order
+to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am myself a native and
+resident, was not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
+say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men
+peaceably together to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to
+writing, and place it among their archives, where every one should be
+free to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other
+States, as they proceeded successively to the same work, made
+successive improvements; and several of them, still further corrected
+by experience, have, by conventions, still further amended their first
+forms. My own State has gone on so far with its _premiere ebauch_; but
+it is now proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other
+improvements, I hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties
+into wards. The former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four
+miles square; the latter should be about six miles square each, and
+would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these
+might be, 1. An elementary school. 2. A company of militia, with its
+officers. 3. A justice of the peace and constable. 4. Each ward should
+take care of their own poor. 5. Their own roads. 6. Their own police.
+7. Elect within themselves one or more jurors to attend the courts
+of justice. And, 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes for all
+functionaries reserved to their election. Each ward would thus be a
+small republic within itself, and every man in the State would thus
+become an acting member of the common government, transacting in person
+a great portion of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet
+important and entirely within his competence. The wit of man cannot
+devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and well-administered
+republic.
+
+With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their
+relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose
+the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are
+co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State
+governments, are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs
+which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government
+is given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States;
+these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the
+other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control
+over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two
+exceptions only to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two
+departments should claim each the same subject of power, where is the
+common umpire to decide ultimately between them? In cases of little
+importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties will keep them
+aloof from the questionable ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor
+compromised, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe the
+doubtful power to that department which they may think best. You will
+perceive by these details, that we have not yet so far perfected our
+constitutions as to venture to make them unchangeable. But still, in
+their present state, we consider them not otherwise changeable than by
+the authority of the people, on a special election of representatives
+for that purpose expressly: they are until then the _lex legum_.
+
+But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind another, and
+all others, in succession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made
+the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powrers can only
+belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with
+will. The dead are not even things. The particles of matter which
+composed their bodies, make part now of the bodies of other animals,
+vegetables, or minerals, of a thousand forms. To what then are attached
+the rights and powers they held while in the form of men? A generation
+may bind itself as long as its majority continues in life; when that
+has disappeared, another majority is in place, holds all the rights
+and powers their predecessors once held, and may change their laws and
+institutions to suit themselves. Nothing then is unchangeable but the
+inherent and unalienable rights of man.
+
+I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of
+the judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
+usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of
+the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced,
+is incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
+Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard
+the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever
+existed. But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means,
+they stole this law in upon us. In a case of _quare impedit_ in the
+Year-book, 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far
+the ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common law court. And
+Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his opinion in these words. '_A tiel leis
+qu'ils de seint eglise ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner
+credence; car ceo common ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes.
+Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise:
+et semblablement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si
+poit apperer or a nous que Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en
+tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy_,' &c.
+See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp. 89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his
+first book, c. 3. is the first afterwards who quotes this case, and
+mistakes it thus. 'To such laws of the church as have warrant in holy
+scripture, our law giveth credence.' And cites Prisot; mistranslating
+'ancien scripture' into 'holy scripture.' Whereas, Prisot palpably says,
+'to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient writing, it is
+proper for us to give credence;' to wit, to their ancient written laws.
+This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot.
+Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the
+common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max.
+3. and Sheppard, title, 'Religion,' in 1675, copies the same
+mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses
+it in these words; 'Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.' 1
+Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings
+and re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in
+1728, that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court
+would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity
+was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore,
+409, ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy
+and profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra.
+Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that
+'Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and
+Strange. And finally, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in
+Evans's case, in 1767, says, that 'the essential principles of revealed
+religion are part of the common law.' Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament,
+and all into the common law, without citing any authority. And thus we
+find this chain of authorities hanging link by link, one upon another,
+and all ultimately on one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation
+of the words 'ancien scripture,' used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot;
+Wingate does the same. Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate.
+Hale cites nobody. The court, in Woolston's case, cite Hale. Wood cites
+Woolston's case. Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale. And Lord
+Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I might
+defy the best read lawyer to produce another scrip of authority for this
+judiciary forgery; and I might go on further to show, how some of the
+Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the text of Alfred's laws, the
+20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts
+of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th verses. But this would lead
+my pen and your patience too far. What a conspiracy this, between Church
+and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara,
+rogues all!
+
+I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowledgments
+for your good wishes to the University we are now establishing in this
+State. There are some novelties in it. Of that of a professorship of
+the principles of government, you express your approbation. They will be
+founded in the rights of man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will
+approve: and that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us
+in that type and dialect, must be the text-books of the reading of the
+learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles
+of government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be
+placed in the library of the University. Having at this time in England
+a person sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr.
+Gilmer of my neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage,
+counsel, and guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the
+deceptions of partial and false recommendations, in the selection
+of characters. He is a gentleman of great worth and correctness, my
+particular friend, well educated in various branches of science, and
+worthy of entire confidence.
+
+Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us a speedy
+meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and
+evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have.both witnessed; and
+in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration
+and esteem for your person and character.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXII.--TO MARTIN VAN BUREN, June 29, 1824
+
+
+TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.
+
+Monticello, June 29, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering's elaborate philippic against Mr.
+Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the acknowledgment
+until I could read it and make some observations on it.
+
+I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such a period
+of advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and
+viperous. It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been
+industriously collecting materials for vituperating the characters he
+had marked for his hatred; some of whom certainly, if enmities towards
+him had ever existed, had forgotten them all, or buried them in the
+grave with themselves. As to myself, there never had been any thing
+personal between us, nothing but the general opposition of party
+sentiment; and our personal intercourse had been that of urbanity, as
+himself says. But it seems he has been all this time brooding over an
+enmity which I had never felt, and that with respect to myself, as well
+as others, he has been writing far and near, and in every direction, to
+get hold of original letters, where he could, copies, where he could
+not, certificates and journals, catching at every gossipping story he
+could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions what he could find
+no where else, and then arguing on this motley farrago, as if
+established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his wonder,
+'at the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. Adams should not
+have cooled '; that on the contrary, 'they had acquired the mastery of
+his soul,' (p. 100 ;) that 'where these were enlisted, no reliance
+could be placed on his statements,' (p. 104 ;) the facility and little
+truth with which he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning
+persons who were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that 'he is
+capable of making the grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached
+facts, and often from bare suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable
+inferences,' if suited to his purpose at the instant,' (p. 174;) while
+making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams, instead of his '_ecce homo_,'
+(p. 100;) how justly might we say to him, '_Mutato nomine, de te fabula
+narratur_.' For the assiduity and industry he has employed in his
+benevolent researches after matter of crimination against us, I refer to
+his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79, 90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter.
+104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146,150,151,153, 168, 171, 172. That Mr.
+Adams's strictures on him, written and pointed, should have excited some
+notice on his part, was not perhaps to be wondered at. But the
+sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me may be more
+questionable. He says, (p. 4) 'of Mr. Jefferson I should have said
+nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October the 12th, 1823.'
+Now the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend,
+wounded by a publication which I thought an 'outrage on private
+confidence.' Not a word or allusion in it respecting Mr. Pickering, nor
+was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of
+this infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his
+pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.
+
+He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions, and my motives. The very
+actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great
+majority of my fellow-citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr.
+Pickering, and of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect.
+My motives he chooses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a
+passion for popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It
+is no office of his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted
+my actions and motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates,
+letters, journals, and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary
+them. Nor shall I do this on the present occasion, but leave still to
+them these antiquated party diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded,
+as if they had not been already a thousand times repeated, refuted, and
+adjudged against him, by the nation itself. If no action is to be deemed
+virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there
+never was a virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Savior
+himself. But he has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to
+leave motives to him who can alone see into them.
+
+But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the
+thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than
+a steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of
+his which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the
+other myself. He observes, that my letter of October the 12th, 1823,
+acknowledges the receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September the 18th,
+which, having been written a few days after Cunningham's publication, he
+says was no doubt written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches
+he had uttered against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham.
+And thus having 'no doubt' of his conjecture, he considers it as proven,
+goes on to suppose the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place
+Mr. Adams at my feet suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it,
+as an undoubted fact. Now I do most solemnly declare, that so far from
+being a letter of apology, as Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes,
+there was not a word or allusion in it respecting Cunningham's
+publication.
+
+The other allegation respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34,
+he quotes Doctor Stuart, as having, twenty years ago, informed him that
+General Washington, 'when he became a private citizen,' called me to
+account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of
+unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, 'in
+what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment
+of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death, the
+correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period
+of his Presidency was also missing.' The diary being of transactions
+during his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some
+time after he became a private citizen, and the pretended correspondence
+of course after that, I know not why this lost diary and supposed
+correspondence are brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy
+of the letter itself. The correspondence could not be found, indeed,
+because it had never existed. I do affirm, that there never passed
+a word, written or verbal, directly or indirectly, between General
+Washington and myself on the subject of that letter. He would never have
+degraded himself so far as to take to himself the imputation in that
+letter on the 'Samsons in combat.' The whole story is a fabrication, and
+I defy the framers of it, and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a
+pen between General Washington and myself on the subject, or any other
+evidence more worthy of credit than the suspicions, suppositions, and
+presumptions of the two persons here quoting and quoted for it. With
+Doctor Stuart I had not much acquaintance. I supposed him to be an
+honest man, knew him to be a very weak one, and, like Mr. Pickering,
+very prone to antipathies, boiling with party passions, and, under the
+dominion of these, readily welcoming fancies for facts. But, come the
+story from whomsoever it might, it is an unqualified falsehood.
+
+This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for
+federal malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted
+a single paragraph only of political information as to the state of our
+country. In this information there was not one word which would not
+then have been, or would not now be approved by every republican in
+the United States, looking back to those times, as you will see by a
+faithful copy now enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on
+the subject of the United States, or of its government. This paragraph,
+extracted and translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the
+persons in power there were laboring under very general disfavor, and
+their friends were eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. 'To
+them, therefore, I have always imputed the interpolation of an entire
+paragraph additional to mine, which makes me charge my own country with
+ingratitude and injustice to France. There was not a word in my letter
+respecting France, or any of the proceedings or relations between this
+country and that. Yet this interpolated paragraph has been the burden of
+federal calumny, has been constantly quoted by them, made the subject
+of unceasing and virulent abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by Mr.
+Pickering, (page 33,) as if it were genuine, and really written by me.
+And even Judge Marshall makes history descend from its dignity, and the
+ermine from its sanctity, to exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this
+forgery. In the very last note of his book, he says, 'A letter from
+Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian, was published in Florence, and
+republished in the Moniteur, with very severe strictures on the conduct
+of the United States.' And instead of the letter itself, he copies
+what he says are the remarks of the editor, which are an exaggerated
+commentary on the fabricated paragraph itself, and silently leaves to
+his reader to make the ready inference that these were the sentiments of
+the letter. Proof is the duty of the affirmative side. A negative cannot
+be possibly proved. But, in defect of impossible proof of what was not
+in the original letter, I have its press-copy still in my possession. It
+has been shown to several, and is open to any one who wishes to see it.
+I have presumed only that the interpolation was done in Paris. But I
+never saw the letter in either its Italian or French dress, and it may
+have been done here, with the commentary handed down to posterity by the
+judge. The genuine paragraph, re-translated through Italian and French
+into English, as it appeared here in a federal paper, besides the
+mutilated hue which these translations and re-translations of it
+produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a single word, which
+entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant and fertile text of
+misrepresentation of my political principles. The original, speaking of
+an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party, which had sprung
+up since he had left us, states their object to be 'to draw over us
+the substance, as they had already done the forms of the British
+government.' Now the 'forms' here meant, were the levees, birth-days,
+the pompous cavalcade to the State House on the meeting of Congress, the
+formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in a body to
+re-echo the speech in an answer, &c. &c. But the translator here, by
+substituting form in the singular number, for forms in the plural, made
+it mean the frame or organization of our government, or its form of
+legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities, co-ordinate and
+independent: to which form it was to be inferred that I was an enemy. In
+this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering still
+quotes, it (pages 34, 35, 38), and countenances the inference. Now
+General Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms,
+as they were frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my
+return from Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York,
+I was much astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established
+of royal forms and ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected
+phenomenon, by the monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly
+maintained in every company, and among others by the high members of the
+government, executive and judiciary (General Washington alone excepted),
+and by a great part of the legislature, save only some members who had
+been of the old Congress, and a very few of recent introduction. I
+took occasion, at various times, of expressing to General Washington my
+disappointment at these symptoms of a change of principle, and that
+I thought them encouraged by the forms and ceremonies, which I found
+prevailing, not at all in character with the simplicity of republican
+government, and looking as if wishfully to those of European courts.
+His general explanations to me were, that when he arrived at New York
+to enter on the executive administration of the new government, he
+observed to those who were to assist him, that placed as he was in an
+office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms and ceremonies
+of other governments, still less apprized of those which might be
+properly established here, and himself perfectly indifferent to all
+forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what they should be; and
+the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, a man of parade,
+and to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at a foreign court.
+They, he said, were the author's of the present regulations, and that
+others were proposed so highly strained, that he absolutely rejected
+them. Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject,
+when the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
+departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had
+been at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and
+the course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion
+had now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any
+particulars not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult
+together, agree on any changes we should think for the better, and
+that he should willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at
+my office. Hamilton and myself agreed at once that there was too much
+ceremony for the character of our government, and, particularly, that
+the parade of the installation at New York ought not to be copied on the
+present occasion, that the President should desire the Chief Justice to
+attend him at his chambers, that he should administer the oath of office
+to him in the presence of the higher officers of the government, and
+that the certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary
+of State to be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the
+latter vehemently: they thought it not advisable to change any of the
+established forms, and we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to
+the President. As these opinions were divided, and no positive advice
+given as to any change, no change was made. Thus the forms, which I had
+censured in my letter to Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General
+Washington, and were those which he himself but barely tolerated. He had
+furnished me a proper occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my
+opinion not prevailing, he knew I could not have meant any part of the
+censure for him.
+
+Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of 'the
+men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
+had had their heads shorn by the harlot England' or, as expressed in
+their re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons
+in combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.' Now
+this expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He
+knew that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what
+had passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could
+not mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
+establishment, I was a member of the Congress then sitting at Annapolis.
+General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that proposition,
+and the course, if any, which I thought Congress would observe
+respecting it. I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation of it; that I
+found the members of Congress generally in the same sentiment; that
+I thought they would take no express notice of it, but that in all
+appointments of trust, honor, or profit, they would silently pass by all
+candidates of that order, and give an uniform preference to others. On
+his way to the first meeting in Philadelphia, which I think was in the
+spring of 1784, he called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after
+candle-light, and he sat with me till after midnight, conversing, almost
+exclusively, on that subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to the
+motives which might induce the officers to promote it, he concurred with
+me entirely in condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that, if the
+hereditary quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps
+be indulged during the lives of the officers now living, and who had
+actually served; 'No,' he said, 'not a fibre of it ought, to be left, to
+be an eye-sore to the public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line
+of separation between them and their country': and he left me with a
+determination to use all his influence for its entire suppression. On
+his return from the meeting, he called on me again, and related to me
+the course the thing had taken. He. said, that, from the beginning,
+he had used every endeavor to prevail on the officers to renounce the
+project altogether, urging the many considerations which would render
+it odious to their fellow-citizens, and disreputable and injurious to
+themselves; that he had at length prevailed on most of the old officers
+to reject it, although with great and warm opposition from others, and
+especially the younger ones, among whom he named Colonel W. S. Smith
+as particularly intemperate. But that in this state of things, when he
+thought the question safe, and the meeting drawing to a close, Major
+L'Enfant arrived from France with a bundle of eagles, for which he had
+been sent there, with letters from the French officers who had served
+in. America, praying for admission into the order, and a solemn act of
+their King permitting them to wear its ensign. This, he said, changed
+the face of matters at once, produced an entire revolution of sentiment,
+and turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite direction, that
+it could be no longer withstood: all he could then obtain, was a
+suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, that it was the French
+applications, and respect for the approbation of the King, which saved
+the establishment in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving thus
+of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to do
+so, he could never suppose that I meant to include him among the Samsons
+in the field, whose object was to draw over us the form, as they
+made the letter say, of the British government, and especially its
+aristocractic member, an hereditary House of Lords. Add to this, that
+the letter saying, 'that two out of the three branches of legislature
+were against us,' was an obvious exception of him; it being well known
+that the majorities in the two branches of Senate and Representatives
+were the very instruments which carried, in opposition to the old and
+real republicans, the measures which were the subjects of condemnation
+in this letter. General Washington, then, understanding perfectly what
+and whom I meant to designate, in both phrases, and that they could not
+have any application or view to himself, could find in neither any cause
+of offence to himself; and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any
+explanation of them from me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know
+very little of General Washington, who should believe to be within the
+laws of his character what Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to
+him. Be this, however, as it may, the story is infamously false in
+every article of it. My last parting with General Washington was at the
+inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797, and was warmly affectionate;
+and I never had any reason to believe any change on his part, as there
+certainly was none on mine. But one session of Congress intervened
+between that and his death, the year following, in my passage to and
+from which, as it happened to be not convenient to call on him, I never
+had another opportunity; and as to the cessation of correspondence
+observed during that short interval, no particular circumstance occurred
+for epistolary communication, and both of us were too much oppressed
+with letter-writing, to trouble either the other, with a letter about
+nothing.
+
+The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive
+friends of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink
+his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy
+of republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation
+of the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert,
+and the republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
+proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
+republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend
+to the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps,
+in its duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he
+repeatedly declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair
+chance for success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in
+its support, against any attempt which, might be made to change it from
+its republican form. He made these declarations the oftener, because he
+knew my suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet
+my jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he
+considered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of its
+administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever
+been devised by the wit of man; professing, however, at the same time,
+that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that
+it would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that,
+therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the
+principles their constituents had elected.
+
+General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the
+composition of his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which
+was Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of
+any question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party
+in whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the
+republicans; yet were they not imputed, to him, but to the counsellors
+around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course
+and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his
+administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time
+after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views
+into which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the
+party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career; separated
+him still farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and
+expressions of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not
+loosen their affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary
+aberration to weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and
+although they tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his
+memory embalmed in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion;
+and there it for ever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every
+temporary thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It
+is vain, then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify
+his character, by representing him as an enemy to republicans and
+republican principles, and as exclusively the friend of those who were
+so; and had he lived longer, he would have returned to his ancient and
+unbiassed opinions, would have replaced his confidence in those whom the
+people approved and supported, and would have seen that they were only
+restoring and acting on the principles of his own first administration.
+
+I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter
+or rather a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr.
+Pickering's diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do
+not publish these things, because my rule of life has been never to
+harass the public with fendings and provings of personal slanders;
+and least of all would I descend into the arena of slander with such
+a champion as Mr. Pickering. I have ever trusted to the justice and
+consideration of my fellow-citizens, and have no reason to repent it,
+or to change my course. At this time of life, too, tranquillity is the
+_summum bonum_. But although I decline all newspaper controversy, yet
+when falsehoods have been advanced, within the knowledge of no one so
+much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a contradiction in the hands
+of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when I am no more, nor
+those whom I might offend, throw light on history, and recall that into
+the path of truth. And if of no other value, the present communication
+may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.
+
+I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to
+which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name,
+but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may
+be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close
+it here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIII.--TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824
+
+TO EDWARD EVERETT.
+
+Monticello, October 15, 1824.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have yet to thank you for your O. B. K. oration, delivered in presence
+of General la Fayette. It is all excellent, much of it sublimely so,
+well worthy of its author and his subject, of whom we may truly say, as
+was said of Germanicus, '_Fruitur fama sui_.'
+
+Your letter of September the 10th gave me the first information that
+mine to Major Cartwright had got into the newspapers; and the first
+notice, indeed, that he had received it. I was a stranger to his person,
+but not to his respectable and patriotic character. I received from him
+a long and interesting letter, and answered it with frankness, going
+without reserve into several subjects, to which his letter had led,
+but on which I did not suppose I was writing for the newspapers. The
+publication of a letter in such a case, without the consent of the
+writer, is not a fair practice.
+
+The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
+They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot's opinion
+with a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake
+its meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The
+opinions of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or
+memoranda, and not with all the developement which they probably used in
+delivering them. Prisot's opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus
+paraphrased. 'To such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and
+preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to
+give credence; for so is, or so says, the common law, or law of the
+land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are
+founded; that is to say, the common law, or the law of the land common
+to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from
+which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate
+branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime,
+law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and
+usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit
+authority in the special or local cases belonging to them. The evidence
+of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books, and
+writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known, the
+text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance
+only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it appears,
+from their ancient books, writings, and records, that the bishop, in
+this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has
+done what an ordinary would have done, in such case, then we should
+adjudge it good, otherwise not.' To decide this question, they would
+have to turn to the ancient writings and records of the canon law,
+in which they would find evidence of the laws of advowsons, _quare
+impedit_, the duties of bishops and ordinaries, for which terms Prisot
+could never have meant to refer them to the Old or New Testament, _les
+saincts scriptures_, where surely they would not be found. A license
+which should permit 'ancien scripture' to be translated 'holy
+scripture,' annihilates at once all the evidence of language. With such
+a license, we might reverse the sixth commandment into 'Thou shalt not
+omit murder.' It would be the more extraordinary in this case, where
+the mistranslation was to effect the adoption of the whole code of the
+Jewish and Christian laws into the text of our statutes, to convert
+religious offences into temporal crimes, to make the breach of every
+religious precept a subject of indictment, submit the question of
+idolatry, for example, to the trial of a jury, and to a court, its
+punishment, to the third and fourth generation of the offender. Do we
+allow to our judges this lumping legislation?
+
+The term 'common law,' although it has more than one meaning, is
+perfectly definite, _secundum subjectam materiem_. Its most probable
+origin was on the conquest of the Heptarchy by Alfred, and the
+amalgamation of their several codes of law into one, which became
+common to them all. The authentic text of these enactments has not been
+preserved; but their substance has been committed to many ancient
+books and writings, so faithfully as to have been deemed genuine from
+generation to generation, and obeyed as such by all. We have some
+fragments of them collected by Lambard, Wilkins, and others, but
+abounding with proofs of their spurious authenticity. Magna Charta
+is the earliest statute, the text of which has come down to us in an
+authentic form, and thence downward we have them entire. We do not know
+exactly when the common law and statute law, the _lex scripta et non
+scripta_, began to be contra-distinguished, so as to give a second
+acceptation to the former term; whether before or after Prisot's day, at
+which time we know that nearly two centuries and a half of statutes were
+in preservation. In later times, on the introduction of the chancery
+branch of law, the term common law began to be used in a third sense, as
+the correlative of chancery law. This, however, having been long after
+Prisot's time, could not have been the sense in which he used the term.
+He must have meant the ancient _lex, non scripta_, because, had he used
+it as inclusive of the _lex scripta_, he would have put his finger on
+the statute which had enjoined on the judges a deference to the laws of
+holy church. But no such statute existing, he must have referred to the
+common law in the sense of a _lex non scripta_. Whenever, then, the term
+common law is used in either of these senses, and it is never employed
+in any other, it is readily known in which of them by the context and
+subject matter under consideration; which, in the present case, leave no
+room for doubt. I do not remember the occasion which led me to take up
+this subject, while a practitioner of the law. But I know I went into
+it with all the research which a very copious law library enabled me to
+indulge; and I fear not for the accuracy of any of my quotations.
+The doctrine might be disproved by many other and different topics of
+reasoning; but having satisfied myself of the origin of the forgery, and
+found how, like a rolling snow-ball, it had gathered volume, I leave
+its further pursuit to those who need further proof, and perhaps I have
+already gone further than the feeble doubt you expressed might require,
+I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIV.--TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 11, 1825
+
+
+TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+
+Monticello, January 11, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+We are dreadfully nonplussed here by the non-arrival of our three
+Professors. We apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st of
+February prevails so much abroad (although we have always mentioned
+it doubtfully), as that the students will assemble on that day without
+awaiting the further notice which was promised. To send them away
+will be discouraging, and to open an University without Mathematics or
+Natural Philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. We
+therefore publish an advertisement, stating that on the arrival of these
+Professors, notice will be given of the day of opening the institution.
+
+Governor Barbour writes me hopefully of getting our fifty thousand
+dollars from Congress. The proposition has been originated in the House
+of Representatives, referred to the committee of claims, the chairman
+of which has prepared a very favorable report, and a bill conformable,
+assuming the repayment of all interest which the State has actually
+paid. The legislature will certainly owe to us the recovery of this
+money; for had they not given it in some measure the reverenced
+character of a donation for the promotion of learning, it would never
+have been paid. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the displeasure
+incurred by wringing it from them at the last session, will now give
+way to a contrary feeling, and even place us on a ground of some merit.
+Should this sentiment take place, and the arrival of our Professors, and
+filling our dormitories with students on the 1st of February, encourage
+them to look more favorably towards us, perhaps it might dispose them to
+enlarge somewhat their order on the same fund. You observe the Proctor
+has stated in a letter accompanying our Report, that it will take about
+twenty-five thousand dollars more than we have to finish the Rotunda.
+Besides this, an Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our
+hotels, say about five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school
+of Anatomy. There cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre
+is prepared, giving an advantageous view of the operation to those
+within, and effectually excluding observation from without. Either the
+additional sums, therefore, of twenty-five thousand and five thousand
+dollars will be wanting, or we must be permitted to appropriate a part
+of the fifty thousand to a theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for
+the present. Yet I should think neither of these objects an equivalent
+for renewing the displeasure of the legislature. Unless we can carry
+their hearty patronage with us, the institution can never flourish.
+I would not, therefore, hint at this additional aid, unless it were
+agreeable to our friends generally, and tolerably sure of being carried
+without irritation.
+
+In your letter of December the 31st, you say my 'hand-writing and my
+letters have great effect there,' i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my
+dear Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to
+me. But my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from
+the administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that
+I retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in
+office had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation,
+and with acquiescence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have
+embarked so earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition
+of my native State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have
+strengthened good dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within
+our own. The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many
+personal views, and so much ignorance, and I have been considered as
+so particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of
+sentiment towards myself. I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied
+with myself a respectable minority, if not a majority of the House of
+Delegates. I feel it deeply, and very discouragingly. Yet I shall not
+give way. I have ever found in my progress through life, that, acting
+for the public, if we do always what is right, the approbation denied in
+the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from posterity we
+are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are making for their
+service, of time, quiet, and good will. And I fear not the appeal. The
+multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from ignorance, who
+will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of character, and
+station they will be able to attain from the result of our efforts, will
+insure their remembering us with gratitude. We will not, then, be 'weary
+in well-doing.' _Usque ad aras amicus tuus_,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXV.--TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH.
+
+This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be
+in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
+excellent father has requested that I would address to you something
+which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life
+you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that
+course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your
+part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor
+as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true.
+Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life, into which you
+have entered, be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And
+if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world,
+every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.
+
+Monticello, February 21, 1825.
+
+
+_The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, for your
+imitation_.
+
+     Lord, who's the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
+     Not stranger-like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
+     'Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
+     Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart
+          disproves.
+     Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor's fame to wound;
+     Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
+     Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
+     And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
+     Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
+     And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
+     Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
+     Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
+     The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
+     When earth's foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured.
+
+A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.
+
+1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
+
+2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
+
+3. Never spend your money before you have it.
+
+4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear
+to you.
+
+5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
+
+6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
+
+7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
+
+8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
+
+9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
+
+10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVI.--TO JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, December 24, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have for sometime considered the question of internal improvement as
+desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so strongly in favor
+of it as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even the opposition in
+Congress will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless something can be
+done which may give a gleam of encouragement to our friends, or alarm
+their opponents in their fancied security. I learn from Richmond, that
+those who think with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not
+knowing what to do, or what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative,
+particularly, has written to me in very desponding terms, not disposed
+to yield, indeed, but pressing for opinions and advice on the subject.
+I have no doubt you are pressed in the same way, and I hope you have
+devised and recommended something to them. If you have, stop here and
+read no more, but consider all that follows as _non avenue_. I shall
+be better satisfied to adopt implicitly any thing which you may have
+advised, than any thing occurring to myself. For I have long ceased
+to think on subjects of this kind, and pay little attention to public
+proceedings. But if you have done nothing in it, then I risk for your
+consideration what has occurred to me, and is expressed in the enclosed
+paper. Bailey's propositions, which came to hand since I wrote the
+paper, and which I suppose to have come from the President himself, show
+a little hesitation in the purposes of his party; and in that state of
+mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest, by its effect on
+the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this moment may be
+accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate sacrifice. I say
+nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The following heads of
+consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
+
+It may intimidate the wavering. It may break the western coalition,
+by offering the same thing in a different form. It will be viewed with
+favor in contrast with the Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening
+that. It will be an example of a temperate mode of opposition in future
+and similar cases. It will delay the measure a year at least. It will
+give us the chance of better times and of intervening accidents; and in
+no way place us in a worse than our present situation. I do not dwell on
+these topics; your mind will develope them.
+
+The first question is, whether you approve of doing any thing of the
+kind. If not, send it back to me, and it shall be suppressed; for I
+would not hazard so important a measure against your opinion, nor even
+without its support. If you think it may be a canvass on which to put
+something good, make what alterations you please, and I will forward it
+to Gordon, under the most sacred injunctions that it shall be so used as
+that not a shadow of suspicion shall fall on you or myself, that it
+has come from either of us. But what you do, do as promptly as your
+convenience will admit, lest it should be anticipated by something
+worse. Ever and affectionately yours,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+_The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on
+the Principles of the Constitution of the United, States of America, and
+on the Violations of them_.
+
+We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf and in the name of the
+people thereof, do declare as follows.
+
+The States in North America which confederated to establish their
+independence on the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
+one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and, as
+such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such
+form as it thought best.
+
+They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the
+United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single
+government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
+nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified.
+They retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of
+independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
+
+For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint,
+in conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each,
+severally and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each
+for itself, a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive,
+and judiciary, also, for administering the domestic branch of their
+respective governments.
+
+These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute
+thus a whole of government, for each State separately; the powers
+ascribed to the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over
+the whole, the residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable
+exclusively over its particular State, foreign herein, each to the
+others, as they were before the original compact.
+
+To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
+Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
+opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either set
+of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
+
+But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others,
+a right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
+indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this Assembly
+does declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
+branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions
+of it.
+
+They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
+construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
+within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
+several States, which this Assembly does declare has not been given to
+that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State
+among its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself and
+by its domestic authorities alone.
+
+This Assembly does further disavow, and declare to be most false and
+unfounded, the doctrine, that the compact, in authorizing its federal
+branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay
+the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
+United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may
+think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction
+would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation
+of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they
+might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by
+the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and
+by no others.
+
+Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States,
+by not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering
+their condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that
+purpose; since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to
+that branch those which belong to its department, and to the States have
+reserved separately the residue which belong to them separately: and
+thus by the organization of the two branches taken together, have
+completely secured the first object of human association, the full
+improvement of their condition, and reserved to themselves all the
+faculties of multiplying their own blessings.
+
+Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
+States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State
+will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
+disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
+themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
+of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
+themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
+resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
+possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
+difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
+indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
+could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
+submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the
+hope of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
+forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
+therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly,
+prefer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the
+federal member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much,
+under the confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them
+also the bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us
+all. In the mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate
+from them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government
+of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our
+federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
+perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable
+of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and
+securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and
+peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice
+shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair
+but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform
+its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and
+restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are
+the objects of this Declaration and Protest.
+
+Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of
+its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals
+should be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more
+likely to be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the
+independent action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from
+respect to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its
+co-States, will consent, in concurrence with them, to make this
+addition, provided it be done regularly by an amendment of the compact,
+in the way established by that instrument, and provided also, it be
+sufficiently guarded against abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices,
+not only of possible, but of probable occurrence.
+
+And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
+Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented
+to by the compact called 'The Constitution of the United States of
+America,' (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its
+language, to the common intendment of the time, and of those who framed
+it;) to give also to all parties and authorities, time for reflection
+and for consideration, whether, under a temperate view of the possible
+consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions which an
+equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the
+assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the free will
+of their constituents; and to preserve peace in the mean while, we
+proceed to make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature shall
+otherwise and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts of
+the federal branch of our government which we have declared to be
+usurpations, and against which, in point of right, we do protest as null
+and void, and never to be quoted as precedents of right.
+
+We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
+Virginia, that all citizens of this Commonwealth, and persons and
+authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to
+the acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the
+object of which shall be the construction of post-roads, making canals
+of navigation, and maintaining the same, in any part of the United
+States, in like manner as if the said acts were, _totidem verbis_,
+passed by the legislature of this Commonwealth.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 25, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of the 15th was received four days ago. It found me engaged
+in what I could not lay aside till this day.
+
+Far advanced in my eighty-third year, worn down with infirmities which
+have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight
+months past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for
+transactions so far back as that which is the subject of your letter.
+My memory is indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can
+probably be given you than by my solemn protestation, that I have not
+the least recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams
+and myself, in what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the
+slightest trace of it remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the
+exactitude of the statement in your letter. And the less, as I recollect
+the interview with Mr. Adams, to which the previous communications which
+had passed between him and yourself were probably and naturally the
+preliminary. That interview I remember well; not indeed in the very
+words which passed between us, but in their substance, which was of a
+character too awful, too deeply engraved in my mind, and influencing too
+materially the course I had to pursue, ever to be forgotten. Mr. Adams
+called on me pending the embargo, and while endeavors were making to
+obtain its repeal. He made some apologies for the call, on the ground of
+our not being then in the habit of confidential communications, but that
+that which he had then to make, involved too seriously the interest of
+our country not to overrule all other considerations with him, and make
+it his duty to reveal it to myself particularly. I assured him there was
+no occasion for any apology for his visit; that, on the contrary,
+his communications would be thankfully received, and would add a
+confirmation the more to my entire confidence in the rectitude
+and patriotism of his conduct and principles. He spoke then of the
+dissatisfaction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the
+restraints of the embargo then existing, and their restlessness
+under it. That there was nothing which might not be attempted, to rid
+themselves of it. That he had information of the most unquestionable
+certainty, that certain citizens of the Eastern States (I think he
+named Massachusetts particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the
+British government, the object of which was an agreement that the New
+England States should take no further part in the war then going on;
+that, without formally declaring their separation from the Union of the
+States, they should withdraw from all aid and obedience to them,
+that their navigation and commerce should be free from restraint and
+interruption by the British; that they should be considered and treated
+by them as neutrals, and as such might conduct themselves towards both
+parties; and, at the close of the war, be at liberty to rejoin the
+confederacy. He assured me that there was imminent danger that the
+convention would take place; that the temptations were such as might
+debauch many from their fidelity to the Union; and that, to enable
+its friends to make head against it, the repeal of the embargo was
+absolutely necessary. I expressed a just sense of the merit of this
+information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the safety
+and even the salvation of our country: and however reluctant I was to
+abandon the measure (a measure which persevered in a little longer, we
+had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object
+completely), from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw
+the necessity of abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by
+this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then
+recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the
+embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in
+which they could procure a general concurrence.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be
+in the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the
+impression remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are
+too transient and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But
+the substance was too important to be forgotten, not only from the
+revolution of measures it obliged me to adopt, but also from the
+renewals of it in my memory on the frequent occasions I have had of
+doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating this proof of his fidelity to
+his country, and of his superiority over all ordinary considerations
+when the safety of that was brought into question.
+
+With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept
+assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXVIII.--TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825
+
+
+TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+
+Monticello, December 26, 1825.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will be free to make what
+use you please. This will contain matters not intended for the public
+eye. I see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid
+strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing
+towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the
+consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that
+too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their
+power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines
+of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact
+acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too
+evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in
+combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the
+powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions,
+foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they assume
+indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it
+regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry,
+and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the
+other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to establish
+post-roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the
+construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little
+sophistry on the words 'general welfare,' a right to do, not only the
+acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted,
+but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general
+welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the
+constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue
+with the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by
+ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from incorrect views
+of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together,
+to outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or
+three, bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand
+to our arms, with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last
+resource, not to be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings.
+If every infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at
+once, as a dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last
+one year. We must have patience and longer endurance then with our
+brethren while under delusion; give them time for reflection and
+experience of consequences; keep ourselves in a situation to profit by
+the chapter of accidents; and separate from our companions only when the
+sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or
+submission to a government without limitation of powers. Between these
+two evils, when we must make a choice, there can be no hesitation. But
+in the mean while, the States should be watchful to note every material
+usurpation on their rights; to denounce them as they occur in the most
+peremptory terms; to protest against them as wrongs to which our present
+submission shall be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents
+of right, but as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their
+accumulation shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still
+further, and give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the
+constitution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication
+between the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in
+Congress (log-rolling, &c.), by declaring that the federal proportion
+of each State of the monies so employed, shall be in works within
+the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due _salvo_ of
+jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and best as yet.
+You ask my opinion of the propriety of giving publicity to what is
+stated in your letter, as having passed between Mr. John Q. Adams and
+yourself. Of this no one can judge but yourself. It is one of those
+questions which belong to the forum of feeling. This alone can decide
+on the degree of confidence implied in the disclosure; whether under no
+circumstances it was to be communicated to others. It does not seem to
+be of that character, or at all to wear that aspect. They are historical
+facts, which belong to the present, as well as future times. I
+doubt whether a single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear
+conviction to it, of the correctness of our knowledge of the treasonable
+views of the federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the
+most nefarious and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the
+Hartford Convention was a subsequent chapter: and both of these having
+failed, consolidation becomes the first chapter of the next book of
+their history. But this opens with a vast accession of strength from
+their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or
+principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an
+aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations
+under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures,
+commerce, and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman
+and beggared yeomanry. This will be to them a next best blessing to the
+monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping-stone to
+it.
+
+I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving well, and
+that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is one of three
+or four whom I can hear of in the State. We were obliged the last
+year to receive shameful Latinists into the classical school of the
+University; such as we will certainly refuse as soon as we can get from
+better schools a sufficiency of those properly instructed to form a
+class. We must get rid of this Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous
+confusion of long and short syllables, which renders doubtful whether we
+are listening to a reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our
+University has been most fortunate in the five Professors procured from
+England. A finer selection could not have been made. Besides their
+being of a grade of science which has left little superior behind, the
+correctness of their moral character, their accommodating dispositions,
+and zeal for the prosperity of the institution, leave us nothing more
+to wish. I verily believe that as high a degree of, education can now be
+obtained here, as in the country they left. And a finer set of youths I
+never saw assembled for instruction. They committed some irregularities
+at first, until they learned the lawful length of their tether; since
+which it has never been transgressed in the smallest degree. A great
+proportion of them are severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say,
+that within twelve or fifteen years from this time, a majority of the
+rulers of our State will have been educated here. They shall carry hence
+the correct principles of our day, and you may count assuredly that they
+will exhibit their country in a degree of sound respectability it has
+never known, either in our days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot
+live to see it. My joy must only be that of anticipation. But that you
+may see it in full fruition, is the probable consequence of the twenty
+years I am ahead of you in time, and is the sincere prayer of your
+affectionate and constant friend,
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CLXXXIX.--TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+
+
+TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH.
+
+Monticello, January 9, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I have duly received your favor of December the 31st, and fear, with
+you, all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political
+horizon so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped
+to be very distant, the free principles of our government might change,
+with the change of circumstances, was to be expected. But I certainly
+did not expect that they would not over-live the generation which
+established them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite
+western country was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever
+and fondly cherished the interests of that country, relying on it as a
+barrier against the degeneracy of public opinion from our original and
+free principles. But the bait of local interests, artfully prepared
+for their palate, has decoyed them from their kindred attachments,
+to alliances alien to them. Yet, although I have little hope that the
+torrent of consolidation can be withstood, I should not be for giving up
+the ship without efforts to save her. She lived well through the first
+squall, and may weather the present one. But, Dear Sir, I am not the
+champion called for by our present dangers; _Non tali auxilio, nee
+defensoribus istis, tempus eget_.' A waning body, a waning mind,
+and waning memory, with habitual ill health, warn me to withdraw and
+relinquish the arena to younger and abler athletes. I am sensible
+myself, if others are not, that this is my duty. If my distant friends
+know it not, those around me can inform them that they should not, in
+friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing only the decays
+which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and injuring the
+common cause by a senile and puny defence.
+
+I will, however, say one word on the subject. The South Carolina
+resolutions, Van Buren's motion, and above all Bailey's propositions,
+show that other States are coming forward on the subject, and better for
+any one to take the lead than Virginia, where opposition is considered
+as common-place, and a mere matter of form and habit. We shall see what
+our co-States propose, and before the close of the session we may shape
+our own course more understandingly.
+
+Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXC.--TO [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826
+
+
+Monticello, January 21, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Your favor of January the 15th is received, and I am entirely
+sensible of the kindness of the motives which suggested the caution it
+recommended. But I believe what I have done is the only thing I could
+have done with honor or conscience. Mr. Giles requested me to state a
+fact which he knew himself, and of which he knew me to be possessed.
+What use he intended to make of it I knew not, nor had I a right to
+inquire, or to indicate any suspicion that he would make an unfair one.
+That was his concern, not mine, and his character was sufficient to
+sustain the responsibility for it. I knew, too, that if an uncandid use
+should be made of it, there would be found those who would so prove it.
+Independent of the terms of intimate friendship on which Mr. Giles and
+myself have ever lived together, the world's respect entitled him to
+the justice of my testimony to any truth he might call for; and how that
+testimony should connect me with whatever he may do or write hereafter,
+and with his whole career, as you apprehend, is not understood by me.
+With his personal controversies I have nothing to do. I never took any
+part in them, or in those of any other person. Add to this, that the
+statement I have given him on the subject of Mr. Adams, is entirely
+honorable to him in every sentiment and fact it contains. There is not
+a word in it which I would wish to recall. It is one which Mr. Adams
+himself might willingly quote, did he need to quote any thing. It was
+simply, that during the continuance of the embargo, Mr. Adams informed
+me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had
+for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. That Mr.
+Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and
+confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his
+patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when
+the safety of his country was endangered. Nor have I kept this honorable
+fact to myself. During the late canvass, particularly, I had more
+than one occasion to quote it to persons who were expressing opinions
+respecting him, of which this was a direct corrective. I have never
+entertained for Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and
+if we have not thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted
+the honesty of his opinions, of which the letter in question, if
+published, will be an additional proof. Still, I recognise your
+friendship in suggesting a review of it, and am glad of this, as of
+every other occasion, of repeating to you the assurance of my constant
+attachment and respect.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCI.--TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826
+
+
+TO JAMES MADISON.
+
+Monticello, February 17,1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of
+Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the
+University and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to
+stop every thing on hand which could be done without, and to employ all
+his force and funds in finishing the circular room for the books, and
+the Anatomical theatre. These cannot be done without; and for these
+and all our debts, we have funds enough. But I think it prudent then to
+clear the decks thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and what we
+may accomplish further. In the mean time, there have arrived for us in
+different ports of the United States, ten boxes of books, from Paris,
+seven from London, and from Germany I know not how many; in all,
+perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not one of these can be opened until
+the book-room is completely finished, and all the shelves ready to
+receive their charge directly from the boxes, as they shall be opened.
+This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definitive of the three thousand
+dollars duty of which we are asking the remission from Congress. In the
+selection of our Law Professor, we must be rigorously attentive to his
+political principles. You will recollect, that, before the Revolution,
+Coke Littleton was the universal elementary book of law students, and
+a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox
+doctrines of the British constitution, or in what were called English
+liberties. You remember also that our lawyers were then all whigs. But
+when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of
+fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone became the students'
+hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of our
+Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the young brood
+of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, indeed, to be
+whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or republicanism means.
+It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be kept alive; it is
+thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister States. If we
+are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty years
+a majority of our own legislature will be from our school, and many
+disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their
+several States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. New York has
+taken strong ground in vindication of the constitution; South Carolina
+had already done the same. Although I was against our leading, I am
+equally against omitting to follow in the same line, and backing them
+firmly; and i hope that yourself or some other will mark out the track
+to be pursued by us.
+
+You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the
+legislature, which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had
+become considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of
+property, which would have been little felt, when our friend ---- gave
+me the coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred
+dollars a year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing
+so much of my annual income, as that the maintenance of my family was
+making deep and rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it.
+Still, sales at a fair price would leave me competently provided. Had
+crops and prices for several years been such as to maintain a steady
+competition of substantial bidders at market, all would have been safe.
+But the long succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced prices,
+the general prostration of the farming business, under levies for the
+support of manufacturers, &c, with the calamitous fluctuations of
+value in our paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of abject
+depression, which has peopled the western States by silently breaking
+up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the land-market, while it drew off
+its bidders. In such a state of things, property has lost its character
+of being a resource for debts. Highland in Bedford, which, in the days
+of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred dollars the
+acre (and such sales were many then), would not now sell for more than
+from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter or one fifth of its former
+price. Reflecting on these things, the practice occurred to me, of
+selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to
+before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still in constant usage
+in every State for individual as well as corporation purposes. If it is
+permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the mills, he, will pay
+every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If refused, I must
+sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bedford, move thither
+with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into, and
+whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations which,
+under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property. The
+question then with me was, _Utrum horum?_ But why afflict you with
+these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by
+communication with a friend. The friendship which has subsisted between
+us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and
+pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that
+long period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the
+University, or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a
+comfort to leave that institution under your care, and an assurance
+that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to
+believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we
+have pursued for preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings
+of self-government, which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If
+ever the earth has beheld a system of administration conducted with a
+single and steadfast eye to the general interest and happiness of those
+committed to it, one which, protected by truth, can never know reproach,
+it is that to which our lives have been devoted. To myself you have
+been a pillar of support through life. Take care of me when dead, and be
+assured that I shall leave with you my last affections.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+     [The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
+     because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
+     led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
+     his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
+     character.]
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
+
+
+It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is
+chance? Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the
+cause, we do not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was
+produced by chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up,
+we know the cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever
+side an unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is
+the effect of chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our
+knowledge or ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side
+of an unloaded die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of
+betting on it, immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then
+every pursuit of human industry is immoral, for there is not a single
+one that is not subject to chance; not one wherein you do not risk a
+loss for the chance of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks
+his ship in the hope (if she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an
+advantageous freight. The merchant risks his cargo to gain a better
+price for it. A landholder builds a house on the risk of indemnifying
+himself by a rent. The hunter hazards his time and trouble in the hope
+of killing game. In all these pursuits, you stake some one thing against
+another which you hope to win. But the greatest of all gamblers is the
+farmer. He risks the seed he puts into the ground, the rent he pays for
+the ground itself, the year's labor on it, and the wear and tear of his
+cattle and gear, to win a crop, which the chances of too much or too
+little rain, and general uncertainties of weather, insects, waste, &c.
+often make a total or partial loss. These, then, are games of chance.
+Yet so far from being immoral, they are indispensable to the existence
+of man, and every one has a natural right to choose for his pursuit such
+one of them as he thinks most likely to furnish him subsistence. Almost
+all these pursuits of chance produce something useful to society. But
+there are some which produce nothing, and endanger the well-being of the
+individuals engaged in them, or of others depending on them. Such are
+games with cards, dice, billiards, &c. And although the pursuit of them
+is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiving the irresistible
+bent of some of its members to pursue them, and the ruin produced by
+them to the families depending on these individuals, consider it as a
+case of insanity, _quoad hoc_, step in to protect the family and the
+party himself, as in other cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c,
+and suppress the pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following
+it. There are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions,
+and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are
+insurances, lotteries, raffles, &tc. These they do not suppress, but
+take their regulation under their own discretion. The insurance of
+ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to
+exercise it therefore is left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful
+debts, the continuance of a particular life, and similar cases. Money is
+wanting for an useful undertaking, as a school, &c. for which a direct
+tax would be disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein
+the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can
+risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility
+of a higher prize. An article of property, insusceptible of division at
+all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so
+large value as that no purchaser can be found, while the owner owes
+debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance
+of obtaining it, but by its sale at a full and fair price. The lottery
+is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small
+risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great
+estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his
+debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would
+have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value,
+and sacrificed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have
+lost their debts. This method of selling was formerly very much resorted
+to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The
+legislature Were therefore induced, not to suppress it altogether, but
+to take it under their own special regulation. This they did, for the
+first time, by their act of 1769, c.17., before which time, every person
+exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful
+but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.
+
+Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised
+only under the discretion of the legislature. Let us examine the
+purposes for which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond
+the date of our independence.
+
+1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
+
+1813. c. 1. Sec. 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and
+c. 2. Sec. 10.
+
+1814. Dec. c. 1. Sec. 3. 1814. Feb. c. 1. Sec. 3. 1818. c. 1. Sec. 1. 1819. c. 1.
+1820. c. 1.
+
+This then is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral,
+of which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the
+regular means of supporting the government: the tax on the vender of
+tickets was their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent,
+his could not be criminal.
+
+2. It has been abundantly permitted, to raise money by lottery for the
+purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery
+has been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
+fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied.
+So that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
+received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only, in the form of prizes,
+the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their
+own consent. Examples are.
+
+1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise L2000 for a
+grammar school.
+
+1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, L1000.
+
+1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, L500. c. 74. For the Fredericksburg
+Academy, L4000.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Transylvania Seminary, L500. For the Southampton
+Academy, L300.
+
+1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy.
+
+1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. c" 50. For finishing
+the Strasburg Seminary. c. 58. For William and Mary College. c. 62. For
+the Bannister Academy.c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. c. 82. For the
+Petersburg Academy.
+
+1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. c. 76. For the Stevensburg
+Academy. c.100. For William and Mary College.
+
+1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy.
+
+1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for $30,000
+annually, for seven years.
+
+1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000. Norfolk Female Society,
+$2000. Lancastrian School, $6000.
+
+
+3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth, L400.
+
+1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
+
+1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
+
+1805. c. 42. For a toll-bridge over Cheat River.
+
+1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
+
+
+4. For roads.
+
+1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, L200. For cutting a road from
+Rockfish gap to Scott's and Nicholas's landing, L400. 1796. c. 85. To
+repair certain roads.
+
+1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger's and Ashby's gaps. c. 61.
+For opening a road to Brock's gap. c. 65. For opening a road from the
+town of Monroe to Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
+
+* The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
+
+1803. c. 71. For improving the road to Brock's gap.
+
+1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg. c. 26. For opening a
+road from Monongalia Glades to Fishing Creek.
+
+1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton's gap.
+
+
+5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
+
+1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah. c. 84.
+To authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
+
+
+6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
+
+1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not limited.
+
+1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, L1500.
+
+1790. c. 46. do. do. L5000. 1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries
+authorized., c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
+
+1803. c. 12. Woodstock, a lottery authorized c. 48. Fredericksburg,
+for improving its main street. c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its
+streets.
+
+
+7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
+
+1785. c.lll. Completing a church in Winchester. For rebuilding a church
+in the parish of Elizabeth River.
+
+1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
+
+1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, L200. in Halifax,
+L200. in Alexandria, L500. in Petersburg, L750. in Shepherdstown, L250.
+
+
+8. Lotteries for private societies.
+
+1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, L1000.
+
+1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason's hall in Charlotte, L750.
+
+
+9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money for
+them.]
+
+1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
+
+1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd's lottery.
+
+1790. c. 46. To erect a paper-mill in Staunton, L300. To raise L2000 for
+Nathaniel Twining.
+
+1791. c. 13. To raise L4000 for William Tatham, to enable him to
+complete his geographical work. To enable---------to complete a literary
+work.*
+
+* I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been
+able to find it again. But there is such an one.
+
+
+We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
+influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
+admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account, man
+could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural
+right to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
+subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
+productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
+life, others again, such as cards, dice, &ic, are entirely unproductive,
+doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so seducing in
+practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they cannot
+resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in this
+case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &c, it is the duty of
+society to take them under its protection, even against their own acts,
+and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by suppressing
+them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries particularly, which,
+although liable to chance also, are useful for many purposes, and are
+therefore retained and placed under the discretion of the legislature,
+to be permitted or refused according to the circumstances of every
+special case, of which they are to judge: that between the years 1782
+and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed seventy
+case's, where the permission of them has been found useful by the
+legislature, some of which are in progress at this time. These cases
+relate to the emolument of the whole State, to local benefits of
+education, of navigation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious
+assemblies, private societies, and of individuals under particular
+circumstances which may claim indulgence or favor. The latter is the
+case now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether the
+individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may merit
+that degree of consideration, which will justify the legislature in
+permitting him to avail himself of the mode of selling by lottery, for
+the purpose of paying his debts.
+
+That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and
+in the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known.
+Lands in this State will not now sell for more than a third or fourth of
+what they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time
+of the contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold.
+The low price in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of
+agricultural produce, of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and
+the accumulation of duties on the articles of consumption not produced
+within our State, not only disable the farmer or planter from adding to
+his farm by purchase, but reduce him to sell his own, and remove to the
+western country, glutting the market he leave's, while he lessens the
+number of bidders. To be protected against this sacrifice is the object
+of the present application, and whether the applicant has any particular
+claim to this protection, is the present question.
+
+Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
+may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
+have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
+of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election
+following I became one of its representatives in the legislature.
+
+I was thence sent to the old Congress.
+
+Then employed two years, with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the
+revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British
+statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
+
+Then elected Governor.
+
+Next to the legislature, and to Congress again.
+
+Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
+
+Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
+
+Elected Vice President, and
+
+President.
+
+And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University.
+
+In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I
+have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far
+greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every
+one knows how inevitably a Virginia estate, goes to ruin, when the owner
+is so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and
+the more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character
+to abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary
+to good, and even to saving management.
+
+If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
+rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
+legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from
+the Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant's
+Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
+most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion
+of my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal
+principles and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams.
+Their usurpations and violations of the constitution at that period, and
+their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided,
+and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, inch by inch,
+without being able in the least to check their career, the republican
+leaders thought it would be best for them to give up their useless
+efforts there, go home, get into their respective legislatures, embody
+whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and if ineffectual, to
+perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, retired, leaving
+Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, and myself in the
+Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. Remaining at our posts,
+and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings and insults by which they
+endeavored to drive us off also, we kept the mass of republicans in
+phalanx together, until the legislatures could be brought up to the
+charge; and nothing on earth is more certain, than that if myself
+particularly, placed by my office of Vice-President at the head of the
+republicans, had given way and withdrawn from my post, the republicans
+throughout the Union would have given up in despair, and the cause
+would have been lost for ever. By holding on, we obtained time for the
+legislatures to come up with their weight; and those of Virginia
+and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by their
+celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution, at its last gasp. No
+person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can
+form any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we
+had to brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people
+were so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture,
+and other stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into
+apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain
+itself.
+
+If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of
+liberality and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws
+in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they
+will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were
+prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported,
+indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House,
+very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as
+leaders.
+
+The prohibition of the further importation of slaves, was the first of
+these measures in time.
+
+This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
+hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
+masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
+into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
+
+But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
+the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish
+the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
+inheritance to sons and daughters which made a part of the revised code.
+
+The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made
+by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries
+for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year,
+and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill
+for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised
+code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the
+efforts chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that
+work was brought forward.
+
+To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of
+our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time,
+as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
+Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me
+the chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of
+the general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this
+institution on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country,
+can as yet be seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated
+youths, which it will turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all
+its offices with men of superior qualifications, and raise it from its
+humble state to an eminence among its associates which it has never yet
+known; no, not in its brightest days. That institution is now qualified
+to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other State;
+and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind
+encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the
+shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient
+habits. Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable
+happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science
+beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repairing to the
+same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their genius to be
+kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal affections
+which, nourished by the same alma mater, will knit us to them by the
+indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The good Old Dominion,
+the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her head with pride among
+the nations, will present to them that splendor of genius which she
+has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncultivated
+and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the States whose
+youths she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted.
+
+I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
+whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
+pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And
+what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask
+nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow-citizens. I wish no
+man's comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the
+services rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
+satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed
+on. My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely
+to pay my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not
+to have it gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves,
+leaving unpaid those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself
+without resource in the last and most helpless stage of life. If
+permitted to sell it in a way which will bring me a fair price, all will
+be honestly and honorably paid, and a competence left for myself, and
+for those who look to me for subsistence. To sell it in a way which will
+offend no moral principle, and expose none to risk but the willing, and
+those wishing to be permitted to take the chance of gain. To give me, in
+short, that permission which you often allow to others for purposes not
+more moral.
+
+Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
+precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent
+bring their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case,
+devoted three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to
+the service of their country? Have the times of those services been as
+trying as those which have embraced our Revolution, our transition from
+a colonial to a free structure of government? Have the stations of their
+trial been of equal importance? Has the share they have borne in holding
+their new government to its genuine principles, been equally marked?
+And has the cause of the distress, against which they seek a remedy,
+proceeded, not merely from themselves, but from errors of the public
+authorities, disordering the circulating medium, over which they had
+no control, and which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by
+reducing, in that proportion, the value of the property which was to pay
+them? If all these circumstances, which characterize the present case,
+have taken place in theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured,
+the cases will be so rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to
+settle into an injurious habit. The single feature of a sixty years'
+service, as no other instance of it has yet occurred in our country, so
+it probably never may again. And should it occur, even once and again,
+it will not impoverish your treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and
+asks but a simple permission, by an act of natural right, to do one of
+moral justice.
+
+In the 'Thoughts on Lotteries,' the following paper is referred to. It
+is here copied to spare the trouble of seeking for the-book.
+
+
+_Farewell Address To Th: Jefferson, President Of The United States_.
+
+[Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.]
+
+Sir, The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their
+session, without acknowledging your services in the office which you are
+just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate
+farewell.
+
+We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on
+the purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
+patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
+officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that 'a national debt is a
+national blessing,' renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of
+our debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions
+of acres of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or
+calamities of conquest, a vast and, fertile region added to our country,
+far more extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with
+it the Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the
+Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source
+of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
+administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand,
+and teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our
+peace with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
+difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate
+aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
+them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that
+we have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and
+awing them into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the
+historic genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the
+press, preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given
+to man in vain.
+
+In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
+only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
+which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
+first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
+until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
+uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment
+to liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her
+rights, her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
+
+How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
+deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
+rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
+country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
+veneration of your countrymen.
+
+That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
+useful; that our youth may see, in the blissful close of your days, an
+additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout
+and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General
+Assembly of Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCII.--TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, March 30, 1826
+
+
+TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+Monticello, March 30, 1826.
+
+Dear Sir,
+
+I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of
+which you have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my
+recollections as to the particular passage of the message to which you
+ask my attention. On the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of
+their right to assume independence, would not condescend to ask its
+acknowledgment from other nations, yet were willing, by some of the
+ordinary international transactions, to receive what would imply that
+acknowledgment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose
+treaties of commerce to the principal nations of Europe. I was then
+a member of Congress, was of the committee appointed to prepare
+instructions for the commissioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman
+of those actually agreed to, and was joined with your father and Doctor
+Franklin to carry them into execution. But the stipulations making
+part of these instructions, which respected privateering, blockades,
+contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions
+of mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor Franklin, in some
+of his papers in possession of the public, and had I think, been
+recommended in some letter of his to Congress I happen only to have
+been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the formal
+sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our treaties,
+containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of Europe.
+But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the
+nations had as yet known nothing of us and had not yet reflected on the
+relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of
+them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve;
+old Frederic alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of
+Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did
+not ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible,
+however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers,
+we thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those
+of less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing
+any other negotiation. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty
+with us, and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce
+with her being no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these
+governments been then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy
+among nations, all, I believe, would have met us promptly and with
+frankness. These principles would then have been established with all,
+and from being the conventional law with us alone, would have slid into
+their engagements with one another, and become general. These are
+the facts within my recollection. They have not yet got into written
+history; but their adoption by our southern brethren will bring them
+into observance, and make them, what they should be, a part of the law
+of the world and of the reformation of principles for which they will be
+indebted to us. I pray you to accept the homage of my friendly and high
+consideration.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER CXCIII.--TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826
+
+TO MR. WEIGHTMAN.
+
+Monticello, June 24, 1826.
+
+Respected Sir,
+
+The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of
+the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration
+on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the
+surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the
+fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the
+honorable accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It
+adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a
+personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence
+is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted
+to control. I should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and
+exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the
+remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in
+the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between
+submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory
+fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and
+prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the
+world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later,
+but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains
+under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them
+to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of
+self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free
+right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All
+eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread
+of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable
+truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on
+their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
+legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others.
+For ourselves, let the annual return of this day for ever refresh our
+recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
+
+I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I
+should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and
+its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
+intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
+public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections,
+as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the
+gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself,
+and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and
+friendly attachments.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+
+
+ANA.--EXPLANATION OF THE THREE VOLUMES BOUND IN MARBLED PAPER
+
+
+_Explanation of the Three Volumes bound in Marbled Paper_.*
+
+In these three volumes will be found copies of the official opinions
+given in writing by me to General Washington, while I was Secretary of
+State, with sometimes the documents belonging to the case. Some of
+these are the rough draughts, some press copies, some fair ones. In the
+earlier part of my acting in that office, I took no other note of the
+passing transactions; but after a while, I saw the importance of doing
+it in aid of my memory. Very often, therefore, I made memorandums on
+loose scraps of paper, taken out of my pocket in the moment, and laid
+by to be copied fair at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were.
+These scraps, therefore, ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they were, I
+had bound with the others by a binder, who came into my cabinet, did it
+under my own eye, and without the opportunity of reading a single paper.
+At this day, after the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their
+dates, I have given to the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of
+the time are passed away, and the reasons of the transactions act alone
+on the judgment. Some of the informations I had recorded, are now cut
+out from the rest, because I have seen that they were incorrect, or
+doubtful, or merely personal or private, with which we have nothing to
+do. I should perhaps have thought the rest not worth preserving, but for
+their testimony against the only history of that period, which pretends
+to have been compiled from authentic and unpublished documents.
+
+*****
+
+[* These are the volumes containing the Ana to the time that the Author
+retired from the office of Secretary of State. The official opinions
+and documents referred to, being very voluminous, are for the most part
+omitted, to make room for the conversations which the same volumes
+comprise.]
+
+
+But a short review of facts ***** will show, that the contests of that
+day were contests of principle between the advocates of republican,
+and those of kingly government, and that, had not the former made the
+efforts they did, our government would have been even at this early day,
+a very different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts
+have made it.
+
+The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation,
+for the purpose of joint defence against the aggressions of Great
+Britain, was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are,
+to enforce compliance with their mutual stipulations; and these, once
+fulfilled, that bond was to expire of itself, and each State to become
+sovereign and independent in all things. Yet, it could not but occur to
+every one, that these separate independencies, like the petty States of
+Greece, would be eternally at war with each other, and would become
+at length the mere partisans and satellites of the leading powers of
+Europe. All, then, must have looked forward to some further bond of
+union, which would insure internal peace, and a political system of our
+own, independent of that of Europe. Whether all should be consolidated
+into a single government, or each remain independent as to internal
+matters, and the whole form a single nation as to what was foreign only,
+and whether that national government should be a monarchy or republic,
+would of course divide opinions, according to the constitutions, the
+habits, and the circumstances of each individual. Some officers of the
+army, as it has always been said and believed, (and Steuben and Knox
+have ever been named as the leading agents,) trained to monarchy by
+military habits, are understood to have proposed to General Washington,
+to decide this great question by the army before its disbandment, and
+to assume himself the crown, on the assurance of their support.
+The indignity with which he is said to have scouted this parricide
+proposition, was equally worthy of his virtue and wisdom. The next
+effort was, (on suggestion of the same individuals, in the moment of
+their separation,) the establishment of an hereditary order, under
+the name of the Cincinnati, ready prepared by that distinction to be
+engrafted into the future frame of government, and placing General
+Washington still at their head. The General wrote to me on this subject,
+while I was in Congress at Annapolis, and an extract from my letter is
+inserted in 5th Marshall's History, page 28. He afterwards called on me
+at that place, on his way to a meeting of the society, and after a whole
+evening of consultation, he left that place fully determined to use
+all his endeavors for its total suppression. But he found it so firmly
+riveted in the affections of the members, that, strengthened as they
+happened to be by an adventitious occurrence of the moment, he could
+effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary principle. He called
+again on his return, and explained to me fully the opposition which had
+been made, the effect of the occurrence from France, and the difficulty
+with which its duration had been limited to the lives of the present
+members. Further details will be found among my papers, in his and
+my letters, and some in the _Encyclopedic Methodique et Dictionnaire
+d'Economic Politique_, communicated by myself to M. Meusnier, its
+author, who had made the establishment of this society the ground, in
+that work, of a libel on our country.
+
+The want of some authority which should procure justice to the public
+creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced,
+some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis.
+Although, at this meeting, a difference of opinion was evident on the
+question of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general through
+the States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends
+of the latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and
+delay, to every thing proposed; they hoped, that nothing being done,
+and all things going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be
+usurped, and submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy and
+wars, internal and external, the certain consequences of the present
+want of a general government. The effect of their manoeuvres, with
+the defective attendance of Deputies from the States, resulted in
+the measure of calling a more general convention, to be held at
+Philadelphia. At this the same party exhibited the same practices, and
+with the same views of preventing a government of concord, which they
+foresaw would be republican, and of forcing: through anarchy their way
+to monarchy. But the mass of that convention was too honest, too wise,
+and too steady, to be baffled and misled by their manoeuvres. One of
+these was a form of government proposed by Colonel Hamilton, which would
+have been in fact a compromise between the two parties of royalism and
+republicanism. According to this, the executive and one branch of the
+legislature were to be during good behavior, i.e. for life, and the
+governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent organs.
+This, however, was rejected; on which Hamilton left the convention, as
+desperate, and never returned again until near its final conclusion.
+These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed, of the advocates for
+monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the States generally;
+and this jealousy it was, which excited the strong opposition to the
+conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at last only to
+a general determination to establish certain amendments, as barriers
+against a government either monarchical or consolidated. In what passed
+through the whole period of these conventions, I have gone on the
+information of those who were members of them, being absent myself on my
+mission to France.
+
+I returned from that mission in the first year of the new government,
+having landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to New York
+in March, 1790, to enter on the office of Secretary of State.
+Here, certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had ever
+contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the first
+year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for
+reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be
+heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The
+President received me cordially, and my colleagues and the circle
+of principal citizens, apparently with welcome. The courtesies of
+dinner-parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived among them, placed
+me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the wonder
+and mortification with which the table conversations filled me. Politics
+were the chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican
+government, was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could
+not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself, for the most part, the
+only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among
+the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the
+legislative Houses. Hamilton's financial system had then passed. It
+had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and
+inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the legislature: for he
+avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one of two motives
+only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this country, was out of
+the question, and the interests, therefore, of the members must be laid
+hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the executive. And with
+grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine was not without
+effect; that even in this, the birth of our government, some members
+were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to their interests, and to
+look after personal rather than public good.
+
+It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
+encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
+fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
+necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
+paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
+individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
+States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
+them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of
+their value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the
+holders, by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they
+would never be paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton
+made no difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent
+purchasers of this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting
+these two classes of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions
+were used to pay the former the full value, and to the latter, the price
+only which they had paid, with interest. But this would have prevented
+the game which was to be played, and for which the minds of greedy
+members were already tutored and prepared. When the trial of strength,
+on these several efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would
+finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and
+especially, than to those who were in distant parts of the Union,
+the base scramble began. Couriers and relay-horses by land, and
+swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in all directions. Active
+partners and agents were associated and employed in every State,
+town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up at five
+shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the
+holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
+par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
+fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough
+before. Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of
+course the chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous
+instruments of all his enterprises.
+
+This game was over, and another was on the carpet at the moment of my
+arrival; and to this I was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold
+the candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known by the name of the
+Assumption. Independently of the debts of Congress, the States had,
+during the war, contracted separate and heavy debts; and Massachusetts
+particularly, in an absurd attempt, absurdly conducted, on the British
+post of Penobscot: and the more debt Hamilton could rake up, the more
+plunder for his mercenaries. This money, whether wisely or foolishly
+spent, was pretended to have been spent for general purposes, and ought,
+therefore, to be paid from the general purse. But it was objected, that
+nobody knew what these debts were, what their amount, or what their
+proofs. No matter; we will guess them to be twenty millions. But of
+these twenty millions, we do not know how much should be reimbursed
+to one State, or how much to another. No matter; we will guess. And so
+another scramble was set on foot among the several States, and some got
+much, some little, some nothing. But the main object was obtained, the
+phalanx of the Treasury was reinforced by additional recruits. This
+measure produced the most bitter and angry contests ever known in
+Congress, before or since the Union of the States. I arrived in the
+midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to the actors on
+it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity with the subject,
+and as yet unaware of its object, I took no concern in it. The great and
+trying question, however, was lost in the House of Representatives.
+So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on its rejection
+business was suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day to day
+without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of temper to
+do business together. The eastern members particularly, who, with
+Smith from South Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes,
+threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I
+was going to the President's one day, I met him in the street. He walked
+me backwards and forwards before the President's door for half an hour.
+He painted pathetically the temper into which the legislature had been
+wrought; the disgust of those who were called the creditor States; the
+danger of the secession of their members, and the separation of the
+States. He observed that the members of the administration ought to act
+in concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet a
+common duty should make it a common concern; that the President was the
+centre on which all administrative questions ultimately rested, and
+that all of us should rally around him, and support, with joint efforts,
+measures approved by him; and that the question having been lost by
+a small majority only, it was probable that an appeal from me to the
+judgment and discretion of some of my friends, might effect a change in
+the vote, and the machine of government, now suspended, might be again
+set into motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole
+subject; that not having yet informed myself of the system of finance
+adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary sequence; that
+undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our Union at
+this incipient stage, I should deem that the most unfortunate of all
+consequences, to avert which all partial and temporary evils should be
+yielded. I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next day, and I
+would invite another friend or two, bring them into conference together,
+and I thought it impossible that reasonable men, consulting together
+coolly, could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a
+compromise which was to save the Union. The discussion took place.
+I could take no part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a
+stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But it was finally
+agreed, that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of
+this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord among the
+States was more important, and that therefore it would be better that
+the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which, some members
+should change their votes. But it was observed that this pill would
+be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some concomitant
+measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them. There had
+before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
+Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought
+that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown
+permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree
+the ferment which might be excited by the other measure alone. So two
+of the Potomac members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of
+stomach almost convulsive,) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton
+undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the influence he had
+established over the eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris
+with those of the middle States, effected his side of the engagement;
+and so the Assumption was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided
+among favored States, and thrown in as a pabulum to the stock-jobbing
+herd. This added to the number of votaries to the Treasury, and made its
+chief the master of every vote in the legislature, which might give to
+the government the direction suited to his political views.
+
+I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing like a majority in
+Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a division,
+not very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part of that
+body, between the parties styled republican and federal. The latter
+being monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton of course, as their
+leader in that principle, and this mercenary phalanx added to them,
+insured him always a majority in both Houses: so that the whole action
+of the legislature was now under the direction of the Treasury. Still
+the machine was not complete. The effect of the funding system, and of
+the Assumption, would be temporary; it would be lost with the loss
+of the individual members whom it had enriched, and some engine of
+influence more permanent must be contrived, while these myrmidons were
+yet in place to carry it through all opposition. This engine was the
+Bank of the United States. All that history is known, so I shall say
+nothing about it. While the government remained at Philadelphia, a
+selection of members of both Houses were constantly kept as directors,
+who, on every question interesting to that institution, or to the views
+of the federal head, voted at the will of that head; and, together with
+the stock-holding members, could always make the federal vote that of
+the majority. By this combination, legislative expositions were given
+to the constitution, and all the administrative laws were shaped on
+the model of England and so passed. And from this influence we were
+not relieved, until the removal from the precincts of the bank, to
+Washington. Here then was the real ground of the opposition which was
+made to the course of administration. Its object was to preserve the
+legislature pure and independent of the executive, to restrain, the
+administration to republican forms and principles, and not permit the
+constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be warped, in
+practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their favorite
+English model. Nor was this an opposition to General Washington. He
+was true to the republican charge confided to him; and has solemnly and
+repeatedly protested to me, in our conversations, that he would lose the
+last drop of his blood in support of it; and he did this the oftener and
+with the more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions of Hamilton's
+designs against it, and wished to quiet them. For he was not aware of
+the drift, or of the effect of Hamilton's schemes. Unversed in financial
+projects and calculations and budgets, his approbation of them was
+bottomed on his confidence in the man.
+
+But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
+corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, for the truth
+of which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on
+his southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth
+of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury,
+and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise
+during his absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested
+that the Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only
+occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a
+cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited
+those gentlemen (and the Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to
+dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was
+removed, and our question agreed and dismissed, conversation began
+on other matters, and, by some circumstance, was led to the British
+constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, 'Purge that constitution
+of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of
+representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever
+devised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said, 'Purge it of its
+corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation,
+and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at
+present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect
+government which ever existed.' And this was assuredly the exact line
+which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
+for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one: the other, for
+an hereditary King, with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted to his
+will, and standing between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a
+singular character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and
+honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly
+valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the
+British example, as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was
+essential to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally been
+a republican. The glare of royalty and nobility, during his mission to
+England, had made him believe their fascination a necessary ingredient
+in government; and Shays's rebellion, not sufficiently understood where
+he then was, seemed to prove that the absence of want and oppression,
+was not a sufficient guarantee of order. His book on the American
+Constitutions having made known his political bias, he was taken up by
+the monarchical federalists in his absence, and, on his return to
+the United States, he was by them made to believe that the general
+disposition of our citizens was favorable to monarchy. He here wrote
+his Davila, as a supplement to the former work, and his election to
+the Presidency confirmed him in his errors. Innumerable addresses too,
+artfully and industriously poured in upon him, deceived him into a
+confidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity, when the gulph was
+yawning at his feet, which was to swallow up him and his deceivers. For
+when General Washington was withdrawn, these _energumeni_ of royalism,
+kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his
+patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on the car of
+State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun, drove
+headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding
+any thing but the objects they were driving at; until, displaying these
+fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disbandment of
+them from the public councils took place.
+
+Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the treacheries
+with which he was surrounded during his administration. He has since
+thoroughly seen, that his constituents were devoted to republican
+government, and whether his judgment is resettled on its ancient basis,
+or not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the will of the majority,
+and would now, I am persuaded, maintain its republican structure with
+the zeal and fidelity belonging to his character. For even an enemy has
+said, 'He is always an honest man, and often a great one.' But in
+the fervor of the fury and follies of those who made him their
+stalking-horse, no man who did not witness it can form an idea of
+their unbridled madness, and the terrorism with which they surrounded
+themselves. The horrors of the French revolution, then raging, aided
+them mainly, and using that as a raw-head and bloody-bones, they were
+enabled by their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in which ------ was a leading
+mountebank, their tales of tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody-buoys, and
+pulpit-lyings and slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardiners,
+their Osgoods, and Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the firmest
+breasts. Their Attorney General had the impudence to say to a republican
+member, that deportation must be resorted to, of which, said he, 'you
+republicans have set the example'; thus daring to identify us with the
+murderous Jacobins of France. These transactions, now recollected but
+as dreams of the night, were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us
+from their liberticide effect, but the unyielding opposition of those
+firm spirits who sternly maintained their post in defiance of terror,
+until their fellow-citizens could be aroused to their own danger, and
+rally and rescue the standard of the constitution. This has been happily
+done. Federalism and monarchism have languished from that moment, until
+their treasonable combinations with the enemies of their country during
+the late war, their plots of dismembering the Union, and their Hartford
+Convention, have consigned them to the tomb of the dead: and I fondly
+hope, 'we may now truly say, We are all republicans, all federalists,'
+and that the motto of the standard to which our country will for ever
+rally, will be, 'Federal union, and republican government': and sure I
+am we may say, that we are indebted for the preservation of this point
+of ralliance, to that opposition of which so injurious an idea is so
+artfully insinuated and excited in this history.
+
+Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate
+proofs of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they
+end, of my retiring from the administration, the federalists * got
+unchecked hold of General Washington. His memory was already sensibly
+impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable,
+was beginning to relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor,
+a desire for tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let
+others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he
+was disgusted with atrocities of the French revolution, and was not
+sufficiently aware of the difference between the rabble who were used as
+instruments of their perpetration, and the steady and rational character
+of the American people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The
+opposition too of the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous
+support of the federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of
+theirs, had made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I
+disapproved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by
+a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he
+had become alienated from myself personally, as from the republican body
+generally of his fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams
+and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we
+must for ever weep as monuments of mortal decay.
+
+Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.
+
+* See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,
+
+
+****
+
+
+August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander
+Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter
+received from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
+entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive,
+or introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &c. See his
+letter. Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams's writings, and
+most particularly Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present
+government, declared in substance as follows: 'I own it is my own
+opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the
+present government is not that which will answer the ends of society, by
+giving stability and protection to its rights, and that it will probably
+be found expedient to go into the British form. However, since we have
+undertaken the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my
+expectations may be. The success, indeed, so far, is greater than I had
+expected, and therefore, at present, success seems more possible than
+it had done heretofore, and there are still other and other stages of
+improvement, which, if the present does not succeed, may be tried, and
+ought to be tried, before we give up the republican form altogether; for
+that mind must be really depraved, which would not prefer the equality
+of political rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if
+it can be obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever by his
+writings disturbs the present order of things, is really blameable,
+however pure his intentions may be, and he was sure Mr. Adams's were
+pure.' This is the substance of a declaration made in much more lengthy
+terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for a private
+conversation between two, and as if intended to qualify some less
+guarded expressions which had been dropped on former occasions. Th:
+Jefferson has committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton's
+leaving the room.
+
+December the 25th, 1791. Colonel Gunn (of Georgia), dining the other day
+with Colonel Hamilton, said to him, with that plain freedom he is known
+to use, 'I wish, Sir, you would advise your friend King to observe some
+kind of consistency in his votes. There has been scarcely a question
+before the Senate on which he has not voted both ways. On the
+representation bill, for instance, he first voted for the proposition
+of the Representatives, and ultimately voted against it.' 'Why,' says
+Colonel Hamilton, 'I 'll tell you as to that, Colonel Gunn, that it
+never was intended that bill should pass.' Gunn told this to Butler, who
+told it to Th: Jefferson.
+
+
+*****
+
+
+CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT.
+
+February the 28th, 1792. I was to have been with him long enough before
+three o'clock (which was the hour and day he received visits) to
+have opened to him a proposition for doubling the velocity of the
+post-riders, who now travel about fifty miles a day, and might, without
+difficulty, go one hundred, and for taking measures (by way-bills) to
+know where the delay is, when there is any. I was delayed by business,
+so as to have scarcely time to give him the outlines. I run over them
+rapidly, and observed afterwards, that I had hitherto never spoken
+to him on the subject of the post-office, not knowing whether it was
+considered as a revenue law, or a law for the general accommodation of
+the citizens: that the law just passed seemed to have removed the doubt,
+by declaring that the whole profits of the office should be applied to
+extending the posts, and that even the past profits should be refunded
+by the Treasury for the same purpose: that I therefore conceived it was
+now in the department of the Secretary of State: that I thought it would
+be advantageous so to declare it for another reason, to wit, that the
+department of the Treasury possessed already such an influence as
+to swallow up the whole executive powers, and that even the future
+Presidents (not supported by the weight of character which himself
+possessed) would not be able to make head against this department. That
+in urging this measure I had certainly no personal interest, since, if
+I was supposed to have any appetite for power, yet, as my career would
+certainly be exactly as short as his own, the intervening time was too
+short to be an object. My real wish was to avail the public of every
+occasion, during the residue of the President's period, to place things
+on a safe footing. He was now called on to attend his company, and he
+desired me to come and breakfast with him the next morning.
+
+February the 29th. I did so; and after breakfast we retired to his
+room, and I unfolded my plan for the post-office, and after such
+an approbation of it as he usually permitted himself on the first
+presentment of any idea, and desiring me to commit it to writing, he,
+during that pause of conversation which follows a business closed, said,
+in an affectionate tone, that he had felt much concern at an expression
+which dropped from me yesterday, and which marked my intention of
+retiring when he should. That as to himself, many motives obliged him to
+it. He had, through the whole course of the war, and most particularly
+at the close of it, uniformly declared his resolution to retire from
+public affairs, and never to act in any public office; that he had
+retired under that firm resolution: that the government however, which
+had been formed, being found evidently too inefficacious, and it being
+supposed that his aid was of some consequence towards bringing the
+people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for their own good, he
+consented to come into the convention, and on the same motive, after
+much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get it under
+way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say, that
+having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them: that
+he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his
+memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of
+his mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself;
+that this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found,
+moreover, his activity lessened, business therefore more irksome,
+and tranquillity and retirement become an irresistible passion. That,
+however he felt himself obliged, for these reasons, to retire from the
+government, yet he should consider it as unfortunate, if that should
+bring on the retirement of the great officers of the government,
+and that this might produce a shock on the public mind of dangerous
+consequence.
+
+I told him that no man had ever had less desire of entering into public
+offices than myself; that the circumstance of a perilous war, which
+brought every thing into danger, and called for all the services
+which every citizen could render, had induced me to undertake the
+administration of the government of Virginia; that I had both before
+and after refused repeated appointments of Congress to go abroad in that
+sort of office, which, if I had consulted my own gratification, would
+always have been the most agreeable to me; that at the end of two
+years, I resigned the government of Virginia, and retired with a firm
+resolution never more to appear in public life; that a domestic loss,
+however, happened, and made me fancy that absence and a change of
+scene for a time might be expedient for me; that I therefore accepted
+a foreign appointment, limited to two years; that at the close of that,
+Doctor Franklin having left France, I was appointed to supply his place,
+which I had accepted, and though I continued in it three or four years,
+it was under the constant idea of remaining only a year or two longer;
+that the revolution in France coming on, I had so interested myself
+in the event of that, that when obliged to bring my family home, I had
+still an idea of returning and awaiting the close of that, to fix the
+era of my final retirement; that on my arrival here I found he had
+appointed me to my present office; that he knew I had not come into
+it without some reluctance; that it was, on my part, a sacrifice of
+inclination to the opinion that I might be more serviceable here than
+in France, and with a firm resolution in my mind, to indulge my constant
+wish for retirement at no very distant day; that when, therefore, I had
+received his letter, written from Mount Vernon, on his way to Carolina
+and Georgia (April the 1st, 1791), and discovered, from an expression
+in that, that he meant to retire from the government ere long, and as to
+the precise epoch there could be no doubt, my mind was immediately made
+up, to make that the epoch of my own retirement from those labors of
+which I was heartily tired. That, however, I did not believe there was
+any idea in either of my brethren in the administration of retiring;
+that on the contrary, I had perceived at a late meeting of the trustees
+of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury had developed
+the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in its view.
+
+He said, that he considered the Treasury department as a much more
+limited one, going only to the single object of revenue, while that
+of the Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the objects of
+administration, was much more important, and the retirement of the
+officer therefore, would be more noticed: that though the government had
+set out with a pretty general good will of the public, yet that symptoms
+of dissatisfaction had lately shown themselves far beyond what he could
+have expected, and to what height these might arise, in case of too
+great a change in the administration, could not be foreseen.
+
+I told him that in my opinion, there was only a single source of these
+discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to spread themselves over
+the War department also, yet I considered that as an overflowing only
+from their real channel, which would never have taken place, if they
+had not first been generated in another department, to wit, that of
+the Treasury. That a system had there been contrived, for deluging the
+States with paper-money instead of gold and silver, for withdrawing our
+citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and
+other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves and their
+capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which
+had introduced its poison into the government itself. That it was a
+fact, as certainly known as that he and I were then conversing, that
+particular members of the legislature, while those laws were on the
+carpet, had feathered their nests with paper, had then voted for the
+laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of their talents, and
+instrumentality of their offices, to the establishment and enlargement
+of this system; that they had chained it about our necks for a great
+length of time, and in order to keep the game in their hands, had, from
+time to time, aided in making such legislative constructions of the
+constitution, as made it a very different thing from what the people
+thought they had submitted to; that they had now brought forward a
+proposition far beyond every one ever yet advanced, and to which the
+eyes of many were turned, as the decision which was to let us know,
+whether we live under a limited or an unlimited government. He asked
+me to what proposition I alluded; I answered, to that in the report
+on manufactures, which, under color of giving bounties for the
+encouragement of particular manufactures, meant to establish the
+doctrine, that the power given by the constitution to collect taxes to
+provide for the general welfare of the United States, permitted Congress
+to take every thing under their management which they should deem for
+the public welfare, and which is susceptible of the application of
+money; consequently, that the subsequent enumeration of their powers
+was not the description to which resort must be had, and did not at all
+constitute the limits of their authority: that this was a very different
+question from that of the bank, which was thought an incident to an
+enumerated power: that, therefore, this decision was expected with
+great anxiety; that, indeed, I hoped the proposition would be rejected,
+believing there was a majority in both Houses against it, and that if it
+should be, it would be considered as a proof that things were returning
+into their true channel: and that, at any rate, I looked forward to the
+broad representation which would shortly take place, for keeping the
+general constitution on its true ground; and that this would remove a
+great deal of the discontent which had shown itself. The conversation
+ended with this last topic. It is here stated nearly as much at length
+as it really was; the expressions preserved where I could recollect
+them, and their substance always faithfully stated.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+March 1, 1792.
+
+
+On the 2nd of January, 1792, Messrs. Fitzsimmons and Gerry (among
+others) dined with me. These two staid, with a Mr. Learned of
+Connecticut, after the company was gone. We got on the subject of
+references by the legislature to the Heads of departments, considering
+their mischief in every direction. Gerry and Fitzsimmons clearly opposed
+to them.
+
+Two days afterwards (January the 4th), Mr. Bourne from Rhode Island
+presented a memorial from his State, complaining of inequality in the
+Assumption, and moved to refer it to the Secretary of the Treasury.
+Fitzsimmons, Gerry, and others opposed it; but it was carried.
+
+
+January the 19th. Fitzsimmons moved, that the President of the United
+States be requested to direct the Secretary of the Treasury, to lay
+before the House information to enable the legislature to judge of
+the additional revenue necessary on the increase of the military
+establishment. The House, on debate, struck out the words, 'President of
+the United States.'
+
+
+March the 7th. The subject resumed. An animated debate took place on the
+tendency of references to the Heads of departments; and it seemed that
+a great majority would be against it: the House adjourned. Treasury
+greatly alarmed, and much industry supposed to be used before next
+morning, when it was brought on again, and debated through the day, and
+on the question, the Treasury carried it by thirty-one to twenty-seven:
+but deeply wounded, since it was seen that all Pennsylvania, except
+Jacobs, voted against the reference; that Tucker of South Carolina voted
+for it, and Sumpter absented himself, debauched for the moment only,
+because of the connection of the question with a further assumption
+which South Carolina favored; but showing that they never were to be
+counted on among the Treasury votes.
+
+Some others absented themselves. Gerry changed sides. On the whole, it
+showed that Treasury influence was tottering. Committed to writing this
+10th of March, 1792.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Consulted verbally by the President, on whom a
+committee of the Senate (Izard, Morris, and King) are to wait to-morrow
+morning, to know whether he will think it proper to redeem our Algerine
+captives, and make a treaty with the Algerines, on the single vote of
+the Senate, without taking that of the Representatives.
+
+My opinions run on the following heads.
+
+We must go to Algiers with cash in our hands. Where shall we get it? By
+loan? By converting money now in the treasury?
+
+Probably a loan might be obtained on the President's authority: but as
+this could not be repaid without a subsequent act of legislature,
+the Representatives might refuse it. So if money in the treasury be
+converted, they may refuse to sanction it.
+
+The subsequent approbation of the Senate being necessary to validate a
+treaty, they expect to be consulted beforehand, if the case admits.
+
+So the subsequent act of the Representatives being necessary where money
+is given, why should not they expect to be consulted in like manner,
+when the case admits? A treaty is a law of the land. But prudence will
+point out this difference to be attended to in making them; viz. where
+a treaty contains such articles only as will go into execution of
+themselves, or be carried into execution by the judges, they may be
+safely made; but where there are articles which require a law to be
+passed afterwards by the legislature, great caution is requisite.
+
+For example; the consular convention with France required a very small
+legislative regulation. This convention was unanimously ratified by the
+Senate. Yet the same identical men threw by the law to enforce it at
+the last session, and the Representatives at this session have placed it
+among the laws which they may take up or not, at their own convenience,
+as if that was a higher motive than the public faith.
+
+Therefore, against hazarding this transaction without the sanction of
+both Houses.
+
+The President concurred. The Senate express the motive for this
+proposition, to be a fear that the Representatives would not keep the
+secret. He has no opinion of the secrecy of the Senate. In this very
+case, Mr. Izard made the communication to him, sitting next to him at
+table, on one hand, while a lady (Mrs. McLane) was on his other hand,
+and the French minister next to her; and as Mr. Izard got on with his
+communication, his voice kept rising, and his stutter bolting the words
+out loudly at intervals, so that the minister might hear if he would. He
+said he had a great mind at one time to have got up, in order to put a
+stop to Mr. Izard.
+
+
+March the 11th, 1792. Mr. Sterret tells me that sitting round a fire the
+other day with four or five others, Mr. Smith (of South Carolina) was
+one. Somebody mentioned that the murderers of Hogeboom, sheriff of
+Columbia county, New York, were acquitted. 'Ay,' says Smith, 'this is
+what comes of your damned trial by jury.'
+
+
+1791. Towards the latter end of November, Hamilton had drawn Ternant
+into a conversation on the subject of the treaty of commerce recommended
+by the National Assembly of France to be negotiated with us, and, as
+he had no ready instructions on the subject, he led him into a proposal
+that Ternant should take the thing up as a volunteer with me, that we
+should arrange conditions, and let them go for confirmation or refusal.
+Hamilton communicated this to the President, who came into it, and
+proposed it to me. I disapproved of it, observing, that such a volunteer
+project would be binding on us, and not them; that it would enable them
+to find out how far we would go, and avail themselves of it. However,
+the President thought it worth trying, and I acquiesced. I prepared a
+plan of treaty for exchanging the privileges of native subjects, and
+fixing all duties for ever as they now stood. Hamilton did not like this
+way of fixing the duties, because, he said, many articles here would
+bear to be raised, and therefore, he would prepare a tariff. He did so,
+raising duties for the French, from twenty-five to fifty per cent. So
+they were to give us the privileges of native subjects, and we, as a
+compensation, were to make them pay higher duties. Hamilton, having made
+his arrangements with Hammond to pretend that though he had no powers to
+conclude a treaty of commerce, yet his general commission authorized him
+to enter into the discussion of one, then proposed to the President at
+one of our meetings, that the business should be taken up with Hammond
+in the same informal way. I now discovered the trap which he had laid,
+by first getting the President into the step with Ternant. I opposed
+the thing warmly. Hamilton observed, if we did it with Ternant we should
+also with Hammond. The President thought this reasonable. I desired him
+to recollect, I had been against it with Ternant, and only acquiesced
+under his opinion. So the matter went off as to both. His scheme
+evidently was, to get us engaged first with Ternant, merely that he
+might have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with Hammond,
+taking care, at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, to render
+it impossible we should come to any conclusion with Ternant: probably
+meaning, at the same time, to propose terms so favorable to Great
+Britain, as would attach us to that country by treaty. On one of those
+occasions he asserted, that our commerce with Great Britain and her
+colonies was put on a much more favorable footing than with France and
+her colonies. I therefore prepared the tabular comparative view of the
+footing-of our commerce with those nations, which see among my papers.
+See also my project of a treaty and Hamilton's tariff. Committed to
+writing March the 11th, 1792.
+
+It was observable, that whenever, at any of our consultations, any
+thing was proposed as to Great Britain, Hamilton had constantly ready
+something which Mr. Hammond had communicated to him, which suited the
+subject and proved the intimacy of their communications; insomuch, that
+I believe he communicated to Hammond all our views, and knew from
+him, in return, the views of the British court. Many evidences of this
+occurred; I will state some. I delivered to the President my report of
+instructions for Carmichael and Short, on the subject of navigation,
+boundary, and commerce, and desired him to submit it to Hamilton.
+Hamilton made several just criticisms on different parts of it. But
+where I asserted that the United States had no right to alienate an inch
+of the territory of any State, he attacked and denied the doctrine.
+See my report, his note, and my answer. A few days after came to hand
+Kirkland's letter, informing us that the British, at Niagara, expected
+to run a new line between themselves and us; and the reports of Pond
+and Stedman, informing us it was understood at Niagara, that Captain
+Stevenson had been sent here by Simcoe to settle that plan with Hammond.
+Hence Hamilton's attack of the principle I had laid down, in order to
+prepare the way for this new line. See minute of March the 9th. Another
+proof. At one of our consultations, about the last of December, I
+mentioned that I wished to give in my report on commerce, in which I
+could not avoid recommending a commercial retaliation against Great
+Britain. Hamilton opposed it violently: and among other arguments,
+observed, that it was of more importance to us to have the posts than to
+commence a commercial war; that this, and this alone, would free us from
+the expense of the Indian wars; that it would therefore be the height
+of imprudence in us, while treating for the surrender of the posts, to
+engage in any thing which would irritate them; that if we did so, they
+would naturally say, 'These people mean war; let us therefore hold what
+we have in our hands.' This argument, struck me forcibly, and I
+said, 'If there is a hope of obtaining the posts, I agree it would
+be imprudent to risk that hope by a commercial retaliation. I will,
+therefore, wait till Mr. Hammond gives me in his assignment of breaches,
+and if that gives a glimmering of hope that they mean to surrender the
+posts, I will not give in my report till the next session.' Now, Hammond
+had received my assignment of breaches on the 15th of December, and
+about the 22nd or 23rd had made me an apology for not having been able
+to send me his counter-assignment of breaches; but in terms which showed
+I might expect it in a few days. From the moment it escaped my lips
+in the presence of Hamilton, that I would not give in my report till I
+should see Hammond's counter-complaint, and judge if there was a hope
+of the posts, Hammond never said a word to me on any occasion, as to the
+time he should be ready. At length the President got out of patience,
+and insisted I should jog him. This I did on the 21st of February, at
+the President's assembly: he immediately promised I should have it in a
+few days, and accordingly, on the 5th of March I received it.
+
+Written March the 11th, 1792.
+
+
+March the 12th, 1792. Sent for by the President, and desired to bring
+the letter he had signed to the King of France. Went. He said the House
+of Representatives had, on Saturday, taken up the communication he had
+made of the King's letter to him, and come to a vote in their own name;
+that he did not expect this when he sent this message and the letter,
+otherwise he would have sent the message without the letter, as I had
+proposed. That he apprehended the legislature would be endeavoring
+to invade the executive. I told him, I had understood the House had
+resolved to request him to join their congratulations to his on the
+completion and acceptance of the constitution; on which part of the
+vote, there were only two dissentients (Barnwell and Benson); that
+the vote was thirty-five to sixteen on the part which expressed an
+approbation of the wisdom of the constitution; that in the letter he had
+signed, I had avoided saying a word in approbation of the constitution,
+not knowing whether the King, in his heart, approved it. 'Why, indeed,'
+says he,' I begin to doubt very much of the affairs of France; there are
+papers from London as late as the 10th of January, which represent them
+as going into confusion. He read over the letter he had signed,
+found there was not a word which could commit his judgment about the
+constitution, and gave it to me back again. This is one of many proofs
+I have had, of his want of confidence in the event of the French
+revolution. The fact is, that Gouverneur Morris, a highflying monarchy
+man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against his
+wishes, and believing every thing he desires to be true, has kept the
+President's mind constantly poisoned with his forebodings. That the
+President wishes the revolution may be established, I believe from
+several indications. I remember, when I received the news of the King's
+flight and capture, I first told him of it at his assembly. I never saw
+him so much dejected by any event in my life. He expressed clearly, on
+this occasion, his disapprobation of the legislature referring things to
+the Heads of departments.
+
+Written March the 12th.
+
+Eodem die. Ten o'clock, A. M. The preceding was about nine o'clock. The
+President now sends Lear to me, to ask what answer he shall give to
+the committee, and particularly, whether he shall add to it, that, 'in
+making the communication, it was not his expectation that the House
+should give any answer.' I told Mr. Lear, that I thought the House had
+a right, independently of legislation, to express sentiments on other
+subjects. That when these subjects did not belong to any other branch
+particularly, they would publish them by their own authority; that in
+the present case, which respected a foreign nation, the President being
+the organ of our nation with other nations, the House would satisfy
+their duty, if, instead of a direct communication, they should pass
+their sentiments through the President: that if expressing a sentiment
+were really an invasion of the executive power, it was so faint a one,
+that it would be difficult to demonstrate it to the public, and to a
+public partial to the French revolution, and not disposed to considered
+the approbation of it from any quarter is improper. That the Senate,
+indeed, had given many indications of their wish to invade the executive
+power: the Representatives had done it in one case, which was indeed
+mischievous and alarming; that of giving orders to the Heads of the
+executive departments, without consulting the President; but that the
+late vote for directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report ways and
+means, though carried, was carried by so small a majority, and with the
+aid of members so notoriously under local influence on that question,
+as to give a hope that the practice would be arrested, and the
+constitutional course be taken up, of asking the President to have
+information laid before them. But that in the present instance, it was
+so far from being clearly an invasion of the executive, and would be
+so little approved by the general voice, that I could not advise the
+President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the House; and I
+gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers. See it.
+
+
+March the 31st. A meeting at the President's; present, Thomas Jefferson,
+Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was
+the resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to
+appoint a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the
+late expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call
+for such persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist
+their inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original
+letters, instructions, &tc. The President had called us to consult,
+merely because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as
+it should become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
+acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the
+House were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted
+with subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be
+papers of so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We
+were not prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.
+
+
+April the 2nd. Met again at the President's, on the same subject. We
+had all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was
+an inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it
+might call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
+communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought
+to refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
+consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
+committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
+and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
+should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the
+President. We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons
+in the case of Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler's Debates. For the first
+point, seepages 161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153,
+173,207; for the third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page
+246. Note: Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the
+power of the House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that
+as to his department, the act constituting it had made it subject to
+Congress, in some points, but he thought himself not so far subject, as
+to be obliged to produce all the papers they might call for. They might
+demand secrets of a very mischievous nature. [Here I thought he began
+to fear they would go to examining how far their own members and other
+persons in the government had been dabbling in stocks, banks, &c. and
+that he probably would choose in this case to deny their power; and,
+in short, he endeavored to place himself subject to the House, when
+the executive should propose what he did not like, and subject to the
+executive, when the House should propose any thing disagreeable.]
+I observed here a difference between the British parliament and our
+Congress; that the former was a legislature, an inquest, and a council
+(S. C. page 91.) for the King. The latter was, by the constitution, a
+legislature and an inquest, but not a council. Finally agreed, to speak
+separately to the members of the committee, and bring them by persuasion
+into the right channel. It was agreed in this case, that there was not
+a paper which might not be properly produced; that copies only should be
+sent, with an assurance, that if they should desire it, a clerk should
+attend with the originals to be verified by themselves. The committee
+were Fitzsimmons, Steele, Mercer, Clarke, Sedgwick, Giles, and Vining.
+
+
+April the 9th, 1792. The President had wished to redeem our captives at
+Algiers, and to make a peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The
+Senate were willing to approve this, but unwilling to have the lower
+House applied to previously to furnish the money; they wished the
+President to take the money from the treasury, or open a loan for it.
+They thought that to consult the Representatives on one occasion,
+would give them a handle always to claim it, and would let them into a
+participation of the power of making treaties, which the constitution
+had given exclusively to the President and Senate. They said, too, that
+if the particular sum was noted by the Representatives, it would not be
+a secret. The President had no confidence in the secrecy of the Senate,
+and did not choose to take money from the treasury or to borrow. But he
+agreed he would enter into provisional treaties with the Algerines,
+not to be binding on us till ratified here. I prepared questions for
+consultation with the Senate, and added, that the Senate were to be
+apprized, that on the return of the provisional treaty, and after they
+should advise the ratification, he would not have the seal put to it
+till the two Houses should vote the money. He asked me, if the treaty
+stipulating a sum and ratified by him, with the advice of the Senate,
+would not be good under the constitution, and obligatory on the
+Representatives to furnish the money. I answered, it certainly would,
+and that it would be the duty of the Representatives to raise the money;
+but that they might decline to do what was their duty, and I thought it
+might be incautious to commit himself by a ratification with a foreign
+nation, where he might be left in the lurch in the execution: it was
+possible too, to conceive a treaty, which it would not be their duty
+to provide for. He said that he did not like throwing too much into
+democratic hands, that if they would not do what the constitution called
+on them to do, the government would be at an end, and must then assume
+another form. He stopped here; and I kept silence to see whether
+he would say any thing more in the same line, or add any qualifying
+expression to soften what he had said: but he did neither. I had
+observed, that wherever the agency of either, or both Houses would be
+requisite subsequent to a treaty, to carry it into effect, it would be
+prudent to consult them previously, if the occasion admitted. That thus
+it was, we were in the habit of consulting the Senate previously, when
+the occasion permitted, because their subsequent ratification would be
+necessary. That there was the same reason for consulting the lower House
+previously, where they were to be called on afterwards, and especially
+in the case of money, as they held the purse-strings, and would be
+jealous of them. However, he desired me to strike out the intimation
+that the seal would not be put till both Houses should have voted the
+money.
+
+
+April the 6th. The President called on me before breakfast, and first
+introduced some other matter, then fell on the representation bill,
+which he had now in his possession for the tenth day. I had before given
+him my opinion in writing, that the method of apportionment was contrary
+to the constitution. He agreed that it was contrary to the common
+understanding of that instrument, and to what was understood at the time
+by the makers of it: that, yet it would bear the construction which the
+bill put, and he observed that the vote for and against the bill was
+perfectly geographical, a northern against a southern vote, and he
+feared he should be thought to be taking side with a southern party. I
+admitted the motive of delicacy, but that it should not induce him to
+do wrong: urged the dangers to which the scramble for the fractionary
+members would always lead. He here expressed his fear that there would,
+ere long, be a separation of the Union; that the public mind seemed
+dissatisfied and tending to this. He went home, sent for Randolph, the
+Attorney General, desired him to get Mr. Madison immediately and come
+to me, and if we three concurred in opinion that he should negative the
+bill, he desired to hear nothing more about it, but that we would draw
+the instrument for him to sign. They came. Our minds had been before
+made up.
+
+We drew the instrument. Randolph carried it to him, and told him we
+all concurred in it. He walked with him to the door, and as if he still
+wished to get off, he said, 'And you say you approve of this yourself.'
+'Yes, Sir,' says Randolph, 'I do upon my honor.' He sent it to the House
+of Representatives instantly. A few of the hottest friends of the bill
+expressed passion, but the majority were satisfied, and both in and
+out of doors it gave pleasure to have, at length, an instance of the
+negative being exercised.
+
+Written this the 9th of April.
+
+
+July the 10th, 1792. My letter of ---- to the President, directed to him
+at Mount Vernon, had not found him there, but came to him here. He told
+me of this, and that he would take an occasion of speaking with me on
+the subject. He did so this day. He began by observing that he had put
+it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit, his
+remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
+declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
+again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
+called on to come forward to set the present government in motion,
+it appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a
+change in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all
+would be well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years
+he found some things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he
+thought it was not worth while to disturb the course of things, as
+in one year more his office would expire, and he was decided then to
+retire. Now he was told there would still be danger in it. Certainly,
+if he thought so, he would conquer his longing for retirement. But he
+feared it would be said his former professions of retirement had been
+mere affectation, and that he was like other men, when once in office
+he could not quit it. He was sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing,
+perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it.
+That with respect to the existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there
+we're suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a
+great deal too far: there might be desires, but he did not believe there
+were designs to change the form of government into a monarchy: that
+there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks of life,
+particularly in the great cities; but that the main body of the people
+in the eastern States were as steadily for republicanism as in the
+southern. That the pieces lately published, and particularly in
+Freneau's paper, seemed to have in view the exciting opposition to
+the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as to the
+excise-law, according to information he had received from General Hand.
+That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most dreadful
+of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy, tended,
+of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He considered
+those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool indeed to
+swallow the little sugar-plumbs here and there thrown out to him. That
+in condemning the administration of the government, they condemned
+him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to his
+sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or
+too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many
+acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put
+his name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That
+as to the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there
+was some infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be
+tolerated. He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat
+of government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and
+Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and
+happy. He wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the
+discontents were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the
+desire that he should remain in the government was not general.
+
+My observations to him tended principally to enforce the topics of my
+letter. I will not, therefore, repeat them, except where they produced
+observations from him. I said, that the two great complaints were, that
+the national debt was unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished
+the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature; that he must
+know, and every body knew, there was a considerable squadron in both,
+whose votes were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest, that
+the names of a weighty number were known, and several others suspected
+on good grounds. That on examining the votes of these men, they would
+be found uniformly for every Treasury measure, and that as most of these
+measures had been carried by small majorities, they were carried by
+these very votes. That, therefore, it was a cause of just uneasiness,
+when we saw a legislature legislating for their own interests, in
+opposition to those of the people. He said not a word on the corruption
+of the legislature, but took up the other point, defended the
+Assumption, and argued that it had not increased the debt, for that all
+of it was honest debt. He justified the excise-law, as one of the best
+laws which could be passed, as nobody would pay the tax who did not
+choose to do it. With respect to the increase of the debt by the
+Assumption, I observed to him, that what was meant and objected to was,
+that it increased the debt of the General Government, and carried
+it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the balances had been
+settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their deficiencies to
+the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and by resources of
+taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by a direct tax
+in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it would
+be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
+argument with him on those points.
+
+
+Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I
+had the following conversation with the President. He opened it by
+expressing his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in
+the letter I had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said,
+that he should be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he
+was in office, and that he could not see where he should find another
+character to fill my office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether
+to retire in March or not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it.
+Nobody disliked more the ceremonies of his office, and he had not the
+least taste or gratification in the execution of its functions. That he
+was happy at home alone, and that his presence there was now peculiarly
+called for by the situation of Major Washington, whom he thought
+irrecoverable, and should he get well, he would remove into another
+part of the country, which might better agree with him. That he did not
+believe his presence necessary; that there were other characters who
+would do the business as well or better. Still, however, if his aid was
+thought necessary to save the cause to which he had devoted his life
+principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer continuance. That
+he therefore reserved himself for future decision, as his declaration
+would be in time if made a month before the day of election. He had
+desired Mr. Lear to find out from conversation, without appearing to
+make the inquiry, whether any other person would be desired by any
+body. He had informed him, he judged from conversations that it was
+the universal desire he should continue, and he believed that those
+who expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language of
+apprehension, and not of desire. But this, says he, is only from the
+north; it may be very different in the south. I thought this meant as
+an opening to me to say what was the sentiment in the south, from which
+quarter I came. I told him, that as far as I knew, there was but one
+voice there, which was for his continuance. That as to myself, I had
+ever preferred the pursuits of private life to those of public,
+which had nothing in them agreeable to me. I explained to him the
+circumstances of the war which had first called me into public life, and
+those following the war, which had called me from a retirement on which
+I had determined. That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home,
+and could no longer refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his
+presence was important; that he was the only man in the United States
+who possessed the confidence of the whole; that government was founded
+in opinion and confidence, and that the longer he remained, the stronger
+would become the habits of the people in submitting to the government,
+and in thinking it a thing to be maintained; that there was no other
+person, who would be thought any thing more than the head of a party. He
+then expressed his concern at the difference which he found to subsist
+between the Secretary of the Treasury and myself, of which he said he
+had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that there was a marked difference
+in our political sentiments, but he had never suspected it had gone so
+far in producing a personal difference, and he wished he could be the
+mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it important to preserve
+the check of my opinions in the administration, in order to keep things
+in their proper channel, and prevent them from going too far. That as
+to the idea of transforming this government into a monarchy, he did
+not believe there were ten men in the United States whose opinions were
+worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him there were
+many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute at
+his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
+Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
+former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
+produce good magistrates as election. I told him, that though the
+people were sound, there were a numerous sect who had monarchy in
+contemplation; that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. That
+I had heard him say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of
+mere milk and water, which could not last, and was only good as a step
+to something better. That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in
+the convention, to make an English constitution of it, and when failing
+in that, we saw all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing,
+it was natural for us to be jealous; and particularly, when we saw that
+these measures had established corruption in the legislature, where
+there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever
+he had directed, and ready to do what he should direct. That if the
+equilibrium of the three great bodies, legislative, executive, and
+judiciary, could be preserved, if the legislature could be kept
+independent, I should never fear the result of such a government;
+but that I could not but be uneasy, when I saw that the executive had
+swallowed up the legislative branch. He said, that as to that interested
+spirit in the legislature, it was what could not be avoided in any
+government, unless we were to exclude particular descriptions of men,
+such as the holders of the funds, from all office. I told him, there was
+great difference between the little accidental schemes of self-interest,
+which would take place in every body of men, and influence their votes,
+and a regular system for forming a corps of interested persons, who
+should be steadily at the orders of the Treasury. He touched on the
+merits of the funding system, observed there was a difference of opinion
+about it, some thinking it very bad, others very good; that experience
+was the only criterion of right which he knew, and this alone would
+decide which opinion was right. That for himself, he had seen our
+affairs desperate and our credit lost, and that this was in a sudden and
+extraordinary degree raised to the highest pitch. I told him, all that
+was ever necessary to establish our credit, was an efficient government
+and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay our debts, laying
+taxes for this purpose, and applying them to it. I avoided going further
+into the subject. He finished by another exhortation to me not to decide
+too positively on retirement, and here we were called to breakfast.
+
+
+October the 31st, 1792. I had sent to the President, Viar and Jaudenes's
+letter of the 29th instant, whereupon he desired a consultation of
+Hamilton, Knox, E. Randolph, and myself, on these points. 1. What notice
+was to be taken hereof to Spain. 2. Whether it should make part of the
+communication to the legislature. I delivered my opinion, that it ought
+to be communicated to both Houses, because the communications intended
+to be made, being to bring on the question, whether they would declare
+war against any, and which of the nations or parts of the nations of
+Indians to the south, it would be proper this information should be
+before them, that they might know how far such a declaration would lead
+them. There might be some who would be for war against the Indians, if
+it were to stop there, but who would not be for it, if it were to lead
+to a war against Spain. I thought it should be laid before both Houses,
+because it concerned the question of declaring war, which was the
+function equally of both Houses. I thought a simple acknowledgment of
+the receipt of the letter should be made by me to the Spanish Charges,
+expressing that it contained some things very unexpected to us, but that
+we should refer the whole, as they had proposed, to the negotiators
+at Madrid. This would secure to us a continuation of the suspension
+of Indian hostilities, which the Governor of New Orleans said he had
+brought about till the result of the negotiation at Madrid should be
+known; would not commit us as to running or not running the line, or
+imply any admission of doubt about our tentorial right; and would avoid
+a rupture with Spain, which was much to be desired, while we had similar
+points to discuss with Great Britain. Hamilton declared himself the
+advocate for peace. War would derange our affairs greatly; throw us
+back many years in the march towards prosperity; be difficult for us to
+pursue, our countrymen not being disposed to become soldiers; a part
+of the Union feeling no interest in the war, would with difficulty be
+brought to exert itself; and we had no navy. He was for every thing
+which would procrastinate the event. A year, even, was a great gain to a
+nation strengthening as we were. It laid open to us, too, the chapter
+of accidents, which in the present state of Europe, was a very pregnant
+one. That while, however, he was for delaying the event of war, he had
+no doubt it was to take place between us for the object in question:
+that jealousy and perseverance were remarkable features in the character
+of the Spanish government, with respect to their American possessions;
+that so far from receding as to their claims against us, they had
+been strengthening themselves in them. He had no doubt the present
+communication was by authority from the court. Under this impression
+he thought we should be looking forward to the day of rupture, and
+preparing for it. That if we were unequal to the contest ourselves, it
+behoved us to provide allies for our aid. That in this view, but two
+nations could be named, France and England. France was too intimately
+connected with Spain in other points, and of too great mutual value,
+ever to separate for us. Her affairs too, were such, that whatever
+issue they had, she could not be in a situation to make a respectable
+mediation for us. England alone, then, remained. It would not be easy to
+effect it with her; however, he was for trying it, and for sounding them
+on the proposition of a defensive treaty of alliance. The inducements to
+such a treaty, on their part, might be, 1. The desire of breaking up our
+former connections, which we knew they had long wished. 2. A continuance
+of the statu quo in commerce for ten years, which he believed would
+be desirable to them. 3. An admission to some navigable part of the
+Mississippi, by some line drawn from the Lake of the Woods to such
+navigable part. He had not, he said, examined the map to see how such
+a line might be run, so as not to make too great a sacrifice. The
+navigation of the Mississippi being a joint possession, we might
+then take measures in concert for the joint security of it. He was,
+therefore, for immediately sounding them on this subject through our
+minister at London; yet so as to keep ourselves unengaged as long as
+possible, in hopes a favorable issue with Spain might be otherwise
+effected. But he was for sounding immediately, and for not letting slip
+an opportunity of securing our object.
+
+E. Randolph concurred, in general, with me. He objected that such a
+reliance could not be effected without pecuniary consideration probably,
+which he could not give. And what was to be their aid? If men, our
+citizens would see their armies get foothold in the United States, with
+great jealousy; it would be difficult to protect them. Even the French,
+during the distresses of the late war, excited some jealous sentiments,
+
+Hamilton said, money was often but not always demanded, and the aid he
+should propose to stipulate would be in ships. Knox _non dissentiente_.
+
+The President said the remedy would be worse than the disease, and
+stated some of the disagreeable circumstances which would attend our
+making such overtures.
+
+
+November, 1792. Hamilton called on me to speak about our furnishing
+supplies to the French colony of St. Domingo. He expressed his opinion,
+that we ought to be cautious, and not go too far in our application
+of money to their use, lest it should not be recognised by the mother
+country. He did not even think that some kinds of government they
+might establish could give a sufficient sanction.* I observed, that the
+National Convention was now met, and would certainly establish a form
+of government; that as we had recognised the former government because
+established by authority of the nation, so we must recognise any other
+which should be established by the authority of the nation. He said we
+had recognised the former, because it contained an important member of
+the ancient, to wit, the King, and wore the appearance of his consent;
+but if, in any future form, they should omit the King, he did not know
+that we could with safety recognise it, or pay money to its order.
+
+     * There had been a previous consultation at the President's
+     (about the first week in November) on the expediency of
+     suspending payments to France, under her present situation.
+     I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by
+     the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs
+     surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an
+     integral legislature, and therefore not competent to give a
+     legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought
+     consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate
+     body came into place; and that I should consider the
+     National Convention, called, but not met as we had yet
+     heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it
+     would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should
+     be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on
+     good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
+     and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a
+     convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be
+     competent to do any thing. It ended by agreeing, that I
+     should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment
+     generally, till further orders.
+
+
+November the 19th, 1792. Beckley brings me the pamphlet written by
+Hamilton, before the war, in answer to 'Common Sense.' It is entitled
+'Plain Truth.' Melancthon Smith sends it to Beckley, and in his letter
+says, it was not printed in New York by Loudon, because prevented by a
+mob, and was printed in Philadelphia, and that he has these facts from
+Loudon.
+
+
+November the 21st, 1792. Mr. Butler tells me, that he dined last winter
+with Mr. Campbell from Denmark, in company with Hamilton, Lawrence, Dr.
+Shippen, T. Shippen, and one other person whom he cannot recollect. That
+after dinner political principles became the subject of conversation;
+that Hamilton declared openly, that 'there was no stability, no security
+in any kind of government but a monarchy.' That Lawrence took him
+up, and entered the lists of argument against him; that the dispute
+continued long, and grew warm, remarkably so as between them; that
+Shippen, at length, joined Lawrence in it; and in fine, that it broke up
+the company. Butler recommended to the company, that the dispute having
+probably gone farther than was intended, it ought to be considered as
+confined to the company.
+
+
+Thursday, December the 27th, 1792. I waited on the President on some
+current business. After this was over, he observed to me, that he
+thought it was time to endeavor to effect a stricter connection with
+France, and that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on this subject.
+He went into the circumstances of dissatisfaction between Spain and
+Great Britain, and us, and observed, there was no nation on whom we
+could rely, at all times, but France; and that, if we did not prepare
+in time some support, in the event of rupture with Spain and England,
+we might be charged with a criminal negligence. I was much pleased with
+the tone of these observations. It was the very doctrine which had been
+my polar star, and I did not need the successes of the republican arms
+in France, lately announced to us, to bring me to these sentiments.
+For it is to be noted, that on Saturday last, (the 22nd) I received Mr.
+Short's letters of October the 9th and 12th, with the Leyden gazettes to
+October the 13th, giving us the first news of the retreat of the Duke of
+Brunswick, and the capture of Spires and Worms by Custine, and that
+of Nice by Anselme. I therefore expressed to the President my cordial
+approbation of these ideas; told him, I had meant on that day (as an
+opportunity of writing by the British packet would occur immediately) to
+take his orders for removing the suspension of payments to France, which
+had been imposed by my last letter to Gouverneur Morris, but was meant,
+as I supposed, only for the interval between the abolition of the late
+constitution by the dethronement of the King, and the meeting of some
+other body, invested by the will of the nation with powers to transact
+their affairs; that I considered the National Convention, then
+assembled, as such a body; and that, therefore, we ought to go on with
+the payments to them, or to any government they should establish; that,
+however, I had learned last night, that some clause in the bill for
+providing reimbursement of the loan made by the bank to the United
+States, had given rise to a question before the House of Representatives
+yesterday, which might affect these payments; a clause in that bill
+proposing, that the money formerly borrowed in Amsterdam, to pay the
+French debt, and appropriated by law (1790, August 4th, c. 34. Sec. 2.) to
+that purpose, lying dead as was suggested, should be taken to pay the
+bank, and the President be authorized to borrow two millions of dollars
+more, out of which it should be replaced: and if this should be done,
+the removal of our suspension of payments, as I had been about to
+propose, would be premature. He expressed his disapprobation of the
+clause above mentioned; thought it highly improper in the legislature to
+change an appropriation once made, and added, that no one could tell in
+what that would end. I concurred, but observed, that on a division of
+the House, the ayes for striking out the clause were twenty-seven, the
+noes twenty-six; whereon the Speaker gave his vote against striking out,
+which divides the House: the clause for the disappropriation remained
+of course. I mentioned suspicions, that the whole of this was a trick
+to serve the bank under a great existing embarrassment; that the debt to
+the bank was to be repaid by instalments; that the first instalment was
+of two hundred thousand dollars only, or rather one hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars, (because forty thousand of the two hundred thousand
+dollars would be the United States' own dividend of the instalment.) Yet
+here were two millions to be paid them at once, and to be taken from a
+purpose of gratitude and honor, to which it had been appropriated.
+
+
+December the 30th, 1792. I took the occasion furnished by Pinckney's
+letter of September the 19th, asking instructions how to conduct himself
+as to the French revolution, to lay down the catholic principle of
+republicanism, to wit, that every people may establish what form of
+government they please, and change it as they please; the will of the
+nation being the only thing essential. I was induced to do this, in
+order to extract the President's opinion on the question which divided
+Hamilton and myself in the conversation of November, 1792, and the
+previous one of the first week of November, on the suspension of
+payments to France: and if favorable to mine, to place the principle on
+record in the letter-books of my office. I therefore wrote the letter
+of December the 30th, to Pinckney, and sent it to the President, and he
+returned me his approbation in writing, in his note of the same date,
+which see.
+
+
+February the 7th, 1793. I waited on the President with letters and
+papers from Lisbon. After going through these, I told him that I had for
+some time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out
+of office, because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with
+foreign nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate, in which case,
+the remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable to
+make it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now passed, I
+was freed from the considerations of propriety which had embarrassed me.
+That &c. [nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T. M. Randolph, of
+a few days ago,] and that I should be willing, if he had taken no
+arrangements to the contrary, to continue somewhat longer, how long I
+could not say, perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He said, so far from
+taking arrangements on the subject, he had never mentioned to any mortal
+the design of retiring which I had expressed to him, till yesterday,
+when having heard that I had given up my house, and that it was rented
+by another, he thereupon mentioned it to Mr. E. Randolph, and asked him,
+as he knew my retirement had been talked of, whether he had heard
+any persons suggested in conversation to succeed me. He expressed his
+satisfaction at my change of purpose and his apprehensions that my
+retirement would be a new source of uneasiness to the public. He
+said Governor Lee had that day informed him of the general discontent
+prevailing in Virginia, of which he never had had any conception,
+much less sound information. That it appeared to him very alarming. He
+proceeded to express his earnest wish that Hamilton and myself could
+coalesce in the measures of the government, and urged here the general
+reasons for it, which he had done to me in two former conversations.
+He said he had proposed the same thing to Hamilton, who expressed
+his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the general
+acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of much less
+importance than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself aloof from all
+cabal and correspondence on the subject with the government, and saw and
+spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr. Hamilton,
+if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his general system
+to the other, it was impossible. We had both, no doubt, formed our
+conclusions after the most mature consideration; and principles
+conscientiously adopted, could not be given up on either side. My wish
+was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested
+in the bank or public stocks: and that a pure legislature being given
+us, I should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations,
+even if contrary to my own opinions; for that I subscribe to the
+principle, that the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should
+give law. I confirmed him in the fact of the great discontents to
+the south; that they were grounded on seeing that their judgments
+and interests were sacrificed to those of the eastern States on every
+occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a corrupt squadron
+of voters in Congress, at the command of the Treasury; and they see that
+if the votes of those members who had any interest distinct from,
+and contrary to the general interest of their constituents, had been
+withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should have been, the laws
+would have been the reverse of what they are on all the great questions.
+I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House of Representatives
+by the Speaker's vote. On this subject he made no reply. He explained
+his remaining in office to have been the effect of strong solicitations
+after he returned here; declaring that he had never mentioned his
+purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr. Madison; he
+expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in office,
+and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &c.
+and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
+consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of
+the public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
+
+
+February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
+curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New
+York, he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees. At
+length he yielded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle
+the forms. Accordingly, an antechamber and presence-room were provided,
+and when those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President
+set out, preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the antechamber,
+the door of the inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered first,
+calling out with a loud voice, 'The President of the United States.' The
+President was so much disconcerted with it, that he did not recover it
+the whole time of the levee, and when the company was gone, he said
+to Humphreys, 'Well, you have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall
+never take me in a second time.'
+
+There is reason to believe that the rejection of the late additional
+Assumption by the Senate was effected by the President through Lear,
+operating on Langdon. Beckley knows this.
+
+
+February the 26th, 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [See the
+formal opinions given to the President in writing, and signed.]
+
+First question. We were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed
+merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of
+success. I expressed myself strongly, that the event was so unpromising,
+that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on without the
+least relaxation, and that a day should be fixed with the commissioners
+for the treaty, beyond which they should not permit the treaty to be
+protracted, by which day, orders should be given for our forces to enter
+into action. The President took up the thing instantly, after I had said
+this, and declared he was so much in the opinion that the treaty would
+end in nothing, that he then, in the presence of us all, gave orders to
+General Knox, not to slacken the preparations for the campaign in the
+least, but to exert every nerve in preparing for it. Knox said something
+about the ultimate day for continuing the negotiations. I acknowledged
+myself not a judge on what day the campaign should begin, but that
+whatever it was, that day should terminate the treaty. Knox said he
+thought a winter campaign was always the most efficacious against the
+Indians. I was of opinion, since Great Britain insisted on furnishing
+provisions, that we should offer to repay. Hamilton thought we should
+not.
+
+Second question. I considered our right of preemption of the
+Indian lands, not as amounting to any dominion, or jurisdiction, or
+paramountship whatever, but merely in the nature of a remainder after
+the extinguishment of a present right, which gave us no present right
+whatever, but of preventing other nations from taking possession, and so
+defeating our expectancy; that the Indians had the full, undivided, and
+independent sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, and that this
+might be for ever; that as fast as we extend our rights by purchase from
+them, so fast we extend the limits of our society, and as soon as a new
+portion became encircled within our line, it became a fixed limit of
+our society: that the executive, with either or both branches of the
+legislature, could not alien any part of our territory; that by the
+law of nations it was settled, that the unity and indivisibility of
+the society was so fundamental, that it could not be dismembered by the
+constituted authorities, except, 1. where all power was delegated to
+them (as in the case of despotic governments,) or, 2. where it was
+expressly delegated; that neither of these delegations had been made
+to our General Government, and, therefore, that it had no right
+to dismember or alienate any portion of territory once ultimately
+consolidated with us; and that we could no more cede to the Indians
+than to the English or Spaniards, as it might, according to acknowledged
+principles, remain as irrevocably and eternally with the one as the
+other. But I thought, that, as we had a right to sell and settle lands
+once comprehended within our lines, so we might forbear to exercise
+that right, retaining the property, till circumstances should be more
+favorable to the settlement, and this I agreed to do in the present
+instance, if necessary for peace.
+
+Hamilton agreed to the doctrine of the law of nations, as laid down in
+Europe, but that it was founded on the universality of settlement there;
+consequently that no lopping-off of territory could be made without a
+lopping-off of citizens, which required their consent; but that the law
+of nations for us, must be adapted to the circumstance of our unsettled
+country, which he conceived the President and Senate may cede: that
+the power of treaty was given to them by the constitution, without
+restraining it to particular objects; consequently that it was given in
+as plenipotentiary a form as held by any sovereign in any other society.
+Randolph was of opinion, there was a difference between a cession to
+Indians and to any others, because it only restored the ceded part to
+the condition in which it was before we bought it, and consequently,
+that we might buy it again hereafter: therefore, he thought the
+executive and Senate could cede it. Knox joined in the main opinion. The
+President discovered no opinion, but he made some efforts to get us to
+join in some terms which could unite us all, and he seemed to direct
+those efforts more towards me: but the thing could not be done.
+
+Third question. We agreed in idea as to the line to be drawn; to wit, so
+as to retain all lands appropriated, or granted, or reserved.
+
+Fourth question. We all thought, if the Senate should be consulted, and
+consequently apprized of our line, it would become known to Hammond, and
+we should lose all chance of saving any thing more at the treaty than
+our ultimatum.
+
+The President, at this meeting, mentioned the declaration of some
+person, in a paper of Fenno, that he would commence an attack on the
+character of Dr. Franklin. He said, the theme was to him excessively
+disagreeable on other considerations, but most particularly so, as
+the party seemed to do it as a means of defending him (the President)
+against the late attacks on him: that such a mode of defence would be
+peculiarly painful to him, and he wished it could be stopped. Hamilton
+and Randolph undertook to speak to Fenno to suppress it, without
+mentioning it as the President's wish. Both observed, that they had
+heard this declaration mentioned in many companies, and that it had
+excited universal horror and detestation.
+
+The paper in Fenno must lie between two persons, viz. Adams and Izard,
+because they are the only persons who could know such facts as are there
+promised to be unfolded. Adams is an enemy to both characters, and might
+choose this ground as an effectual position to injure both. Izard hated
+Franklin with unparalleled bitterness, but humbly adores the President,
+because he is in _loco regis_. If the paper proceeds, we shall easily
+discover which of these two gentlemen is the champion. In the mean time,
+the first paper leads our suspicions more towards Izard than Adams, from
+the circumstance of style, and because he is quite booby enough not to
+see the injury he would do to the President by such a mode of defence.
+
+
+February the 28th. Knox, E. Randolph, and myself met at Knox's, where
+Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time, manner, and place
+of the President's swearing in. Hamilton had been there before, and
+had left his opinion with Knox; to wit, that the President should ask
+a judge to attend him in his own house to administer the oath, in the
+presence of the Heads of departments; which oath should be deposited in
+the Secretary of State's office. I concurred in this opinion. Randolph
+was for the President's going to the Senate chamber to take the oath,
+attended by the marshal of the United States, who should then make
+proclamation, &c. Knox was for this, and for adding the House of
+Representatives to the presence, as they would not yet be departed. Our
+individual opinions were written, to be communicated to the President,
+out of which he might form one. In the course of our conversation,
+Knox, stickling for parade, got into great warmth, and swore that our
+government must either be entirely new modeled, or it would be knocked
+to pieces in less than ten years; and that, as it is at present, he
+would not give a copper for it; that it is the President's character,
+and not the written constitution which keeps it together.
+
+Same day. Conversation with Lear. He expressed the strongest confidence
+that republicanism was the universal creed of America, except of a very
+few; that a republican administration must of necessity immediately
+overbear the contrary faction; said that he had seen with extreme
+regret, that a number of gentlemen had for a long time been endeavoring
+to instil into the President, that the noise against the administration
+of the government was that of a little faction, which would soon be
+silent, and which was detested by the people, who were contented and
+prosperous: that this very party, however, began to see their error, and
+that the sense of America was bursting forth to their conviction.
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles's
+resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe,
+that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the
+House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1.
+of bank directors, 2. holders of bank stock, 3. stock-jobbers, 4. blind
+devotees, 5. ignorant persons who did not comprehend them, 6. lazy and
+good-humored persons, who comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were
+too lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure; the persons who
+knew these characters, foresaw, that the three first descriptions making
+one third of the House, the three latter would make one half of the
+residue; and of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of
+two to one. But they thought, that even this rejection would do good, by
+showing the public the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which
+their affairs were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, and nothing
+spared to present them in the fulness of demonstration. There were not
+more than three or four who voted otherwise than had been expected.
+
+
+March the 30th, 1793. At our meeting at the President's, February the
+25th, in discussing the question, whether we should furnish to France
+the three millions of livres desired, Hamilton, in speaking on the
+subject, used this expression; 'When Mr. Genet arrives, whether we
+shall receive him or not, will then be a question for discussion'; which
+expression I did not recollect till E. Randolph reminded me of it a few
+days after. Therefore, on the 20th instant, as the President was shortly
+to set out for Mount Vernon, I observed to him, that as Genet might
+arrive in his absence, I wished to know beforehand how I should treat
+him, whether as a person who would or would not be received. He said, he
+could see no ground of doubt, but that he ought to be received. On the
+24th, he asked E. Randolph's opinion on the subject, saying, he had
+consulted Colonel Hamilton thereon, who went into lengthy considerations
+of doubt and difficulty, and viewing it as a very unfortunate thing,
+that the President should have the decision of so critical a point
+forced on him; but in conclusion, said, since he was brought into that
+situation, he did not see but that he must receive Mr. Genet. Randolph
+told the President, he was clear he should be received, and the
+President said, he had never had any doubt on the subject in his mind.
+Afterwards on the same day, he spoke to me again on it, and said, Mr.
+Genet should unquestionably be received; but he thought not with too
+much warmth or Cordiality, so only as to be satisfactory to him. I
+wondered at first at this restriction: but when Randolph afterwards
+communicated to me his conversation of the 24th, I became satisfied it
+was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.
+
+
+March the 31st. Mr. Beckley tells me, that the merchants' bonds for
+duties on six months' credit became due the 1st instant, to a very great
+amount; that Hamilton went to the bank on that day, and directed the
+bank to discount for those merchants all their bonds at thirty days,
+and that he would have the collectors credited for the money at the
+treasury. Hence, the treasury lumping its receipts by the month in its
+printed accounts, these sums will be considered by the public as only
+received on the last day; consequently, the bank makes the month's
+interest out of it. Beckley had this from a merchant, who had a bond
+discounted, and who supposes a million of dollars were discounted at the
+bank here. Mr. Brown got the same information from another merchant,
+who supposed only six hundred thousand dollars discounted here. But they
+suppose the same orders went to all the branch banks to a great amount.
+
+Eodem die. Mr. Brown tells me he has it from a merchant here, that
+during the last winter, the directors of the bank ordered the freest
+discounts. Every man could obtain it. Money being so flush, the six per
+cents run up to twenty-one and twenty-two shillings. Then the directors
+sold out their private stocks. When the discounted notes were becoming
+due, they stopped discounts, and not a dollar was to be had. This
+reduced six per cents to eighteen shillings and three pence; then the
+same directors bought in again.
+
+
+April the 7th, 1793. Mr. Lear called on me, and introduced of himself a
+conversation on the affairs of the United States. He laughed at the
+cry of prosperity, and the deriving it from the establishment of the
+treasury: he said, that, so far from giving in to this opinion, and that
+we were paying off our national debt, he was clear the debt was growing
+on us: that he had lately expressed this opinion to the President, who
+appeared much astonished at it. I told him I had given the same hint to
+the President last summer, and lately again had suggested, that we
+were even depending for the daily subsistence of government on borrowed
+money. He said, that was certain, and was the only way of accounting for
+what was become of the money drawn over from Holland to this country.
+He regretted that the President was not in the way of hearing full
+information, declared he communicated to him every thing he could learn
+himself; that the men who vaunted the present government so much on some
+occasions, were the very men who at other times declared it was a poor
+thing, and such a one as could not stand, and he was sensible they
+only esteemed it as a stepping-stone to something else, and had availed
+themselves of the first moments of the enthusiasm in favor of it, to
+pervert its principles and make of it what they wanted: and that though
+they raised the cry of anti-federalism against those who censured the
+mode of administration, yet he was satisfied, whenever it should come to
+be tried, that the very men whom they called anti-federalists, were the
+men who would save the government, and he looked to the next Congress
+for much rectification.
+
+
+April the 18th. The President sends a set of questions to be considered,
+and calls a meeting. Though those sent me were in his own hand-writing,
+yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissue and suite,
+that they were not the President's, that they were raised upon a
+prepared chain of argument, in short, that the language was Hamilton's,
+and the doubts his alone. They led to a declaration of the executive,
+that our treaty with France is void. E. Randolph, the next day, told me
+that the day before the date of these questions, Hamilton went with him
+through the whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the
+skeleton, and that he recognised them the moment he saw them.
+
+We met. The first question, whether we should receive the French
+minister, Genet, was proposed, and we agreed unanimously that he should
+be received; Hamilton, at the same time, expressing his great regret
+that any accident had happened, which should oblige us to recognise
+the government. The next question was, whether he should be received
+absolutely, or with qualifications. Here Hamilton took up the whole
+subject, and went through it in the order in which the questions sketch
+it. See the chain of his reasoning in my opinion of April the 28th. Knox
+subscribed at once to Hamilton's opinion that we ought to declare the
+treaty void, acknowledging, at the same time, like a fool as he is,
+that he knew nothing about it. I was clear it remained valid. Randolph
+declared himself of the same opinion, but on Hamilton's undertaking to
+present to him the authority in Vattel (which we had not present), and
+to prove to him, that if the authority was admitted, the treaty might be
+declared void, Randolph agreed to take further time to consider. It was
+adjourned. We determined unanimously the last question, that Congress
+should not be called. There having been an intimation by Randolph, that
+in so great a question he should choose to give a written opinion, and
+this being approved by the President, I gave in mine April the 28th.
+Hamilton gave in his. I believe Knox's was never thought worth offering
+or asking for. Randolph gave his May the 6th, concurring with mine.
+The President told me, the same day, he had never had a doubt about the
+validity of the treaty; but that since a question had been suggested,
+he thought it ought to be considered: that this being done, I might
+now issue passports to sea-vessels in the form prescribed by the French
+treaty. I had for a week past only issued the Dutch form; to have issued
+the French, would have been presupposing the treaty to be in existence.
+The President suggested, that he thought it would be as well
+that nothing should be said of such a question having been under
+consideration. Written May the 6th.
+
+
+May the 6th, 1793. When the question was, whether the proclamation of
+April the 22nd should be issued, Randolph observed, that there should
+be a letter written by me to the ministers of the belligerent powers, to
+declare that it should not be taken as conclusive evidence against our
+citizens in foreign courts of admiralty, for contraband goods. Knox
+suddenly adopted the opinion before Hamilton delivered his. Hamilton
+opposed it pretty strongly. I thought it an indifferent thing, but
+rather approved Randolph's opinion. The President was against it; but
+observed that, as there were three for it, it should go. This was
+the first instance I had seen of an opportunity to decide by a mere
+majority, including his own vote.
+
+
+May the 12th. Lear called on me to-day. Speaking of the lowness of
+stocks (sixteen shillings), I observed it was a pity we had not money to
+buy on public account. He said, yes, and that it was the more provoking,
+as two millions had been borrowed for that purpose, and drawn over here,
+and yet were not here. That he had no doubt those would take notice of
+the circumstance whose duty it was to do so. I suppose he must mean the
+President.
+
+
+May the 23rd. I had sent to the President, yesterday, draughts of a
+letter from him to the Provisory Executive Council of France, and of one
+from myself to Mr. Ternant, both on the occasion of his recall. I called
+on him to-day. He said there was an expression in one of them, which he
+had never before seen in any of our public communications, to wit, 'our
+republic' The letter prepared for him to the Council, began thus: 'The
+Citizen Ternant has delivered to me the letter wherein you inform me,
+that yielding &c. you had determined to recall him from his mission, as
+your Minister Plenipotentiary to our republic.' He had underscored
+the words our republic. He said that certainly ours was a republican
+government, but yet we had not used that style in this way; that if any
+body wanted to change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it was only
+a few individuals, and that no man in the United States would set his
+face against it more than himself: but that this was not what he was
+afraid of; his fears were from another quarter; that there was more
+danger of anarchy being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau's
+paper of yesterday; he said he despised all their attacks on him
+personally, but that there never had been an act of the government, not
+meaning in the executive line only, but in any line, which that paper
+had not abused. He had also marked the word republic thus X, where it
+was applied to the French republic. (See the original paper.) He was
+evidently sore and warm, and I took his intention to be, that I should
+interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appointment
+of translating clerk to my office. But I will not do it. His paper has
+saved our constitution, which was galloping fast into monarchy, and has
+been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that paper. It is well
+and universally known, that it has been that paper which has checked the
+career of the monocrats; and the President, not sensible of the designs
+of the party, has not, with his usual good sense and _sang froid_,
+looked on the efforts and effects of this free press, and seen that,
+though some bad things have passed through it to the public, yet the
+good have preponderated immensely.
+
+
+June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned from New York within
+a few days, tells me that, while he was there, Sir John Temple, Consul
+General of the northern States for Great Britain showed him a letter
+from Sir Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a borough in
+Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member for twenty-five years, and
+always confidential for the ministers in which he permitted him to read
+particular passages of the following purport: that the government was
+well apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in the United
+States; that they considered Colonel Hamilton, Mr. King, and Mr.
+Smith of South Carolina, as the main supports of that interest; that
+particularly, they considered Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond as
+their effective minister here; that if the anti-federal interest (that
+was his term) at the head of which they considered Mr. Jefferson to be
+should prevail, these gentlemen had secured an asylum to themselves
+in England.' Beckley could not understand whether they had secured it
+themselves* or whether they were only notified that it was secured
+to them. So that they understand that they may go on boldly in their
+machinations to change the government, and if they should be overset
+and choose to withdraw, they will be secure of a pension in England, as
+Arnold, Deane, &c. had. Sir John read passages of a letter (which he did
+not put into Beckley's hand, as he did the other) from Lord Grenville,
+saying nearly the same things. This letter mentions Sir John, that
+though they had divided the Consul-Generalship, and given the southern
+department to Bond, yet he Sir John, was to retain his whole salary.
+[By this it would seem, as if, wanting to use Bond, they had covered his
+employment with this cloak.] Mr. Beckley says that Sir John Temple is a
+strong republican. I had a proof of his intimacy with Sir John in this
+circumstance. Sir John received his new commission of Consul General for
+the northern department, and, instead of sending it through Mr. Hammond,
+got Beckley to enclose it to me for his exequatur I wrote to Sir John
+that it must come through Mr Hammond enclosing it back to him. He
+accordingly then sent it to Mr. Hammond.
+
+     [* In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson; 'Impossible
+     as to Hamilton; he was far above that.]
+
+In conversation with the President to-day, and speaking about General
+Greene, he said that he and General Greene had always differed in
+opinion about the manner of using militia. Greene always placed them
+in his front: himself was of opinion, they should always be used as a
+reserve to improve any advantage, for which purpose they were the finest
+fellows in the world. He said he was on the ground of the battle of
+Guilford, with a person who was in the action, and who explained the
+whole of it to him. That General Greene's front was behind a fence at
+the edge of a large field, through which the enemy were obliged to pass
+to get at them; and that, in their passage through this, they must have
+been torn all to pieces, if troops had been posted there who would have
+stood their ground; and that the retreat from that position was through
+a thicket, perfectly secure. Instead of this he posted the North
+Carolina militia there who only gave one fire and fell back, so that the
+whole benefit of their position was lost. He thinks that the regulars,
+with their field-pieces, would have hardly let a single man get through
+that field.
+
+Eodem die (June the 7th). Beckley tells me that he has the following
+fact from Governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the present
+General Government, i.e. a little before Hamilton conceived a plan for
+establishing a monarchical government in the United States, he wrote
+a draught of a circular letter, which was to be sent to about
+-------persons, to bring it about. One of these letters in Hamilton's
+hand-writing, is now in possession of an old militia General up the
+North River, who, at that time, was thought orthodox enough to be
+entrusted in the execution. This General has given notice to Governor
+Clinton, that he has this paper, and that he will deliver it into
+his hands, and no one's else. Clinton intends, the first interval of
+leisure, to go for it, and he will bring it to Philadelphia. Beckley is
+a man of perfect truth as to what he affirms of his own knowledge, but
+too credulous as to what he hears from others.
+
+
+June the 10th, 1793. Mr. Brown gives me the following specimen of
+the phrenzy which prevailed at New York on the opening of the new
+government. The first public ball which took place after the President's
+arrival there, Colonel Humphreys, Colonel W. S. Smith, and Mrs. Knox
+were to arrange the ceremonials. These arrangements were as follows:
+a sofa at the head of the room, raised on several steps whereon the
+President and Mrs. Washington were to be seated. The gentlemen were to
+dance in swords. Each one, when going to dance, was to lead his partner
+to the foot of the sofa, make a low obeisance to the President and his
+lady, then go and dance, and when done, bring his partner again to the
+foot of the sofa for new obeisances, and then to retire to their chairs.
+It was to be understood, too, that gentlemen should be dressed in bags.
+Mrs. Knox contrived to come with the President, and to follow him and
+Mrs. Washington to their destination, and she had the design of forcing
+an invitation from the President to a seat on the sofa. She mounted up
+the steps after them unbidden, but unfortunately the wicked sofa was so
+short, that when the President and Mrs. Washington were seated, there
+was not room for a third person; she was obliged therefore to descend in
+the face of the company, and to sit where she could. In other respects
+the ceremony was conducted rigorously according to the arrangements, and
+the President made to pass an evening which his good sense rendered a
+very miserable one to him.
+
+
+June the 12th. Beckley tells me that Klingham has been with him to-day,
+and relates to him the following fact. A certificate of the old Congress
+had been offered at the treasury and refused payment and so endorsed in
+red ink as usual. This certificate came to the hands of Francis, (the
+quondam clerk of the treasury who, on account of his being dipped in
+the infamous case of the Baron Glaubec, Hamilton had been obliged
+to dismiss, to save appearances, but with an assurance of all future
+service, and he accordingly got him established in New York). Francis
+wrote to Hamilton that such a ticket was offered him, but he could not
+buy it unless he would inform him and give him his certificate that it
+was good. Hamilton wrote him a most friendly letter, and sent him
+the certificate. He bought the paper, and came on here and got it
+recognised, whereby he made twenty-five hundred dollars Klingham saw
+both the letter and certificate.
+
+Irving, a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the
+pieces now coming out under the signature of Verita's and attacking the
+President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the
+fiscal party, to place the President on their side.
+
+July the 18th, 1793. Lear calls on me. I told him that Irving, an
+Irishman, and a writer in the treasury, who, on a former occasion, had
+given the most decisive proofs of his devotion to his principal, was the
+author of the pieces signed Veritas: and I wished he could get at some
+of Irving's acquaintances and inform himself of the fact, as the person
+who told me of it would not permit the name of his informer to be
+mentioned. [Note. Beckley told me of it, and he had it from Swaine,
+the printer to whom the pieces were delivered]; that I had long before
+suspected this excessive foul play in that party of writing themselves
+in the character of the most exaggerated democrats and incorporating
+with it a great deal of abuse on the President to make him believe it
+was that party who were his enemies, and so throw him entirely into
+the scale of the monocrats. Lear said he no longer ago than yesterday
+expressed to the President his suspicions of the artifices of that party
+to work on him. He mentioned the following fact as a proof of their
+writing in the character of their adversaries; to wit, the day after the
+little incident of Richet's toasting 'the man of the people' (see the
+gazettes), Mrs. Washington was at Mrs. Powel's, who mentioned to her
+that, when the toast was given, there was a good deal of disapprobation
+appeared in the audience, and that many put on their hats and went out:
+on inquiry, he had not found the fact true, and yet it was put into
+------'s paper, and written under the character of a republican,
+though he is satisfied it is altogether a slander of the monocrats.
+He mentioned this to the President, but he did not mention to him the
+following fact, which he knows; that in New York, the last summer, when
+the parties of Jay and Clinton were running so high, it was an agreed
+point with the former, that if any circumstances should ever bring it to
+a question, whether to drop Hamilton or the President, they had decided
+to drop the President. He said that lately one of the loudest pretended
+friends to the government, damned it, and said it was good for nothing,
+that it could not support itself, and it was time to put it down and
+set up a better; and yet the same person, in speaking to the President,
+puffed off that party as the only friends to the government. He said
+he really feared, that by their artifices and industry, they would
+aggravate the President so much against the republicans, as to separate
+him from the body of the people. I told him what the same cabals had
+decided to do, if the President had refused his assent to the bank bill;
+also what Brockhurst Livingston said to ------, that Hamilton's life was
+much more precious to the community than the President's.
+
+
+August the 1st. Met at the President's, to consider what was to be
+done with Mr. Genet. All his correspondence with me was read over.
+The following propositions were made. 1. That a full statement of Mr.
+Genet's conduct be made in a letter to G. Morris, and be sent with his
+correspondence, to be communicated to the Executive Council of France;
+the letter to be so prepared, as to serve for the form of communication
+to the Council. Agreed unanimously. 2. That in that letter his recall be
+required. Agreed by all, though I expressed a preference of expressing
+that desire with great delicacy; the others were for peremptory terms.
+3. To send him off. This was proposed by Knox; but rejected by every
+other. 4. To write a letter to Mr. Genet, the same in substance with
+that written to G. Morris, and let him know we had applied for his
+recall. I was against this, because I thought it would render him
+extremely active in his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was
+overruled by the other three gentlemen and the President. 5. That
+a publication of the whole correspondence, and statement of the
+proceedings should be made by way of appeal to the people. Hamilton
+made a jury speech of three quarters of an hour, as inflammatory and
+declamatory as if he had been speaking to a jury. E. Randolph opposed
+it. I chose to leave the contest between them. Adjourned to next day.
+
+
+August the 2nd. Met again. Hamilton spoke again three quarters of an
+hour. I answered on these topics. Object of the appeal. The democratic
+society; this the great circumstance of alarm; afraid it would extend
+its connections over the continent; chiefly meant for the local object
+of the ensuing election of Governor. If left alone, would die away after
+that is over. If opposed, if proscribed, would give it importance and
+vigor; would give it a new object, and multitudes would join it merely
+to assert the right of voluntary associations. That the measure was
+calculated to make the President assume the station of the head of a
+party, instead of the head of the nation. Plan of the appeal. To consist
+of facts and the decisions of the President. As to facts we are agreed;
+but as to the decisions, there have been great differences of opinion
+among us. Sometimes as many opinions as persons. This proves there will
+be ground to attack the decision. Genet will appeal also; it will become
+a contest between the President and Genet--anonymous writers--will be
+same difference of opinion in public, as in our cabinet--will be
+same difference in Congress, lot it must be laid before them--would,
+therefore, work very unpleasantly at home. How would it work abroad?
+France--unkind--after such proofs of her friendship, should rely on
+that friendship and her justice. Why appeal to the world? Friendly
+nations always negotiate little differences in private. Never appeal to
+the world, but when they appeal to the sword. Confederacy of Pilnitz
+was to overthrow the government of France. The interference of France
+to disturb other governments and excite insurrections, was a measure of
+reprisal. Yet these Princes have been able to make it believed to be the
+system of France. Colonel Hamilton supposes Mr. Genet's proceedings
+here are in pursuance of that system: and we are so to declare it to
+the world, and to add our testimony to this base calumny of the Princes.
+What a triumph to them to be backed by our testimony. What a fatal
+stroke at the cause of liberty; _Et tu, Brute?_ We indispose the French
+government, and they will retract their offer of the treaty of commerce.
+The President manifestly inclined to the appeal to the people.* Knox, in
+a foolish, incoherent sort of a speech, introduced the pasquinade lately
+printed, called the funeral of George W--n and James W---n, King and
+Judge, &c, where the President was placed on a guillotine. The President
+was much inflamed; got into one of those passions when he cannot command
+himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on
+him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he
+had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives;
+that he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of
+resigning his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he
+had rather be in his grave than in his present situation; that he had
+rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world; and yet
+that they were charging him with wanting to be a King. That that rascal
+Freneau sent him three of his papers every day, as if he thought he
+would become the distributor of his papers; that he could see in this,
+nothing but an impudent design to insult him: he ended in this high
+tone. There was a pause. Some difficulty in resuming our question; it
+was, however, after a little while, presented again, and he said there
+seemed to be no necessity for deciding it now; the propositions before
+agreed on might be put into a train of execution, and perhaps events
+would show whether the appeal would be necessary or not. He desired we
+would meet at my office the next day, to consider what should be done
+with the vessels armed in our ports by Mr. Genet, and their prizes.
+
+     * He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him
+     the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into
+     this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the
+     President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and
+     engage for all his connections. The President repeated this
+     twice, and with an air of importance. Now Mr. Morris has no
+     family connections; he engaged then for his political
+     friends. This shows that the President has not confidence
+     enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide
+     in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props
+     necessary.
+
+August the 3rd. We met. The President wrote to take our opinions,
+whether Congress should be called. Knox pronounced at once against it.
+Randolph was against it. Hamilton said his judgment was against it, but
+that if any two were for it, or against it, he would join them to make
+a majority. I was for it. We agreed to give separate opinions to the
+President. Knox said we should have had fine work, if Congress had
+been sitting these two last months. The fool thus let out the secret.
+Hamilton endeavored to patch up the indiscretion of this blabber, by
+saying 'he did not know; he rather thought they would have strengthened
+the executive arm.'
+
+It is evident they do not wish to lengthen the session of the next
+Congress, and probably they particularly wish it should not meet till
+Genet is gone. At this meeting I received a letter from Mr. Remsen at
+New York, informing me of the event of the combat between the Ambuscade
+and the Boston. Knox broke out into the most unqualified abuse of
+Captain Courtnay. Hamilton, with less fury, but with the deepest
+vexation, loaded him with censures. Both showed the most unequivocal
+mortification at the event.
+
+
+August the 6th, 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
+country, and introduces my letter of July the 31st, announcing that I
+should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
+repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased
+by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had
+counted: that he did not know where he should look to find characters
+to fill up the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the
+department of State, but it required a person conversant in foreign
+affairs, perhaps acquainted with foreign courts; that without this, the
+best talents would be awkward and at a loss. He told me that Colonel
+Hamilton had three or four weeks ago written to him, informing him that
+private as well as public reasons had brought him to the determination
+to retire, and that he should do it towards the close of the next
+session. He said he had often before intimated dispositions to resign,
+but never as decisively before; that he supposed he had fixed on the
+latter part of next session, to give an opportunity to Congress to
+examine into his conduct: that our going out at times so different,
+increased his difficulty; for if he had both places to fill at once, he
+might consult both the particular talents and geographical situation
+of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions at the fermentation
+which seemed to be working in the mind of the public; that many
+descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared to
+be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to
+assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first
+expressions of their sentiment would be important; if I would only stay
+to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.
+
+I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the
+particular uneasiness of my situation in this place, where the laws of
+society oblige me always to move exactly in the circle which I know to
+bear me peculiar hatred; that is to say, the wealthy aristocrats,
+the merchants connected closely with England, the new created paper
+fortunes; that thus surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied,
+misconstrued, and even fabricated and spread abroad to my injury; that
+he saw also, that there was such an opposition of views between myself
+and another part of the administration, as to render it peculiarly
+unpleasing, and to destroy the necessary harmony. Without knowing
+the views of what is called the republican party here, or having any
+communication with them, I could, undertake to assure him, from my
+intimacy with that party in the late Congress, that there was not a view
+in the republican party as spread over the United States, which went
+to the frame of the government; that I believed the next Congress would
+attempt nothing material, but to render their own body independent; that
+that party were firm in their dispositions to support the government;
+that the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet might produce some little
+embarrassment, but that he would be abandoned by the republicans the
+moment they knew the nature of his conduct; and on the whole, no crisis
+existed which threatened any thing.
+
+He said, he believed the views of the republican party were perfectly
+pure, but when men put a machine into motion, it is impossible for them
+to stop it exactly where they would choose, or to say where it will
+stop. That the constitution we have is an excellent one, if we can keep
+it where it is; that it was, indeed, supposed there was a party disposed
+to change it into a monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously
+declare there was not a man in the United States who would set his
+face more decidedly against it than himself. Here I interrupted him by
+saying, 'No rational man in the United States suspects you of any other
+disposition; but there does not pass a week, in which we cannot prove
+declarations dropping from the monarchical party, that our government is
+good for nothing, is a milk-and-water thing which cannot support itself,
+we must knock it down, and set up something of more energy. He said, if
+that was the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the
+republican spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was
+astonishing how any one could expect to move it.
+
+He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr.
+Madison would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to
+him such a decision against public office, that he could not expect he
+would undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said
+that Mr. Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there
+was also Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed,
+that, name whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be
+called speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to
+mention any characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson
+of Maryland had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man
+of great good sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of
+speculations: but this, says he, is an instance of what I was observing;
+with all these qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of
+familiarity with foreign affairs, would be in them like a fish out of
+water; every thing would be new to him, and he awkward in every thing.
+I confessed to him that I had considered Johnson rather as fit for the
+Treasury department. 'Yes,' says he, 'for that he would be the fittest
+appointment that could be made; he is a man acquainted with figures, and
+having as good a knowledge of the resources of this country as any man.'
+I asked him if Chancellor Livingston had occurred to him. He said yes;
+but he was from New York, and to appoint him while Hamilton was in, and
+before it should be known he was going out, would excite a newspaper
+conflagration, as the ultimate arrangement would not be known. He said
+McLurg had occurred to him as a man of first-rate abilities, but it is
+said that he is a speculator. He asked me what sort of a man Wolcot was.
+I told him I knew nothing of him myself; I had heard him characterized
+as a cunning man. I asked him whether some person could not take my
+office per interim, till he should make an appointment; as Mr. Randolph,
+for instance. 'Yes,' says he; 'but there you would raise the expectation
+of keeping it, and I do not know that he is fit for it, nor what is
+thought of Mr. Randolph.' I avoided noticing the last observation, and
+he put the question to me directly. I then told him, I went into society
+so little as to be unable to answer it. I knew that the embarrassments
+in his private affairs had obliged him to use expedients, which had
+injured him with the merchants and shop-keepers, and affected his
+character of independence; that these embarrassments were serious, and
+not likely to cease soon. He said, if I would only stay in till the end
+of another quarter (the last of December), it would get us through the
+difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied that the affairs of
+Europe would be settled with this campaign: for that either France would
+be overwhelmed by it, or the confederacy would give up the contest. By
+that time, too, Congress will have manifested its character and views. I
+told him that I had set my private affairs in motion in a line which
+had powerfully called for my presence the last spring, and that they
+had suffered immensely from my not going home; that I had now calculated
+them to my return in the fall, and to fail in going then, would be
+the loss of another year, and prejudicial beyond measure. I asked
+him whether he could not name Governor Johnson to my office, under an
+express arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that
+of the Treasury. He said that men never chose to descend; that being
+once in a higher department, he would not like to go into a lower one.
+He asked me whether I could not arrange my affairs by going home. I told
+him I did not think the public business would admit of it; that there
+never was a day now, in which the absence of the Secretary of State
+would not be inconvenient to the public. And he concluded by desiring
+that I would take two or three days to consider whether I could not stay
+in till the end of another quarter, for that, like a man going, to the
+gallows, he was willing to put it off as long as he could; but if I
+persisted, he must then look about him and make up his mind to do the
+best he could: and so he took leave.
+
+
+November the 5th, 1793. E. Randolph tells me, that Hamilton, in
+conversation with him yesterday, said, 'Sir, if all the people in
+America were now assembled, and to call on me to say whether I am a
+friend to the French revolution, I would declare that I have it in
+abhorrence?'
+
+
+November the 8th, 1793. At a conference at the President's, where I read
+several letters of Mr. Genet; on finishing one of them, I asked what
+should be the answer. The President thereupon took occasion to observe,
+that Mr. Genet's conduct continued to be of so extraordinary a nature,
+that he meant to propose to our serious consideration, whether he
+should not have his functions discontinued, and be ordered away. He
+went lengthily into observations on his conduct, to raise against the
+executive, 1. the people, 2. the State governments, 3. the Congress.
+He showed he felt the venom of Genet's pen, but declared he would not
+choose his insolence should be regarded any farther, than as might be
+thought to affect the honor of the country. Hamilton and Knox readily
+and zealously argued for dismissing Mr. Genet. Randolph opposed it with
+firmness, and pretty lengthily. The President replied to him lengthily,
+and concluded by saying he did not wish to have the thing hastily
+decided, but that we should consider of it, and give our opinions on his
+return from Reading and Lancaster. Accordingly, November the 18th, we
+met at his house; read new volumes of Genet's letters, received since
+the President's departure; then took up the discussion of the subjects
+of communication to Congress. 1. The Proclamation. E. Randolph read the
+statement he had prepared; Hamilton did not like it; said much about his
+own views; that the President had a right to declare his opinion to
+our citizens and foreign nations; that it was not the interest of this
+country to join in the war, and that we were under no obligation to join
+in it; that though the declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet
+the President had a right to give his opinion of it, and he was against
+any explanation in the speech, which should yield that he did not intend
+that foreign nations should consider it as a declaration of neutrality,
+future as well as present; that he understood it as meant to give them
+that sort of assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now,
+would be a deception on them. He was for the President's using
+such expressions, as should neither affirm his right to make such
+a declaration to foreign nations, nor yield it. Randolph and myself
+opposed the right of the President to declare any thing future on the
+question, Shall there or shall there not be a war? and that no such
+thing was intended; that Hamilton's construction of the effect of the
+proclamation would have been a determination of the question of the
+guarantee, which we both denied to have intended, and I had at the
+time declared the executive incompetent to. Randolph said he meant that
+foreign nations should understand it as an intimation of the President's
+opinion, that neutrality would be our interest. I declared my meaning to
+have been, that foreign nations should understand no such thing; that,
+on the contrary, I would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come
+and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the President, having received
+the nation at the close of Congress in a state of peace, was bound to
+preserve them in that state till Congress should meet again, and might
+proclaim any thing which went no farther. The President declared he
+never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or
+that any thing contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first
+day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace;
+he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers,
+and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the
+merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we had not
+objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel Hamilton
+should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it should
+then be considered. We were here called to dinner.
+
+After dinner, the _renvoi_ of Genet was proposed by himself. I opposed
+it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our
+friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced
+where it has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone
+eighty-four days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and
+to be relieved by their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it
+would be eight or ten days before the matter on which the order should
+be founded, could be selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This
+would bring us within four or five days of the meeting of Congress.
+Would it not be better to wait and see how the pulse of that body, new
+as it is, would beat. They are with us now, probably, but such a step as
+this may carry many over to Genet's side. Genet will not obey the
+order, &c. &c. The President asked me what I would do if Genet sent the
+accusation to us to be communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the
+letter to Moultrie. I said I would not send it to Congress; but either
+put it in the newspapers, or send it back to him to be published if he
+pleased. Other questions and answers were put and returned in a quicker
+altercation than I ever before saw the President use. Hamilton was for
+the _renvoi_; spoke much of the dignity of the nation; that they were
+now to form their character; that our conduct now would tempt or deter
+other foreign ministers from treating us in the same manner; touched on
+the President's personal feelings; did not believe France would make it
+a cause of war; if she did, we ought to do what was right, and meet the
+consequences, &c. Knox on the same side, and said he thought it very
+possible Mr. Genet would either declare us a department of France, or
+levy troops here and endeavor to reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my
+opinion, and argued chiefly on the resurrection of popularity to Genet,
+which might be produced by this measure. That at present he was dead in
+the public opinion, if we would but leave him so. The President lamented
+there was not unanimity among us; that as it was, we had left him
+exactly where we found him; and so it ended.
+
+
+November the 21st. We met at the President's. The manner of explaining
+to Congress the intentions of the proclamation, was the matter of
+debate. Randolph produced his way of stating it. This expressed its
+views to have been, 1. to keep our citizens quiet; 2. to intimate to
+foreign nations that it was the President's opinion, that the interests
+and dispositions of this country were for peace. Hamilton produced his
+statement, in which he declared his intention to be, to say nothing
+which could be laid hold of for any purpose; to leave the proclamation
+to explain itself. He entered pretty fully into all the argumentation
+of Pacificus; he justified the right of the President to declare his
+opinion for a future neutrality, and that there existed no circumstances
+to oblige the United States to enter into the war on account of the
+guarantee; and that in agreeing to the proclamation, he meant it to be
+understood as conveying both those declarations; viz. neutrality, and
+that the _casus foederis_ on the guarantee did not exist. He admitted
+the Congress might declare war, notwithstanding these declarations of
+the President. In like manner, they might declare war in the face of a
+treaty, and in direct infraction of it. Among other positions laid down
+by him, this was with great positiveness; that the constitution having
+given power to the President and Senate to make treaties, they might
+make a treaty of neutrality which should take from Congress the right to
+declare war in that particular case, and that under the form of a treaty
+they might exercise any powers whatever, even those exclusively given by
+the constitution to the House of Representatives. Randolph opposed this
+position, and seemed to think that where they undertook to do acts by
+treaty (as to settle a tariff of duties), which were exclusively given
+to the legislature, that an act of the legislature would be necessary
+to confirm them, as happens in England, when a treaty interferes with
+duties established by law. I insisted that in giving to the President
+and Senate a power to make treaties, the constitution meant only to
+authorize them to carry into effect, by way of treaty, any powers they
+might constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of the weak points in
+this position, but there were still weaker in the other hypothesis; and
+if it be impossible to discover a rational measure of authority to have
+been given by this clause, I would rather suppose that the cases
+which my hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not thought of by the
+convention, or if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were thought
+of and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. Of this
+last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties offensive and
+defensive, &c. In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as
+to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would
+agree to yield, than too broadly, and, indeed, so broadly as to enable
+the executive and Senate to do things which the constitution forbids.
+On the question, which form of explaining the principles of the
+proclamation should be adopted, I declared for Randolph's, though it
+gave to that instrument more objects than I had contemplated. Knox
+declared for Hamilton's. The President said he had had but one
+object, the keeping our people quiet till Congress should meet; that
+nevertheless, to declare he did not mean a declaration of neutrality,
+in the technical sense of the phrase, might perhaps be crying _peccavi_
+before he was charged. However, he did not decide between the two
+draughts.
+
+November the 23rd. At the President's. Present, Knox, Randolph, and Th:
+Jefferson. Subject, the heads of the speech. One was, a proposition to
+Congress to fortify the principal harbors. I opposed the expediency
+of the General Government's undertaking it, and the expediency of the
+President's proposing it. It was amended, by substituting a proposition
+to adopt means for enforcing respect to the jurisdiction of the United
+States within its waters. It was proposed to recommend the establishment
+of a military academy. I objected that none of the specified powers
+given by the constitution to Congress, would authorize this. It was,
+therefore, referred for further consideration and inquiry. Knox was for
+both propositions. Randolph against the former, but said nothing as to
+the latter. The President acknowledged he had doubted of the expediency
+of undertaking the former; and as to the latter, though it would be a
+good thing, he did not wish to bring on any thing which might generate
+heat and ill-humor. It was agreed that Randolph should draw the speech
+and the messages.
+
+November the 28th. Met at the President's. I read over a list of the
+papers copying, to be communicated to Congress on the subject of Mr.
+Genet. It was agreed that Genet's letter of August the 13th to the
+President, mine of August the 16th, and Genet's of November to myself
+and the Attorney General, desiring a prosecution of Jay and King,
+should not be sent to the legislature: on a general opinion, that the
+discussion of the fact certified by Jay and King had better be left to
+the channel of the newspapers, and in the private hands in which it now
+is, than for the President to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion
+of it in Congress.
+
+Randolph had prepared a draught of the speech. The clause recommending
+fortifications was left out; but that for a military academy was
+inserted. I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitution. Hamilton
+and Knox approved it without discussion. Randolph was for it, saying
+that the words of the constitution anthorizing Congress to lay taxes,
+&c. for the common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he
+would not choose to recommend any thing against the constitution, but if
+it was doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure,
+that he would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves
+whether the constitution authorized it or not. It was, therefore,
+left in. I was happy to see that Randolph had, by accident, used the
+expression 'our republic,' in the speech. The President, however, made
+no objection to it, and so, as much as it had disconcerted him on
+a former occasion with me, it was now put into his own mouth to be
+pronounced to the two Houses of legislature.
+
+No material alterations were proposed or made in any part of the
+draught.
+
+After dinner, I produced the draught of messages on the subject of
+France and England, proposing that that relative to Spain should be
+subsequent and secret.
+
+Hamilton objected to the draught in toto; said that the contrast drawn
+between the conduct of France and England amounted to a declaration of
+war; he denied that France had ever done us favors; that it was mean for
+a nation to acknowledge favors; that the dispositions of the people of
+this country towards France, he considered as a serious calamity; that
+the executive ought not, by an echo of this language, to nourish that
+disposition in the people; that the offers in commerce made us by
+France, were the offspring of the moment, of circumstances which would
+not last, and it was wrong to receive as permanent, things merely
+temporary; that he could demonstrate that Great Britain showed us
+more favors than France. In complaisance to him I whittled down the
+expressions without opposition; struck out that of 'favors ancient and
+recent' from France; softened some terms, and omitted some sentiments
+respecting Great Britain. He still was against the whole, but insisted
+that, at any rate, it should be a secret communication, because the
+matters it stated were still depending. These were, 1. the inexecution
+of the treaty; 2. the restraining our commerce to their own ports and
+those of their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every thing. Randolph
+was for the communications; that the documents respecting the first
+should be given in as public; but that those respecting the second
+should not be given to the legislature at all, but kept secret. I began
+to tremble now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. I urged,
+especially, the duty now incumbent on the President, to lay before the
+legislature and the public what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty, since Mr. Hammond's answer of this month might be considered
+as the last we should ever have; that, therefore, it could no longer
+be considered as a negotiation pending. I urged that the documents
+respecting the stopping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that if
+it should be thought better to withhold them, the restrictions should
+not go to those respecting the treaty; that neither of these subjects
+was more in a state of pendency than the recall of Mr. Genet, on which,
+nevertheless, no scruples had been expressed. The President took up
+the subject with more vehemence than I have seen him show, and decided
+without reserve, that not only what had passed on the inexecution of the
+treaty should go in as public (in which Hamilton and Knox had divided
+in opinion from Randolph and myself), but also that those respecting the
+stopping our corn should go in as public (wherein Hamilton, Knox, and
+Randolph had been against me.) This was the first instance I had seen of
+his deciding on the opinion of one against that of three others, which
+proved his own to have been very strong.
+
+
+December the 1st, 1793. Beckley tells me he had the following fact from
+Lear. Langdon, Cabot, and some others of the Senate, standing in a knot
+before the fire after the Senate had adjourned, and growling together
+about some measure which they had just lost; 'Ah!' said Cabot,
+'things will never go right till you have a President for life, and an
+hereditary Senate.' Langdon told this to Lear, who mentioned it to the
+President. The President seemed struck with it, and declared he had not
+supposed there was a man in the United States who could have entertained
+such an idea.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+March the 2nd, 1797. I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as
+Vice-President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who lodged at
+Francis's, in Fourth street. The next morning he returned my visit
+at Mr. Madison's, where I lodged. He found me alone in my room, and
+shutting the door himself, he said he was glad to find me alone, for
+that he wished a free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an
+explanation of the situation of our affairs with France, and the
+danger of rupture with that nation, a rupture which would convulse the
+attachments of this country; that he was impressed with the necessity of
+an immediate mission to the Directory; that it would have been the first
+wish of his heart to have got me to go there, but that he supposed it
+was out of the question, as it did not seem justifiable for him to
+send away the person destined to take his place in case of accident to
+himself, nor decent to remove from competition one who was a rival in
+the public favor. That he had, therefore, concluded to send a mission,
+which, by its dignity, should satisfy France, and by its selection from
+the three great divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of
+the United States; in short, that he had determined to join Gerry and
+Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me to consult Mr. Madison for him.
+I told him that, as to myself, I concurred in the opinion of
+the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned me, and that my
+inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross the Atlantic
+again; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. Madison, but I feared
+it was desperate, as he had refused that mission on my leaving it, in
+General Washington's time, though it was kept open a twelvemonth for
+him. He said that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint
+him, and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madison, who
+declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday the 6th of March, Mr.
+Adams and myself met at dinner at General Washington's, and we happened,
+in the evening, to rise from table and come away together. As soon as
+we got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr.
+Madison. He immediately said, that, on consultation, some objections to
+that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was
+going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to
+Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street,
+mine off along Fifth, and we took leave: and he never after that said
+one word to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures
+of the government. The opinion I formed at the time on this transaction
+was, that Mr. Adams, in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the
+occasion (his inauguration), forgot party sentiments, and, as he never
+acted on any system, but was always governed by the feeling of the
+moment, he thought, for a moment, to steer impartially between the
+parties; that Monday, the 6th of March, being the first time he had
+met his cabinet, on expressing ideas of this kind, he had been at once
+diverted from them, and returned to his former party views.
+
+
+July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
+Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
+
+
+August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
+Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
+Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, '_Mais vraiment, Monsieur
+Hamilton, ce n'est pas Men honnete_, after making the Senate ratify
+the treaty, to advise the President to reject it.' 'The treaty,' says
+Hamilton, 'is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making
+it; but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the
+President.' After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the
+President also must ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, 'Though
+the treaty is a most execrable one, yet when once we have come to a
+determination on it, we must carry it through thick and thin, right or
+wrong.' Talleyrand told this to Volney, who told it to me.
+
+There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
+dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton.
+He was in Philadelphia at that date.
+
+
+December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election
+of President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
+considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
+occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
+Adams, who gritting his teeth, said, 'Damn 'em, damn 'em, damn 'em, you
+see that an elective government will not do.' He also tells me that Mr.
+Adams, in a late conversation,said,' Republicanism must be disgraced,
+'Sir.' The Chevalier Yrujo called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
+French affairs, and Yrujo expressing his belief of their stability, in
+opposition to Mr. Adamses, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger
+at him, said, 'I'll tell you what, the French republic will not last
+three months.' This I had from Yrujo.
+
+Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
+friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of
+their monarch. 'Then,' says a by-stander, 'the best thing we could do,
+I suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the
+United States.' 'Qur people,' says Harper, 'are not yet ripe for it, but
+it is the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.' Something
+like this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the
+public papers, though it can be proved by several members.
+
+
+December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton
+went out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his
+last conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their
+differences, 'For my part,' says he, 'I avow myself a monarchist; I have
+no objection to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,'
+&c.
+
+
+January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in
+our history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our
+present government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New
+York and the eastern States, among that description of people who were
+partly monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays's rebellion
+and the impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had
+actually had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of
+a government, and establishing them by force; had corresponded with
+one another, and had sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his
+co-operation. He refused to join them. The new convention was in the
+mean time proposed by Virginia and appointed. These people believed it
+impossible the States should ever agree on a government, as this must
+include the impost and all the other powers which the States had, a
+thousand times, refused to the general authority. They therefore let the
+proposed convention go on, not doubting its failure, and confiding
+that on its failure would be a still more favorable moment for their
+enterprise. They therefore wished it to fail, and especially, when
+Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his plan of government, failed
+entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust from the convention.
+His associates then took every method to prevent any form of government
+being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased trying, first one
+thing, then another, till they could get something agreed to. The final
+passage and adoption of the constitution completely defeated the
+views of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to establish a
+government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light on the
+conduct of several members from New York and the eastern States in the
+convention of Annapolis, and the grand convention. At that of Annapolis,
+several eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison's proposition
+for a more general convention, with more general powers. They wished
+things to get more and more into confusion, to justify the violent
+measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by
+reasoning and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project,
+visionary and unexampled.
+
+
+February the 6th, 1798. Mr. Baldwin tells me, that in a conversation
+yesterday with Goodhue, on the state of our affairs, Goodhue said, 'I'll
+tell you what, I have made up my mind on this subject; I would rather
+the old ship should go down than not'; (meaning the Union of the
+States.) Mr. Hillhouse coming up, 'Well,' says Mr. Baldwin, 'I'll tell
+my old friend Hillhouse what you say '; and he told him. 'Well,' says
+Goodhue, 'I repeat, that I would rather the old ship should go down,
+if we are to be always kept pumping so.' 'Mr. Hillhouse,' says Baldwin,
+'you remember when we were learning logic together at school, there was
+the case categorical and the case hypothetical. Mr. Goodhue stated it to
+me first as the case categorical. I am glad to see that he now changes
+it to the case hypothetical, by adding, 'if we are always to be kept
+pumping so.' Baldwin went on then to remind Goodhue what an advocate he
+had been for our tonnage duty, wanting to make it one dollar instead
+of fifty cents; and how impatiently he bore the delays of Congress
+in proceeding to retaliate on Great Britain before Mr. Madison's
+propositions came on. Goodhue acknowledged that his opinions had changed
+since that.
+
+
+February the 15th, 1798. I dined this day with Mr. Adams, (the
+President.) The company was large. After dinner I was sitting next to
+him, and our conversation was first on the enormous price of labor,*
+house rent, and other things. We both concurred in ascribing it
+chiefly to the flood of bank paper now afloat, and in condemning those
+institutions. We then got on the constitution; and in the course of our
+conversation he said, that no republic could ever last which had not a
+Senate, and a Senate deeply and strongly rooted, strong enough to bear
+up against all popular storms and passions; that he thought our
+Senate as well constituted as it could have been, being chosen by the
+legislatures; for if these could not support them, he did not know what
+could do it; that perhaps it might have been as well for them to
+be chosen by the State at large, as that would insure a choice of
+distinguished men, since none but such could be known to a whole people;
+that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not durable enough;
+that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was afraid they
+would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular assembly for
+the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera imaginable;
+they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that he would
+as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety, who made
+the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been observed by
+some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more mischief in
+one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we might say
+with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one night,
+than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or thirty
+years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of the
+constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
+two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
+conduct they pursue.
+
+     * He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
+     fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
+     food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
+     dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
+
+March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for
+the British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower
+House, there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of
+committees of the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want
+of them, he, in his place, called on the committees to report, and
+particularly on Mr. King, who was of most of them. King said that it was
+true the committees kept back their reports, waiting the event of
+the question about appropriation: that if that was not carried, they
+considered legislation as at an end; that they might as well break up
+and consider the Union as dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment
+at these ideas, and called on King to know if he had misapprehended him.
+King rose again and repeated the same words. The next day, Cabot took
+an occasion in debate, and so awkward a one as to show it was a thing
+agreed to be done, to repeat the same sentiments in stronger terms, and
+carried further, by declaring a determination on their side to break up
+and dissolve the government.
+
+
+March the 11th. In conversation with Baldwin and Brown of Kentucky,
+Brown says that in a private company once, consisting of Hamilton, King,
+Madison, himself, and some one else making a fifth, speaking of the
+'federal government'; 'Oh!' says Hamilton, 'say the federal monarchy;
+let us call things by their right names, for a monarchy it is.'
+
+Baldwin mentions at table the following fact. When the bank bill was
+under discussion in the House of Representatives, Judge Wilson came in,
+and was standing by Baldwin. Baldwin reminded him of the following fact
+which passed in the grand convention. Among the enumerated powers given
+to Congress, was one to erect corporations. It was on debate struck
+out. Several particular powers were then proposed. Among others, Robert
+Morris proposed to give Congress a power to establish a national bank.
+Gouverneur Morris opposed it, observing that it was extremely doubtful
+whether the constitution they were framing could ever be passed at all
+by the people of America; that to give it its best chance, however, they
+should make it as palatable as possible and put nothing into it not
+very essential, which might raise up enemies; that his colleague (Robert
+Morris) well knew that 'a bank' was, in their State (Pennsylvania)
+the very watch-word of party; that a bank had been the great bone of
+contention between the two parties of the State, from the establishment
+of their constitution, having been erected, put down, and erected again,
+as either party preponderated; that therefore, to insert this power,
+would instantly enlist against the whole instrument, the whole of the
+anti-bank party in Pennsylvania. Whereupon it was rejected, as was every
+other special power, except that of giving copyrights to authors, and
+patents to inventors; the general power of incorporating being whittled
+down to this shred. Wilson agreed to the fact.
+
+Mr. Hunter of South Carolina, who lodges with Rutledge, [* J. Rutledge,
+junior] tells me, that Rutledge was explaining to him the plan they
+proposed to pursue as to war measures, when Otis came in. Rutledge
+addressed Otis. 'Now, Sir,' says he, 'you must come forward with
+something liberal for the southern States, fortify their harbors and
+build galleys, in order to obtain their concurrence.' Otis said, 'We
+insist on convoys for our European trade, and _guarda-costas_, on which
+condition alone, we will give them galleys and fortifications.' Rutledge
+observed, that in the event of war, McHenry and Pickering must go out;
+Wolcott, he thought, might remain, but the others were incapable of
+conducting a war. Otis said the eastern people would never abandon
+Pickering; he must be retained; McHenry might go. They considered
+together whether General Pinckney would accept the office of
+Secretary of War. They apprehended he would not. It was agreed in this
+conversation, that Sewall had more the ear of the President than any
+other person.
+
+
+March the 12th. When the bill for appropriations was before the
+Senate, Anderson moved to strike out a clause recognising (by way
+of appropriation) the appointment of a committee by the House of
+Representatives, to sit during their recess to collect evidence on
+Blount's case, denying they had power, but by a law, to authorize a
+committee to sit during recess. Tracy advocated the motion, and said,
+'We may as well speak out. The committee was appointed by the House of
+Representatives, to take care of the British minister, to take care of
+the Spanish minister, to take care of the Secretary of State, in short,
+to take care of the President of the United States. They were afraid
+the President and Secretary of State would not perform the office of
+collecting evidence faithfully; that there would be collusion, &c.
+Therefore, the House appointed a committee of their own. We shall have
+them next sending a committee to Europe to make a treaty, &c. Suppose
+that the House of Representatives should resolve, that after the
+adjournment of Congress, they should continue to sit as a committee of
+the whole House during the whole recess.' This shows how the appointment
+of that committee has been viewed by the President's friends.
+
+
+April the 5th. Doctor Rush tells me he had it from Mrs. Adams, that
+not a scrip of a pen has passed between the late and present President,
+since he came into office.
+
+
+April the 13th. New instructions of the British government to their
+armed ships now appear, which clearly infringe their treaty with us,
+by authorizing them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French
+colonies from those colonies to Europe, and to lake vessels bound to
+a blockaded port. See them in Brown's paper, of April the 18th, in due
+form.
+
+The President has sent a government brig to France, probably to carry
+despatches. He has chosen as the bearer of these, one Humphreys, the son
+of a ship-carpenter, ignorant, under age, not speaking a word of French,
+most abusive of that nation; whose only merit is, the having mobbed and
+beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted
+and punished by fine.
+
+
+April the 25th. At a dinner given by the bar to the federal judges,
+Chase and Peters, present about twenty-four lawyers, and William
+Tilghman in the chair, this toast was given; 'Our _King_ in old
+England.' Observe the double entendre on the word King. Du Ponceau,
+who was one of the bar present, told this to Tench Coxe, who told me
+in presence of H. Tazewell. Dallas was at the dinner; so was Colonel
+Charles Sims of Alexandria, who is here on a law-suit vs. General
+Irving.
+
+
+May the 3rd. The President some time ago appointed Steele, of Virginia,
+a commissioner to the Indians, and recently Secretary of the Mississippi
+Territory. Steele was a Counsellor of Virginia, and was voted out by the
+Assembly because he turned tory. He then offered for Congress, and was
+rejected by the people. Then offered for the Senate of Virginia, and was
+rejected. The President has also appointed Joseph Hopkinson commissioner
+to make a treaty with the Oneida Indians. He is a youth of about
+twenty-two or twenty-three, and has no other claims to such an
+appointment than extreme toryism, and the having made a poor song to the
+tune of the President's March.
+
+
+October the 13th, 1798. Littlepage, who has been on one or two missions
+from Poland to Spain, said that when Gardoqui returned from America,
+he settled with his court an account of secret service money, of six
+hundred thousand dollars. _Ex relatione_ Colonel Monroe.
+
+
+January, 1799. In a conversation between Doctor Ewen and the President,
+the former said one of his sons was an aristocrat, the other a democrat.
+The President asked if it were not the youngest who was the democrat.
+'Yes,' said Ewen. 'Well,' said the President, 'a boy of fifteen who
+is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a
+democrat at twenty.' Ewen told Hurt, and Hurt told me.
+
+
+January the 14th. Logan tells me that in his conversation with Pickering
+on his arrival, the latter abused Gerry very much; said he was a traitor
+to his country, and had deserted the post to which he was appointed;
+that the French temporized at first with Pinckney, but found him too
+much of a man for their purpose. Logan observing, that, notwithstanding
+the pacific declarations of France, it might still be well to keep up.
+the military ardor of our citizens, and to have the militia in good
+order: 'The militia,' said Pickering, 'the militia never did any good to
+this country, except in the single affair of Bunker's Hill; that we must
+have a standing army of fifty thousand men, which being stationed in
+different parts of the continent, might serve as rallying points for the
+militia, and so render them of some service.' In his conversation with
+Mr. Adams, Logan mentioned the willingness of the French to treat with
+Gerry. 'And do you know why,' said Mr. Adams. 'Why, Sir?' said
+Logan. 'Because,' said Mr. Adams, 'they know him to have been an
+anti-federalist, against the constitution.'
+
+
+January the 2nd, 1800. Information from Tench Coxe. Mr. Liston had sent
+two letters to the Governor of Canada by one Sweezy. He had sent copies
+of them, together with a third, (original) by one Cribs. Sweezy was
+arrested (being an old horse-thief), and his papers examined. T. Coxe
+had a sight of them. As soon as a rumor got out that there were letters
+of Mr. Liston disclosed, but no particulars yet mentioned, Mr. Liston
+suspecting that Cribs had betrayed him, thought it best to bring all
+his three letters, and lay them before Pickering, Secretary of State.
+Pickering thought them all very innocent. In his office they were seen
+by Mr. Hodgen of New Jersey, commissary of military stores, and the
+intimate friend of Pickering. It happens that there is some land
+partnership between Pickering, Hodgen, and Coxe, so that the latter is
+freely and intimately visited by Hodgen, who, moreover, speaks freely
+with him on political subjects. They were talking the news of the day,
+when Mr. Coxe observed that these intercepted letters of Liston were
+serious things; (nothing being yet out but a general rumor.) Hodgen
+asked which he thought the most serious. Coxe said the second; (for he
+knew yet of no other.) Hodgen said he thought little of any of them, but
+that the third was the most exceptionable. This struck Coxe, who, not
+betraying his ignorance of a third letter, asked generally what part of
+that he alluded to. Hodgen said to that wherein he assured the Governor
+of Canada, that if the French invaded Canada, an army would be marched
+from these States to his assistance. After this it became known that it
+was Sweezy who was arrested, and not Cribs; so that Mr. Liston had made
+an unnecessary disclosure of his third letter to Mr. Pickering, who,
+however, keeps his secret for him. In the beginning of the conversation
+between Hodgen and Coxe, Coxe happened to name Sweezy as the bearer of
+the letters. 'That 's not his name,' says Hodgen, (for he did not know
+that two of the letters had been sent by Sweezy also) 'his name is
+Cribs.' This put Coxe on his guard, and set him to fishing for the new
+matter.
+
+
+January the 10th. Doctor Rush tells me, that he had it from Samuel
+Lyman, that during the X. Y. Z. Congress, the federal members held the
+largest caucus they have ever had, at which he was present, and the
+question was proposed and debated, whether they should declare war
+against France, and determined in the negative. Lyman was against it. He
+tells me, that Mr. Adams told him, that when he came on in the fall to
+Trenton, he was there surrounded constantly by the opponents of the late
+mission to France. That Hamilton pressing him to delay it, said, 'Why,
+Sir, by Christmas, Louis the XVIII. will be seated on his throne.' Mr.
+A. 'By whom?' H. 'By the coalition.' Mr. A. 'Ah! then farewell to the
+independence of Europe. If a coalition, moved by the finger of England,
+is to give a government to France, there is an end to the independence
+of every country.'
+
+
+January the 12th. General Samuel Smith says that Pickering, Wolcott,
+and McHenry, wrote a joint letter from Trenton to the President, then at
+Braintree, dissuading him from the mission to France. Stoddard refused
+to join it. Stoddard says the instructions are such, that if the
+Directory have any disposition to reconciliation, a treaty will be made.
+He observed to him also, that Ellsworth looks beyond this mission to
+the Presidential chair. That with this view, he will endeavor to make
+a treaty, and a good one. That Davie has the same vanity and views. All
+this communicated by Stoddard to S. Smith.
+
+
+January the 13th. Baer and Harrison G. Otis told J. Nicholas, that in
+the caucus mentioned ante 10th, there wanted but five votes to produce a
+declaration of war. Baer was against it.
+
+
+January the 19th. W. C. Nicholas tells me, that in a conversation with
+Dexter three or four days ago, he asked Dexter whether it would not be
+practicable for the States to agree on some uniform mode of choosing
+electors of President. Dexter said, 'I suppose you would prefer an
+election by districts.' 'Yes,' said Nicholas, 'I think it would be
+best; but would nevertheless agree to any other consistent with the
+constitution.' Dexter said he did not know what might be the opinion of
+his State, but his own was, that no mode of election would answer any
+good purpose; that he should prefer one for life. 'On that reasoning,'
+said Nicholas, 'you should prefer an hereditary one.' 'No,' he said, 'we
+are not ripe for that yet. I suppose,' added he, 'this doctrine is not
+very popular with you.' 'No,' said Nicholas, 'it would effectually damn
+any man in my State.' 'So it would in mine,' said Dexter; 'but I am
+under no inducement to belie my sentiment; I have nothing to ask from
+any body; I had rather be at home than here, therefore I speak my
+sentiments freely.' Mr. Nicholas, a little before or after this, made
+the same proposition of a uniform election to Rossr who replied that he
+saw no good in any kind of election. 'Perhaps,' said he, 'the present
+one may last a while.' On the whole, Mr. Nicholas thinks he perceives,
+in that party, a willingness and a wish to let every thing go from bad
+to worse, to amend nothing, in hopes it may bring on confusion, and open
+a door to the kind of government they wish. In a conversation with Gunn,
+who goes with them, but thinks in some degree with us, Gunn told him
+that the very game which the minority of Pennsylvania is now playing
+with McKean (see substitute of minority in lower House, and address
+of Senate in upper), was meditated by the same party in the federal
+government, in case of the election of a republican President; and that
+the eastern States would in that case throw things into confusion,
+and break the Union. That they have in a great degree got rid of their
+paper, so as no longer to be creditors, and the moment they cease to
+enjoy the plunder of the immense appropriations now exclusively theirs,
+they would aim at some other order of things.
+
+
+January the 24th. Mr. Smith, a merchant of Hamburg, gives me the
+following information. The St. Andrew's Club, of New York, (all
+of Scotch tories,) gave a public dinner lately. Among other guests
+Alexander Hamilton was one. After dinner, the first toast was 'The
+President of the United States.' It was drunk without any particular
+approbation. The next was, 'George the Third.' Hamilton started up on
+his feet, and insisted on a bumper and three cheers. The whole company
+accordingly rose and gave the cheers. One of them, though a federalist,
+was so disgusted at the partiality shown by Hamilton to a foreign
+sovereign over his own President, that he mentioned it to a Mr.
+Schwart-house, an American merchant of New York, who mentioned it to
+Smith.
+
+Mr. Smith also tells me, that calling one evening on Mr. Evans, then
+Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and asking
+the news, Evans said, Harper had just been there, and speaking of the
+President's setting out to Braintree, said, 'he prayed to God that his
+horses might run away with him, or some other accident happen to break
+his neck before he reached Braintree.' This was in indignation at his
+having named Murray, &c. to negotiate with France. Evans approved of the
+wish.
+
+
+February the 1st. Doctor Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green,
+that when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure
+from the government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had
+never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief
+in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their
+address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a
+Christian or not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was
+too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address
+particularly except that, which he passed over without notice. Rush
+observes, he never did say a word on the subject in any of his public
+papers, except in his valedictory letter to the Governors of the States
+when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of 'the
+benign influence of the Christian religion.'
+
+I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
+believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
+believed no more of that system than he himself did.
+
+
+March, 1800. Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate, on the motion
+against the Aurora. That there is in every legal body of men a right of
+self-preservation, authorizing them to do whatever is necessary for that
+purpose: by Tracy, Read, and Lawrence. That the common law authorizes
+the proceeding proposed against the Aurora, and is in force here: by
+Read. That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite: by
+Read.
+
+Tracy says, he would not say exactly that the common law of England in
+all its extent is in force here; but common sense reason, and morality,
+which are the foundations of the common law, are in force here, and
+establish a common law. He held himself so nearly half way between the
+common law of England and what every body else has called natural law,
+and not common law, that he could hold to either the one or the other,
+as he should find expedient.
+
+Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
+United States.
+
+Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.
+
+
+March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
+in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life
+had, directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which
+is an absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty
+well ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on
+Davila. This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though
+long and universally understood to be so.
+
+
+March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws
+in his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney's letters on Robbins's
+case. Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of
+that place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to
+about one hundred dollars a year.
+
+
+March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that
+Thatcher, on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had
+been for a declaration of war against France, and many others also; but
+that on counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore
+did not attempt it.
+
+
+March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information.
+He and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found
+him keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the
+study of the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator,
+and particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still
+were in concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed
+him there was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the
+government, who were in league with France; that France, by a secret
+article of treaty with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great
+Britain was likely to be our best friend and dependence.
+
+On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
+for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
+General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on
+him, and he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on
+their grievances under the government, and particularly the western
+expedition; that he spoke to him of the advantages that country would
+have in joining France when she should hold Louisiana; showed him a map
+he had drawn of that part of the country; pointed out the passes in the
+mountain, and the facility with which they might hold them against
+the United States, and with which France could support them from New
+Orleans. He says, that in these conversations, Collot let himself out
+without common prudence. He says, Michaux (to whom I, at the request of
+Genet, had given a letter of introduction to the Governor of Kentucky as
+a botanist, which was his real profession,) called on him; that Michaux
+had a commissary's commission for the expedition, which Genet had
+planned from that quarter against the Spaniards; that ----------,
+the late Spanish commandant of St. Genevieve, with one Powers, an
+Englishman, called on him. That from all these circumstances, together
+with Ross's stories, he did believe that there was a conspiracy to
+deliver our country, or some part of it at least, to the French; that he
+made notes of what passed between himself and Collot and the others, and
+lent them to Mr. Ross, who gave them to the President, by whom they were
+deposited in the office of the Board of War; that when he complained
+to Ross of this breach of confidence, he endeavored to get off by
+compliments on the utility and importance of his notes. They now cooled
+towards each other; and his opposition to Ross's election as Governor
+has separated them in truth, though not entirely to appearance.
+
+Doctor Rush tells me, that within a few days he has heard a member
+of Congress lament our separation from Great Britain, and express his
+sincere wishes that we were again dependent on her.
+
+
+December the 25th, 1800. Colonel Hitchburn tells me what Colonel Monroe
+had before told me of, as coming from Hitchburn. He was giving me the
+characters of persons in Massachusetts. Speaking of Lowell, he said he
+was, in the beginning of the Revolution, a timid whig, but as soon as he
+found we were likely to prevail, he became a great office-hunter. And in
+the very breath of speaking of Lowell, he stopped: says he, I will give
+you a piece of information which I do not venture to speak of to others.
+There was a Mr. Hale in Massachusetts, a reputable, worthy man, who
+becoming a little embarrassed in his affairs, I aided him, which
+made him very friendly to me. He went to Canada on some business. The
+Governor there took great notice of him. On his return, he took occasion
+to mention to me that he was authorized by the Governor of Canada
+to give from three to five thousand guineas each to himself and some
+others, to induce them not to do any thing to the injury of their
+country, but to befriend a good connection between England and it.
+Hitchburn said he would think of it, and asked Hale to come and dine
+with him to-morrow. After dinner he drew Hale fully out. He told him he
+had his doubts, but particularly, that he should not like to be alone in
+such a business. On that, Hale named to him four others who were to
+be engaged, two of whom, said Hitchburn, are now dead, and two living.
+Hitchburn, when he had got all he wanted out of Hale, declined in a
+friendly way. But he observed those, four men, from that moment, to
+espouse the interests of England in every point and on every occasion.
+Though he did not name the men to me, yet as the speaking of Lowell was
+what brought into his Read to tell me this anecdote, I concluded he was
+one. From other circumstances respecting Stephen Higginson, of whom he
+spoke, I conjectured him to be the other living one.
+
+
+December the 26th. In another conversation, I mentioned to Colonel
+Hitchburn, that though he had not named names, I had strongly suspected
+Higginson to be one of Hale's men. He smiled and said, if I had strongly
+suspected any man wrongfully from his information, he would undeceive
+me: that there were no persons he thought more strongly to be suspected
+himself, than Higginson and Lowell. I considered this as saying they
+were the men. Higginson is employed in an important business about our
+navy.
+
+
+February the 12th, 1801. Edward Livingston tells me, that Bayard applied
+to-day or last night to General Samuel Smith, and represented to him
+the expediency of his coming over to the States who vote for Burr, that
+there was nothing in the way of appointment which he might not command,
+and particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. Smith asked
+him if he was authorized to make the offer. He said he was authorized.
+Smith told this to Livingston, and to W. C. Nicholas, who confirms it
+to me. Bayard in like manner tempted Livingston, not by offering
+any particular office, but by representing to him his (Livingston's)
+intimacy and connection with Burr; that from him he had every thing to
+expect, if he would come over to him. To Doctor Linn of New Jersey, they
+have offered the government of New Jersey. See a paragraph in Martin's
+Baltimore paper of February the 10th, signed, 'a looker on,' staling an
+intimacy of views between Harper and Burr.
+
+
+February the 14th. General Armstrong tells me, that Gouverneur Morris,
+in conversation with him to-day on the scene which is passing, expressed
+himself thus. 'How comes it,' says he, 'that Burr, who is four hundred
+miles off (at Albany), has agents here at work with great activity,
+while Mr. Jefferson, who is on the spot, does nothing?' This explains
+the ambiguous conduct of himself and his nephew, Lewis Morris, and that
+they were holding themselves free for a price; i.e. some office, either
+to the uncle or nephew.
+
+
+February the 16th. See in the Wilmington Mirror of February the 14th,
+Mr. Bayard's elaborate argument to prove that the common law, as
+modified by the laws of the respective States at the epoch of the
+ratification of the constitution, attached to the courts of the United
+States.
+
+
+June the 23rd, 1801. Andrew Ellicot tells me, that in a conversation
+last summer with Major William Jackson of Philadelphia, on the subject
+of our intercourse with Spain, Jackson said we had managed our affairs
+badly; that he himself was the author of the papers against the Spanish
+minister signed Americanus; that his object was irritation; that he was
+anxious, if it could have been brought, about, to have plunged us into a
+war with Spain, that the people might have been occupied with that, and
+not with the conduct of the administration, and other things they had no
+business to meddle with.
+
+
+December the 13th, 1803. The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who
+is now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in
+Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this
+enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which
+he meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in
+a civil character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his
+name, he being then President, and the application going only for his
+name, and not for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and
+considering, said, 'he saw no possibility of continuing the union of
+the States; that their dissolution must necessarily take place; that he
+therefore saw no propriety in recommending to New England men to promote
+a literary institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength
+to those who were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have
+nothing to do with it.'
+
+December the 31st. After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of
+Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed
+the insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the
+Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was
+spoken out which was known; that it would then appear on which side
+there was a bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode
+Island, urging him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words. 'What is
+it you want, Colonel Lyon? Is it office, is it money? Only say what you
+want, and you shall have it.'
+
+January the 2nd, 1804. Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding
+me of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the
+Presidential election, says he did not therein give the details. That he
+was in company at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and ------ that in the
+course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, 'We must
+have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.' 'How is it to
+be done,' says Hitchburn; 'Mr. Jefferson's friends will not quit him,
+and his enemies are not strong enough to carry another.' 'Why,' says
+Burr, 'our friends must join the federalists, and give the President.'
+'The next morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same,
+saying, 'We cannot be without a President, our friends must join the
+federal vote.' 'But,' says Hitchburn, 'we shall then be without a
+Vice-President; who is to be our Vice-President?' Colonel Burr answered,
+'Mr. Jefferson.'
+
+
+January the 26th. Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the
+evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me.
+He began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a
+stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two
+rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not
+political, and he meddled not. When the crisis, however, of 1800 came
+on, they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the
+people. He lent it without any views of promotion. That his being named
+as a candidate for Vice-President was unexpected by him. He acceded to
+it with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to
+be with me, whose company and conversation had always been fascinating
+to him. That, since, those great families had become hostile to him,
+and had excited the calumnies which I had seen published. That in this
+Hamilton had joined, and had even written some of the pieces against
+him. That his attachment to me had been sincere, and was still
+unchanged, although many little stories had been carried to him, and
+he supposed to me also, which he despised; but that attachments must be
+reciprocal, or cease to exist, and therefore he asked if any change
+had taken place in mine towards him; that he had chosen to have this
+conversation with myself directly, and not through any intermediate
+agent. He reminded me of a letter written to him about the time of
+counting the votes (say February, 1801), mentioning that his election
+had left a chasm in my arrangements; that I had lost him from my list
+in the administration, &c. He observed, he believed it would be for
+the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a
+disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place; but that were he to
+retire, it would be said he shrunk from the public sentence, which he
+never would do; that his enemies were using my name to destroy him,
+and something was necessary from me to prevent and deprive them of that
+weapon, some mark of favor from me which would declare to the world that
+he retired with my confidence.
+
+I answered by recapitulating to him what had been my conduct previous
+to the election of 1800. That I had never interfered directly or
+indirectly, with my friends or any others, to influence the election
+either for him or myself; that I considered it as my duty to be merely
+passive, except that in Virginia I had taken some measures to procure
+for him the unanimous vote of that State, because I thought any failure
+there might be imputed to me. That in the election now coming on, I was
+observing the same conduct, held no councils with any body respecting
+it, nor suffered any one to speak to me on the subject, believing it my
+duty to leave myself to the free discussion of the public; that I do
+not at this moment know, nor have ever heard, who were to be proposed
+as candidates for the public choice, except so far as could be gathered
+from the newspapers. That as to the attack excited against him in the
+newspapers, I had noticed it but as the passing wind; that I had seen
+complaints that Cheetham, employed in publishing the laws, should be
+permitted to eat the public bread and abuse its second officer: that as
+to this, the publishers of the laws were appointed by the Secretary of
+State, without any reference to me; that to make the notice general, it
+was often given to one republican and one federal printer of the same
+place; that these federal printers did not in the least intermit their
+abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the government, and that
+I have never thought it proper to interfere for myself, and consequently
+not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to the letter he referred
+to, I remembered it, and believed he had only mistaken the date at which
+it was written; that I thought it must have been on the first notice of
+the event of the election of South Carolina; and that I had taken that
+occasion to mention to him, that I had intended to have proposed to
+him one of the great offices, if he had not been elected; but that his
+election, in giving him a higher station, had deprived me of his aid in
+the administration. The letter alluded to was, in fact, mine to him of
+December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain to him verbally,
+what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That in General
+Washington's time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams, the
+Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
+Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams
+was a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts,
+indeed, his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away
+the person who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution
+to take his place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be
+disposing of the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor
+for the public favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I
+recollect rightly, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave
+the same opinions. That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in
+his first interview with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to
+France, and how desirable it would have been to him if he could have got
+me to undertake it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to
+send me away, and assigned the same reasons General Washington had done;
+and therefore, he should appoint Mr. Madison, &c. That I had myself
+contemplated his (Colonel Burr's) appointment to one of the great
+offices, in case he was not elected Vice-President; but that as soon
+as that election was known, I saw it could not be done, for the good
+reasons which had led General Washington and Mr. Adams to the same
+conclusion; and therefore, in my first letter to Colonel Burr, after the
+issue was known, I had mentioned to him that a chasm in my arrangements
+had been produced by this event. I was thus particular in rectifying the
+date of this letter, because it gave me an opportunity of explaining the
+grounds on which it was written, which were, indirectly, an answer to
+his present hints. He left the matter with me for consideration, and the
+conversation was turned to indifferent subjects. I should here notice,
+that Colonel Burr must have thought I could swallow strong things in
+my own favor, when he founded his acquiescence to the nomination as
+Vice-President, to his desire of promoting my honor, the being with me,
+whose company and conversation had always been fascinating with him, &c.
+I had never seen Colonel Burr till he came as a member of Senate. His
+conduct very soon inspired me with distrust. I habitually cautioned
+Mr. Madison against trusting him too much. I saw afterwards, that under
+General Washington's and Mr. Adams's administrations, whenever a great
+military appointment or a diplomatic one was to be made, he came post to
+Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact that he was always at market,
+if they had wanted him. He was indeed told by Dayton in 1800, he
+might be Secretary at War; but this bid was too late! His election as
+Vice-President was then foreseen. With these impressions of Colonel
+Burr, there never had been an intimacy between us, and but little
+association. When I destined him for a high appointment, it was out of
+respect for the favor he had obtained with the republican party, by his
+extraordinary exertions and success in the New York election in 1800.
+
+
+April the 15th, 1806. About a month ago, Colonel Burr called on me, and
+entered into a conversation, in which he mentioned, that a little before
+my coming into office, I had written to him a letter intimating that I
+had destined him for a high employ, had he not been placed by the people
+in a different one; that he had signified his willingness to resign as
+Vice-President, to give aid to the administration in any other place;
+that he had never asked an office, however; he asked aid of nobody, but
+could walk on his own legs and take care of himself; that I had always
+used him with politeness, but nothing more; that he aided in bringing on
+the present order of things; that he had supported the administration;
+and that he could do me much harm: he wished, however, to be
+on different ground: he was now disengaged from all particular
+business--willing to engage in something--should be in town some days,
+if I should have any thing to propose to him. I observed to him, that
+I had always been sensible that he possessed talents which might be
+employed greatly to the advantage of the public, and that, as to myself,
+I had a confidence that if he were employed, he would use his talents
+for the public good: but that he must be sensible the public had
+withdrawn their confidence from him, and that in a government like ours
+it was necessary to embrace in its administration as great a mass of
+public confidence as possible, by employing those who had a character
+with the public, of their own, and not merely a secondary one through
+the executive. He observed, that if we believed a few newspapers, it
+might be supposed he had lost the public confidence, but that I knew how
+easy it was to engage newspapers in any thing. I observed, that I
+did not refer to that kind of evidence of his having lost the public
+confidence, but to the late Presidential election, when, though in
+possession of the office of Vice-President, there was not a single voice
+heard for his retaining it. That as to any harm he could do me, I knew
+no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I feared no
+injury which any man could do me: that I never had done a single act,
+or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully laid
+open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated: that I had never
+done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of any
+friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:
+that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive
+of action with me. He has continued in town to this time; dined with me
+this day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.
+
+I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now,
+because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of
+Mr. Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor
+to any other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to have
+addressed to me, during the pending of the Presidential election in
+February, 1801, through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on
+which my election might be obtained, and that General Smith, after
+conversing with me, gave answers from me. This is absolutely false. No
+proposition of any kind was ever made to me on that occasion by General
+Smith, nor any answer authorized by me. And this fact General Smith
+affirms at this moment.
+
+For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th
+and 14th, 1801, made at the moment. But the following transactions
+took place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential
+election was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at
+the time, they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now
+as fresh, as to their principal circumstances, as if they had happened
+yesterday. Coming out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur
+Morris on the steps. He stopped me, and began a conversation on the
+strange and portentous state of things then existing, and went on to
+observe, that the reasons why the minority of States was so opposed to
+my being elected, were, that they apprehended that, 1. I would turn all
+federalists out of office; 2. put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public
+debt. That I need only to declare, or authorize my friends to declare,
+that I would not take these steps, and instantly the event of the
+election would be fixed. I told him, that I should leave the world
+to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by that which I had pursued
+hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be passive and silent during the
+present scene; that I should certainly make no terms; should never go
+into the office of President by capitulation, nor with my hands tied by
+any conditions which should hinder me from pursuing the measures which
+I should deem for the public good. It was understood that Gouverneur
+Morris had entirely the direction of the vote of Lewis Morris of
+Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would have added another
+vote, and decided the election. About the same time, I called on Mr.
+Adams. We conversed on the state of things. I observed to him, that
+a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to defeat the
+Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the right of
+the Senate to name a President of the Senate, to devolve on him the
+government during any interregnum: that such a measure would probably
+produce resistance by force, and incalculable consequences, which it
+would be in his power to prevent by negativing such an act. He seemed to
+think such an act justifiable, and observed, it was in my power to fix
+the election by a word in an instant, by declaring I would not turn out
+the federal officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national
+debt. Finding his mind made up as to the usurpation of the government by
+the President of the Senate, I urged it no further, observed, the
+world must judge as to myself of the future by the past, and turned the
+conversation to something else. About the same time, Dwight Foster of
+Massachusetts called on me in my room one night, and went into a very
+long conversation on the state of affairs, the drift of which was to let
+me understand, that the fears above mentioned were the only obstacle to
+my election, to all of which I avoided giving any answer the one way
+or the other. From this moment he became most bitterly and personally
+opposed to me, and so has ever continued. I do not recollect that I
+ever had any particular conversation with General Samuel Smith on this
+subject. Very possibly I had, however, as the general subject and
+all its parts were the constant themes of conversation in the private
+tete-a-tetes with our friends. But certain I am, that neither he nor
+any other republican ever uttered the most distant hint to me about
+submitting to any conditions, or giving any assurances to any body;
+and still more certainly, was neither he nor any other person ever
+authorized by me to say what I would or would not do.
+
+
+*****
+
+*****
+
+
+[The following official opinion, though inadvertently omitted in its
+proper place, is deemed of sufficient importance to be inserted here.]
+
+The bill for establishing a National Bank, undertakes, among other
+things,
+
+1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
+
+2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of
+land; and so far, is against the laws of _Mortmain_.*
+
+     * Though the constitution controls the laws of Mortmain, so
+     far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain
+     purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a
+     similar right to other corporate bodies.
+
+3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far, is
+against the laws of Alienage.
+
+4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain
+line of successors; and so far, changes the course of Descents.
+
+5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat; and so
+far, is against the laws of _Forfeiture_ and _Escheat_.
+
+6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain line; and so
+far, is against the laws of Distribution.
+
+7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the
+national authority; and so far, is against the laws of Monopoly.
+
+8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws of
+the States; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution
+from the control of the State legislatures; and so, probably, they will
+be construed.
+
+I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this ground,
+that all powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution
+nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to
+the people.' (Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond the
+boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to
+take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of
+any definition.
+
+The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill,
+have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the
+constitution.
+
+I. They are not among the powers specially, enumerated. For these are,
+
+1. A power to _lay taxes_ for the purpose of paying the debts of the
+United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were
+it a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it
+by the constitution.
+
+2. To 'borrow money.' But this bill neither borrows money, nor insures
+the borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free
+as any other money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to the
+public. The operation proposed in the bill, first to lend them two
+millions, and then borrow them back again cannot change the nature of
+the latter act, which will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by
+what name you please.
+
+3. 'To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the States, and
+with the Indian tribes.' To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are
+very different acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject of commerce
+in its bills: so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar
+out of the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce
+thereby. To make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to
+prescribe regulations for buying and selling. Besides, if this were
+an exercise of the power of regulating commerce, it would be void, as
+extending as much to the internal commerce of every State, as to its
+external. For the power given to Congress by the constitution, does not
+extend to the internal regulation, of the commerce of a State (that
+is to say, of the commerce between citizen and citizen), which remains
+exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce
+only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign
+nations, or with the Indian tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not
+propose the measure as a 'regulation of trade,' but as 'productive of
+considerable advantage to trade.'
+
+Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
+enumerations.
+
+II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
+following.
+
+1. 'To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United
+States'; that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing
+for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and
+the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised.
+Congress are not to lay taxes, _ad libitum_, for any purpose they
+please: but only to pay the debts, or provide for the welfare of the
+Union. In like manner, they are not to do any thing they please, to
+provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.
+To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the
+first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they
+please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the
+preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.
+It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of
+instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good
+of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good
+or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they pleased. It
+is an established rule of construction, where a phrase will bear either
+of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the
+other parts of the instrument, and not that which will render all the
+others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given
+them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated
+powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be
+carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed as
+a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which formed the
+constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to
+open parials, and an amendatory one, to empower them to incorporate.
+But the whole was rejected; and one of the reasons of rejection urged
+in debate was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank,
+which would render the great cities, where there were prejudices
+and jealousies on that subject, adverse to the reception of the
+constitution.
+
+2. The second general phrase is, 'to make all laws necessary and proper
+for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.' But they can all
+be carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not
+necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase.
+
+It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or
+convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the
+constitution allows only the means which are 'necessary' not those which
+are merely 'convenient' for effecting the enumerated powers. If such
+a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any
+non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which
+ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to
+some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up
+all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before
+observed. Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them to the
+necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant
+of the power would be nugatory.
+
+But let us examine this 'convenience,' and see what it is. The report
+on this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience to be, the
+preventing the transportation and re-transportation of money between the
+States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase of circulating
+medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, according to my ideas of
+paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every State will have to pay a sum
+of tax-money into the treasury; and the treasury will have to pay in
+every State a part of the interest on the public debt, and salaries
+to the officers of government resident in that State. In most of the
+States, there will be still a surplus of tax-money, to come up to the
+seat of government, for the officers residing there. The payments of
+interest and salary in each State, may be made by treasury orders on the
+state collector. This will take up the greater part of the money he has
+collected in his State and consequently prevent the great mass of it
+from being drawn out of the state. If there be a balance of commerce in
+favor of that State, against the one in which the government resides,
+the surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for
+that commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. But if
+there be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the
+banks in the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but in the
+form of money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of exchange, may prevent
+the displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the
+aid of any bank: and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with
+that aid.
+
+Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than
+treasury orders. But a little difference in the degree of convenience,
+cannot constitute the necessity which the constitution makes the ground
+for assuming any non-enumerated power.
+
+Besides; the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into arrangements
+for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a
+competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill delivers us up bound
+to the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangements but on
+their own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal to employ any
+other bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by
+their post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasury, are paid
+by any State collector to whom they are presented. This expedient alone,
+suffices to prevent the existence of that necessity which may justify
+the assumption of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into
+effect an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, and
+well done, without this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that
+degree of necessity which can honestly justify it.
+
+It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency all over
+the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency is limited
+to a single State. So it would be still more convenient, that there
+should be a bank whose bills should have a currency all over the world.
+But it does not follow from this superior conveniency, that there exists
+any where a power to establish such a bank, or that the world may not
+go on very well without it. Can it be thought that the constitution
+intended, that for a shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress
+should be authorized to break down the most ancient and fundamental
+laws of the several States, such as those against mortmain, the laws of
+alienage, the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws
+of escheat and forfeiture, and the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a
+necessity invincible by any other means, can justify such a prostration
+of laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of
+jurisprudence. Will Congress be too strait-laced to carry the
+constitution into honest effect, unless they may pass over the
+foundation laws of the State governments, for the slightest convenience
+to theirs?
+
+The negative of the President is the shield provided by the
+constitution, to protect against the invasions of the legislature, 1.
+the rights of the Executive; 2. of the Judiciary; 3. of the States
+and State legislatures. The present is the case of a right remaining
+exclusively with the States, and is, consequently, one of those intended
+by the constitution to be placed under his protection.
+
+It must be added, however, that unless the President's mind, on a view
+of every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably
+clear that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the pro and the
+con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the
+wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of
+their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by
+error, ambition, or interest, that the constitution has placed a check
+in the negative of the President.
+
+Th: Jefferson.
+
+February 15, 1791.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And
+Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
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diff --git a/16784.zip b/16784.zip
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #16784 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16784)
diff --git a/old/16784-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/16784-h.htm.2021-01-25
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of Thomas
+      Jefferson, Vol IV.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies,
+From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, by Thomas Jefferson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
+
+Author: Thomas Jefferson
+
+Editor: Thomas Jefferson Randolph
+
+Illustrator: Steel engraving by Longacre from painting of G. Stuart
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2005 [EBook #16784]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/spines.jpg"
+       alt="Book Spines, 1829 Set of Jefferson Papers " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MEMOIR, CORRESPONDENCE, AND MISCELLANIES, <br /> FROM THE PAPERS OF THOMAS
+      JEFFERSON.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3">
+      <tbody>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a href="#linkcontents"><big><b>Contents</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a href="#linkillustrations"><big><b>Illustrations</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16781/16781-h/16781-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;I.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16782/16782-h/16782-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;II.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+          <td>
+            &nbsp;<a
+            href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/7/8/16783/16783-h/16783-h.htm"><big><b>Volume
+            &nbsp;III.</b></big></a>
+          </td>
+        </tr>
+      </tbody>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg"
+       alt="Steel Engraving by Longacre from Painting of G. Stuart " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/TP4.jpg" alt="Titlepage of Volume Three (of Four) "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h3>
+      VOLUME IV.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkcontents" id="linkcontents"></a><br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <h2>
+        CONTENTS
+      </h2>
+      <p>
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> LETTER I.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LEVI LINCOLN,
+        August 30, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> LETTER II.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0003">
+        LETTER III.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> LETTER IV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M.
+        DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0005">
+        LETTER V.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> LETTER VI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DAVID WILLIAMS,
+        November 14, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> LETTER VII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0008">
+        LETTER VIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> LETTER IX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY,
+        January 29, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> LETTER X.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011">
+        LETTER XI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> LETTER XII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS, June
+        13,1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> LETTER XIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014">
+        LETTER, XIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0015"> LETTER XV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22,
+        1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> LETTER XVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0017">
+        LETTER XVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> LETTER XVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MRS. ADAMS,
+        September 11, 1804 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> LETTER XIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0020">
+        LETTER XX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0021"> LETTER XXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE TYLER, March
+        29, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> LETTER XXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> LETTER
+        XXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0024"> LETTER XXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS PAINE, June
+        5, 1805 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> LETTER XXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0026"> LETTER XXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. DUANE, March
+        22, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> LETTER XXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0028">
+        LETTER XXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> LETTER XXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR.
+        HARRIS, April 18, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> LETTER XXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> LETTER XXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> LETTER
+        XXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0033"> LETTER XXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR DIGGES, July
+        1, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0034"> LETTER XXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0035"> LETTER
+        XXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0036"> LETTER XXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO W. A. BURWELL,
+        September 17, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0037"> LETTER XXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0038">
+        LETTER XXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0039"> LETTER XXXIX,</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C.
+        NICHOLAS, February 28,1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0040"> LETTER
+        XL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0041"> LETTER XLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;M. LE COMTE DIODATI,
+        March 29, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> LETTER XLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> LETTER
+        XLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0044"> LETTER XLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June
+        2, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> LETTER XLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0046">
+        LETTER XLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0047"> LETTER XLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR HORATIO
+        TURPIN, June 10, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0048"> LETTER
+        XLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0049"> LETTER XLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM SHORT,
+        June 12, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> LETTER L.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> LETTER
+        LI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0052"> LETTER LII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June
+        19,1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> LETTER LIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0054">
+        LETTER LIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0055"> LETTER LV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June
+        21, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> LETTER LVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> LETTER
+        LVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> LETTER LVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN PAGE,
+        July 17, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> LETTER LIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> LETTER
+        LX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0061"> LETTER LXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GEORGE HAY,
+        September 4, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> LETTER LXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0063">
+        LETTER LXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> LETTER LXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0065">
+        LETTER LXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0066"> LETTER LXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO RICHARD M.
+        JOHNSON, March 10, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0067"> LETTER
+        LXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0068"> LETTER LXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CHARLES
+        PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0069"> LETTER
+        LXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0070"> LETTER LXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ROBERT L.
+        LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0071"> LETTER
+        LXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0072"> LETTER LXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO LIEUTENANT
+        GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0073">
+        LETTER LXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24,
+        1808 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0074"> LETTER LXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0075">
+        LETTER LXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0076"> LETTER LXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS MANN
+        RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0077"> LETTER
+        LXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0078"> LETTER LXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M. DUPONT DE
+        NEMOURS, March 2, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0079"> LETTER
+        LXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0080"> LETTER LXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE INHABITANTS OF
+        ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0081">
+        LETTER LXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0082"> LETTER LXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE
+        PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0083"> LETTER
+        LXXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0084"> LETTER LXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DON VALENTINE
+        DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0085"> LETTER
+        LXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0086"> LETTER LXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY,
+        February 10, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0087"> LETTER LXXXVII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0088">
+        LETTER LXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0089"> LETTER LXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0090"> LETTER
+        XC.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0091"> LETTER XCI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        July 16,1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0092"> LETTER XCII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0093">
+        LETTER XCIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0094"> LETTER XCIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN
+        RUSH, January 16, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0095"> LETTER XCV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0096">
+        LETTER XCVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0097"> LETTER XCVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        August 14, 1811 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0098"> LETTER XCVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0099"> LETTER XCIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0100"> LETTER
+        C.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0101"> LETTER CI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MAURY, April
+        25, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0102"> LETTER CII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0103"> LETTER
+        CIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0104"> LETTER CIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE TYLER, June
+        17,1812 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0105"> LETTER CV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0106"> LETTER CVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. MELISH, January
+        13, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0107"> LETTER CVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MADAME DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0108"> LETTER CVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, May
+        27, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0109"> LETTER CIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0110"> LETTER
+        CX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0111"> LETTER CXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, June
+        21, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0112"> LETTER CXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0113"> LETTER
+        CXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0114"> LETTER CXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        October 13, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0115"> LETTER CXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0116"> LETTER
+        CXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0117"> LETTER CXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR WALTER
+        JONES, January 2,1814 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0118"> LETTER
+        CXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0119"> LETTER CXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        July 5, 1814 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0120"> LETTER CXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0121">
+        LETTER CXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14,
+        1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0122"> LETTER CXXII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0123"> LETTER
+        CXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0124"> LETTER CXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL DEARBORN,
+        March 17, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0125"> LETTER CXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0126"> LETTER
+        CXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0127"> LETTER CXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. LEIPER, June
+        12, 1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0128"> LETTER CXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0129"> LETTER
+        CXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0130"> LETTER CXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, April
+        8, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0131"> LETTER CXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0132"> LETTER
+        CXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0133"> LETTER CXXXIII.*</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO BENJAMIN
+        AUSTIN, January 9, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0134"> LETTER
+        CXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0135"> LETTER CXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO SAMUEL
+        KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0136"> LETTER
+        CXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0137"> LETTER CXXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO SAMUEL
+        KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0138"> LETTER
+        CXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0139"> LETTER CXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, TO
+        JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0140"> LETTER CXL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0141"> LETTER
+        CXLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0142"> LETTER CXLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO ALBERT
+        GALLATIN, June 16, 1817 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0143"> LETTER
+        CXLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0144"> LETTER CXLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        November 13, 1818 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0145"> LETTER CXLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0146">
+        LETTER CXLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0147"> LETTER CXLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR VINE
+        UTLEY, March 21, 1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0148"> LETTER
+        CXLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0149"> LETTER CXLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE ROANE,
+        September 6,1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0150"> LETTER CL.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0151">
+        LETTER CLI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0152"> LETTER CLII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN HOLMES,
+        April 22, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0153"> LETTER CLIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0154">
+        LETTER CLIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0155"> LETTER CLV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL,
+        November 28, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0156"> LETTER CLVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0157">
+        LETTER CLVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0158"> LETTER CLVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C
+        CABELL, January 31, 1821 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0159"> LETTER
+        CLIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0160"> LETTER CLX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO &mdash; &mdash;
+        &mdash; NICHOLAS, December 11,1821 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0161">
+        LETTER CLXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0162"> LETTER CLXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR
+        BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0163">
+        LETTER CLXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0164"> LETTER CLXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM T. BARRY,
+        July 2, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0165"> LETTER CLXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0166">
+        LETTER CLXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0167"> LETTER CLXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO DOCTOR COOPER,
+        November 2, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0168"> LETTER CLXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0169">
+        LETTER, CLXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0170"> LETTER CLXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS,
+        April 11, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0171"> LETTER CLXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0172"> LETTER
+        CLXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0173"> LETTER CLXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MADISON,
+        August 30,1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0174"> LETTER CLXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0175">
+        LETTER CLXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0176"> LETTER CLXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE
+        PRESIDENT, October 24,1823 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0177"> LETTER
+        CLXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0178"> LETTER CLXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0179">
+        LETTER CLXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0180"> LETTER CLXXX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO EDWARD
+        LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0181"> LETTER
+        CLXXXI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0182"> LETTER CLXXXII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MARTIN VAN
+        BUREN, June 29, 1824 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0183"> LETTER
+        CLXXXIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0184"> LETTER CLXXXIV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOSEPH C.
+        CABELL, January 11, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0185"> LETTER
+        CLXXXV.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0186"> LETTER CLXXXVI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0187">
+        LETTER CLXXXVII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0188"> LETTER CLXXXVIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0189">
+        LETTER CLXXXIX.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0190"> LETTER CXC.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO
+        [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0191">
+        LETTER CXCI.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826 <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0192"> THOUGHTS </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ON LOTTERIES. <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0193"> LETTER CXCII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO JOHN QUINCY
+        ADAMS, March 30, 1826 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0194"> LETTER
+        CXCIII.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826 <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2H_4_0195"> ANA.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;EXPLANATION OF VOLUMES IN
+        MARBLED PAPER <br /><br /> <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <hr />
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br /> <a name="linkillustrations" id="linkillustrations"></a><br />
+      </p>
+      <h2>
+        List of Illustrations
+      </h2>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Book Spines, 1829 Set of Jefferson Papers
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Steel Engraving by Longacre from Painting of
+        G. Stuart </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> Titlepage of Volume Three (of Four) </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        Pages With Greek Phrases and Tables:
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> Page77 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> Page201 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> Page205 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> Page225 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> Page226 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> Page227 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> Page227a </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> Page229 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> Page240 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> Page331 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> Page332 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> Page364 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> Page365 </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER I.&mdash;TO LEVI LINCOLN, August 30, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deak. Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enclosed letter came to hand by yesterday&rsquo;s post. You will be sensible
+      of the circumstances which make it improper that I should hazard a formal
+      answer, as well as of the desire its friendly aspect naturally excites,
+      that those concerned in it should understand that the spirit they express
+      is friendly viewed. You can judge also from your knowledge of the ground,
+      whether it may be usefully encouraged. I take the liberty, therefore, of
+      availing myself of your neighborhood to Boston, and of your friendship to
+      me, to request you to say to the Captain and others verbally whatever you
+      think would be proper, as expressive of my sentiments on the subject. With
+      respect to the day on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they may
+      be told, that disapproving myself of transferring the honors and
+      veneration for the great birthday of our republic to any individual, or of
+      dividing them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birthday be
+      known, and have engaged my family not to communicate it. This has been the
+      uniform answer to every application of the kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On further consideration as to the amendment to our constitution
+      respecting Louisiana, I have thought it better, instead of enumerating the
+      powers which Congress may exercise, to give them the same powers they have
+      as to other portions of the Union generally, and to enumerate the special
+      exceptions, in some such form as the following.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, is made a part of the
+      United States, its white inhabitants shall be citizens, and stand, as to
+      their rights and obligations, on the same footing with other citizens of
+      the United States, in analogous situations. Save only that as to the
+      portion thereof lying north of an east and west line drawn through the
+      mouth of Arkansas river, no new State shall be established, nor any grants
+      of land made, other than to Indians, in exchange for equivalent portions
+      of land occupied by them, until an amendment of the constitution shall be
+      made for these purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Florida also, whensoever it may be rightfully obtained, shall become a
+      part of the United States, its white inhabitants shall thereupon be
+      citizens, and shall stand, as to their rights and obligations, on the same
+      footing with other citizens of the United States, in analogous
+      situations.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I quote this for your consideration, observing that the less that is said
+      about any constitutional difficulty, the better: and that it will be
+      desirable for Congress to do what is necessary, in silence. I find but one
+      opinion as to the necessity of shutting up the country for some time. We
+      meet in Washington the 25th of September to prepare for Congress. Accept
+      my affectionate salutations, and great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER II.&mdash;TO WILSON C NICHOLAS, September 7, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 7, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 3rd was delivered me at court; but we were much
+      disappointed at not seeing you here, Mr. Madison and the Governor being
+      here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of the
+      late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what we
+      are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers, to
+      believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
+      obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
+      treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and an
+      unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
+      State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should be
+      done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
+      respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of the
+      observations you make on the power given by the constitution to Congress,
+      to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the subject to the
+      territory then constituting the United States. But when I consider that
+      the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the treaty of 1783,
+      that the constitution expressly declares itself to be made for the United
+      States, I cannot help believing the intention was not to permit Congress
+      to admit into the Union new States, which should be formed out of the
+      territory for which, and under whose authority alone, they were then
+      acting. I do not believe it was meant that they might receive England,
+      Ireland, Holland, &amp;tc. into it, which would be the case on your
+      construction. When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe,
+      the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that
+      which is safe and precise. I had rather ask an enlargement of power from
+      the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a
+      construction which would make our powers boundless. Our peculiar security
+      is in the possession of a written constitution. Let us not make it a blank
+      paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion of those who
+      consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then
+      we have no constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the
+      definitions of the powers which that instrument gives. It specifies and
+      delineates the operations permitted to the federal government, and gives
+      all the powers necessary to carry these into execution. Whatever of these
+      enumerated objects is proper for a law, Congress may make the law;
+      whatever is proper to be executed by way of a treaty, the President and
+      Senate may enter into the treaty; whatever is to be done by a judicial
+      sentence, the judges may pass the sentence. Nothing is more likely than
+      that their enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case
+      of all human works. Let us go on then perfecting it, by adding, by way of
+      amendment to the constitution, those powers which time and trial show are
+      still wanting. But it has been taken too much for granted, that by this
+      rigorous construction the treaty power would be reduced to nothing. I had
+      occasion once to examine its effect on the French treaty, made by the old
+      Congress, and found that out of thirty odd articles which that contained,
+      there were one, two, or three only, which could not now be stipulated
+      under our present constitution. I confess, then, I think it important, in
+      the present case, to set an example against broad construction, by
+      appealing for new power to the people. If, however, our friends shall
+      think differently, certainly I shall acquiesce with satisfaction;
+      confiding, that the good sense of our country will correct the evil of
+      construction when it shall produce ill effects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No apologies for writing or speaking to me freely are necessary. On the
+      contrary, nothing my friends can do is so dear to me, and proves to me
+      their friendship so clearly, as the information they give me of their
+      sentiments and those of others on interesting points where I am to act,
+      and where information and warning is so essential to excite in me that due
+      reflection which ought to precede action. I leave this about the 21st, and
+      shall hope the District Court will give me an opportunity of seeing you.
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of cordial esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER III.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, October 4, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 4, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one would more willingly than myself pay the just tribute due to the
+      services of Captain Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his widow,
+      as you suggest. But when one undertakes to administer justice, it must be
+      with an even hand, and by rule; what is done for one, must be done for
+      every one in equal degree. To what a train of attentions would this draw a
+      President? How difficult would it be to draw the line between that degree
+      of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and that not so entitled?
+      If drawn in a particular case differently from what the friends of the
+      deceased would judge right, what offence would it give, and of the most
+      tender kind? How much offence would be given by accidental inattentions,
+      or want of information? The first step into such an undertaking ought to
+      be well weighed. On the death of Dr. Franklin, the King and Convention of
+      France went into mourning. So did the House of Representatives of the
+      United States: the Senate refused. I proposed to General Washington that
+      the executive departments should wear mourning; he declined it, because he
+      said he should not know where to draw the line, if he once began that
+      ceremony. Mr. Adams was then Vice-President, and I thought General
+      Washington had his eye on him, whom he certainly did not love. I told him
+      the world had drawn so broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin, on
+      the one side, and the residue of mankind, on the other, that we might wear
+      mourning for them, and the question still remain new and undecided as to
+      all others. He thought it best, however, to avoid it. On these
+      considerations alone, however well affected to the merit of Commodore
+      Barry, I think it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may
+      become embarrassing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tremendous times in Europe! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers?
+      With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it? With no
+      partialities certainly. If they can so far worry one another as to destroy
+      their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the waters,
+      the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Affectionate and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER IV.&mdash;TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, November 1, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 1, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
+      with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
+      so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
+      here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
+      ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with the
+      world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
+      difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
+      speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
+      thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
+      having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings to
+      unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on the
+      globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
+      America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
+      horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of France
+      to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and that this
+      may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as France there,
+      and the United States here, what she can expect from so gross a compound
+      of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the book of wisdom. She
+      is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more than we are. Our policy
+      will be to form New Orleans and the country on both sides of it on the
+      Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all above that, to transplant our
+      Indians into it, constituting them a Marechaussee to prevent emigrants
+      crossing the river, until we shall have filled up all the vacant country
+      on this side. This will secure both Spain and us as to the mines of
+      Mexico, for half a century, and we may safely trust the provisions for
+      that time to the men who shall live in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have communicated with Mr. Gallatin on the subject of using your house
+      in any matters of consequence we may have to do at Paris. He is impressed
+      with the same desire I feel to give this mark of our confidence in you,
+      and the sense we entertain of your friendship and fidelity. Mr. Behring
+      informs him that none of the money which will be due from us to him, as
+      the assignee of France, will be wanting at Paris. Be assured that our
+      dispositions are such as to let no occasion pass unimproved, of serving
+      you, where occurrences will permit it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present my respects to Madame Dupont, and accept yourself assurances of my
+      constant and warm friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER V.&mdash;TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, November 4,1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 4,1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A report reaches us this day from Baltimore (on probable, but not certain
+      grounds), that Mr. Jerome Bonaparte, brother of the First Consul, was
+      yesterday* married to Miss Patterson of that city. The effect of this
+      measure on the mind of the First Consul, is not for me to suppose; but as
+      it might occur to him <i>primâ facie</i>, that the executive of the United
+      States ought to have prevented it, I have thought it advisable to mention
+      the subject to you, that if necessary, you may by explanations set that
+      idea to rights. You know that by our laws, all persons are free to enter
+      into marriage, if of twenty-one years of age, no one having a power to
+      restrain it, not even their parents; and that under that age, no one can
+      prevent it but the parent or guardian. The lady is under age, and the
+      parents, placed between her affections which were strongly fixed, and the
+      considerations opposing the measure, yielded with pain and anxiety to the
+      former.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * November 8. It is now said that it did not take place on
+     the 3rd, but will this day.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Patterson is the President of the bank of Baltimore, the wealthiest
+      man in Maryland, perhaps in the United States, except Mr. Carroll; a man
+      of great virtue and respectability; the mother is the sister of the lady
+      of General Samuel Smith; and, consequently, the station of the family in
+      society is with the first of the United States. These circumstances fix
+      rank in a country where there are no hereditary titles. Your treaty has
+      obtained nearly a general approbation. The federalists spoke and voted
+      against it, but they are now so reduced in their numbers as to be nothing.
+      The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by twenty-four
+      against seven, which was ten more than enough. The vote in the House of
+      Representatives for making provision for its execution, was carried by
+      eighty-nine against twenty-three, which was a majority of sixty-six, and
+      the necessary bills are going through the Houses by greater majorities.
+      Mr. Pichon, according to instructions from his government, proposed to
+      have added to the ratification a protestation against any failure in time
+      or other circumstances of execution, on our part. He was told, that in
+      that case we should annex a counter protestation, which would leave the
+      thing exactly where it was; that this transaction had been conducted from
+      the commencement of the negotiation to this stage of it, with a frankness
+      and sincerity honorable to both nations, and comfortable to the heart of
+      an honest man to review; that to annex to this last chapter of the
+      transaction such an evidence of mutual distrust, was to change its aspect
+      dishonorably for us both, and contrary to truth as to us; for that we had
+      not the smallest doubt that France would punctually execute its part; and
+      I assured Mr. Pichon that I had more confidence in the word of the First
+      Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. He saw that we had
+      ratified the treaty; that both branches had passed by great majorities one
+      of the bills for execution, and would soon pass the other two; that no
+      circumstances remained that could leave a doubt of our punctual
+      performance; and like an able and an honest minister (which he is in the
+      highest degree) he undertook to do, what he knew his employers would do
+      themselves, were they here spectators of all the existing circumstances,
+      and exchanged the ratification&rsquo;s purely and simply; so that this
+      instrument goes to the world as an evidence of the candor and confidence
+      of the nations in each other, which will have the best effects. This was
+      the more justifiable, as Mr. Pichon knew that Spain had entered with us a
+      protestation against our ratification of the treaty, grounded, first, on
+      the assertion that the First Consul had not executed the conditions of the
+      treaties of cession, and secondly, that he had broken a solemn promise not
+      to alienate the country to any nation. We answered, that these were
+      private questions between France and Spain, which they must settle
+      together; that we derived our title from the First Consul, and did not
+      doubt his guarantee of it: and we, four days ago, sent off orders to the
+      Governor of the Mississippi territory and General Wilkinson, to move down
+      with the troops at hand to New Orleans, to receive the possession from Mr.
+      Laussat. If he is heartily disposed to carry the order of the Consul into
+      execution, he can probably command a volunteer force at New Orleans, and
+      will have the aid of ours also, if he desires it, to take the possession
+      and deliver it to us. If he is not so disposed, we shall take the
+      possession, and it will rest with the government of France, by adopting
+      the act as their own and obtaining the confirmation of Spain, to supply
+      the non-execution of their stipulation to deliver, and to entitle
+      themselves to the complete execution of our part of the agreements. In the
+      mean time, the legislature is passing the bills, and we are preparing
+      every thing to be done on our part towards execution, and we shall not
+      avail ourselves of the three months&rsquo; delay after possession of the
+      province, allowed by the treaty for the delivery of the stock, but shall
+      deliver it the moment that possession is known here, which will be on the
+      eighteenth day after it has taken place.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant esteem
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VI.&mdash;TO DAVID WILLIAMS, November 14, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DAVID WILLIAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 14, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received the volume on the claims of literature; which you did
+      me the favor to send me through Mr. Monroe: and have read with
+      satisfaction the many judicious reflections it contains, on the condition
+      of the respectable class of literary men. The efforts for their relief,
+      made by a society of private citizens, are truly laudable: but they are,
+      as you justly observe, but a palliation of an evil, the cure of which
+      calls for all the wisdom and the means of the nation. The greatest evils
+      of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring from the vicious
+      distribution of its members among the occupations called for. I have no
+      doubt that those nations are essentially right, which leave this to
+      individual choice, as a better guide to an advantageous distribution, than
+      any other which could be devised. But when, by a blind concourse,
+      particular occupations are ruinously overcharged, and others left in want
+      of hands, the national authorities can do much towards restoring the
+      equilibrium. On the revival of letters, learning became the universal
+      favorite. And with reason, because there was not enough of it existing to
+      manage the affairs of a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its
+      individuals to the happiness of which they were susceptible, by
+      improvements in their minds, their morals, their health, and in those
+      conveniences which contribute to the comfort and embellishment of life.
+      All the efforts of the society, therefore, were directed to the increase
+      of learning, and the inducements of respect, ease, and profit were held up
+      for its encouragement. Even the charities of the nation forgot that misery
+      was their object, and spent themselves in founding schools to transfer to
+      science the hardy sons of the plough. To these incitements were added the
+      powerful fascinations of great cities. These circumstances have long since
+      produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned occupation,
+      and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and the more, as
+      their habits of life have disqualified them for re-entering into the
+      laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever entirely
+      cured: nor should I presume to say by what means it may be cured.
+      Doubtless there are many engines which the nation might bring to bear on
+      this object. Public opinion and public encouragement are among these. The
+      class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the first in
+      utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial means
+      which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may be equally
+      successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of
+      men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts among its
+      handmaids the most respectable sciences, such as Chemistry, Natural
+      Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics generally, Natural History, Botany. In
+      every College and University, a professorship of agriculture, and the
+      class of its students, might be honored as the first. Young men closing
+      their academical education with this, as the crown of all other sciences,
+      fascinated with its solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an
+      occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would return to the
+      farms of their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and
+      invigorate a calling, now languishing under contempt and oppression. The
+      charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the
+      present state of society does not call for, converted into schools of
+      agriculture, might restore them to that branch, qualified to enrich and
+      honor themselves, and to increase the productions of the nation instead of
+      consuming them. A gradual abolition of the useless offices, so much
+      accumulated in all governments, might close this drain also from the
+      labors of the field, and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these,
+      and the better means which will occur to others, the surcharge of the
+      learned, might in time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of
+      citizenss the sum of industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked by
+      exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane
+      resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come
+      here. Those who can labor do well, for the most part. Of the learned class
+      of emigrants, a small portion find employments analogous to their talents.
+      But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in the scenes
+      where it began. Even here we find too strong a current from the country to
+      the towns; and instances beginning to appear of that species of misery,
+      which you are so humanely endeavoring to relieve with you. Although we
+      have in the old countries of Europe the lesson of their experience to warn
+      us, yet I am not satisfied we shall have the firmness and wisdom to profit
+      by it. The general desire of men to live by their heads rather than their
+      hands, and the strong allurements of great cities to those who have any
+      turn for dissipation, threaten to make them here, as in Europe, the sinks
+      of voluntary misery. I perceive, however, that I have suffered my pen to
+      run into a disquisition, when I had taken it up only to thank you for the
+      volume you had been so kind as to send me, and to express my approbation
+      of it. After apologizing, therefore, for having touched on a subject so
+      much more familiar to you, and better understood, I beg leave to assure
+      you of my high consideration and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VII.&mdash;TO JOHN RANDOLH, December 1, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN RANDOLH.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, December 1, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explanations in your letter of yesterday were quite unnecessary to me.
+      I have had too satisfactory proofs of your friendly regard, to be disposed
+      to suspect any thing of a contrary aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I understood perfectly the expressions stated in the newspaper to which
+      you allude, to mean, that &lsquo;though the proposition came from the republican
+      quarter of the House, yet you should not concur with it.&rsquo; I am aware, that
+      in parts of the Union, and even with persons to whom Mr. Eppes and Mr.
+      Randolph are unknown, and myself little known, it will be presumed from
+      their connection, that what comes from them comes from me. No men on earth
+      are more independent in their sentiments than they are, nor any one less
+      disposed than I am to influence the opinions of others. We rarely speak of
+      politics, or of the proceedings of the House, but merely historically; and
+      I carefully avoid expressing an opinion on them in their presence, that we
+      may all be at our ease. With other members, I have believed that more
+      unreserved communications would be advantageous to the public. This has
+      been, perhaps, prevented by mutual delicacy. I have been afraid to express
+      opinions unasked, lest I should be suspected of wishing to direct the
+      legislative action of members. They have avoided asking communications
+      from me, probably, lest they should be suspected of wishing to fish out
+      executive secrets. I see too many proofs of the imperfection of human
+      reason, to entertain wonder or intolerance at any difference of opinion on
+      any subject; and acquiesce in that difference as easily as on a difference
+      of feature or form: experience having long taught me the reasonableness of
+      mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any
+      common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can, when we
+      cannot do all we would wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER VIII.&mdash;TO MR. GALLATIN, December 13, 1803
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR. GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Attorney General having considered and decided, that the prescription
+      in the law for establishing a bank, that the officers in the subordinate
+      offices of discount and deposit, shall be appointed &lsquo;on the same terms and
+      in the same manner practised in the principal bank,&rsquo; does not extend to
+      them the principle of rotation, established by the legislature in the body
+      of directors in the principal bank, it follows that the extension of that
+      principle has been merely a voluntary and prudential act of the principal
+      bank, from which they are free to depart. I think the extension was wise
+      and proper on their part, because the legislature having deemed rotation
+      useful in the principal bank constituted by them, there would be the same
+      reason for it in the subordinate banks to be established by the principal.
+      It breaks in upon the <i>esprit de corps</i>, so apt to prevail in
+      permanent bodies; it gives a chance for the public eye penetrating into
+      the sanctuary of those proceedings and practices, which the avarice of the
+      directors may introduce for their personal emolument, and which the
+      resentments of excluded directors, or the honesty of those duly admitted,
+      might betray to the public; and it gives an opportunity at the end of the
+      year, or at other periods, of correcting a choice, which, on trial, proves
+      to have been unfortunate; an evil of which themselves complain in their
+      distant institutions. Whether, however, they have a power to alter this or
+      not, the executive has no right to decide; and their consultation with you
+      has been merely an act of complaisance, or from a desire to shield so
+      important an innovation under the cover of executive sanction. But ought
+      we to volunteer our sanction in such a case? Ought we to disarm ourselves
+      of any fair right of animadversion, whenever that institution shall be a
+      legitimate subject of consideration? I own I think the most proper answer
+      would be, that we do not think ourselves authorized to give an opinion on
+      the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a passage in the letter of the President, I observe an idea of
+      establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This
+      institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the
+      principles and form of our constitution. The nation is, at this time, so
+      strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this
+      moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient
+      to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a
+      crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the
+      public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its
+      branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may,
+      in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe
+      which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any
+      other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
+      What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its
+      branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate to us the peace we
+      should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth
+      to an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so hostile we know,
+      1. from a knowledge of the principles of the persons composing the body of
+      directors in every bank, principal or branch; and those of most of the
+      stock-holders: 2. from their opposition to the measures and principles of
+      the government, and to the election of those friendly to them: and, 3.
+      from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Now, while we are
+      strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our constitution,
+      to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination under its
+      authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to an equal footing
+      only with other banks, as to the favors of the government. But, in order
+      to be able to meet a general combination of the banks against us, in a
+      critical emergency, could we not make a beginning towards an independent
+      use of our own money, towards holding our own bank in all the deposits
+      where it is received, and letting the Treasurer give his draft or note for
+      payment at any particular place, which, in a well conducted government,
+      ought to have as much credit as any private draft, or bank note, or bill,
+      and would give us the same facilities which we derive from the banks? I
+      pray you to turn this subject in your mind, and to give it the benefit of
+      your knowledge of details; whereas, I have only very general views of the
+      subject. Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, December 13, 1803.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER IX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 29, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
+      letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
+      you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
+      together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who departs
+      in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
+      Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have also
+      to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your Harmony,
+      which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is the first I have
+      been able to meet with, which is clear of those long repetitions of the
+      same transaction, as if it were a different one because related with some
+      different circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
+      doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so much
+      in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and better
+      than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving, as
+      preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines, extracted
+      in his own words from the Evangelists, and leaving out every thing
+      relative to his personal history and character. It would be short and
+      precious. With a view to do this for my own satisfaction, I had sent to
+      Philadelphia to get two Testaments (Greek) of the same edition, and two
+      English, with a design to cut out the morsels of morality, and paste them
+      on the leaves of a book, in the manner you describe as having been pursued
+      in forming your Harmony. But I shall now get the thing done by better
+      hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I very early saw that Louisiana was indeed a speck in our horizon, which
+      was to burst in a tornado; and the public are un-apprized how near this
+      catastrophe was. Nothing but a frank and friendly developement of causes
+      and effects on our part, and good sense enough in Bonaparte to see that
+      the train was unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved
+      us from that storm. I did not expect he would yield till a war took place
+      between France and England, and my hope was to palliate and endure, if
+      Messrs. Ross, Morris, &amp;c. did not force a premature rupture until that
+      event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowledge it came on
+      sooner than I had expected. Whether, however, the good sense of Bonaparte
+      might not see the course predicted to be necessary and unavoidable, even
+      before a war should be imminent, was a chance which we thought it our duty
+      to try: but the immediate prospect of rupture brought the case to
+      immediate decision. The denouement has been happy: and I confess I look to
+      this duplication of area for the extending a government so free and
+      economical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which
+      is to ensue. Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic
+      and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the
+      happiness of either part. Those of the western confederacy will be as much
+      our children and descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as
+      much identified with that country, in future time, as with this: and did I
+      now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty
+      and the desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the
+      eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which
+      should fall within my power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Have you seen the new work of Malthus on Population? It is one of the
+      ablest I have ever seen. Although his main object is to delineate the
+      effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws of England,
+      and other palliations for that evil, several important questions in
+      political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are treated with a
+      masterly hand. It is a single octavo volume, and I have been only able to
+      read a borrowed copy, the only one I have yet heard of. Probably our
+      friends in England will think of you, and give you an opportunity of
+      reading it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER X.&mdash;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, March 3, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 3, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although it is long since I received your favor of October the 27th, yet I
+      have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it. In the Middle and Southern
+      States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place as is perhaps
+      desirable. For as there will always be an opposition, I believe it had
+      better be from avowed monarchists than republicans. New York seems to be
+      in danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly with us; Rhode Island
+      with us on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on the verge of the republican
+      shore; Connecticut advancing towards it very slowly, but with steady step;
+      your State only uncertain of making port at all. I had forgotten Delaware,
+      which will be always uncertain from the divided character of her citizens.
+      If the amendment of the constitution passes Rhode Island (and we expect to
+      hear in a day or two), the election for the ensuing four years seems to
+      present nothing formidable. I sincerely regret that the unbounded
+      calumnies of the federal party have obliged me to throw myself on the
+      verdict of my country for trial, my great desire having been to retire at
+      the end of the present term, to a life of tranquillity; and it was my
+      decided purpose when I entered into office. They force my continuance. If
+      we can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her course for another four
+      years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall be free to
+      enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my books. That your
+      enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I sincerely pray,
+      and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great respect
+      and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XI.&mdash;TO GIDEON GRANGER, April 16, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GIDEON GRANGER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 16, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of forming
+      a coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what they called
+      the seven eastern States. The idea was new to me, and after time for
+      reflection, I had no opportunity of conversing with you again. The
+      federalists know that, <i>eo nomine</i>, they are gone for ever. Their
+      object, therefore, is, how to return into power under some other form.
+      Undoubtedly they have but one means, which is to divide the republicans,
+      join the minority, and barter with them for the cloak of their name. I
+      say, join the minority; because the majority of the republicans, not
+      needing them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means of
+      ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
+      must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their numbers
+      also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must pay in.
+      Thus a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on the ruins of
+      the true principles of our revolution. And when this party is formed, who
+      will constitute the majority of it, which majority is then to dictate?
+      Certainly the federalists. Thus their proposition of putting themselves
+      into gear with the republican minority, is exactly like Roger Sherman&rsquo;s
+      proposition to add Connecticut to Rhode Island. The idea of forming seven
+      eastern States is moreover clearly to form the basis of a separation of
+      the Union. Is it possible that real republicans can be gulled by such a
+      bait? And for what? What do they wish, that they have not? Federal
+      measures? That is impossible. Republican measures? Have they them not? Can
+      any one deny, that in all important questions of principle, republicanism
+      prevails? But do they want that their individual will shall govern the
+      majority? They may purchase the gratification of this unjust wish, for a
+      little time, at a great price; but the federalists must not have the
+      passions of other men, if, after getting thus into the seat of power, they
+      suffer themselves to be governed by their minority. This minority may say,
+      that whenever they relapse into their own principles, they will quit them,
+      and draw the seat from under them. They may quit them, indeed, but, in the
+      mean time, all the venal will have become associated with them, and will
+      give them a majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them
+      to eject the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power.
+      I cannot believe any portion of real republicans will enter into this
+      trap; and if they do, I do not believe they can carry with them the mass
+      of their States, advancing so steadily as we see them, to an union of
+      principle with their brethren. It will be found in this, as in all other
+      similar cases, that crooked schemes will end by overwhelming their authors
+      and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict and
+      upright, and who in matters of opinion will be contented that others
+      should be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly
+      overruled, will attain his object in the end. And that this may be the
+      conduct of us all, I offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your health
+      and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XII.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, June 13,1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 13,1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Madam,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to express in
+      your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
+      awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled your
+      kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and
+      friendship. I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible
+      impression on her mind, and that to the last, on our meetings after long
+      separations, whether I had heard lately of you, and how you did, were
+      among the earliest of her inquiries. In giving you this assurance, I
+      perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same time, am thankful for the
+      occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that circumstances should
+      have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of separation between us.
+      The friendship with which you honored me has ever been valued, and fully
+      reciprocated; and although events have been passing which might be trying
+      to some minds, I never believed yours to be of that kind, nor felt that my
+      own was. Neither my estimate of your character, nor the esteem founded in
+      that, has ever been lessened for a single moment, although doubts whether
+      it would be acceptable may have forbidden manifestations of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s friendship and mine began at an earlier date. It accompanied
+      us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had
+      drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to
+      lessen mutual esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of
+      an honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing
+      among our fellow citizens, attached them to the one or the other of us,
+      and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We
+      never stood in one another&rsquo;s way. For if either had been withdrawn at any
+      time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would have
+      sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration was
+      sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our
+      friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship: and I can say
+      with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams&rsquo;s life, and one only, ever gave me a
+      moment&rsquo;s personal displeasure. I did consider his last appointments to
+      office as personally unkind. They were from among my most ardent political
+      enemies, from whom no faithful co-operation could ever be expected; and
+      laid me under the embarrassment of acting through men, whose views were to
+      defeat mine, or to encounter the odium of putting others in their places.
+      It seems but common justice to leave a successor free to act by
+      instruments of his own choice. If my respect for him did not permit me to
+      ascribe the whole blame to the influence of others, it left something for
+      friendship to forgive, and after brooding over it for some little time,
+      and not always resisting the expression of it, I forgave it cordially, and
+      returned to the same state of esteem and respect for him which had so long
+      subsisted. Having come into life a little later than Mr. Adams, his career
+      has preceded mine, as mine is followed by some other; and it will probably
+      be closed at the same distance after him which time originally placed
+      between us. I maintain for him, and shall carry into private life, an
+      uniform and high measure of respect and good will, and for yourself a
+      sincere attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which I
+      have long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it will
+      be received, I feal[sp.] relief from being unbosomed. And I have now only
+      to entreat your forgiveness for this transition from a subject of domestic
+      affliction, to one which seems of a different aspect. But though connected
+      with political events, it has been viewed by me most strongly in its
+      unfortunate bearings on my private friendships. The injury these have
+      sustained has been a heavy price for what has never given me equal
+      pleasure. That you may both be favored with health, tranquillity, and long
+      life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the assurance of his highest
+      consideration and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XIII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR PAGE, June 25, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GOVERNOR PAGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 25, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of the
+      goodness of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an
+      affectionate concern for the greatness of it. It is great indeed. Others
+      may lose of their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half of
+      all I had. My evening prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single
+      life. Perhaps I maybe destined to see even this last cord of parental
+      affection broken! The hope with which I had looked forward to the moment,
+      when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to retire to that
+      domestic comfort from which the last great step is to be taken, is
+      fearfully blighted. When you and I look back on the country over which we
+      have passed, what a field of slaughter does it exhibit! Where are all the
+      friends who entered it with us, under all the inspiring energies of health
+      and hope? As if pursued by the havoc of war, they are strewed by the way,
+      some earlier, some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to count the
+      numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall, the last footsteps of
+      their party. Is it a desirable thing to bear up through the heat of the
+      action to witness the death of all our companions, and merely be the last
+      victim? I doubt it. We have, however, the traveller&rsquo;s consolation. Every
+      step shortens the distance we have to go; the end of our journey is in
+      sight, the bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the
+      friends we have lost. &lsquo;We sorrow not, then, as others who have no hope&rsquo;;
+      but look forward to the day which &lsquo;joins us to the great majority.&rsquo; But
+      whatever is to be our destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we
+      should acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and
+      be contented in the enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with
+      us. Of those connected by blood, the number does not depend on us. But
+      friends we have, if we have merited them. Those of our earliest years
+      stand nearest in our affections. But in this too, you and I have been
+      unlucky. Of our college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have
+      stood with us in the great political questions which have agitated our
+      country: and these were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not
+      believe the Lilliputian fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so
+      many. Will not Mrs. Page, yourself, and family, think it prudent to seek a
+      healthier region for the months of August and September? And may we not
+      flatter ourselves that you will cast your eye on Monticello? We have not
+      many summers to live. While fortune places us then within striking
+      distance, let us avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of
+      other times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my friendly
+      salutations, and assurances of constant affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER, XIV.&mdash;TO P. MAZZEI, July 18, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO P. MAZZEI.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 18, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is very long, I know, since I wrote you. So constant is the pressure of
+      business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something of public
+      importance is not waiting for me. I have, therefore, on a principle of
+      conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely from all
+      private correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic; I scarcely write a
+      letter a year to any friend beyond sea. Another consideration has led to
+      this, which is the liability of my letters to miscarry, be opened, and
+      made ill use of. Although the great body of our country are perfectly
+      returned to their ancient principles, yet there remains a phalanx of old
+      tories and monarchists, more envenomed, as all their hopes become more
+      desperate. Every word of mine which they can get hold of, however
+      innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted, tormented, perverted, and,
+      like the words of holy writ, are made to mean every thing but what they
+      were intended to mean. I trust little, therefore, unnecessarily in their
+      way, and especially on political subjects. I shall not, therefore, be free
+      to answer all the several articles of your letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of treaties, our system is to have none with any nation, as
+      far as can be avoided. The treaty with England has therefore, not been
+      renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations have been
+      declined. We believe, that with nations as with individuals, dealings may
+      be carried on as anvantageously[sp.], perhaps more so, while their
+      continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a
+      contract, which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced
+      constructions, to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war instead
+      of a bond of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we will
+      prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels, and goods all the privileges
+      of the most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily, we cannot
+      doubt they will voluntarily do the same for us. Our interests against the
+      Barbaresques being also the same, we have little doubt she will give us
+      every facility to insure them, which our situation may ask and hers admit.
+      It is not, then, from a want of friendship that we do not propose a treaty
+      with Naples, but because it is against our system to embarrass ourselves
+      with treaties, or to entangle ourselves at all with the affairs of Europe.
+      The kind offices we receive from that government are more sensibly felt,
+      as such, than they would be, if rendered only as due to us by treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli, which,
+      in addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the credit
+      which Commodore Morris&rsquo;s two years&rsquo; sleep lost us, and for which he has
+      been broke. I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they mistake
+      their interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should she have
+      declared war, as we expect, and almost wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
+      dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge it in
+      twelve years more. That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen millions of
+      dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay the expenses of
+      any war we may be forced into, without new taxes or loans. The spirit of
+      republicanism is now in almost all its ancient vigor, five sixths of the
+      people being with us. Fourteen of the seventeen States are completely with
+      us, and two of the other three will be in one year. We have now got back
+      to the ground on which you left us. I should have retired at the end of
+      the first four years, but that the immense load of tory calumnies which
+      have been manufactured respecting me, and have filled the European market,
+      have obliged me to appeal once more to my country for a justification. I
+      have no fear but that I shall receive honorable testimony by their verdict
+      on those calumnies. At the end of the next four years I shall certainly
+      retire. Age, inclination, and principle all dictate this. My health, which
+      at one time threatened an unfavorable turn, is now firm. The acquisition
+      of Louisiana, besides doubling our extent, and trebling our quantity of
+      fertile country, is of incalculable value, as relieving us from the danger
+      of war. It has enabled us to do a handsome thing for Fayette. He had
+      received a grant of between eleven and twelve thousand acres north of the
+      Ohio, worth, perhaps, a dollar an acre. We have obtained permission of
+      Congress to locate it in Louisiana. Locations can be found adjacent to the
+      city of New Orleans, in the island of New Orleans and in its vicinity, the
+      value of which cannot be calculated. I hope it will induce him to come
+      over and settle there with his family. Mr. Livingston having asked leave
+      to return, General Armstrong, his brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is
+      of the first order of talents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
+      Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson Andrews.
+      To these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of my youngest
+      daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has left two children.
+      My eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six children. This loss
+      has increased my anxiety to retire, while it has dreadfully lessened the
+      comfort of doing it. Wythe, Dickinson, and Charles Thomson are all living,
+      and are firm republicans. You informed me formerly of your marriage, and
+      your having a daughter, but have said nothing in you late letters on that
+      subject. Yet whatever concerns your happiness is sincerely interesting to
+      me, and is a subject of anxiety, retaining, as I do, cordial sentiments of
+      esteem and affection for you. Accept, I pray you, my sincere assurances of
+      this, with my most friendly salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XV.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, July 22, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 22, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Madam,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 1st instant was duly received, and I would not again
+      have intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to have
+      been presented to you under their true aspect. My charities to Callendar
+      are considered as rewards for his calumnies. As early, I think, as 1796, I
+      was told in Philadelphia, that Callendar, the author of the &lsquo;Political
+      Progress of Britain,&rsquo; was in that city, a fugitive from persecution for
+      having written that book, and in distress. I had read and approved the
+      book; I considered him as a man of genius, unjustly persecuted. I knew
+      nothing of his private character, and immediately expressed my readiness
+      to contribute to his relief, and to serve him. It was a considerable time
+      after, that, on application from a person who thought of him as I did, I
+      contributed to his relief, and afterwards repeated the contribution.
+      Himself I did not see till long after, nor ever more than two or three
+      times. When he first began to write, he told some useful truths in his
+      coarse way; but nobody sooner disapproved of his writing than I did, or
+      wished more that he would be silent. My charities to him were no more
+      meant as encouragements to his scurrilities, than those I give to the
+      beggar at my door are meant as rewards for the vices of his life, and to
+      make them chargeable to myself. In truth, they would have been greater to
+      him, had he never written a word after the work for which he fled from
+      Britain. With respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and
+      printers at large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping
+      to any concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those
+      of Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who published volumes against me for
+      every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams. But I never
+      supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these
+      editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable of that base warfare,
+      and believed him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I may have thought of
+      the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne testimony to
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my presence,
+      without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed that any
+      person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us meddled in
+      that dirty work. But another fact is, that I &lsquo;liberated a wretch who was
+      suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams.&rsquo; I do not know who was the
+      particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every person under
+      punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I considered,
+      and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and as palpable as
+      if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image; and
+      that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it
+      would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should
+      have been cast into it for refusing to worship the image. It was
+      accordingly done in every instance, without asking what the offenders had
+      done, or against whom they had offended, but whether the pains they were
+      suffering were inflicted under the pretended sedition law. It was
+      certainly possible that my motives for contributing to the relief of
+      Callendar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition law might have been
+      to protect, encourage, and reward slander; but they may also have been
+      those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of distress, meritorious
+      or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect the constitution, violated
+      by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which of these were my motives, must
+      be decided by a regard to the general tenor of my life. On this I am not
+      afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to posterity, and still less to
+      that Being who sees himself our motives, who will judge us from his own
+      knowledge of them, and not on the testimony of Porcupine or Fenno.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You observe, there has been one other act of my administration personally
+      unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me. I declare on my
+      honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act is alluded to. I
+      never did a single one with an unkind intention. My sole object in this
+      letter being to place before your attention, that the acts imputed to me
+      are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might flow from good as well
+      as bad motives, I shall make no other addition, than the assurances of my
+      continued wishes for the health and happiness of yourself and Mr. Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, August 15, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 15, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
+      received it only by that day&rsquo;s post. I return you Monroe&rsquo;s letter, which
+      is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
+      contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
+      surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the greater
+      wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes on their
+      enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France and
+      England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and deadly
+      hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that England
+      should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get footing on
+      our continent, and that France should willingly see the United States
+      re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons should be replaced
+      on their throne and agree to any terms of restitution, is possible: but
+      that they and England joined, could recover us to British dominion, is
+      impossible. If these things are not so, then human reason is of no aid in
+      conjecturing the conduct of nations. Still, however, it is our
+      unquestionable interest and duty to conduct ourselves with such sincere
+      friendship and impartiality towards both nations, as that each may see
+      unequivocally, what is unquestionably true, that we may be very possibly
+      driven into her scale by unjust conduct in the other. I am so much
+      impressed with the expediency of putting a termination to the right of
+      France to patronize the rights of Louisiana, which will cease with their
+      complete adoption as citizens of the United States, that I hope to see
+      that take place on the meeting of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from
+      a newspaper respecting St. Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I
+      conceive the British insults in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot
+      be respected by France as a neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves
+      as an independent one, if we do not take effectual measures to support, at
+      every risk, our authority in our own harbors. I shall write to Mr. Wagner
+      directly (that a post may not be lost by passing through you) to send us
+      blank commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to be filled
+      up, signed, and forwarded by us. Affectionate salutations and constant
+      esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE, August 30, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30, 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till now the
+      general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans.
+      Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions. Among these is one for
+      yourself as Governor. With respect to this I will enter into frank
+      explanations. This office was originally destined for a person * whose
+      great services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly
+      acceptable to the nation at large. Circumstances, however, exist, which do
+      not now permit his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time hereafter.
+      That, therefore, being suspended, and entirely contingent, your services
+      have been so much approved, as to leave no desire to look elsewhere to
+      fill the office. Should the doubts you have sometimes expressed, whether
+      it would be eligible for you to continue, still exist in your mind, the
+      acceptance of the commission gives you time to satisfy yourself by further
+      experience, and to make the time and manner of withdrawing, should you
+      ultimately determine on that, agreeable to yourself. Be assured, that
+      whether you continue or retire, it will be with every disposition on my
+      part to be just and friendly to you.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* In the margin is written by the author, &lsquo;La Fayette.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XVIII.&mdash;TO MRS. ADAMS, September 11, 1804
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MRS. ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 11, 1804,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received, but
+      a press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps,
+      indeed, I may have already trespassed too far on your attention. With
+      those who wish to think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly
+      indifferent; but where I know a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only
+      truth to set it to rights, I cannot be as passive. The act of personal
+      unkindness alluded to in your former letter, is said in your last to have
+      been the removal of your eldest son from some office to which the judges
+      had appointed him. I conclude, then, he must have been a commissioner of
+      bankruptcy. But I declare to you, on my honor, that this is the first
+      knowledge I have ever had that he was so. It may be thought, perhaps, that
+      I ought to have inquired who were such, before I appointed others. But it
+      is to be observed, that the former law permitted the judges to name
+      commissioners occasionally only, for every case as it arose, and not to
+      make them permanent officers. Nobody, therefore, being in office, there
+      could be no removal. The judges, you well know, have been considered as
+      highly federal; and it was noted that they confined their nominations
+      exclusively to federalists. The legislature, dissatisfied with this,
+      transferred the nomination to the President, and made the offices
+      permanent. The very object in passing the law was, that he should correct,
+      not confirm, what was deemed the partiality of the judges. I thought it
+      therefore proper to inquire, not whom they had employed, but whom I ought
+      to appoint to fulfil the intentions of the law. In making these
+      appointments, I put in a proportion of federalists, equal, I believe, to
+      the proportion they bear in numbers through the Union generally. Had I
+      known that your son had acted, it would have been a real pleasure to me to
+      have preferred him to some who were named in Boston, in what was deemed
+      the same line of politics. To this I should have been led by my knowledge
+      of his integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards yourself and
+      Mr. Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of
+      the sedition law. But nothing in the constitution has given them a right
+      to decide for the executive, more than to the executive to decide for
+      them. Both magistracies are equally independent in the sphere of action
+      assigned to them. The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a
+      right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment, because the power was
+      placed in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing
+      the law to be unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it;
+      because that power has been confided to them by the constitution. That
+      instrument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be checks on each
+      other. But the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what
+      laws are constitutional, and what not, not only for themselves in their
+      own sphere of action, but for the legislature and executive also in their
+      spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch. Nor does the opinion
+      of the unconstitutionality, and consequent nullity of that law, remove all
+      restraint from the overwhelming torrent of slander, which is confounding
+      all vice and virtue, all truth and falsehood, in the United States. The
+      power to do that is fully possessed by the several State legislatures. It
+      was reserved to them, and was denied to the General Government, by the
+      constitution, according to our construction of it. While we deny that
+      Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press, we have ever
+      asserted the right of the States, and their exclusive right, to do so.
+      They have, accordingly, all of them made provisions for punishing slander,
+      which those who have time and inclination resort to for the vindication of
+      their characters. In general, the State laws appear to have made the
+      presses responsible for slander as far as is consistent with its useful
+      freedom. In those States where they do not admit even the truth of
+      allegations to protect the printer, they have gone too far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to
+      possess, has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention once more
+      to those circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be judged. I
+      hope you will see these intrusions on your time to be, what they really
+      are, proofs of my great, respect for you. I tolerate with the utmost
+      latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion, without
+      imputing to them criminality. I know too well the weakness and uncertainty
+      of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both of our political
+      parties, at least the honest part of them, agree conscientiously in the
+      same object, the public good: but they differ essentially in what they
+      deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by
+      one composition of the governing powers; the other, by a different one.
+      One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of
+      rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will
+      prove. We think that one side of this experiment has been long enough
+      tried, and proved not to promote the good of the many: and that the other
+      has not been fairly and sufficiently tried. Our opponents think the
+      reverse. With whichever opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must
+      prevail. My anxieties on this subject will never carry me beyond the use
+      of fair and honorable means of truth and reason; nor have they ever
+      lessened my esteem for moral worth, nor alienated my affections from a
+      single friend, who did not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has
+      happened, I confess I have not been insensible to it: yet have ever kept
+      myself open to a return of their justice. I conclude with sincere prayers
+      for your health and happiness, that yourself and Mr. Adams may long enjoy
+      the tranquillity you desire and merit, and see in the prosperity of your
+      family what is the consummation of the last and warmest of human wishes,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XIX.&mdash;TO MR. NICHOLSON, January 29, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. NICHOLSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 29, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of yesterday,
+      asking information on the subject of the gun-boats proposed to be built. I
+      lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting them,
+      premising a few words on the system of fortifications. Considering the
+      harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to
+      defence, and the estimates we have seen of the fortifications planned for
+      some of them, this system cannot be completed on a moderate scale for less
+      than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned in time of war with less than
+      fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. And when done, they avail
+      little; because all military men agree, that wherever a vessel may pass a
+      fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case at all our sea-port
+      towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according to the advantages of the
+      position, but can never be prevented. Our own experience during the war
+      proved this on different occasions. Our predecessors have, nevertheless,
+      proposed to go into this system, and had commenced it. But, no law
+      requiring us to proceed, we have suspended it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn our
+      attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to, before
+      a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in aid of
+      each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages, which may be moved to
+      any point on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging the vessel.
+      A sufficient number of these should be lent to each sea-port town, and
+      their militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to do this; it
+      has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more competently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so stationed
+      as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her after entering to
+      depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the United States, which ought
+      to be in a state of substantial defence. The whole of these would require,
+      according to the best opinions, two hundred and forty gun-boats. Their
+      cost was estimated by Captain Rogers at two thousand dollars each; but we
+      had better say four thousand dollars. The whole would cost one million of
+      dollars. But we should allow ourselves ten years to complete it, unless
+      circumstances should force it sooner. There are three situations in which
+      the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up under a shed, in readiness to be
+      launched and manned by the seamen and militia of the town on short notice.
+      In this situation she costs nothing but an enclosure, or a centinel to see
+      that no mischief is done to her. 2. Afloat, and with men enough to
+      navigate her in harbor and take care of her, but depending on receiving
+      her crew from the town on short warning. In this situation, her annual
+      expense is about two thousand dollars, as by an official estimate at the
+      end of this letter. 3. Fully manned for action. Her annual expense in this
+      situation is about eight thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined.
+      &lsquo;When there is general peace, we should probably keep about six or seven
+      afloat in the second situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen
+      thousand dollars; the rest all hauled up. When France and England are at
+      war, we should keep, at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation,
+      their annual expense fifty thousand dollars. When we should be at war
+      ourselves, some of them would probably be kept in the third situation, at
+      an annual expense of eight thousand dollars; but how many, must depend on
+      the circumstances of the war. We now possess ten, built and building. It
+      is the opinion of those consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to
+      put every harbor under our view into a respectable condition; and that
+      this should limit the views of the present year. This would require an
+      appropriation of sixty thousand dollars, and I suppose that the best way
+      of limiting it, without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would
+      build more. I should think it best not to give a detailed report, which
+      exposes our policy too much. A bill, with verbal explanations, will
+      suffice for the information of the House. I do not know whether General
+      Wilkinson would approve the printing his paper. If he would, it would be
+      useful. Accept affectionate and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XX.&mdash;TO MR. VOLNEY, February 8, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. VOLNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 8, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the books some
+      time after, which were all distributed according to direction. The copy
+      for the East Indies went immediately by a safe conveyance. The letter of
+      April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying that, did not come
+      to hand till August. That copy was deposited in the Congressional library.
+      It was not till my return here from my autumnal visit to Monticello, that
+      I had an opportunity of reading your work. I have read it, and with great
+      satisfaction. Of the first part I am less a judge than most people, having
+      never travelled westward of Staunton, so as to know any thing of the face
+      of the country; nor much indulged myself in geological inquiries, from a
+      belief that the skin-deep scratches, which we can make or find on the
+      surface of the earth, do not repay our time with as certain and useful
+      deductions, as our pursuits in some other branches. The subject of our
+      winds is more familiar to me. On that, the views you have taken are always
+      great, supported in their outlines by your facts; and though more
+      extensive observations, and longer continued, may produce some anomalies,
+      yet they will probably take their place in this first great canvass which
+      you have sketched. In no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or
+      judgment more than in climate. The Canadian glows with delight in his
+      sleigh and snow, the very idea of which gives me the shivers. The
+      comparison of climate between Europe and North America, taking together
+      its corresponding parts, hangs chiefly on three great points. 1. The
+      changes between heat and cold in America are greater and more frequent,
+      and the extremes comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer in America
+      than in Europe. Habit, however, prevents these from affecting us more than
+      the smaller changes of Europe affect the European. But he is greatly
+      affected by ours. 2. Our sky is always clear; that of Europe always
+      cloudy. Hence a greater accumulation of heat here than there, in the same
+      parallel. 3. The changes between wet and dry are much more frequent and
+      sudden in Europe than in America. Though we have double the rain, it falls
+      in half the time. Taking all these together, I prefer much the climate of
+      the United States to that of Europe. I think it a more cheerful one. It is
+      our cloudless sky which has eradicated from our constitutions all
+      disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited
+      from our English ancestors. During a residence of between six and seven
+      years in Paris, I never but once saw the sun shine through a whole day,
+      without being obscured by a cloud in any part of it: and I never saw the
+      moment, in which, viewing the sky through its whole hemisphere, I could
+      say there was not the smallest speck of a cloud in it. I arrived at
+      Monticello, on my return from France, in January, and during only two
+      months&rsquo; stay there, I observed to my daughters, who had been with me to
+      France, that twenty odd times within that term, there was not a speck of a
+      cloud in the whole hemisphere. Still I do not wonder that an European
+      should prefer his grey to our azure sky. Habit decides our taste in this,
+      as in most other cases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to what we
+      then knew of it. Further experience has developed more and more its
+      peculiar character. Facts appear to have established, that it is
+      originated here by a local atmosphere, which is never generated but in the
+      lower, closer, and dirtier parts of our large cities, in the neighborhood
+      of the water; and that, to catch the disease, you must enter the local
+      atmosphere. Persons having taken the disease in the infected quarter, and
+      going into the country, are nursed and buried by their friends, without an
+      example of communicating it. A vessel going from the infected quarter, and
+      carrying its atmosphere in its hold into another State, has given the
+      disease to every person who there entered her. These have died in the arms
+      of their families, without a single communication of the disease. It is
+      certainly, therefore, an epidemic, not a contagious disease; and calls on
+      the chemists for some mode of purifying the vessel by a decomposition of
+      its atmosphere, if ventilation be found insufficient. In the long scale of
+      bilious fevers, graduated by many shades, this is probably the last and
+      most mortal term. It seizes the native of the place equally with
+      strangers. It has not been long known in any part of the United States.
+      The shade next above it, called the stranger&rsquo;s fever, has been coeval with
+      the settlement of the larger cities in the southern parts, to wit,
+      Norfolk, Charleston, New Orleans. Strangers going to these places in the
+      months of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the
+      genuine yellow fever. But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them
+      some time. Since we have known that kind of yellow fever which is no
+      respecter of persons, its name has been extended to the stranger&rsquo;s fever,
+      and every species of bilious fever which produces a black vomit, that is
+      to say, a discharge of very dark bile. Hence we hear of yellow fever on
+      the Allegany mountains, in Kentucky, &amp;c. This is a matter of
+      definition only: but it leads into error those who do not know how loosely
+      and how interestedly some physicians think and speak. So far as we have
+      yet seen, I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow fever, which
+      seizes on all indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of bilious fever,
+      never known in the United States till lately, nor farther south, as yet,
+      than Alexandria, and that what they have recently called the yellow fever
+      in New Orleans, Charleston, and Norfolk, is what has always been known in
+      those places as confined chiefly to strangers, and nearly as mortal to
+      them, as the other is to all its subjects. But both grades are local: the
+      stranger&rsquo;s fever less so, as it sometimes extends a little into the
+      neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so, confined within narrow
+      and well defined limits, and not communicable out of those limits. Such a
+      constitution of atmosphere being requisite to originate this disease as is
+      generated only in low, close, and ill-cleansed parts of a town, I have
+      supposed it practicable to prevent its generation by building our cities
+      on a more open plan. Take, for instance, the chequer-board for a plan. Let
+      the black squares only be building squares, and the white ones be left
+      open, in turf and trees. Every square of houses will be surrounded by four
+      open squares, and every house will front an open square. The atmosphere of
+      such a town would be like that of the country, insusceptible of the
+      miasmata which produce yellow fever. I have accordingly proposed that the
+      enlargements of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take
+      place, shall be on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be
+      made, or of cities to be built, that his means of prevention can be
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>genus irritabile vatum</i> could not let the author of the Ruins
+      publish a new work, without seeking in it the means of discrediting that
+      puzzling composition. Some one of those holy calumniators has selected
+      from your new work every scrap of a sentence, which, detached from its
+      context, could displease an American reader. A cento has been made of
+      these, which has run through a particular description of newspapers, and
+      excited a disapprobation even in friendly minds, which nothing but the
+      reading of the book will cure. But time and truth will at length correct
+      error.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our countrymen are so much occupied in the busy scenes of life, that they
+      have little time to write or invent. A good invention here, therefore, is
+      such a rarity as it is lawful to offer to the acceptance of a friend. A
+      Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, has invented a machine, which
+      he calls a polygraph, and which carries two, three, or four pens. That of
+      two pens, with which I am now writing, is best; and is so perfect that I
+      have laid aside the copying-press, for a twelvemonth past, and write
+      always with the polygraph. I have directed one to be made, of which I ask
+      your acceptance. By what conveyance I shall send it while Havre is
+      blockaded, I do not yet know. I think you will be pleased with it, and
+      will use it habitually as I do; because it requires only that degree of
+      mechanical attention which I know you to possess. I am glad to hear that
+      M. Cabanis is engaged in writing on the reformation of medicine. It needs
+      the hand of a reformer, and cannot be in better hands than his. Will you
+      permit my respects to him and the Abbe de la Roche to find a place here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word now on our political state. The two parties which prevailed with so
+      much violence when you were here, are almost wholly melted into one. At
+      the late Presidential election I have received one hundred and sixty-two
+      votes against fourteen only. Connecticut is still federal by a small
+      majority; and Delaware on a poise, as she has been since 1775, and will be
+      till Anglomany with her yields to Americanism. Connecticut will be with us
+      in a short time. Though the people in mass have joined us, their leaders
+      had committed themselves too far to retract. Pride keeps them hostile;
+      they brood over their angry passions, and give them vent in the newspapers
+      which they maintain. They still make as much noise as if they were the
+      whole nation. Unfortunately, these being the mercantile papers, published
+      chiefly in the seaports, are the only ones which find their way to Europe,
+      and make very false impressions there. I am happy to hear that the late
+      derangement of your health is going off, and that you are reestablished. I
+      sincerely pray for the continuance of that blessing, and with my
+      affectionate salutations, tender you assurances of great respect and
+      attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. The sheets which you receive are those of the copying-pen of the
+      polygraph, not of the one with which I have written.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXI.&mdash;TO JUDGE TYLER, March 29, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE TYLER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 29, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 17th found me on a short visit to this place, and I
+      observe in it with great pleasure a continuance of your approbation of the
+      course we are pursuing, and particularly the satisfaction you express with
+      the last inaugural address. The first was, from the nature of the case,
+      all profession and promise. Performance, therefore, seemed to be the
+      proper office of the second. But the occasion restricted me to mention
+      only the most prominent heads, and the strongest justification of these in
+      the fewest words possible. The crusade preached against philosophy by the
+      modern disciples of steady habits, induced me to dwell more in showing its
+      effect with the Indians than the subject otherwise justified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The war with Tripoli stands on two grounds of fact. 1st. It is made known
+      to us by our agents with the three other Barbary States, that they only
+      wait to see the event of this, to shape their conduct accordingly. If the
+      war is ended by additional tribute, they mean to offer us the same
+      alternative. 2ndly. If peace was made, we should still, and shall ever, be
+      obliged to keep a frigate in the Mediterranean to overawe rupture, or we
+      must abandon that market. Our intention in sending Morris with a
+      respectable force, was to try whether peace could be forced by a coercive
+      enterprise on their town. His inexecution of orders baffled that effort.
+      Having broke him, we try the same experiment under a better commander. If
+      in the course of the summer they cannot produce peace, we shall recall our
+      force, except one frigate and two small vessels, which will keep up a
+      perpetual blockade. Such a blockade will cost us no more than a state of
+      peace, and will save us from increased tributes, and the disgrace attached
+      to them. There is reason to believe the example we have set, begins
+      already to work on the dispositions of the powers of Europe to emancipate
+      themselves from that degrading yoke. Should we produce such a revolution
+      there, we shall be amply rewarded for what we have done. Accept my
+      friendly salutations, and assurances of great respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR LOGAN, May 11, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR LOGAN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 11, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see with infinite pain the bloody schism which has taken place among our
+      friends in Pennsylvania and New York, and will probably take place in
+      other States. The main body of both sections mean well, but their good
+      intentions will produce great public evil. The minority, whichever section
+      shall be the minority, will end in coalition with the federalists, and
+      some compromise of principle; because these will not sell their aid for
+      nothing. Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain, some portion of
+      that ground which we thought we had rescued to good government. I do not
+      express my sense of our misfortunes from any idea that they are
+      remediable. I know that the passions of men will take their course, that
+      they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and that this melancholy
+      truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an upright administration
+      is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of these family
+      dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of both parties. The war
+      <i>ad internecionem</i> which we have waged against federalism, has filled
+      our latter times with strife and unhappiness. We have met it, with pain
+      indeed, but with firmness, because we believed it the last convulsive
+      effort of that Hydra, which in earlier times we had conquered in the
+      field. But if any degeneracy of principle should ever render it necessary
+      to give ascendancy to one of the rising sections over the other, I thank
+      my God it will fall to some other to perform that operation. The only
+      cordial I wish to carry into my retirement, is the undivided good will of
+      all those with whom I have acted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me affectionately to Mrs. Logan, and accept my salutations, and
+      assurances of constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIII.&mdash;TO JUDGE SULLIVAN, May 21, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE SULLIVAN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 21, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An accumulation of business, which I found on my return here from a short
+      visit to Monticello, has prevented till now my acknowledgment of your
+      favor of the 14th <i>ultimo</i>. This delay has given time to see the
+      result of the contest in your State, and I cannot but congratulate you on
+      the advance it manifests, and the certain prospect it offers that another
+      year restores Massachusetts to the general body of the nation. You have
+      indeed received the federal unction of lying and slandering. But who has
+      not? Who will ever again come into eminent office, unanointed with this
+      chrism? It seems to be fixed that falsehood and calumny are to be their
+      ordinary engines of opposition; engines which will not be entirely without
+      effect. The circle of characters equal to the first stations is not too
+      large, and will be lessened by the voluntary retreat of those whose
+      sensibilities are stronger than their confidence in the justice of public
+      opinion. I certainly have known, and still know, characters eminently
+      qualified for the most exalted trusts, who could not bear up against the
+      brutal hackings and hewings of these heroes of Billingsgate. I may say,
+      from intimate knowledge, that we should have lost the services of the
+      greatest character of our country, had he been assailed with the degree of
+      abandoned licentiousness now practised. The torture he felt under rare and
+      slight attacks, proved that under those of which the federal bands have
+      shown themselves capable, he would have thrown up the helm in a burst of
+      indignation. Yet this effect of sensibility must not be yielded to. If we
+      suffer ourselves to be frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the
+      enemy will use that weapon; for what one so cheap to those of whose system
+      of politics morality makes no part? The patriot, like the Christian, must
+      learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty; and
+      in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more
+      requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self-command. But that
+      will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are
+      repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the benefit of your good
+      example. To the other falsehoods they have brought forward, should they
+      add, as you expect, insinuations of want of confidence in you from the
+      administration generally, or myself particularly, it will, like their
+      other falsehoods, produce in the public mind a contrary inference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      *********
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tender you my friendly and respectful salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIV.&mdash;TO THOMAS PAINE, June 5, 1805
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS PAINE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 5, 1805.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letters, Nos. 1, 2, 3, the last of them dated April the 20th, were
+      received April the 26th. I congratulate you on your retirement to your
+      farm, and still more that it is of a character so worthy of your
+      attention. I much doubt whether the open room on your second story will
+      answer your expectations. There will be a few days in the year in which it
+      will be delightful, but not many. Nothing but trees, or Venetian blinds,
+      can protect it from the sun. The semi-cylindrical roof you propose will
+      have advantages. You know it has been practised on the cloth market at
+      Paris. De Lorme, the inventor, shows many forms of roofs in his book, to
+      which it is applicable. I have used it at home for a dome, being one
+      hundred and twenty degrees of an oblong octagon, and in the capitol we
+      unite two quadrants of a sphere by a semi-cylinder: all framed in De
+      Lorme&rsquo;s manner. How has your planing machine answered? Has it been tried
+      and persevered in by any workman?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      France has become so jealous of our conduct as to St. Domingo (which in
+      truth is only the conduct of our merchants), that the offer to become a
+      mediator would only confirm her suspicions. Bonaparte, however, expressed
+      satisfaction at the paragraph in my message to Congress on the subject of
+      that commerce. With respect to the German redemptioners, you know I can do
+      nothing, unless authorized by law. It would be made a question in
+      Congress, whether any of the enumerated objects to which the constitution
+      authorizes the money of the Union to be applied, would cover an
+      expenditure for importing settlers to Orleans. The letter of the
+      revolutionary sergeant was attended to by General Dearborn, who wrote to
+      him informing him how to proceed to obtain his land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Eustis&rsquo;s observation to you, that &lsquo;certain paragraphs in the
+      National Intelligencer,&rsquo; respecting my letter to you, &lsquo;supposed to be
+      under Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s direction, had embarrassed Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s friends
+      in Massachusetts; that they appeared like a half denial of the letter, or
+      as if there was something in it not proper to be owned, or that needed an
+      apology,&rsquo; is one of those mysterious half confidences difficult to be
+      understood. That tory printers should think it advantageous to identify me
+      with that paper, the Aurora, &amp;c. in order to obtain ground for abusing
+      me, is perhaps fair warfare. But that any one who knows me personally
+      should listen one moment to such an insinuation, is what I did not expect.
+      I neither have, nor ever had, any more connection with those papers than
+      our antipodes have; nor know what is to be in them until I see it in them,
+      except proclamations and other documents sent for publication. The friends
+      in Massachusetts who could be embarrassed by so weak a weapon as this,
+      must be feeble friends indeed. With respect to the letter, I never
+      hesitated to avow and to justify it in conversation. In no other way do I
+      trouble myself to contradict any thing which is said. At that time,
+      however, there were certain anomalies in the motions of some of our
+      friends, which events have at length reduced to regularity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems very difficult to find out what turn things are to take in
+      Europe. I suppose it depends on Austria, which knowing it is to stand in
+      the way of receiving the first hard blows, is cautious of entering into a
+      coalition. As to France and England we can have but one wish, that they
+      may disable one another from injuring others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [The following, in the hand-writing of the Author, is inserted in his MS.
+      of this period. Whether it was published, or where, is not stated.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Richmond, 1780, December 31. At 8 A. M. the Governor receives the first
+      intelligence that twenty-seven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay,
+      and were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby&rsquo;s point (the
+      southern cape of James river); their destination unknown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1781, January 2. At 10 A. M. information received that they had entered
+      James river, their advance being at Warrasqueak bay. Orders were
+      immediately given for calling in the militia, one fourth from some, and
+      one half from other counties. The members of the legislature, which rises
+      this day, are the bearers of the orders to their respective counties. The
+      Governor directs the removal of the records into the country, and the
+      transportation of the military stores from Richmond to Westham (on the
+      river seven miles above); there to be carried across the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 3. At 8 P. M. the enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown;
+      convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 4. At 5 A. M. information is received that they had passed
+      Kennon&rsquo;s and Hood&rsquo;s the evening before, with a strong; easterly wind,
+      which determines their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The
+      Governor now calls in the whole militia from the adjacent counties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At 5 P. M. information, that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up at
+      Westover (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
+      Richmond); and consequently Richmond their destination. Orders are now
+      given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to
+      Westham, and to throw them across the river directly at Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the night,
+      then rode up to the foundery (one mile below Westham), ordered Captains
+      Boush and Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to continue all night wagoning to Westham
+      the arms and stores still at the foundery, to be thrown across the river
+      at Westham, then proceeded to Westham to urge the pressing the
+      transportation there across the river, and thence went to Tuckahoe (eight
+      miles above and on the same side of the river) to see after his family,
+      which he had sent that far in the course of the day. He arrived there at 1
+      o&rsquo;clock in the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 5. Early in the morning, he carried his family across the river
+      there, and sending them to Fine Creek (eight miles higher up) went himself
+      to Britton&rsquo;s on the south side of the river, (opposite to Westham).
+      Finding the arms, &amp;c. in a heap near the shore, and exposed to be
+      destroyed by cannon from the north bank, he had them removed under cover
+      of a point of land near by. He proceeded to Manchester (opposite to
+      Richmond). The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1 P. M. Having found that
+      nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond, he set out for
+      Chetwood&rsquo;s to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that place as a
+      rendezvous and head-quarters; but not finding him there, and understanding
+      he would be at Colonel Fleming&rsquo;s (six miles above Britton&rsquo;s), he proceeded
+      thither. The enemy had now a detachment at Westham, and sent a deputation
+      from the city of Richmond to the Governor, at Colonel Fleming&rsquo;s, to
+      propose terms for ransoming the safety of the city, which terms he
+      rejected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 6. The Governor returned to Britton&rsquo;s, had measures taken more
+      effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy, having burnt
+      some houses and stores, left Richmond after twenty-four hours&rsquo; stay there,
+      and encamped at Four Mile Creek (eight or ten miles below); and the
+      Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 7. He returned to Britton&rsquo;s to see further to the arms there,
+      exposed on the ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before,
+      and thence proceeded to Manchester and lodged there. The enemy encamped at
+      Westover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 8. At half after 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and resumed
+      his residence there. The enemy are still retained in their encampment at
+      Westover by an easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has now three hundred
+      militia at the Forest (six miles off from Westover); General Nelson, two
+      hundred at Charles City Court-House (eight miles below Westover); Gibson,
+      one thousand, and Baron Steuben, eight hundred, on the south side of the
+      river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 9. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 10. At 1 P. M. they embark: and the wind having shifted a little
+      to the north of west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
+      Steuben marches for Hood&rsquo;s, where their passage may be checked. He reaches
+      Bland&rsquo;s mills in the evening, within nine miles of Hood&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January 11. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they make good their
+      retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this period, time and place have been minutely cited, in order that
+      those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the Governor,
+      may lay their finger on the point, and say, when and where it was.
+      Hereafter, less detail will suffice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold with a
+      reinforcement of two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg,
+      and about the last of April to Manchester. The Governor had remained
+      constantly in and about Richmond, exerting all his powers for collecting
+      militia, and providing such means for the defence of the State as its
+      exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, and with only the
+      river between him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within four,
+      five, or six miles of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. de la Fayette about this time arrived at Richmond with some continental
+      troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued to occupy that
+      place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips and Arnold held
+      Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis, about the middle of
+      May, joining them with the main southern army, M. de la Fayette was
+      obliged to retire. The enemy crossed the river, and advanced up into the
+      country about fifty miles, and within thirty miles of Charlottesville, at
+      which place the legislature being to meet in June, the Governor proceeded
+      to his seat at Monticello, two or three miles from it. His office was now
+      near expiring, the country under invasion by a powerful army, no services
+      but military of any avail; unprepared by his line of life and education
+      for the command of armies, he believed it right not to stand in the way of
+      talents better fitted than his own to the circumstances under which the
+      country was placed. He therefore himself proposed to his friends in the
+      legislature, that General Nelson, who commanded the militia of the State,
+      should be appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the union of the
+      civil and military power in the same hands, at this time, would greatly
+      facilitate military measures. This appointment accordingly took place on
+      the 12th of June, 1781.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the state of things, when, his office having actually expired,
+      and no successor yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment, of
+      horse, was detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson (whom
+      they thought still in office) and the legislature now sitting in
+      Charlottesville. The Speakers of the two Houses, and some other members of
+      the legislature, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello. Tarleton,
+      early in the morning, (June 23, I believe,) when within ten miles of that
+      place, detached a company of horse to secure him and his guests, and
+      proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to Charlottesville, where he
+      hoped to find the legislature unapprized of his movement. Notice of it,
+      however, had been brought both to Monticello and Charlottesville about
+      sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues, returned to Charlottesville,
+      and, with the other members of the legislature, had barely time to get out
+      of his way. Mr. Jefferson sent off his family, to secure them from danger,
+      and was himself still at Monticello, making arrangements for his own
+      departure, when Lieutenant Hudson arrived there at half speed, and
+      informed him the enemy were then ascending the hill of Monticello. He
+      departed immediately, and knowing that he would be pursued if he took the
+      high road, he plunged into the woods of the adjoining mountain, where,
+      being at once safe, he proceeded to overtake his family. This is the
+      famous adventure of Carter&rsquo;s Mountain, which has been so often resounded
+      through the slanderous chronicles of Federalism. But they have taken care
+      never to detail the facts, lest these should show that this favorite
+      charge amounted to nothing more, than that he did not remain in his house,
+      and there singly fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to be
+      taken prisoner. Having accompanied his family one day&rsquo;s journey, he
+      returned to Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours&rsquo; stay in
+      Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded
+      with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest,
+      where, riding in his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse,
+      and disabled from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr.
+      Turner finds it more convenient to give him this fall in his retreat
+      before Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof that he
+      withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy which Don Quixote would
+      not have practised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place, are
+      taken from the notes made by the writer hereof, for his own satisfaction,
+      at the time: the others are from memory, but so well recollected, that he
+      is satisfied there is no material fact misstated. Should any person
+      undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence which may at all merit
+      the public respect, the writer will take the trouble (though not at all in
+      the best situation for it) to produce the proofs in support of it. He
+      finds, indeed, that, of the persons whom he recollects to have been
+      present on these occasions, few have survived the intermediate lapse of
+      four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that some, as well as himself, are
+      yet among the living; and he is positively certain, that no man can
+      falsify any material fact here stated. He well remembers, indeed, that
+      there were then, as there are at all times, some who blamed every thing
+      done contrary to their own opinion, although their opinions were formed on
+      a very partial knowledge of facts. The censures, which have been hazarded
+      by such men as Mr. Turner, are nothing but revivals of these half-informed
+      opinions. Mr. George Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very
+      honest one, was prompted by these persons to bring specific charges
+      against Mr. Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were communicated
+      through a mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also
+      the heads of justification on each of them. I well remember this paper,
+      and believe the original of it still exists; and though framed when every
+      real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabricated flight
+      from Richmond was not among the charges stated in this paper, nor any
+      charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting, singly, the troop of horse.
+      Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House of
+      Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable sentence of entire
+      approbation of Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s conduct, and so much the more honorable, as
+      themselves had been witnesses to it. And Mr. George Nicholas took a
+      conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will, and when the matter
+      was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the erroneous opinions he had
+      been led into on that occasion, and to make just reparation by a candid
+      acknowledgment of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXV.&mdash;TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER, March 2, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTORS ROGERS AND SLAUGHTER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 2, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gentlemen,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received the favor of your letter of February the 2nd, and read
+      with thankfulness its obliging expressions respecting myself. I regret
+      that the object of a letter from persons whom I so much esteem, and
+      patronized by so many other respectable names, should be beyond the law
+      which a mature consideration of circumstances has prescribed for my
+      conduct. I deem it the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of
+      his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to see
+      it so applied as to do the most good of which it is capable. This I
+      believe to be best insured, by keeping within the circle of his own
+      inquiry and information, the subjects of distress to whose relief his
+      contributions shall be applied. If this rule be reasonable in private
+      life, it becomes so necessary in my situation, that to relinquish it would
+      leave me without rule or compass. The applications of this kind from
+      different parts of our own, and from foreign countries, are far beyond any
+      resources within my command. The mission of Serampore, in the East Indies,
+      the object of the present application, is but one of many items. However
+      disposed the mind may feel to unlimited good, our means having limits, we
+      are necessarily circumscribed by them. They are too narrow to relieve even
+      the distresses under our own eye: and to desert these for others which we
+      neither see nor know, is to omit doing a certain good for one which is
+      uncertain. I know, indeed, there have been splendid associations for
+      effecting benevolent purposes in remote regions of the earth. But no
+      experience of their effect has proved that more good would not have been
+      done by the same means employed nearer home. In explaining, however, my
+      own motives of action, I must not be understood as impeaching those of
+      others. Their views are those of an expanded liberality. Mine may be too
+      much restrained by the law of usefulness. But it is a law to me, and with
+      minds like yours, will be felt as a justification. With this apology, I
+      pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of high esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVI.&mdash;TO MR. DUANE, March 22, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 22, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you, my good Sir, cordially, for your letter of the 12th; which,
+      however, I did not receive till the 20th. It is a proof of sincerity,
+      which I value above all things; as, between those who practise it,
+      falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain. There is an enemy
+      somewhere endeavoring to sow discord among us. Instead of listening first,
+      then doubting, and lastly believing anile tales handed round without an
+      atom of evidence, if my friends will address themselves to me directly, as
+      you have done, they shall be informed with frankness and thankfulness.
+      There is not a truth on earth which I fear or would disguise. But secret
+      slanders cannot be disarmed, because they are secret. Although you desire
+      no answer, I shall give you one to those articles admitting a short
+      answer, reserving those which require more explanation than the compass of
+      a letter admits, to conversation on your arrival here. And as I write this
+      for your personal satisfaction, I rely that my letter will, under no
+      circumstances, be communicated to any mortal, because you well know how
+      every syllable from me is distorted by the ingenuity of political enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, then, I have had less communication, directly or
+      indirectly, with the republicans of the east, this session, than I ever
+      had before. This has proceeded from accidental circumstances, not from
+      design. And if there be any coolness between those of the south and
+      myself, it has not been from me towards them. Certainly there has been no
+      other reserve, than to avoid taking part in the divisions among our
+      friends. That Mr. R. has openly attacked the administration is
+      sufficiently known. We were not disposed to join in league with Britain,
+      under any belief that she is fighting for the liberties of mankind, and to
+      enter into war with Spain, and consequently France. The House of
+      Representatives were in the same sentiment, when they rejected Mr. R.&lsquo;s
+      resolutions for raising a body of regular troops for the western service.
+      We are for a peaceable accommodation with all those nations, if it can be
+      effected honorably. This, perhaps, is not the only ground of his
+      alienation; but which side retains its orthodoxy, the vote of eighty-seven
+      to eleven republicans may satisfy you: but you will better satisfy
+      yourself on coming here, where alone the true state of things can be
+      known, and where you will see republicanism as solidly embodied on all
+      essential points, as you ever saw it on any occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That there is only one minister who is not opposed to me, is totally
+      unfounded. There never was a more harmonious, a more cordial
+      administration, nor ever a moment when it has been otherwise. And while
+      differences of opinion have been always rare among us, I can affirm, that
+      as to present matters, there was not a single paragraph in my message to
+      Congress, or those supplementary to it, in which there was not a unanimity
+      of concurrence in the members of the administration. The fact is, that in
+      ordinary affairs every head of a department consults me on those of his
+      department, and where any thing arises too difficult or important to be
+      decided between us, the consultation becomes general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That there is an ostensible cabinet and a concealed one, a public
+      profession and concealed counteraction, is false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That I have denounced republicans by the epithet of Jacobins, and declared
+      I would appoint none but those called moderates of both parties, and that
+      I have avowed or entertain any predilection for those called the third
+      party, or Quids, is in every tittle of it false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the expedition of Miranda was countenanced by me is an absolute
+      falsehood, let it have gone from whom it might; and I am satisfied it is
+      equally so as to Mr. Madison. To know as much of it as we could was our
+      duty, but not to encourage it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our situation is difficult; and whatever we do, is liable to the
+      criticisms of those who wish to represent it awry. If we recommend
+      measures in a public message, it may be said that members are not sent
+      here to obey the mandates of the President, or to register the edicts of a
+      sovereign. If we express opinions in conversation, we have then our
+      Charles Jenkinsons, and back-door counsellors. If we say nothing, &lsquo;we have
+      no opinions, no plans, no cabinet.&rsquo; In truth, it is the fable of the old
+      man, his son, and ass, over again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are short facts, which may suffice to inspire you with caution,
+      until you can come here and examine for yourself. No other information can
+      give you a true insight into the state of things; but you will have no
+      difficulty in understanding them when on the spot. In the mean time,
+      accept my friendly salutations and cordial good wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVII.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, March 24,1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.&mdash;[Confidential.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 24,1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A last effort at friendly settlement with Spain is proposed to be made at
+      Paris, and under the auspices of France. For this purpose, General
+      Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint
+      commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General
+      Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence
+      stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add a
+      third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public
+      confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of
+      Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be a
+      southern man; and the rather, as the interests to be negotiated are almost
+      entirely southern and western. This addition is not yet ultimately decided
+      on; but I am inclined to believe it will be adopted. Under this
+      expectation, and my wish that you may be willing to undertake it, I give
+      you the earliest possible intimation of it, that you may be preparing both
+      your mind and your measures for the mission. The departure would be
+      required to be very prompt; though the absence, I think, will not be long,
+      Bonaparte not being in the practice of procrastination. This particular
+      consideration will, I hope, reconcile the voyage to your affairs and your
+      feelings. The allowance to an extra mission, is salary from the day of
+      leaving home, and expenses to the place of destination, or in lieu of the
+      latter, and to avoid settlements, a competent fixed sum may be given. For
+      the return, a continuance of the salary for three months after fulfilment
+      of the commission. Be so good as to make up your mind as quickly as
+      possible, and to answer me as early as possible. Consider the measure as
+      proposed provisionally only, and not to be communicated to any mortal
+      until we see it proper. Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXVIII.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, April 13, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 13, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of your affairs certainly furnishes good cause for your not
+      acceding to my proposition of a special mission to Europe. My only hope
+      had been, that they could have gone on one summer without you. An unjust
+      hostility against General Armstrong will, I am afraid, show itself
+      whenever any treaty made by him shall be offered for ratification. I
+      wished, therefore, to provide against this, by joining a person who would
+      have united the confidence of the whole Senate. General Smith was so
+      prominent in the opposition to Armstrong, that it would be impossible for
+      them to act together. We conclude, therefore, to leave the matter with
+      Armstrong and Bowdoin. Indeed, my dear Sir, I wish sincerely you were back
+      in the Senate; and that you would take the necessary measures to get
+      yourself there. Perhaps, as a preliminary, you should go to our
+      legislature. Giles&rsquo;s absence has been a most serious misfortune. A
+      majority of the Senate means well. But Tracy and Bayard are too dexterous
+      for them, and have very much influenced their proceedings. Tracy has been
+      of nearly every committee during the session, and for the most part the
+      chairman, and of course drawer of the reports. Seven federalists voting
+      always in phalanx, and joined by some discontented republicans, some
+      oblique ones, some capricious, have so often made a majority, as to
+      produce very serious embarrassment to the public operations; and very much
+      do I dread the submitting to them, at the next session, any treaty which
+      can be made with either England or Spain, when I consider that five
+      joining the federalists, can defeat a friendly settlement of our affairs.
+      The House of Representatives is as well disposed as I ever saw one. The
+      defection of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and confusion
+      for a moment; but they soon rallied to their own principles, and let him
+      go off with five or six followers only. One half of these are from
+      Virginia. His late declaration of perpetual opposition to this
+      administration, drew off a few others, who at first had joined him,
+      supposing his opposition occasional only, and not systematic. The alarm
+      the House has had from this schism, has produced a rallying together, and
+      a harmony, which carelessness and security had begun to endanger. On the
+      whole, this little trial of the firmness of our representatives in their
+      principles, and that of the people also, which is declaring itself in
+      support of their public functionaries, has added much to my confidence in
+      the stability of our government; and to my conviction, that should things
+      go wrong at any time, the people will set them to rights by the peaceable
+      exercise of their elective rights. To explain to you the character of this
+      schism, its objects and combinations, can only be done in conversation;
+      and must be deferred till I see you at Monticello, where I shall probably
+      be about the 10th or 12th of May, to pass the rest of the month there.
+      Congress has agreed to rise on Monday the 21st.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXIX.&mdash;TO MR. HARRIS, April 18, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. HARRIS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 18, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now some time since I received from you, through the house of Smith
+      and Buchanan, at Baltimore, a bust of the Emperor Alexander, for which I
+      have to return you my thanks. These are the more cordial, because of the
+      value the bust derives from the great estimation in which its original is
+      held by the world, and by none more than by myself. It will constitute one
+      of the most valued ornaments of the retreat I am preparing for myself at
+      my native home. Accept, at the same time, my acknowledgments for the
+      elegant work of Atkinson and Walker on the customs of the Russians. I had
+      laid it down as a law for my conduct while in office, and hitherto
+      scrupulously observed, to accept of no present beyond a book, a pamphlet,
+      or other curiosity of minor value; as well to avoid imputations on my
+      motives of action, as to shut out a practice susceptible of such abuse.
+      But my particular esteem for the character of the Emperor places his image
+      in my mind above the scope of law. I receive it, therefore, and shall
+      cherish it with affection. It nourishes the contemplation of all the good
+      placed in his power, and of his disposition to do it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little before Dr. Priestley&rsquo;s death, he informed me that he had received
+      intimations, through a channel he confided in, that the Emperor
+      entertained a wish to know something of our constitution. I have therefore
+      selected the two best works we have on that subject, for which I pray you
+      to ask a place in his library. They are too much in detail to occupy his
+      time; but they will furnish materials for an abstract, to be made by
+      others, on such a scale as may bring the matter within the compass of the
+      time which his higher callings can yield to such an object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a very early period of my life, contemplating the history of the
+      aboriginal inhabitants of America, I was led to believe that if there had
+      ever been a relation between them and the men of color in Asia, traces of
+      it would be found in their several languages. I have therefore availed
+      myself of every opportunity which has offered, to obtain vocabularies of
+      such tribes as have been within my reach, corresponding to a list then
+      formed of about two hundred and fifty words. In this I have made such
+      progress, that within a year or two more I think to give to the public
+      what I then shall have acquired. I have lately seen a report of Mr.
+      Volney&rsquo;s to the Celtic Academy, on a work of Mr. Pallas, entitled <i>Vocabulaires
+      Comparés des Langues de toute la Terre</i>; with a list of one hundred and
+      thirty words, to which the vocabulary is limited. I find that
+      seventy-three of these words are common to that and to my vocabulary, and
+      therefore will enable us, by a comparison of language, to make the inquiry
+      so long desired, as to the probability of a common origin between the
+      people of color of the two continents. I have to ask the favor of you to
+      procure me a copy of the above work of Pallas, to inform me of the cost,
+      and permit me to pay it here to your use; for I presume you have some
+      mercantile correspondent here, to whom a payment can be made for you. A
+      want of knowledge what the book may cost, as well as of the means of
+      making so small a remittance, obliges me to make this proposition, and to
+      restrain it to the sole condition that I be permitted to reimburse it
+      here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a letter for the Emperor, which be pleased to deliver or
+      have delivered: it has some relation to a subject which the Secretary of
+      State will explain to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my salutations, and assurances of esteem and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXX.&mdash;TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 19, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial Majesty, of the great
+      satisfaction I have received from your letter of August the 20th, 1805,
+      and sincere expressions of the respect and veneration I entertain for your
+      character. It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts of my
+      life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a portion of
+      the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign, whose ruling
+      passion is the advancement of the happiness and prosperity of his people;
+      and not of his own people only, but who can extend his eye and his good
+      will to a distant and infant nation, unoffending in its course,
+      unambitious in its views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
+      observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of their
+      actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect that your
+      Majesty&rsquo;s interposition in them has been disinterested and generous, and
+      having in view only the general good of the great European family. When
+      you shall proceed to the pacification which is to re-establish peace and
+      commerce, the same dispositions of mind will lead you to think of the
+      general intercourse of nations, and to make that provision for its future
+      maintenance, which, in times past, it has so much needed. The northern
+      nations of Europe, at the head of which your Majesty is distinguished, are
+      habitually peaceable. The United States of America, like them, are
+      attached to peace. We have then with them a common interest in the neutral
+      rights. Every nation, indeed, on the continent of Europe, belligerent as
+      well as neutral, is interested in maintaining these rights, in
+      liberalizing them progressively with the progress of science and
+      refinement of morality, and in relieving them from restrictions which the
+      extension of the arts has long since rendered unreasonable and vexatious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have it in their
+      power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent service to
+      nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacification, a
+      correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. Such a
+      definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belligerent, would
+      give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover them with an
+      authority, which would protect them in an important degree against future
+      violation; and should any further sanction be necessary, that of an
+      exclusion of the violating nation from commercial intercourse with all the
+      others, would be preferred to war, as more analogous to the offence, more
+      easy and likely to be executed with good faith. The essential articles of
+      these rights, too, are so few and simple as easily to be defined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
+      no part to act in its pacification. But as principles may then be settled
+      in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us that they
+      are placed under the protection of an umpire, who, looking beyond the
+      narrow bounds of an individual nation, will take under the cover of his
+      equity the rights of the absent and unrepresented. It is only by a happy
+      concurrence of good characters and good occasions, that a step can now and
+      then be taken to advance the well being of nations. If the present
+      occasion be good, I am sure your Majesty&rsquo;s character will not be wanting
+      to avail the world of it. By monuments of such good offices may your life
+      become an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and may He who
+      called it into being for the good of the human family, give it length of
+      days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXI.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 4, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 4, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 16th of March by a common vessel, and then expected to
+      have had, on the rising of Congress, an opportunity of peculiar confidence
+      to you. Mr. Beckley then supposed he should take a flying trip to London,
+      on private business. But I believe he does not find it convenient. He
+      could have let you into the <i>arcana rerum</i>, which you have interests
+      in knowing. Mr. Pinckney&rsquo;s pursuits having been confined to his peculiar
+      line, he has only that general knowledge of what has passed here, which
+      the public possess. He has a just view of things so far as known to him.
+      Our old friend, Mercer, broke off from us some time ago, at first
+      professing to disdain joining the federalists, yet from the habit of
+      voting together, becoming soon identified with them. Without carrying over
+      with him one single person, he is now in a state of as perfect obscurity
+      as if his name had never been known. Mr. J. Randolph is in the same track,
+      and will end in the same way. His course has excited considerable alarm.
+      Timid men consider it as a proof of the weakness of our government, and
+      that it is to be rent into pieces by demagogues and to end in anarchy. I
+      survey the scene with a different eye, and draw a different augury from
+      it. In a House of Representatives of a great mass of good sense, Mr.
+      Randolph&rsquo;s popular eloquence gave him such advantages as to place him
+      unrivalled as the leader of the House; and, although not conciliatory to
+      those whom he led, principles of duty and patriotism induced many of them
+      to swallow humiliations he subjected them to, and to vote as was right, as
+      long as he kept the path of right himself. The sudden defection of such a
+      man could not but produce a momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but
+      for a moment only. The good sense of the House rallied around its
+      principles, and, without any leader, pursued steadily the business of the
+      session, did it well, and by a strength of vote which has never before
+      been seen. Upon all trying questions, exclusive of the federalists, the
+      minority of republicans voting with him, has been from four to six or
+      eight, against from ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the
+      federalists with ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal
+      opposition to this administration, and consequently associated with them
+      in his votes, he will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from
+      this is that there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the
+      body of the nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to
+      discern and to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can
+      arise, and that no <i>ignis faiuus</i> will be able to lead them long
+      astray. In the present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations
+      of it have yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence
+      to the administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain
+      equivocal ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
+      Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
+      carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
+      this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than him
+      who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground of
+      opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
+      advantageous to you to be planted. The great body of your friends are
+      among the firmest adherents to the administration, and in their support of
+      you will suffer Mr. Randolph to have no communications with them. My
+      former letter told you the line which both duty and inclination would lead
+      me sacredly to pursue. But it is unfortunate for you, to be embarrassed
+      with such a <i>soi-disant</i> friend. You must not commit yourself to him.
+      These views may assist you to understand such details as Mr. Pinckney will
+      give you. If you are here at any time before the fall, it will be in time
+      for any object you may have, and by that time the public sentiment will be
+      more decisively declared. I wish you were here at present, to take your
+      choice of the two governments of Orleans and Louisiana, in either of which
+      I could now place you; and I verily believe it would be to your advantage
+      to be just that much withdrawn from the focus of the ensuing contest,
+      until its event should be known. The one has a salary of five thousand
+      dollars, the other of two thousand dollars; both with excellent hotels for
+      the Governor. The latter at St. Louis, where there is good society, both
+      French and American, a healthy climate, and the finest field in the United
+      States for acquiring property. The former not unhealthy, if you begin a
+      residence there in the month of November. The Mrs. Trists and their
+      connections are established there. As I think you can within four months
+      inform me what you say to this, I will keep things in their present state
+      till the last day of August, for your answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late change in the ministry I consider as insuring us a just
+      settlement of our differences, and we ask no more. In Mr. Fox, personally,
+      I have more confidence than in any man in England, and it is founded in
+      what, through unquestionable channels, I have had opportunities of knowing
+      of his honesty and his good sense. While he shall be in the
+      administration, my reliance on that government will be solid. We had
+      committed ourselves in a line of proceedings adapted to meet Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s
+      policy and hostility, before we heard of his death, which self-respect did
+      not permit us to abandon afterwards; and the late unparalleled outrage on
+      us at New York excited such sentiments in the public at large, as did not
+      permit us to do less than has been done. It ought not to be viewed by the
+      ministry as looking towards them at all, but merely as the consequences of
+      the measures of their predecessors, which their nation has called on them
+      to correct. I hope, therefore, they will come to just arrangements. No two
+      countries upon earth have so many points of common interest and
+      friendship; and their rulers must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such
+      dispositions, they break them asunder. The only rivalry that can arise, is
+      on the ocean. England may by petty larceny thwartings check us on that
+      element a little, but nothing she can do will retard us there one year&rsquo;s
+      growth. We shall be supported there by other nations, and thrown into
+      their scale to make a part of the great counterpoise to her navy. If, on
+      the other hand, she is just to us, conciliatory, and encourages the
+      sentiment of family feelings and conduct, it cannot fail to befriend the
+      security of both. We have the seamen and materials for fifty ships of the
+      line, and half that number of frigates, and were France to give us the
+      money, and England the dispositions to equip them, they would give to
+      England serious proofs of the stock from which they are sprung, and the
+      school in which they have been taught, and added to the efforts of the
+      immensity of sea-coast lately united under one power, would leave the
+      state of the ocean no longer problematical. Were, on the other hand,
+      England to give the money, and France the dispositions to place us on the
+      sea in all our force, the whole world, out of the continent of Europe,
+      might be our joint monopoly. We wish for neither of these scenes. We ask
+      for peace and justice from all nations, and we will remain uprightly
+      neutral in fact, though leaning in belief to the opinion that an English
+      ascendancy on the ocean is safer for us than that of France. We begin to
+      broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as of our waters,
+      in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present,
+      and prohibited so soon as either consent or force will permit us. We shall
+      never permit another privateer to cruise within it, and shall forbid our
+      harbors to national cruisers. This is essential for our tranquillity and
+      commerce. Be so good as to have the enclosed letters delivered, to present
+      me to your family, and be assured yourself of my unalterable friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For fear of accidents I shall not make the unnecessary addition of my
+      name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXII.&mdash;TO GENERAL SMITH, May 4,1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, May 4,1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received your favor covering some papers from General Wilkinson. I have
+      repented but of one appointment there, that of Lucas, whose temper I see
+      overrules every good quality and every qualification he has. Not a single
+      fact has appeared, which occasions me to doubt that I could have made a
+      fitter appointment than General Wilkinson. One qualm of principle I
+      acknowledge I do feel, I mean the union of the civil and military
+      authority. You remember that when I came into office, while we were
+      lodging together at Conrad&rsquo;s, he was pressed on me to be made Governor of
+      the Mississippi territory; and that I refused it on that very principle.
+      When, therefore, the House of Representatives took that ground, I was not
+      insensible to its having some weight. But in the appointment to Louisiana,
+      I did not think myself departing from my own principle, because I consider
+      it not as a civil government, but merely a military station. The
+      legislature had sanctioned that idea by the establishment of the office of
+      Commandant, in which were completely blended the civil and military
+      powers. It seemed, therefore, that the Governor should be in suit with
+      them. I observed too, that the House of Representatives, on the very day
+      they passed the stricture on this union of authorities, passed a bill
+      making the Governor of Michigan, commander of the regular troops which
+      should at any time be within his government. However, on the subject of
+      General Wilkinson nothing is in contemplation at this time. We shall see
+      what turn things take at home and abroad in the course of the summer.
+      Monroe has had a second conversation with Mr. Fox, which gives me hopes
+      that we shall have an amicable arrangement with that government. Accept my
+      friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIII.&mdash;TO MR DIGGES, July 1, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MR DIGGES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thomas Jefferson salutes Mr. Digges with friendship and respect, and sends
+      him the newspapers received last night. He is sorry that only the latter
+      part of the particular publication which Mr. Digges wished to see, is in
+      them. He will be happy to see Mr. Digges and his friends on the fourth of
+      July, and to join in congratulations on the return of the day which
+      divorced us from the follies and crimes of Europe, from a dollar in the
+      pound at least of six hundred millions sterling, and from all the ruin of
+      Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s administration. We, too, shall encounter follies; but if great,
+      they will be short, if long, they will be light: and the vigor of our
+      country will get the better of them. Mr. Pitt&rsquo;s follies have been great,
+      long, and inflicted on a body emaciated with age, and exhausted by
+      excesses beyond its power to bear. July 1, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIV.&mdash;TO MR. BIDWELL, July 5, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BIDWELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 5, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of June the 21st has been duly received. We have not as yet
+      heard from General Skinner on the subject of his office. Three persons are
+      proposed on the most respectable recommendations, and under circumstances
+      of such equality as renders it difficult to decide between them. But it
+      shall be done impartially. I sincerely congratulate you on the triumph of
+      republicanism in Massachusetts. The Hydra of Federalism has now lost all
+      its heads but two. Connecticut I think will soon follow Massachusetts.
+      Delaware will probably remain what it ever has been, a mere county of
+      England, conquered indeed, and held under by force, but always disposed to
+      counter-revolution. I speak of its majority only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our information from London continues to give us hopes of an accommodation
+      there on both the points of &lsquo;accustomed commerce and impressment.&rsquo; In this
+      there must probably be some mutual concession, because we cannot expect to
+      obtain every thing and yield nothing. But I hope it will be such an one as
+      may be accepted. The arrival of the Hornet in France is so recently known,
+      that it will yet be some time before we learn our prospects there.
+      Notwithstanding the efforts made here, and made professedly to assassinate
+      that negotiation in embryo, if the good sense of Bonaparte should prevail
+      over his temper, the present state of things in Europe may induce him to
+      require of Spain, that she should do us justice at least. That he should
+      require her to sell us East Florida, we have no right to insist: yet there
+      are not wanting considerations which may induce him to wish a permanent
+      foundation for peace laid between us. In this treaty, whatever it shall
+      be, our old enemies the federalists, and their new friends, will find
+      enough to carp at. This is a thing of course, and I should suspect error
+      where they found no fault. The buzzard feeds on carrion only. Their
+      rallying point is &lsquo;war with France and Spain, and alliance with Great
+      Britain&rsquo;: and every thing is wrong with them which checks their new ardor
+      to be fighting for the liberties of mankind; on the sea always excepted.
+      There one nation is to monopolize all the liberties of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I read, with extreme regret, the expressions of an inclination on your
+      part to retire from Congress. I will not say that this time, more than all
+      others, calls for the service of every man; but I will say, there never
+      was a time when the services of those who possess talents, integrity,
+      firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress. Some one of
+      that description is particularly wanted to take the lead in the House of
+      Representatives, to consider the business of the nation as his own
+      business, to take it up as if he were singly charged with it, and carry it
+      through. I do not mean that any gentleman, relinquishing his own judgment,
+      should implicitly support all the measures of the administration; but
+      that, where he does not disapprove of them, he should not suffer them to
+      go off in sleep, but bring them to the attention of the House, and give
+      them a fair chance. Where he disapproves, he will of course leave them to
+      be brought forward by those who concur in the sentiment. Shall I explain
+      my idea by an example? The classification of the militia was communicated
+      to General Varnum and yourself merely as a proposition, which, if you
+      approved, it was trusted you would support. I knew, indeed, that General
+      Varnum was opposed to any thing which might break up the present
+      organization of the militia: but when so modified as to avoid this, I
+      thought he might, perhaps, be reconciled to it. As soon as I found it did
+      not coincide with your sentiments, I could not wish you to support it; but
+      using the same freedom of opinion, I procured it to be brought forward
+      elsewhere. It failed there also, and for a time, perhaps, may not prevail:
+      but a militia can never be used for distant service on any other plan; and
+      Bonaparte will conquer the world, if they do not learn his secret of
+      composing armies of young men only, whose enthusiasm and health enable
+      them to surmount all obstacles. When a gentleman, through zeal for the
+      public service, undertakes to do the public business, we know that we
+      shall hear the cant of backstairs counsellors. But we never heard this
+      while the declaimer was himself a backstairs man, as he calls it, but in
+      the confidence and views of the administration, as may more properly and
+      respectfully be said. But if the members are to know nothing but what is
+      important enough to be put into a public message, and indifferent enough
+      to be made known to all the world; if the executive is to keep all other
+      information to himself, and the House to plunge on in the dark, it becomes
+      a government of chance and not of design. The imputation was one of those
+      artifices used to despoil an adversary of his most effectual arms; and men
+      of mind will place themselves above a gabble of this order. The last
+      session of Congress was indeed an uneasy one for a time: but as soon as
+      the members penetrated into the views of those who were taking a new
+      course, they rallied in as solid a phalanx as I have ever seen act
+      together. Indeed I have never seen a House of better dispositions.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Perhaps I am not entitled to speak with so much frankness; but it proceeds
+      from no motive which has not a right to your forgiveness. Opportunities of
+      candid explanation are so seldom afforded me, that I must not lose them
+      when they occur. The information I receive from your quarter agrees with
+      that from the south; that the late schism has made not the smallest
+      impression on the public, and that the seceders are obliged to give to it
+      other grounds than those which we know to be the true ones. All we have to
+      wish is, that, at the ensuing session, every one may take the part openly
+      which he secretly befriends. I recollect nothing new and true, worthy
+      communicating to you. As for what is not true, you will always find
+      abundance in the newspapers. Among other things, are those perpetual
+      alarms as to the Indians, for no one of which has there ever been the
+      slightest ground. They are the suggestions of hostile traders, always
+      wishing to embroil us with the Indians, to perpetuate their own
+      extortionate commerce. I salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXV.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 10, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I believe that when you left America, the invention of the polygraph had
+      not yet reached Boston. It is for copying with one pen while you write
+      with the other, and without the least additional embarrassment or exertion
+      to the writer. I think it the finest invention of the present age, and so
+      much superior to the copying machine, that the latter will never be
+      continued a day by any one who tries the polygraph. It was invented by a
+      Mr. Hawkins of Frankford, near Philadelphia, who is now in England,
+      turning it to good account. Knowing that you are in the habit of writing
+      much, I have flattered myself that I could add acceptably to your daily
+      convenience by presenting you with one of these delightful machines. I
+      have accordingly had one made, and to be certain of its perfection I have
+      used it myself some weeks, and have the satisfaction to find it the best
+      one I have ever tried; and in the course of two years&rsquo; daily use of them,
+      I have had opportunities of trying several. As a secretary, which copies
+      for us what we write without the power of revealing it, I find it a most
+      precious possession to a man in public-business. I enclose directions for
+      unpacking and using the machine when you receive it; but the machine
+      itself must await a special and sure conveyance under the care of some
+      person going to Paris. It is ready packed, and shall go by the first
+      proper conveyance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we heard two or three weeks ago of the safe arrival of the Hornet at
+      L&rsquo;Orient, we are anxiously waiting to learn from you the first impressions
+      on her mission. If you can succeed in procuring us Florida, and a good
+      western boundary, it will fill the American mind with joy. It will secure
+      to our fellow-citizens one of their most ardent wishes, a long peace with
+      Spain and France. For be assured, the object of war with them and alliance
+      with England, which, at the last session of Congress, drew off from the
+      republican band about half a dozen of its members, is universally
+      reprobated by our native citizens from north to south. I have never seen
+      the nation stand more firm to its principles, or rally so firmly to its
+      constituted authorities, and in reprobation of the opposition to them.
+      With England, I think we shall cut off the resource of impressing our
+      seamen to fight her battles, and establish the inviolability of our flag
+      in its commerce with her enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We shall thus become what we sincerely wish to be, honestly neutral, and
+      truly useful to both belligerents. To the one, by keeping open a market
+      for the consumption of her manufactures, while they are excluded from all
+      the countries under the power of her enemy; to the other, by securing for
+      her a safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial,
+      while her own means are restrained by her enemy, and may, therefore, be
+      employed in other useful pursuits. We are certainly more useful friends to
+      France and Spain as neutrals, than as allies. I hope they will be sensible
+      of it, and by a wise removal of all grounds of future misunderstanding to
+      another age, enable you to present us such an arrangement, as will insure
+      to our fellow-citizens long and permanent peace and friendship with them.
+      With respect to our western boundary, your instructions will be your
+      guide. I will only add, as a comment to them, that we are attached to the
+      retaining the Bay of St. Bernard, because it was the first establishment
+      of the unfortunate La Sale, was the cradle of Louisiana, and more
+      incontestibly covered and conveyed to us by France, under that name, than
+      any other spot in the country. This will be secured to us by taking for
+      our western boundary the Guadaloupe, and from its head around the sources
+      of all waters eastward of it, to the highlands embracing the waters
+      running into the Mississippi. However, all these things I presume will be
+      settled before you receive this; and I hope so settled as to give peace
+      and satisfaction to us all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our crops of wheat are greater than have ever been known, and are now
+      nearly secured. A caterpillar gave for a while great alarm, but did little
+      injury. Of tobacco, not half a crop has been planted for want of rain; and
+      even this half, with cotton and Indian corn, has yet many chances to run.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This summer will place our harbors in a situation to maintain peace and
+      order within them. The next, or certainly the one following that, will so
+      provide them with gunboats and common batteries, as to be <i>hors
+      d&rsquo;insulte</i>. Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose is
+      to provide for defence by all those means to which our resources are
+      competent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship, and assure you of my high respect and
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVI.&mdash;TO W. A. BURWELL, September 17, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO W. A. BURWELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 17, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of August the 7th, from Liberty, never got to my hands till the 9th
+      instant. About the same time, I received the Enquirer in which Decius was
+      so judiciously answered. The writer of that paper observed, that the
+      matter of Decius consisted, first of facts; secondly, of inferences from
+      these facts: that he was not well enough informed to affirm or deny his
+      facts, and he therefore examines his inferences, and in a very masterly
+      manner shows that even were his facts true, the reasonable inferences from
+      them are very different from those drawn by Decius. But his facts are far
+      from truth, and should be corrected. It happened that Mr. Madison and
+      General Dearborn were here when I received your letter. I therefore, with
+      them, took up Decius and read him deliberately; and our memories aided one
+      another in correcting his bold and unauthorized assertions. I shall note
+      the most material of them in the order of the paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It is grossly false that our ministers, as is said in a note, had
+      proposed to surrender our claims to compensation for Spanish spoliations,
+      or even for French. Their instructions were to make no treaty in which
+      Spanish spoliations were not provided for; and although they were
+      permitted to be silent as to French spoliations carried into Spanish
+      ports, they were not expressly to abandon even them. 2. It is not true
+      that our ministers, in agreeing to establish the Colorado as our western
+      boundary, had been obliged to exceed the authority of their instructions.
+      Although we considered our title good as far as the Rio Bravo, yet in
+      proportion to what they could obtain east of the Mississippi, they were to
+      relinquish to the westward, and successive sacrifices were marked out, of
+      which even the Colorado was not the last. 3. It is not true that the
+      Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great Britain should consider our
+      supplying her enemies with money as a breach of neutrality. After the very
+      words of the treaty were finally agreed to, it took some time, perhaps
+      some days, to make out all the copies in the very splendid manner of
+      Bonaparte&rsquo;s treaties. Whether the 30th of April, 1803, the date expressed,
+      was the day of the actual compact, or that on which it was signed, our
+      memories do not enable us to say. If the former, then it is strictly
+      conformable to the day of the compact; if the latter, then it was
+      postdated, instead of being antedated. The motive assigned, too, is as
+      incorrect as the fact. It was so far from being thought, by any party, a
+      breach of neutrality, that the British minister congratulated Mr. King on
+      the acquisition, and declared that the King had learned it with great
+      pleasure: and when Baring, the British banker, asked leave of the minister
+      to purchase the debt and furnish the money to France, the minister
+      declared to him, that so far from throwing obstacles in the way, if there
+      were any difficulty in the payment of the money, it was the interest of
+      Great Britain to aid it. 4. He speaks of a double set of opinions and
+      principles; the one ostensible, to go on the journals and before the
+      public, the other efficient, and the real motives to action. But where are
+      these double opinions and principles? The executive informed the
+      legislature of the wrongs of Spain, and that preparation should be made to
+      repel them, by force, if necessary. But as it might still be possible to
+      negotiate a settlement, they asked such means as might enable them to meet
+      the negotiation, whatever form it might take. The first part of this
+      system was communicated publicly, the second, privately; but both were
+      equally official, equally involved the responsibility of the executive,
+      and were equally to go on the journals. 5. That the purchase of the
+      Floridas was in direct opposition to the views of the executive, as
+      expressed in the President&rsquo;s official communication. It was not in
+      opposition even to the public part of the communication, which did not
+      recommend war, but only to be prepared for it. It perfectly harmonized
+      with the private part, which asked the means of negotiation in such terms
+      as covered the purchase of Florida as evidently as it was proper to speak
+      it out. He speaks of secret communications between the executive and
+      members, of backstairs influence, &amp;tc.. But he never spoke of this
+      while he and Mr. Nicholson enjoyed it almost solely. But when he differed
+      from the executive in a leading measure, and the executive, not submitting
+      to him, expressed their sentiments to others, the very sentiments (to wit,
+      for the purchase of Florida), which he acknowledges they expressed to him,
+      then he roars out upon backstairs influence. 6. The committee, he says,
+      forbore to recommend offensive measures. Is this true? Did not they
+      recommend the raising &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- regiments? Besides, if it was
+      proper for the committee to forbear recommending offensive measures, was
+      it not proper for the executive and legislature to exercise the same
+      forbearance? 7. He says Monroe&rsquo;s letter had a most important bearing on
+      our Spanish relations. Monroe&rsquo;s letter related, almost entirely, to our
+      British relations. Of those with Spain he knew nothing particular since he
+      left that country. Accordingly, in his letter he simply expressed an
+      opinion on our affairs with Spain, of which he knew we had better
+      information than he could possess. His opinion was no more than that of
+      any other sensible man; and his letter was proper to be communicated with
+      the English papers, and with them only. That the executive did not hold it
+      up on account of any bearing on Spanish affairs, is evident from the fact,
+      that it was communicated when the Senate had not yet entered on the
+      Spanish affairs, and had not yet received the papers relating to them from
+      the other House. The moment the Representatives were ready to enter on the
+      British affairs, Monroe&rsquo;s letter, which peculiarly related to them, and
+      was official solely as to them, was communicated to both Houses, the
+      Senate being then about entering on the Spanish affairs.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      These, my dear Sir, are the principal facts worth correction. Make any use
+      of them you think best, without letting your source of information be
+      known. Can you send me some cones or seeds of the cucumber-tree? Accept
+      affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVII.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 12, 1806
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 12, 1806.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You witnessed, in the earlier part of the administration, the malignant
+      and long continued efforts which the federalists exerted in their
+      newspapers, to produce misunderstanding between Mr. Madison and myself.
+      These failed completely. A like attempt was afterwards made, through other
+      channels, to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn and myself,
+      but with no more success. The machinations of the last session to put you
+      at cross questions with us all, were so obvious as to be seen at the first
+      glance of every eye. In order to destroy one member of the administration,
+      the whole were to be set to loggerheads to destroy one another. I observe
+      in the papers lately, new attempts to revive this stale artifice, and that
+      they squint more directly towards you and myself. I cannot, therefore, be
+      satisfied, till I declare to you explicitly, that my affections and
+      confidence in you are nothing impaired, and that they cannot be impaired
+      by means so unworthy the notice of candid and honorable minds. I make the
+      declaration, that no doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts
+      they fear, may find a moment&rsquo;s harbor in either of our minds. I have so
+      much reliance on the superior good sense and candor of all those
+      associated with me, as to be satisfied they will not suffer either friend
+      or foe to sow tares among us. Our administration now drawing towards a
+      close, I have a sublime pleasure in believing it will be distinguished as
+      much by having placed itself above all the passions which could disturb
+      its harmony, as by the great operations by which it will have advanced the
+      well-being of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and
+      unalterable respect and attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN DICKINSON, January 13, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN DICKINSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 13, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Ancient Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of the 1st instant, and am ever thankful
+      for communications which may guide me in the duties which I wish to
+      perform as well as I am able. It is but too true, that great discontents
+      exist in the territory of Orleans. Those of the French inhabitants have
+      for their sources, 1. the prohibition of importing slaves. This may be
+      partly removed by Congress permitting them to receive slaves from the
+      other States, which, by dividing that evil, would lessen its danger. 2.
+      The administration of justice in our forms, principles, and language, with
+      all of which they are unacquainted, and are the more abhorrent, because of
+      the enormous expense, greatly exaggerated by the corruption of bankrupt
+      and greedy lawyers, who have gone there from the United States and
+      engrossed the practice. 3. The call on them by the land commissioners to
+      produce the titles of their lands. The object of this is really to record
+      and secure their rights. But as many of them hold on rights so ancient
+      that the title papers are lost, they expect the land is to be taken from
+      them wherever they cannot produce a regular deduction of title in writing.
+      In this they will be undeceived by the final result, which will evince to
+      them a liberal disposition of the government towards them. Among the
+      American inhabitants it is the old division of federalists and
+      republicans. The former, are as hostile there as they are every where, and
+      are the most numerous and wealthy. They have been long endeavoring to
+      batter down the Governor, who has always been a firm republican. There
+      were characters superior to him, whom I wished to appoint, but they
+      refused the office: I know no better man who would accept of it, and it
+      would not be right to turn him out for one not better. But it is the
+      second cause, above mentioned, which is deep seated and permanent. The
+      French members of the legislature, being the majority in both Houses,
+      lately passed an act, declaring that the civil, or French laws, should be
+      the laws of their land, and enumerated about fifty folio volumes, in
+      Latin, as the depositories of these laws. The Governor negatived the act.
+      One of the Houses thereupon passed a vote for self-dissolution of the
+      legislature as a useless body, which failed in the other House by a single
+      vote only. They separated, however, and have disseminated all the
+      discontent they could. I propose to the members of Congress in
+      conversation, the enlisting thirty thousand volunteers, Americans by
+      birth, to be carried at the public expense, and settled immediately on a
+      bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land each, on the west side of
+      the Mississippi, on the condition of giving two years of military service,
+      if that country should be attacked within seven years. The defence of the
+      country would thus be placed on the spot, and the additional number would
+      entitle the territory to become a State, would make the majority American,
+      and make it an American instead of a French State. This would not sweeten
+      the pill to the French; but in making that acquisition we had some view to
+      our own good as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest good of both
+      will be promoted by whatever will amalgamate us together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedium will end
+      in a few lines more. Mine has yet two years to endure. I am tired of an
+      office where I can do no more good than many others, who would be glad to
+      be employed in it. To myself, personally, it brings nothing but unceasing
+      drudgery, and daily loss of friends. Every office becoming vacant, every
+      appointment made, <i>me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis</i>. My only
+      consolation is in the belief, that my fellow-citizens at large give me
+      credit for good intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the
+      continuance of that good will which follows well intended actions, and
+      their approbation will be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God bless you, my excellent friend, and give you yet many healthy and
+      happy years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XXXIX,&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, February 28,1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 28,1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of January the 20th was received in due time. But such has
+      been the constant pressure of business, that it has been out of my power
+      to answer it. Indeed, the subjects of it would be almost beyond the extent
+      of a letter, and as I hope to see you ere long at Monticello, it can then
+      be more effectually done verbally. Let me observe, however, generally,
+      that it is impossible for my friends ever to render me so acceptable a
+      favor, as by communicating to me, without reserve, facts and opinions. I
+      have none of that sort of self-love which winces at it; indeed, both
+      self-love and the desire to do what is best strongly invite unreserved
+      communication. There is one subject which will not admit a delay till I
+      see you. Mr. T. M. Randolph is, I believe, determined to retire from
+      Congress, and it is strongly his wish, and that of all here, that you
+      should take his place. Never did the calls of patriotism more loudly
+      assail you than at this moment. After excepting the federalists, who will
+      be twenty-seven, and the little band of schismatics, who will be three or
+      four (all tongue), the residue of the House of Representatives is as well
+      disposed a body of men as I ever saw collected. But there is no one whose
+      talents and standing, taken together, have weight enough to give him the
+      lead. The consequence is, that there is no one who will undertake to do
+      the public business, and it remains undone. Were you here, the whole would
+      rally round you in an instant, and willingly co-operate in whatever is for
+      the public good. Nor would it require you to undertake drudgery in the
+      House. There are enough, able and willing to do that. A rallying point is
+      all that is wanting. Let me beseech you then to offer yourself. You never
+      will have it so much in your power again to render such eminent service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my affectionate salutations and high esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XL.&mdash;TO JAMES MONROE, March 21, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 21, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A copy of the treaty with Great Britain came to Mr. Erskine&rsquo;s hands on the
+      last day of the session of Congress, which he immediately communicated to
+      us; and since that, Mr. Purviance has arrived with an original. On the
+      subject of it you will receive a letter from the Secretary of State, of
+      about this date, and one more in detail hereafter. I should not have
+      written, but that I perceive uncommon efforts, and with uncommon
+      wickedness, are making by the federal papers to produce mischief between
+      myself, personally, and our negotiators; and also to irritate the British
+      government, by putting a thousand speeches into my mouth, not one word of
+      which I ever uttered. I have, therefore, thought it safe to guard you, by
+      stating the view which we have given out on the subject of the treaty, in
+      conversation and otherwise; for ours, as you know, is a government which
+      will not tolerate the being kept entirely in the dark, and especially on a
+      subject so interesting as this treaty. We immediately stated in
+      conversation, to the members of the legislature and others, that having,
+      by a letter received in January, perceived that our ministers might sign a
+      treaty not providing satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen,
+      we had, on the 3rd of February, informed you, that should such an one have
+      been forwarded, it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore,
+      that you should resume negotiations for inserting an article to that
+      effect; that we should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn
+      from you the result of our instructions, which probably would not be till
+      summer, and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We
+      observed, too, that a written declaration of the British commissioners,
+      given in at the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn,
+      prevent the acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us
+      bound by the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement
+      we have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
+      made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as a
+      hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to have
+      screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every thing,
+      and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil of all
+      the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to expunge
+      the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we may enjoy our
+      right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present hostilities. If
+      peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the benefit of this
+      stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years, to pass no
+      non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any other measures to
+      restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the British. But on this
+      you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the treaty cannot be put
+      into an acceptable form, then the next best thing is to back out of the
+      negotiation as well as we can, letting that die away insensibly; but, in
+      the mean time, agreeing informally, that both parties shall act on the
+      principles of the treaty, so as to preserve that friendly understanding
+      which we so sincerely desire, until the one or the other may be disposed
+      to yield the points which divide us. This will leave you to follow your
+      desire of coming home, as soon as you see that the amendment of the treaty
+      is desperate. The power of continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to
+      Mr. Pinckney, who, by procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us
+      time, the most precious of all things to us. The government of New Orleans
+      is still without such a head as I wish. The salary of five thousand
+      dollars is too small; but I am assured the Orleans legislature would make
+      it adequate, would you accept it. It is the second office in the United
+      States in importance, and I am still in hopes you will accept it. It is
+      impossible to let you stay at home while the public has so much need of
+      talents. I am writing under a severe indisposition of periodical headache,
+      without scarcely command enough of my mind to know what I write. As a part
+      of this letter concerns Mr. Pinckney as well as yourself, be so good as to
+      communicate so much of it to him; and with my best respects to him, to
+      Mrs. Monroe, and your daughter, be assured yourself, in all cases, of my
+      constant and affectionate friendship and attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLI.&mdash;M. LE COMTE DIODATI, March 29, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      M. LE COMTE DIODATI.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 29, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Antient Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 29th reached me the 18th of February. It
+      enclosed a duplicate of that written from Brunswick five years before, but
+      which I never received, or had notice of, but by this duplicate. Be
+      assured, my friend, that I was incapable of such negligence towards you,
+      as a failure to answer it would have implied. It would illy have accorded
+      with those sentiments of friendship I entertained for you at Paris, and
+      which neither time nor distance has lessened. I often pass in review the
+      many happy hours I spent with Madame Diodati and yourself on the banks of
+      the Seine, as well as at Paris, and I count them among the most pleasing I
+      enjoyed in France. Those were indeed days of tranquillity and happiness.
+      They had begun to cloud a little before I left you; but I had no
+      apprehension that the tempest, of which I saw the beginning, was to spread
+      over such an extent of space and time. I have often thought of you with
+      anxiety, and wished to know how you weathered the storm, and into what
+      port you had retired. The letters now received give me the first
+      information, and I sincerely felicitate you on your safe and quiet
+      retreat. Were I in Europe, <i>pax et panis</i> would certainly be my
+      motto. Wars and contentions, indeed, fill the pages of history with more
+      matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness
+      furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own
+      country, and what it has fortunately enjoyed now upwards of twenty years,
+      while Europe has been in constant volcanic eruption. I again, my friend,
+      repeat my joy that you have escaped the overwhelming torrent of its lava.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to come, I
+      propose to retire from public life, and to close my days on my patrimony
+      of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform
+      health; but the weight of public business begins to be too heavy for me,
+      and I long for the enjoyments of rural life, among my books, my farms, and
+      my family. Having performed my <i>quadragena stipendia</i>, I am entitled
+      to my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner
+      sensible than myself when I ought to ask it. I have, therefore, requested
+      my fellow-citizens to think of a successor for me, to whom I shall deliver
+      the public concerns with greater joy than I received them. I have the
+      consolation too of having added nothing to my private fortune, during my
+      public service, and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty.
+      Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever excusable, are so when writing to
+      a friend to whom our concerns are not uninteresting. I shall always be
+      glad to hear of your health and happiness, and having been out of the way
+      of hearing of any of our cotemporaries of the <i>corps diplomatique</i> at
+      Paris, any details of their subsequent history, which you will favor me
+      with, will be thankfully received. I pray you to make my friendly respects
+      acceptable to Madame la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my
+      continued esteem, and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and
+      assurances of constant attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLII.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, April 2, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
+      the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
+      fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
+      to go under cover of the Secretary of State&rsquo;s despatches by any vessel
+      going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned
+      for a safer conveyance. None such has occurred till now, that the United
+      States&rsquo; armed brig the Wasp, on her way to the Mediterranean is to touch
+      at Falmouth, with despatches for our ministers at London, and at Brest,
+      with others for yourself and General Armstrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You heard in due time from London of the signature of a treaty there
+      between Great Britain and the United States. By a letter we received in
+      January from our ministers at London, we found they were making up their
+      minds to sign a treaty, in which no provision was made against the
+      impressment of our seamen, contenting themselves with a note received in
+      the course of their correspondence, from the British negotiators, assuring
+      them of the discretion with which impressments should be conducted, which
+      could be construed into a covenant only by inferences, against which its
+      omission in the treaty was a strong inference; and in its terms totally
+      unsatisfactory. By a letter of February the 3rd, they were immediately
+      informed that no treaty, not containing a satisfactory article on that
+      head, would be ratified, and desiring them to resume the negotiations on
+      that point. The treaty having come to as actually in the inadmissible
+      shape apprehended, we, of course, hold it up until we know the result of
+      the instructions of February the 3rd. I have but little expectation that
+      the British government will retire from their habitual wrongs in the
+      impressment of our seamen, and am certain, that without that we will never
+      tie up our hands by treaty, from the right of passing a non-importation or
+      non-intercourse act, to make it her interest to become just. This may
+      bring on a war of commercial restrictions. To show, however, the sincerity
+      of our desire for conciliation, I have suspended the non-importation act.
+      This state of things should be understood at Paris, and every effort used
+      on your part to accommodate our differences with Spain, under the auspices
+      of France, with whom it is all-important that we should stand in terms of
+      the strictest cordiality. In fact, we are to depend on her and Russia for
+      the establishment of neutral rights by the treaty of peace, among which
+      should be that of taking no persons by a belligerent out of a neutral
+      ship, unless they be the soldiers of an enemy. Never did a nation act
+      towards another with more perfidy and injustice than Spain has constantly
+      practised against us: and if we have kept our hands off of her till now,
+      it has been purely out of respect to France, and from the value we set on
+      the friendship of France. We expect, therefore, from the friendship of the
+      Emperor, that he will either compel Spain to do us justice, or abandon her
+      to us. We ask but one month to be in possession of the city of Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No better proof of the good faith of the United States could have been
+      given, than the vigor with which we have acted, and the expense incurred,
+      in suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr against Mexico.
+      Although at first he proposed a separation of the western country, and on
+      that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, according to the
+      usual spirit of his government towards us, yet he very early saw that the
+      fidelity of the western country was not to be shaken, and turned himself
+      wholly towards Mexico. And so popular is an enterprise on that country in
+      this, that we had only to lie still, and he would have had followers
+      enough to have been in the city of Mexico in six weeks. You have doubtless
+      seen my several messages to Congress, which gave a faithful narrative of
+      that conspiracy. Burr himself, after being disarmed by our endeavors of
+      all his followers, escaped from the custody of the court of Mississippi,
+      but was taken near Fort Stoddart, making his way to Mobile, by some
+      country people, who brought him on as a prisoner to Richmond, where he is
+      now under a course for trial. Hitherto we have believed our law to be,
+      that suspicion on probable grounds was sufficient cause to commit a person
+      for trial, allowing time to collect witnesses till the trial. But the
+      judges here have decided, that conclusive evidence of guilt must be ready
+      in the moment of arrest, or they will discharge the malefactor. If this is
+      still insisted on, Burr will be discharged; because his crimes having been
+      sown from Maine, through the whole line of the western waters, to New
+      Orleans, we cannot bring the witnesses here under four months. The fact
+      is, that the federalists make Burr&rsquo;s cause their own, and exert their
+      whole influence to shield him from punishment, as they did the adherents
+      of Miranda. And it is unfortunate that federalism is still predominent in
+      our judiciary department, which is consequently in opposition to the
+      legislative and executive branches, and is able to baffle their measures
+      often.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, April 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 6th instant, on the subject of Burr&rsquo;s offences, was
+      received only four days ago. That there should be anxiety and doubt in the
+      public mind, in the present defective state of the proof, is not
+      wonderful; and this has been sedulously encouraged by the tricks of the
+      judges to force trials before it is possible to collect the evidence,
+      dispersed through a line of two thousand miles from Maine to Orleans. The
+      federalists, too, give all their aid, making Burr&rsquo;s cause their own,
+      mortified only that he did not separate the union or overturn the
+      government, and proving, that had he had a little dawn of success, they
+      would have joined him to introduce his object, their favorite monarchy, as
+      they would any other enemy, foreign or domestic, who could rid them of
+      this hateful republic for any other government in exchange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the
+      administration to a treason stalking through the land in open day. The
+      present one, that they have crushed it before it was ripe for execution,
+      so that no overt acts can be produced. This last may be true; though I
+      believe it is not. Our information having been chiefly by way of letter,
+      we do not know of a certainty yet what will be proved. We have set on foot
+      an inquiry through the whole of the country which has been the scene of
+      these transactions, to be able to prove to the courts, if they will give
+      time, or to the public by way of communication to Congress, what the real
+      facts have been. For obtaining this, we are obliged to appeal to the
+      patriotism of particular persons in different places, of whom we have
+      requested to make the inquiry in their neighborhood, and on such
+      information as shall be voluntarily offered. Aided by no process or
+      facilities from the federal courts, but frowned on by their new-born zeal
+      for the liberty of those whom we would not permit to overthrow the
+      liberties of their country, we can expect no revealments from the
+      accomplices of the chief offender. Of treasonable intentions, the judges
+      have been obliged to confess there is probable appearance. What loop-hole
+      they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee.
+      Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will
+      satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr&rsquo;s guilt. And I do suppose
+      the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men, in a
+      regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round Blannerhassett&rsquo;s
+      island, when they expected Governor Tiffin&rsquo;s men to be on them <i>modo
+      guerrino arraiati</i>. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth
+      of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi,
+      holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation, regularly
+      signed with the aid of the Governor, as between two independent and
+      hostile commanders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a moment&rsquo;s calculation will show that this evidence cannot be
+      collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding
+      when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to
+      inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says,
+      &lsquo;More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme Court
+      has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they exist. Why
+      are they not proved.&rsquo; In what terms of decency can we speak of this? As if
+      an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of Cumberland, and return in
+      five weeks, to do which has never taken less than twelve. Again, &lsquo;If, in
+      November or December last, a body of troops had been assembled on the
+      Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the affidavits, establishing the fact,
+      could not have been obtained by the last of March.&rsquo; But I ask the Judge,
+      where they should have been lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at
+      Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places
+      of apprehension and examination. It was not known at Washington till the
+      26th of March, that Burr would escape from the western tribunals, be
+      retaken and brought to an eastern one: and in five days after (neither
+      five months nor five weeks, as the Judge calculated) he says, it is
+      &lsquo;impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained.&rsquo;
+      Where? At Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the
+      eyes of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted
+      which would bear on the favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this
+      odious republic. &lsquo;I understand,&rsquo; says the Judge, &lsquo;probable cause of guilt
+      to be a case made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,&rsquo; &amp;c.
+      Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at
+      least. But this is confounding probability and proof. We had always before
+      understood that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the
+      offender must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable,
+      the Judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of
+      letters of information in Mr. Rodney&rsquo;s hands, the letters and facts
+      published in the local newspapers, Burr&rsquo;s flight, and the universal belief
+      or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of
+      enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or
+      capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the
+      United States who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt
+      acts to have taken place?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding
+      administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to
+      condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged
+      them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work
+      well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.
+      If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never
+      far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then, and amend
+      the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent of the
+      nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of the
+      government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the
+      common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders
+      which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are themselves protected
+      in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment is a farce which will
+      not be tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment,
+      it will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against Burr,
+      personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never, indeed, thought
+      him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or
+      other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of.
+      Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my
+      duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he
+      deserved it: and if his punishment can be commuted now for an useful
+      amendment of the constitution, I shall rejoice in it. My sheet being full,
+      I perceive it is high time to offer you my friendly salutations, and
+      assure you of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIV.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 2, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 2, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Burr&rsquo;s case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from
+      time to time with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury v.
+      Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the threshold
+      the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be law. 1.
+      Because the judges, in the outset, disclaimed all cognizance of the case;
+      although they then went on to say what would have been their opinion, had
+      they had cognizance of it. This then was confessedly an extra-judicial
+      opinion, and, as such, of no authority. 2. Because, had it been judicially
+      pronounced, it would have been against law; for to a commission, a deed, a
+      bond, delivery is essential to give validity. Until, therefore, the
+      commission is delivered out of the hands of the executive and his agents,
+      it is not his deed. He may withhold or cancel it at pleasure, as he might
+      his private deed in the same situation. The constitution intended that the
+      three great branches of the government should be co-ordinate, and
+      independent of each other. As to acts, therefore, which are to be done by
+      either, it has given no control to another branch. A judge, I presume,
+      cannot sit on a bench without a commission, or a record of a commission:
+      and the constitution having given to the judiciary branch no means of
+      compelling the executive either to deliver a commission, or to make a
+      record of it, shows it did not intend to give the judiciary that control
+      over the executive, but that it should remain in the power of the latter
+      to do it or not. Where different branches have to act in their respective
+      lines, finally and without appeal, under any law, they may give to it
+      different and opposite constructions. Thus in the case of William Smith,
+      the House of Representatives determined he was a citizen, and in the case
+      of William Duane (precisely the same in every material circumstance) the
+      judges determined he was no citizen. In the cases of Callender and others,
+      the judges determined the sedition act was valid under the constitution,
+      and exercised their regular powers of sentencing them to fine and
+      imprisonment. But the executive determined that the sedition act was a
+      nullity under the constitution, and exercised his regular power of
+      prohibiting the execution of the sentence, or rather of executing the real
+      law, which protected the acts of the defendants. From these different
+      constructions of the same act by different branches, less mischief arises,
+      than from giving to any one of them a control over the others. The
+      executive and Senate act on the construction, that until delivery from the
+      executive department, a commission is in their possession, and within
+      their rightful power; and in cases of commissions not revocable at will,
+      where, after the Senate&rsquo;s approbation and the President&rsquo;s signing and
+      sealing, new information of the unfitness of the person has come to hand
+      before the delivery of the commission, new nominations have been made and
+      approved, and new commissions have issued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this construction I have hitherto acted; on this I shall ever act, and
+      maintain it with the powers of the government, against any control which
+      may be attempted by the judges in subversion of the independence of the
+      executive and Senate within their peculiar department. I presume,
+      therefore, that in a case where our decision is by the constitution the
+      supreme one, and that which can be carried into effect, it is the
+      constitutionally authoritative one, and that that by the judges was <i>coram
+      non judice</i>, and unauthoritative, because it cannot be carried into
+      effect. I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the gratuitous
+      opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, and denounced as
+      not law: and I think the present a fortunate one, because it occupies such
+      a place in the public attention. I should be glad, therefore, if, in
+      noticing that case, you could take occasion to express the determination
+      of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were given
+      extra-judicially and against law, and that their reverse will be the rule
+      of action with the executive. If this opinion should not be your own, I
+      would wish it to be expressed merely as that of the executive. If it is
+      your own also, you would of course give to the arguments such a
+      developement, as a case, incidental only, might render proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLV.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 3, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines, than
+      that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the faulty
+      classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with attention,
+      and according to the best information I possess, classing them more
+      rigorously. I am persuaded, that were the duty on cheap wines put on the
+      same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge the field of those
+      who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The introduction of a very
+      cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood, within two years past, has
+      quadrupled in that time the number of those who keep wine, and will ere
+      long increase them tenfold. This would be a great gain to the treasury,
+      and to the sobriety of our country. I will here add my tariff, wherein you
+      will be able to choose any rate of duty you please; and to decide whether
+      it will not, on a fit occasion, be proper for legislative attention.
+      Affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page077.jpg" alt="Page77 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 5, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 5, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 31st instant has been received, and I think it will be
+      fortunate if any circumstance should produce a discharge of the present
+      scanty grand jury, and a future summons of a fuller: though the same views
+      of protecting the offender may again reduce the number to sixteen, in
+      order to lessen the chance of getting twelve to concur. It is understood,
+      that wherever Burr met with subjects who did not choose to embark in his
+      projects, unless approved by their government, he asserted that he had
+      that approbation. Most of them took his word for it, but it is said that
+      with those who would not, the following stratagem was practised. A forged
+      letter, purporting to be from General Dearborn, was made to express his
+      approbation, and to say that I was absent at Monticello, but that there
+      was no doubt that, on my return, my approbation of his enterprises would
+      be given. This letter was spread open on his table, so as to invite the
+      eye of whoever entered his room; and he contrived occasions of sending up
+      into his room, those whom he wished to become witnesses of his acting
+      under sanction. By this means, he avoided committing himself to any
+      liability to prosecution for forgery, and gave another proof of being a
+      great man in little things, while he is really small in great ones. I must
+      add General Dearborn&rsquo;s declaration, that he never wrote a letter to Burr
+      in his life, except that when here, once in a winter, he usually wrote him
+      a billet of invitation to dine. The only object of sending you the
+      enclosed letters is to possess you of the fact, that you may know how to
+      pursue it, if any of your witnesses should know any thing of it. My
+      intention in writing to you several times, has been to convey facts or
+      observations occurring in the absence of the Attorney General, and not to
+      make to the dreadful drudgery you are going through the unnecessary
+      addition of writing me letters in answer, which I beg you to relieve
+      yourself from, except when some necessity calls for it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN, June 10, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR HORATIO TURPIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 10, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of June the 1st has been duly received. To a mind like yours,
+      capable in any question of abstracting it from its relation to yourself, I
+      may safely hazard explanations, which I have generally avoided to others,
+      on questions of appointment. Bringing into office no desires of making it
+      subservient to the advancement of my own private interests, it has been no
+      sacrifice, by postponing them, to strengthen the confidence of my
+      fellow-citizens. But I have not felt equal indifference towards excluding
+      merit from office, merely because it was related to me. However, I have
+      thought it my duty so to do, that my constituents may be satisfied, that,
+      in selecting persons for the management of their affairs, I am influenced
+      by neither personal nor family interests, and especially, that the field
+      of public office will not be perverted by me into a family property. On
+      this subject, I had the benefit of useful lessons from my predecessors,
+      had I needed them, marking what was to be imitated and what avoided. But,
+      in truth, the nature of our government is lesson enough. Its energy
+      depending mainly on the confidence of the people, in their Chief
+      Magistrate, makes it his duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him
+      with that confidence.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances of my constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN NORVELL, June 11, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN NORVELL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 11, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of May the 9th has been duly received. The subjects it
+      proposes would require time and space for even moderate developement. My
+      occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does
+      not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society into civil
+      government: I mean a work which presents in one full and comprehensive
+      view the system of principles on which such an organization should be
+      founded, according to the rights of nature. For want of a single work of
+      that character, I should recommend Locke on Government, Sidney,
+      Priestley&rsquo;s Essay on the First Principles of Government, Chipman&rsquo;s
+      Principles of Government, and the Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on
+      Crimes and Punishments, because of the demonstrative manner in which he
+      has treated that branch of the subject. If your views of political inquiry
+      go further, to the subjects of money and commerce, Smith&rsquo;s Wealth of
+      Nations is the best book to be read, unless Say&rsquo;s Political Economy can be
+      had, which treats the same subjects on the same principles, but in a
+      shorter compass, and more lucid manner. But I believe this work has not
+      been translated into our language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. But as we
+      have employed some of the best materials of the British constitution in
+      the construction of our own government, a knowledge of British history
+      becomes useful to the American politician. There is, however, no general
+      history of that country which can be recommended. The elegant one of Hume
+      seems intended to disguise and discredit the good principles of the
+      government, and is so plausible and pleasing in its style and manner, as
+      to instil its errors and heresies insensibly into the minds of unwary
+      readers. Baxter has performed a good operation on it. He has taken the
+      text of Hume as his ground-work, abridging it by the omission of some
+      details of little interest, and wherever he has found him endeavoring to
+      mislead, by either the suppression of a truth, or by giving it a false
+      coloring, he has changed the text to what it should be, so that we may
+      properly call it Hume&rsquo;s history republicanized. He has, moreover,
+      continued the history (but indifferently) from where Hume left it, to the
+      year 1800. The work is not popular in England, because it is republican;
+      and but a few copies have ever reached America. It is a single quarto
+      volume. Adding to this Ludlow&rsquo;s Memoirs, Mrs. Macaulay&rsquo;s and Belknap&rsquo;s
+      histories, a sufficient view will be presented of the free principles of
+      the English constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be
+      conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, &lsquo;by restraining it to
+      true, facts and sound principles only.&rsquo; Yet I fear such a paper would find
+      few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press
+      could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done
+      by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed
+      which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put
+      into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of
+      misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront
+      facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with
+      commiseration over the great body of my fellow-citizens, who, reading
+      newspapers, live and die in the belief, that they have known something of
+      what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts
+      they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other
+      period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the
+      day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected
+      from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a
+      successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his
+      will, &amp;c. &amp;c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that
+      the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who
+      reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he
+      whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will
+      still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
+      Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
+      Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
+      very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
+      information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk his
+      own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a mature
+      consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude to be
+      probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little than too
+      much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers who would
+      rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would occupy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
+      practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
+      depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation is
+      becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the morning
+      or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those who do
+      not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance to their
+      auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which should fill
+      a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility that some may
+      believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to escape them, that
+      it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing a slander, who is
+      its real author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
+      request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
+      intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
+      enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their own
+      wickedness only, justify my expressing a solicitude, that this hasty
+      communication may in nowise be permitted to find its way into the public
+      papers. Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoided putting
+      myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer
+      away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties
+      will permit me to enjoy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I tender you my salutations, and best wishes for your success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XLIX.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, June 12, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 12, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ******
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The proposition in your letter of May the 16th, of adding an umpire to our
+      discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it, and
+      reflection afterwards strengthened my first impressions. I made it
+      therefore a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage.
+      For our government, although in theory subject to be directed by the
+      unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a very
+      different thing in practice. The minor business in each department is done
+      by the Head of the department, on consultation with the President alone.
+      But all matters of importance or difficulty are submitted to all the Heads
+      of departments composing the cabinet; sometimes by the President&rsquo;s
+      consulting them separately and successively, as they happen to call on
+      him; but in the greatest cases, by calling them together, discussing the
+      subject maturely, and finally taking the vote, in which the President
+      counts himself but as one. So that in all important cases the executive
+      is, in fact, a directory, which certainly the President might control: but
+      of this there was never an example either in the first or the present
+      administration. I have heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes
+      decided things against his council.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I adopted in the present case the mode of separate consultation. The
+      opinion of each member, taken separately, was, that the addition of a
+      third negotiator was not at this time advisable. For the present,
+      therefore, the question must rest. Mr. Bowdoin, we know, is anxious to
+      come home, and is detained only by the delicacy of not deserting his post.
+      In the existing temper between him and his colleague, it would certainly
+      be better that one of them should make an opening for re-composing the
+      commission more harmoniously. I salute you with affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER L.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 12, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 12, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of the 9th is this moment received. Reserving the necessary
+      right of the President of the United States to decide, independently of
+      all other authority, what papers, coming to him as President, the public
+      interests permit to be communicated, and to whom, I assure you of my
+      readiness, under that restriction, voluntarily to furnish, on all
+      occasions, whatever the purposes of justice may require. But the letter of
+      General Wilkinson, of October the 21st, requested for the defence of
+      Colonel Burr, with every other paper relating to the charges against him,
+      which were in my possession when the Attorney General went on to Richmond
+      in March, I then delivered to him; and I have always taken for granted he
+      left the whole with you. If he did, and the bundle retains the order in
+      which I had arranged it, you will readily find the letter desired, under
+      the date of its receipt, which was November the 25th: but lest the
+      Attorney General should not have left those papers with you, I this day
+      write to him to forward this one by post. An uncertainty whether he is at
+      Philadelphia, Wilmington, or New Castle, may produce delay in his
+      receiving my letter, of which it is proper you should be apprized. But, as
+      I do not recollect the whole contents of that letter, I must beg leave to
+      devolve on you the exercise of that discretion which it would be my right
+      and duty to exercise, by withholding the communication of any parts of the
+      letter, which are not directly material for the purposes of justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
+      practicable. But when the request goes to &lsquo;copies of the orders issued in
+      relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &amp;c. by
+      the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,&rsquo; it seems to cover a
+      correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil and
+      military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying open
+      the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to examine
+      his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be able to
+      judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with the request.
+      If the defendant alleges that there was any particular order, which, as a
+      cause, produced any particular act on his part, then he must know what
+      this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer can be given. If the
+      object had been specified, we might then have had some guide for our
+      conjectures, as to what part of the executive records might be useful to
+      him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is right, we are without
+      the indications which may enable us to do it. If the researches of the
+      Secretary at War should produce any thing proper for communication, and
+      pertinent to any point we can conceive in the defence before the court, it
+      shall be forwarded to you. I salute you with respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 17, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In answering your letter of the 9th, which desired a communication of one
+      to me from General Wilkinson, specified by its date, I informed you in
+      mine of the 12th that I had delivered it, with all other papers respecting
+      the charges against Aaron Burr, to the Attorney General, when he went to
+      Richmond; that I had supposed he had left them in your possession, but
+      would immediately write to him, if he had not, to forward that particular
+      letter without delay. I wrote to him accordingly on the same day, but
+      having no answer, I know not whether he has forwarded the letter. I stated
+      in the same letter, that I had desired the Secretary at War, to examine
+      his office, in order to comply with your further request, to furnish
+      copies of the orders which had been given respecting Aaron Burr and his
+      property; and in a subsequent letter of the same day, I forwarded to you
+      copies of two letters from the Secretary at War, which appeared to be
+      within the description expressed in your letter. The order from the
+      Secretary of the Navy, you said, you were in possession of. The receipt of
+      these papers had, I presume, so far anticipated, and others this day
+      forwarded will have substantially fulfilled, the object of a subpoena from
+      the District Court of Richmond, requiring that those officers and myself
+      should attend the Court in Richmond, with the letter of General Wilkinson,
+      the answer to that letter, and the orders of the departments of War and
+      the Navy, therein generally described. No answer to General Wilkinson&rsquo;s
+      letter, other than a mere acknowledgment of its receipt, in a letter
+      written for a different purpose, was ever written by myself or any other.
+      To these communications of papers, I will add, that if the defendant
+      supposes there are any facts within the knowledge of the Heads of
+      departments, or of myself, which can be useful for his defence, from a
+      desire of doing any thing our situation will permit in furtherance of
+      justice, we shall be ready to give him the benefit of it, by way of
+      deposition, through any persons whom the Court shall authorize to take our
+      testimony at this place. I know, indeed, that this cannot be done but by
+      consent of parties; and I therefore authorize you to give consent on the
+      part of the United States. Mr. Burr&rsquo;s consent will be given of course, if
+      he supposes the testimony useful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to our personal attendance at Richmond, I am persuaded the Court is
+      sensible, that paramount duties to the nation at large control the
+      obligation of compliance with their summons in this case; as they would,
+      should we receive a similar one, to attend the trials of Blannerhassett
+      and others, in the Mississippi territory, those instituted at St. Louis
+      and other places on the western waters, or at any place, other than the
+      seat of government. To comply with such calls would leave the nation
+      without an executive branch, whose agency, nevertheless, is understood to
+      be so constantly necessary, that it is the sole branch which the
+      constitution requires to be always in function. It could not then mean
+      that it should be withdrawn from its station by any co-ordinate authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to papers, there is certainly a public and a private side to
+      our offices. To the former belong grants of land, patents for inventions,
+      certain commissions, proclamations, and other papers patent in their
+      nature. To the other belong mere executive proceedings. All nations have
+      found it necessary, that for the advantageous conduct of their affairs,
+      some of these proceedings, at least, should remain known to their
+      executive functionary only. He, of course, from the nature of the case,
+      must be the sole judge of which of them the public interests will permit
+      publication. Hence, under our constitution, in requests of papers, from
+      the legislative to the executive branch, an exception is carefully
+      expressed, as to those which he may deem the public welfare may require
+      not to be disclosed; as you will see in the enclosed resolution of the
+      House of Representatives, which produced the message of January 22nd,
+      respecting this case. The respect mutually due between the constituted
+      authorities, in their official intercourse, as well as sincere
+      dispositions to do for every one what is just, will always insure from the
+      executive, in exercising the duty of discrimination confided to him, the
+      same candor and integrity to which the nation has in like manner trusted
+      in the disposal of its judiciary authorities. Considering you as the organ
+      for communicating these sentiments to the Court, I address them to you for
+      that purpose, and salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LII.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 19,1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 19,1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 17th was received last night. Three blank pardons had been
+      (as I expect) made up and forwarded by the mail of yesterday, and I have
+      desired three others to go by that of this evening. You ask what is to be
+      done if Bollman finally rejects his pardon, and the Judge decides it to
+      have no effect? Move to commit him immediately for treason or misdemeanor,
+      as you think the evidence will support; let the court decide where he
+      shall be sent for trial; and on application, I will have the marshal aided
+      in his transportation, with the executive means. And we think it proper,
+      further, that when Burr shall have been convicted of either treason or
+      misdemeanor, you should immediately have committed all those persons
+      against whom you should find evidence sufficient, whose agency has been so
+      prominent as to mark them as proper objects of punishment, and especially
+      where their boldness has betrayed an inveteracy of criminal disposition.
+      As to obscure offenders and repenting ones, let them lie for
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving
+      singular information. I have inquired into the character of Graybell. He
+      was an old revolutionary captain, is now a flour merchant in Baltimore, of
+      the most respectable character, and whose word would be taken as
+      implicitly as any man&rsquo;s for whatever he affirms. The letter-writer, also,
+      is a man of entire respectability. I am well informed, that for more than
+      a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, generally, that Burr was
+      engaged in some criminal enterprise, and that Luther Martin knew all about
+      it. We think you should immediately despatch a subpoena for Graybell; and
+      while that is on the road, you will have time to consider in what form you
+      will use his testimony; e.g. shall Luther Martin be summoned as a witness
+      against Burr, and Graybell held ready to confront him? It may be doubted
+      whether we could examine a witness to discredit our own witness. Besides,
+      the lawyers say that they are privileged from being forced to breaches of
+      confidence, and that no others are. Shall we move to commit Luther Martin,
+      as <i>particeps criminis</i> with Burr? Graybell will fix upon him
+      misprision of treason at least. And at any rate, his evidence will put
+      down this unprincipled and impudent federal bull-dog, and add another
+      proof that the most clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices.
+      It will explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the aid of &lsquo;his
+      honorable friend,&rsquo; abandoning his clients and their property during a
+      session of a principal court in Maryland, now filled, as I am told, with
+      the clamors and ruin of his clients. I believe we shall send on Latrobe as
+      a witness. He will prove that Aaron Burr endeavored to get him to engage
+      several thousand men, chiefly Irish emigrants, whom he had been in the
+      habit of employing in the works he directs, under pretence of a canal
+      opposite Louisville, or of the Washita, in which, had he succeeded, he
+      could with that force alone have carried every thing before him, and would
+      not have been where he now is. He knows, too, of certain meetings of Burr,
+      Bollman, Yrujo, and one other whom we have never named yet, but have him
+      not the less in our view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. Will you send us half a dozen blank subpoenas?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since writing the within I have had a conversation with Latrobe. He says
+      it was five hundred men he was desired to engage. The pretexts were to
+      work on the Ohio canal, and be paid in Washita lands. Your witnesses will
+      some of them prove that Burr had no interest in the Ohio canal, and that
+      consequently this was a mere pretext to cover the real object from the men
+      themselves, and all others. Latrobe will set out in the stage of to-morrow
+      evening, and be with you Monday evening. T. J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIII.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN, June 19, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GOVERNOR SULLIVAN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 19, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 3rd instant, I avail
+      myself of the occasion it offers of tendering to yourself, to Mr. Lincoln,
+      and to your State, my sincere congratulations on the late happy event of
+      the election of a republican executive to preside over its councils. The
+      harmony it has introduced between the legislative and executive branches,
+      between the people and both of them, and between all and the General
+      Government, are so many steps towards securing that union of action and
+      effort in all its parts, without which no nation can be happy or safe. The
+      just respect, with which all the States have ever looked to Massachusetts,
+      could leave none of them without anxiety while she was in a state of
+      alienation from her family and friends. Your opinion of the propriety and
+      advantage of a more intimate correspondence between the executives of the
+      several States, and that of the Union, as a central point, is precisely
+      that which I have ever entertained; and on coming into office I felt the
+      advantages which would result from that harmony. I had it even in
+      contemplation, after the annual recommendation to Congress of those
+      measures called for by the times, which the constitution had placed under
+      their power, to make communications in like manner to the executives of
+      the States, as to any parts of them to which their legislatures might be
+      alone competent. For many are the exercises of power reserved to the
+      States, wherein an uniformity of proceeding would be advantageous to all.
+      Such are quarantines, health laws, regulations of the press, banking
+      institutions, training militia, &amp;c. &amp;c. But you know what was the
+      state of the several governments when I came into office. That a great
+      proportion of them were federal, and would have been delighted with such
+      opportunities of proclaiming their contempt, and of opposing republican
+      men and measures. Opportunities so furnished and used by some of the State
+      governments, would have produced an ill effect, and would have insured the
+      failure of the object of uniform proceeding. If it could be ventured even
+      now (Connecticut and Delaware being still hostile) it must be on some
+      greater occasion than is likely to arise within my time. I look to it,
+      therefore, as a course which will probably be to be left to the
+      consideration of my successor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I consider, with you, the federalists as completely vanquished, and never
+      more to take the field under their own banners. They will now reserve
+      themselves to profit by the schisms among republicans, and to earn favors
+      from minorities, whom they will enable to triumph over their more numerous
+      antagonists. So long as republican minorities barely accept their votes,
+      no great harm will be done; because it will only place in power one shade
+      of republicanism, instead of another. But when they purchase the votes of
+      the federalists, by giving them a participation of office, trust, and
+      power, it is a proof that anti-monarchism is not their strongest passion.
+      I do not think that the republican minority in Pennsylvania has fallen
+      into this heresy, nor that there are in your State materials of which a
+      minority can be made who will fall into it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to the tour my friends to the north have proposed that I
+      should make in that quarter, I have not made up a final opinion. The
+      course of life which General Washington had run, civil and military, the
+      services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the
+      affections of his fellow-citizens, take from his examples the weight of
+      precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves the
+      claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therefore, it comes
+      as a new question, to be viewed under all the phases it may present. I
+      confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate
+      parading himself through the several States as an object of public gaze,
+      and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable, should be purely
+      voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good will by a faithful discharge
+      of my duties, than owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way
+      of receiving them. Were I to make such a tour to Portsmouth or Portland, I
+      must do it to Savannah, perhaps to Orleans and Frankfort. As I have never
+      yet seen the time when the public business would have permitted me to be
+      so long in a situation in which I could not carry it on, so I have no
+      reason to expect that such a time will come while I remain in office. A
+      journey to Boston or Portsmouth, after I shall be a private citizen, would
+      much better harmonize with my feelings, as well as duties; and, founded in
+      curiosity, would give no claims to an extension of it. I should see my
+      friends, too, more at our mutual ease, and be left more exclusively to
+      their society. However, I end as I began, by declaring I have made up no
+      opinion on the subject, and that I reserve it as a question for future
+      consideration and advice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, and at all times, I salute you with great respect and
+      esteem,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIV.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, June 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Latrobe now comes on as a witness against Burr. His presence here is
+      with great inconvenience dispensed with, as one hundred and fifty workmen
+      require his constant directions on various public works of pressing
+      importance. I hope you will permit him to come away as soon as possible.
+      How far his testimony will be important as to the prisoner, I know not;
+      but I am desirous that those meetings of Yrujo with Burr and his principal
+      accomplices should come fully out, and judicially, as they will establish
+      the just complaints we have against his nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not see till last night the opinion of the Judge on the <i>subpoena
+      duces tecum</i> against the President. Considering the question there as
+      <i>coram non judice</i>, I did not read his argument with much attention.
+      Yet I saw readily enough, that, as is usual, where an opinion is to be
+      supported, right or wrong, he dwells much on smaller objections, and
+      passes over those which are solid. Laying down the position generally,
+      that all persons owe obedience to subpoenas, he admits no exception unless
+      it can be produced in his law books. But if the constitution enjoins on a
+      particular officer to be always engaged in a particular set of duties
+      imposed on him, does not this supersede the general law, subjecting him to
+      minor duties inconsistent with these? The constitution enjoins his
+      constant agency in the concerns of six millions of people. Is the law
+      paramount to this, which calls on him on behalf of a single one? Let us
+      apply the Judge&rsquo;s own doctrine to the case of himself and his brethren.
+      The sheriff of Henrico summons him from the bench, to quell a riot
+      somewhere in his county. The federal judge is, by the general law, a part
+      of the posse of the State sheriff. Would the Judge abandon major duties to
+      perform lesser ones? Again; the court of Orleans or Maine commands, by
+      subpoenas, the attendance of all the judges of the Supreme Court. Would
+      they abandon their posts as judges, and the interests of millions
+      committed to them, to serve the purposes of a single individual? The
+      leading principle of our constitution is the independence of the
+      legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each other, and none are more
+      jealous of this than the judiciary. But would the executive be independent
+      of the judiciary, if he were subject to the commands of the latter, and to
+      imprisonment for disobedience; if the several courts could bandy him from
+      pillar to post, keep him constantly trudging from north to south, and east
+      to west, and withdraw him entirely from his constitutional duties? The
+      intention of the constitution, that each branch should be independent of
+      the others, is further manifested by the means it has furnished to each,
+      to protect itself from enterprises of force attempted on them by the
+      others, and to none has it given more effectual or diversified means than
+      to the executive. Again; because ministers can go into a court in London,
+      as witnesses, without interruption to their executive duties, it is
+      inferred that they would go to a court one thousand or one thousand five
+      hundred miles off, and that ours are to be dragged from Maine to Orleans
+      by every criminal who will swear that their testimony &lsquo;may be of use to
+      him.&rsquo; The Judge says, &lsquo;it is apparent that the President&rsquo;s duties, as
+      chief magistrate, do not demand his whole time, and are not unremitting.&rsquo;
+      If he alludes to our annual retirement from the seat of government, during
+      the sickly season, he should be told that such arrangements are made for
+      carrying on the public business, at and between the several stations we
+      take, that it goes on as unremittingly there, as if we were at the seat of
+      government. I pass more hours in public business at Monticello than I do
+      here, every day; and it is much more laborious, because all must be done
+      in writing. Our stations being known, all communications come to them
+      regularly, as to fixed points. It would be very different were we always
+      on the road, or placed in the noisy and crowded taverns where courts are
+      held. Mr. Rodney is expected here every hour, having been kept away by a
+      sick child. I salute you with friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WISTAR, June 21, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WISTAR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 21, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have a grandson, the son of Mr. Randolph, now about fifteen years of
+      age, in whose education I take a lively interest.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I am not a friend to placing young men in populous cities, because they
+      acquire there habits and partialities which do not contribute to the
+      happiness of their after life. But there are particular branches of
+      science, which are not so advantageously taught any where else in the
+      United States as in Philadelphia. The garden at the Woodlands for Botany,
+      Mr. Peale&rsquo;s Museum for Natural History, your Medical School for Anatomy,
+      and the able professors in all of them, give advantages not to be found
+      elsewhere. We propose, therefore, to send him to Philadelphia to attend
+      the schools of Botany, Natural History, Anatomy, and perhaps Surgery; but
+      not of Medicine. And why not of Medicine, you will ask? Being led to the
+      subject, I will avail myself of the occasion to express my opinions on
+      that science, and the extent of my medical creed. But, to finish first
+      with respect to my grandson, I will state the favor I ask of you, and
+      which is the object of this letter.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      This subject dismissed, I may now take up that which it led to, and
+      further tax your patience with unlearned views of medicine; which, as in
+      most cases, are, perhaps, the more confident in proportion as they are
+      less enlightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know, from what we see and feel, that the animal body is in its organs
+      and functions subject to derangement, inducing pain, and tending to its
+      destruction. In this disordered state, we observe nature providing for the
+      re-establishment of order, by exciting some salutary evacuation of the
+      morbific matter, or by some other operation which escapes our imperfect
+      senses and researches. She brings on a crisis, by stools, vomiting, sweat,
+      urine, expectoration, bleeding, &amp;c, which, for the most part, ends in
+      the restoration of healthy action. Experience has taught us also, that
+      there are certain substances, by which, applied to the living body,
+      internally or externally, we can at will produce these same evacuations,
+      and thus do, in a short time, what nature would do but slowly, and do
+      effectually, what perhaps she would not have strength to accomplish.
+      Where, then, we have seen a disease, characterized by specific signs or
+      phenomena, and relieved by a certain natural evacuation or process,
+      whenever that disease recurs under the same appearances, we may reasonably
+      count on producing a solution of it, by the use of such substances as we
+      have found produce the same evacuation or movement. Thus, fulness of the
+      stomach we can relieve by emetics; diseases of the bowels, by purgatives;
+      inflammatory cases, by bleeding; intermittents, by the Peruvian bark;
+      syphilis, by mercury; watchfulness, by opium; &amp;c. So far, I bow to the
+      utility of medicine. It goes to the well defined forms of disease, and
+      happily, to those the most frequent. But the disorders of the animal body,
+      and the symptoms indicating them, are as various as the elements of which
+      the body is composed. The combinations, too, of these symptoms are so
+      infinitely diversified, that many associations of them appear too rarely
+      to establish a definite disease: and to an unknown disease, there cannot
+      be a known remedy. Here, then, the judicious, the moral, the humane
+      physician should stop. Having been so often a witness to the salutary
+      efforts which nature makes to re-establish the disordered functions, he
+      should rather trust to their action, than hazard the interruption of that,
+      and a greater derangement of the system, by conjectural experiments on a
+      machine so complicated and so unknown as the human body, and a subject so
+      sacred as human life. Or, if the appearance of doing something be
+      necessary to keep alive the hope and spirits of the patient, it should be
+      of the most innocent character. One of the most successful physicians I
+      have ever known, has assured me, that he used more bread pills, drops of
+      colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines
+      put together. It was certainly a pious fraud. But the adventurous
+      physician goes on, and substitutes presumption for knowledge. From the
+      scanty field of what is known, he launches into the boundless region of
+      what is unknown. He establishes for his guide some fanciful theory of
+      corpuscular attraction, of chemical agency, of mechanical powers, of
+      stimuli, of irritability accumulated or exhausted, of depletion by the
+      lancet, and repletion by mercury, or some other ingenious dream, which
+      lets him into all nature&rsquo;s secrets at short hand. On the principle which
+      he thus assumes, he forms his table of nosology, arrays his diseases into
+      families, and extends his curative treatment, by analogy, to all the cases
+      he has thus arbitrarily marshaled together. I have lived myself to see the
+      disciples of Hoffman, Boerhaave, Stahl, Cullen, Brown, succeed one another
+      like the shifting figures of a magic-lanthern, and their fancies like the
+      dresses of the annual doll-babies from Paris, becoming, from their
+      novelty, the vogue of the day, and yielding to the next novelty their
+      ephemeral favor. The patient, treated on the fashionable theory, sometimes
+      gets well in spite of the medicine. The medicine therefore restored him,
+      and the young doctor receives new courage to proceed in his bold
+      experiments on the lives of his fellow creatures. I believe we may safely
+      affirm, that the inexperienced and presumptuous band of medical tyros let
+      loose upon the world, destroys more of human life in one year, than all
+      the Robin-hoods, Cartouches, and Macheaths do in a century. It is in this
+      part of medicine that I wish to see a reform, an abandonment of hypothesis
+      for sober facts, the first degree of value set on clinical observation,
+      and the lowest on visionary theories. I would wish the young practitioner,
+      especially, to have deeply impressed on his mind the real limits of his
+      art, and that when the state of his patient gets beyond these, his office
+      is to be a watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature,
+      giving them fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they
+      can derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient. I
+      have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
+      transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I would
+      rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than hasten it by
+      guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my hands. The only
+      sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge of the human body,
+      and observation on the effects of medicinal substances on that. The
+      anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are those in which the young
+      physician should be formed. If he enters with innocence that of the theory
+      of medicine, it is scarcely possible he should come out untainted with
+      error. His mind must be strong indeed, if, rising above juvenile
+      credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity against the authority of his
+      instructers, and the bewitching delusions of their theories. You see that
+      I estimate justly that portion of instruction, which our medical students
+      derive from your labors; and, associating with it one of the chairs which
+      my old and able friend, Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them
+      as the two fundamental pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an
+      opinion of the talents of the professors in the other branches which
+      constitute the school of medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that
+      it is from this side of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so
+      many other things, will at length be led into sound principles in this
+      branch of science, the most important of all others, being that to which
+      we commit the care of health and life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
+      heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
+      presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
+      credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology I
+      can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too, to whom
+      the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so familiar. But
+      having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give a confession of
+      my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps, at times, to him
+      as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine, without defining
+      its extent or foundation. At any rate, it has permitted me, for a moment,
+      to abstract myself from the dry and dreary waste of politics, into which I
+      have been impressed by the times on which I happened, and to indulge in
+      the rich fields of nature, where alone I should have served as a
+      volunteer, if left to my natural inclinations and partialities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you at all times with affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVI.&mdash;TO MR. BOWDOIN, July 10, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BOWDOIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 10, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you on the 10th of July, 1806; but supposing, from your not
+      acknowledging the receipt of the letter, that it had miscarried, I sent a
+      duplicate with my subsequent one of April the 2nd. These having gone by
+      the Wasp, you will doubtless have received them. Since that, yours of May
+      the 1st has come to hand. You will see by the despatches from the
+      department of State, carried by the armed vessel the Revenge, into what a
+      critical state our peace with Great Britain is suddenly brought, by their
+      armed vessels in our waters. Four vessels of war (three of them
+      two-deckers) closely blockade Norfolk at this instant. Of the authority
+      under which this aggression is committed, their minister here is
+      unapprized. You will see by the proclamation of July the 2nd, that (while
+      we are not omitting such measures of force as are immediately necessary)
+      we propose to give Great Britain an opportunity of disavowal and
+      reparation, and to leave the question of war, non-intercourse, or other
+      measures, uncommitted, to the legislature. This country has never been in
+      such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington. In this state of
+      things, cordial friendship with France, and peace at least with Spain,
+      become more interesting. You know the circumstances respecting this last
+      power, which have rendered it ineligible that you should have proceeded
+      heretofore to your destination. But this obstacle is now removed by their
+      recall of Yrujo, and appointment of another minister, and, in the mean
+      time, of a <i>chargé des affaires</i>, who has been received. The way
+      being now open for taking your station at Madrid, it is certainly our wish
+      you should do so, and that this may be more agreeable to you than your
+      return home, as is solicited in yours of May the 1st. It is with real
+      unwillingness we should relinquish the benefit of your services.
+      Nevertheless, if your mind is decidedly bent on that, we shall regret, but
+      not oppose your return. The choice, therefore, remains with yourself. In
+      the mean time, your place in the joint commission being vacated by either
+      event, we shall take the measures rendered necessary by that. We have
+      seen, with real grief, the misunderstanding which has taken place between
+      yourself and General Armstrong. We are neither qualified nor disposed to
+      form an opinion between you. We regret the pain which must have been felt
+      by persons, both of whom hold so high a place in our esteem, and we have
+      not been without fear that the public interest might suffer by it. It has
+      seemed, however, that the state of Europe has been such as to admit little
+      to be done, in matters so distant from them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present alarm has had the effect of suspending our foreign commerce.
+      No merchant ventures to send out a single vessel; and I think it probable
+      this will continue very much the case till we get an answer from England.
+      Our crops are uncommonly plentiful. That of small grain is now secured
+      south of this, and the harvest is advancing here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my salutations, and assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVII.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 14, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 14, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received last night your letters of February the 20th and April the
+      29th, and a vessel just sailing from Baltimore enables me hastily to
+      acknowledge them; to assure you of the welcome with which I receive
+      whatever comes from you, and the continuance of my affectionate esteem for
+      yourself and family. I learn with much concern, indeed, the state of
+      Madame de la Fayette&rsquo;s health. I hope I have the pleasure yet to come of
+      learning its entire re-establishment. She is too young not to give great
+      confidence to that hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Measuring happiness by the American scale, and sincerely wishing that of
+      yourself and family, we had been anxious to see them established on this
+      side of the great water. But I am not certain that any equivalent can be
+      found for the loss of that species of society, to which our habits have
+      been formed from infancy. Certainly had you been, as I wished, at the head
+      of the government of Orleans, Burr would never have given me one moment&rsquo;s
+      uneasiness. His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which
+      history will ever furnish an example. He meant to separate the western
+      States from us, to add Mexico to them, place himself at their head,
+      establish what he would deem an energetic government, and thus provide an
+      example and an instrument for the subversion of our freedom. The man who
+      could expect to effect this, with American materials, must be a fit
+      subject for Bedlam. The seriousness of the crime, however, demands more
+      serious punishment. Yet, although there is not a man in the United States
+      who doubts his guilt, such are the jealous provisions of our laws in favor
+      of the accused against the accuser, that I question if he is convicted.
+      Out of forty-eight jurors to be summoned, he is to select the twelve who
+      are to try him, and if there be any one who will not concur in finding him
+      guilty, he is discharged of course. I am sorry to tell you that Bollman
+      was Burr&rsquo;s right hand man in all his guilty schemes. On being brought to
+      prison here, he communicated to Mr. Madison and myself the whole of the
+      plans, always, however, apologetically for Burr as far as they would bear.
+      But his subsequent tergiversations have proved him conspicuously base. I
+      gave him a pardon, however, which covers him from every thing but infamy.
+      I was the more astonished at his engaging in this business, from the
+      peculiar motives he should have felt for fidelity. When I came into the
+      government, I sought him out on account of the services he has rendered
+      you, cherished him, offered him two different appointments of value,
+      which, after keeping them long under consideration, he declined for
+      commercial views, and would have given him any thing for which he was fit.
+      Be assured he is unworthy of ever occupying again the care of any honest
+      man. Nothing has ever so strongly proved the innate force of our form of
+      government, as this conspiracy. Burr had probably engaged one thousand men
+      to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise
+      than by assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a
+      proclamation was issued, undeceiving them, he found himself left with
+      about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass wherever he was or
+      was suspected to be, and by their own energy the thing was crushed in one
+      instant, without its having been necessary to employ a man of the military
+      but to take care of their respective stations. His first enterprise was to
+      have been to seize New Orleans, which he supposed would powerfully bridle
+      the upper country, and place him at the door of Mexico. It is with
+      pleasure I inform you that not a single native Creole, and but one
+      American of those settled there before we received the place, took any
+      part with him. His partisans were the new emigrants from the United States
+      and elsewhere, fugitives from justice or debt, and adventurers and
+      speculators of all descriptions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a proclamation, which will show you the critical footing on
+      which we stand, at present, with England. Never, since the battle of
+      Lexington, have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation as at
+      present. And even that did not produce such unanimity. The federalists
+      themselves coalesce with us as to the object, although they will return to
+      their old trade of condemning every step we take towards obtaining it.
+      &lsquo;Reparation for the past, and security for the future,&rsquo; is our motto.
+      Whether these will be yielded freely, or will require resort to
+      non-intercourse, or to war, is yet to be seen. We have actually near two
+      thousand men in the field, covering the exposed parts of the coast, and
+      cutting off supplies from the British vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am afraid I have been very unsuccessful in my endeavors to serve Madame
+      de Tesse in her taste for planting. A box of seeds, &amp;c. which I sent
+      her in the close of 1805, was carried with the vessel into England, and
+      discharged so late that I fear she lost their benefit, for that season.
+      Another box, which I prepared in the autumn of 1806, has, I fear, been
+      equally delayed from other accidents. However, I will persevere in my
+      endeavors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to her, M. de Tesse, Madame de la Fayette, and
+      your family, and accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
+      constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN PAGE, July 17, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN PAGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 17, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 11th is received. In appointments to public offices of mere
+      profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or
+      second revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments on
+      that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen that confidence so
+      necessary to enable the executive to direct the whole public force to the
+      best, advantage of the nation. Of Mr. Boiling Robertson&rsquo;s talents and
+      integrity I have long been apprized, and would gladly use them where
+      talents and integrity are wanting. I had thought of him for the vacant
+      place of secretary of the Orleans territory, but supposing the salary of
+      two thousand dollars not more than he makes by his profession, and while
+      remaining with his friends, I have, in despair, not proposed it to him. If
+      he would accept it, I should name him instantly with the greatest
+      satisfaction. Perhaps you could inform me on this point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to Major Gibbons, I do indeed recollect, that in some casual
+      conversation, it was said that the most conspicuous accomplices of Burr
+      were at home at his house; but it made so little impression on me, that
+      neither the occasion nor the person is now recollected. On this subject, I
+      have often expressed the principles on which I act, with a wish they might
+      be understood by the federalists in office. I have never removed a man
+      merely because he was a federalist: I have never wished them to give a
+      vote at an election, but according to their own wishes. But as no
+      government could discharge its duties to the best advantage of its
+      citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting instead of
+      executing all its measures, and were employing the patronage and influence
+      of their offices against the government and its measures, I have only
+      requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe: and if their
+      conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in opposition, it
+      ought also to urge them to retire from a post which they could not
+      conscientiously conduct with fidelity to the trust reposed in them; and on
+      failure to retire, I have removed them; that is to say, those who
+      maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government. Nothing
+      which I have yet heard of Major Gibbons places him in danger from these
+      principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much pleased with the ardor displayed by our countrymen on the late
+      British outrage. It gives us the more confidence of support in the demand
+      of reparation for the past, and security for the future, that is to say,
+      an end of impressments. If motives of either justice or interest should
+      produce this from Great Britain, it will save a war: but if they are
+      refused, we shall have gained time for getting in our ships and property,
+      and at least twenty thousand seamen now afloat on the ocean, and who may
+      man two hundred and fifty privateers. The loss of these to us would be
+      worth to Great Britain many victories of the Nile and Trafalgar. The mean
+      time may also be importantly employed in preparations to enable us to give
+      quick and deep blows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present to Mrs. Page, and receive yourself my affectionate and respectful
+      salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LIX.&mdash;TO WILLIAM DUANE, July 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, July 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although I cannot always acknowledge the receipt of communications, yet I
+      merit their continuance by making all the use of them of which they are
+      susceptible. Some of your suggestions had occurred, and others will be
+      considered. The time is coming when our friends must enable us to hear
+      every thing, and expect us to say nothing; when we shall need all their
+      confidence that every thing is doing which can be done, and when our
+      greatest praise shall be, that we appear to be doing nothing. The law for
+      detaching one hundred thousand militia, and the appropriation for it, and
+      that for fortifications, enable us to do every thing for land service, as
+      well as if Congress were here; and as to naval matters, their opinion is
+      known. The course we have pursued, has gained for our merchants a precious
+      interval to call in their property and our seamen, and the postponing the
+      summons of Congress will aid in avoiding to give too quick an alarm to the
+      adversary. They will be called, however, in good time. Although we demand
+      of England what is merely of right, reparation for the past, security for
+      the future, yet as their pride will possibly, nay probably, prevent their
+      yielding them to the extent we shall require, my opinion is, that the
+      public mind, which I believe is made up for war, should maintain itself at
+      that point. They have often enough, God knows, given us cause of war
+      before; but it has been on points which would not have united the nation.
+      But now they have touched a chord which vibrates in every heart. Now then
+      is the time to settle the old and the new.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have often wished for an occasion of saying a word to you on the subject
+      of the Emperor of Russia, of whose character and value to us, I suspect
+      you are not apprized correctly. A more virtuous man, I believe, does not
+      exist, nor one who is more enthusiastically devoted to better the
+      condition of mankind. He will probably, one day, fall a victim to it, as a
+      monarch of that principle does not suit a Russian noblesse. He is not of
+      the very first order of understanding, but he is of a high one. He has
+      taken a peculiar affection to this country and its government, of which he
+      has given me public as well as personal proofs. Our nation being like his,
+      habitually neutral, our interests as to neutral rights, and our
+      sentiments, agree. And whenever conferences for peace shall take place, we
+      are assured of a friend in him. In fact, although in questions of
+      restitution he will be with England, in those of neutral rights he will be
+      with Bonaparte and every other power in the world, except England: and I
+      do presume that England will never have peace until she subscribes to a
+      just code of marine law. I have gone into this subject, because I am
+      confident that Russia (while her present monarch lives) is the most
+      cordially friendly to us of any power on earth, will go furthest to serve
+      us, and is most worthy of conciliation. And although the source of this
+      information must be a matter of confidence with you, yet it is desirable
+      that the sentiments should become those of the nation. I salute you with
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LX.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, August 20, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 20, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received yesterday your favor of the 11th. An error of the post-office
+      had occasioned the delay. Before an impartial jury Burr&rsquo;s conduct would
+      convict himself, were not one word of testimony to be offered against him.
+      But to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings in those who
+      administer it? Why do not Blannerhasset, Dayton, &amp;c. demand private
+      and comfortable lodgings? In a country where an equal application of law
+      to every condition of man is fundamental, how could it be denied to them?
+      How can it ever be denied to the most degraded malefactor? The enclosed
+      letter of James Morrison, covering a copy of one from Alston to
+      Blannerhasset, came to hand yesterday. I enclose them, because it is
+      proper all these papers should be in one deposite, and because you should
+      know the case and all its bearings, that you may understand whatever turns
+      up in the cause. Whether the opinion of the letter-writer is sound, may be
+      doubted. For however these, and other circumstances which have come to us,
+      may induce us to believe that the bouncing letter he published, and the
+      insolent one he wrote to me, were intended as blinds, yet they are not
+      sufficient for legal conviction. Blannerhasset and his wife could possibly
+      tell us enough. I commiserate the sufferings you have to go through in
+      such a season, and salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXI.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, September 4, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 4, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+      that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from
+      ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place. It
+      is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single witness
+      be paid or permitted to depart, until his testimony has been committed to
+      writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by yourself in the
+      presence of any of Burr&rsquo;s counsel, who may choose to attend to
+      cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before Congress, that
+      they may decide, whether the defect has been in the evidence of guilt, or
+      in the law, or in the application of the law, and that they may provide
+      the proper remedy for the past and the future. I must pray you also to
+      have an authentic copy of the record made out (without saying for what)
+      and to send it to me: if the Judge&rsquo;s opinions make not a part of it, then
+      I must ask a copy of them, either under his hand, if he delivers one
+      signed, or duly proved by affidavit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the
+      disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the pivot on
+      which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign governments may
+      wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted of the
+      misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some short
+      confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short. Be assured
+      yourself, and communicate the same assurances to your colleagues, that
+      your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed in this affair to my
+      entire satisfaction and your own honor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXII.&mdash;TO GEORGE HAY, September 7, 1807
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GEORGE HAY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 7, 1807.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now
+      re-enclose you the subpoena. As I do not believe that the district courts
+      have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon superior
+      duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am unwilling, by any
+      notice of the subpoena, to set a precedent which might sanction a
+      proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a letter, public and
+      for the court, covering substantially all they ought to desire. If the
+      papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson&rsquo;s letter may, in your judgment, be
+      communicated without injury, you will be pleased to communicate them. I
+      return you the original letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison&rsquo;s counsel on this
+      occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of opinion,
+      that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should proceed at
+      Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the head of the
+      Judge: if successful, it will give time to see whether a prosecution for
+      treason against him can be instituted in any, and what other court. But,
+      we incline to think, it may be best to send Blannerhasset and Smith
+      (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the treason and misdemeanor.
+      The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well go on at Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIII.&mdash;TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR, January 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE REV. MR. MILLAR,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of the 18th, and am thankful to you for
+      having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse
+      what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider the
+      government of the United States as interdicted by the constitution from
+      intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or
+      exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be
+      made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from
+      that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the
+      United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or
+      to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the
+      General Government. It must then rest with the States, as far as it can be
+      in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should recommend,
+      not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should
+      indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious
+      exercises, which the constitution has directly precluded them from. It
+      must be meant, too, that this recommendation is to carry some authority,
+      and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not indeed
+      of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription, perhaps in
+      public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the
+      recommendation the less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed?
+      I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil
+      magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor
+      of the religious societies, that the General Government should be invested
+      with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them.
+      Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of
+      discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself
+      the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according
+      to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in
+      their own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. But I have
+      ever believed, that the example of State executives led to the assumption
+      of that authority by the General Government, without due examination,
+      which would have discovered that what might be a right in a State
+      government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another. Be this
+      as it may, every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason,
+      and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President
+      of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises
+      of his constituents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I again express my satisfaction that you have been so good as to give me
+      an opportunity of explaining myself in a private letter, in which I could
+      give my reasons more in detail than might have been done in a public
+      answer: and I pray you to accept the assurances of my high esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, February 18, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 18, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You informed me that the instruments you had been so kind as to bring for
+      me from England, would arrive at Richmond with your baggage, and you
+      wished to know what was to be done with them there. I will ask the favor
+      of you to deliver them to Mr. Jefferson, who will forward them to
+      Monticello in the way I shall advise him. And I must intreat you to send
+      me either a note of their amount, or the bills, that I may be enabled to
+      reimburse you. There can be no pecuniary matter between us, against which
+      this can be any set-off. But if, contrary to my recollection or knowledge,
+      there were any thing, I pray that that may be left to be settled by
+      itself. If I could have known the amount beforehand, I should have
+      remitted it, and asked the advance only under the idea that it should be
+      the same as ready money to you on your arrival. I must again, therefore,
+      beseech you to let me know its amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see with infinite grief a contest arising between yourself and another,
+      who have been very dear to each other, and equally so to me. I sincerely
+      pray that these dispositions may not be affected between you; with me I
+      confidently trust they will not. For independently of the dictates of
+      public duty, which prescribes neutrality to me, my sincere friendship for
+      you both will insure its sacred observance. I suffer no one to converse
+      with me on the subject. I already perceive my old friend Clinton
+      estranging himself from me. No doubt lies are carried to him, as they will
+      be to the other two candidates, under forms, which, however false he can
+      scarcely question. Yet I have been equally careful as to him also, never
+      to say a word on his subject. The object of the contest is a fair and
+      honorable one, equally open to you all; and I have no doubt the personal
+      conduct of all will be so chaste, as to offer no ground of dissatisfaction
+      with each other. But your friends will not be as delicate. I know too well
+      from experience the progress of political controversy, and the
+      exacerbation of spirit into which it degenerates, not to fear for the
+      continuance of your mutual esteem. One piquing thing said, draws on
+      another, that a third, and always with increasing acrimony, until all
+      restraint is thrown off, and it becomes difficult for yourselves to keep
+      clear of the toils in which your friends will endeavor to interlace you,
+      and to avoid the participation in their passions which they will endeavor
+      to produce. A candid recollection of what you know of each other will be
+      the true corrective. With respect to myself, I hope they will spare me. My
+      longings for retirement are so strong, that I with difficulty encounter
+      the daily drudgeries of my duty. But my wish for retirement itself is not
+      stronger than that of carrying into it the affections of all my friends. I
+      have ever viewed Mr. Madison and yourself as two principal pillars of my
+      happiness. Were either to be withdrawn, I should consider it as among the
+      greatest calamities which could assail my future peace of mind. I have
+      great confidence that the candor and high understanding of both will guard
+      me against this misfortune, the bare possibility of which has so far
+      weighed on my mind, that I could not be easy without unburthening it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept my respectful salutations for yourself and Mrs. Monroe, and be
+      assured of my constant and sincere friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0065" id="link2H_4_0065">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, March 10, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 10, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
+      have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had never
+      entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds, because
+      explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1. You consider
+      the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been in some way
+      injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself, I might say in
+      its justification, that it has been the regular and habitual practice of
+      the United States to do this, under every form in which their government
+      has existed. I need not recapitulate the multiplied instances, because you
+      will readily recollect them. I went as an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr.
+      Adams, yourself as an adjunct first to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr.
+      Pinckney, and I really believe there has scarcely been a great occasion
+      which has not produced an extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is
+      well known, that I was strongly opposed to it in the case of which you
+      complain. A committee of the Senate called on me with two resolutions of
+      that body on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain,
+      and requesting that I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the
+      resolutions, the committee entered into free conversation, and observed,
+      that although the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary
+      mission, yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them
+      on the measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave
+      them so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
+      end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set upon
+      me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as myself, and
+      represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain redress would
+      throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the opinion of
+      nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary, at length,
+      to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national council, and
+      it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from any want of
+      confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an extraordinary
+      mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating the degree of
+      importance which this country attached to the rights which we considered
+      as infracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
+      was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment&rsquo;s credit to
+      the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public papers,
+      or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word of which I
+      had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of the views to
+      mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my confidence was
+      firm, that neither yourself nor the British government, equally outraged
+      by them, would believe me capable of making the editors of newspapers the
+      confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact was this. The treaty was
+      communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day Congress was to rise. Two of
+      the Senators inquired of me in the evening, whether it was my purpose to
+      detain them on account of the treaty. My answer was, &lsquo;that it was not:
+      that the treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our
+      seamen, and being accompanied by a kind of protestation of the British
+      ministers, which would leave that government free to consider it as a
+      treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, I should not give
+      them the trouble of deliberating on it.&rsquo; This was substantially, and
+      almost verbally, what I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never
+      failed when the occasion would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr.
+      Pinckney, by expressing my conviction, that it was all that could be
+      obtained from the British government; that you had told their
+      commissioners that your government could not be pledged to ratify, because
+      it was contrary to their instructions; of course, that it should be
+      considered but as a projet; and in this light I stated it publicly in my
+      message to Congress on the opening of the session. Not a single article of
+      the treaty was ever made known beyond the members of the administration,
+      nor would an article of it be known at this day, but for its publication
+      in the newspapers, as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as
+      we have always understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as
+      the most sacred of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your
+      reputation and favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to
+      justify your failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably
+      unattainable. Reviewing, therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you
+      will become sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground.
+      I cannot, indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you;
+      and that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find,
+      my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us,
+      that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If
+      you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs
+      of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren and
+      friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without ever
+      having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that the
+      most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are brought to
+      me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated so
+      positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the narrator;
+      who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view of putting us
+      on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge of your
+      character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any affirmative
+      which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own ears. In fact,
+      when you shall have been a little longer among us, you will find that
+      little is to be believed which interests the prevailing passions, and
+      happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not then, my dear
+      friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the ocean of slander,
+      of falsehood, and of malice, on which our credulous friends are floating.
+      If you have been made to believe that I ever did, said, or thought a thing
+      unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me injury as causeless as it
+      is afflicting to me. In the present contest in which you are concerned, I
+      feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment. Whichever of my
+      friends is called to the supreme cares of the nation, I know that they
+      will be wisely and faithfully administered, and as far as my individual
+      conduct can influence, they shall be cordially supported,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve in
+      retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and to be
+      permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and friends,
+      the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor myself, I
+      shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be in their
+      place) those who are still buffeting the storm, uncertain of their fate.
+      Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it may continue with
+      entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that friendship which I have
+      ever borne you, and of which I now assure you, with the tender of my high
+      respect and affectionate salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0066" id="link2H_4_0066">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVI.&mdash;TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON, March 10, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 10, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations, to need an apology
+      for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I cannot
+      but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to express of
+      my conduct in the administration of our government. This approbation of my
+      fellow-citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I am conscious of
+      having always intended to do what was best for them: and never, for a
+      single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of my own. It has
+      been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many among our
+      opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and
+      social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they
+      bore to his political opinions. I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a
+      man whose political principles have any decided character, and who has
+      energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to encounter
+      political hostility from those of adverse principles. But I came to the
+      government under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar acrimony. I
+      found all its offices in the possession of a political sect, who wished to
+      transform it ultimately into the shape of their darling model, the English
+      government; and in the mean time, to familiarize the public mind to the
+      change, by administering it on English principles, and in English forms.
+      The elective interposition of the people had blown all their designs, and
+      they found themselves and their fortresses of power and profit put in a
+      moment into the hands of other trustees. Lamentations and invective were
+      all that remained to them. This last was naturally directed against the
+      agent selected to execute the multiplied reformations, which their
+      heresies had rendered necessary. I became of course the butt of every
+      thing which reason, ridicule, malice, and falsehood could supply. They
+      have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded
+      themselves, that I am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I
+      hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some of their disaffection
+      to the government of their country, and that my successor will enter on a
+      calmer sea than I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the
+      hands of his friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without
+      even the hope of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed,
+      retain their rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated
+      with us in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow-citizens, now solidly
+      republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of
+      principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy
+      in our government.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0067" id="link2H_4_0067">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVII.&mdash;TO LEVI LINCOLN, March 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LEVI LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter on the subject of Mr. Lee came safely to hand. You know our
+      principles render federalists in office safe, if they do not employ their
+      influence in opposing the government, but only give their own vote
+      according to their conscience. And this principle we act on as well with
+      those put in office by others, as by ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have received from your presses a very malevolent and incendiary
+      denunciation of the administration, bottomed on absolute falsehood from
+      beginning to end. The author would merit exemplary punishment for so
+      flagitious a libel, were not the torment of his own abominable temper
+      punishment sufficient for even as base a crime as this. The termination of
+      Mr. Rose&rsquo;s mission, <i>re infectâ</i>, put it in my power to communicate
+      to Congress yesterday, every thing respecting our relations with England
+      and France, which will effectually put down Mr. Pickering, and his worthy
+      coadjutor Quincy. Their tempers are so much alike, and really their
+      persons, as to induce a supposition that they are related. The embargo
+      appears to be approved, even by the federalists of every quarter except
+      yours. The alternative was between that and war, and, in fact, it is the
+      last card we have to play, short of war. But if peace does not take place
+      in Europe, and if France and England will not consent to withdraw the
+      operation of their decrees and orders from us, when Congress shall meet in
+      December, they will have to consider at what point of time the embargo,
+      continued, becomes a greater evil than war. I am inclined to believe, we
+      shall have this summer and autumn to prepare for the defence of our
+      sea-port towns, and hope that in that time the works of defence will be
+      completed, which have been provided for by the legislature. I think
+      Congress will rise within three weeks. I salute you with great affection
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0068" id="link2H_4_0068">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXVIII.&mdash;TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, March 30, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO CHARLES PINCKNEY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 30, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of the 8th was received on the 25th, and I proceed to state to
+      you my views of the present state and prospect of foreign affairs, under
+      the confidence that you will use them for your own government and opinions
+      only, and by no means let them get out as from me. With France we are in
+      no immediate danger of war. Her future views it is impossible to estimate.
+      The immediate danger we are in of a rupture with England, is postponed for
+      this year. This is effected by the embargo, as the question was simply
+      between that and war. That may go on a certain time, perhaps through the
+      year, without the loss of their property to our citizens, but only its
+      remaining unemployed on their hands. A time would come, however, when war
+      would be preferable to a continuance of the embargo. Of this Congress may
+      have to decide at their next meeting. In the mean time, we have good
+      information, that a negotiation for peace between France and England is
+      commencing through the medium of Austria. The way for it has been smoothed
+      by a determination expressed by France (through the Moniteur, which is
+      their government paper), that herself and her allies will demand from
+      Great Britain no renunciation of her maritime principles; nor will they
+      renounce theirs. Nothing shall be said about them in the treaty, and both
+      sides will be left in the next war to act on their own. No doubt the
+      meaning of this is, that all the Continental powers of Europe will form
+      themselves into an armed neutrality, to enforce their own principles.
+      Should peace be made, we shall have safely rode out the storm in peace and
+      prosperity. If we have any thing to fear, it will be after that. Nothing
+      should be spared from this moment in putting our militia into the best
+      condition possible, and procuring arms. I hope, that this summer, we shall
+      get our whole sea-ports put into that state of defence, which Congress has
+      thought proportioned to our circumstances and situation; that is to say,
+      put <i>hors d&rsquo;insulte</i> from a maritime attack, by a moderate squadron.
+      If armies are combined with their fleets, then no resource can be
+      provided, but to meet them in the field. We propose to raise seven
+      regiments only for the present year, depending always on our militia for
+      the operations of the first year of war. On any other plan, we should be
+      obliged always to keep a large standing army. Congress will adjourn in
+      about three weeks. I hope Captain McComb is going on well with your
+      defensive works. We shall be able by mid-summer, to give you a sufficient
+      number of gun-boats to protect Charleston from any vessels which can cross
+      the bar; but the militia of the place must be depended on to fill up the
+      complement of men necessary for action in the moment of an attack, as we
+      shall man them, in ordinary, but with their navigating crew of eight or
+      ten good seamen. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0069" id="link2H_4_0069">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXIX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR LEIB, June 23, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR LEIB.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, June 23, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor covering a copy of the talk to the Tammany
+      society, for which I thank you, and particularly for the favorable
+      sentiments expressed towards myself. Certainly, nothing will so much
+      sweeten the tranquillity and comfort of retirement, as the knowledge that
+      I carry with me the good will and approbation of my republican
+      fellow-citizens, and especially of the individuals in unison with whom I
+      have so long acted. With respect to the federalists, I believe we think
+      alike; for when speaking of them, we never mean to include a worthy
+      portion of our fellow-citizens, who consider themselves as in duty bound
+      to support the constituted authorities of every branch, and to reserve
+      their opposition to the period of election. These having acquired the
+      appellation of federalists, while a federal administration was in place,
+      have not cared about throwing off their name, but, adhering to their
+      principle, are the supporters of the present order of things. The other
+      branch of the federalists, those who are so in principle as well as in
+      name, disapprove of the republican principles and features of our
+      constitution, and would, I believe, welcome any public calamity (war with
+      England excepted) which might lessen the confidence of our country in
+      those principles and forms. I have generally considered them rather as
+      subjects for a madhouse. But they are now playing a game of the most
+      mischievous tendency, without perhaps being themselves aware of it. They
+      are endeavoring to convince England, that we suffer more by the embargo
+      than they do, and that, if they will but hold out a while, we must abandon
+      it. It is true, the time will come when we must abandon it. But if this is
+      before the repeal of the orders of council, we must abandon it only for a
+      state of war. The day is not distant, when that will be preferable to a
+      longer continuance of the embargo. But we can never remove that, and let
+      our vessels go out and be taken under these orders, without making
+      reprisal. Yet this is the very state of things which these federal
+      monarchists are endeavoring to bring about; and in this it is but too
+      possible they may succeed. But the fact is, that if we have war with
+      England, it will be solely produced by their manoeuvres. I think that in
+      two or three months we shall know what will be the issue. I salute you
+      with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0070" id="link2H_4_0070">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXX.&mdash;TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON, October 15, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ROBERT L. LIVINGSTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 15, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of September the 22nd waited here for my return, and it is not
+      till now that I have been able to acknowledge it. The explanation of his
+      principles, given you by the French Emperor, in conversation, is correct
+      as far as it goes. He does not wish us to go to war with England, knowing
+      we have no ships to carry on that war. To submit to pay to England the
+      tribute on our commerce which she demands by her orders of council, would
+      be to aid her in the war against him, and would give him just ground to
+      declare war with us. He concludes, therefore, as every rational man must,
+      that the embargo, the only remaining alternative, was a wise measure.
+      These are acknowledged principles, and should circumstances arise, which
+      may offer advantage to our country in making them public, we shall avail
+      ourselves of them. But as it is not usual nor agreeable to governments to
+      bring their conversations before the public, I think it would be well to
+      consider this on your part as confidential, leaving to the government to
+      retain or make it public, as the general good may require. Had the Emperor
+      gone further, and said that he condemned our vessels going voluntarily
+      into his ports in breach of his municipal laws, we might have admitted it
+      rigorously legal, though not friendly. But his condemnation of vessels
+      taken on the high seas by his privateers, and carried involuntarily into
+      his ports, is justifiable by no law, is piracy, and this is the wrong we
+      complain of against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Supposing that you may be still at Clermont, from whence your letter is
+      dated, I avail myself of this circumstance to request your presenting my
+      friendly respects to Chancellor Livingston.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0071" id="link2H_4_0071">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXI.&mdash;TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN, October 27, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, October 27, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will wonder that your letter of June the 3rd should not be
+      acknowledged till this date. I never received it till September the 12th,
+      and coming soon after to this place, the accumulation of business I found
+      here has prevented my taking it up till now. That you ever participated in
+      any plan for a division of the Union, I never for one moment believed. I
+      knew your Americanism too well. But as the enterprise against Mexico was
+      of a very different character, I had supposed what I heard on that subject
+      to be possible. You disavow it; that is enough for me, and I for ever
+      dismiss the idea. I wish it were possible to extend my belief of innocence
+      to a very different description of men in New Orleans; but I think there
+      is sufficient evidence of there being there a set of foreign adventurers,
+      and native malcontents, who would concur in any enterprise to separate
+      that country from this. I did wish to see these people get what they
+      deserved; and under the maxim of the law itself, that <i>inter arma silent
+      leges</i>, that in an encampment expecting daily attack from a powerful
+      enemy, self-preservation is paramount to all law, I expected that instead
+      of invoking the forms of the law to cover traitors, all good citizens
+      would have concurred in securing them. Should we have ever gained our
+      Revolution, if we had bound our hands by manacles of the law, not only in
+      the beginning, but in any part of the revolutionary conflict? There are
+      extreme cases where the laws become inadequate even to their own
+      preservation, and where the universal resource is a dictator, or martial
+      law. Was New Orleans in that situation? Although we knew here that the
+      force destined against it was suppressed on the Ohio, yet we supposed this
+      unknown at New Orleans at the time that Burr&rsquo;s accomplices were calling in
+      the aid of the law to enable them to perpetrate its suppression, and that
+      it was reasonable, according to the state of information there, to act on
+      the expectation of a daily attack. Of this you are the best judge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burr is in London, and is giving out to his friends that that government
+      offers him two millions of dollars the moment he can raise an ensign of
+      rebellion as big as an handkerchief. Some of his partisans will believe
+      this, because they wish it. But those who know him best will not believe
+      it the more because he says it. For myself, even in his most flattering
+      periods of the conspiracy, I never entertained one moment&rsquo;s fear. My long
+      and intimate knowledge of my countrymen satisfied and satisfies me, that,
+      let there ever be occasion to display the banners of the law, and the
+      world will see how few and pitiful are those who shall array themselves in
+      opposition. I as little fear foreign invasion. I have indeed thought it a
+      duty to be prepared to meet even the most powerful, that of a Bonaparte,
+      for instance, by the only means competent, that of a classification of the
+      militia, and placing the junior classes at the public disposal: but the
+      lesson he receives in Spain extirpates all apprehensions from my mind. If,
+      in a peninsula, the neck of which is adjacent to him, and at his command,
+      where he can march any army without the possibility of interception or
+      obstruction from any foreign power, he finds it necessary to begin with an
+      army of three hundred thousand men, to subdue a nation of five millions,
+      brutalized by ignorance, and enervated by long peace, and should find
+      constant reinforcements of thousands after thousands necessary to effect
+      at last a conquest as doubtful as deprecated, what numbers would be
+      necessary against eight millions of free Americans, spread over such an
+      extent of country as would wear him down by mere marching, by want of
+      food, autumnal diseases, &amp;c.? How would they be brought, and how
+      reinforced, across an ocean of three thousand miles, in possession of a
+      bitter enemy, whose peace, like the repose of a dog, is never more than
+      momentary? And for what? For nothing but hard blows. If the Orleanese
+      Creoles would but contemplate these truths, they would cling to the
+      American Union, soul and body, as their first affection, and we should be
+      as safe there as we are every where else. I have no doubt of their
+      attachment to us in preference of the English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with sincere friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0072" id="link2H_4_0072">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXII.&mdash;TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN, November 13, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR LINCOLN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 13, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enclose you a petition from Nantucket, and refer it for your decision.
+      Our opinion here is, that that place has been so deeply concerned in
+      smuggling, that if it wants, it is because it has illegally sent away what
+      it ought to have retained for its own consumption. Be so good as to bear
+      in mind that I have asked the favor of you to see that your State
+      encounters no real want, while, at the same time, where applications are
+      made merely to cover fraud, no facilities towards that be furnished. I
+      presume there can be no want in Massachusetts, as yet, as I am informed
+      that Governor Sullivan&rsquo;s permits are openly bought and sold here and in
+      Alexandria, and at other markets. The Congressional campaign is just
+      opening: three alternatives alone are to be chosen from. 1. Embargo. 2.
+      War. 3. Submission and tribute. And, wonderful to tell, the last will not
+      want advocates. The real question, however, will lie between the two
+      first, on which there is considerable division. As yet the first seems
+      most to prevail; but opinions are by no means yet settled down. Perhaps
+      the advocates of the second may, to a formal declaration of war, prefer
+      general letters of mark and reprisal, because, on a repeal of their edicts
+      by the belligerent, a revocation of the letters of mark restores peace
+      without the delay, difficulties, and ceremonies of a treaty. On this
+      occasion, I think it fair to leave to those who are to act on them, the
+      decisions they prefer, being to be myself but a spectator. I should not
+      feel justified in directing measures which those who are to execute them
+      would disapprove. Our situation is truly difficult. We have been pressed
+      by the belligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is
+      impracticable. I salute you with sincere friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0073" id="link2H_4_0073">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIII.&mdash;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH, November 24, 1808
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, November 24, 1808.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Jefferson,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, cannot but
+      give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been secured for you, by
+      your particular position and the acquaintance to which you have been
+      recommended, as could be done towards shielding you from the dangers which
+      surround you. But thrown on a wide world, among entire strangers, without
+      a friend or guardian to advise, so young, too, and with so little
+      experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still your safety must
+      rest on yourself. A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence, and
+      good humor, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the
+      world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole care and
+      direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without a relation or
+      friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect the various sorts of
+      bad company with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished I
+      did not turn off with some of them, and become as worthless to society as
+      they were. I had the good fortune to become acquainted very early with
+      some characters of very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that
+      I could ever become what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I
+      would ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph do in
+      this situation? What course in it will insure me their approbation? I am
+      certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, tended more to its
+      correctness than any reasoning powers I possessed. Knowing the even and
+      dignified line they pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two
+      courses would be in character for them. Whereas, seeking the same object
+      through a process of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth,
+      I should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was
+      often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters,
+      scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time
+      have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the
+      victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at
+      the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds
+      of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey? a fox-hunter? an
+      orator? or the honest advocate of my country&rsquo;s rights? Be assured, my dear
+      Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this self-catechizing
+      habit, is not trifling, nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection
+      and steady pursuit of what is right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace and
+      tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so well
+      imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness, that this also becomes an
+      acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is artificial good
+      humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a
+      substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of
+      sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little conveniences
+      and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a
+      moment&rsquo;s consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to
+      our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with
+      us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another!
+      When this is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to
+      his senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and
+      places him at the feet of your good nature, in the eyes of the company.
+      But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must not
+      omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with
+      another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing
+      the other by argument. I have seen many, of their getting warm, becoming
+      rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own
+      dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves,
+      dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing uncommitted in
+      argument ourselves. It was one of the rules, which, above all others, made
+      Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men in society, &lsquo;never to contradict
+      any body.&rsquo; If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by
+      asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I
+      hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has
+      a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error
+      does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by
+      force of argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable
+      he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of
+      the gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I
+      will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story,
+      and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him, and say
+      nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. There are two
+      classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first
+      is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first
+      view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details and modifications
+      which a further progress would bring to their knowledge. The other
+      consists of the ill-tempered and rude men in society, who have taken up a
+      passion for politics. (Good humor and politeness never introduce into
+      mixed society a question on which they foresee there will be a difference
+      of opinion.) From both of those classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson,
+      keep aloof, as you would from the infected subjects of yellow fever or
+      pestilence. Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of
+      Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep
+      within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of
+      silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no
+      good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to
+      rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts
+      they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them,
+      therefore, as you would by an angry bull: it is not for a man of sense to
+      dispute the road with such an animal. You will be more exposed than others
+      to have these animals shaking their horns at you, because of the relation
+      in which you stand with me. Full of political venom, and willing to see me
+      and to hate me as a chief in the antagonist party, your presence will be
+      to them what the vomit-grass is to the sick dog, a nostrum for producing
+      ejaculation. Look upon them exactly with that eye, and pity them as
+      objects to whom you can administer only occasional ease. My character is
+      not within their power. It is in the hands of my fellow-citizens at large,
+      and will be consigned to honor or infamy by the verdict of the republican
+      mass of our country, according to what themselves will have seen, not what
+      their enemies and mine shall have said. Never, therefore, consider these
+      puppies in politics as requiring any notice from you, and always show,
+      that you are not afraid to leave my character to the umpirage of public
+      opinion. Look steadily to the pursuits which have carried you to
+      Philadelphia, be very select in the society you attach yourself to, avoid
+      taverns, drinkers, smokers, idlers, and dissipated persons generally; for
+      it is with such that broils and contentions arise; and you will find your
+      path more easy and tranquil. The limits of my paper warn me that it is
+      time for me to close with my affectionate adieu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. Present me affectionately to Mr. Ogilvie, and in doing the same to
+      Mr. Peale, tell him I am writing with his polygraph, and shall send him
+      mine the first moment I have leisure enough to pack it. T. J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0074" id="link2H_4_0074">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR EUSTIS, January 14, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR EUSTIS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 14, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December
+      the 24th, and of the resolutions of the republican citizens of Boston, of
+      the 19th of that month. These are worthy of the ancient character of the
+      sons of Massachusetts, and of the spirit of concord with her sister
+      States, which, and which alone, carried us successfully through the
+      revolutionary war, and finally placed us under that national government,
+      which constitutes the safety of every part, by uniting for its protection
+      the powers of the whole. The moment for exerting these united powers, to
+      repel the injuries of the belligerents of Europe, seems likely to be
+      pressed upon us. They have interdicted our commerce with nearly the whole
+      world. They have declared it shall be carried on with such places, in such
+      articles, and in such measure only, as they shall dictate; thus
+      prostrating all the principles of right, which have hitherto protected it.
+      After exhausting the cup of forbearance and conciliation to its dregs, we
+      found it necessary, on behalf of that commerce, to take time to call it
+      home into a state of safety, to put the towns and harbors which carry it
+      on into a condition of defence, and to make further preparation for
+      enforcing the redress of its wrongs, and restoring it to its rightful
+      freedom. This required a certain measure of time, which, although not
+      admitting specific limitation, must, from its avowed objects, have been
+      obvious to all: and the progress actually made towards the accomplishment
+      of these objects, proves it now to be near its term.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus endeavoring to secure, and preparing to vindicate that
+      commerce, the absurd opinion has been propagated, that this temporary and
+      necessary arrangement was to be a permanent system, and was intended for
+      its destruction. The sentiments expressed in the paper you were so kind as
+      to enclose me, show that those who have concurred in them, have judged
+      with more candor the intentions of their government, and are sufficiently
+      aware of the tendency of the excitements and misrepresentations which have
+      been practised on this occasion. And such, I am persuaded, will be the
+      disposition of the citizens of Massachusetts at large, whenever truth can
+      reach them. Associated with her sister States in a common government, the
+      fundamental principle of which is, that the will of the majority is to
+      prevail, sensible, that in the present difficulty, that will has been
+      governed by no local interests or jealousies, that to save permanent
+      rights, temporary sacrifices were necessary, that these have fallen as
+      impartially on all, as in a situation so peculiar they could be made to
+      do, she will see, in the existing measures, a legitimate and honest
+      exercise of the will and wisdom of the whole. And her citizens, faithful
+      to themselves and their associates, will not, to avoid a transient
+      pressure, yield to the seductions of enemies to their independence,
+      foreign or domestic, and take a course equally subversive of their
+      well-being, as of that of their brethren.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The approbation expressed by the republican citizens of the town of
+      Boston, of the course pursued by the national government, is truly
+      consoling to its members: and, encouraged by the declaration of the
+      continuance of their confidence, and by the assurance of their support,
+      they will continue to pursue the line of their high duties according to
+      the best of their understandings, and with undeviating regard to the good
+      of the whole. Permit me to avail myself of this occasion of tendering you
+      personally the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0075" id="link2H_4_0075">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXV.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 28, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, January 28, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 18th was received in due time, and the answer has been
+      delayed as well by a pressure of business, as by the expectation of your
+      absence from Richmond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea of sending a special mission to France or England is not
+      entertained at all here. After so little attention to us from the former,
+      and so insulting an answer from Canning, such a mark of respect as an
+      extraordinary mission, would be a degradation against which all minds
+      revolt here. The idea was hazarded in the House of Representatives a few
+      days ago, by a member, and an approbation expressed by another, but
+      rejected indignantly by every other person who spoke, and very generally
+      in conversation by all others: and I am satisfied such a proposition would
+      get no vote in the Senate. The course the legislature means to pursue, may
+      be inferred from the act now passed for a meeting in May, and a
+      proposition before them for repealing the embargo in June, and then
+      resuming and maintaining by force our right of navigation. There will be
+      considerable opposition to this last proposition, not only from the
+      federalists, old and new, who oppose every thing, but from sound members
+      of the majority. Yet it is believed it will obtain a good majority, and
+      that it is the only proposition which can be devised that could obtain a
+      majority of any kind. Final propositions, will, therefore, be soon
+      despatched to both the belligerents through the resident ministers, so
+      that their answers will be received before the meeting in May, and will
+      decide what is to be done. This last trial for peace is not thought
+      desperate. If, as is expected, Bonaparte should be successful in Spain,
+      however every virtuous and liberal sentiment revolts at it, it may induce
+      both powers to be more accommodating with us. England will see here the
+      only asylum for her commerce and manufactures, worth more to her than her
+      orders of council. And Bonaparte, having Spain at his feet, will look
+      immediately to the Spanish colonies, and think our neutrality cheaply
+      purchased by a repeal of the illegal parts of his decrees, with perhaps
+      the Floridas thrown into the bargain. Should a change in the aspect of
+      affairs in Europe produce this disposition in both powers, our peace and
+      prosperity may be revived and long continue. Otherwise, we must again take
+      the tented field, as we did in 1776 under more inauspicious circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There never has been a situation of the world before, in which such
+      endeavors as we have made would not have secured our peace. It is probable
+      there never will be such another. If we go to war now, I fear we may
+      renounce for ever the hope of seeing an end of our national debt. If we
+      can keep at peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from debt,
+      will be adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our position
+      and increasing strength will put us <i>hors d&rsquo;insulte</i> from any nation.
+      I am now so near the moment of retiring, that I take no part in affairs
+      beyond the expression of an opinion. I think it fair, that my successor
+      should now originate those measures of which he will be charged with the
+      execution and responsibility, and that it is my duty to clothe them with
+      the forms of authority. Five weeks more will relieve me from a drudgery to
+      which I am no longer equal, and restore me to a scene of tranquillity,
+      amidst my family and friends, more congenial to my age and natural
+      inclinations. In that situation, it will always be a pleasure to me to see
+      you, and to repeat to you the assurances of my constant friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0076" id="link2H_4_0076">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH, February 7, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 7, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought Congress had taken their ground firmly for continuing their
+      embargo till June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable revolution
+      of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New England and New
+      York members, and in a kind of panic, they voted the 4th of March for
+      removing the embargo, and by such a majority as gave all reason to
+      believe, they would not agree either to war or non-intercourse. This, too,
+      was after we had become satisfied, that the Essex Junto had found their
+      expectation desperate, of inducing the people there to either separation
+      or forcible opposition. The majority of Congress, however, has now rallied
+      to the removing the embargo on the 4th of March, non-intercourse with
+      France and Great Britain, trade every where else, and continuing war
+      preparations. The further details are not yet settled, but I believe it is
+      perfectly certain that the embargo will be taken off the 4th of March.
+      Present my warmest affections to my dearest Martha, and the young ones,
+      and accept the assurances of them to yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0077" id="link2H_4_0077">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVII.&mdash;TO JOHN HOLLINS, February 19, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN HOLLINS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, February 19, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little transaction of mine, as innocent an one as I ever entered into,
+      and where an improper construction was never less expected, is making some
+      noise, I observe, in your city. I beg leave to explain it to you, because
+      I mean to ask your agency in it. The last year, the Agricultural Society
+      of Paris, of which I am a member, having had a plough presented to them,
+      which, on trial with a graduated instrument, did equal work with half the
+      force of their best ploughs, they thought it would be a benefit to mankind
+      to communicate it. They accordingly sent one to me, with a view to its
+      being made known here, and they sent one to the Duke of Bedford also, who
+      is one of their members, to be made use of for England, although the two
+      nations were then at war. By the Mentor, now going to France, I have given
+      permission to two individuals in Delaware and New York, to import two
+      parcels of Merino sheep from France, which they have procured there, and
+      to some gentlemen in Boston, to import a very valuable machine which spins
+      cotton, wool, and flax equally. The last spring, the Society informed me
+      they were cultivating the cotton of the Levant and other parts of the
+      Mediterranean, and wished to try also that of our southern States. I
+      immediately got a friend to have two tierces of seed forwarded to me. They
+      were consigned to Messrs. Falls and Brown of Baltimore, and notice of it
+      being given me, I immediately wrote to them to re-ship them to New York,
+      to be sent by the Mentor. Their first object was to make a show of my
+      letter, as something very criminal, and to carry the subject into the
+      newspapers. I had, on a like request, some time ago (but before the
+      embargo), from the President of the Board of Agriculture of London, of
+      which I am also a member, to send them some of the genuine May wheat of
+      Virginia, forwarded to them two or three barrels of it. General
+      Washington, in his time, received from the same Society the seed of the
+      perennial succory, which Arthur Young had carried over from France to
+      England, and I have since received from a member of it the seed of the
+      famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known here. I mention these things,
+      to show the nature of the correspondence which is carried on between
+      societies instituted for the benevolent purpose of communicating to all
+      parts of the world whatever useful is discovered in any one of them. These
+      societies are always in peace, however their nations may be at war. Like
+      the republic of letters, they form a great fraternity spreading over the
+      whole earth, and their correspondence is never interrupted by any
+      civilized nation. Vaccination has been a late and remarkable instance of
+      the liberal diffusion of a blessing newly discovered. It is really
+      painful, it is mortifying, to be obliged to note these things, which are
+      known to every one who knows any thing, and felt with approbation by every
+      one who has any feeling. But we have a faction to whose hostile passions
+      the torture even of right into wrong is a delicious gratification. Their
+      malice I have long learned to disregard, their censure to deem praise. But
+      I observe, that some republicans are not satisfied (even while we are
+      receiving liberally from others) that this small return should be made.
+      They will think more justly at another day: but, in the mean time, I wish
+      to avoid offence. My prayer to you, therefore, is, that you will be so
+      good, under the enclosed order, as to receive these two tierces of seed
+      from Falls and Brown, and pay them their disbursements for freight, &amp;c.
+      which I will immediately remit you on knowing the amount. Of the seed,
+      when received, be so good as to make manure for your garden. When rotted
+      with a due mixture of stable manure or earth, it is the best in the world.
+      I rely on your friendship to excuse this trouble, it being necessary I
+      should not commit myself again to persons of whose honor, or the want of
+      it, I know nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0078" id="link2H_4_0078">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXVIII.&mdash;TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, March 2, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Washington, March 2, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My last to you was of May the 2nd; since which I have received yours of
+      May the 25th, June the 1st, July the 23rd, 24th, and September the 5th,
+      and distributed the two pamphlets according to your desire. They are read
+      with the delight which every thing from your pen gives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After using every effort which could prevent or delay our being entangled
+      in the war of Europe, that seems now our only resource. The edicts of the
+      two belligerents, forbidding us to be seen on the ocean, we met by an
+      embargo. This gave us time to call home our seamen, ships, and property,
+      to levy men and put our sea-ports into a certain state of defence. We have
+      now taken off the embargo, except as to France and England and their
+      territories, because fifty millions of exports annually sacrificed, are
+      the treble of what war would cost us; besides, that by war we should take
+      something, and lose less than at present. But to give you a true
+      description of the state of things here, I must refer you to Mr. Coles,
+      the bearer of this, my secretary, a most worthy, intelligent, and
+      well-informed young man, whom I recommend to your notice, and conversation
+      on our affairs. His discretion and fidelity may be relied on. I expect he
+      will find you with Spain at your feet, but England still afloat, and a
+      barrier to the Spanish colonies. But all these concerns I am now leaving
+      to be settled by my friend Mr. Madison. Within a few days I retire to my
+      family, my books, and farms; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall
+      look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not
+      with envy. Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such
+      relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me
+      for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme
+      delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have
+      forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the
+      boisterous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of
+      retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most
+      consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave every thing in the hands
+      of men so able to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet
+      misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could avert them. Should
+      you return to the United States, perhaps your curiosity may lead you to
+      visit the hermit of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and
+      delight; hailing you in the mean time with his affectionate salutations,
+      and assurances of constant esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. If you return to us, bring a couple of pair of true-bred shepherd&rsquo;s
+      dogs. You will add a valuable possession to a country now beginning to pay
+      great attention to the raising sheep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      T.J. <a name="link2H_4_0079" id="link2H_4_0079">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXIX.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 17, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 17, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On opening my letters from France, in the moment of my departure from
+      Washington, I found from their signatures that they were from literary
+      characters, except one from Mr. Short, which mentioned in the outset that
+      it was private, and that his public communications were in the letter to
+      the Secretary of State, which I sent you. I find, however, on reading his
+      letter to me (which I did not do till I got home) a passage of some
+      length, proper to be communicated to you, and which I have therefore
+      extracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had a very fatiguing journey, having found the roads excessively bad,
+      although I have seen them worse. The last three days I found it better to
+      be on horseback, and travelled eight hours through as disagreeable a snow
+      storm as I was ever in. Feeling no inconvenience from the expedition but
+      fatigue, I have more confidence in my <i>vis vitæ</i> than I had before
+      entertained. The spring is remarkably backward. No oats sown, not much
+      tobacco seed, and little done in the gardens. Wheat has suffered
+      considerably. No vegetation visible yet but the red maple, weeping-willow,
+      and lilac. Flour is said to be at eight dollars at Richmond, and all
+      produce is hurrying down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the ensuing four or five
+      months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and trust you will have a smooth
+      administration. I know no government which would be so embarrassing in war
+      as ours. This would proceed very much from the lying and licentious
+      character of our papers; but much, also, from the wonderful credulity of
+      the members of Congress in the floating lies of the day. And in this no
+      experience seems to correct them. I have never seen a Congress during the
+      last eight years, a great majority of which I would not implicitly have
+      relied on in any question, could their minds have been purged of all
+      errors of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly with the protraction of
+      the session, and I apprehend, in case of war, their session would have a
+      tendency to become permanent. It is much, therefore, to be desired that
+      war may be avoided, if circumstances will admit. Nor in the present maniac
+      state of Europe, should I estimate the point of honor by the ordinary
+      scale. I believe we shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world,
+      for having made the avoidance of being engaged in the present unexampled
+      war, our first object. War, however, may become a less losing business
+      than unresisted depredation. With every wish that events may be propitious
+      to your administration, I salute you with sincere affection and every
+      sympathy of the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0080" id="link2H_4_0080">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXX.&mdash;TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, April 3, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE INHABITANTS OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY, IN VIRGINIA,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the society of
+      those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear to me, I
+      receive, fellow-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the
+      cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent on duties which
+      the history of a wonderful era made incumbent on those called to them, the
+      pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and splendor of office, have drawn but
+      deeper sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private
+      life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate intercourse with you, my
+      neighbors and friends, and the endearments of family love, which nature
+      has given us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay
+      down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow-citizens,
+      repose and safety under the watchful cares, the labors, and perplexities
+      of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer to my
+      happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the measure will
+      be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the several public
+      stations to which I have been called, have obtained for me the approbation
+      of my country. The part which I have acted on the theatre of public life,
+      has been before them; and to their sentence I submit it: but the testimony
+      of my native county, of the individuals who have known me in private life,
+      to my conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful,
+      as proceeding from eye-witnesses and observers, from triers of the
+      vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, I may ask, in the face of the world,
+      &lsquo;Whose ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
+      or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?&rsquo; On
+      your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness
+      are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere prayers for your
+      own welfare and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April 3, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0081" id="link2H_4_0081">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXI.&mdash;TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS, June 13, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 13, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not know till Mr. Patterson called on us, a few days ago, that you
+      had passed on to Washington. I had recently observed in the debates of
+      Congress, a matter introduced, on which I wished to give explanations more
+      fully in conversation, which I will now do by abridgment in writing. Mr.
+      Randolph has proposed an inquiry into certain prosecutions at common law
+      in Connecticut, for libels on the government, and not only himself, but
+      others have stated them with such affected caution, and such hints at the
+      same time, as to leave on every mind the impression that they had been
+      instituted either by my direction, or with my acquiescence, at least. This
+      has not been denied by my friends, because probably the fact is unknown to
+      them. I shall state it for their satisfaction, and leave it to be disposed
+      of as they think best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had observed in a newspaper (some years ago, I do not recollect the time
+      exactly), some dark hints of a prosecution in Connecticut, but so
+      obscurely hinted, that I paid little attention to it. Some considerable
+      time after, it was again mentioned, so that I understood that some
+      prosecution was going on in the federal court there, for calumnies uttered
+      from the pulpit against me by a clergyman. I immediately wrote to Mr.
+      Granger, who, I think, was in Connecticut at the time, stating that I had
+      laid it down as a law to myself, to take no notice of the thousand
+      calumnies issued against me, but to trust my character to my own conduct,
+      and the good sense and candor of my fellow-citizens; that I had found no
+      reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and I was unwilling it should
+      be broke through by others as to any matter concerning me; and I therefore
+      requested him to desire the district attorney to dismiss the prosecution.
+      Some time after this, 1 heard of subpoenas being served on General Lee,
+      David M. Randolph, and others, as witnesses to attend the trial. I then,
+      for the first time, conjectured the subject of the libel. I immediately
+      wrote to Mr. Granger, to require an immediate dismission of the
+      prosecution. The answer of Mr. Huntington, the district attorney, was,
+      that these subpoenas had been issued by the defendant without his
+      knowledge, that it had been his intention to dismiss all the prosecutions
+      at the first meeting of the court, and to accompany it with an avowal of
+      his opinion, that they could not be maintained, because the federal court
+      had no jurisdiction over libels. This was accordingly done. I did not till
+      then know that there were other prosecutions of the same nature, nor do I
+      now know what were their subjects. But all went off together; and I
+      afterwards saw, in the hands of Mr. Granger, a letter written by the
+      clergyman, disavowing any personal ill will towards me, and solemnly
+      declaring he had never uttered the words charged. I think Mr. Granger
+      either showed me, or said there were affidavits of at least half a dozen
+      respectable men who were present at the sermon, and swore no such
+      expressions were uttered, and as many equally respectable who swore the
+      contrary. But the clergyman expressed his gratification at the dismission
+      of the prosecution. I write all this from memory, and after too long an
+      interval of time to be certain of the exactness of all the details; but I
+      am sure there is no variation material, and Mr. Granger, correcting small
+      lapses of memory, can confirm every thing substantial. Certain it is, that
+      the prosecutions had been instituted, and had made considerable progress,
+      without my knowledge; that they were disapproved by me as soon as known,
+      and directed to be discontinued. The attorney did it on the same ground on
+      which I had acted myself in the cases of Duane, Callender, and others; to
+      wit, that the sedition law was unconstitutional and null, and that my
+      obligation to execute what was law, involved that of not suffering rights
+      secured by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no law. I always
+      understood that these prosecutions had been invited, if not instituted, by
+      Judge Edwards, and the marshal, being republican, had summoned a grand
+      jury partly or wholly republican: but that Mr. Huntington declared from
+      the beginning against the jurisdiction of the court, and had determined to
+      enter <i>nolle-prosequis</i> before he received my directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I trouble you with another subject. The law making my letters post free,
+      goes to those to me only, not those from me. The bill had got to its
+      passage before this was observed (and first I believe by Mr. Dana), and
+      the house under too much pressure of business near the close of the
+      session to bring in another bill. As the privilege of freedom was given to
+      the letters from as well as to both my predecessors, I suppose no reason
+      exists for making a distinction. And in so extensive a correspondence as I
+      am subject to, and still considerably on public matters, it would be a
+      sensible convenience to myself, as well as those who have occasion to
+      receive letters from me. It happens, too, as I was told at the time (for I
+      have never looked into it myself), that it was done by two distinct acts
+      on both the former occasions. Mr. Eppes, I think, mentioned this to me. I
+      know from the Post Master General, that Mr. Adams franks all his letters.
+      I state this matter to you as being my representative, which must
+      apologize for the trouble of it. We have been seasonable since you left
+      us. Yesterday evening and this morning we have had refreshing showers,
+      which will close and confirm the business of planting. Affectionately
+      yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0082" id="link2H_4_0082">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXII.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, August 17, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 17, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen, on whatsoever measures you
+      should take in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine; yet I am satisfied
+      that both the proclamations have been sound. The first has been sanctioned
+      by universal approbation; and although it was not literally the case
+      foreseen by the legislature, yet it was a proper extension of their
+      provision to a case similar, though not the same. It proved to the whole
+      world our desire of accommodation, and must have satisfied every candid
+      federalist on that head. It was not only proper on the well-grounded
+      confidence that the arrangement would be honestly executed, but ought to
+      have taken place even had the perfidy of England been foreseen. Their
+      dirty gain is richly remunerated to us by our placing them so shamefully
+      in the wrong, and by the union it must produce among ourselves. The last
+      proclamation admits of quibbles, of which advantage will doubtless be
+      endeavored to be taken, by those to whom gain is their god, and their
+      country nothing. But it is soundly defensible. The British minister
+      assured us, that the orders of council would be revoked before the 10th of
+      June. The executive, trusting in that assurance, declared by proclamation
+      that the revocation was to take place, and that on that event the law was
+      to be suspended. But the event did not take place, and the consequence, of
+      course, could not follow. This view is derived from the former
+      non-intercourse law only, having never read the latter one. I had doubted
+      whether Congress must not be called; but that arose from another doubt,
+      whether their second law had not changed the ground, so as to require
+      their agency to give operation to the law. Should Bonaparte have the
+      wisdom to correct his injustice towards us, I consider war with England as
+      inevitable. Our ships will go to France and its dependencies, and they
+      will take them. This will be war on their part, and leaves no alternative
+      but reprisal. I have no doubt you will think it safe to act on this
+      hypothesis, and with energy. The moment that open war shall be apprehended
+      from them, we should take possession of Baton Rouge. If we do not, they
+      will, and New Orleans becomes irrecoverable, and the western country
+      blockaded during the war. It would be justifiable towards Spain on this
+      ground, and equally so on that of title to West Florida, and reprisal
+      extended to East Florida. Whatever turn our present difficulty may take, I
+      look upon all cordial conciliation with England as desperate during the
+      life of the present King. I hope and doubt not that Erskine will justify
+      himself. My confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity, and in the
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; of Canning. I consider the present as the most
+      shameless ministry which ever disgraced England. Copenhagen will
+      immortalize their infamy. In general their administrations are so
+      changeable, and they are obliged to descend to such tricks to keep
+      themselves in place, that nothing like honor or morality can ever be
+      counted on in transactions with them. I salute you with all possible
+      affection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0083" id="link2H_4_0083">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BARTON, September 21, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BARTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 21, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received last night your favor of the 14th, and would with all possible
+      pleasure have communicated to you any part or the whole of the Indian
+      vocabularies which I had collected, but an irreparable misfortune has
+      deprived me of them. I have now been thirty years availing myself of every
+      possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same set of
+      words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur again to
+      any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty, and had
+      digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have printed
+      them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet digested
+      Captain Lewis&rsquo;s collection, nor having leisure then to do it, I put it off
+      till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as originals, were
+      packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water with about thirty
+      other packages of my effects, from Washington, and while ascending James
+      river, this package, on account of its weight and presumed precious
+      contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being disappointed on
+      opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of which he thought he
+      could make no use. Among these were the whole of the vocabularies. Some
+      leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud; but these were very few,
+      and so defaced by the mud and water, that no general use can ever be made
+      of them. On the receipt of your letter I turned to them, and was very
+      happy to find, that the only morsel of an original vocabulary among them,
+      was Captain Lewis&rsquo;s of the Pani language, of which you say you have not
+      one word. I therefore enclose it to you as it is, and a little fragment of
+      some other, which I see is in his hand-writing, but no indication remains
+      on it of what language it is. It is a specimen of the condition of the
+      little which was recovered. I am the more concerned at this accident, as
+      of the two hundred and fifty words of my vocabularies, and the one hundred
+      and thirty words of the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the
+      other quarters of the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and would
+      have furnished materials for a comparison, from which something might have
+      resulted. Although I believe no general use can ever be made of the wrecks
+      of my loss, yet I will ask the return of the Pani vocabulary when you are
+      done with it. Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect, although I am
+      too old to expect to make much progress in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn, with pleasure, your acquisition of the pamphlet on the astronomy
+      of the ancient Mexicans. If it be ancient and genuine, or modern and
+      rational, it will be of real value. It is one of the most interesting
+      countries of our hemisphere, and merits every attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am thankful for your kind offer of sending the original Spanish for my
+      perusal. But I think it a pity to trust it to the accidents of the post,
+      and whenever you publish the translation, I shall be satisfied to read
+      that which shall be given by your translator, who is, I am sure, a greater
+      adept in the language than I am.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0084" id="link2H_4_0084">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIV.&mdash;TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA, October 4, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DON VALENTINE DE FORONDA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 4, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of August the 26th came to hand in the succeeding month, and
+      have now to thank you for the pamphlet it contained. I have read it with
+      pleasure, and find the constitution proposed would probably be as free as
+      is consistent with hereditary institutions. It has one feature which I
+      like much; that which provides that when the three co-ordinate branches
+      differ in their construction of the constitution, the opinion of two
+      branches shall overrule the third. Our constitution has not sufficiently
+      solved this difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the multitude of characters with which public office leads us to
+      official intercourse, we cannot fail to observe many, whose personal worth
+      marks them as objects of particular esteem, whom we would wish to select
+      for our society in private life. I avail myself gladly of the present
+      occasion, of assuring you that I was peculiarly impressed with your merit
+      and talents, and that I have ever entertained for them a particular
+      respect. To those whose views are single and direct, it is a great comfort
+      to have to do business with frank and honorable minds. And here give me
+      leave to make an avowal, for which, in my present retirement, there can be
+      no motive but a regard for truth. Your predecessor, soured on a question
+      of etiquette against the administration of this country, wished to impute
+      wrong to them in all their actions, even where he did not believe it
+      himself. In this spirit, he wished it to be believed that we were in
+      unjustifiable co-operation in Miranda&rsquo;s expedition. I solemnly, and on my
+      personal truth and honor, declare to you, that this was entirely without
+      foundation, and that there was neither co-operation nor connivance on our
+      part. He informed us he was about to attempt the liberation of his native
+      country from bondage, and intimated a hope of our aid, or connivance at
+      least. He was at once informed, that, although we had great cause of
+      complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet whenever we should think
+      proper to act as her enemy, it should be openly and above board, and that
+      our hostility should never be exercised by such petty means. We had no
+      suspicion that he expected to engage men here, but merely to purchase
+      military stores. Against this there was no law, nor consequently any
+      authority for us to interpose obstacles. On the other hand, we deemed it
+      improper to betray his voluntary communication to the agents of Spain.
+      Although his measures were many days in preparation at New York, we never
+      had the least intimation or suspicion of his engaging men in his
+      enterprise, until he was gone; and I presume the secrecy of his
+      proceedings kept them equally unknown to the Marquis Yrujo at
+      Philadelphia, and the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of them
+      gave us any information of the enlistment of men, until it was too late
+      for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure. The
+      officer in the Customs, who participated in this transaction with Miranda,
+      we immediately removed, and should have had him and others further
+      punished, had it not been for the protection given them by private
+      citizens at New York, in opposition to the government, who, by their
+      impudent falsehoods and calumnies, were able to overbear the minds of the
+      jurors. Be assured, Sir, that no motive could induce me, at this time, to
+      make this declaration so gratuitously, were it not founded in sacred
+      truth: and I will add further, that I never did, or countenanced, in
+      public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith;
+      having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and
+      another for a private man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which
+      breathe through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally
+      sincere with which I now salute you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0085" id="link2H_4_0085">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXV.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, October 11, 1809
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 11, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the
+      enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of
+      whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me to place
+      it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right, neither more
+      nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three lines, in such form
+      as I may forward him by way of answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions which
+      has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new
+      arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It would
+      be, indeed, a great public calamity, were it to fix you in the purpose
+      which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of our
+      republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment of the
+      public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we shall have
+      revenue enough to improve our country in peace, and defend it in war,
+      without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should
+      once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be
+      despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt,
+      corruption, and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge of the
+      debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and it hangs
+      on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another President
+      and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordinate to
+      this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that great hope is
+      lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix on that object
+      the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our country will owe
+      you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary considerations
+      which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never can produce any
+      other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated by our
+      fellow-citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to admit any
+      remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was, that none of us
+      ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress than yourself, and
+      I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel your aid to be still as
+      important for the future, as it has been for the past. You have nothing,
+      therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of Congress, and still less of
+      the President, who, above all men, is the most interested and
+      affectionately disposed to support you. I hope, then, you will abandon
+      entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that you will consider the
+      eight years to come as essential to your political career. I should
+      certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement, as the most
+      inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In addition to the
+      common interest in this question, I feel particularly for myself the
+      considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you for your valuable
+      aid during my administration of the public affairs, a just sense of the
+      large portion of the public approbation which was earned by your labors,
+      and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship and attachment which grew
+      out of our joint exertions to promote the common good; and of which I pray
+      you now to accept the most cordial and respectful assurances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0086" id="link2H_4_0086">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVI.&mdash;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, February 10, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 10, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now
+      received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that the
+      portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a share
+      in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has never
+      before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice we have
+      observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit their
+      esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise, would have
+      preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence of all other
+      nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which is now blasting
+      the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the mounds of reason as
+      well as right. All those calculations which, at any other period, would
+      have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a moral sense in man,
+      individually or associated, of the connection which the laws of nature
+      have established between his duties and his interests, of a regard for
+      honest fame and the esteem of our follow-men, have been a matter of
+      reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if it could be a folly for
+      an honest man to suppose that others could be honest also, when it is
+      their interest to be so. And when is this state of things to end? The
+      death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the first and chiefest
+      apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and might withdraw the
+      scourge of the land. But what is to restore order and safety on the ocean?
+      The death of George III? Not at all. He is only stupid; and his ministers,
+      however weak and profligate in morals, are ephemeral. But his nation is
+      permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant of the ocean. The principle
+      that force is right, is become the principle of the nation itself. They
+      would not permit an honest minister, were accident to bring such an one
+      into power, to relax their system of lawless piracy. These were the
+      difficulties when I was with you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are
+      kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves,
+      to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain their
+      confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their
+      functionaries. <i>Macte virtute</i> therefore. Continue to go straight
+      forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can
+      lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or
+      passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock of our
+      safety. In times of peace the people look most to their representatives;
+      but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence
+      is even now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the
+      executive to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence
+      as auspicious as it is well founded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express
+      all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your
+      faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for the
+      valuable aids I received from you. Though separated from my
+      fellow-laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all, and
+      I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God bless
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0087" id="link2H_4_0087">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVII.*&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL, February 19,1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 19,1810.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This letter is endorsed, &lsquo;not sent.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 7th instant has been duly received, with the pamphlet
+      enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly
+      and seriously true than what is there stated; that but a short time
+      elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion,
+      before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his
+      special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and
+      aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system
+      of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and
+      sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to
+      filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to
+      swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats,
+      they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the
+      greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and
+      do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices which
+      the society of Friends entertain against the present and late
+      administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends are
+      men, formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural
+      principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are
+      neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of
+      their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions are
+      no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present
+      administration conducted the government on principles professed by the
+      Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians, as
+      to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with their
+      professions. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them, and in
+      this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle in this,
+      to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the professions of
+      religious sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is a very obvious
+      one. The mother society is in England. Its members are English by birth
+      and residence, devoted to their own country, as good citizens ought to be.
+      The Quakers of these States are colonies or filiations from the mother
+      society, to whom that society sends its yearly lessons. On these the
+      filiated societies model their opinions, their conduct, their passions,
+      and attachments. A Quaker is, essentially an Englishman, in whatever part
+      of the earth he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on our
+      navigation and commerce have kept us in perpetual bickerings with her. The
+      Quakers here have taken side against their own government; not on their
+      profession of peace, for they saw that peace was our object also; but from
+      devotion to the views of the mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an
+      administration sought war with France, the Quakers were the most clamorous
+      for war. Their principle of peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the
+      primary one of adherence to the Friends in England, and what was
+      patriotism in the original became treason in the copy. On that occasion,
+      they obliged their good old leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from
+      a petition to Congress, against war, which had been delivered to a
+      Representative of Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present
+      administration. He accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his
+      name. You must not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more
+      effect on the society of Friends here, than on the English merchants
+      settled among us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally.
+      I know individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
+      in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health and
+      happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0088" id="link2H_4_0088">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXVIII.&mdash;TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO, February 26, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 26, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and avoiding
+      every thing political, lest coming from one in the station I then held, it
+      might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps even excite
+      jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry. Retired now from
+      public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and avoiding all curiosity
+      about what is done or intended, what I say is from myself only, the
+      workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the
+      justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you
+      devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were
+      worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom
+      and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which
+      might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not been
+      inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment that the
+      affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent, every
+      faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may venture to
+      solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree, prepared.
+      Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the necessary articles
+      (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them among ourselves,
+      abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than will ever be required
+      in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly added, of our own
+      fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from Europe; heavy
+      artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of field-pieces,
+      several founderies casting one every other day each; a military school of
+      about fifty students, which has been in operation a dozen years; and the
+      manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding forty thousand young
+      soldiers to our force every year that the war is deferred: at all our
+      sea-port towns of the least consequence we have erected works of defence,
+      and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or two heavy pieces, either
+      eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders, sufficient in the smallest
+      harbors to repel the predatory attacks of privateers or single armed
+      ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors to such more serious attacks
+      as they may probably be exposed to. All these were nearly completed, and
+      their gunboats in readiness, when I retired from the government. The works
+      of New York and New Orleans alone, being on a much larger scale, are not
+      yet completed. The former will be finished this summer, mounting four
+      hundred and thirty-eight guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one
+      hundred gunboats, will be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which
+      will ever be trusted across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are
+      less advanced. These are our preparations. They are very different from
+      what you will be told by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But
+      it is not to them the government communicates the public condition. Ask
+      one of them if he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you
+      will find probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes
+      from. You will ask, perhaps, where are the proofs of these preparations
+      for one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress,
+      authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if
+      authorized, they would be executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two measures have not been adopted which I pressed on Congress repeatedly
+      at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted territory of
+      Orleans, by donations of land to able bodied young men, to be engaged and
+      carried there at the public expense, who would constitute a force always
+      ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was, to class the
+      militia according to the years of their birth, and make all those from
+      twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into service at a
+      moment&rsquo;s warning. This would have given us a force of three hundred
+      thousand young men, prepared, by proper training, for service in any part
+      of the United States; while those who had passed through that period would
+      remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent States. These
+      two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary for the entire
+      security of our country. They would have given me, on my retirement from
+      the government of the nation, the consolatory reflection, that having
+      found, when I was called to it, not a single sea-port town in a condition
+      to repel a levy of contribution by a single privateer or pirate, I had
+      left every harbor so prepared by works and gun-boats, as to be in a
+      reasonable state of security against any probable attack; the territory of
+      Orleans acquired, and planted with an internal force sufficient for its
+      protection; and the whole territory of the United States organized by such
+      a classification of its male force, as would give it the benefit of all
+      its young population for active service, and that of a middle and advanced
+      age for stationary defence. But these measures will, I hope, be completed
+      by my successor, who, to the purest principles of republican patriotism,
+      adds a wisdom and foresight second to no man on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to
+      Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books,
+      I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are
+      devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops, my
+      garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give to
+      society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from
+      candle-light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my
+      strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue;
+      perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven
+      years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, seeding and harvesting, with
+      my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve
+      as the rest of my fellow-citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of
+      being free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it
+      to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least
+      pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it.
+      They place themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my
+      library and counsel, and make a part of my society. In advising the course
+      of their reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main
+      objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming
+      to bear a share in the councils and government of their country, they will
+      keep ever in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and
+      independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited
+      views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never
+      before known to me. Except, for this, my happiness would have been
+      perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as
+      many years of life, health, and ease as yourself shall wish, is the
+      sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0089" id="link2H_4_0089">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER LXXXIX.&mdash;TO DOCTOR JONES, March 5, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR JONES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received duly your favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with all
+      antient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned, with real
+      sorrow, that circumstances have risen among our executive counsellors,
+      which have rendered foes those who once were friends. To themselves it
+      will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and therefore chiefly I
+      lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both parties. To the President
+      it will be really inconvenient: but to the nation I do not know that it
+      can do serious injury, unless we were to believe the newspapers, which
+      pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out. That indeed would be a day of
+      mourning for the United States: but I hope that the position of both
+      gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no cause for either to withdraw.
+      The ordinary business of every day is done by consultation between the
+      President and the Head of the department alone to which it belongs. For
+      measures of importance or difficulty, a consultation is held with the
+      Heads of departments, either assembled, or by taking their opinions
+      separately in conversation or in writing. The latter is most strictly in
+      the spirit of the constitution. Because the President, on weighing the
+      advice of all, is left free to make up an opinion for himself. In this way
+      they are not brought together, and it is not necessarily known to any what
+      opinion the others have given. This was General Washington&rsquo;s practice for
+      the first two or three years of his administration, till the affairs of
+      France and England threatened to embroil us, and rendered consideration
+      and discussion desirable. In these discussions, Hamilton and myself were
+      daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks. We were then but four in
+      number, and, according to the majority, which of course was three to one,
+      the President decided. The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the
+      public experienced no inconvenience. I practised this last method, because
+      the harmony was so cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a
+      contribution of mutual views of the subject, to form an opinion acceptable
+      to the whole. I think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any
+      case of consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into
+      a directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is
+      better calculated, too, to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure
+      it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place. It
+      is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present case, and will
+      doubtless be resorted to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But
+      when viewed in comparison with those of Europe, they are the joys of
+      Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed our
+      portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no other
+      period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but one on
+      the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over the earth
+      with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin over the
+      face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses. And the
+      system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst this wreck of the
+      world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be sure, our petty
+      squabbles and heart-burnings, and we have something of the blue devils at
+      times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are eating up other
+      nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim, nor the Leviathan
+      move on dry land: and if we will keep out of their way, they cannot get at
+      us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves within the scope of their
+      tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the tail, may be our fortune.
+      Our business certainly was to be still. But a part of our nation chose to
+      declare against this, in such a way as to control the wisdom of the
+      government. I yielded with others, to avoid a greater evil. But from that
+      moment, I have seen no system which could keep us entirely aloof from
+      these agents of destruction. If there be any, I am certain that you, my
+      friends, now charged with the care of us all, will see and pursue it. I
+      give myself, therefore, no trouble with thinking or puzzling about it.
+      Being confident in my watchmen, I sleep soundly. God bless you all, and
+      send you a safe deliverance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0090" id="link2H_4_0090">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XC.&mdash;TO GOVERNOR LANGDON, March 5, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 5, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the refreshing
+      dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls antient as well as
+      recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty years we
+      have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these have passed
+      away, and so I trust will those of the present day. The toryism with which
+      we struggled in &lsquo;77, differed but in name from the federalism of &lsquo;99, with
+      which we struggled also; and the Anglicism, of 1808, against which we are
+      now struggling, is but the same thing still, in another form. It is a
+      longing for a King, and an English King, rather than any other. This is
+      the true source of their sorrows and wailings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is too
+      chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and
+      Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was
+      never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear; and
+      especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the embers,
+      merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two subdued
+      (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England alone a
+      short work), ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his
+      prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would
+      glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests.
+      Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half a
+      century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, he has
+      an old affront to wipe out. Then come &lsquo;Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia,
+      Asia, and Bithynia,&rsquo; the fine countries on the Euphrates and Tigris, the
+      Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which bounded the glories of
+      his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of his new British subjects on
+      the banks of the Ganges, whom, after receiving under his protection the
+      mother country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this is done and
+      settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsubdued, he may turn to
+      the new one. But will he attack us first, from whom he will get but hard
+      knocks, and no money? Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of
+      Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from
+      his affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must
+      grant to ours the Cyclops&rsquo; boon of being the last devoured. While all this
+      is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that
+      nothing can happen to cut short or disturb his enterprises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence, than
+      all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should
+      first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear
+      Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into
+      the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided by
+      Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, she is now to
+      destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States
+      alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be our
+      security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a
+      separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith of a
+      nation of merchants! The <i>Punica fides</i> of modern Carthage! Of the
+      friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a
+      chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing,
+      that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not
+      morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But, in
+      addition to this, the nature of the English government forbids, of itself,
+      reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been the least
+      faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her
+      history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and
+      corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. To
+      Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuin treaty,
+      she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. It may be
+      asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits England for the
+      observation of moral duties? In the first place, her King is a cipher; his
+      only function being to name the oligarchy which is to govern her. The
+      parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the
+      administration. The real power and property in the government is in the
+      great aristocratical families of the nation. The nest of office being too
+      small for all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal,
+      which shall crowd the other out. For this purpose they are divided into
+      two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight, that a small matter
+      turns the balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every
+      stratagem must be practised, every artifice used, which may flatter the
+      pride, the passions, or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must
+      yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question,
+      whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will nourish
+      the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or
+      produce any other effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to
+      engagements, however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the
+      Ins, why, they were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong;
+      and to reverse every thing they did, must, therefore, be right. This is
+      the true character of the English government in practice, however
+      different its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation,
+      the individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and
+      duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and
+      whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In an
+      absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties. The despot
+      is the government. His power, suppressing all opposition, maintains his
+      ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through
+      them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his
+      own honor and faith with that of his nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cipher, I did not
+      mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that throne.
+      The practice of Kings marrying only into the families of Kings, has been
+      that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine
+      them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable, or a
+      state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual
+      appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let every
+      thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, and
+      in a few generations they become all body, and no mind: and this, too, by
+      a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice
+      of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we raise for
+      our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in this way
+      they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused myself
+      with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of
+      Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of
+      the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and
+      of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two
+      couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they
+      had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these
+      were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature.
+      And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the
+      powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great
+      Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden,
+      and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know
+      was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine,
+      who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
+      state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
+      lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind and
+      powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
+      generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an exception.
+      He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His
+      race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of
+      whom the Lord deliver us and have you, my friend, and all such good men
+      and true, in his holy keeping.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0091" id="link2H_4_0091">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCI.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, July 16,1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 16,1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in
+      congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles in
+      Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of these
+      principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The
+      federalists, during their short-lived ascendancy, have, nevertheless, by
+      forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which can
+      never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to
+      cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came on
+      (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days; long
+      enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who giving in to his
+      representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to his
+      colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress. They
+      believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced the fatal
+      measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our present evils,
+      and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the world. I should
+      think that even the federalists themselves must now be made, by their
+      feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the embargo brought
+      home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of our enemies; and
+      our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise and unpatriotic
+      conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove genuine, which are
+      said to have been given against our fisheries, they, too, are gone: and if
+      not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze of success which
+      England shall feel: for it has now been some years, that I am perfectly
+      satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and
+      prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a tribute as may
+      enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion
+      over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating,
+      according to occurrences, but has in no situation done any thing which
+      might amount to an acknowledged relinquishment of her intentions. I have
+      ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a
+      situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce
+      her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was,
+      proved it would have coerced her, had it been honestly executed. The proof
+      she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in
+      this country, as to control the will of its government and three fourths
+      of its people, and oblige the three fourths to submit to one fourth, is to
+      me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the
+      establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that
+      influence, is in her own conduct, and not from any thing in our power.
+      Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry,
+      she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not
+      aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests
+      over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to
+      herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way
+      the chief causes and provocations to war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these are views which concern the present and future generation, among
+      neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in our
+      pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will
+      effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her
+      to agriculture, manufactures, and emigration, will lessen her happiness.
+      But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborn do? How do
+      you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm,
+      or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy,
+      healthy, and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0092" id="link2H_4_0092">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCII.&mdash;TO J. B. COLVIN, September 20, 1810
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO J. B. COLVIN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 20, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you for
+      the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it. If I have
+      left in the breasts of my fellow-citizens a sentiment of satisfaction with
+      my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will soften the pillow
+      of my repose through the residue of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur,
+      which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities
+      beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes
+      embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws, is
+      doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the
+      highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our
+      country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a
+      scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with
+      life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus
+      absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of
+      Germantown, General Washington&rsquo;s army was annoyed from Chew&rsquo;s house, he
+      did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of
+      a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that
+      the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While
+      the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages,
+      provisions, and even men, by force, to enable that army to stay together
+      till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea
+      in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing a
+      supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a
+      supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of
+      self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of
+      <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>. Further to exemplify the principle, I will
+      state an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the
+      executive of the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the
+      Floridas for a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so
+      appropriated by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks,
+      and might appropriate it on the first or second day of their session.
+      Ought he, for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself
+      by transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage
+      offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense: but a reverence for
+      law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally
+      accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons against
+      hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find
+      means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing
+      spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind of the other
+      party. Ought the executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to
+      have secured the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice
+      for the transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would
+      have been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a
+      very possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary
+      articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We
+      ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety;
+      and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General
+      Wilkinson&rsquo;s situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound
+      to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he
+      then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet
+      from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city.
+      Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1. In seizing notorious
+      conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty
+      and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2. In sending
+      them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to
+      trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing
+      their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of the
+      judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown
+      disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation
+      of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to
+      its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of
+      necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the <i>salus populi</i>
+      supreme over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this
+      superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the
+      controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty
+      to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and his fellow-citizens
+      generally, are bound to judge according to the circumstances under which
+      he acted. They are not to transfer the information of this place or moment
+      to the time and place of his action; but to put themselves into his
+      situation. We knew here that there never was danger of a British fleet
+      from below, and that Burr&rsquo;s band was crushed before it reached the
+      Mississippi. But General Wilkinson&rsquo;s information was very different, and
+      he could act on no other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the
+      question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with
+      petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for a
+      legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the written
+      law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of greater evil than
+      a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is incumbent on those
+      only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves on great occasions,
+      when the safety of the nation, or some of its very high interests are at
+      stake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An officer is bound to obey orders: yet he would be a bad one who should
+      do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the
+      most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases may
+      be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own peril,
+      and throw himself on the justice of his country, and the rectitude of his
+      motives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that they
+      are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the hands of
+      news-writers. I met their scurrilities without concern, while in pursuit
+      of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my present
+      retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0093" id="link2H_4_0093">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIII.&mdash;TO MR. LAW, January 15, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. LAW.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 15, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner acknowledging
+      the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet, which the same
+      absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I know I shall
+      read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22nd is also
+      received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Wagner&rsquo;s malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother
+      printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain.
+      When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the
+      mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead
+      than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as to
+      your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I felt
+      myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to
+      England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of the
+      friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those
+      circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that
+      if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our
+      connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both our
+      governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them, and I
+      spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and
+      intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship
+      with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington, I
+      thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that
+      government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the
+      administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from
+      their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox&rsquo;s power. But
+      every other administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in
+      their injuries and insults, and has manifested equal hatred and aversion.
+      Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose principles are
+      those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted the miserable
+      policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves with a
+      faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled, and which
+      never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of the nation,
+      and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of population
+      shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the good will
+      of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every benefit
+      which reason or justice would permit it to give. With respect to myself, I
+      saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough to credit the
+      newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself towards
+      England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of wise
+      men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war, and
+      for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I
+      must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt
+      either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs
+      confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then,
+      generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above
+      the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have preserved
+      us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly urging
+      us. The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of
+      their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by
+      ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a
+      powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions
+      at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial
+      interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not
+      be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so
+      infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice, and the
+      well calculated interests of their country. This vice, in the English
+      constitution, renders a dependance on that government very unsafe. The
+      feelings of their King, too, fundamentally averse to us, have added
+      another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This obstacle to
+      friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and I verily believe
+      the successor will come in with fairer and wiser dispositions towards us;
+      perhaps on that event their conduct may be changed. But what England is to
+      become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I
+      cannot foresee. Her monied interest, created by her paper system, and now
+      constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the
+      soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great
+      taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be
+      supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy
+      tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet
+      relinquished, every nation must contest, even <i>ad internecionem</i>. And
+      yet, that, retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a
+      fair share in the necessary equilibrium,of power on that element, would be
+      the desire of every nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning
+      myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others.
+      Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
+      Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
+      which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should
+      your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0094" id="link2H_4_0094">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 16, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a letter,
+      to bring myself to your recollection, when I received your welcome favor
+      of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the heart-rending calamity you
+      mention, and had sincerely sympathized with your afflictions. But I had
+      not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolences were
+      but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and still think, this is one of the
+      cases wherein we should &lsquo;not sorrow, even as others who have no hope.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. &lsquo;My present course of life
+      admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to
+      dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other concerns,
+      which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the few hours I
+      can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences; not those with my
+      intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with
+      others, who, writing to me on concerns of their own in which I have had an
+      agency, or from motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to
+      be answered with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this
+      obstacle to the delights of retirement will wear away with the oblivion
+      which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in those studious
+      pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have
+      called me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall receive your proposed publication, and read it with the pleasure
+      which every thing gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in
+      the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of
+      friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you
+      take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me,
+      nor from the want of sincere desire, and of effort on my part, to renew
+      our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and of
+      action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree
+      of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no
+      man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of
+      rational republicanism, which, after the necessity of throwing off our
+      monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new
+      government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the principles of
+      the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account.
+      While he was Vice-President, and I Secretary of State, I received a letter
+      from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call
+      together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us
+      (which, by the bye, was the only instance of that being done) in order to
+      determine on some measure which required despatch; and he desired me to
+      act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him. I invited them to
+      dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our
+      question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion
+      arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British
+      Constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of its
+      defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect
+      constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary,
+      asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of
+      government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices
+      would render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured
+      was the real line of difference between the political principles of these
+      two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which
+      will further delineate Hamilton&rsquo;s political principles. The room being
+      hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among
+      them were those of Bacon, Newton, and Locke. Hamilton asked me who they
+      were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world
+      had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: &lsquo;The greatest
+      man,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;that ever lived, was Julius Caesar.&rsquo; Mr. Adams was honest
+      as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
+      politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
+      govern men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about that
+      time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our constitution,
+      to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into war
+      with France and alliance with England, and finally to homologize our
+      constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelmed
+      with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often by the pen of the
+      <i>bloody buoy</i>, and was seduced by them into some open indications of
+      his new principles of government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix
+      with his kindness a little superciliousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams,
+      with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you
+      recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance
+      which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early
+      explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of us
+      all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the political principles
+      of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the Presidency.
+      On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of New
+      York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and
+      that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official
+      business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words.
+      &lsquo;Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will
+      only say that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have.&rsquo; &lsquo;Mr.
+      Adams,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;this is no personal contest between you and me. Two
+      systems of principles on the subject of government divide our
+      fellow-citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with
+      the other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those
+      now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these
+      parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we
+      both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be in the place of
+      ours, without any change in the motion of the machine. Its motion is from
+      its principle, not from you or myself. &lsquo;I believe you are right,&rsquo; said he,
+      &lsquo;that we are but passive instruments, and should not suffer this matter to
+      affect our personal dispositions.&rsquo; But he did not long retain this just
+      view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies
+      which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their
+      ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy
+      intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and
+      myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating
+      to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I
+      called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented
+      by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he
+      had not used towards me before, &lsquo;Sir, the event of the election is within
+      your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to the public
+      creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and
+      the government will instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the
+      wish of the people it should be so.&lsquo; &lsquo;Mr. Adams,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;I know not what
+      part of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized
+      a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I will
+      not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter on it, but
+      in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own judgment.&rsquo; I had
+      before given the same answer to the same intimation from Gouverneur
+      Morris. &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;things must take their course.&rsquo; I turned the
+      conversation to something else, and soon took my leave. It was the first
+      time in our lives we had ever parted with any thing like dissatisfaction.
+      And then followed those scenes of midnight appointment, which have been
+      condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last hours,
+      and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices and
+      especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing
+      for me the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies,
+      whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur
+      the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A
+      little time and reflection effaced in my mind this temporary
+      dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of
+      his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix.
+      And my first wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means
+      in my power; for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some
+      republican members of the delegation from his State, the giving him,
+      either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that
+      State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem
+      it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the
+      offer; and, moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such a
+      step in the outset, as auguring very ill of the course I meant to pursue.
+      I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some
+      opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter,
+      between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment, she
+      made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the tenderest
+      expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a single one
+      of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with the wishes &lsquo;of
+      her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, Abigail
+      Adams.&rsquo; Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, I determined to
+      make an effort towards removing the clouds from between us. This brought
+      on a correspondence which I now enclose for your perusal, after which be
+      so good as to return it to me, as I have never communicated it to any
+      mortal breathing, before. I send it to you, to convince you I have not
+      been wanting either in the desire, or the endeavor to remove this
+      misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly disgraceful to us both, as
+      indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to prevent a public competition
+      from affecting our personal friendship. I soon found from the
+      correspondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to an
+      intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I have
+      the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an
+      honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on
+      the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from me, by belief in the
+      lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps
+      mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate
+      friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes,
+      indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in
+      such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence
+      without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons I
+      have doubtless disapproved of the principles and practices of his
+      administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it
+      could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me,
+      if disposition had not: and I am satisfied Mr. Adams&rsquo;s conduct was equally
+      honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul
+      play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his
+      suspicions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have gone, my dear friend, into these details, that you might know every
+      thing which had passed between us, might be fully possessed of the state
+      of facts and dispositions, and judge for yourself whether they admit a
+      revival of that friendly intercourse for which you are so kindly
+      solicitous. I shall certainly not be wanting in any thing on my part which
+      may second your efforts; which will be the easier with me, inasmuch as I
+      do not entertain a sentiment of Mr. Adams, the expression of which could
+      give him reasonable offence. And I submit the whole to yourself, with the
+      assurance, that whatever be the issue, my friendship and respect for
+      yourself will remain unaltered and unalterable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0095" id="link2H_4_0095">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCV.&mdash;TO M. DESTUTT TRACY, January 26, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO M. DESTUTT TRACY.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 26, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The length of time your favor of June the 12th, 1809, was on its way to
+      me, and my absence from home the greater part of the autumn, delayed very
+      much the pleasure which awaited me of reading the packet which accompanied
+      it. I cannot express to you the satisfaction which I received from its
+      perusal. I had, with the world, deemed Montesquieu&rsquo;s a work of much merit;
+      but saw in it, with every thinking man, so much of paradox, of false
+      principle, and misapplied fact, as to render its value equivocal on the
+      whole. Williams and others had nibbled only at its errors. A radical
+      correction of them, therefore, was a great desideratum. This want is now
+      supplied, and with a depth of thought, precision; of idea, of language,
+      and of logic, which will force conviction into every mind. I declare to
+      you, Sir, in the spirit of truth and sincerity, that I consider it the
+      most precious gift the present age has received. But what would it have
+      been, had the author, or would the author, take up the whole scheme of
+      Montesquieu&rsquo;s work, and following the correct analysis he has here
+      developed, fill up all its parts according to his sound views of them.
+      Montesquieu&rsquo;s celebrity would be but a small portion of that which would
+      immortalize the author. And with whom? With the rational and high-minded
+      spirits of the present and all future ages. With those whose approbation
+      is both incitement and reward to virtue and ambition. Is then the hope
+      desperate? To what object can the occupation of his future life be devoted
+      so usefully to the world, so splendidly to himself? But I must leave to
+      others who have higher claims on his attention, to press these
+      considerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My situation, far in the interior of the country, was not favorable to the
+      object of getting this work translated and printed. Philadelphia is the
+      least distant of the great towns of our States, where there exists any
+      enterprise in this way; and it was not till the spring following the
+      receipt of your letter, that I obtained an arrangement for its execution.
+      The translation is just now completed. The sheets came to me by post, from
+      time to time, for revisal; but not being accompanied by the original, I
+      could not judge of verbal accuracies. I think, however, it is
+      substantially correct, without being an adequate representation of the
+      excellences of the original; as indeed no translation can be. I found it
+      impossible to give it the appearance of an original composition in our
+      language. I therefore think it best to divert inquiries after the author
+      towards a quarter where he will not be found; and with this view, propose
+      to prefix the prefatory epistle now enclosed. As soon as a copy of the
+      work can be had, I will send it to you by duplicate. The secret of the
+      author will be faithfully preserved during his and my joint lives; and
+      those into whose hands my papers will fall at my death will be equally
+      worthy of confidence. When the death of the author, or his living consent
+      shall permit the world to know their benefactor, both his and my papers
+      will furnish the evidence. In the mean time, the many important truths the
+      works so solidly establishes, will, I hope, make it the political rudiment
+      of the young, and manual of our older citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of its doctrines, indeed, the preference of a plural over a singular
+      executive, will probably not be assented to here. When our present
+      government was first established, we had many doubts on this question, and
+      many leanings towards a supreme executive council. It happened that at
+      that time the experiment of such an one was commenced in France, while the
+      single executive was under trial here. We watched the motions and effects
+      of these two rival plans, with an interest and anxiety proportioned to the
+      importance of a. choice between them. The experiment in France failed
+      after a short course, and not from any circumstance peculiar to the times
+      or nation, but from those internal jealousies and dissensions in the
+      Directory, which will ever arise among men equal in power, without a
+      principal to decide and control their differences. We had tried a similar
+      experiment in 1784, by establishing a committee of the States, composed of
+      a member from every State, then thirteen, to exercise the executive
+      functions during the recess of Congress. They fell immediately into
+      schisms and dissensions, which became at length so inveterate as to render
+      all co-operation among them impracticable: they dissolved themselves,
+      abandoning the helm of government, and it continued without a head, until
+      Congress met the ensuing winter. This was then imputed to the temper of
+      two or three individuals; but the wise ascribed it to the nature of man.
+      The failure of the French Directory, and from the same cause, seems to
+      have authorized a belief that the form of a plurality, however promising
+      in theory, is impracticable with men constituted with the ordinary
+      passions. While the tranquil and steady tenor of our single executive,
+      during a course of twenty-two years of the most tempestuous times the
+      history of the world has ever presented, gives a rational hope that this
+      important problem is at length solved. Aided by the counsels of a cabinet
+      of Heads of departments, originally four, but now five, with whom the
+      President consults, either singly or all together, he has the benefit of
+      their wisdom and information, brings their views to one centre, and
+      produces an unity of action and direction in all the branches of the
+      government. The excellence of this construction of the executive power has
+      already manifested itself here under very opposite circumstances. During
+      the administration of our first President, his cabinet of four members was
+      equally divided, by as marked an opposition of principle, as monarchism
+      and republicanism could bring into conflict. Had that cabinet been a
+      directory, like positive and negative quantities in Algebra, the opposing
+      wills would have balanced each other, and produced a state of absolute
+      inaction. But the President heard with calmness the opinions and reasons
+      of each, decided the course to be pursued, and kept the government
+      steadily in it, unaffected by the agitation. The public knew well the
+      dissensions of the cabinet, but never had an uneasy thought on their
+      account; because they knew also they had provided a regulating power,
+      which would keep the machine in steady movement. I speak with an intimate
+      knowledge of these scenes, <i>quorum pars fui</i>; as I may of others of a
+      character entirely opposite. The third administration, which was of eight
+      years, presented an example of harmony in a cabinet of six persons, to
+      which perhaps history has furnished no parallel. There never arose, during
+      the whole time, an instance of an unpleasant thought or word between the
+      members. We sometimes met under differences of opinion, but scarcely ever
+      failed, by conversing and reasoning, so to modify each other&rsquo;s ideas, as
+      to produce an unanimous result. Yet, able and amiable as these members
+      were, I am not certain this would have been the case, had each possessed
+      equal and independent powers. Ill defined limits of their respective
+      departments, jealousies, trifling at first, but nourished and strengthened
+      by repetition of occasions, intrigues without doors of designing persons
+      to build an importance to themselves on the divisions of others, might,
+      from small beginnings, have produced persevering oppositions. But the
+      power of decision in the President left no object for internal dissension,
+      and external intrigue was stifled in embryo by the knowledge which
+      incendiaries possessed, that no divisions they could foment would change
+      the course of the executive power. I am not conscious that my
+      participations in executive authority have produced any bias in favor of
+      the single executive; because the parts I have acted have been in the
+      subordinate, as well as superior stations, and because, if I know myself,
+      what I have felt, and what I have wished, I know that I have never been so
+      well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of
+      others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could
+      propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am still, however, sensible of the solidity of your principle, that, to
+      insure the safety of the public liberty, its depository should be subject
+      to be changed with the greatest ease possible, and without suspending or
+      disturbing for a moment the movements of the machine of government. You
+      apprehend that a single executive, with, eminence of talent, and
+      destitution of principle, equal to the object, might, by usurpation,
+      render his powers hereditary. Yet I think history furnishes as many
+      examples of a single usurper arising out of a government by a plurality,
+      as of temporary trusts of power in a single hand rendered permanent by
+      usurpation. I do not believe, therefore, that this danger is lessened in
+      the hands of a plural executive. Perhaps it is greatly increased, by the
+      state of inefficiency to which they are liable from feuds and divisions
+      among themselves. The conservative body you propose might be so
+      constituted, as, while it would be an admirable sedative in a variety of
+      smaller cases, might also be a valuable sentinel and check on the
+      liberticide views of an ambitious individual. I am friendly to this idea.
+      But the true barriers of our liberty in this country are our State
+      governments: and the wisest conservative power ever contrived by man, is
+      that of which our Revolution and present government found us possessed.
+      Seventeen distinct States, amalgamated into one as to their foreign
+      concerns, but single and independent as to their internal administration,
+      regularly organized with a legislature and governor resting on the choice
+      of the people, and enlightened by a free press, can never be so fascinated
+      by the arts of one man, as to submit voluntarily to his usurpation. Nor
+      can they be constrained to it by any force he can possess. While that may
+      paralyze the single State in which it happens to be encamped, sixteen
+      others, spread over a country of two thousand miles diameter, rise up on
+      every side, ready organized for deliberation by a constitutional
+      legislature, and for action by their governor, constitutionally the
+      commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it,
+      able to bear arms; and that militia, too, regularly formed into regiments
+      and battalions, into infantry, cavalry, and artillery, trained under
+      officers general and subordinate, legally appointed, always in readiness,
+      and to whom they are already in habits of obedience. The republican
+      government of France was lost without a struggle, because the party of &lsquo;<i>un
+      et indivisible</i>&rsquo; had prevailed: no provincial organizations existed to
+      which the people might rally under authority of the laws, the seats of the
+      directory were virtually vacant, and a small force sufficed to turn the
+      legislature out of their chamber and to salute its leader chief of the
+      nation. But with us, sixteen out of seventeen States rising in mass, under
+      regular organization and legal commanders, united in object and action by
+      their Congress, or, if that be in duresse, by a special convention,
+      present such obstacles to an usurper as for ever to stifle ambition in the
+      first conception of that object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dangers of another kind might more reasonably be apprehended from this
+      perfect and distinct organization, civil and military, of the States; to
+      wit, that certain States, from local and occasional discontents, might
+      attempt to secede from the Union. This is certainly possible; and would be
+      befriended by this regular organization. But it is not probable that local
+      discontents can spread to such an extent, as to be able to face the sound
+      parts of so extensive an union: and if ever they could reach the majority,
+      they would then become the regular government, acquire the ascendancy in
+      Congress, and be able to redress their own grievances by laws peaceably
+      and constitutionally passed. And even the States in which local
+      discontents might engender a commencement of fermentation, would be
+      paralyzed and self-checked by that very division into parties into which
+      we have fallen, into which all States must fall wherein men are at liberty
+      to think, speak, and act freely, according to the diversities of their
+      individual conformations, and which are, perhaps, essential to preserve
+      the purity of the government, by the censorship which these parties
+      habitually exercise over each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will read, I am sure, with indulgence, the explanations of the grounds
+      on which I have ventured to form an opinion differing from yours. They
+      prove my respect for your judgment, and diffidence of my own, which have
+      forbidden me to retain, without examination, an opinion questioned by you.
+      Permit me now to render my portion of the general debt of gratitude, by
+      acknowledgments in advance for the singular benefaction which is the
+      subject of this letter, to tender my wishes for the continuance of a life
+      so usefully employed, and to add the assurances of my perfect esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0096" id="link2H_4_0096">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVI.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, May 5, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 5, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor on your departure from Richmond came to hand in due time.
+      Although I may not have been among the first, I am certainly with the
+      sincerest, who congratulate you on your re-entrance into the national
+      councils. Your value there has never been unduly estimated by those whom
+      personal feelings did not misguide. The late misunderstandings at
+      Washington have been a subject of real concern to me. I know that the
+      dissolutions of personal friendships are among the most painful
+      occurrences in human life. I have sincere esteem for all who have been
+      affected by them, having passed with them eight years of great harmony and
+      affection. These incidents are rendered more distressing in our country
+      than elsewhere, because our printers ravin on the agonies of their
+      victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb. But the printers and the
+      public are very different personages. The former may lead the latter a
+      little out of their track, while the deviation is insensible: but the
+      moment they usurp their direction and that of their government, they will
+      be reduced to their true places. The two last Congresses have been the
+      theme of the most licentious reprobation for printers thirsting after war,
+      some against France, and some against England. But the people wish for
+      peace with both. They feel no incumbency on them to become the reformers
+      of the other hemisphere, and to inculcate, with fire and sword, a return
+      to moral order. When, indeed, peace shall become more losing than war,
+      they may owe to their interest, what these Quixottes are clamoring for on
+      false estimates of honor. The public are unmoved by these clamors, as the
+      re-election of their legislators shows, and they are firm to their
+      executive on the subject of the more recent clamors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are suffering here both in the gathered and the growing crop. The
+      lowness of the river, and great quantity of produce brought to Milton this
+      year, render it almost impossible to get our crops to market. This is the
+      case of mine as well as yours: and the Hessian fly appears alarmingly in
+      our growing crop. Every thing is in distress for the want of rain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Monroe, and accept yourself assurances of
+      my constant and affectionate esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0097" id="link2H_4_0097">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVII.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, August 14, 1811
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, August 14, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear General and Friend,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      I am happy to learn that your own health is good, and I hope it will long
+      continue so. The friends we left behind us have fallen out by the way. I
+      sincerely lament it, because I sincerely esteem them all, and because it
+      multiplies schisms where harmony is safety. As far as I have been able to
+      judge, however, it has made no sensible impression against the government.
+      Those who were murmuring before are a little louder now; but the mass of
+      our citizens is firm and unshaken. It furnishes, as an incident, another
+      proof that they are perfectly equal to the purposes of self-government,
+      and that we have nothing to fear for its stability. The spirit, indeed,
+      which manifests itself among the tories of your quarter, although I
+      believe there is a majority there sufficient to keep it down in peaceable
+      times, leaves me not without some disquietude. Should the determination of
+      England, now formally expressed, to take possession of the ocean, and to
+      suffer no commerce on it but through her ports, force a war upon us, I
+      foresee a possibility of a separate treaty between her and your Essex men,
+      on the principles of neutrality and commerce. Pickering here, and his
+      nephew Williams there, can easily negotiate this. Such a lure to the
+      quietists in our ranks with you, might recruit theirs to a majority. Yet,
+      excluded as they would be from intercourse with the rest of the Union and
+      of Europe, I scarcely see the gain they would propose to themselves, even
+      for the moment. The defection would certainly disconcert the other States,
+      but it could not ultimately endanger their safety. They are adequate, in
+      all points, to a defensive war. However, I hope your majority, with the
+      aid it is entitled to, will save us from this trial, to which I think it
+      possible we are advancing. The death of George may come to our relief; but
+      I fear the dominion of the sea is the insanity of the nation itself also.
+      Perhaps, if some stroke of fortune were to rid us at the same time from
+      the Mammoth of the land as well as the Leviathan of the ocean, the people
+      of England might lose their fears, and recover their sober senses again.
+      Tell my old friend, Governor Gerry, that I gave him glory for the rasping
+      with which he rubbed down his herd of traitors. Let them have justice and
+      protection against personal violence, but no favor. Powers and
+      pre-eminences conferred on them are daggers put into the hands of
+      assassins, to be plunged into our own bosoms in the moment the thrust can
+      go home to the heart. Moderation can never reclaim them. They deem it
+      timidity, and despise without fearing the tameness from which it flows.
+      Backed by England, they never lose the hope that their day is to come,
+      when the terrorism of their earlier power is to be merged in the more
+      gratifying system,of deportation and the guillotine. Being now <i>hors de
+      combat</i> myself, I resign to others these cares. A long attack of
+      rheumatism has greatly enfeebled me, and warns me, that they will not very
+      long be within my ken. But you may have to meet the trial, and in the
+      focus of its fury. God send you a safe deliverance, a happy issue out of
+      all afflictions, personal and public, with long life, long health, and
+      friends as sincerely attached, as yours affectionately,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0098" id="link2H_4_0098">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCVIII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society, that I
+      can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I have leisure, as I
+      have every where the disposition, to think of my friends. I recur,
+      therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating to Mr. Adams and
+      myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I communicated
+      to you the correspondence which had parted Mrs. Adams and myself, in proof
+      that I could not give friendship in exchange for such sentiments as she
+      had recently taken up towards myself, and avowed and maintained in her
+      letters to me. Nothing but a total renunciation of these could admit a
+      reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in proportion as the return
+      to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In these jaundiced sentiments of
+      hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing the weight which her opinions had
+      with him, and notwithstanding she declared in her letters that they were
+      not communicated to him. A late incident has satisfied me that I wronged
+      him as well as her in not yielding entire confidence to this assurance on
+      her part. Two of the Mr. &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, my neighbors and friends,
+      took a tour to the northward during the last summer. In Boston they fell
+      into company with Mr. Adams, and by his invitation passed a day with him
+      at Braintree. He spoke out to them every thing which came uppermost, and
+      as it occurred to his mind, without any reserve, and seemed most disposed
+      to dwell on those things which happened during his own administration. He
+      spoke of his masters, as he called his Heads of departments, as acting
+      above his control, and often against his opinions. Among many other
+      topics, he adverted to the unprincipled licentiousness of the press
+      against myself, adding, &lsquo;I always loved Jefferson, and still love him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive towards him
+      all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives. Changing a
+      single word only in Dr. Franklin&rsquo;s character of him, I knew him to be
+      always an honest man, often a great one, but sometimes incorrect and
+      precipitate in his judgments: and it is known to those who have ever heard
+      me speak of Mr. Adams, that I have ever done him justice myself, and
+      defended him when assailed by others, with the single exception as to his
+      political opinions. But with a man possessing so many other estimable
+      qualities, why should we be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion
+      in politics, in religion, in philosophy, or any thing else. His opinions
+      are as honestly formed as my own. Our different views of the same subject
+      are the result of a difference in our organization and experience. I never
+      withdrew from the society of any man on this account, although many have
+      done it from me; much less should I do it from one with whom I had gone
+      through, with hand and heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore,
+      but for an apposite occasion to express to Mr. Adams my unchanged
+      affections for him. There is an awkwardness which hangs over the resuming
+      a correspondence so long discontinued, unless something could arise which
+      should call for a letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an
+      occasion, of which I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail myself.
+      From this fusion of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated.
+      It will only be necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr.
+      Adams, you can, perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and
+      knowing this, should an occasion of writing first present itself to him,
+      he will perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first
+      occur to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly give
+      fair play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way
+      in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
+      greatest intimacy with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were so
+      kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary affections,
+      which have ceased in expression only, but not in their existence. God ever
+      bless you, and preserve you in life and health.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0099" id="link2H_4_0099">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER XCIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 21, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 21, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you beforehand (for they are not yet arrived) for the specimens of
+      homespun you have been so kind as to forward me by post. I doubt not their
+      excellence, knowing how far you are advanced in these things in your
+      quarter. Here we do little in the fine way, but in coarse and middling
+      goods a great deal. Every family in the country is a manufactory within
+      itself, and is very generally able to make within itself all the stouter
+      and middling stuffs for its own clothing and household use. We consider a
+      sheep for every person in the family as sufficient to clothe it, in
+      addition to the cotton, hemp, and flax, which we raise ourselves. For fine
+      stuff we shall depend on your northern manufactories. Of these, that is to
+      say, of company establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The
+      spinning jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a
+      family; but nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness
+      resulting from our household manufactures are such that they will never
+      again be laid aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened
+      than the British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures.
+      Restore free intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will have
+      totally changed its form, and the articles we shall in future want from
+      them will not exceed their own consumption of our produce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries
+      me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were
+      fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to
+      man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with
+      some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless
+      under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart and
+      hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not expect to be without rubs
+      and difficulties; and we have had them. First the detention of the western
+      posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce with France,
+      and the British enforcement of the outlawry. In your day, French
+      depredations: in mine, English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees: now, the
+      English orders of council, and the piracies they authorize. When these
+      shall be over, it will be the impressment of our seamen, or something
+      else: and so we have gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and
+      prospering beyond example in the history of man. And I do believe we shall
+      continue to growl, to multiply, and prosper, until we exhibit an
+      association, powerful, wise, and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by
+      men. As for France and England, with all their pre-eminence in science,
+      the one is a den of robbers, and the other of pirates. And if science
+      produces no better fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of
+      national morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest,
+      and estimable, as our neighboring savages are. But whither is senile
+      garrulity leading me? Into politics, of which I have taken final leave. I
+      think little of them, and say less. I have given up newspapers in exchange
+      for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid, and I find myself much
+      the happier. Sometimes, indeed, I look back to former occurrences, in
+      remembrance of our old friends and fellow-laborers, who have fallen before
+      us. Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, I see now living
+      not more than half a dozen on your side of the Potomac, and on this side,
+      myself alone. You and I have been wonderfully spared, and myself with
+      remarkable health, and a considerable activity of body and mind. I am on
+      horseback three or four hours of every day; visit three or four times a
+      year a possession I have ninety miles distant, performing the winter
+      journey on horseback. I walk little, however, a single mile being too much
+      for me; and I live in the midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has
+      lately promoted me to be a great-grandfather. I have heard with pleasure
+      that you also retain good health, and a greater power of exercise in
+      walking than I do. But I would rather have heard this from yourself, and
+      that, writing a letter like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your
+      health, your habits, occupations, and enjoyments, I should have the
+      pleasure of knowing, that in the race of life, you do not keep, in its
+      physical decline, the same distance ahead of me, which you have done in
+      political honors and achievements. No circumstances have lessened the
+      interest I feel in these particulars respecting yourself; none have
+      suspended for one moment my sincere esteem for you, and I now salute you
+      with unchanged affection and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0100" id="link2H_4_0100">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER C.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 20, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 20, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have it now in my power to send you a piece of homespun in return for
+      that I received from you. Not of the fine texture, or delicate character
+      of yours, or, to drop our metaphor, not filled as that was with that
+      display of imagination which constitutes excellence in Belles Lettres, but
+      a mere sober, dry, and formal piece of logic. <i>Ornari res ipsa negat</i>.
+      Yet you may have enough left of your old taste for law reading, to cast an
+      eye over some of the questions it discusses. At any rate, accept it as the
+      offering of esteem and friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You wish to know something of the Richmond and Wabash prophets. Of Nimrod
+      Hews I never before heard. Christopher Macpherson I have known for twenty
+      years. He is a man of color, brought up as a book-keeper by a merchant,
+      his master, and afterwards enfranchised. He had understanding enough to
+      post up his leger from his journal, but not enough to bear up against
+      hypochrondriac affections, and the gloomy forebodings they inspire. He
+      became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and rhapsodizing what
+      neither himself nor any one else could understand. I think he told me he
+      had visited you personally while you were in the administration, and wrote
+      you letters, which you have probably forgotten in the mass of the
+      correspondences of that crazy class, of whose complaints, and terrors, and
+      mysticisms, the several Presidents have been the regular depositories.
+      Macpherson was too honest to be molested by any body, and too inoffensive
+      to be a subject for the mad-house; although, I believe, we are told in the
+      old book, that &lsquo;every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, thou
+      shouldst put him in prison and in the stocks.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wabash prophet is a very different character, more rogue than fool, if
+      to be a rogue is not the greatest of all follies. He arose to notice while
+      I was in the administration, and became, of course, a proper subject of
+      inquiry for me. The inquiry was made with diligence. His declared object
+      was the reformation of his red brethren, and their return to their
+      pristine manner of living. He pretended to be in constant communication
+      with the Great Spirit; that he was instructed by him to make known to the
+      Indians that they were created by him distinct from the whites, of
+      different natures, for different purposes, and placed under different
+      circumstances, adapted to their nature and destinies; that they must
+      return from all the ways of the whites to the habits and opinions of their
+      forefathers; they must not eat the flesh of hogs, of bullocks, of sheep,
+      &amp;c. the deer and buffalo having been created for their food; they must
+      not make bread of wheat, but of Indian corn; they must not wear linen nor
+      woollen, but dress like their fathers in the skins and furs of animals;
+      they must not drink ardent spirits: and I do not remember whether he
+      extended his inhibitions to the gun and gunpowder, in favor of the bow and
+      arrow. I concluded from all this that he was a visionary, enveloped in the
+      clouds of their antiquities, and vainly endeavoring to lead back his
+      brethren to the fancied beatitudes of their golden age. I thought there
+      was little danger of his making many proselytes from the habits and
+      comforts they had learned from the whites, to the hardships and privations
+      of savagism, and no great harm if he did. We let him go on, therefore,
+      unmolested. But his followers increased till the English thought him worth
+      corruption, and found him corruptible. I suppose his views were then
+      changed; but his proceedings in consequence of them were after I left the
+      administration, and are, therefore, unknown to me; nor have I ever been
+      informed what were the particular acts on his part, which produced, an
+      actual commencement of hostilities on ours. I have no doubt, however, that
+      his subsequent proceedings are but a chapter apart, like that of Henry and
+      Lord Liverpool, in the book of the Kings of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this mission of Henry, your son had got wind in the time of the
+      embargo, and communicated it to me. But he had learned nothing of the
+      particular agent, although, of his workings, the information he had
+      obtained appears now to have been correct. He stated a particular which
+      Henry has not distinctly brought forward, which was, that the eastern
+      States were not to be required to make a formal act of separation from the
+      Union, and to take a part in the war against it; a measure deemed much too
+      strong for their people: but to declare themselves in a state of
+      neutrality, in consideration of which they were to have peace and free
+      commerce, the lure most likely to insure popular acquiescence. Having no
+      indications of Henry as the intermediate in this negotiation of the Essex
+      junto, suspicions fell on Pickering, and his nephew Williams in London. If
+      he was wronged in this, the ground of the suspicion is to be found in his
+      known practices and avowed opinions, as that of his accomplices in the
+      sameness of sentiment and of language with Henry, and subsequently by the
+      fluttering of the wounded pigeons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter, with what it encloses, has given you enough, I presume, of
+      law and the prophets. I will only add to it, therefore, the homage of my
+      respects to Mrs. Adams, and to yourself the assurances of affectionate
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0101" id="link2H_4_0101">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CI.&mdash;TO JAMES MAURY, April 25, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MAURY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 25, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear and Ancient Friend and Classmate,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Often has my heart smote me for delaying acknowledgments to you,
+      receiving, as I do, such frequent proofs of your kind recollection in the
+      transmission of papers to me. But instead of acting on the good old maxim
+      of not putting off to to-morrow what we can do to-day, we are too apt to
+      reverse it, and not to do today what we can put off to to-morrow. But this
+      duty can be no longer put off. To-day we are at peace; to-morrow war. The
+      curtain of separation is drawing between us, and probably will not be
+      withdrawn till one, if not both of us, will be at rest with our fathers.
+      Let me now, then, while I may, renew to you the declarations of my warm
+      attachment, which in no period of life has ever been weakened, and seems
+      to become stronger as the remaining objects of our youthful affections are
+      fewer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our two countries are to be at war, but not you and I. And why should our
+      two countries be at war, when by peace we can be so much more useful to
+      one another? Surely the world will acquit our government of having sought
+      it. Never before has there been an instance of a nation&rsquo;s bearing so much
+      as we have borne. Two items alone in our catalogue of wrongs will for ever
+      acquit us of being the aggressors; the impressment of our seamen, and the
+      excluding us from the ocean. The first foundations of the social compact
+      would be broken up, were we definitively to refuse to its members the
+      protection of their persons and property, while in their lawful pursuits.
+      I think the war will not be short, because the object of England, long
+      obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain, and to exact transit duties
+      from every vessel traversing it. This is the sum of her orders of council,
+      which were only a step in this bold experiment, never meant to be
+      retracted if it could be permanently maintained. And this object must
+      continue her in war with all the world. To this I see no termination,
+      until her exaggerated efforts, so much beyond her natural strength and
+      resources, shall have exhausted her to bankruptcy. The approach of this
+      crisis is, I think, visible in the departure of her precious metals, and
+      depreciation of her paper medium. We, who have gone through that
+      operation, know its symptoms, its course, and consequences. In England
+      they will be more serious than elsewhere, because half the wealth of her
+      people is now in that medium, the private revenue of her money-holders, or
+      rather of her paper-holders, being, I believe, greater than that of her
+      land-holders. Such a proportion of property, imaginary and baseless as it
+      is, cannot be reduced to vapor, but with great explosion. She will rise
+      out of its ruins, however, because her lands, her houses, her arts, will
+      remain, and the greater part of her men. And these will give her again
+      that place among nations which is proportioned to her natural means, and
+      which we all wish her to hold. We believe that the just standing of all
+      nations is the health and security of all. We consider the overwhelming
+      power of England on the ocean, and of France on the land, as destructive
+      of the prosperity and happiness of the world, and wish both to be reduced
+      only to the necessity of observing moral duties. We believe no more in
+      Bonaparte&rsquo;s fighting merely for the liberty of the seas, than in Great
+      Britain&rsquo;s fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object of both is the
+      same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth, and the resources of
+      other nations. We resist the enterprises of England first, because they
+      first come vitally home to us. And our feelings repel the logic of bearing
+      the lash of George the III. for fear of that of Bonaparte at some future
+      day. When the wrongs of France shall reach us with equal effect, we shall
+      resist them also. But one at a time is enough: and having offered a choice
+      to the champions, England first takes up the gauntlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English newspapers suppose me the personal enemy of their nation. I am
+      not so. I am an enemy to its injuries, as I am to those of France. If I
+      could permit myself to have national partialities, and if the conduct of
+      England would have permitted them to be directed towards her, they would
+      have been so. I thought that, in the administration of Mr. Addington, I
+      discovered some dispositions towards justice, and even friendship and
+      respect for us, and began to pave the way for cherishing these
+      dispositions, and improving them into ties of mutual good will. But we had
+      then a federal minister there, whose dispositions to believe himself, and
+      to inspire others with a belief, in our sincerity, his subsequent conduct
+      has brought into doubt; and poor Merry, the English minister here, had
+      learned nothing of diplomacy but its suspicions, without head enough to
+      distinguish when they were misplaced. Mr. Addington and Mr. Fox passed
+      away too soon to avail the two countries of their dispositions. Had I been
+      personally hostile to England, and biassed in favor of either the
+      character or views of her great antagonist, the affair of the Chesapeake
+      put war into my hand. I had only to open it, and let havoc loose. But if
+      ever I was gratified with the possession of power, and of the confidence
+      of those who had entrusted me with it, it was on that occasion, when I was
+      enabled to use both for the prevention of war, towards which the torrent
+      of passion here was directed almost irresistibly, and when not another
+      person in the United States, less supported by authority and favor, could
+      have resisted it. And now that a definitive adherence to her impressments
+      and orders of council renders war no longer avoidable, my earnest prayer
+      is, that our government may enter into no compact of common cause with the
+      other belligerent, but keep us free to make a separate peace, whenever
+      England will separately give us peace, and future security. But Lord
+      Liverpool is our witness, that this can never be but by her removal from
+      our neighborhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, for a moment, taken a range into the field of politics, to
+      possess you with the view we take of things here. But in the scenes which
+      are to ensue, I am to be but a spectator. I have withdrawn myself from all
+      political intermeddlings, to indulge the evening of my life with what have
+      been the passions of every portion of it, books, science, my farms, my
+      family, and friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these every hour of the day is now devoted. I retain a good activity of
+      mind, not quite as much of body, but uninterrupted health. Still the hand
+      of age is upon me. All my old friends are nearly gone. Of those in my
+      neighborhood, Mr. Divers and Mr. Lindsay alone remain. If you could make
+      it a <i>partie quarrée</i>, it would be a comfort indeed. We would beguile
+      our lingering hours with talking over our youthful exploits, our hunts on
+      Peter&rsquo;s Mountain, with a long train of <i>et cetera</i> in addition, and
+      feel, by recollection at least, a momentary flash of youth. Reviewing the
+      course of a long and sufficiently successful life, I find in no portion of
+      it happier moments than those were. I think the old hulk in which you are,
+      is near her wreck, and that like a prudent rat, you should escape in time.
+      However, here, there, and every where, in peace or in war, you will have
+      my sincere affections, and prayers for your life, health, and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0102" id="link2H_4_0102">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CII.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, May 30, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 30, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another communication is enclosed, and the letter of the applicant is the
+      only information I have of his qualifications. I barely remember such a
+      person as the secretary of Mr. Adams, and messenger to the Senate while I
+      was of that body. It enlarges the sphere of choice by adding to it a
+      strong federalist. The triangular war must be the idea of the Anglomen and
+      malcontents; in other words, the federalists and quids. Yet it would
+      reconcile neither. It would only change the topic of abuse with the
+      former, and not cure the mental disease of the latter. It would prevent
+      our eastern capitalists and seamen from employment in privateering, take
+      away the only chance of conciliating them, and keep them at home, idle, to
+      swell the discontents; it would completely disarm us of the most powerful
+      weapon we can employ against Great Britain, by shutting every port to our
+      prizes, and yet would not add a single vessel to their number; it would
+      shut every market to our agricultural productions, and engender impatience
+      and discontent with that class which, in fact, composes the nation; it
+      would insulate us in general negotiations for peace, making all the
+      parties our opposers, and very indifferent about peace with us, if they
+      have it with the rest of the world; and would exhibit a solecism worthy of
+      Don Quixotte only, that of a choice to fight two enemies at a time, rather
+      than to take them by succession. And the only motive for all this is a
+      sublimated impartiality, at which the world will laugh, and our own people
+      will turn upon us in mass as soon as it is explained to them, as it will
+      be by the very persons who are now laying that snare. These are the hasty
+      views of one who rarely thinks on these subjects. Your own will be better,
+      and I pray to them every success, and to yourself every felicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0103" id="link2H_4_0103">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIII.&mdash;TO ELBRIDGE GERRY, June 11, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 11, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has given me great pleasure to receive a letter from you. It seems as
+      if, our ancient friends dying off, the whole mass of the affections of the
+      heart survives undiminished to the few who remain. I think our
+      acquaintance commenced in 1764, both then just of age. We happened to take
+      lodgings in the same house in New York. Our next meeting was in the
+      Congress of 1775, and at various times afterwards in the exercise of that
+      and other public functions, until your mission to Europe. Since we have
+      ceased to meet, we have still thought and acted together, &lsquo;<i>et idem
+      velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum amicitia est</i>.&rsquo; Of this harmony of
+      principle, the papers you enclosed me are proof sufficient. I do not
+      condole with you on your release from your government. The vote of your
+      opponents is the most honorable mark by which the soundness of your
+      conduct could be stamped. I claim the same honorable testimonial. There
+      was but a single act of my whole administration of which that party
+      approved. That was the proclamation on the attack of the Chesapeake. And
+      when I found they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to apprehend
+      I had done wrong, and to exclaim with the Psalmist, &lsquo;Lord, what have I
+      done, that the wicked should praise me!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What, then, does this English faction with you mean? Their newspapers say
+      rebellion, and that they will not remain united with us unless we will
+      permit them to govern the majority. If this be their purpose, their
+      anti-republican spirit, it ought to be met at once. But a government like
+      ours should be slow in believing this, should put forth its whole might
+      when necessary to suppress it, and promptly return to the paths of
+      reconciliation. The extent of our country secures it, I hope, from the
+      vindictive passions of the petty incorporations of Greece. I rather
+      suspect that the principal office of the other seventeen States will be to
+      moderate and restrain the local excitement of our friends with you, when
+      they (with the aid of their brethren of the other States, if they need it)
+      shall have brought the rebellious to their feet. They count on British
+      aid. But what can that avail them by land? They would separate from their
+      friends, who alone furnish employment for their navigation, to unite with
+      their only rival for that employment. When interdicted the harbors of
+      their quondam brethren, they will go, I suppose, to ask a share in the
+      carrying-trade of their rivals, and a dispensation with their navigation
+      act. They think they will be happier in an association under the rulers of
+      Ireland, the East and West Indies, than in an independent government,
+      where they are obliged to put up with their proportional share only in the
+      direction of its affairs. But I trust that such perverseness will not be
+      that of the honest and well meaning mass of the federalists of
+      Massachusetts; and that when the questions of separation and rebellion
+      shall be nakedly proposed to them, the Gores and the Pickerings will find
+      their levees crowded with silk-stocking gentry, but no yeomanry; an army
+      of officers without soldiers. I hope, then, all will still end well: the
+      Anglomen will consent to make peace with their bread and butter, and you
+      and I shall sink to rest, without having been actors or spectators in
+      another civil war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count; but I
+      you in that of our grand-children. We have not timed these things well
+      together, or we might have begun a re-alliance between Massachusetts and
+      the Old Dominion, faithful companions in the war of Independence,
+      peculiarly tallied in interests, by each wanting exactly what the other
+      has to spare; and estranged to each other, in latter times, only by the
+      practices of a third nation, the common enemy of both. Let us live only to
+      see this re-union, and I will say with old Simeon, &lsquo;Lord, now lettest thou
+      thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.&rsquo; In
+      that peace may you long remain, my friend, and depart only in the fulness
+      of years, all passed in health and prosperity. God bless you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P.S. June 13. I did not condole with you on the reprobation of your
+      opponents, because it proved your orthodoxy. Yesterday&rsquo;s post brought me
+      the resolution of the republicans of Congress, to propose you as
+      Vice-President. On this I sincerely congratulate you. It is a stamp of
+      double proof. It is a notification to the factionaries that their nay is
+      the yea of truth, and its best test. We shall be almost within striking
+      distance of each other. Who knows but you may fill up some short recess of
+      Congress with a visit to Monticello, where a numerous family will hail you
+      with a hearty country welcome. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0104" id="link2H_4_0104">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIV.&mdash;TO JUDGE TYLER, June 17,1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE TYLER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 17,1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      On the other subject of your letter, the application of the common law to
+      our present situation, I deride with you the ordinary doctrine, that we
+      brought with us from England the common law rights. This narrow notion was
+      a favorite in the first moment of rallying to our rights against Great
+      Britain. But it was that of men who felt their rights before they had
+      thought of their explanation. The truth is, that we brought with us the
+      rights of men; of expatriated men. On our arrival here, the question would
+      at once arise, by what law will we govern ourselves? The resolution seems
+      to have been, by that system with which we are familiar, to be altered by
+      ourselves occasionally, and adapted to our new situation. The proofs of
+      this resolution are to be found in the form of the oaths of the judges, 1
+      Hening&rsquo;s Stat. 169, 187; of the Governor, ib. 504; in the act for a
+      provisional government, ib. 372; in the preamble to the laws of 1661-2;
+      the uniform current of opinions and decisions; and in the general
+      recognition of all our statutes framed on that basis. But the state of the
+      English law at the date of our emigration, constituted the system adopted
+      here. We may doubt, therefore, the propriety of quoting in our courts
+      English authorities subsequent to that adoption; still more, the admission
+      of authorities posterior to the Declaration of Independence, or rather to
+      the accession of that King, whose reign, <i>ab initio</i>, was that very
+      tissue of wrongs which rendered the Declaration at length necessary. The
+      reason for it had inception at least as far back as the commencement of
+      his reign. This relation to the beginning of his reign, would add the
+      advantage of getting us rid of all Mansfield&rsquo;s innovations, or
+      civilizations of the common law. For however I admit the superiority of
+      the civil, over the common law code, as a system of perfect justice, yet
+      an incorporation of the two would be like Nebuchadnezzar&rsquo;s image of metals
+      and clay, a thing without cohesion of parts. The only natural improvement
+      of the common law, is through its homogeneous ally, the chancery, in which
+      new principles are to be examined, concocted, and digested. But when, by
+      repeated decisions and modifications, they are rendered pure and certain,
+      they should be transferred by statute to the courts of common law, and
+      placed within the pale of juries. The exclusion from the courts of the
+      malign influence of all authorities after the <i>Georgium sidus</i> became
+      ascendant, would uncanonize Blackstone, whose book, although the most
+      elegant and best digested of our law catalogue, has been perverted more
+      than all others to the degeneracy of legal science. A student finds there
+      a smattering of every thing, and his indolence easily persuades him, that
+      if he understands that book, he is master of the whole body of the law.
+      The distinction between these and those who have drawn their stores from
+      the deep and rich mines of Coke&rsquo;s Littleton, seems well understood even by
+      the unlettered common people, who apply the appellation of
+      Blackstone-lawyers to these ephemeral insects of the law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and so much
+      of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a question of
+      transcendant difficulty. It was discussed at the first meeting of the
+      committee of the revised code, in 1776, and decided in the negative, by
+      the opinions of Wythe, Mason, and myself, against Pendleton and Thomas
+      Lee. Pendleton proposed to take Blackstone for that text, only purging him
+      of what was inapplicable, or unsuitable to us. In that case, the meaning
+      of every word of Blackstone would have become a source of litigation,
+      until it had been settled by repeated legal decisions. And to come at that
+      meaning, we should have had produced, on all occasions, that very pile of
+      authorities from which it would be said he drew his conclusion, and which,
+      of course, would explain it, and the terms in which it is couched. Thus we
+      should have retained the same chaos of law-lore from which we wished to be
+      emancipated, added to the evils of the uncertainty which a new text and
+      new phrases would have generated. An example of this may be found in the
+      old statutes, and commentaries on them, in Coke&rsquo;s second institute; but
+      more remarkably, in the institute of Justinian, and the vast masses,
+      explanatory or supplementary of that, which fill the libraries of the
+      civilians. We were deterred from the attempt by these considerations,
+      added to which, the bustle of the times did not permit leisure for such an
+      undertaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your request of my opinion on this subject has given you the trouble of
+      these observations. If your firmer mind in encountering difficulties,
+      would have added your vote to the minority of the committee, you would
+      have had on your side one of the greatest men of our age, and, like him,
+      have detracted nothing from the sentiments of esteem and respect which I
+      bore to him, and tender with sincerity the assurance of to yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0105" id="link2H_4_0105">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CV.&mdash;TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE, October 1, 1812
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO COLONEL WILLIAM DUANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 1, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of September the 20th has been duly received, and I cannot but
+      be gratified by the assurance it expresses, that my aid in the councils of
+      our government would increase the public confidence in them; because it
+      admits an inference that they have approved of the course pursued, when I
+      heretofore bore a part in those councils. I profess, too, so much of the
+      Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the general of yesterday to
+      act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be useful to his country;
+      holding that to be false pride, which postpones the public good to any
+      private or personal considerations. But I am past service. The hand of age
+      is upon me. The decay of bodily faculties apprizes me that those of the
+      mind cannot be unimpaired, had I not still better proofs. Every year
+      counts by increased debility, and departing faculties keep the score. The
+      last year it was the sight, this it is the hearing, the next something
+      else will be going, until all is gone. Of all this I was sensible before I
+      left Washington, and probably my fellow-laborers saw it before I did. The
+      decay of memory was obvious: it is now become distressing. But the mind,
+      too, is weakened. When I was young, mathematics was the passion of my
+      life. The same passion has returned upon me, but with unequal powers.
+      Processes which I then read off with the facility of common discourse, now
+      cost me labor, and time, and slow investigation. When I offered this,
+      therefore, as one of the reasons deciding my retirement from office, it
+      was offered in sincerity and a consciousness of its truth. And I think it
+      a great blessing that I retain understanding enough to be sensible how
+      much of it I have lost, and to avoid exposing myself as a spectacle for
+      the pity of my friends; that I have surmounted the difficult point of
+      knowing when to retire. As a compensation for faculties departed, nature
+      gives me good health, and a perfect resignation to the laws of decay which
+      she has prescribed to all the forms and combinations of matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The detestable treason of Hull has, indeed, excited a deep anxiety in all
+      breasts. The depression was in the first moment gloomy and portentous. But
+      it has been succeeded by a revived animation, and a determination to meet
+      the occurrence with increased efforts; and I have so much confidence in
+      the vigorous minds and bodies of our countrymen, as to be fearless as to
+      the final issue. The treachery of Hull, like that of Arnold, cannot be
+      matter of blame on our government. His character, as an officer of skill
+      and bravery, was established on the trials of the last war, and no
+      previous act of his life had led to doubt his fidelity. Whether the Head
+      of the war department is equal to his charge, I am not qualified to
+      decide. I knew him only as a pleasant, gentlemanly man in society; and the
+      indecision of his character rather added to the amenity of his
+      conversation. But when translated from the colloquial circle to the great
+      stage of national concerns, and the direction of the extensive operations
+      of war, whether he has been able to seize at one glance the long line of
+      defenceless border presented by our enemy, the masses of strength which we
+      hold on different points of it, the facility this gave us of attacking
+      him, on the same day, on all his points, from the extremity of the lakes
+      to the neighborhood of Quebec, and the perfect indifference with which
+      this last place, impregnable as it is, might be left in the hands of the
+      enemy to fall of itself; whether, I say, he could see and prepare
+      vigorously for all this, or merely wrapped himself in the cloak of cold
+      defence, I am uninformed. I clearly think with you on the competence of
+      Monroe to embrace great views of action. The decision of his character,
+      his enterprise, firmness, industry, and unceasing vigilance, would, I
+      believe, secure, as I am sure they would merit, the public confidence, and
+      give us all the success which our means can accomplish. If our operations
+      have suffered or languished from any want of energy in the present head
+      which directs them, I have so much confidence in the wisdom and
+      conscientious integrity of Mr. Madison, as to be satisfied, that, however
+      torturing to his feelings, he will fulfil his duty to the public and to
+      his own reputation, by making the necessary change. Perhaps he may be
+      preparing it while we are talking about it: for of all these things I am
+      uninformed. I fear that Hull&rsquo;s surrender has been more than the mere loss
+      of a year to us. Besides bringing on us the whole mass of savage nations,
+      whom fear and not affection had kept in quiet, there is danger that in
+      giving time to an enemy who can send reinforcements of regulars faster
+      than we can raise them, they may strengthen Canada and Halifax beyond the
+      assailment of our lax and divided powers. Perhaps, however, the patriotic
+      efforts from Kentucky and Ohio, by recalling the British force to its
+      upper posts, may yet give time to Dearborn to strike a blow below.
+      Effectual possession of the river from Montreal to the Chaudiere, which is
+      practicable, would give us the upper country at our leisure, and close for
+      ever the scenes of the tomahawk and scalping-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these things are for others to plan and achieve. The only succor from
+      the old, must lie in their prayers. These I offer up with sincere
+      devotion; and in my concern for the great public, I do not overlook my
+      friends, but supplicate for them, as I do for yourself, a long course of
+      freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0106" id="link2H_4_0106">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVI.&mdash;TO MR. MELISH, January 13, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. MELISH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 13, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received duly your favor of December the 15th, and with it the copies of
+      your map and travels, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. The book I
+      have read with extreme satisfaction and information. As to the western
+      States, particularly, it has greatly edified me; for of the actual
+      condition of that interesting portion of our country, I had not an
+      adequate idea. I feel myself now as familiar with it as with the condition
+      of the maritime States. I had no conception that manufactures had made
+      such progress there, and particularly of the number of carding and
+      spinning machines dispersed through the whole country. We are but
+      beginning here to have them in our private families. Small
+      spinning-jennies of from half a dozen to twenty spindles, will soon,
+      however, make their way into the humblest cottages, as well as the richest
+      houses; and nothing is more certain, than that the coarse and middling
+      clothing for our families, will for ever hereafter continue to be made
+      within ourselves. I have hitherto myself depended entirely on foreign
+      manufactures: but I have now thirty-five spindles a going, a hand
+      carding-machine, and looms with the flying shuttle, for the supply of my
+      own farms, which will never be relinquished in my time. The continuance of
+      the war will fix the habit generally, and out of the evils of impressment
+      and of the orders of council, a great blessing for us will grow. I have
+      not formerly been an advocate for great manufactories. I doubted whether
+      our labor, employed in agriculture, and aided by the spontaneous energies
+      of the earth, would not procure us more than we could make ourselves of
+      other necessaries. But other considerations entering into the question,
+      have settled my doubts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The candor with which you have viewed the manners and condition of our
+      citizens, is so unlike the narrow prejudices of the French and English
+      travellers preceding you, who, considering each the manners and habits of
+      their own people as the only orthodox, have viewed every thing differing
+      from that test as boorish and barbarous, that your work will be read here
+      extensively, and operate great good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst this mass of approbation which is given to every other part of the
+      work, there is a single sentiment which I cannot help wishing to bring to
+      what I think the correct one; and, on a point so interesting, I value your
+      opinion too highly not to ambition its concurrence with my own. Stating in
+      volume first, page sixty-third, the principle of difference between the
+      two great political parties here, you conclude it to be, &lsquo;whether the
+      controlling power shall be vested in this or that set of men.&rsquo; That each
+      party endeavors to get into the administration of the government, and to
+      exclude the other from power, is true, and may be stated as a motive of
+      action: but this is only secondary; the primary motive being a real and
+      radical difference of political principle. I sincerely wish our
+      differences were but personally who should govern and that the principles
+      of our constitution were those of both parties. Unfortunately, it is
+      otherwise; and the question of preference between monarchy and
+      republicanism, which has so long divided mankind elsewhere, threatens a
+      permanent division here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among that section of our citizens called federalists, there are three
+      shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders and people who
+      compose it, the leaders consider the English constitution as a model of
+      perfection, some, with a correction of its vices, others, with all its
+      corruptions and abuses. This last was Alexander Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion, which
+      others, as well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that a
+      correction of what are called its vices, would render the English an
+      impracticable government.. This government they wished to have established
+      here, and only accepted and held fast, at first, to the present
+      constitution, as a stepping-stone to the final establishment of their
+      favorite model. This party has therefore always clung to England, as their
+      prototype, and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting this change. A
+      weighty minority, however, of these leaders, considering the voluntary
+      conversion of our government into a monarchy as too distant, if not
+      desperate, wish to break off from our Union its eastern fragment, as
+      being, in truth, the hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a
+      commencement of their favorite government, from whence the other States
+      may gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to the
+      desired point. For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is
+      the last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being of all
+      the most dependant on the others. Not raising bread for the sustenance her
+      own inhabitants, not having a stick of timber for the construction of
+      vessels, her principal occupation, nor an article to export in them, where
+      would she be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and thrown into
+      dependance on England, her direct and natural, but now insidious, rival?
+      At the head of this minority is what is called the Essex Junto of
+      Massachusetts. But the majority of these leaders do not aim at separation.
+      In this they adhere to the known principle of General Hamilton, never,
+      under any views, to break the Union. Anglomany, monarchy, and separation,
+      then, are the principles of the Essex federalists; Anglomany and monarchy,
+      those of the Hamiltonians, and Anglomany alone, that of the portion among
+      the people who call themselves federalists. These last are as good
+      republicans as the brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in
+      the devotion to England and hatred of France, which they have imbibed from
+      their leaders. The moment that these leaders should avowedly propose a
+      separation of the Union, or the establishment of regal government, their
+      popular adherents would quit them to a man, and join the republican
+      standard; and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
+      thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present
+      constitution. They obtained, at its commencement, all the amendments to it
+      they desired. These reconciled them to it perfectly, and if they have any
+      ulterior view, it is only, perhaps, to popularize it further, by
+      shortening the Senatorial term, and devising a process for the
+      responsibility of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment. They
+      esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally detest the
+      governing powers of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This I verily believe, after an intimacy of forty years with the public
+      councils and characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which they
+      are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition for power.
+      An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his
+      fellow-citizens. And considering as the only offices of power those
+      conferred by the people directly, that is to say, the executive and
+      legislative functions of the General and State governments, the common
+      refusal of these, and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient that
+      power is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the primary
+      principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is that on which I have
+      acted; and had it been a mere contest who should be permitted to
+      administer the government according to its genuine republican principles,
+      there has never been a moment of my life, in which I should not have
+      relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends, and
+      books.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You expected to discover the difference of our party principles in General
+      Washington&rsquo;s Valedictory, and my Inaugural Address. Not at all. General
+      Washington did not harbor one principle of federalism. He was neither an
+      Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished the people
+      to have as much self-government as they were competent to exercise
+      themselves. The only point in which he and I ever differed in opinion,
+      was, that I had more confidence than he had in the natural integrity and
+      discretion of the people, and in the safety and extent to which they might
+      trust themselves with a control over their government. He has asseverated
+      to me a thousand times his determination that the existing government
+      should have a fair trial, and that in support of it he would spend the
+      last drop of his blood. He did this the more repeatedly, because he knew
+      General Hamilton&rsquo;s political bias, and my apprehensions from it. It is a
+      mere calumny, therefore, in the monarchists, to associate General
+      Washington with their principles. But that may have happened in this case
+      which has been often seen in ordinary cases, that, by often repeating an
+      untruth, men come to believe it themselves. It is a mere artifice in this
+      party, to bolster themselves up on the revered name of that first of our
+      worthies. If I have dwelt longer on this subject than was necessary, it
+      proves the estimation in which I hold your ultimate opinions, and my
+      desire of placing the subject truly before them. In so doing, I am certain
+      I risk no use of the communication which may draw me into contention
+      before the public. Tranquillity is the <i>summum bonum</i> of a <i>Septagénaire</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to the merits of your work; I consider it as so lively a picture
+      of the real state of our country, that if I can possibly obtain
+      opportunities of conveyance, I propose to send a copy to a friend in
+      France, and another to one in Italy, who, I know, will translate and
+      circulate it as an antidote to the misrepresentations of former
+      travellers. But whatever effect my profession of political faith may have
+      on your general opinion, a part of my object will be obtained, if it
+      satisfies you as to the principles of my own action, and of the high
+      respect and consideration with which I tender you my salutations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0107" id="link2H_4_0107">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVII.&mdash;TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN, May 24, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MADAME LA BARONNE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      United States of America,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May 24, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received with great pleasure, my dear Madam and friend, your letter of
+      November the 10th, from Stockholm, and am sincerely gratified by the
+      occasion it gives me of expressing to you the sentiments of high respect
+      and esteem which I entertain for you. It recalls to my remembrance a happy
+      portion of my life, passed in your native city; then the seat of the most
+      amiable and polished society of the world, and of which yourself and your
+      venerable father were such distinguished members. But of what scenes has
+      it since been the theatre, and with what havoc has it overspread the
+      earth! Robespierre met the fate, and his memory the execration, he so
+      justly merited. The rich were his victims, and perished by thousands. It
+      is by millions that Bonaparte destroys the poor, and he is eulogized and
+      deified by the sycophants&mdash;even of science. These merit more than the
+      mere oblivion to which they will be consigned; and the day will come when
+      a just posterity will give to their hero the only pre-eminence he has
+      earned, that of having been the greatest of the destroyers of the human
+      race. What year of his military life has not consigned a million of human
+      beings to death, to poverty, and wretchedness? What field in Europe may
+      not raise a monument of the murders, the burnings, the desolations, the
+      famines, and miseries, it has witnessed from him! And all this to acquire
+      a reputation, which Cartouche attained with less injury to mankind, of
+      being fearless of God or man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To complete and universalize the desolation of the globe, it has been the
+      will of Providence to raise up, at the same time, a tyrant as unprincipled
+      and as overwhelming, for the ocean. Not in the poor maniac George, but in
+      his government and nation. Bonaparte will die, and his tyrannies with him.
+      But a nation never dies. The English government and its piratical
+      principles and practices, have no fixed term of duration. Europe feels,
+      and is writhing under the scorpion whips of Bonaparte. We are assailed by
+      those of England. The one continent thus placed under the gripe of
+      England, and the other of Bonaparte, each has to grapple with the enemy
+      immediately pressing on itself. We must extinguish the fire kindled in our
+      own house, and leave to our friends beyond the water that which is
+      consuming theirs. It was not till England had taken one thousand of our
+      ships, and impressed into her service more than six thousand of our
+      citizens; till she had declared, by the proclamation of her Prince Regent,
+      that she would not repeal her aggressive orders as to us, until Bonaparte
+      should have repealed his as to all nations; till her minister, in formal
+      conference with ours, declared, that no proposition for protecting our
+      seamen from being impressed, under color of taking their own, was
+      practicable or admissible; that, the door to justice and to all amicable
+      arrangement being closed, and negotiation become both desperate and
+      dishonorable, we concluded that the war she had been for years waging
+      against us, might as well become a war on both sides. She takes fewer
+      vessels from us since the declaration of war than before, because they
+      venture more cautiously; and we now make full reprisals where before we
+      made none. England is, in principle, the enemy of all maritime nations, as
+      Bonaparte is of the continental; and I place in the same line of insult to
+      the human understanding, the pretension of conquering the ocean, to
+      establish continental rights, as that of conquering the continent, to
+      restore maritime rights. No, my dear Madam; the object of England is the
+      permanent dominion of the ocean, and the monopoly of the trade of the
+      world. To secure this, she must keep a larger fleet than her own resources
+      will maintain. The resources of other nations, then, must be impressed to
+      supply the deficiency of her own. This is sufficiently developed and
+      evidenced by her successive strides towards the usurpation of the sea.
+      Mark them, from her first war after William Pitt, the little, came into
+      her administration. She first forbade to neutrals all trade with her
+      enemies in time of war, which they had not in time of peace. This deprived
+      them of their trade from port to port of the same nation. Then she forbade
+      them to trade from the port of one nation to that of any other at war with
+      her, although a right fully exercised in time of peace. Next, instead of
+      taking vessels only entering a blockaded port, she took them over the
+      whole ocean, if destined to that port, although ignorant of the blockade,
+      and without intention to violate it. Then she took them returning from
+      that port, as if infected by previous infraction of blockade. Then came
+      her paper blockades, by which she might shut up the whole world without
+      sending a ship to sea, except to take all those sailing on it, as they
+      must, of course, be bound to some port. And these were followed by her
+      orders of council, forbidding every nation to go to the port of any other,
+      without coming first to some port of Great Britain, there paying a tribute
+      to her, regulated by the cargo, and taking from her a license to proceed
+      to the port of destination; which operation the vessel was to repeat with
+      the return cargo on its way home. According to these orders, we could not
+      send a vessel from St. Mary&rsquo;s to St. Augustine, distant six hour&rsquo;s sail,
+      on our own coast, without crossing the Atlantic four times, twice with the
+      outward cargo, and twice with the inward. She found this too daring and
+      outrageous for a single step, retracted as to certain articles of
+      commerce, but left it in force as to others which constitute important
+      branches of our exports. And finally, that her views may no longer rest on
+      inference, in a recent debate, her minister declared in open parliament,
+      that the object of the present war is a monopoly of commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In some of these atrocities, France kept pace with her fully in
+      speculative wrong, which her impotence only shortened in practical
+      execution. This was called retaliation by both; each charging the other
+      with the initiation of the outrage. As if two combatants might retaliate
+      on an innocent bystander, the blows they received from each other. To make
+      war on both would have been ridiculous. In order, therefore, to single out
+      an enemy, we offered to both, that if either would revoke its hostile
+      decrees, and the other should refuse, we would interdict all intercourse
+      whatever with that other; which would be war of course, as being an avowed
+      departure from neutrality. France accepted the offer, and revoked her
+      decrees as to us. England not only refused, but declared by a solemn
+      proclamation of her Prince Regent, that she would not revoke her orders
+      even as to us, until those of France should be annulled as to the whole
+      world. We thereon declared war, and with abundant additional cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, an examination before parliament of the ruinous effects
+      of these orders on her own manufacturers, exposing them to the nation and
+      to the world, their Prince issued a palinodial proclamation, suspending
+      the orders on certain conditions, but claiming to renew them at pleasure,
+      as a matter of right. Even this might have prevented the war, if done and
+      known here before its declaration. But the sword being once drawn, the
+      expense of arming incurred, and hostilities in full course, it would have
+      been unwise to discontinue them, until effectual provision should be
+      agreed to by England, for protecting our citizens on the high seas from
+      impressment by her naval commanders, through, error, voluntary or
+      involuntary; the fact being notorious, that these officers, entering our
+      ships at sea under pretext of searching for their seamen, (which they have
+      no right to do by the law or usage of nations, which they neither do, nor
+      ever did, as to any other nation but ours, and which no nation ever before
+      pretended to do in any case), entering our ships, I say, under pretext of
+      searching for and taking out their seamen, they took ours, native as well
+      as naturalized, knowing them to be ours, merely because they wanted them;
+      insomuch, that no American could safely cross the ocean, or venture to
+      pass by sea from one to another of our own ports. It is not long since
+      they impressed at sea two nephews of General Washington, returning from
+      Europe, and put them, as common seamen, under the ordinary discipline of
+      their ships of war. There are certainly other wrongs to be settled between
+      England and us; but of a minor character, and such as a proper spirit of
+      conciliation on both sides would not permit to continue them at war. The
+      sword, however, can never again be sheathed, until the personal safety of
+      an American on the ocean, among the most important and most vital of the
+      rights we possess, is completely provided for.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as we heard of her partial repeal of her orders of council, we
+      offered instantly to suspend hostilities by an armistice, if she would
+      suspend her impressments, and meet us in arrangements for securing our
+      citizens against them. She refused to do it, because impracticable by any
+      arrangement, as she pretends; but, in truth, because a body of sixty to
+      eighty thousand of the finest seamen in the world, which we possess, is
+      too great a resource for manning her exaggerated navy, to be relinquished,
+      as long as she can keep it open. Peace is in her hand, whenever she will
+      renounce the practice of aggression on the persons of our citizens. If she
+      thinks it worth eternal war, eternal war we must have. She alleges that
+      the sameness of language, of manners, of appearance, renders it impossible
+      to distinguish us from her subjects. But because we speak English, and
+      look like them, are we to be punished? Are free and independent men to be
+      submitted to their bondage?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      England has misrepresented to all Europe this ground of the war. She has
+      called it a new pretension, set up since the repeal of her orders of
+      council. She knows there has never been a moment of suspension of our
+      reclamations against it, from General Washington&rsquo;s time inclusive, to the
+      present day: and that it is distinctly stated in our declaration of war,
+      as one of its principal causes. She has pretended we have entered into the
+      war, to establish the principle of &lsquo;free bottoms, free goods,&rsquo; or to
+      protect her seamen against her own right over them. We contend for neither
+      of these. She pretends we are partial to France; that we have observed a
+      fraudulent and unfaithful neutrality between her and her enemy. She knows
+      this to be false, and that if there has been any inequality in our
+      proceedings towards the belligerents, it has been in her favor. Her
+      ministers are in possession of full proofs of this. Our accepting at once,
+      and sincerely, the mediation of the virtuous Alexander, their greatest
+      friend, and the most aggravated enemy of Bonaparte, sufficiently proves
+      whether we have partialities on the side of her enemy. I sincerely pray
+      that this mediation may produce a just peace. It will prove that the
+      immortal character, which has first stopped by war the career of the
+      destroyer of mankind, is the friend of peace, of justice, of human
+      happiness, and the patron of unoffending and injured nations. He is too
+      honest and impartial to countenance propositions of peace derogatory to
+      the freedom of the seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shall I apologize to you, my dear Madam, for this long political letter?
+      But yours justifies the subject, and my feelings must plead for the
+      unreserved expression of them; and they have been the less reserved, as
+      being from a private citizen, retired from all connection with the
+      government of his country, and whose ideas, expressed without
+      communication with any one, are neither known, nor imputable to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dangers of the sea are now so great, and the possibilities of
+      interception by sea and land such, that I shall subscribe no name to this
+      letter. You will know from whom it comes, by its reference to the date of
+      time and place of yours, as well as by its subject in answer to that. This
+      omission must not lessen in your view the assurances of my great esteem,
+      of my sincere sympathies for the share which you bear in the afflictions
+      of your country, and the deprivations to which a lawless will has
+      subjected you. In return, you enjoy the dignified satisfaction of having
+      met them, rather than be yoked, with the abject, to his car; and that, in
+      withdrawing from oppression, you have followed the virtuous example of a
+      father, whose name will ever be dear to your country and to mankind. With
+      my prayers that you may be restored to it, that you may see it
+      re-established in that temperate portion of liberty which does not infer
+      either anarchy or licentiousness, in that high degree of prosperity which
+      would be the consequence of such a government, in that, in short, which
+      the constitution of 1789 would have insured it, if wisdom could have
+      stayed at that point the fervid but imprudent zeal of men, who did not
+      know the character of their own countrymen, and that you may long live in
+      health and happiness under it, and leave to the world a well educated and
+      virtuous representative and descendant of your honored father, is the
+      ardent prayer of the sincere and respectful friend who writes this letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0108" id="link2H_4_0108">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 27, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 27, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another of our friends of seventy-six is gone, my Dear Sir, another of the
+      co-signers of the Independence of our country. And a better man than Rush
+      could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or
+      more honest. We too must go; and that ere long. I believe we are under
+      half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the Declaration. Yourself,
+      Gerry, Carroll, and myself, are all I know to be living. I am the only one
+      south of the Potomac. Is Robert Treat Paine, or Floyd living? It is long
+      since I heard of them, and yet I do not recollect to have heard of their
+      deaths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreton&rsquo;s deduction of the origin of our Indians from the fugitive
+      Trojans, stated in your letter of January the 26th, and his manner of
+      accounting for the sprinkling of their Latin with Greeks is really
+      amusing. Adair makes them talk Hebrew. Reinold Foster derives them from
+      the soldiers sent by Kouli Khan to conquer Japan. Brerewood, from the
+      Tartars, as well as our bears, wolves, foxes, &amp;c. which, he says,
+      &lsquo;must of necessity fetch their beginning from Noah&rsquo;s ark, which rested
+      after the deluge, in Asia, seeing they could not proceed by the course of
+      nature, as the imperfect sort of living creatures do, from putrefaction.&rsquo;
+      Bernard Romans is of opinion that God created an original man and woman in
+      this part of the globe. Doctor Barton thinks they are not specifically
+      different from the Persians; but, taking afterwards a broader range, he
+      thinks, &lsquo;that in all the vast countries of America, there is but one
+      language, nay, that it may be proven, or rendered highly probable, that
+      all the languages of the earth bear some affinity together.&rsquo; This reduces
+      it to a question of definition, in which every one is free to use his own:
+      to wit, What constitutes identity, or difference in two things, in the
+      common acceptation of sameness? All languages may be called the same, as
+      being all made up of the same primitive sounds, expressed by the letters
+      of the different alphabets. But, in this sense, all things on earth are
+      the same, as consisting of matter. This gives up the useful distribution
+      into genera and species, which we form, arbitrarily indeed, for the relief
+      of our imperfect memories. To aid the question, from whence our Indian
+      tribes descended, some have gone into their religion, their morals, their
+      manners, customs, habits, and physical forms. By such helps it may be
+      learnedly proved, that our trees and plants of every kind are descended
+      from those of Europe; because, like them, they have no locomotion, they
+      draw nourishment from the earth, they clothe themselves with leaves in
+      spring, of which they divest themselves in autumn for the sleep of winter,
+      he. Our animals too must be descended from those of Europe, because our
+      wolves eat lambs, our deer are gregarious, our ants hoard, &amp;c. But
+      when, for convenience, we distribute languages, according to common
+      understanding, into classes originally different, as we choose to consider
+      them, as the Hebrew, the Greek, the Celtic, the Gothic; and these again
+      into genera, or families, as the Icelandic, German, Swedish, Danish,
+      English; and these last into species, or dialects, as English, Scotch,
+      Irish, we then ascribe other meanings to the terms, &lsquo;same&rsquo; and
+      &lsquo;different.&rsquo; In some one of these senses, Barton, and Adair, and Foster,
+      and Brerewood, and Moreton, may be right, every one according to his own
+      definition of what constitutes &lsquo;identity.&rsquo; Romans, indeed, takes a higher
+      stand, and supposes a separate creation. On the same unscriptural ground,
+      he had but to mount one step higher, to suppose no creation at all, but
+      that all things have existed without beginning in time, as they now exist,
+      and may for ever exist, producing and reproducing in a circle, without
+      end. This would very summarily dispose of Mr. Moreton&rsquo;s learning, and show
+      that the question of Indian origin, like many others, pushed to a certain
+      height, must receive the same answer, &lsquo;Ignoro.&rsquo; You ask if the usage of
+      hunting in circles has ever been known among any of our tribes of Indians?
+      It has been practised by them all; and is to this day, by those still
+      remote from the settlements of the whites. But their numbers not enabling
+      them, like Genghis Khan&rsquo;s seven hundred thousand, to form themselves into
+      circles of one hundred miles diameter, they make their circle by firing
+      the leaves fallen on the ground, which gradually forcing the animals to a
+      centre, they there slaughter them with arrows, darts, and other missiles.
+      This is called fire-hunting, and has been practised in this State within
+      my time, by the white inhabitants. This is the most probable cause of the
+      origin and extension of the vast prairies in the western country, where
+      the grass having been of extraordinary luxuriance, has made a
+      conflagration sufficient to kill even the old as well as the young timber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sincerely congratulate you on the successes of our little navy; which
+      must be more gratifying to you than to most men, as having been the early
+      and constant advocate of wooden walls. If I have differed with you on this
+      ground, it was not on the principle, but the time; supposing that we
+      cannot build or maintain a navy, which will not immediately fall into the
+      same gulph which has swallowed not only the minor navies, but even those
+      of the great second-rate powers of the sea. Whenever these can be
+      resuscitated, and brought so near to a balance with England that we can
+      turn the scale, then is my epoch for aiming at a navy. In the mean time,
+      one competent to keep the Barbary States in order is necessary; these
+      being the only smaller powers disposed to quarrel with us. But I respect
+      too much the weighty opinions of others to be unyielding on this point,
+      and acquiesce with the prayer, &lsquo;<i>quod felix faustumque sit</i>&rsquo;; adding
+      ever a sincere one for your health and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0109" id="link2H_4_0109">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 15, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 15, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you a letter on the 27th of May, which probably would reach you
+      about the 3rd instant, and on the 9th I received yours of the 29th of May.
+      Of Lindsay&rsquo;s Memoirs I had never before heard, and scarcely indeed of
+      himself. It could not, therefore, but be unexpected, that two letters of
+      mine should have any thing to do with his life. The name of his editor was
+      new to me, and certainly presents itself for the first time under
+      unfavorable circumstances. Religion, I suppose, is the scope of his book;
+      and that a writer on that subject should usher himself to the world in the
+      very act of the grossest abuse of confidence, by publishing private
+      letters which passed between two friends, with no views to their ever
+      being made public, is an instance of inconsistency as well as of
+      infidelity, of which I would rather be the victim than the author.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By your kind quotation of the dates of my two letters, I have been enabled
+      to turn to them. They had completely vanished from my memory. The last is
+      on the subject of religion, and by its publication will gratify the
+      priesthood with new occasion of repeating their comminations against me.
+      They wish it to be believed, that he can have no religion who advocates
+      its freedom. This was not the doctrine of Priestley; and I honored him for
+      the example of liberality he set to his order. The first letter is
+      political. It recalls to our recollection the gloomy transactions of the
+      times, the doctrines they witnessed, and the sensibilities they excited.
+      It was a confidential communication of reflections on these from one
+      friend to another, deposited in his bosom, and never meant to trouble the
+      public mind. Whether the character of the times is justly portrayed or
+      not, posterity will decide. But on one feature of them, they can never
+      decide, the sensations excited in free yet firm minds by the terrorism of
+      the day. None can conceive who did not witness them, and they were felt by
+      one party only. This letter exhibits their side of the medal. The
+      federalists, no doubt, have presented the other, in their private
+      correspondences, as well as open action. If these correspondences should
+      ever be laid open to the public eye, they will probably be found not
+      models of comity towards their adversaries. The readers of my letter
+      should be cautioned not to confine its view to this country alone. England
+      and its alarmists were equally under consideration. Still less must they
+      consider it as looking personally towards you. You happen, indeed, to be
+      quoted, because you happened to express more pithily than had been done by
+      themselves, one of the mottos of the party. This was in your answer to the
+      address of the young men of Philadelphia. [See Selection of Patriotic
+      Addresses, page 198.] One of the questions, you know, on which our parties
+      took different sides, was on the improvability of the human mind, in
+      science, in ethics, in government, &amp;c. Those who advocated reformation
+      of institutions, <i>pari passu</i> with the progress of science,
+      maintained that no definite limits could be assigned to that progress. The
+      enemies of reform, on the other hand, denied improvement, and advocated
+      steady adherence to the principles, practices, and institutions of our
+      fathers, which they represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of
+      excellence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. Although in
+      the passage of your answer alluded to, you expressly disclaim the wish to
+      influence the freedom of inquiry, you predict that that will produce
+      nothing more worthy of transmission to posterity than the principles,
+      institutions, and systems of education received from their ancestors. I do
+      not consider this as your deliberate opinion. You possess yourself too
+      much science, not to see how much is still ahead of you, unexplained and
+      unexplored. Your own consciousness must place you as far before our
+      ancestors, as in the rear of our posterity. I consider it as an expression
+      lent to the prejudices of your friends; and although I happened to cite it
+      from you, the whole letter shows I had them only in view. In truth, my
+      dear Sir, we were far from considering you as the author of all the
+      measures we blamed. They were placed under the protection of your name,
+      but we were satisfied they wanted much of your approbation. We ascribed
+      them to their real authors, the Pickerings, the Wolcotts, the Tracys, the
+      Sedgwicks, <i>et id genus omne</i>, with whom we supposed you in a state
+      of <i>duresse</i>. I well remember a conversation with you in the morning
+      of the day on which you nominated to the Senate a substitute for
+      Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience under &lsquo;the legacy of
+      Secretaries which General Washington had left you,&rsquo; and whom you seemed,
+      therefore, to consider as under public protection. Many other incidents
+      showed how differently you would have acted with less impassioned
+      advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your minds were not
+      together. You would do me great injustice, therefore, by taking to
+      yourself what was intended for men who were then your secret, as they are
+      now your open enemies. Should you write on the subject, as you propose, I
+      am sure we shall see you place yourself farther from them than from us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to myself, I shall take no part in any discussions. I leave others to
+      judge of what I have done, and to give me exactly that place which they
+      shall think I have occupied. Marshall has written libels on one side;
+      others, I suppose, will be written on the other side; and the world will
+      sift both, and separate the truth as well as they can. I should see with
+      reluctance the passions of that day rekindled in this, while so many of
+      the actors are living, and all are too near the scene not to participate
+      in sympathies with them. About facts you and I cannot differ; because
+      truth is our mutual guide. And if any opinions you may express should be
+      different from mine, I shall receive them with the liberality and
+      indulgence which I ask for my own, and still cherish with warmth the
+      sentiments of affectionate respect of which I can with so much truth
+      tender you the assurance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0110" id="link2H_4_0110">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CX.&mdash;TO JOHN W. EPPES, June 24, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 24, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will be on politics only. For although I do not often permit
+      myself to think on that subject, it sometimes obtrudes itself, and
+      suggests ideas which I am tempted to pursue. Some of these, relating to
+      the business of finance, I will hazard to you, as being at the head of
+      that committee, but intended for yourself individually, or such as you
+      trust, but certainly not for a mixed committee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a wise rule, and should be fundamental in a government disposed to
+      cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within
+      the limits of its faculties, &lsquo;never to borrow a dollar without laying a
+      tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the
+      principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the
+      creditors on the public faith.&rsquo; On such a pledge as this, sacredly
+      observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all
+      the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent
+      tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against
+      oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution. But
+      the term of redemption must be moderate, and, at any rate, within the
+      limits of their rightful powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does
+      this prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a
+      perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the
+      living, not to the dead. The will and the power of man expire with his
+      life, by nature&rsquo;s law. Some societies give it an artificial continuance,
+      for the encouragement of industry; some refuse it, as our aboriginal
+      neighbors, whom we call barbarians. The generations of men may be
+      considered as bodies or corporations. Each generation has the usufruct of
+      the earth during the period of its continuance. When it ceases to exist,
+      the usufruct passes on to the succeeding generation, free and
+      unincumbered, and so on, successively, from one generation to another for
+      ever. We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right,
+      by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the
+      succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. Or
+      the case may be likened to the ordinary one of a tenant for life, who may
+      hypothecate the land for his debts, during the continuance of his
+      usufruct; but at his death, the reversioner (who is also for life only)
+      receives it exonerated from all burthen. The period of a generation, or
+      the term of its life, is determined by the laws of mortality, which,
+      varying a little only in different climates, offer a general average, to
+      be found by observation. I turn, for instance, to Buffon&rsquo;s tables, of
+      twenty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four deaths, and the ages at
+      which they happened, and I find that of the numbers of all ages living at
+      one moment, half will be dead in twenty-four years and eight months. Bat
+      (leaving out minors, who have not the power of self-government) of the
+      adults (of twenty-one years of age) living at one moment, a majority of
+      whom act for the society, one half will be dead in eighteen years and
+      eight months. At nineteen years then from the date of a contract, the
+      majority of the contractors are dead, and their contract with them. Let
+      this general theory be applied to a particular case. Suppose the annual
+      births of the State of New York to be twenty-three thousand nine hundred
+      and ninety-four: the whole number of its inhabitants, according to Buffon,
+      will be six hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and three, of all
+      ages. Of these there would constantly be two hundred and sixty-nine
+      thousand two hundred and eighty-six minors, and three hundred and
+      forty-eight thousand four hundred and seventeen adults, of which last, one
+      hundred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and nine will be a majority.
+      Suppose that majority, on the first day of the year 1794, had borrowed a
+      sum of money equal to the fee simple value of the State, and to have
+      consumed it in eating, drinking, and making merry in their day; or, if you
+      please, in quarrelling and fighting with their unoffending neighbors.
+      Within eighteen years and eight months, one half of the adult citizens
+      were dead. Till then, being the majority, they might rightfully levy the
+      interest of their debt annually on themselves and their fellow-revellers,
+      or fellow-champions. But at that period, say at this moment, a new
+      majority have come into place, in their own right, and not under the
+      rights, the conditions, or laws of their predecessors. Are they bound to
+      acknowledge the debt, to consider the preceding generation as having had a
+      right to eat up the whole soil of their country in the course of a life,
+      to alienate it from them (for it would be an alienation to the creditors),
+      and would they think themselves either legally or morally bound to give up
+      their country, and emigrate to another for subsistence? Every one will say
+      no: that the soil is the gift of God to the living, as much as it had been
+      to the deceased generation; and that the laws of nature impose no
+      obligation on them to pay this debt. And although, like some other natural
+      rights, this has not yet entered into any declaration of rights, it is no
+      less a law, and ought to be acted on by honest governments. It is, at the
+      same time, a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which,
+      since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the
+      earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burthens ever
+      accumulating. Had this principle been declared in the British bill of
+      rights, England would have been placed under the happy disability of
+      waging eternal war, and of contracting her thousand millions of public
+      debt. In seeking, then, for an ultimate term for the redemption of our
+      debts, let us rally to this principle, and provide for their payment
+      within the term of nineteen years, at the farthest. Our government has
+      not, as yet, begun to act on the rule, of loans and taxation going hand in
+      hand. Had any loan taken place in my time, I should have strongly urged a
+      redeeming tax. For the loan which has been made since the last session of
+      Congress, we should now set the example of appropriating some particular
+      tax, sufficient to pay the interest annually, and the principal within a
+      fixed term, less than nineteen years. And I hope yourself and your
+      committee will render the immortal service of introducing this practice.
+      Not that it is expected that Congress should formally declare such a
+      principle. They wisely enough avoid deciding on abstract questions. But
+      they may be induced to keep themselves within its limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sorry to see our loans begin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet,
+      even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. We are an
+      agricultural nation. Such an one employs its sparings in the purchase or
+      improvement of land or stocks. The lendable money among them is chiefly
+      that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and
+      that which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the purchase in view.
+      In such a nation there is one and one only resource for loans, sufficient
+      to carry them through the expense of a war; and that will always be
+      sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual in the
+      preservation of its faith. The fund I mean, is the mass of circulating
+      coin. Every one knows, that, although not literally, it is nearly true,
+      that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the
+      circulation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments with
+      bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out of
+      circulation. This is equivalent to borrowing that sum, and yet the vendor,
+      receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his purchases or
+      payments, has no claim to interest. And so the nation may continue to
+      issue its bills as far as its wants require, and the limits of the
+      circulation will admit. Those limits are understood to extend with us, at
+      present, to two hundred millions of dollars, a greater sum than would be
+      necessary for any war. But this, the only resource which the government
+      could command with certainty, the States have unfortunately fooled away,
+      nay corruptly alienated to swindlers and shavers, under the cover of
+      private banks. Say, too, as an additional evil, that the disposable funds
+      of individuals, to this great amount, have thus been withdrawn from
+      improvement and useful enterprise, and employed in the useless, usurious,
+      and demoralizing practices of bank directors and their accomplices. In the
+      war of 1755, our State availed itself of this fund by issuing a paper
+      money, bottomed on a specific tax for its redemption, and, to insure its
+      credit, bearing an interest of five per cent. Within a very short time,
+      not a bill of this emission was to be found in circulation. It was locked
+      up in the chests of executors, guardians, widows, farmers, &amp;tc. We
+      then issued bills, bottomed on a redeeming tax, but bearing no interest.
+      These were readily received, and never depreciated a single farthing. In
+      the revolutionary war, the old Congress and the States issued bills
+      without interest, and without tax. They occupied the channels of
+      circulation very freely, till those channels were overflowed by an excess
+      beyond all the calls of circulation. But although we have so improvidently
+      suffered the field of circulating medium to be filched from us by private
+      individuals, yet I think we may recover it in part, and even in the whole,
+      if the States will co-operate with us. If treasury bills are emitted on a
+      tax appropriated for their redemption in fifteen years, and (to insure
+      preference in the first moments of competition) bearing an interest of six
+      per cent., there is no one who would not take them in preference to the
+      bank-paper now afloat, on a principle of patriotism as well as interest:
+      and they would be withdrawn from circulation into private hoards to a
+      considerable amount. Their credit once established, others might be
+      emitted, bottomed also on a tax, but not bearing interest: and if ever
+      their credit faltered, open public loans, on which these bills alone
+      should be received as specie. These, operating as a sinking fund, would
+      reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to maintain that in an
+      equilibrium with specie. It is not easy to estimate the obstacles which,
+      in the beginning, we should encounter in ousting the banks from their
+      possession of the circulation: but a steady and judicious alternation of
+      emissions and loans, would reduce them in time. But while this is going
+      on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our right to
+      the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of
+      issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, <i>in perpetuum</i>, if
+      possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I
+      believe that every State west and south of Connecticut river, except
+      Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up
+      their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters
+      expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper. This they
+      would supply with their own, bottomed, every emission, on an adequate tax,
+      and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the public pulse
+      should indicate. Even in the non-complying States, these bills would make
+      their way, and supplant the unfunded paper of their banks, by their
+      solidity, by the universality of their currency, and by their
+      receivability for customs and taxes. It would be in their power, too, to
+      curtail those banks to the amount of their actual specie, by gathering up
+      their paper, and running it constantly on them. The national paper might
+      thus take place even in the non-complying States. In this way, I am not
+      without a hope, that this great, this sole resource for loans in an
+      agricultural country, might yet be recovered for the use of the nation
+      during war: and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be sufficient
+      to carry us through any war; provided, that, in the interval between war
+      and war, all the outstanding paper should be called in, coin be permitted
+      to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation until another war
+      should require its yielding place again to the national medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it will be asked, are we to have no banks? Are merchants and others to
+      be deprived of the resource of short accommodations, found so convenient?
+      I answer, let us have banks: but let them be such as are alone to be found
+      in any country on earth, except Great Britain. There is not a bank of
+      discount on the continent of Europe (at least there was not one when I was
+      there), which offers any thing but cash in exchange for discounted bills.
+      No one has a natural right to the trade of a money-lender, but he who has
+      the money to lend. Let those then among us, who have a monied capital, and
+      who prefer employing it in loans rather than otherwise, set up banks, and
+      give cash or national bills for the notes they discount. Perhaps, to
+      encourage them, a larger interest than is legal in the other cases might
+      be allowed them, on the condition of their lending for short periods only.
+      It is from Great Britain we copy the idea of giving paper in exchange for
+      discounted bills: and while we have derived from that country some good
+      principles of government and legislation, we unfortunately run into the
+      most servile imitation of all her practices, ruinous as they prove to her,
+      and with the gulph yawning before us into which those very practices are
+      precipitating her. The unlimited emission of bank-paper has banished all
+      her specie, and is now, by a depreciation acknowledged by her own
+      statesmen, carrying her rapidly to bankruptcy, as it did France, as it did
+      us, and will do us again, and every country permitting paper to be
+      circulated, other than that by public authority, rigorously limited to the
+      just measure for circulation. Private fortunes, in the present state of
+      our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money-lenders, and
+      are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice
+      deluges us. He who lent his money to the public or to an individual,
+      before the institution of the United States bank, twenty years ago, when
+      wheat was well sold at a dollar the bushel, and receives now his nominal
+      sum when it sells at two dollars, is cheated of half his fortune: and by
+      whom? By the banks, which, since that, have thrown into circulation ten
+      dollars of their nominal money where there was one at that time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reflect, if you please, on these ideas, and use them or not as they appear
+      to merit. They comfort me in the belief, that they point out a resource
+      ample enough, without overwhelming war-taxes, for the expense of the war,
+      and possibly still recoverable; and that they hold up to all future time a
+      resource within ourselves, ever at the command of government, and
+      competent to any wars into which we may be forced. Nor is it a slight
+      object to equalize taxes through peace and war.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0111" id="link2H_4_0111">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 21, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 21, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page201.jpg" alt="Page201 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And I too, my dear Sir, like the wood-cutter of Ida, should doubt where to
+      begin, were I to enter the forest of opinions, discussions, and
+      contentions which have occurred in our day. I should say with Theocritus,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I shall not do it. The <i>summum bonum</i> with me is now truly
+      epicurean, ease of body and tranquillity of mind; and to these I wish to
+      consign my remaining days. Men have differed in opinion, and been divided
+      into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies; and in
+      all governments, where they have been permitted freely to think and to
+      speak. The same political parties which now agitate the United States,
+      have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of
+      the<img alt="page202 (1K)" src="images/page202.jpg" height="18" width="63" />
+      should prevail, were questions which kept the States of Greece and Rome in
+      eternal convulsions; as they now schismatize every people whose minds and
+      mouths are not shut up by the gag of a despot. And in fact, the terms of
+      whig and tory belong to natural, as well as to civil history. They denote
+      the temper and constitution of mind of different individuals. To come to
+      our own country, and to the times when you and I became first acquainted:
+      we well remember the violent parties which agitated the old Congress, and
+      their bitter contests. There you and I were together, and the Jays, and
+      the Dickinsons, and other anti-independents were arrayed against us. They
+      cherished the monarchy of England, and we the rights of our countrymen.
+      When our present government was in the mew, passing from Confederation to
+      Union, how bitter was the schism between the Feds and Antis. Here you and
+      I were together again. For although, for a moment, separated by the
+      Atlantic from the scene of action, I favored the opinion that nine States
+      should confirm the constitution, in order to secure it, and the others
+      hold off, until certain amendments, deemed favorable to freedom, should be
+      made. I rallied in the first instant to the wiser proposition of
+      Massachusetts, that all should confirm, and then all instruct their
+      delegates to urge those amendments. The amendments were made, and all were
+      reconciled to the government. But as soon as it was put into motion, the
+      line of division was again drawn. We broke into two parties, each wishing
+      to give the government a different direction; the one to strengthen the
+      most popular branch, the other the more permanent branches, and to extend
+      their permanence. Here you and I separated for the first time: and as we
+      had been longer than most others on the public theatre, and our names
+      therefore were more familiar to our countrymen, the party which considered
+      you as thinking with them, placed your name at their head; the other, for
+      the same reason, selected mine. But neither decency nor inclination
+      permitted us to become the advocates of ourselves, or to take part
+      personally in the violent contests which followed. We suffered ourselves,
+      as you so well expressed it, to be passive subjects of public discussion.
+      And these discussions, whether relating to men, measures, or opinions,
+      were conducted by the parties with an animosity, a bitterness, and an
+      indecency, which had never been exceeded. All the resources of reason and
+      of wrath were exhausted by each party in support of its own, and to
+      prostrate the adversary opinions; one was upbraided with receiving the
+      anti-federalists, the other the old tories and refugees, into their bosom.
+      Of this acrimony, the public papers of the day exhibit ample testimony, in
+      the debates of Congress, of State legislatures, of stump-orators, in
+      addresses, answers, and newspaper essays; and to these, without question,
+      may be added the private correspondences of individuals; and the less
+      guarded in these, because not meant for the public eye, not restrained by
+      the respect due to that, but poured forth from the overflowings of the
+      heart into the bosom of a friend, as a momentary easement of our feelings.
+      In this way and in answers to addresses, you and I could indulge
+      ourselves. We have probably done it, sometimes with warmth, often with
+      prejudice, but always, as we believed, adhering to truth. I have not
+      examined my letters of that day. I have no stomach to revive the memory of
+      its feelings. But one of these letters, it seems, has got before the
+      public, by accident and infidelity, by the death of one friend to whom it
+      was written, and of his friend to whom it had been communicated, and by
+      the malice and treachery of a third person, of whom I had never before
+      heard, merely to make mischief, and in the same Satanic spirit, in which
+      the same enemy had intercepted and published, in 1776, your letter
+      animadverting on Dickinson&rsquo;s character. How it happened that I quoted you
+      in my letter to Doctor Priestley, and for whom, and not for yourself, the
+      strictures were meant, has been explained to you in my letter of the 15th,
+      which had been committed to the post eight days before I received yours of
+      the 10th, 11th, and 14th. That gave you the reference which these asked to
+      the particular answer alluded to in the one to Priestley. The renewal of
+      these old discussions, my friend, would be equally useless and irksome. To
+      the volumes then written on these subjects, human ingenuity can add
+      nothing new, and the rather, as lapse of time has obliterated many of the
+      facts. And shall you and I, my Dear Sir, at our age, like Priam of old,
+      gird on the
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shall we, at our age, become the athletes of party, and exhibit ourselves,
+      as gladiators, in the arena of the newspapers? Nothing in the universe
+      could induce me to it. My mind has been long fixed to bow to the judgment
+      of the world, who will judge by my acts, and will never take counsel from
+      me as to what that judgment shall be. If your objects and opinions have
+      been misunderstood, if the measures and principles of others have been
+      wrongfully imputed to you, as I believe they have been, that you should
+      leave an explanation of them, would be an set of justice to yourself. I
+      will add, that it has been hoped that you would leave such explanations as
+      would place every saddle on its right horse, and replace on the shoulders
+      of others the burdens they shifted to yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all this, my friend, is offered merely for your consideration and
+      judgment, without presuming to anticipate what you alone are qualified to
+      decide for yourself. I mean to express my own purpose only, and the
+      reflections which have led to it. To me, then, it appears, that there have
+      been differences of opinion and party differences, from the first
+      establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same question
+      which now divides our own country: that these will continue through all
+      future time: that every one takes his side in favor of the many, or of the
+      few, according to his constitution, and the circumstances in which he is
+      placed: that opinions, which are equally honest on both sides, should not
+      affect personal esteem or social intercourse: that as we judge between the
+      Claudii and the Gracchi, the Wentworths and the Hampdens of past ages, so,
+      of those among us whose names may happen to be remembered for a while, the
+      next generations will judge, favorably or unfavorably, according to the
+      complexion of individual minds, and the side they shall themselves have
+      taken: that nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by
+      others, and will be said in every age in support of the conflicting
+      opinions on government: and that wisdom and duty dictate an humble
+      resignation to the verdict of our future peers. I doing this myself, I
+      shall certainly not suffer moot questions to affect the sentiments of
+      sincere friendship and respect, consecrated to you by so long a course of
+      time, and of which I now repeat sincere assurances,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0112" id="link2H_4_0112">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 22, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 22, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since my letter of June the 27th, I am in your debt for many; all of which
+      I have read with infinite delight. They open a wide field for reflection,
+      and offer subjects enough to occupy the mind and the pen indefinitely. I
+      must follow the good example you have set; and when I have not time to
+      take up every subject, take up a single one. Your approbation of my
+      outline to Dr. Priestley is a great gratification to me; and I very much
+      suspect that if thinking men would have the courage to think for
+      themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found they do not
+      differ in religious opinions, as much as is supposed. I remember to have
+      heard Dr. Priestley say, that if all England would candidly examine
+      themselves, and confess, they would find that Unitarianism was really the
+      religion of all: and I observe a bill is now depending in parliament for
+      the relief of Anti-Trinitarians. It is too late in the day for men of
+      sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three
+      are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the
+      three are not one: to divide mankind by a single letter into<a
+      name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a><img alt="page205 (2K)" src="images/page205.jpg"
+       height="26" width="222" />    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profit of the priests.
+      Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would
+      catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers, live without an
+      order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience,
+      and say nothing about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe;
+      for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind to an intelligible
+      proposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is with great pleasure I can inform you, that Priestley finished the
+      comparative view of the doctrines of the philosophers of antiquity, and of
+      Jesus, before his death; and that it was printed soon after. And with
+      still greater pleasure, that I can have a copy of his work forwarded from
+      Philadelphia, by a correspondent there, and presented for your acceptance,
+      by the same mail which carries you this, or very soon after. The branch of
+      the work which the title announces, is executed with learning and candor,
+      as was every thing Priestley wrote: but perhaps a little hastily; for he
+      felt himself pressed by the hand of death. The Abbe Batteux had, in fact,
+      laid the foundation of this part in his &lsquo;Causes Premieres&rsquo;; with which he
+      has given us the originals of Ocellus and Timzeus, who first committed the
+      doctrines of Pythagoras to writing: and Enfield, to whom the Doctor
+      refers, had done it more copiously. But he has omitted the important
+      branch, which, in your letter of August the 9th, you say you have never
+      seen executed, a comparison of the morality of the Old Testament with that
+      of the New. And yet, no two things were ever more unlike. I ought not to
+      have asked him to give it. He dared not. He would have been eaten alive by
+      his intolerant brethren, the Cannibal priests. And yet, this was really
+      the most interesting branch of the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very soon after my letter to Doctor Priestley, the subject being still in
+      my mind, I had leisure, during an abstraction from business for a day or
+      two, while on the road, to think a little more on it, and to sketch more
+      fully than I had done to him, a syllabus of the matter which I thought
+      should enter into the work. I wrote it to Doctor Rush; and there ended all
+      my labor on the subject; himself and Doctor Priestley being the only
+      depositories of my secret. The fate of my letter to Priestley, after his
+      death, was a warning to me on that of Doctor Rush; and at my request, his
+      family were so kind as to quiet me by returning my original letter and
+      syllabus. By this you will be sensible how much interest I take in keeping
+      myself clear of religious disputes before the public; and especially of
+      seeing my syllabus disembowelled by the Aruspices of the modern Paganism.
+      Yet I enclose it to you with entire confidence, free to be perused by
+      yourself and Mrs. Adams, but by no one else; and to be returned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are right in supposing, in one of yours, that I had not read much of
+      Priestley&rsquo;s Predestination, his no-soul system, or his controversy with
+      Horsley. But I have read his Corruptions of Christianity, and Early
+      Opinions of Jesus, over and over again; and I rest on them, and on
+      Middleton&rsquo;s writings, especially his letters from Rome, and to Waterland,
+      as the basis of my own faith. These writings have never been answered, nor
+      can be answered by quoting historical proofs, as they have done. For these
+      facts, therefore, I cling to their learning, so much superior to my own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now fly off in a tangent to another subject. Marshall, in the first
+      volume of his history, chapter 3, p. 180, ascribes the petition to the
+      King, of 1774, (1 Journ. Cong. 67) to the pen of Richard Henry Lee. I
+      think myself certain, it was not written by him, as well from what I
+      recollect to have heard, as from the internal evidence of style. He was
+      loose, vague, frothy, rhetorical. He was a poorer writer than his brother
+      Arthur; and Arthur&rsquo;s standing may be seen in his Monitor&rsquo;s Letters, to
+      insure the sale of which, they took the precaution of tacking to them a
+      new edition of the Farmer&rsquo;s Letters; like Mezentius, who &lsquo;<i>mortua
+      jungebat corpora vivis</i>.&rsquo; You were of the committee, and can tell me
+      who wrote this petition; and who wrote the Address to the Inhabitants of
+      the Colonies, ib. 45. Of the papers of July 1775, I recollect well that
+      Mr. Dickinson drew the petition to the King, ib. 149; I think Robert R.
+      Livingston drew the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, ib. 152.
+      Am I right in this? And who drew the Address to the People of Ireland, ib.
+      180? On these questions, I ask of your memory to help mine. Ever and
+      affectionately yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0113" id="link2H_4_0113">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIII.&mdash;TO JOHN W. EPPES, November 6, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN W. EPPES.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 6, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had not expected to have troubled you again on the subject of finance;
+      but since the date of my last, I have received from Mr. Law a letter
+      covering a memorial on that subject, which, from its tenor, I conjecture
+      must have been before Congress at their two last sessions. This paper
+      contains two propositions; the one for issuing treasury notes, bearing
+      interest, and to be circulated as money; the other for the establishment
+      of a national bank. The first was considered in my former letter; and the
+      second shall be the subject of the present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scheme is for Congress to establish a national bank, suppose of thirty
+      millions capital, of which they shall contribute ten millions in new six
+      per cent, stock, the States ten millions, and individuals ten millions,
+      one half of the two last contributions to be of similar stock, for which
+      the parties are to give cash to Congress: the whole, however, to be under
+      the exclusive management of the individual subscribers, who are to name
+      all the directors; neither Congress nor the States having any power of
+      interference in its administration. Discounts are to be at five per cent.,
+      but the profits are expected to be seven per cent. Congress then will be
+      paying six per cent, on twenty millions, and receiving seven per cent, on
+      ten millions, being its third of the institution: so that on the ten
+      millions cash which they receive from the States and individuals, they
+      will, in fact, have to pay but five per cent, interest. This is the bait.
+      The charter is proposed to be for forty or fifty years, and if any future
+      augmentations should take place, the individual proprietors are to have
+      the privilege of being the sole subscribers for that. Congress are further
+      allowed to issue to the amount of three millions of notes, bearing
+      interest, which they are to receive back in payment for lands at a premium
+      of five or ten per cent., or as subscriptions for canals, roads, and
+      bridges, in which undertakings they are, of course, to be engaged. This is
+      a summary of the scheme, as I understand it: but it is very possible I may
+      not understand it in all its parts, these schemes being always made
+      Unintelligible for the gulls who are to enter into them. The advantages
+      and disadvantages shall be noted promiscuously as they occur; leaving out
+      the speculation of canals, &amp;c. which, being an episode only in the
+      scheme, may be omitted, to disentangle it as much as we can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Congress are to receive five millions from the States (if they will
+      enter into this partnership, which few probably will), and five millions
+      from the individual subscribers, in exchange for ten millions of six per
+      cent, stock, one per cent, of which, however, they will make on their ten
+      millions of stock remaining in bank, and so reduce it, in effect, to a
+      loan of ten millions at five per cent, interest. This is good: but
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. They authorize this bank to throw into circulation ninety millions of
+      dollars, (three times the capital), which increases our circulating medium
+      fifty per cent., depreciates proportionably the present value of the
+      dollar, and raises the price of all future purchases in the same
+      proportion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. This loan of ten millions at five per cent., is to be once for all,
+      only. Neither the terms of the scheme, nor their own prudence could ever
+      permit them to add to the circulation in the same, or any other way, for
+      the supplies of the succeeding years of the war. These succeeding years
+      then are to be left unprovided for, and the means of doing it in a great
+      measure precluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The individual subscribers, on paying their own five millions of cash
+      to Congress, become the depositories of ten millions of stock belonging to
+      Congress, five millions belonging to the States, and five millions to
+      themselves, say twenty millions, with which, as no one has a right ever to
+      see their books, or to ask a question, they may choose their time for
+      running away, after adding to their booty the proceeds of as much of their
+      own notes as they shall be able to throw into circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. The subscribers may be one, two, or three, or more individuals, (many
+      single individuals being able to pay in the five millions,) whereupon this
+      bank oligarchy or monarchy enters the field with ninety millions of
+      dollars, to direct and control the politics of the nation; and of the
+      influence of these institutions on our politics, and into what scale it
+      will be thrown, we have had abundant experience. Indeed, England herself
+      may be the real, while her friend and trustee here shall be the nominal
+      and sole subscriber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. This state of things is to be fastened on us, without the power of
+      relief, for forty or fifty years. That is to say, the eight millions of
+      people now existing, for the sake of receiving one dollar and twenty-five
+      cents apiece at five per cent, interest, are to subject the fifty millions
+      of people who are to succeed them within that term, to the payment of
+      forty-five millions of dollars, principal and interest, which will be
+      payable in the course of the fifty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. But the great and national advantage is to be the relief of the present
+      scarcity of money, which is produced and proved by,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for the
+      troops, ammunition, he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. By the cash sent to the frontiers, and the vacuum occasioned in the
+      trading towns by that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. By the late loans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. By the necessity of recurring to shavers with good paper, which the
+      existing banks are not able to take up; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. By the numerous applications for bank charters, showing that an
+      increase of circulating medium is wanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine these causes and proofs of the want of an increase of
+      medium, one by one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The additional industry created to supply a variety of articles for
+      troops, ammunition, &amp;c. Now I had always supposed that war produced a
+      diminution of industry, by the number of hands it withdraws from
+      industrious pursuits, for employment in arms &amp;c. which are totally
+      unproductive. And if it calls for new industry in the articles of
+      ammunition and other military supplies, the hands are borrowed from other
+      branches on which the demand is slackened by the war; so that it is but a
+      shifting of these hands from one pursuit to another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The cash sent to the frontiers occasions a vacuum in the trading towns,
+      which requires a new supply. Let us examine what are the calls for money
+      to the frontiers. Not for clothing, tents, ammunition, arms, which are all
+      bought in the trading towns. Not for provisions; for although these are
+      bought partly in the intermediate country, bank-bills are more acceptable
+      there than even in the trading towns. The pay of the army calls for some
+      cash; but not a great deal, as bank-notes are as acceptable with the
+      military men, perhaps more so; and what cash is sent must find its way
+      back again, in exchange for the wants of the upper from the lower country.
+      For we are not to suppose that cash stays accumulating there for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. This scarcity has been occasioned by the late loans. But does the
+      government borrow money to keep it in their coffers? Is it not instantly
+      restored to circulation by payment for its necessary supplies? And are we
+      to restore a vacuum of twenty millions of dollars by an emission of ninety
+      millions?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The want of medium is proved by the recurrence of individuals with good
+      paper to brokers at exorbitant interest; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. By the numerous applications to the State governments for additional
+      banks; New York wanting eighteen millions, Pennsylvania ten millions,
+      &amp;c. But say more correctly, the speculators and spendthrifts of New
+      York and Pennsylvania, but never consider them as being the States of New
+      York and Pennsylvania. These two items shall be considered together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a litigated question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than
+      of specie, is a good or an evil. In the opinion of England and of English
+      writers it is a good; in that of all other nations it is an evil; and
+      excepting England and her copyist, the United States, there is not a
+      nation existing, I believe, which tolerates a paper circulation. The
+      experiment is going on, however, desperately in England, pretty boldly
+      with us, and at the end of the chapter, we shall see which opinion
+      experience approves: for I believe it to be one of those cases where
+      mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin. In
+      the mean time, however, let us reason on this new call for a national
+      bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the solemn decision of Congress against the renewal of the charter
+      of the bank of the United States, and the grounds of that decision (the
+      want of constitutional power), I had imagined that question at rest, and
+      that no more applications would be made to them for the incorporation of
+      banks. The opposition on that ground to its first establishment, the small
+      majority by which it was overborne, and the means practised for obtaining
+      it, cannot be already forgotten. The law having passed, however, by a
+      majority, its opponents, true to the sacred principle of submission to a
+      majority, suffered the law to flow through its term without obstruction.
+      During this, the nation had time to consider the constitutional question,
+      and when the renewal was proposed, they condemned it, not by their
+      representatives in Congress only, but by express instructions from
+      different organs of their will. Here then we might stop, and consider the
+      memorial as answered. But, setting authority apart, we will examine
+      whether the legislature ought to comply with it, even if they had the
+      power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Proceeding to reason on this subject, some principles must be premised as
+      forming its basis. The adequate price of a thing depends on the capital
+      and labor necessary to produce it. (In the term capital, I mean to include
+      science, because capital as well as labor has been employed to acquire
+      it.) Two things requiring the same capital and labor should be of the same
+      price. If a gallon of wine requires for its production the same capital
+      and labor with a bushel of wheat, they should be expressed by the same
+      price, derived from the application of a common measure to them. The
+      comparative prices of things being thus to be estimated, and expressed by
+      a common measure, we may proceed to observe, that were a country so
+      insulated as to have no commercial intercourse with any other, to confine
+      the interchange of all its wants and supplies within itself, the amount of
+      circulating medium, as a common measure for adjusting these exchanges,
+      would be quite immaterial. If their circulation, for instance, were of a
+      million of dollars, and the annual produce of their industry equivalent to
+      ten millions of bushels of wheat, the price of a bushel of wheat might be
+      one dollar. If, then, by a progressive coinage, their medium should be
+      doubled, the price of a bushel of wheat might become progressively two
+      dollars, and without, inconvenience. Whatever be the proportion of the
+      circulating medium to the value of the annual produce of industry, it may
+      be considered as the representative of that industry. In the first case, a
+      bushel of wheat will be represented by one dollar; in the second, by two
+      dollars. This is well explained by Hume, and seems admitted by Adam Smith,
+      (B. 2. c. 2. 436, 441, 490.) But where a nation is in a full course of
+      interchange of wants and supplies with all others, the proportion of its
+      medium to its produce is no longer indifferent, (lb. 441.) To trade on
+      equal terms, the common measure of values should be as nearly as possible
+      on a par with that of its corresponding nations, whose medium is in a
+      sound state; that is to say, not in an accidental state of excess or
+      deficiency. Now, one of the great advantages of specie as a medium is,
+      that being of universal value, it will keep itself at a general level,
+      flowing out from where it is too high into parts where it is lower.
+      Whereas, if the medium be of local value only, as paper-money, if too
+      little, indeed, gold and silver will flow in to supply the deficiency; but
+      if too much, it accumulates, banishes the gold and silver not locked up in
+      vaults and hoards, and depreciates itself; that is to say, its proportion
+      to the annual produce of industry being raised, more of it is required to
+      represent any particular article of produce than in the other countries.
+      This is agreed by Smith (B. 2. c. 2. 437.), the principal advocate for a
+      paper circulation; but advocating it on the sole condition that it be
+      strictly regulated. He admits, nevertheless, that &lsquo;the commerce and
+      industry of a country cannot be so secure when suspended on the Daedalian
+      wings of paper-money, as on the solid ground of gold and silver; and that
+      in time of war the insecurity is greatly increased, and great confusion
+      possible where the circulation is for the greater part in paper.&lsquo;(B. 2. c.
+      2. 484.) But in a country where loans are uncertain, and a specie
+      circulation the only sure resource for them, the preference of that
+      circulation assumes a far different degree of importance, as is explained
+      in my former letters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only advantage which Smith proposes by substituting paper in the room
+      of gold and silver money (B. 2. c. 2. 434.), is, &lsquo;to replace an expensive
+      instrument with one much less costly, and sometimes equally convenient&rsquo;;
+      that is to say, (page 437,) to allow the gold and silver to be sent abroad
+      and converted into foreign goods,&rsquo; and to substitute paper as being a
+      cheaper measure. But this makes no addition to the stock or capital of the
+      nation. The coin sent out was worth as much, while in the country, as the
+      goods imported and taking its place. It is only, then, a change of form in
+      a part of the national capital, from that of gold and silver to other
+      goods. He admits, too, that while a part of the goods received in exchange
+      for the coin exported, may be materials, tools, and provisions for the
+      employment of an additional industry, a part also may be taken back in
+      foreign wines, silks, &amp;c. to be consumed by idle people who produce
+      nothing; and so far the substitution promotes prodigality, increases
+      expense and consumption, without increasing production. So far also, then,
+      it lessens the capital of the nation. What may be the amount which the
+      conversion of the part exchanged for productive goods, may add to the
+      former productive mass, it is not easy to ascertain, because, as he says,
+      (page 441,) &lsquo;It is impossible to determine what is the proportion which
+      the circulating money of any country bears to the whole value of the
+      annual produce. It has been computed by different authors, from a fifth*
+      to a thirtieth of that value.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The real cash or money necessary to carry on the
+     circulation and barter of a State, is nearly one third part
+     of all the annual rents of the proprietors of the said
+     State; that is, one ninth of the whole produce of the land.
+     Sir William Petty supposes one tenth part of the value of
+     the whole produce sufficient. Postlethwayt, <i>voce</i>, Cash.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the United States it must be less than in any other part of the
+      commercial world; because the great mass of their inhabitants being in
+      responsible circumstances, the great mass of their exchanges in the
+      country is effected on credit, in their merchant&rsquo;s ledger, who supplies
+      all their wants through the year, and at the end of it receives the
+      produce of their farms, or other articles of their industry. It is a fact,
+      that a farmer, with a revenue of ten thousand dollars a year, may obtain
+      all his supplies from his merchant, and liquidate them at the end of the
+      year, by the sale of his produce to him, without the intervention of a
+      single dollar of cash. This, then, is merely barter, and in this way of
+      barter a great portion of the annual produce of the United States is
+      exchanged without the intermediation of cash. We might safely, then, state
+      our medium at the minimum of one thirtieth. But what is one thirtieth of
+      the value of the annual produce of the industry of the United States? Or
+      what is the whole value of the annual produce of the United States? An
+      able writer and competent judge of the subject, in 1799, on as good
+      grounds as probably could be taken, estimated it, on the then population
+      of four and a half millions of inhabitants, to be thirty-seven and a half
+      millions sterling, or one hundred and sixty-eight and three fourths
+      millions of dollars. See Cooper&rsquo;s Political Arithmetic, page 47. According
+      to the same estimate, for our present population it will be three hundred
+      millions of dollars, one thirtieth of which, Smith&rsquo;s minimum, would be ten
+      millions, and one fifth, his maximum, would be sixty millions for the
+      quantum of circulation. But suppose, that, instead of our needing the
+      least circulating medium of any nation, from the circumstance before
+      mentioned, we should place ourselves in the middle term of the
+      calculation, to wit, at thirty-five millions. One fifth of this, at the
+      least, Smith thinks should be retained in specie, which would leave
+      twenty-eight millions of specie to be exported in exchange for other
+      commodities; and if fifteen millions of that should be returned in
+      productive goods, and not in articles of prodigality, that would be the
+      amount of capital which this operation would add to the existing mass. But
+      to what mass? Not that of the three hundred millions, which is only its
+      gross annual produce; but to that capital of which the three hundred
+      millions are but the annual produce. But this being gross, we may infer
+      from it the value of the capital by considering that the rent of lands is
+      generally fixed at one third of the gross produce, and is deemed its nett
+      profit, and twenty times that its fee simple value. The profits on landed
+      capital may, with accuracy enough for our purpose, be supposed on a par
+      with those of other capital. This would give us then for the United
+      States, a capital of two thousand millions, all in active employment, and
+      exclusive of unimproved lands lying in a great degree dormant. Of this,
+      fifteen millions would be the hundred and thirty-third part. And it is for
+      this petty addition to the capital of the nation, this minimum of one
+      dollar, added to one hundred and thirty-three and a third, or three
+      fourths per cent., that we are to give up our gold and silver medium, its
+      intrinsic solidity, its universal value, and its saving powers in time of
+      war, and to substitute for it paper, with all its train of evils, moral,
+      political, and physical, which I will not pretend to enumerate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another authority to which we may appeal for the proper quantity
+      of circulating medium for the United States. The old Congress, when we
+      were estimated at about two millions of people, on a long and able
+      discussion, June the 22nd, 1775, decided the sufficient quantity to be two
+      millions of dollars, which sum they then emitted.* According to this, it
+      should be eight millions, now that we are eight millions of people. This
+      differs little from Smith&rsquo;s minimum of ten millions, and strengthens our
+      respect for that estimate.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Within five months after this they were compelled, by the
+     necessities of the war, to abandon the idea of emitting only
+     an adequate circulation, and to make those necessities the
+     sole measure of their emissions.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is, indeed, a convenience in paper; its easy transmission from one
+      place to another. But this may be mainly supplied by bills of exchange, so
+      as to prevent any great displacement of actual coin. Two places trading
+      together balance their dealings, for the most part, by their mutual
+      supplies, and the debtor individuals of either may, instead of cash, remit
+      the bills of those who are creditors in the same dealings; or may obtain
+      them through some third place with which both have dealings. The cases
+      would be rare where such bills could not be obtained, either directly or
+      circuitously, and too unimportant to the nation to overweigh the train of
+      evils flowing from paper circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From eight to thirty-five millions then being our proper circulation, and
+      two hundred millions the actual one, the memorial proposes to issue ninety
+      millions more, because, it says, a great scarcity of money is proved by
+      the numerous applications for banks; to wit, New York for eighteen
+      millions, Pennsylvania ten millions, &amp;c. The answer to this shall be
+      quoted, from Adam Smith (B. 2, c. 2, page 462), where speaking of the
+      complaints of the traders against the Scotch bankers, who had already gone
+      too far in their issues of paper, he says, &lsquo;Those traders and other
+      undertakers having got so much assistance from banks, wished to get still
+      more. The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend their credits to
+      whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any other expense besides
+      that of a few reams of paper. They complained of the contracted views and
+      dastardly spirit of the directors of those banks, which did not, they
+      said, extend their credits in proportion to the extension of the trade of
+      the country; meaning, no doubt, by the extension of that trade, the
+      extension of their own projects beyond what they could carry on, either
+      with their own capital, or with what they had credit to borrow of private
+      people in the usual way of bond or mortgage. The banks, they seem to have
+      thought, were in honor bound to supply the deficiency, and to provide them
+      with all the capital which they wanted to trade with.&rsquo; And again (page
+      470): &lsquo;When bankers discovered that certain projectors were trading, not
+      with any capital of their own, but with that which they advanced them,
+      they endeavored to withdraw gradually, making every day greater and
+      greater difficulties about discounting. These difficulties alarmed and
+      enraged in the highest degree those projectors. Their own distress, of
+      which this prudent and necessary reserve of the banks was no doubt the
+      immediate occasion, they called the distress of the country; and this
+      distress of the country, they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance,
+      pusillanimity, and bad conduct of the banks, which did not give a
+      sufficiently liberal aid to the spirited undertakings of those who exerted
+      themselves in order to beautify, improve, and enrich the country. It was
+      the duty of the banks, they seemed to think, to lend for as long a time,
+      and to as great an extent, as they might wish to borrow.&rsquo; It is, probably,
+      the good paper of these projectors, which, the memorial says, the banks
+      being unable to discount, goes into the hands of brokers, who (knowing the
+      risk of this good paper) discount it at a much higher rate than legal
+      interest, to the great distress of the enterprising adventurers, who had
+      rather try trade on borrowed capital, than go to the plough or other
+      laborious calling. Smith again says, (page 478,) &lsquo;That the industry of
+      Scotland languished for want of money to employ it, was the opinion of the
+      famous Mr. Law. By establishing a bank of a particular kind, which he
+      seems to have imagined might issue paper to the amount of the whole value
+      of all the lands in the country, he proposed to remedy this want of money.
+      It was afterwards adopted, with some variations, by the Duke of Orleans,
+      at that time Regent of France. The idea of the possibility of multiplying
+      paper to almost any extent, was the real foundation of what is called the
+      Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project both of banking and
+      stockjobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw. The principles upon which
+      it was founded are explained by Mr. Law himself, in a discourse concerning
+      money and trade, which he published in Scotland when he first proposed his
+      project. The splendid but visionary ideas which are set forth in that and
+      some other works upon the same principles, still continue to make an
+      impression upon many people, and have perhaps, in part, contributed to
+      that excess of banking which has of late been complained of both in
+      Scotland and in other places.&rsquo; The Mississippi scheme, it is well known,
+      ended in France in the bankruptcy of the public treasury, the crush of
+      thousands and thousands of private fortunes, and scenes of desolation and
+      distress equal to those of an invading army, burning and laying waste all
+      before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time we were funding our national debt, we heard much about &lsquo;a
+      public debt being a public blessing&rsquo;; that the stock representing it was a
+      creation of active capital for the aliment of commerce, manufactures, and
+      agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in
+      dreams, and the gulls of that size entered <i>bonâ fide</i> into it. But
+      the art and mystery of banks is a wonderful improvement on that. It is
+      established on the principle, that &lsquo;private debts are a public blessing;&rsquo;
+      that the evidences of those private debts, called bank-notes, become
+      active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures, and
+      agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for instance,
+      who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our debt about
+      two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they are, where
+      they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when called on; nay,
+      who have made us so sensible of the blessings of letting them run in our
+      debt, that we have exempted them by law from the repayment of these debts
+      beyond a given proportion, (generally estimated at one third.) And to fill
+      up the measure of blessing, instead of paying, they receive an interest on
+      what they owe from those to whom they owe; for all the notes, or evidences
+      of what they owe, which we see in circulation, have been lent to somebody
+      on an interest which is levied again on us through the medium of commerce.
+      And they are so ready still to deal out their liberalities to us, that
+      they are now willing to let themselves run in our debt ninety millions
+      more, on our paying them the same premium of six or eight per cent,
+      interest, and on the same legal exemption from the repayment of more than
+      thirty millions of the debt, when it shall be called for. But let us look
+      at this principle in its original form, and its copy will then be equally
+      understood. &lsquo;A public debt is a public blessing.&rsquo; That our debt was
+      juggled from forty-three up to eighty millions, and funded at that amount,
+      according to this opinion, was a great public blessing, because the
+      evidences of it could be vested in commerce, and thus converted into
+      active capital, and then the more the debt was made to be, the more active
+      capital was created. That is to say, the creditors could now employ in
+      commerce the money due them from the public, and make from it an annual
+      profit of five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that
+      the public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the
+      same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to either
+      party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in the state
+      of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from the public,
+      of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on which he is
+      receiving an annual interest. He wishes, however, to have the money
+      itself, and to go into business with it. B has an equal sum of money in
+      business, but wishes now to retire, and live on the interest. He therefore
+      gives it to A, in exchange for A&rsquo;s certificates of public stock. Now,
+      then, A has the money to employ in business, which B so employed before. B
+      has the money on interest to live on, which A lived on before: and the
+      public pays the interest to B, which they paid to A before. Here is no new
+      creation of capital, no additional money employed, nor even a change in
+      the employment of a single dollar. The only change is of place between A
+      and B, in which we discover no creation of capital, nor public blessing.
+      Suppose, again, the public to owe nothing. Then A not having lent his
+      money to the public, would be in possession of it himself, and would go
+      into business without the previous operation of selling stock. Here again,
+      the same quantity of capital is employed as in the former case, though no
+      public debt exists. In neither case is there any creation of active
+      capital, nor other difference than that there is a public debt in the
+      first case, and none in the last; and we may safely ask which of the two
+      situations is most truly a public blessing? If, then, a public debt be no
+      public blessing, we may pronounce <i>a fortiori</i>, that a private one
+      cannot be so. If the debt which the banking companies owe be a blessing to
+      any body, it is to themselves alone, who are realizing a solid interest of
+      eight or ten per cent, on it. As to the public, these companies have
+      banished all our gold and silver medium, which, before their institution,
+      we had without interest, which never could have perished in our hands, and
+      would have been our salvation now in the hour of war; instead of which,
+      they have given us two hundred millions of froth and bubble, on which we
+      are to pay them heavy interest, until it shall vanish into air, as
+      Morris&rsquo;s notes did. We are warranted, then, in affirming that this parody
+      on the principle of &lsquo;a public debt being a public blessing,&rsquo; and its
+      mutation into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is as
+      ridiculous as the original principle itself. In both cases, the truth is,
+      that capital may be produced by industry, and accumulated by economy: but
+      jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks with paper.
+      I have called the actual circulation of bank paper in the United States,
+      two hundred millions of dollars. I do not recollect where I have seen this
+      estimate; but I retain the impression that I thought it just at the time.
+      It may be tested, however, by a list of the banks now in the United
+      States, and the amount of their capital. I have no means of recurring to
+      such a list for the present day: but I turn to two lists in my possession
+      for the years of 1803 and 1804.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1803, there were thirty-four banks, whose capital was $28,902,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1804, there were sixty-six, consequently thirty-two additional ones.
+      Their capital is not stated, but at the average of the others (excluding
+      the highest, that of the United States, which was of ten millions) they
+      would be of six hundred thousand dollars each, and add.........19,200,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making a total of........ $48,102,000
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      or say, of fifty millions in round numbers. Now every one knows the
+      immense multiplication of these institutions since 1804. If they have only
+      doubled, their capital will be of one hundred millions, and if trebled, as
+      I think probable, it will be of one hundred and fifty millions, on which
+      they are at liberty to circulate treble the amount. I should sooner,
+      therefore, believe two hundred millions to be far below than above the
+      actual circulation. In England, by a late parliamentary document, (see
+      Virginia Argus of October the 18th, 1813, and other public papers of about
+      that date) it appears that six years ago, the bank of England had twelve
+      millions of pounds sterling in circulation, which had increased to
+      forty-two millions in 1812, or to one hundred and eighty-nine millions of
+      dollars. What proportion all the other banks may add to this, I do not
+      know: if we were allowed to suppose they equal it, this would give a
+      circulation of three hundred and seventy-eight millions, or the double of
+      ours on a double population. But that nation is essentially commercial,
+      ours essentially agricultural, and needing, therefore, less circulating
+      medium, because the produce of the husbandman comes but once a year, and
+      is then partly consumed at home, partly exchanged by barter. The dollar,
+      which was of four shillings and six pence sterling, was, by the same
+      document, stated to be then six shillings and nine pence, a depreciation
+      of exactly fifty per cent. The average price of wheat on the continent of
+      Europe, at the commencement of its present war with England, was about a
+      French crown, of one hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it was one
+      hundred cents, and consequently we could send it there in competition with
+      their own. That ordinary price has now doubled with us, and more than
+      doubled in England; and although a part of this augmentation may proceed
+      from the war demand, yet from the extraordinary nominal rise in the prices
+      of land and labor here, both of which have nearly doubled in that period,
+      and are still rising with every new bank, it is evident that were a
+      general peace to take place to-morrow, and time allowed for the
+      re-establishment of commerce, justice, and order, we could not afford to
+      raise wheat for much less than two dollars, while the continent of Europe,
+      having no paper circulation, and that of its specie not being augmented,
+      would raise it at their former price of one hundred and ten cents. It
+      follows, then, that with our redundancy of paper, we cannot, after peace,
+      send a bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary circumstances
+      double its price in particular places, and that then the exporting
+      countries of Europe could undersell us. It is said our paper is as good as
+      silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues.
+      This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it: but a general
+      application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous
+      proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form. It is a
+      fallacious pretence, for another reason. The inhabitants of the banking
+      cities might obtain cash for their paper, as far as the cash of the vaults
+      would hold out; but distance puts it out of the power of the country to do
+      this. A farmer having a note of a Boston or Charleston bank, distant
+      hundreds of miles, has no means of calling for the cash. And while these
+      calls are impracticable for the country, the banks have no fear of their
+      being made from the towns; because their inhabitants are mostly on their
+      books, and there on sufferance only and during good behavior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this state of things, we are called on to add ninety millions more to
+      the circulation. Proceeding in this career, it is infallible, that we must
+      end where the revolutionary paper ended. Two hundred millions was the
+      whole amount of all the emissions of the old Congress, at which point
+      their bills ceased to circulate. We are now at that sum; but with treble
+      the population, and of course a longer tether. Our depreciation is, as
+      yet, but at about two for one. Owing to the support its credit receives
+      from the small reservoirs of specie in the vaults of the banks, it is
+      impossible to say at what point their notes will stop. Nothing is
+      necessary to effect it but a general alarm; and that may take place
+      whenever the public shall begin to reflect on, and perceive, the
+      impossibility that the banks should repay this sum. At present, caution is
+      inspired no farther than to keep prudent men from selling property on long
+      payments. Let us suppose the panic to arise at three hundred millions, a
+      point to which every session of the legislatures hastens us by long
+      strides. Nobody dreams that they would have three hundred millions of
+      specie to satisfy the holders of their notes. Were they even to stop now,
+      no one supposes they have two hundred millions in cash, or even the
+      sixty-six and two-thirds millions, to which amount alone the law obliges
+      them to repay. One hundred and thirty-three and one-third millions of
+      loss, then, is thrown on the public by law; and as to the sixty-six and
+      two-thirds, which they are legally bound to pay, and ought to have in
+      their vaults, every one knows there is no such amount of cash in the
+      United States, and what would be the course with what they really have
+      there? Their notes are refused. Cash is called for. The inhabitants of the
+      banking towns will get what is in the vaults, until a few banks declare
+      their insolvency; when, the general crush becoming evident, the others
+      will withdraw even the cash they have, declare their bankruptcy at once,
+      and leave an empty house and empty coffers for the holders of their notes.
+      In this scramble of creditors, the country gets nothing, the towns but
+      little. What are they to do? Bring suits? A million of creditors bring a
+      million of suits against John Nokes and Robert Styles, wheresoever to be
+      found? All nonsense. The loss is total. And a sum is thus swindled from
+      our citizens, of seven times the amount of the real debt, and four times
+      that of the factitious one of the United States, at the close of the war.
+      All this they will justly charge on their legislatures; but this will be
+      poor satisfaction for the two or three hundred millions they will have
+      lost. It is time, then, for the public functionaries to look to this.
+      Perhaps it may not be too late. Perhaps, by giving time to the banks, they
+      may call in and pay off their paper by degrees. But no remedy is ever to
+      be expected while it rests with the State legislatures. Personal motives
+      can be excited through so many avenues to their will, that, in their
+      hands, it will continue to go on from bad to worse, until the catastrophe
+      overwhelms us. I still believe, however, that on proper representations of
+      the subject, a great proportion of these legislatures would cede to
+      Congress their power of establishing banks, saving the charter rights
+      already granted. And this should be asked, not by way of amendment to the
+      constitution, because until three fourths should consent, nothing could be
+      done; but accepted from them one by one, singly, as their consent might be
+      obtained. Any single State, even if no other should come into the measure,
+      would find its interest in arresting foreign bank-paper immediately, and
+      its own by degrees. Specie would flow in on them as paper disappeared.
+      Their own banks would call in and pay off their notes gradually, and their
+      constituents would thus be saved from the general wreck. Should the
+      greater part of the States concede, as is expected, their power over banks
+      to Congress, besides insuring their own safety, the paper of the
+      non-conceding States might be so checked and circumscribed, by prohibiting
+      its receipt in any of the conceding States, and even in the non-conceding
+      as to duties, taxes, judgments, or other demands of the United States, or
+      of the citizens of other States, that it would soon die of itself, and the
+      medium of gold and silver be universally restored. This is what ought to
+      be done. But it will not be done. <i>Carthago non delebitur</i>. The
+      overbearing clamor of merchants, speculators, and projectors, will drive
+      us before them with our eyes open, until, as in France, under the
+      Mississippi bubble, our citizens will be overtaken by the crash of this
+      baseless fabric, without other satisfaction than that of execrations on
+      the heads of those functionaries, who, from ignorance, pusillanimity, or
+      corruption, have betrayed the fruits of their industry into the hands of
+      projectors and swindlers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I speak comparatively of the paper emissions of the old Congress and
+      the present banks, let it not be imagined that I cover them under the same
+      mantle. The object of the former was a holy one; for if ever there was a
+      holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.
+      The object of the latter, is to enrich swindlers at the expense of the
+      honest and industrious part of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum of what has been said is, that pretermitting the constitutional
+      question on the authority of Congress, and considering this application on
+      the grounds of reason alone, it would be best that our medium should be so
+      proportioned to our produce, as to be on a par with that of the countries
+      with which we trade, and whose medium is in a sound state: that specie is
+      the most perfect medium, because it will preserve its own level; because,
+      having intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands, and
+      it is the surest resource of reliance in time of war: that the trifling
+      economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for
+      transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the
+      precious metals: that it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and for
+      ever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted; that it is
+      already at a term of abuse in these States, which has never been reached
+      by any other nation, France excepted, whose dreadful catastrophe should be
+      a warning against the instrument which produced it: that we are already at
+      ten or twenty times the due quantity of medium; insomuch, that no man
+      knows what his property is now worth, because it is bloating while he is
+      calculating; and still less what it will be worth when the medium shall be
+      relieved from its present dropsical state: and that it is a palpable
+      falsehood to say we can have specie for our paper whenever demanded.
+      Instead, then, of yielding to the cries of scarcity of medium set up by
+      speculators, projectors, and commercial gamblers, no endeavors should be
+      spared to begin the work of reducing it by such gradual means as may give
+      time to private fortunes to preserve their poise, and settle down with the
+      subsiding medium; and that, for this purpose, the States should be urged
+      to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights,
+      the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the existence of banks of discount for cash, as on the continent of
+      Europe, there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of
+      abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals. I
+      think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than
+      legal, interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion as
+      the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those of a
+      year or more. Even banks of deposite, where cash should be lodged, and a
+      paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled to a return
+      of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances, travelling
+      persons, he. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered and robbed,
+      and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued without deposite, it
+      would require skilful and strict regulation. This would differ from the
+      bank of Amsterdam, in the circumstance that the cash could be re-demanded
+      on returning the note.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When I commenced this letter to you, my dear Sir, on Mr. Law&rsquo;s memorial, I
+      expected a short one would have answered that. But as I advanced, the
+      subject branched itself before me into so many collateral questions, that
+      even the rapid views I have taken of each have swelled the volume of my
+      letter beyond my expectations, and, I fear, beyond your patience. Yet on a
+      revisal of it, I find no part which has not so much bearing on the subject
+      as to be worth merely the time of perusal. I leave it then as it is; and
+      will add only the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0114" id="link2H_4_0114">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 13, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 13, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since mine of August the 22nd, I have received your favors of August the
+      16th, September the 2nd, 14th, 15th, and, and Mrs. Adams&rsquo;s, of September
+      the 20th. I now send you, according to your request, a copy of the
+      syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins, with nerves,
+      muscles, and flesh, is really beyond my time and information. Whoever
+      could undertake it, would find great aid in Enfield&rsquo;s judicious abridgment
+      of Brucker&rsquo;s History of Philosophy, in which he has reduced five or six
+      quarto volumes, of one thousand pages each of Latin closely printed, to
+      two moderate octavos of English open type.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To compare the morals of the Old, with those of the New Testament, would
+      require an attentive study of the former, a search through all its books
+      for its precepts, and through all its history for its practices, and the
+      principles they prove. As commentaries, too, on these, the philosophy of
+      the Hebrews must be inquired into, their Mishna, their Gemara, Cabbala,
+      Jezirah, Sonar, Cosri, and their Talmud, must be examined and understood,
+      in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it would seem, has gone deeply
+      into these repositories of their ethics, and Enfield his epitomizer,
+      concludes in these words. &lsquo;Ethics were so little understood among the
+      Jews, that, in their whole compilation called the Talmud, there is only
+      one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of morals chiefly consisted in
+      a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of Moses were deduced six
+      hundred and thirteen precepts, which were divided into two classes,
+      affirmative and negative, two hundred and forty-eight in the former, and
+      three hundred and sixty-five in the latter. It may serve to give the
+      reader some idea of the low state of moral philosophy among the Jews in
+      the middle age, to add, that of the two hundred and forty-eight
+      affirmative precepts, only three were considered as obligatory upon women;
+      and that, in order to obtain salvation, it was judged sufficient to fulfil
+      any one single law in the hour of death; the observance of the rest being
+      deemed necessary, only to increase the felicity of the future life. What a
+      wretched depravity of sentiment and manners must have prevailed, before
+      such corrupt maxims could have obtained credit! It is impossible to
+      collect from these writings a consistent series of moral doctrine.
+      (Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.) It was the reformation of this wretched
+      depravity of morals which Jesus undertook. In extracting the pure
+      principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial
+      vestments in which they have been muffled by priests who have travestied
+      them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves.
+      We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and
+      Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences
+      and emanations, their Logos and Demiurgos, Æons, and Daemons, male and
+      female, with a long train of &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c. or, shall I say at
+      once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists,
+      select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the
+      amphiboligisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not
+      understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own
+      misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what
+      they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most
+      sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.
+      I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse
+      out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his,
+      and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds, in a dunghill. The
+      result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated
+      doctrines, such as were professed and acted on by the unlettered Apostles,
+      the Apostolic Fathers, and the Christians, of the first century. Their
+      Platonizing successors, indeed, in after times, in order to legitimate the
+      corruptions which they had incorporated into the doctrines of Jesus, found
+      it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken their
+      principles from the mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, and the
+      Fathers cotemporary with them. They excommunicated their followers as
+      heretics, branding them with the opprobrious name of Ebionites and
+      Beggars. For a comparison of the Grecian philosophy with that of Jesus,
+      materials might be largely drawn from the same source. Enfield gives a
+      history and detailed account of the opinions and principles of the
+      different sects. These relate to the Gods, their natures, grades, places,
+      and powers; the demi-Gods and Demons, and their agency with man; the
+      universe, its structure, extent, and duration; the origin of things from
+      the elements of fire, water, air, and earth; the human soul, its essence
+      and derivation; the <i>summum bonum</i>, and <i>finis bonorum</i>; with a
+      thousand idle dreams and fancies on these and other subjects, the
+      knowledge of which is withheld from man; leaving but a short chapter for
+      his moral duties, and the principal section of that given to what he owes
+      himself, to precepts for rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the
+      evils of life, and for preserving his mind in a state of constant
+      serenity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such a canvass is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of one
+      whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life. We
+      must leave, therefore, to others, younger and more learned than we are, to
+      prepare this euthanasia for Platonic Christianity, and its restoration to
+      the primitive simplicity of its founder. I think you give a just outline
+      of the theism of the three religions, when you say that the principle of
+      the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and of the Christian
+      the love of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression in your letter of September the 14th, that &lsquo;the human
+      understanding is a revelation from its maker,&rsquo; gives the best solution
+      that I believe can be given of the question, &lsquo;What did Socrates mean by
+      his Daemon?&rsquo; He was too wise to believe, and too honest to pretend, that
+      he had real and familiar converse with a superior and invisible being. He
+      probably considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason, as
+      revelations, or inspirations from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on important
+      occasions, by a special superintending providence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I acknowledge all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which you
+      ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct imagination
+      can permit itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being so
+      superlative, the hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be followed
+      with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation in giving
+      him the palm over all the hymnists of every language, and of every time.
+      Turn to the 148th psalm in Brady and Tate&rsquo;s version. Have such conceptions
+      been ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th psalm is more to be
+      esteemed for its pithiness than its poetry. Even Sternhold, the leaden
+      Sternhold, kindles, in a single instance, with the sublimity of his
+      original, and expresses the majesty of God descending on the earth, in
+      terms not unworthy of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page225.jpg" alt="Page225 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are but
+      mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian dissenters
+      of Liverpool, in their printed form of prayer; but they are not always the
+      best versions. Indeed, bad is the best of the English versions; not a ray
+      of poetical genius having ever been employed on them. And how much depends
+      on this, may be seen by comparing Brady and Tate&rsquo;s 15th psalm with
+      Blacklock&rsquo;s <i>Justum et tenacem propositi virum</i> of Horace, quoted in
+      Hume&rsquo;s History, Car. 2. ch. 66. A translation of David in this style, or
+      in that of Pompei&rsquo;s Cleanthes, might give us some idea of the merit of the
+      original. The character, too, of the poetry of these hymns is singular to
+      us; written in monostichs, each divided into strophe and antistrophe, the
+      sentiment of the first member responded with amplification or antithesis
+      in the second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of the Postscript of yours of August the 16th and of Mrs.
+      Adams&rsquo;s letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has
+      caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there is
+      no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us, which
+      experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time and
+      silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can suppress,
+      the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings up, until
+      recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever affectionately
+      yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0115" id="link2H_4_0115">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 28, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the subjects
+      of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of August the 16th
+      and September the 2nd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than a
+      political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page226.jpg" alt="Page226 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who, while
+      with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by employing
+      always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement of his own
+      race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the old, for
+      considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with the
+      principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by Ocellus
+      in another form;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus translated;
+      &lsquo;Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it shall be, in
+      a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and sanctity,
+      conjointly, this is what I think right. First, to lay it down that we do
+      not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation of children.
+      For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have not been given by
+      God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the procreation of the race.
+      For as it were incongruous for a mortal born to partake of divine life,
+      the immortality of the race being taken away, God fulfilled the purpose by
+      making the generations uninterrupted and continuous. This, therefore, we
+      are especially to lay down as a principle, that coition is not for the
+      sake of pleasure.&rsquo; But nature, not trusting to this moral and abstract
+      motive, seems to have provided more securely for the perpetuation of the
+      species, by making it the effect of the <i>oestrum</i> implanted in the
+      constitution of both sexes. And not only has the commerce of love been
+      indulged on this unhallowed impulse, but made subservient also to wealth
+      and ambition by marriages, without regard to the beauty, the healthiness,
+      the understanding, or virtue of the subject from which we are to breed.
+      The selecting the best male for a Haram of well chosen females, also,
+      which Theognis seems to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses,
+      would doubtless improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and
+      produce a race of veritable<a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a><img alt="page227 (1K)" src="images/page227.jpg"
+       height="21" width="65" />   </p>
+    <p>
+      For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
+      whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father to
+      son. But I suspect that the equal rights of men will rise up against this
+      privileged Solomon and his Haram, and oblige us to continue acquiescence
+      under the<a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <img alt="page227a (2K)" src="images/page227a.jpg"
+       height="23" width="209" /> which Theognis complains of, and to content
+      ourselves with the accidental <i>aristoi</i> produced by the fortuitous
+      concourse of breeders. For I agree with you, that there is a natural
+      aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
+      Formerly, bodily powers gave place among the <i>aristoi</i>. But since the
+      invention of gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with
+      missile death, bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness, and
+      other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction.
+      There is also an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth,
+      without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the
+      first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift
+      of nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society.
+      And, indeed, it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed
+      man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom
+      enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say, that
+      that form of government is the best, which provides the most effectually
+      for a pure selection of these natural <i>aristoi</i> into the offices of
+      government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in
+      government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy. On the
+      question, what is the best provision, you and I differ; but we differ as
+      rational friends, using the free exercise of our own reason, and mutually
+      indulging its errors. You think it best to put the pseudo-aristoi into a
+      separate chamber of legislation, where they may be hindered from doing
+      mischief by their co-ordinate branches, and where, also, they may be a
+      protection to wealth against the Agrarian and plundering enterprises of
+      the majority of the people. I think that to give them power in order to
+      prevent them from doing mischief, is arming them for it, and increasing
+      instead of remedying the evil. For if the co-ordinate branches can arrest
+      their action, so may they that of the co-ordinates. Mischief may be done
+      negatively as well as positively. Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the
+      United States has furnished many proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary
+      to protect the wealthy; because enough of these will find their way into
+      every branch of the legislation, to protect themselves. From fifteen to
+      twenty legislatures of our own, in action for thirty years past, have
+      proved that no fears of an equalization of property are to be apprehended
+      from them. I think the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our
+      constitutions, to leave to the citizens the free election and separation
+      of the <i>aristoi</i> from the <i>pseudo-aristoi</i>, of the wheat from
+      the chaff. In general, they will elect the really good and wise. In some
+      instances, wealth may corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient
+      degree to endanger the society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that our difference of opinion may, in some measure, be
+      produced by a difference of character in those among whom we live. From
+      what I have seen of Massachusetts and Connecticut myself, and still more
+      from what I have heard, and the character given of the former by yourself,
+      (Vol. I, page 111,) who know them so much better, there seems to be in
+      those two States a traditionary reverence for certain families, which has
+      rendered the offices of government nearly hereditary in those families. I
+      presume that from an early period of your history, members of these
+      families happening to possess virtue and talents, have honestly exercised
+      them for the good of the people, and by their services have endeared their
+      names to them. In coupling Connecticut with you, I mean it politically
+      only, not morally. For having made the Bible the common law of their land,
+      they seem to have modeled their morality on the story of Jacob and Laban.
+      But although this hereditary succession to office with you may, in some
+      degree, be founded in real family merit, yet in a much higher degree, it
+      has proceeded from your strict alliance of Church and State. These
+      families are canonized in the eyes of the people on the common principle,
+      &lsquo;You tickle me, and I will tickle you.&rsquo; In Virginia, we have nothing of
+      this. Our clergy, before the revolution, having been secured against
+      rivalship by fixed salaries, did not give themselves the trouble of
+      acquiring influence over the people. Of wealth, there were great
+      accumulations in particular families, handed down from generation to
+      generation, under the English law of entails. But the only object of
+      ambition for the wealthy was a seat in the King&rsquo;s Council. All their court
+      then was paid to the crown and its creatures; and they Philipized in all
+      collisions between the King and the people. Hence they were unpopular; and
+      that unpopularity continues attached to their names. A Randolph, a Carter,
+      or a Burwell must have great personal superiority over a common
+      competitor, to be elected by the people, even at this day. At the first
+      session of our legislature after the Declaration of Independence, we
+      passed a law abolishing entails. And this was followed by one abolishing
+      the privilege of primogeniture, and dividing the lands of intestates
+      equally among all their children, or other representatives. These laws,
+      drawn by myself, laid the axe to the root of pseudo-aristocracy. And had
+      another which I prepared been adopted by the legislature, our work would
+      have been complete. It was a bill for the more general diffusion of
+      learning. This proposed to divide every county into wards of five or six
+      miles square, like your townships; to establish in each ward a free school
+      for reading, writing, and common arithmetic; to provide for the annual
+      selection of the best subjects from these schools, who might receive, at
+      the public expense, a higher degree of education at a district school; and
+      from these district schools to select a certain number of the most
+      promising subjects, to be completed at an University, where all the useful
+      sciences should be taught. Worth and genius would thus have been sought
+      out from every condition of life, and completely prepared by education for
+      defeating the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts. My
+      proposition had, for a further object, to impart to these wards those
+      portions of self-government for which they are best qualified, by
+      confiding to them the care of their poor, their roads, police, elections,
+      the nomination of jurors, administration of justice in small cases,
+      elementary exercises of militia; in short, to have made them little
+      republics, with a warden at the head of each, for all those concerns
+      which, being under their eye, they would better manage than the larger
+      republics of the county or State. A general call of ward-meetings by their
+      wardens on the same day through the State, would at any time produce the
+      genuine sense of the people on any required point, and would enable the
+      State to act in mass, as your people have so often done, and with so much
+      effect, by their town-meetings. The law for religious freedom, which made
+      a part of this system, having put down the aristocracy of the clergy, and
+      restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind, and those of entails and
+      descents nurturing an equality of condition among them, this on education
+      would have raised the mass of the people to the high ground of moral
+      respectability necessary to their own safety, and to orderly government;
+      and would have completed the great object of qualifying them to select the
+      veritable aristoi, for the trusts of government, to the exclusion of the
+      pseudalists: and the same Theognis, who has furnished the epigraphs of
+      your two letters, assures us that<a name="linkimage-0015"
+       id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a> <img alt="page229 (4K)" src="images/page229.jpg"
+       height="24" width="395" /> Although this law has not yet been acted on but
+      in a small and inefficient degree, it is still considered as before the
+      legislature, with other bills of the revised code, not yet taken up, and I
+      have great hope that some patriotic spirit will, at a favorable moment,
+      call it up, and make it the key-stone of the arch of our government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to aristocracy, we should further consider, that before the
+      establishment of the American States, nothing was known to history but the
+      man of the old world, crowded within limits either small or overcharged,
+      and steeped in the vices which that situation generates. A government
+      adapted to such men would be one thing; but a very different one, that for
+      the man of these States. Here every one may have land to labor for
+      himself, if he chooses; or, preferring the exercise of any other industry,
+      may exact for it such compensation as not only to afford a comfortable
+      subsistence, but wherewith to provide for a cessation from labor in old
+      age. Every one, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is
+      interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and
+      advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public
+      affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of
+      the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and
+      destruction of every thing public and private. The history of the last
+      twenty-five years of France, and of the last forty years in America, nay,
+      of its last two hundred years, proves the truth of both parts of this
+      observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man.
+      Science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the
+      American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. An
+      insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents, and courage,
+      against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed in
+      its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for
+      its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be
+      restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic
+      of this first catastrophe. Science is progressive, and talents and
+      enterprise on the alert. Resort may be had to the people of the country, a
+      more governable power from their principles and subordination; and rank
+      and birth and tinsel-aristocracy will finally shrink into insignificance,
+      even there. This, however, we have no right to meddle with. It suffices
+      for us, if the moral and physical condition of our own citizens qualifies
+      them to select the able and good for the direction of their government,
+      with a recurrence of elections at such short periods as will enable them
+      to displace an unfaithful servant, before the mischief he meditates may be
+      irremediable, I have thus stated my opinion on a point on which we differ,
+      not with a view to controversy, for we are both too old to change opinions
+      which are the result of a long life of inquiry and reflection; but on the
+      suggestion of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to die before we
+      have explained ourselves to each other. We acted in perfect harmony,
+      through a long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence. A
+      constitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us thinks
+      perfect, yet both consider as competent to render our fellow-citizens the
+      happiest and the securest on whom the sun has ever shone. If we do not
+      think exactly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to our
+      country, which, after devoting to it long lives of disinterested labor we
+      have delivered over to our successors in life, who will be able to take
+      care of it and of themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the pamphlet on aristocracy which has been sent to you, or who may be
+      its author, I have heard nothing but through your letter. If the person
+      you suspect, it may be known from the quaint, mystical, and hyperbolical
+      ideas, involved in affected, newfangled, and pedantic terms, which stamp
+      his writings. Whatever it be, I hope your quiet is not to be affected at
+      this day by the rudeness or intemperance of scribblers; but that you may
+      continue in tranquillity to live and to rejoice in the prosperity of our
+      country, until it shall be your own wish to take your seat among the <i>aristoi</i>
+      who have gone before you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0116" id="link2H_4_0116">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS LIEPER, January 1, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS LIEPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 1, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had hoped, when I retired from the business of the world, that I should
+      have been permitted to pass the evening of life in tranquillity,
+      undisturbed by the peltings and passions of which the public papers are
+      the vehicles. I see, however, that I have been dragged into the newspapers
+      by the infidelity of one with whom I was formerly intimate, but who has
+      abandoned the American principles out of which that intimacy grew, and
+      become the bigoted partisan of England, and malcontent of his own
+      government. In a letter which he wrote me, he earnestly besought me to
+      avail our country of the good understanding which subsisted between the
+      executive and myself, by recommending an offer of such terms to our enemy
+      as might produce a peace, towards which he was confident that enemy was
+      disposed. In my answer, I stated the aggressions, the insults, and
+      injuries which England had been heaping on us for years, our long
+      forbearance in the hope she might be led by time and reflection to a
+      sounder view of her own interests, and of their connection with justice to
+      us, the repeated propositions for accommodation made by us, and rejected
+      by her, and at length her Prince Regent&rsquo;s solemn proclamation to the
+      world, that he would never repeal the orders in council as to us, until
+      France should have revoked her illegal decrees as to all the world, and
+      her minister&rsquo;s declaration to ours, that no admissible precaution against
+      the impressment of our seamen could be proposed: that the unavoidable
+      declaration of war which followed these was accompanied by advances for
+      peace, on terms which no American could dispense with, made through
+      various channels, and unnoticed and unanswered through any: but that if he
+      could suggest any other conditions which we ought to accept, and which had
+      not been repeatedly offered and rejected, I was ready to be the channel of
+      their conveyance to the government: and, to show him that neither that
+      attachment to Bonaparte nor French influence, which they allege eternally
+      without believing it, themselves, affected my mind, I threw in the two
+      little sentences, of the printed extract enclosed in your friendly favor
+      of the 9th ultimo, and exactly these two little sentences, from a letter
+      of two or three pages, he has thought proper to publish, naked, alone, and
+      with my name, although other parts of the letter would have shown that I
+      wished such limits only to the successes of Bonaparte, as should not
+      prevent his completely closing Europe against British manufactures and
+      commerce; and thereby reducing her to just terms of peace with us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus am I situated. I receive letters from all quarters, some from known
+      friends, some from those who write like friends, on various subjects. What
+      am I to do? Am I to button myself up in Jesuitical reserve, rudely
+      declining any answer, or answering in terms so unmeaning, as only to prove
+      my distrust? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of sentiment with
+      the world? I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits and temper. I
+      cannot act as if all men were unfaithful, because some are so; nor believe
+      that all will betray me, because some do. I had rather be the victim of
+      occasional infidelities, than relinquish my general confidence in the
+      honesty of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far as to the breach of confidence which has brought me into the
+      newspapers, with a view to embroil me with my friends, by a supposed
+      separation in opinion and principle from them. But it is impossible there
+      can be any difference of opinion among us on the two propositions
+      contained in these two little sentences, when explained, as they were
+      explained in the context from which they were insulated. That Bonaparte is
+      an unprincipled tyrant, who is deluging the continent of Europe with
+      blood, there is not a human being, not even the wife of his bosom, who
+      does not see: nor can there, I think, be a doubt as to the line we ought
+      to wish drawn between his successes and those of Alexander. Surely none of
+      us wish to see Bonaparte conquer Russia, and lay thus at his feet the
+      whole continent of Europe. This done, England would be but a breakfast:
+      and although I am free from the visionary fears which the votaries of
+      England have affected to entertain, because I believe he cannot effect the
+      conquest of Europe; yet put all Europe into his hands, and he might spare
+      such a force, to be sent in British ships, as I would as lieve not have to
+      encounter, when I see how much trouble a handful of British soldiers in
+      Canada has given us. No. It cannot be our interest that all Europe should
+      be reduced to a single monarchy. The true line of interest for us is, that
+      Bonaparte should be able to effect the complete exclusion of England from
+      the whole continent of Europe, in order, as the same letter said, &lsquo;by this
+      peaceable engine of constraint, to make her renounce her views of dominion
+      over the ocean, of permitting no other nation to navigate it but with her
+      license, and on tribute to her, and her aggressions on the persons of our
+      citizens who may choose to exercise their right of passing over that
+      element.&rsquo; And this would be effected by Bonaparte&rsquo;s succeeding so far as
+      to close the Baltic against her. This success I wished him the last year,
+      this I wish him this year; but were he again advanced to Moscow, I should
+      again wish him such disasters as would prevent his reaching Petersburg.
+      And were the consequences even to be the longer continuance of our war, I
+      would rather meet them, than see the whole force of Europe wielded by a
+      single hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have gone into this explanation, my friend, because I know you will not
+      carry my letter to the newspapers, and because I am willing to entrust to
+      your discretion the explaining me to our honest fellow-laborers, and the
+      bringing them to pause and reflect, if any of them have not sufficiently
+      reflected on the extent of the success we ought to wish to Bonaparte, with
+      a view to our own interests only; and even were we not men, to whom
+      nothing human should be indifferent. But is our particular interest to
+      make us insensible to all sentiments of morality? Is it then become
+      criminal, the moral wish that the torrents of blood this man is shedding
+      in Europe, the sufferings of so many human beings, good as ourselves, on
+      whose necks he is trampling, the burnings of ancient cities, devastations
+      of great countries, the destruction of law and order, and demoralization
+      of the world, should be arrested, even if it should place our peace a
+      little further distant? No. You and I cannot differ in wishing that
+      Russia, and Sweden, and Denmark, and Germany, and Spain, and Portugal, and
+      Italy, and even England, may retain their independence. And if we differ
+      in our opinions about Towers and his four beasts and ten kingdoms, we
+      differ as friends, indulging mutual errors, and doing justice to mutual
+      sincerity and honesty. In this spirit of sincere confidence and affection,
+      I pray God to bless you here and hereafter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0117" id="link2H_4_0117">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WALTER JONES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 2,1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of November the 25th reached this place December the 21st,
+      having been near a month on the way. How this could happen I know not, as
+      we have two mails a week both from Fredericksburg and Richmond. It found
+      me just returned from a long journey and absence, during which so much
+      business had accumulated, commanding the first attentions, that another
+      week has been added to the delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have
+      passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those
+      who write for them; and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of a
+      New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we
+      are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and
+      lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and a
+      curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by
+      forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been
+      produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with you;
+      and I have read with great pleasure the paper you enclosed me on that
+      subject, which I now return. It is at the same time a perfect model of the
+      style of discussion which candor and decency should observe, of the tone
+      which renders difference of opinion even amiable, and a succinct, correct,
+      and dispassionate history of the origin and progress of party among us. It
+      might be incorporated, as it stands, and without changing a word, into the
+      history of the present epoch, and would give to posterity a fairer view of
+      the times than they will probably derive from other sources. In reading
+      it, with great satisfaction, there was but a single passage where I wished
+      a little more developement of a very sound and catholic idea; a single
+      intercalation to rest it solidly on true bottom. It is near the end of the
+      first page, where you make a statement of genuine republican maxims;
+      saying, &lsquo;that the people ought to possess as much political power as can
+      possibly consist with the order and security of society.&rsquo; Instead of this,
+      I would say, &lsquo;that the people, being the only safe depository of power,
+      should exercise in person every function which their qualifications enable
+      them to exercise consistently with the order and security of society; that
+      we now find them equal to the election of those who shall be invested with
+      their executive and legislative powers, and to act themselves in the
+      judiciary, as judges in questions of fact; that the range of their powers
+      ought to be enlarged,&rsquo; &amp;c. This gives both the reason and
+      exemplification of the maxim you express, &lsquo;that they ought to possess as
+      much political power,&rsquo; &amp;c. I see nothing to correct either in your
+      facts or principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You say that in taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him
+      harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic. I
+      do not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of his
+      mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
+      seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think I knew
+      General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to
+      delineate his character, it should be in terms like these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order;
+      his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or
+      Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in
+      operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in
+      conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers, of the advantage he
+      derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected
+      whatever was best; and certainly no General ever planned his battles more
+      judiciously. But if deranged during the course of the action, if any
+      member of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in
+      a re-adjustment. The consequence was, that he often failed in the field,
+      and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was
+      incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern.
+      Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting
+      until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed;
+      refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with
+      his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his
+      justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or
+      consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision.
+      He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great
+      man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and
+      resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever,
+      however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his
+      expenses he was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever
+      promised utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects,
+      and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its
+      affections; but he exactly calculated every man&rsquo;s value, and gave him a
+      solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his
+      stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and
+      noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most, graceful figure that
+      could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where
+      he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation,
+      his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither
+      copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for
+      a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote
+      readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had
+      acquired by conversation with the world, for his education was merely
+      reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a
+      later day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and
+      that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became
+      necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural
+      proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors. On the
+      whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few
+      points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and
+      fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in
+      the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an
+      everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit, of
+      leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for
+      the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through
+      the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had
+      settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying
+      the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the
+      history of the world furnishes no other example. How, then, can it be
+      perilous for you to take such a man on your shoulders? I am satisfied the
+      great body of republicans think of him as I do. We were, indeed,
+      dissatisfied with him on his ratification of the British treaty. But this
+      was short-lived. We knew his honesty, the wiles with which he was
+      encompassed, and that age had already begun to relax the firmness of his
+      purposes; and I am convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and
+      gratitude of the republicans, than in the Pharisaical homage of the
+      federal monarchists. For he was no monarchist from preference of his
+      judgment. The soundness of that gave him correct views of the rights of
+      man, and his severe justice devoted him to them. He has often declared to
+      me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the
+      practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man
+      could be trusted for his own good; that he was determined the experiment
+      should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in
+      support of it. And these declarations he repeated to me the oftener and
+      the more pointedly, because he knew my suspicions of Colonel Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      views, and probably had heard from him the same declarations which I had,
+      to wit, &lsquo;that the British constitution, with its unequal representation,
+      corruption, and other existing abuses, was the most perfect government
+      which had ever been established on earth, and that a reformation of these
+      abuses would make it an impracticable government.&rsquo; I do believe that
+      General Washington had not a firm confidence in the durability of our
+      government. He was naturally distrustful of men, and inclined to gloomy
+      apprehensions: and I was ever persuaded that a belief that we must at
+      length end in something like a British constitution, had some weight in
+      his adoption of the ceremonies of levees, birthdays, pompous meetings with
+      Congress, and other forms of the same character, calculated to prepare us
+      gradually for a change which he believed possible, and to let it come on
+      with as little shock as might be to the public mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the
+      judgment-seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty
+      years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the
+      Revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us
+      to take command of the army. During the war and after it we corresponded
+      Occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office of
+      Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and cordial.
+      After I retired from that office, great and malignant pains were taken by
+      our federal monarchists, and not entirely without effect, to make him view
+      me as a theorist, holding French principles of government, which would
+      lead infallibly to licentiousness and anarchy. And to this he listened the
+      more easily, from my known disapprobation of the British treaty. I never
+      saw him afterwards, or these malignant insinuations should have been
+      dissipated before his just judgment, as mists before the sun. I felt on
+      his death, with my countrymen, that &lsquo;verily a great man hath fallen this
+      day in Israel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More time and recollection would enable me to add many other traits of his
+      character; but why add them to you, who knew him well? And I cannot
+      justify to myself a longer detention of your paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Vale, proprieque tuum me esse tibi persuadeas</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0118" id="link2H_4_0118">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 31, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 31, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 23d is received. Say had come to hand safely. But I
+      regretted having asked the return of him; for I did not find in him one
+      new idea on the subject I had been contemplating; nothing more than a
+      succinct, judicious digest of the tedious pages of Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask my opinion on the question, whether the States can add any
+      qualifications to those which the constitution has prescribed for their
+      members of Congress? It is a question I had never before reflected on; yet
+      had taken up an off-hand opinion, agreeing with your first, that they
+      could not: that to add new qualifications to those of the constitution,
+      would be as much an alteration, as to detract from them. And so I think
+      the House of Representatives of Congress decided in some case; I believe
+      that of a member from Baltimore. But your letter having induced me to look
+      into the constitution, and to consider the question a little, I am again
+      in your predicament, of doubting the correctness of my first opinion. Had
+      the constitution been silent, nobody can doubt but that the right to
+      prescribe all the qualifications and disqualifications of those they would
+      send to represent them, would have belonged to the State. So also the
+      constitution might have prescribed the whole, and excluded all others. It
+      seems to have preferred the middle way. It has exercised the power in
+      part, by declaring some disqualifications, to wit, those of not being
+      twenty-five years of age, of not having been a citizen seven years, and of
+      not being an inhabitant of the State at the time of election. But it does
+      not declare, itself, that the member shall not be a lunatic, a pauper, a
+      convict of treason, of murder, of felony, or other infamous crime, or a
+      non-resident of his district; nor does it prohibit to the State the power
+      of declaring these, or any other disqualifications which its particular
+      circumstances may call for: and these may be different in different
+      States. Of course, then, by the tenth amendment, the power is reserved to
+      the State. If, wherever the constitution assumes a single power out of
+      many which belong to the same subject, we should consider it as assuming
+      the whole, it would vest the General Government with a mass of powers
+      never contemplated. On the contrary, the assumption of particular powers
+      seems an exclusion of all not assumed. This reasoning appears to me to be
+      sound; but, on so recent a change of view, caution requires us not to be
+      too confident, and that we admit this to be one of the doubtful questions
+      on which honest men may differ with the purest motives; and the more
+      readily, as we find we have differed from ourselves on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have always thought, that where the line of demarcation between the
+      powers of the General and State governments was doubtfully or indistinctly
+      drawn, it would be prudent and praiseworthy in both parties, never to
+      approach it but under the most urgent necessity. Is the necessity now
+      urgent, to declare that no non-resident of his district shall be eligible
+      as a member of Congress? It seems to me that, in practice, the
+      partialities of the people are a sufficient security against such an
+      election; and that if, in any instance, they should ever choose a
+      non-resident, it must be in one of such eminent merit and qualifications,
+      as would make it a good, rather than an evil; and that, in any event, the
+      examples will be so rare, as never to amount to a serious evil. If the
+      case then be neither clear nor urgent, would it not be better to let it
+      lie undisturbed? Perhaps its decision may never be called for. But if it
+      be indispensable to establish this disqualification now, would it not look
+      better to declare such others, at the same time, as may be proper? I
+      frankly confide to yourself these opinions, or rather no-opinions, of
+      mine; but would not wish to have them go any farther. I want to be quiet:
+      and although some circumstances now and then excite me to notice them, I
+      feel safe, and happier in leaving events to those whose turn it is to take
+      care of them; and, in general, to let it be understood, that I meddle
+      little or not at all with public affairs. There are two subjects, indeed,
+      which I shall claim a right to further as long as I breathe, the public
+      education and the subdivision of the counties into wards. I consider the
+      continuance of republican government as absolutely hanging on these two
+      hooks. Of the first, you will, I am sure, be an advocate, as having
+      already reflected on it, and of the last, when you shall have reflected.
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0119" id="link2H_4_0119">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 5, 1814
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 5, 1814
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since mine of January the 24th, yours of March the 14th has been received.
+      It was not acknowledged in the short one of May the 18th, by Mr. Rives,
+      the only object of that having been to enable one of our most promising
+      young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you. I learned with
+      great regret the serious illness mentioned in your letter; and I hope Mr.
+      Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored. But our machines
+      have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we must expect that,
+      worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now a pinion, next a
+      spring, will be giving way; and however we may tinker them up for a while,
+      all will at length surcease motion. Our watches, with works of brass and
+      steel, wear out within that period. Shall you and I last to see the course
+      the seven-fold wonders of the times will take? The Attila of the age
+      dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the human race, whose
+      thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights
+      and liberties of the world, shut up within the circuit of a little island
+      of the Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and
+      degraded pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. How
+      miserably, how meanly, has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of
+      the bathos will his history present! He should have perished on the swords
+      of his enemies, under the walls of Paris.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page240.jpg" alt="Page240 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a cold-blooded,
+      calculating, unprincipled usurper, without a virtue; no statesman, knowing
+      nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil government, and supplying
+      ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed him a great man until his
+      entrance into the Assembly <i>des Cinq Cens</i>, eighteenth <i>Brumaire</i>
+      (an 8.) From that date, however, I set him down as a great scoundrel only.
+      To the wonders of his rise and fall, we may add that of a Czar of Muscovy,
+      dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all the successors of the Caesars,
+      and holding even the balance in which the fortunes of this new world are
+      suspended. I own, that while I rejoice, for the good of mankind, in the
+      deliverance of Europe from the havoc which would have never ceased while
+      Bonaparte should have lived in power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the
+      ocean remaining in vigor, and even participating in the merit of crushing
+      his brother tyrant. While the world is thus turned upside down, on which
+      side of it are we? All the strong reasons, indeed, place us on the side of
+      peace; the interests of the continent, their friendly dispositions, and
+      even the interests of England. Her passions alone are opposed to it. Peace
+      would seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed.
+      Her orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied powers,
+      and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course. But I
+      fear there is foundation for the design intimated in the public papers, of
+      demanding a cession of our right in the fisheries. What will Massachusetts
+      say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered as speaking
+      through the organs it has appointed itself, as the index of its will. She
+      chose to sacrifice the liberty of our sea-faring citizens, in which we
+      were all interested, and with them her obligations to the co-States,
+      rather than war with England. Will she now sacrifice the fisheries to the
+      same partialities? This question is interesting to her alone; for to the
+      middle, the southern, and western States, they are of no direct concern;
+      of no more than the culture of tobacco, rice, and cotton to Massachusetts.
+      I am really at a loss to conjecture what our refractory sister will say on
+      this occasion. I know what, as a citizen of the Union, I would say to her.
+      &lsquo;Take this question ad referendum. It concerns you alone. If you would
+      rather, give up the fisheries than war with England, we give them up. If
+      you had rather fight for them, we will defend your interests to the last
+      drop of our blood, choosing rather to set a good example than follow a bad
+      one.&rsquo; And I hope she will determine to fight for them. With this, however,
+      you and I shall have nothing to do; ours being truly the case wherein &lsquo;<i>Non
+      tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis, tempus eget</i>.&rsquo; Quitting this
+      subject, therefore, I will turn over another leaf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my other
+      home for five weeks past. Having more leisure there than here for reading,
+      I amused myself with reading seriously Plato&rsquo;s Republic. I am wrong,
+      however, in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest task-work I ever
+      went through. I had occasionally before taken up some of his other works,
+      but scarcely ever had patience to go through a whole dialogue. While
+      wading through the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of
+      this work, I laid it down often to ask myself, how it could have been that
+      the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such
+      nonsense as this. How the soi-disant Christian world, indeed, should have
+      done it, is a piece of historical curiosity. But how could the Roman good
+      sense do it? And particularly, how could Cicero bestow such eulogies on
+      Plato? Although Cicero did not wield the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet
+      he was able, learned, laborious, practised in the business of the world
+      and honest. He could not be the dupe of mere style, of which he was
+      himself the first master in the world. With the moderns, I think, it is
+      rather a matter of fashion and authority. Education is chiefly in the
+      hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the
+      reputation and the dreams of Plato. They give the tone while at school,
+      and few in their after years have occasion to revise their college
+      opinions. But fashion and authority apart, and bringing Plato to the test
+      of reason, take from him, his sophisms, futilities, and
+      incomprehensibilities, and what remains? In truth, he is one of the race
+      of genuine sophists, who has escaped the oblivion of his brethren, first,
+      by the elegance of his diction, but chiefly by the adoption and
+      incorporation of his whimsies into the body of artificial Christianity.
+      His foggy mind is for ever presenting the semblances of objects which,
+      half seen through a mist, can be defined neither in form nor dimension.
+      Yet this, which should have consigned him to early oblivion, really
+      procured him immortality of fame and reverence. The Christian priesthood,
+      finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding, and too
+      plain to need explanation, saw in the mysticisms of Plato materials with
+      which they might build up an artificial system, which might, from its
+      indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their
+      order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines
+      which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension
+      of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms
+      engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason, that nonsense can never be
+      explained. Their purposes, however, are answered. Plato is canonized: and
+      it is now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle
+      of Jesus. He is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality
+      of the soul; and yet I will venture to say, that were there no better
+      arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe
+      it. It is fortunate for us, that Platonic republicanism has not obtained
+      the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all
+      living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together, like the beasts of
+      the field or forest. Yet &lsquo;Plato is a great philosopher,&rsquo; said La Fontaine.
+      But, says Fontenelle, &lsquo;Do you find his ideas very clear.&rsquo; &lsquo;Oh, no! he is
+      of an obscurity impenetrable.&rsquo; &lsquo;Do you not find him full of
+      contradictions?&rsquo; &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; replied La Fontaine, &lsquo;he is but a sophist.&rsquo;
+      Yet immediately after, he exclaims again, &lsquo;Oh, Plato was a great
+      philosopher.&rsquo; Socrates had reason, indeed, to complain of the
+      misrepresentations of Plato; for, in truth, his dialogues are libels on
+      Socrates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why am I dosing you with these antediluvian topics? Because I am glad
+      to have some one to whom they are familiar, and who will not receive them
+      as if dropped from the moon. Our post-revolutionary youth are born under
+      happier stars than you and I were. They acquire all learning in their
+      mother&rsquo;s womb, and bring it into the world ready made. The information of
+      books is no longer necessary; and all knowledge which is not innate is in
+      contempt, or neglect at least. Every folly must run its round; and so, I
+      suppose, must that of self-learning and self-sufficiency; of rejecting the
+      knowledge acquired in past ages, and starting on the new ground of
+      intuition. When sobered by experience, I hope our successors will turn
+      their attention to the advantages of education. I mean of education on the
+      broad scale, and not that of the petty academies, as they call themselves,
+      which are starting up in every neighborhood, and where one or two men,
+      possessing Latin, and sometimes Greek, a knowledge of the globes, and the
+      first six books of Euclid, imagine and communicate this as the sum of
+      science. They commit their pupils to the theatre of the world, with just
+      taste enough of learning to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and
+      not enough to do service in the ranks of science. We have some exceptions,
+      indeed. I presented one to you lately, and we have some others. But the
+      terms I use are general truths. I hope the necessity will, at length, be
+      seen of establishing institutions here, as in Europe, where every branch
+      of science, useful at this day, may be taught in its highest degree. Have
+      you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I mean
+      to a specification of the particular sciences of real use in human
+      affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many professors
+      only, as might bring them within the views of a just but enlightened
+      economy? I should be happy in a communication of your ideas on this
+      problem, either loose or digested. But to avoid my being run away with by
+      another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of the present letter,
+      I will here present to Mrs. Adams and yourself, the assurance of my
+      constant and sincere friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0120" id="link2H_4_0120">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXX.&mdash;TO COLONEL MONROE, January 1, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO COLONEL MONROE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 1, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letters of November the 30th and December the 21st have been received
+      with great pleasure. A truth now and then projecting into the ocean of
+      newspaper lies, serves like headlands to correct our course. Indeed, my
+      scepticism as to every thing I see in a newspaper, makes me indifferent
+      whether I ever see one. The embarrassments at Washington, in August last,
+      I expected would be great in any state of things; but they proved greater
+      than expected. I never doubted that the plans of the President were wise
+      and sufficient. Their failure we all impute, 1. To the insubordinate
+      temper of Armstrong: and, 2. To the indecision of Winder. However, it ends
+      well. It mortifies ourselves, and so may check, perhaps, the silly
+      boasting spirit of our newspapers, and it enlists the feelings of the
+      world on our side: and the advantage of public opinion is like that of the
+      weather-gage in a naval action. In Europe, the transient possession of our
+      Capital can be no disgrace. Nearly every Capital there was in possession
+      of its enemy some often and long. But diabolical as they paint that enemy,
+      he burnt neither public edifices nor private dwellings. It was reserved
+      for England to show that Bonaparte, in atrocity, was an infant to their
+      ministers and their generals. They are taking his place in the eyes of
+      Europe, and have turned into our channel all its good will. This will be
+      worth the million of dollars the repairs of their conflagrations will cost
+      us. I hope that to preserve this weather-gage of public opinion, and to
+      counteract the slanders and falsehoods disseminated by the English papers,
+      the government will make it a standing instruction to their ministers at
+      foreign courts, to keep Europe truly informed of occurrences here, by
+      publishing in their papers the naked truth always, whether favorable or
+      unfavorable. For they will believe the good, if we candidly tell them the
+      bad also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But you have two more serious causes of uneasiness; the want of men and
+      money. For the former, nothing more wise or efficient could have been
+      imagined than what you proposed. It would have filled our ranks with
+      regulars, and that, too, by throwing a just share of the burthen on the
+      purses of those whose persons are exempt either by age or office; and it
+      would have rendered our militia, like those of the Greeks and Romans, a
+      nation of warriors. But the go-by seems to have been given to your
+      proposition, and longer sufferance is necessary to force us to what is
+      best. We seem equally incorrigible in our financial course. Although a
+      century of British experience has proved to what a wonderful extent the
+      funding on specific redeeming taxes enables a nation to anticipitate in
+      war the resources of peace, and although the other nations of Europe have
+      tried and trodden every path of force or folly in fruitless quest of the
+      same object, yet we still expect to find, in juggling tricks and banking
+      dreams, that money can be made out of nothing, and in sufficient quantity
+      to meet the expenses of a heavy war by sea and land. It is said, indeed,
+      that money cannot be borrowed from our merchants as from those of England.
+      But it can be borrowed from our people. They will give you all the
+      necessaries of war they produce, if, instead of the bankrupt trash they
+      now are obliged to receive for want of any other, you will give them a
+      paper-promise funded on a specific pledge, and of a size for common
+      circulation. But you say the merchants will not take this paper. What the
+      people take the merchants must take, or sell nothing. All these doubts and
+      fears prove only the extent of the dominion which the banking institutions
+      have obtained over the minds of our citizens, and especially of those
+      inhabiting cities or other banking places; and this dominion must be
+      broken, or it will break us. But here, as in the other case, we must make
+      up our mind to suffer yet longer before we can get right. The misfortune
+      is, that in the mean time, we shall plunge ourselves into inextinguishable
+      debt, and entail on our posterity an inheritance of eternal taxes, which
+      will bring our government and people into the condition of those of
+      England, a nation of pikes and gudgeons, the latter bred merely as food
+      for the former. But, however these two difficulties of men and money may
+      be disposed of, it is fortunate that neither of them will affect our war
+      by sea. Privateers will find their own men and money. Let nothing be
+      spared to encourage them. They are the dagger which strikes at the heart
+      of the enemy, their commerce. Frigates and seventy-fours are a sacrifice
+      we must make, heavy as it is, to the prejudices of a part of our citizens.
+      They have, indeed, rendered a great moral service, which has delighted me
+      as much as any one in the United States. But they have had no physical
+      effect sensible to the enemy; and now, while we must fortify them in our
+      harbors, and keep armies to defend them, our privateers are bearding and
+      blockading the enemy in their own sea-ports. Encourage them to burn all
+      their prizes, and let the public pay for them. They will cheat us
+      enormously. No matter; they will make the merchants of England feel, and
+      squeal, and cry out for peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I much regretted your acceptance of the war department. Not that I know a
+      person who I think would better conduct it. But, conduct it ever so
+      wisely, it will be a sacrifice of yourself. Were an angel from Heaven to
+      undertake that office, all our miscarriages would be ascribed to him. Raw
+      troops, no troops, insubordinate militia, want of arms, want of money,
+      want of provisions, all will be charged to want of management in you. I
+      speak from experience, when I was Governor of Virginia. Without a regular
+      in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of the militia,
+      invaded by two armies, Arnold&rsquo;s from the sea-board, and Cornwallis&rsquo;s from
+      the southward,&mdash;when we were driven from Richmond and
+      Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it
+      was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them,
+      which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes.
+      It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not till
+      means were brought us by General Washington&rsquo;s army, and the French fleet
+      and army. And although the legislature, who were personally intimate with
+      both the means and measures, acquitted me with justice and thanks, yet
+      General Lee has put all those imputations among the romances of his
+      historical novel, for the amusement of credulous and uninquisitive
+      readers. Not that I have seen the least disposition to censure you. On the
+      contrary, your conduct on the attack of Washington has met the praises of
+      every one, and your plan for regulars and militia, their approbation. But
+      no campaign is as yet opened. No generals have yet an interest in shifting
+      their own incompetence on you, no army agents, their rogueries. I
+      sincerely pray you may never meet censure where you will deserve most
+      praise, and that your own happiness and prosperity may be the result of
+      your patriotic services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0121" id="link2H_4_0121">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXI.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, February 14, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 14, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 14th has been received and read, again and
+      again, with extraordinary pleasure. It is the first glimpse which has been
+      furnished me of the interior workings of the late unexpected but fortunate
+      revolution of your country. The newspapers told us only that the great
+      beast was fallen; but what part in this the patriots acted, and what the
+      egoists, whether the former slept while the latter were awake to their own
+      interests only, the hireling scribblers of the English press said little,
+      and knew less. I see now the mortifying alternative under which the
+      patriot there is placed, of being either silent, or disgraced by an
+      association in opposition with the remains of Bonaparteism. A full measure
+      of liberty is not now perhaps to be expected by your nation; nor am I
+      confident they are prepared to preserve it. More than a generation will be
+      requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws favoring the
+      progress of knowledge in the general mass of the people, and their
+      habituation to an independent security of person and property, before they
+      will be capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a
+      sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for preservation.
+      Instead of that liberty which takes root and growth in the progress of
+      reason, if recovered by mere force or accident, it becomes, with an
+      unprepared people, a tyranny still, of the many, the few, or the one.
+      Possibly you may remember, at the date of the <i>jeu de paume</i>, how
+      earnestly I urged yourself and the patriots of my acquaintance to enter
+      then into a compact with the King, securing freedom of religion, freedom
+      of the press, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and a national legislature,
+      all of which it was known he would then yield, to go home, and let these
+      work on the amelioration of the condition of the people, until they should
+      have rendered them capable of more, when occasions would not fail to arise
+      for communicating to them more. This was as much as I then thought them
+      able to bear, soberly and usefully for themselves. You thought otherwise,
+      and that the dose might still be larger. And I found you were right; for
+      subsequent events proved they were equal to the constitution of 1791.
+      Unfortunately, some of the most honest and enlightened of our patriotic
+      friends (but closet politicians merely, unpractised in the knowledge of
+      man) thought more could still be obtained and borne. They did not weigh
+      the hazards of a transition from one form of government to another, the
+      value of what they had already rescued from those hazards, and might hold
+      in security if they pleased, nor the imprudence of giving up the certainty
+      of such a degree of liberty, under a limited monarch, for the uncertainty
+      of a little more under the form of a republic. You differed from them. You
+      were for stopping there, and for securing the constitution which the
+      National Assembly had obtained. Here, too, you were right; and from this
+      fatal error of the republicans, from their separation from yourself and
+      the constitutionalists, in their councils, flowed all the subsequent
+      sufferings and crimes of the French nation. The hazards of a second change
+      fell upon them by the way. The foreigner gained time to anarchize by gold
+      the government he could not overthrow by arms, to crush in their own
+      councils the genuine republicans, by the fraternal embraces of exaggerated
+      and hired pretenders, and to turn the machine of Jacobinism from the
+      change to the destruction of order: and, in the end, the limited monarchy
+      they had secured was exchanged for the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of
+      Robespierre, and the equally unprincipled and maniac tyranny of Bonaparte.
+      You are now rid of him, and I sincerely wish you may continue so. But this
+      may depend on the wisdom and moderation of the restored dynasty. It is for
+      them now to read a lesson in the fatal errors of the republicans; to be
+      contented with a certain portion of power, secured by formal compact with
+      the nation, rather than, grasping at more, hazard all upon uncertainty,
+      and risk meeting the fate of their predecessor, or a renewal of their own
+      exile. We are just informed, too, of an example which merits, if true,
+      their most profound contemplation. The gazettes say, that Ferdinand of
+      Spain is dethroned, and his father re-established on the basis of their
+      new constitution. This order of magistrates must, therefore, see, that
+      although the attempts at reformation have not succeeded in their whole
+      length, and some secession from the ultimate point has taken place, yet
+      that men have by no means fallen back to their former passiveness; but on
+      the contrary, that a sense of their rights, and a restlessness to obtain
+      them, remain deeply impressed on every mind, and, if not quieted by
+      reasonable relaxations of power, will break out like a volcano on the
+      first occasion, and overwhelm every thing again in its way. I always
+      thought the present King an honest and moderate man: and having no issue,
+      he is under a motive the less for yielding to personal considerations. I
+      cannot, therefore, but hope, that the patriots in and out of your
+      legislature, acting in phalanx, but temperately and wisely, pressing
+      unremittingly the principles omitted in the late capitulation of the King,
+      and watching the occasions which the course of events will create, may get
+      those principles engrafted into it, and sanctioned by the solemnity of a
+      national act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With us the affairs of war have taken the more favorable turn which was to
+      be expected. Our thirty years of peace had taken off, or superannuated,
+      all our revolutionary officers of experience and grade; and our first
+      draught in the lottery of untried characters had been most unfortunate.
+      The delivery of the fort and army of Detroit, by the traitor Hull; the
+      disgrace at Queenstown, under Van Rensellaer; the massacre at Frenchtown,
+      under Winchester; and surrender of Boerstler in an open field to one third
+      of his own numbers, were the inauspicious beginnings of the first year of
+      our warfare. The second witnessed but the single miscarriage occasioned by
+      the disagreement of Wilkinson and Hampton, mentioned in my letter to you
+      of November the 30th, 1813; while it gave us the capture of York by
+      Dearborn and Pike; the capture of Fort George by Dearborn also; the
+      capture of Proctor&rsquo;s army on the Thames by Harrison, Shelby, and Johnson;
+      and that of the whole British fleet on Lake Erie by Perry. The third year
+      has been a continued series of victories; to wit, of Brown and Scott at
+      Chippeway; of the same at Niagara; of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie;
+      that of Brown over Drummond at the same place; the capture of another
+      fleet on Lake Champlain by M&rsquo;Donough; the entire defeat of their army
+      under Prevost, on the same day, by M&rsquo;Comb, and recently their defeats at
+      New Orleans by Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, with the loss of four
+      thousand men out of nine thousand and six hundred, with their two
+      Generals, Packingham and Gibbs killed, and a third, Keane, wounded,
+      mortally, as is said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This series of successes has been tarnished only by the conflagrations at
+      Washington, a <i>coup de main</i> differing from that at Richmond, which
+      you remember, in the revolutionary war, in the circumstance only, that we
+      had, in that case, but forty-eight hour&rsquo;s notice that an enemy had arrived
+      within our capes; whereas at Washington there was abundant previous
+      notice. The force designated by the President was the double of what was
+      necessary; but failed, as is the general opinion, through the
+      insubordination of Armstrong, who would never believe the attack intended
+      until it was actually made, and the sluggishness of Winder before the
+      occasion, and his indecision during it. Still, in the end, the transaction
+      has helped rather than hurt us, by arousing the general indignation of our
+      country, and by marking to the world of Europe the Vandalism and brutal
+      character of the English government. It has merely served to immortalize
+      their infamy. And add further, that through the whole period of the war,
+      we have beaten them single-handed at sea, and so thoroughly established
+      our superiority over them with equal force, that they retire from that
+      kind of contest, and never suffer their frigates to cruise singly. The
+      Endymion would never have engaged the frigate President, but knowing
+      herself backed by three frigates and a razee, who, though somewhat slower
+      sailors, would get up before she could be taken. The disclosure to the
+      world of the fatal secret that they can be beaten at sea with an equal
+      force, the evidence furnished by the military operations of the last year
+      that experience is rearing us officers, who, when our means shall be fully
+      under way, will plant our standard on the walls of Quebec and Halifax,
+      their recent and signal disaster at New Orleans, and the evaporation of
+      their hopes from the Hartford Convention, will probably raise a clamor in
+      the British nation, which will force their ministry into peace. I say
+      force them; because, willingly, they would never be at peace. The British
+      ministers find in a state of war rather than of peace, by riding the
+      various contractors, and receiving douceurs on the vast expenditures of
+      the war supplies, that they recruit their broken fortunes, or make new
+      ones, and therefore will not make peace, as long as by any delusions they
+      can keep the temper of the nation up to the war point. They found some
+      hopes on the state of our finances. It is true, that the excess of our
+      banking institutions, and their present discredit, have shut us out from
+      the best source of credit we could ever command with certainty. But the
+      foundations of credit still remain to us, and need but skill, which
+      experience will soon produce, to marshal them into an order which may
+      carry us through any length of war. But they have hoped more in their
+      Hartford Convention. Their fears of republican France being now done away,
+      they are directed to republican America, and they are playing the same
+      game for disorganization here, which they played in your country. The
+      Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in the same
+      pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to anarchize us,
+      that their prototypes in France did there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not say that all who met at Hartford were under the same motives of
+      money: nor were those of France. Some of them are Outs, and wish to be
+      Ins; some the mere dupes of the agitators, or of their own party passions;
+      while the Maratists alone are in the real secret: but they have very
+      different materials to work on. The yeomanry of the United States are not
+      the canaille of Paris. We might safely give them leave to go through the
+      United States recruiting their ranks, and I am satisfied they could not
+      raise one single regiment (gambling merchants and silk-stocking clerks
+      excepted), who would support them in any effort to separate from the
+      Union. The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every American. I
+      do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable
+      a basis. Let them, in any State, even in Massachusetts itself, raise the
+      standard of separation, and its citizens will rise in mass, and do justice
+      themselves on their own incendiaries. If they could have induced the
+      government to some effort of suppression, or even to enter into discussion
+      with them, it would have given them some importance, have brought them
+      into some notice. But they have not been able to make themselves even a
+      subject of conversation, either of public or private societies. A silent
+      contempt has been the sole notice they could excite; consoled, indeed,
+      some of them, by the palpable favors of Philip. Have then no fears for us,
+      my friend. The grounds of these exist only in English newspapers, endited
+      or endowed by the Castlereaghs or the Cannings, or some other such models
+      of pure and uncorrupted virtue. Their military heroes, by land and sea,
+      may sink our oyster-boats, rob our hen-roosts, burn our negro-huts, and
+      run off. But a campaign or two more will relieve them from further trouble
+      or expense in defending their American possessions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You once gave me a copy of the journal of your campaign in Virginia, in
+      1781, which I must have lent to some one of the undertakers to write the
+      history of the revolutionary war, and forgot to reclaim. I conclude this,
+      because it is no longer among my papers, which I have very diligently
+      searched for it, but in vain. An author of real ability is now writing
+      that part of the history of Virginia. He does it in my neighborhood, and I
+      lay open to him all my papers. But I possess none, nor has he any, which
+      can enable him to do justice to your faithful and able services in that
+      campaign. If you could be so good as to send me another copy, by the very
+      first vessel bound to any port of the United States, it might be here in
+      time; for although he expects to begin to print within a month or two, yet
+      you know the delays of these undertakings. At any rate, it might be got in
+      as a supplement. The old Count Rochambeau gave me also his memoire of the
+      operations at York, which is gone the same way, and I have no means of
+      applying to his family for it. Perhaps you could render them as well as
+      us, the service of procuring another copy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn, with real sorrow, the deaths of Monsieur and Madame de Tesse.
+      They made an interesting part in the idle reveries in which I have
+      sometimes indulged myself, of seeing all my friends of Paris once more,
+      for a month or two; a thing impossible, which, however, I never permitted
+      myself to despair of. The regrets, however, of seventy-three at the loss
+      of friends, may be the less, as the time is shorter within which we are to
+      meet again, according to the creed of our education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will be handed you by Mr. Ticknor, a young gentleman of
+      Boston, of great erudition, indefatigable industry, and preparation for a
+      life of distinction, in his own country. He passed a few days with me
+      here, brought high recommendations from Mr. Adams and others, and appeared
+      in every respect to merit them. He is well worthy of those attentions
+      which you so kindly bestow on our countrymen, and for those he may receive
+      I shall join him in acknowledging personal obligations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th; Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P.S. February 26. My letter had not yet been sealed, when I received news
+      of our peace. I am glad of it, and especially that we closed our war with
+      the eclat of the action at New Orleans. But I consider it as an armistice
+      only, because no security is provided against the impressment of our
+      seamen. While this is unsettled we are in hostility of mind with England,
+      although actual deeds of arms may be suspended by a truce. If she thinks
+      the exercise of this outrage is worth eternal war, eternal war it must be,
+      or extermination of the one or the other party. The first act of
+      impressment she commits on an American, will be answered by reprisal, or
+      by a declaration of war here; and the interval must be merely a state of
+      preparation for it. In this we have much to do, in further fortifying our
+      seaport towns, providing military stores, classing and disciplining our
+      militia, arranging our financial, system, and above all, pushing our
+      domestic manufactures, which have taken such root as never again can be
+      shaken. Once more, God bless you. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0122" id="link2H_4_0122">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXII.*&mdash;TO MR. WENDOVER, March 13, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. WENDOVER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 13, 1815.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This is endorsed;&rsquo; not sent.&lsquo;]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of January the 30th was received after long delay on the road,
+      and I have to thank you for the volume of Discourses which you have been
+      so kind as to send me. I have gone over them with great satisfaction, and
+      concur with the able preacher in his estimate of the character of the
+      belligerents in our late war, and lawfulness of defensive war. I consider
+      the war, with him, as &lsquo;made on good advice,&rsquo; that is, for just causes, and
+      its dispensation as providential, inasmuch, as it has exercised our
+      patriotism and submission to order, has planted and invigorated among us
+      arts of urgent necessity, has manifested the strong and the weak parts of
+      our republican institutions, and the excellence of a representative
+      democracy compared with the misrule of Kings, has rallied the opinions of
+      mankind to the natural rights of expatriation, and of a common property in
+      the ocean, and raised us to that grade in the scale of nations which the
+      bravery and liberality of our citizen soldiers, by land and by sea, the
+      wisdom of our institutions and their observance of justice, entitled us to
+      in the eyes of the world. All this Mr. McLeod has well proved, and from
+      those sources of argument particularly which belong to his profession. On
+      one question only I differ from him, and it is that which constitutes the
+      subject of his first discourse, the right of discussing public affairs in
+      the pulpit. I add the last words, because I admit the right in general
+      conversation and in writing; in which last form it has been exercised in
+      the valuable book you have now favored me with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mass of human concerns, moral and physical, is so vast, the field of
+      knowledge requisite for man to conduct them to the best advantage is so
+      extensive, that no human being can acquire the whole himself, and much
+      less in that degree necessary for the instruction of others. It has of
+      necessity, then, been distributed into different departments, each of
+      which, singly, may give occupation enough to the whole time and attention
+      of a single individual. Thus we have teachers of Languages, teachers of
+      Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, of Chemistry, of Medicine, of Law, of
+      History, of Government, &amp;c. Religion, too, is a separate department,
+      and happens to be the only one deemed requisite for all men, however high
+      or low. Collections of men associate together, under the name of
+      congregations, and employ a religious teacher of the particular sect of
+      opinions of which they happen to be, and contribute to make up a stipend
+      as a compensation for the trouble of delivering them, at such periods as
+      they agree on, lessons in the religion they profess. If they want
+      instruction in other sciences or arts, they apply to other instructers;
+      and this is generally the business of early life. But I suppose there is
+      not an instance of a single congregation which has employed their preacher
+      for the mixt purpose of lecturing them from the pulpit, in Chemistry, in
+      Medicine, in Law, in the science and principles of Government, or in any
+      thing but Religion exclusively. Whenever, therefore, preachers, instead of
+      a lesson in religion, put them off with a discourse on the Copernican
+      system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the
+      characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of
+      contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they
+      are salaried, and giving them, instead it, what they did not want, or if
+      wanted, would rather seek from better sources in that particular art or
+      science. In choosing our pastor we look to his religious qualifications,
+      without inquiring into his physical or political dogmas, with which we
+      mean to have nothing to do. I am aware that arguments may be found, which
+      may twist a thread of politics into the cord of religious duties. So may
+      they for every other branch of human art or science. Thus, for example, it
+      is a religious duty to obey the laws of our country: the teacher of
+      religion, therefore, must instruct us in those laws, that we may know how
+      to obey them. It is a religious duty to assist our sick neighbors: the
+      preacher must, therefore, teach us medicine, that we may do it
+      understandingly. It is a religious duty to preserve our own health: our
+      religious teacher, then, must tell us what dishes are wholesome, and give
+      us recipes in cookery, that we may learn how to prepare them. And so
+      ingenuity, by generalizing more and more, may amalgamate all the branches
+      of science into any one of them, and the physician who is paid to visit
+      the sick, may give a sermon instead of medicine; and the merchant to whom
+      money is sent for a hat, may send a handkerchief instead of it. But not
+      withstanding this possible confusion of all sciences into one, common
+      sense draws lines between them sufficiently distinct for the general
+      purposes of life, and no one is at a loss to understand that a recipe in
+      medicine or cookery, or a demonstration in geometry, is not a lesson in
+      religion. I do not deny that a congregation may, if they please, agree
+      with their preacher that he shall instruct them in Medicine also, or Law,
+      or Politics. Then, lectures in these, from the pulpit, become not only a
+      matter of right, but of duty also. But this must be with the consent of
+      every individual; because the association being voluntary, the mere
+      majority has no right to apply the contributions of the minority to
+      purposes unspecified in the agreement of the congregation. I agree, too,
+      that on all other occasions the preacher has the right, equally with every
+      other citizen, to express his sentiments, in speaking or writing, on the
+      subjects of Medicine, Law, Politics, he, his leisure time being his own,
+      and his congregation not obliged to listen to his conversation, or to read
+      his writings; and no one would have regretted more than myself, had any
+      scruple as to this right, withheld from us the valuable discourses which
+      have led to the expression of an opinion as to the true limits of the
+      right. I feel my portion of indebtment to the reverend author, for the
+      distinguished learning, the logic, and the eloquence, with which he had
+      proved that religion, as well as reason, confirms the soundness of those
+      principles on which our government has been founded and its rights
+      asserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These are my views of this question. They are in opposition to those of
+      the highly respected and able preacher, and are therefore the more
+      doubtingly offered. Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to
+      truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both.
+      We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our
+      constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to
+      ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unaccustomed to reserve or mystery in the expression of my opinions, I
+      have opened myself frankly on a question suggested by your letter and
+      present. And although I have not the honor of your acquaintance, this mark
+      of attention, and still more the sentiments of esteem so kindly expressed
+      in your letter, are entitled to a confidence that observations not
+      intended for the public will not be ushered to their notice, as has
+      happened to me sometimes. Tranquillity, at my age, is the balm of life.
+      While I know I am safe in the honor and charity of a McLeod, I do not wish
+      to be cast forth to the Marats, the Dantons, and the Robespierres of the
+      priesthood: I mean the Parishes, the Osgoods, and the Gardiners of
+      Massachusetts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0123" id="link2H_4_0123">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIII.&mdash;TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY, March 16, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 16, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend and Ancient Colleague,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of February the 19th has been received with very sincere
+      pleasure. It recalls to memory the sociability, the friendship, and the
+      harmony of action which united personal happiness with public duties,
+      during the portion of our lives in which we acted together. Indeed, the
+      affectionate harmony of our cabinet is among the sweetest of my
+      recollections. I have just received a letter of friendship from General
+      Dearborn. He writes me that he is now retiring from every species of
+      public occupation, to pass the remainder of life as a private citizen; and
+      he promises me a visit in the course of the summer. As you hold out a hope
+      of the same gratification, if chance or purpose could time your visits
+      together, it would make a real jubilee. But come as you will, or as you
+      can, it will always be joy enough to me. Only you must give me a month&rsquo;s
+      notice; because I go three or four times a year to a possession ninety
+      miles southwestward, and am absent a month at a time, and the
+      mortification would be indelible of losing such a visit by a mistimed
+      absence. You will find me in habitual good health, great contentedness,
+      enfeebled in body, impaired in memory, but without decay in my
+      friendships.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great, indeed, have been the revolutions in the world, since you and I
+      have had any thing to do with it. To me they have been like the howlings
+      of the winter storm over the battlements, while warm in my bed. The
+      unprincipled tyrant of the land is fallen, his power reduced to its
+      original nothingness, his person only not yet in the mad-house, where it
+      ought always to have been. His equally unprincipled competitor, the tyrant
+      of the ocean, in the mad-house indeed, in person, but his power still
+      stalking over the deep. &lsquo;<i>Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat</i>.&rsquo;
+      The madness is acknowledged; the perdition of course impending. Are we to
+      be the instruments? A friendly, a just, and a reasonable conduct on their
+      part, might make us the main pillar of their prosperity and existence. But
+      their deep-rooted hatred to us seems to be the means which Providence
+      permits to lead them to their final catastrophe. &lsquo;<i>Nullam enim in terris
+      gentem esse, nullum infestiorem populum, nomini Romano</i>, said the
+      General who erased Capua from the list of powers. What nourishment and
+      support would not England receive from an hundred millions of industrious
+      descendants, whom some of her people now born will live to see here. What
+      their energies are, she has lately tried. And what has she not to fear
+      from an hundred millions of such men, if she continues her maniac course
+      of hatred and hostility to them. I hope in God she will change. There is
+      not a nation on the globe with whom I have more earnestly wished a
+      friendly intercourse on equal conditions. On no other would I hold out the
+      hand of friendship to any. I know that their creatures represent me as
+      personally an enemy to England. But fools only can believe this, or those
+      who think me a fool. I am an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an
+      enemy to the flagitious principles of her administration, and to those
+      which govern her conduct towards other nations. But would she give to
+      morality some place in her political code, and especially would she
+      exercise decency, and at least neutral passions towards us, there is not,
+      I repeat it, a people on earth with whom I would sacrifice so much to be
+      in friendship. They can do us, as enemies, more harm than any other
+      nation; and in peace and in war, they have more means of disturbing us
+      internally. Their merchants established among us, the bonds by which our
+      own are chained to their feet, and the banking combinations interwoven
+      with the whole, have shown the extent of their control, even during a war
+      with her. They are the workers of all the embarrassments our finances have
+      experienced during the war. Declaring themselves bankrupt, they have been
+      able still to chain the government to a dependence on them; and had the
+      war continued, they would have reduced us to the inability to command a
+      single dollar. They dared to proclaim that they would not pay their own
+      paper obligations, yet our government could not venture to avail
+      themselves of this opportunity of sweeping their paper from the
+      circulation, and substituting their own notes bottomed on specific taxes
+      for redemption, which every one would have eagerly taken and trusted,
+      rather than the baseless trash of bankrupt companies; our government, I
+      say, have still been overawed from a contest with them, and have even
+      countenanced and strengthened their influence, by proposing new
+      establishments, with authority to swindle yet greater sums from our
+      citizens. This is the British influence to which I am an enemy, and which
+      we must subject to our government, or it will subject us to that of
+      Britain.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Come and gratify, by seeing you once more, a friend, who assures you with
+      sincerity of his constant and affectionate attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0124" id="link2H_4_0124">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIV.&mdash;TO GENERAL DEARBORN, March 17, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL DEARBORN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 17, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear General, Friend, and Ancient Colleague,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received your favor of February the 27th, with very great pleasure,
+      and sincerely reciprocate congratulations on the late events. Peace was
+      indeed desirable; yet it would not have been as welcome without the
+      successes of New Orleans. These last have established truths too important
+      not to be valued; that the people of Louisiana are sincerely attached to
+      the Union; that their city can be defended; that the western States make
+      its defence their peculiar concern; that the militia are brave; that their
+      deadly aim countervails the manoeuvring skill of their enemy; that we have
+      officers of natural genius now starting forward from the mass; and that,
+      putting together all our conflicts, we can beat the British, by sea and by
+      land, with equal numbers. All this being now proved, I am glad of the
+      pacification of Ghent, and shall still be more so, if, by a reasonable
+      arrangement against impressment, they will make it truly a treaty of
+      peace, and not a mere truce, as we must all consider it, until the
+      principle of the war is settled. Nor, among the incidents of the war, will
+      we forget your services. After the disasters produced by the treason or
+      the cowardice, or both, of Hull, and the follies of some others, your
+      capture of York and Fort George first turned the tide of success in our
+      favor; and the subsequent campaigns sufficiently wiped away the disgraces
+      of the first. If it were justifiable to look to your own happiness only,
+      your resolution to retire from all public business could not but be
+      approved. But you are too young to ask a discharge as yet, and the public
+      counsels too much needing the wisdom of our ablest citizens, to relinquish
+      their claim on you. And surely none needs your aid more than your own
+      State. Oh, Massachusetts! how have I lamented the degradation of your
+      apostacy! Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 1776, whose vote
+      was my vote on every public question, and whose principles were then the
+      standard of whatever was free or fearless. But then she was under the
+      counsels of the two Adamses; while Strong, her present leader, was
+      promoting petitions for submission to British power and British
+      usurpation. While under her present counsels, she must be contented to be
+      nothing; as having a vote, indeed, to be counted, but not respected. But
+      should the State once more buckle on her republican harness, we shall
+      receive her again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among the
+      crimes only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold what
+      their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look forward,
+      then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her venal traitors,
+      shall be the signal of return to the bosom and to the principles of her
+      brethren; and if her late humiliation can just give her modesty enough to
+      suppose that her southern brethren are somewhat on a par with her in
+      wisdom, in information, in patriotism, in bravery, and even in honesty,
+      although not in psalm-singing, she will more justly estimate her own
+      relative momentum in the Union. With her ancient principles, she would
+      really be great, if she did not think herself the whole. I should be
+      pleased to hear that you go into her councils, and assist in bringing her
+      back to those principles, and to a sober satisfaction with her
+      proportionable share in the direction of our affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Be so good as to lay my homage at the feet of Mrs. Dearborn, and to be
+      assured that I am ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0125" id="link2H_4_0125">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXV.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, March 23,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 23,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deak Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of the 12th, and with it the pamphlet on the
+      causes and conduct of the war, which I now return. I have read it with
+      great pleasure, but with irresistible desire that it should be published.
+      The reasons in favor of this are strong, and those against it are so
+      easily gotten over, that there appears to me no balance between them. 1.
+      We need it in Europe. They have totally mistaken our character. Accustomed
+      to rise at a feather themselves, and to be always fighting, they will see
+      in our conduct, fairly stated, that acquiescence under wrong, to a certain
+      degree, is wisdom, and not pusillanimity; and that peace and happiness are
+      preferable to that false honor, which, by eternal wars, keeps their people
+      in eternal labor, want, and wretchedness. 2. It is necessary for the
+      people of England, who have been deceived as to the causes and conduct of
+      the war, and do not entertain a doubt, that it was entirely wanton and
+      wicked on our part, and under the order of Bonaparte. By rectifying their
+      ideas, it will tend to that conciliation which is absolutely necessary to
+      the peace and prosperity of both nations. 3. It is necessary for our own
+      people, who, although they have known the details as they went along, yet
+      have been so plied with false facts and false views by; the federalists,
+      that some impression has been left that all has not been right. It may be
+      said that it will be thought unfriendly. But truths necessary for our own
+      character, must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators.
+      Although written, generally, with great moderation, there may be some
+      things in the pamphlet which may perhaps irritate. The characterizing
+      every act, for example, by its appropriate epithet, is not necessary to
+      show its deformity to an intelligent reader. The naked narrative will
+      present it truly to his mind, and the more strongly, from its moderation,
+      as he will perceive that no exaggeration is aimed at. Rubbing down these
+      roughnesses (and they are neither many nor prominent), and preserving the
+      original date, might, I think, remove all the offensiveness, and give more
+      effect to the publication. Indeed, I think that a soothing postscript,
+      addressed to the interests, the prospects, and the sober reason of both
+      nations, would make it acceptable to both. The trifling, expense of
+      reprinting it ought not to be considered a moment. Mr. Gallatin could have
+      it translated into French, and suffer it to get abroad in Europe without
+      either avowal or disavowal. But it would be useful to print some copies of
+      an appendix, containing all the documents referred to, to be preserved in
+      libraries, and to facilitate to the present and future writers of history,
+      the acquisition of the materials which test the truths it contains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the
+      eclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was fraught
+      with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends, and will
+      powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of Europe. It
+      will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and count no odds
+      when engaged in our own. I presume, that, having spared to the pride of
+      England her formal acknowledgment of the atrocity of impressment in an
+      article of the treaty, she will concur in a convention for relinquishing
+      it. Without this, she must understand that the present is but a truce,
+      determinable on the first act of impressment of an American citizen,
+      committed by any officer of hers. Would it not be better that this
+      convention should be a separate act, unconnected with any treaty of
+      commerce, and made an indispensable preliminary to all other treaty? If
+      blended with a treaty of commerce, she will make it the price of injurious
+      concessions. Indeed, we are infinitely better without such treaties with
+      any nation. We cannot too distinctly detach ourselves from the European
+      system, which is essentially belligerent, nor too sedulously cultivate an
+      American system, essentially pacific. But if we go into commercial
+      treaties at all, they should be with all, at the same time, with whom we
+      have important commercial relations. France, Spain, Portugal, Holland,
+      Denmark, Sweden, Russia, all should proceed <i>pari passu</i>. Our
+      ministers marching in phalanx on the same line, and intercommunicating
+      freely, each will be supported by the weight of the whole mass, and the
+      facility with which the other nations will agree to equal terms of
+      intercourse, will discountenance the selfish higglings of England, or
+      justify our rejection of them. Perhaps with all of them it would be best
+      to have but the single article <i>gentis amicissimæ</i>, leaving every
+      thing else to the usages and courtesies of civilized nations. But all
+      these things will occur to yourself, with their counter considerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Smith wrote to me on the transportation of the library, and
+      particularly, that it is submitted to your direction. He mentioned also,
+      that Dougherty would be engaged to superintend it. No one will more
+      carefully and faithfully execute all those duties which would belong to a
+      wagon-master. But it requires a character acquainted with books, to
+      receive the library. I am now employing as many hours of every day as my
+      strength will permit, in arranging the books, and putting every one in its
+      place on the shelves, corresponding with its order in the catalogue, and
+      shall have them numbered correspondently. This operation will employ me a
+      considerable time yet. Then I should wish a competent agent to attend,
+      and, with the catalogue in his hand, see that every book is on the
+      shelves, and have their lids nailed on, one by one, as he proceeds. This
+      would take such a person about two days; after which, Dougherty&rsquo;s business
+      would be the mere mechanical removal, at convenience. I enclose you a
+      letter from Mr. Milligan, offering his service, which would not cost more
+      than eight or ten days&rsquo; reasonable compensation. This is necessary for my
+      safety, and your satisfaction, as a just caution for the public. You know
+      there are persons, both in and out of the public councils, who will seize
+      every occasion of imputation on either of us, the more difficult to be
+      repelled in this case, in which a negative could not be proved. If you
+      approve of it, therefore, as soon as I am through the review, I will give
+      notice to Mr. Milligan, or any other person whom you will name, to come on
+      immediately. Indeed it would be well worth while to add to his duty, that
+      of covering the books with a little paper (the good bindings at least),
+      and filling the vacancies of the presses with paper-parings, to be brought
+      from Washington. This would add little more to the time, as he could carry
+      on both operations at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+      respect,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0126" id="link2H_4_0126">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, June 10,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 10,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is long since we have exchanged a letter, and yet what volumes might
+      have been written on the occurrences even of the last three months. In the
+      first place, peace, God bless it! has returned, to put us all again into a
+      course of lawful and laudable pursuits: a new trial of the Bourbons has
+      proved to the world their incompetence to the functions of the station
+      they have occupied: and the recall of the usurper has clothed him with the
+      semblance of a legitimate autocrat. If adversity should have taught him
+      wisdom, of which I have little expectation, he may yet render some service
+      to mankind, by teaching the ancient dynasties that they can be changed for
+      misrule, and by wearing down the maritime power of England to limitable
+      and safe dimensions. But it is not possible he should love us; and of that
+      our commerce had sufficient proofs during his power. Our military
+      achievements, indeed, which he is capable of estimating, may in some
+      degree moderate the effect of his aversions; and he may perhaps fancy that
+      we are to become the natural enemies of England, as England herself has so
+      steadily endeavored to make us, and as some of our own over-zealous
+      patriots would be willing to proclaim; and in this view, he may admit a
+      cold toleration of some intercourse and commerce between the two nations.
+      He has certainly had time to see the folly of turning the industry of
+      France from the cultures for which nature has so highly endowed her, to
+      those of sugar, cotton, tobacco, and others, which the same creative power
+      has given to other climates: and, on the whole, if he can conquer the
+      passions of his tyrannical soul, if he has understanding enough to pursue
+      from motives of interest, what no moral motives lead him to, the tranquil
+      happiness and prosperity of his country, rather than a ravenous thirst for
+      human blood, his return may become of more advantage than injury to us.
+      And if again some great man could arise in England, who could see and
+      correct the follies of his nation in their conduct as to us, and by
+      exercising justice and comity towards ours, bring both into a state of
+      temperate and useful friendship, it is possible we might thus attain the
+      place we ought to occupy between these two nations, without being degraded
+      to the condition of mere partisans of either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little time will now inform us, whether France, within its proper
+      limits, is big enough for its ruler, on the one hand, and whether, on the
+      other, the allied powers are either wicked or foolish enough to attempt
+      the forcing on the French, a ruler and government which they refuse;
+      whether they will risk their own thrones to re-establish that of the
+      Bourbons. If this is attempted, and the European world again committed to
+      war, will the jealousy of England at the commerce which neutrality will
+      give us, induce her again to add us to the number of her enemies, rather
+      than see us prosper in the pursuit of peace and industry? And have our
+      commercial citizens merited from their country its encountering another
+      war to protect their gambling enterprises? That the persons of our
+      citizens shall be safe in freely traversing the ocean, that the
+      transportation of our own produce, in our own vessels, to the markets of
+      our choice, and the return to us of the articles we want for our own use,
+      shall be unmolested, I hold to be fundamental, and that the gauntlet must
+      be for ever hurled at him who questions it. But whether we shall engage in
+      every war of Europe, to protect the mere agency of our merchants and
+      shipowners in carrying on the commerce of other nations, even were those
+      merchants and ship-owners to take the side of their country in the
+      contest, instead of that of the enemy, is a question of deep and serious
+      consideration, with which, however, you and I shall have nothing to do; so
+      we will leave it to those whom it will concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for making known to me Mr. Ticknor and Mr. Gray. They are fine
+      young men, indeed, and if Massachusetts can raise a few more such, it is
+      probable she would be better counselled as to social rights and social
+      duties. Mr. Ticknor is, particularly, the best bibliograph I have met
+      with, and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of reprocuring
+      some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded to Congress, to
+      replace the devastations of British Vandalism at Washington. I cannot live
+      without books. But fewer will suffice, where amusement, and not use, is
+      the only future object. I am about sending him a catalogue, to which less
+      than his critical knowledge of books would hardly be adequate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present my high respects to Mrs. Adams, and accept yourself the assurances
+      of my affectionate attachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0127" id="link2H_4_0127">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVII.&mdash;TO MR. LEIPER, June 12, 1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. LEIPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 12, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A journey soon after the receipt of your favor of April the 17th and an
+      absence from home of some continuance, have prevented my earlier
+      acknowledgment of it. In that came safely my letter of January the 2nd,
+      1814. In our principles of government we differ not at all; nor in the
+      general object and tenor of political measures. We concur in considering
+      the government of England as totally without morality, insolent beyond
+      bearing, inflated with vanity and ambition, aiming at the exclusive
+      dominion of the sea, lost in corruption, of deep-rooted hatred towards us,
+      hostile to liberty wherever it endeavors to show its head, and the eternal
+      disturber of the peace of the world. In our estimate of Bonaparte, I
+      suspect we differ. I view him as a political engine only, and a very
+      wicked one; you, I believe, as both political and religious, and obeying,
+      as an instrument, an unseen hand. I still deprecate his becoming sole lord
+      of the continent of Europe, which he would have been, had he reached in
+      triumph the gates of Petersburg. The establishment in our day of another
+      Roman. empire, spreading vassalage and depravity over the face of the
+      globe, is not, I hope, within the purposes of Heaven. Nor does the return
+      of Bonaparte give me pleasure unmixed; I see in his expulsion of the
+      Bourbons, a valuable lesson to the world, as showing that its ancient
+      dynasties may be changed for their misrule. Should the allied powers
+      presume to dictate a ruler and government to France, and follow the
+      example he had set of parcelling and usurping to themselves their neighbor
+      nations, I hope he will give them another lesson in vindication of the
+      rights of independence and self-government, which himself had heretofore
+      so much abused, and that in this contest he will wear down the maritime
+      power of England to limitable and safe dimensions. So far, good. It cannot
+      be denied, on the other hand, that his successful perversion of the force
+      (committed to him for vindicating the rights and liberties of his country)
+      to usurp its government, and to enchain it under an hereditary despotism,
+      is of baneful effect in encouraging future usurpations, and deterring
+      those under oppression from rising to redress themselves. His restless
+      spirit leaves no hope of peace to the world; and his hatred of us is only
+      a little less than that he bears to England, and England to us. Our form
+      of government is odious to him, as a standing contrast between republican
+      and despotic rule; and as much from that hatred, as from ignorance in
+      political economy, he had excluded intercourse between us and his people,
+      by prohibiting the only articles they wanted from us, that is, cotton and
+      tobacco. Whether the war we have had with England, the achievements of
+      that war, and the hope that we may become his instruments and partisans
+      against that enemy, may induce him, in future, to tolerate our commercial
+      intercourse with his people, is still to be seen. For my part, I wish that
+      all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which
+      are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a
+      salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace,
+      commerce, and friendship may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our
+      business to manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep all markets
+      open for what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the
+      amities or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no
+      distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the
+      stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power,
+      and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The federal misrepresentation of my sentiments, which occasioned my former
+      letter to you, was gross enough; but that and all others are exceeded by
+      the impudence and falsehood of the printed extract you sent me from
+      Ralph&rsquo;s paper. That a continuance of the embargo for two months longer
+      would have prevented our war; that the non-importation law which succeeded
+      it was a wise and powerful measure, I have constantly maintained. My
+      friendship for Mr. Madison, my confidence in his wisdom and virtue, and my
+      approbation of all his measures, and especially of his taking up at length
+      the gauntlet against England, is known to all with whom I have ever
+      conversed or corresponded on these measures. The word federal, or its
+      synonyme &amp;c., may therefore be written under every word of Mr. Ralph&rsquo;s
+      paragraph. I have ransacked my memory to recollect any incident which
+      might have given countenance to any particle of it, but I find none. For
+      if you will except the bringing into power and importance those who were
+      enemies to himself as well as to the principles of republican government,
+      I do not recollect a single measure of the President which I have not
+      approved. Of those under him, and of some very near him, there have been
+      many acts of which we have all disapproved, and he more than we. We have
+      at times dissented from the measures, and lamented the dilatoriness of
+      Congress. I recollect an instance the first winter of the war, when, from
+      sloth of proceedings, an embargo was permitted to run through the winter,
+      while the enemy could not cruise, nor consequently restrain the
+      exportation of our whole produce, and was taken off in the spring, as soon
+      as they could resume their stations. But this procrastination is
+      unavoidable. How can expedition be expected from a body which we have
+      saddled with an hundred lawyers, whose trade is talking? But lies, to sow
+      divisions among us, are so stale an artifice of the federal prints, and
+      are so well understood, that they need neither contradiction nor
+      explanation. As to myself, my confidence in the wisdom and integrity of
+      the administration is so entire, that I scarcely notice what is passing,
+      and have almost ceased to read newspapers. Mine remain in our post-office
+      a week or ten days, sometimes, unasked for. I find more amusement in
+      studies to which I was always more attached, and from which I was dragged
+      by the events of the times in which I have happened to live.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice exceedingly that our war with England was single-handed. In that
+      of the Revolution, we had France, Spain, and Holland on our side, and the
+      credit of its success was given to them. On the late occasion, unprepared
+      and unexpecting war, we were compelled to declare it, and to receive the
+      attack of England, just issuing from a general war, fully armed, and freed
+      from all other enemies, and have not only made her sick of it, but glad to
+      prevent, by a peace, the capture of her adjacent possessions, which one or
+      two campaigns more would infallibly have made ours. She has found that we
+      can do her more injury than any other enemy on earth, and henceforward
+      will better estimate the value of our peace. But whether her government
+      has power, in opposition to the aristocracy of her navy, to restrain their
+      piracies within the limits of national rights, may well be doubted. I
+      pray, therefore, for peace, as best for all the world, best for us, and
+      best for me, who have already lived to see three wars, and now pant for
+      nothing more than to be permitted to depart in peace. That you also, who
+      have longer to live, may continue to enjoy this blessing with health and
+      prosperity, through as long a life as you desire, is the prayer of yours
+      affectionately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. June the 14th. Before I had sent my letter to the post-office, I
+      received the new treaty of the allied powers, declaring that the French
+      nation shall not have Bonaparte, and shall have Louis XVIII for their
+      ruler. They are all then as great rascals, as Bonaparte himself. While he
+      was in the wrong, I wished him exactly as much success as would answer our
+      purposes, and no more. Now that they are wrong and he in the right, he
+      shall have all my prayers for success, and that he may dethrone every man
+      of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0128" id="link2H_4_0128">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 10,1815
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 10,1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The simultaneous movements in our correspondence have been remarkable on
+      several occasions. It would seem as if the state of the air, or state of
+      the times, or some other unknown cause, produced a sympathetic effect on
+      our mutual recollections. I had sat down to answer your letters of June
+      the 19th, 20th, and 22nds with pen, ink, and paper, before me, when I
+      received from our mail that of July the 30th. You ask information on the
+      subject of Camus. All I recollect of him is, that he was one of the
+      deputies sent to arrest Dumourier at the head of his army, who were,
+      however, themselves arrested by Dumourier, and long detained as prisoners.
+      I presume, therefore, he was a Jacobin. You will find his character in the
+      most excellent revolutionary history of Toulongeon. I believe also, he may
+      be the same person who has given us a translation of Aristotle&rsquo;s Natural
+      History, from the Greek into French. Of his report to the National
+      Institute on the subject of the Bollandists, your letter gives me the
+      first information. I had supposed them defunct with the society of
+      Jesuits, of which they were: and that their works, although above ground,
+      were, from their bulk and insignificance, as effectually entombed on their
+      shelves, as if in the graves of their authors. Fifty-two volumes in folio,
+      of the <i>acta sanctorum</i>, in dog-Latin, would be a formidable
+      enterprise to the most laborious German. I expect, with you, they are the
+      most enormous mass of lies, frauds, hypocrisy, and imposture, that ever
+      was heaped together on this globe. By what chemical process M. Camus
+      supposed that an extract of truth could be obtained from such a farrago of
+      falsehood, I must leave to the chemists and moralists of the age to
+      divine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the subject of the history of the American Revolution you ask who shall
+      write it? Who can write it? And who will ever be able to write it? Nobody;
+      except merely its external facts; all its councils, designs, and
+      discussions having been conducted by Congress with closed doors, and no
+      member, as far as I know, having even made notes of them. These, which are
+      the life and soul of history, must for ever be unknown. Botta, as you
+      observe, has put his own speculations and reasonings into the mouths of
+      persons whom he names, but who, you and I know, never made such speeches.
+      In this he has followed the example of the ancients, who made their great
+      men deliver long speeches, all of them in the same style, and in that of
+      the author himself. The work is nevertheless a good one, more judicious,
+      more chaste, more classical, and more true, than the party diatribe of
+      Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken too much from him. I
+      possessed the work, and often recurred to considerable portions of it,
+      although I never read it through. But a very judicious and well informed
+      neighbor of mine went through it with great attention, and spoke very
+      highly of it. I have said that no member of the old Congress, as far as I
+      knew, made notes of the discussions. I did not knew of the speeches you
+      mention of Dickinson and Witherspoon But on the questions of Independence,
+      and on the two articles of Confederation respecting taxes and voting, I
+      took minutes of the heads of the arguments. On the first, I threw all into
+      one mass, without ascribing to the speakers their respective arguments;
+      pretty much in the manner of Hume&rsquo;s summary digests of the reasonings in
+      parliament for and against a measure. On the last, I stated the heads of
+      arguments used by each speaker. But the whole of my notes on the question
+      of Independence does not occupy more than five pages, such as of this
+      letter: and on the other questions, two such sheets. They have never been
+      communicated to any one. Do you know that there exists in manuscript the
+      ablest work of this kind ever yet executed, of the debates of the
+      constitutional convention of Philadelphia in 1788? The whole of every
+      thing said and done there was taken down by Mr. Madison, with a labor and
+      exactness beyond comprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I presume that our correspondence has been observed at the post-offices,
+      and thus has attracted notice. Would you believe, that a printer has had
+      the effrontery to propose to me the letting him publish it? These people
+      think they have a right to every thing, however secret or sacred. I had
+      not before heard of the Boston pamphlet with Priestley&rsquo;s Letters and mine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length Bonaparte has got on the right side of a question. From the time
+      of his entering the legislative hall to his retreat to Elba, no man has
+      execrated him more than myself. I will not except even the members of the
+      Essex Junto; although for very different reasons; I, because he was
+      warring against the liberty of his own country, and independence of
+      others; they, because he was the enemy of England, the Pope, and the
+      Inquisition. But at length, and as far as we can judge, he seems to have
+      become the choice of his nation. At least, he is defending the cause of
+      his nation, and that of all mankind, the rights of every people to
+      independence and self-government. He and the allies have now changed
+      sides. They are parcelling out among themselves Poland, Belgium, Saxony,
+      Italy, dictating a ruler and government to France, and looking askance at
+      our republic, the splendid libel on their governments, and he is fighting
+      for the principles of national independence, of which his whole life
+      hitherto has been a continued violation. He has promised a free government
+      to his own country, and to respect the rights of others; and although his
+      former conduct inspires little confidence in his promises, yet we had
+      better take the chance of his word for doing right, than the certainty of
+      the wrong which his adversaries are doing and avowing. If they succeed,
+      ours is only the boon of the Cyclops to Ulysses, of being the last
+      devoured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me affectionately and respectfully to Mrs. Adams, and Heaven give
+      you both as much more of life as you wish, and bless it with health and
+      happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. August the 11th. I had finished my letter yesterday, and this
+      morning receive the news of Bonaparte&rsquo;s second abdication. Very well. For
+      him personally, I have no feeling but reprobation. The representatives of
+      the nation have deposed him. They have taken the allies at their word,
+      that they had no object in the war but his removal. The nation is now free
+      to give itself a good government, either with or without a Bourbon; and
+      France unsubdued, will still be a bridle on the enterprises of the
+      combined powers, and a bulwark to others. T.J.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0129" id="link2H_4_0129">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXIX.&mdash;TO DABNEY CARR, January 19, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DABNEY CARR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 19, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the date of your letter of December the 1st, I was in Bedford, and
+      since my return, so many letters, accumulated during my absence, having
+      been pressing for answers, that this is the first moment I have been able
+      to attend to the subject of yours. While Mr. Girardin was in this
+      neighborhood writing his continuation of Burke&rsquo;s History, I had suggested
+      to him a proper notice of the establishment of the committee of
+      correspondence here in 1773, and of Mr. Carr, your father, who introduced
+      it. He has doubtless done this, and his work is now in the press. My
+      books, journals of the times, &amp;c. being all gone, I have nothing now
+      but an impaired memory to resort to for the more particular statement you
+      wish. But I give it with the more confidence, as I find that I remember
+      old things better than new. The transaction took place in the session of
+      Assembly of March 1773. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Frank Lee, your
+      father, and myself, met by agreement, one evening, about the close of the
+      session, at the Raleigh Tavern, to consult on the measures which the
+      circumstances of the times seemed to call for. We agreed, in result, that
+      concert in the operations of the several Colonies was indispensable; and
+      that to produce this, some channel of correspondence between them must be
+      opened: that, therefore, we would propose to our House the appointment of
+      a committee of correspondence, which should be authorized and instructed
+      to write to the Speakers of the House of Representatives of the several
+      Colonies, recommending the appointment of similar committees on their
+      part, who, by a communication of sentiment on the transactions threatening
+      us all, might promote a harmony of action salutary to all. This was the
+      substance, not pretending to remember words. We proposed the resolution,
+      and your father was agreed on to make the motion. He did it the next day,
+      March the 12th, with great ability, reconciling all to it, not only by the
+      reasonings, but by the temper and moderation with which it was developed.
+      It was adopted by a very general vote. Peyton Randolph, some of us who
+      proposed it, and who else I do not remember, were appointed of the
+      committee. We immediately despatched letters by expresses, to the Speakers
+      of all the other Assemblies. I remember that Mr. Carr and myself,
+      returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the way,
+      concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably beget the
+      meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for the purpose
+      of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the maintenance of
+      our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm that we did it in
+      consequence of no such proposition from any other Colony. No doubt, the
+      resolution itself, and the journals of the day, will show that ours was
+      original, and not merely responsive to one from any other quarter. Yet, I
+      am certain I remember also, that a similar proposition, and nearly
+      cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and that our northern messenger
+      passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be settled by recurrence to the
+      records of Massachusetts. The proposition was generally acceded to by the
+      other Colonies, and the first effect, as expected, was the meeting of a
+      Congress at New York the ensuing year. The committee of correspondence
+      appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by you from Marshall, under the date
+      of 1770, must have been for a special purpose, and <i>functus officio</i>
+      before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts herself would not then have
+      proposed another. Records should be examined to settle this accurately. I
+      well remember the pleasure expressed in the countenance and conversation
+      of the members generally, on this <i>début</i> of Mr. Carr, and the hopes
+      they conceived as well from the talents as the patriotism it manifested.
+      But he died within two months after, and in him we lost a powerful
+      fellow-laborer. His character was of a high order. A spotless integrity,
+      sound judgment, handsome imagination, enriched by education and reading,
+      quick and clear in his conceptions, of correct and ready elocution,
+      impressing every hearer with the sincerity of the heart from which it
+      flowed. His firmness was inflexible in whatever he thought was right: but
+      when no moral principle stood in the way, never had man more of the milk
+      of human kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in
+      conversation and conduct. The number of his friends, and the warmth of
+      their affection, were proofs of his worth, and of their estimate of it. To
+      give to those now living, an idea of the affliction produced by his death
+      in the minds of all who knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by
+      themselves on the death of his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all
+      his endowments and moral qualities, and whose recollection can never recur
+      without a deep-drawn sigh from the bosom of any one who knew him. You
+      mention that I showed you an inscription I had proposed for the tomb-stone
+      of your father. Did I leave it in your hands to be copied? I ask the
+      question, not that I have any such recollection, but that I find it no
+      longer in the place of its deposite, and think I never took it out but on
+      that occasion. Ever and affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0130" id="link2H_4_0130">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 8, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 8, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to acknowledge your two favors of February the 16th and March the
+      2nd, and to join sincerely in the sentiment of Mrs. Adams, and regret that
+      distance separates us so widely. An hour of conversation would be worth a
+      volume of letters. But we must take things as they come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy-three years
+      over again? To which I say, yea. I think with you that it is a good world
+      on the whole; that it has been framed on a principle of benevolence, and
+      more pleasure than pain dealt out to us. There are, indeed, (who might say
+      nay) gloomy and hypochondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies,
+      disgusted with the present, and despairing of the future; always counting
+      that the worst will happen, because it may happen. To these I say, how
+      much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened! My temperament
+      is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern.
+      My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of
+      the gloomy. There are, I acknowledge, even in the happiest life, some
+      terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs against the opposite page of the
+      account. I have often wondered for what good end the sensations of grief
+      could be intended. All our other passions, within proper bounds, have an
+      useful object. And the perfection of the moral character is, not in a
+      stoical apathy, so hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because
+      impossible, but in a just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the
+      pathologists then would tell us what is the use of grief in the economy,
+      and of what good it is the cause, proximate or remote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did I know Baron Grimm while at Paris? Yes, most intimately. He was the
+      pleasantest and most conversable member of the diplomatic corps while I
+      was there; a man of good fancy, acuteness, irony, cunning, and egoism. No
+      heart, not much of any science, yet enough of every one to speak its
+      language: his forte was Belles-lettres, painting, and sculpture. In these
+      he was the oracle of the society, and as such, was the Empress Catharine&rsquo;s
+      private correspondent and factor, in all things not diplomatic. It was
+      through him I got her permission for poor Ledyard to go to Kamschatka, and
+      cross over thence to the western coast of America, in order to penetrate
+      across our continent in the opposite direction to that afterwards adopted
+      for Lewis and Clarke: which permission she withdrew after he had got
+      within two hundred miles of Kamschatka, had him seized, brought back, and
+      set down in Poland. Although I never heard Grimm express the opinion
+      directly, yet I always supposed him to be of the school of Diderot,
+      D&rsquo;Alembert, D&rsquo;Holbach; the first of whom committed his system of atheism
+      to writing in &lsquo;<i>Le Bon Sens</i>,&rsquo; and the last in his &lsquo;<i>Systeme de la
+      Nature</i>? It was a numerous school in the Catholic countries, while the
+      infidelity of the Protestant took generally the form of theism. The former
+      always insisted that it was a mere question of definition between them,
+      the hypostasis of which on both sides, was &lsquo;<i>Nature</i>,&rsquo; or &lsquo;the <i>Universe</i>&rsquo;:
+      that both agreed in the order of the existing system, but the one supposed
+      it from eternity, the other as having begun in time. And when the atheist
+      descanted on the unceasing motion and circulation of matter through the
+      animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, never resting, never annihilated,
+      always changing form, and under all forms gifted with the power of
+      reproduction; the theist pointing &lsquo;to the heavens above, and to the earth
+      beneath, and to the waters under the earth,&rsquo; asked, if these did not
+      proclaim a first cause, possessing intelligence and power; power in the
+      production, and intelligence in the design, and constant preservation of
+      the system; urged the palpable existence of final causes; that the eye was
+      made to see, and the ear to hear, and not that we see because we have
+      eyes, and hear because we have ears; an answer obvious to the senses, as
+      that of walking across the room, was to the philosopher demonstrating the
+      non-existence of motion. It was in D&rsquo;Holbach&rsquo;s conventicles that Rousseau
+      imagined all the machinations against him were contrived and he left, in
+      his Confessions, the most biting anecdotes of Grimm. These appeared after
+      I left France; but I have heard that poor Grimm was so much afflicted by
+      them, that he kept his bed several weeks. I have never seen the Memoirs of
+      Grimm. Their volume has kept them out of our market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been lately amusing myself with Levi&rsquo;s book, in answer to Dr.
+      Priestley. It is a curious and tough work. His style is inelegant and
+      incorrect, harsh and petulant to his adversary, and his reasoning flimsy
+      enough. Some of his doctrines were new to me, particularly that of his two
+      resurrections: the first, a particular one of all the dead, in body as
+      well as soul, who are to live over again, the Jews in a state of perfect
+      obedience to God, the other nations in a state of corporeal punishment for
+      the sufferings they have inflicted on the Jews. And he explains this
+      resurrection of bodies to be only of the original stamen of Leibnitz, or
+      the human <i>calus in semine masculino</i>, considering that as a
+      mathematical point, insusceptible of separation or division. The second
+      resurrection, a general one of souls and bodies, eternally to enjoy divine
+      glory in the presence of the Supreme Being. He alleges that the Jews alone
+      preserve the doctrine of the unity of God. Yet their God would be deemed a
+      very indifferent man with us: and it was to correct their anamorphosis of
+      the Deity, that Jesus preached, as well as to establish the doctrine of a
+      future state. However, Levi insists, that that was taught in the Old
+      Testament, and even by Moses himself and the prophets. He agrees that an
+      anointed prince was prophesied and promised: but denies that the character
+      and history of Jesus had any analogy with that of the person promised. He
+      must be fearfully embarrassing to the Hierophants of fabricated
+      Christianity; because it is their own armor in which he clothes himself
+      for the attack. For example, he takes passages of scripture from their
+      context (which would give them a very different meaning), strings them
+      together, and makes them point towards what object he pleases; he
+      interprets them figuratively, typically, analogically, hyperbolically; he
+      calls in the aid of emendation, transposition, ellipsis, metonymy, and
+      every other figure of rhetoric; the name of one man is taken for another,
+      one place for another, days and weeks for months and years; and finally he
+      avails himself of all his advantage over his adversaries by his superior
+      knowledge of the Hebrew, speaking in the very language of the divine
+      communication, while they can only fumble on with conflicting and disputed
+      translations. Such is this war of giants. And how can such pigmies as you
+      and I decide between them? For myself, I confess, that my head is not
+      formed <i>tantas componere lites</i>. And as you began yours of March the
+      2nd, with a declaration, that you were about to write me the most
+      frivolous letter I had ever read, so I will close mine by saying, I have
+      written you a full match for it, and by adding my affectionate respects to
+      Mrs. Adams, and the assurance of my constant attachment and consideration
+      for yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0131" id="link2H_4_0131">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXI.&mdash;TO JOHN TAYLOR, May 28,1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 28,1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my return from a long journey and considerable absence from home, I
+      found here the copy of your &lsquo;Enquiry into the Principles of our
+      Government,&rsquo; which you had been so kind as to send me; and for which I
+      pray you to accept my thanks. The difficulties of getting new works in our
+      situation, inland and without a single bookstore, are such as had
+      prevented my obtaining a copy before; and letters which had accumulated
+      during my absence, and were calling for answers, have not yet permitted me
+      to give to the whole a thorough reading: yet certain that you and I could
+      not think differently on the fundamentals of rightful government, I was
+      impatient, and availed myself of the intervals of repose from the
+      writing-table, to obtain a cursory idea of the body of the work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I see in it much matter for profound reflection; much which should confirm
+      our adhesion, in practice, to the good principles of our constitution, and
+      fix our attention on what is yet to be made good. The sixth section on the
+      good moral principles of our government, I found so interesting and
+      replete with sound principles, as to postpone my letter-writing to its
+      thorough perusal and consideration. Besides much other good matter, it
+      settles unanswerably the right of instructing representatives, and their
+      duty to obey. The system of banking we have both equally and ever
+      reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions,
+      which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit
+      by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the
+      fortunes and morals of our citizens. Funding I consider as limited,
+      rightfully, to a redemption of the debt within the lives of a majority of
+      the generation contracting it; every generation coming equally, by the
+      laws of the Creator of the world, to the free possession of the earth he
+      made for their subsistence, unincumbered by their predecessors, who, like
+      them, were but tenants for life. You have successfully and completely
+      pulverized Mr. Adams&rsquo;s system of orders, and his opening the mantle of
+      republicanism to every government of laws, whether consistent or not with
+      natural right. Indeed, it must be acknowledged, that the term republic is
+      of very vague application in every language. Witness the self-styled
+      republics of Holland, Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Poland. Were I to assign
+      to this term a precise and definite idea, I would say, that, purely and
+      simply, it means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and
+      personally, according to rules established by the majority: and that every
+      other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it has in
+      its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct action of
+      the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow
+      limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond
+      the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure
+      element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of
+      itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, should
+      be exercised each by representatives chosen by the citizens either <i>pro
+      hac vice</i>, or for such short terms as should render secure the duty of
+      expressing the will of their constituents. This I should consider as the
+      nearest approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a large scale
+      of country or population. And we have examples of it in some of our State
+      constitutions, which, if not poisoned by priestcraft, would prove its
+      excellence over all mixtures with other elements; and, with only equal
+      doses of poison, would still be the best. Other shades of republicanism
+      may be found in other forms of government, where the executive, judiciary,
+      and legislative functions, and the different branches of the latter, are
+      chosen by the people more or less directly, for longer terms of years, or
+      for life, or made hereditary; or where there are mixtures of authorities,
+      some dependent on, and others independent of the peopje. The further the
+      departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has
+      the government of the ingredient of republicanism; evidently none where
+      the authorities are hereditary, as in France, Venice, &amp;c. or
+      self-chosen, as in Holland; and little, where for life, in proportion as
+      the life continues in being after the act of election.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The purest republican feature in the government of our own State, is the
+      House of Representatives. The Senate is equally so the first year, less
+      the second, and so on. The Executive still less, because not chosen by the
+      people directly. The Judiciary seriously anti-republican, because for
+      life; and the national arm wielded, as you observe, by military leaders,
+      irresponsible but to themselves. Add to this the vicious constitution of
+      our county courts (to whom the justice, the executive administration, the
+      taxation, police, the military appointments of the county, and nearly all
+      our daily concerns are confided), self-appointed, self-continued, holding
+      their authorities for life, and with an impossibility of breaking in on
+      the perpetual succession of any faction once possessed of the bench. They
+      are, in truth, the executive, the judiciary, and the military of their
+      respective counties, and the sum of the counties makes the State. And add,
+      also, that one half of our brethren who fight and pay taxes, are excluded,
+      like Helots, from the rights of representation, as if society were
+      instituted for the soil, and not for the men inhabiting it; or one half of
+      these could dispose of the rights and the will of the other half, without
+      their consent.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     What constitutes a State?
+     Not high-raised battlements, or lahor&rsquo;d mound,
+     Thick wall, or moated gate;
+     Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown&rsquo;d;
+     No: men, high-minded men;
+     Men, who their duties know;
+     But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain.
+     These constitute a State.&rsquo;
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the General Government, the House of Representatives is mainly
+      republican; the Senate scarcely so at all, as not elected by the people
+      directly, and so long secured even against those who do elect them; the
+      Executive more republican than the Senate, from its shorter term, its
+      election by the people, in practice (for they vote for A only on an
+      assurance that he will vote for B), and because, in practice, also, a
+      principle of rotation seems to be in a course of establishment; the
+      judiciary independent of the nation, their coercion by impeachment being
+      found nugatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be
+      the measure of its republicanism (and I confess I know no other measure),
+      it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism
+      than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have
+      less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their
+      interest require. And this I ascribe, not to any want of republican
+      dispositions in those who formed these constitutions, but to a submission
+      of true principle to European authorities, to speculators on government,
+      whose fears of the people have been inspired by the populace of their own
+      great cities, and were unjustly entertained against the independent, the
+      happy, and therefore orderly citizens of the United States. Much I
+      apprehend that the golden moment is past for reforming these heresies. The
+      functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to
+      abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not likely to
+      prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are always told that
+      things are going on well; why change them? &lsquo;<i>Chi sta bene, non si muova</i>,&rsquo;
+      says the Italian, &lsquo;Let him who stands well, stand still.&rsquo; This is true;
+      and I verily believe they would go on well with us under an absolute
+      monarch, while our present character remains, of order, industry, and love
+      of peace, and restrained, as he would be, by the proper spirit of the
+      people. But it is while it remains such, we should provide against the
+      consequences of its deterioration. And let us rest in the hope that it
+      will yet be done, and spare ourselves the pain of evils which may never
+      happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this view of the import of the term republic, instead of saying, as has
+      been said, &lsquo;that it may mean any thing or nothing,&rsquo; we may say with truth
+      and meaning, that governments are more or less republican, as they have
+      more or less of the element of popular election and control in their
+      composition: and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the
+      safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils
+      flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those
+      from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of
+      government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely
+      believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than
+      standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by
+      posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large
+      scale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0132" id="link2H_4_0132">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXII.&mdash;TO FRANCIS W. GILMER, June 7,1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO FRANCIS W. GILMER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 7,1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received a few-days ago from Mr. Dupont the enclosed manuscript, with
+      permission to read it, and a request, when read, to forward it to you, in
+      expectation that you would translate it. It is well worthy of publication
+      for the instruction of our citizens, being profound, sound, and short. Our
+      legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their
+      powers: that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural
+      rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural
+      right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all
+      from which the laws ought to restrain him: every man is under the natural
+      duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all
+      the laws should enforce on him: and, no man having a natural right to be
+      the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to
+      the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and
+      enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is
+      quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural
+      right. The trial of every law by one of these texts, would lessen much the
+      labors of our legislators, and lighten equally our municipal codes. There
+      is a work of the first order of merit now in the press at Washington, by
+      Destutt Tracy, on the subject of political economy, which he brings into
+      the compass of three hundred pages, octavo. In a preliminary discourse on
+      the origin of the right of property, he coincides much with the principles
+      of the present manuscript; but is more developed, more demonstrative. He
+      promises a future work on morals, in which I lament to see, that he will
+      adopt the principles of Hobbes, or humiliation to human nature; that the
+      sense of justice and injustice is not derived from our natural
+      organization, but founded on convention only. I lament this the more, as
+      he is unquestionably the ablest writer living, on abstract subjects.
+      Assuming the fact, that the earth has been created in time, and
+      consequently the dogma of final causes, we yield, of course, to this short
+      syllogism. Man was created for social intercourse; but social intercourse
+      cannot be maintained without a sense of justice; then man must have been
+      created with a sense of justice. There is an error into which most of the
+      speculators on government have fallen, and which the well known state of
+      society of our Indians ought, before now, to have corrected. In their
+      hypothesis of the origin of government, they suppose it to have commenced
+      in the patriarchal or monarchical form. Our Indians are evidently in that
+      state of nature which has passed the association of a single family; and
+      not yet submitted to the authority of positive laws, or of any
+      acknowledged magistrate. Every man, with them, is perfectly free to follow
+      his own inclinations. But if, in doing this, he violates the rights of
+      another, if the case be slight, he is punished by the disesteem of his
+      society, or, as we say, by public opinion; if serious, he is tomahawked as
+      a dangerous enemy. Their leaders conduct them by the influence of their
+      character only; and they follow, or not, as they please, him of whose
+      character for wisdom or war they have the highest opinion. Hence the
+      origin of the parties among them adhering to different leaders, and
+      governed by their advice, not by their command. The Cherokees, the only
+      tribe I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws,
+      magistrates, and government, propose a government of representatives,
+      elected from every town. But of all things, they least think of subjecting
+      themselves to the will of one man. This, the only instance of actual fact
+      within our knowledge, will be then a beginning by republican, and not by
+      patriarchal or monarchical government, as speculative writers have
+      generally conjectured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have to join in mutual congratulations on the appointment of our friend
+      Correa, to be Minister or Envoy of Portugal, here. This, I hope, will give
+      him to us, for life. Nor will it at all interfere with his botanical
+      rambles or journeys. The government of Portugal is so peaceable and
+      inoffensive, that it has never any altercations with its friends. If their
+      minister abroad writes them once a quarter that all is well, they desire
+      no more. I learn (though not from Correa himself) that he thinks of paying
+      us a visit as soon as he is through his course of lectures. Not to lose
+      this happiness again by my absence, I have informed him I shall set out
+      for Poplar Forest the 20th instant, and be back the first week of July. I
+      wish you and he could concert your movements so as to meet here, and that
+      you would make this your headquarters. It is a good central point from
+      which to visit your connections; and you know our practice of placing our
+      guests at their ease, by showing them we are so ourselves, and that we
+      follow our necessary vocations, instead of fatiguing them by hanging
+      unremittingly on their shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0133" id="link2H_4_0133">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIII.*&mdash;TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN, January 9, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO BENJAMIN AUSTIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 9, 1816.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* This letter was accidentally misplaced, and is now
+     inserted out of its regular order.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I acknowledge with pleasure your letter of the 9th of December last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your opinions on the events which have taken place in France, are entirely
+      just, so far as these events are yet developed. But we have reason to
+      suppose, that they have not reached their ultimate termination. There is
+      still an awful void between the present, and what is to be the last
+      chapter of that history; and I fear it is to be filled with abominations,
+      as frightful as those which have already disgraced it. That nation is too
+      high-minded, has too much innate force, intelligence, and elasticity, to
+      remain quiet under its present compression. Samson will arise in his
+      strength, and probably will ere long burst asunder the cords and the webs
+      of the Philistines. But what are to be the scenes of havoc and horror, and
+      how widely they may spread between the brethren of one family, our
+      ignorance of the interior feuds and antipathies of the country places
+      beyond our view. Whatever may be the convulsions, we cannot but indulge
+      the pleasing hope, they will end in the permanent establishment of a
+      representative government; a government in which the will of the people
+      will be an effective ingredient. This important element has taken root in
+      the European mind, and will have its growth. Their rulers, sensible of
+      this, are already offering this modification of their governments, under
+      the plausible pretence that it is a voluntary concession on their part.
+      Had Bonaparte used his legitimate power honestly, for the establishment
+      and support of a free government, France would now have been in prosperity
+      and rest, and her example operating for the benefit of mankind, every
+      nation in Europe would eventually have founded a government over which the
+      will of the people would have had a powerful control. His improper
+      conduct, however, has checked the salutary progress of principle; but the
+      object is fixed in the eye of nations, and they will press to its
+      accomplishment, and to the general amelioration of the condition of man.
+      What a germ have the freemen of the United States planted, and how
+      faithfully should they cherish the parent tree at home. Chagrin and
+      mortification are the punishments our enemies receive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence on
+      England for manufactures. There was a time when I might have been so
+      quoted with more candor. But within the thirty years which have since
+      elapsed, how are circumstances changed! We were then in peace; our
+      independent place among nations was acknowledged. A commerce which offered
+      the raw material, in exchange for the same material after receiving the
+      last touch of industry, was worthy of welcome to all nations. It was
+      expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing industry was
+      important, would cherish the friendship of such customers by every favor,
+      and particularly cultivate their peace by every act of justice and
+      friendship. Under this prospect, the question seemed legitimate, whether,
+      with such an immensity of unimproved land, courting the hand of husbandry,
+      the industry of agriculture, or that of manufactures, would add most to
+      the national wealth. And the doubt on the utility of the American
+      manufactures was entertained on this consideration, chiefly, that to the
+      labor of the husbandman a vast addition is made by the spontaneous
+      energies of the earth on which it is employed. For one grain of wheat
+      committed to the earth, she renders twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold;
+      whereas to the labor of the manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of flax,
+      in his hands, on the contrary, yield but penny weights of lace. This
+      exchange, too, laborious as it might seem, what a field did it promise for
+      the occupation of the ocean; what a nursery for that class of citizens who
+      were to exercise and maintain our equal rights on that element! This was
+      the state of things in 1785, when the Notes on Virginia were first
+      published; when, the ocean being open to all nations, and their common
+      right in it acknowledged and exercised under regulations sanctioned by the
+      assent and usage of all, it was thought that the doubt might claim some
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But who, in 1785, could foresee the rapid depravity which was to render
+      the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man? Who could have
+      imagined that the two most distinguished in the rank of nations, for
+      science and civilization, would have suddenly descended from that
+      honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all those moral laws
+      established by the Author of Nature between nation and nation, as between
+      man and man, would cover earth and sea with robberies and piracies, merely
+      because strong enough to do it with temporal impunity, and that under this
+      disbandment of nations from social order, we should have been despoiled of
+      a thousand ships, and have thousands of our citizens reduced to Algerine
+      slavery. Yet all this has taken place. The British interdicted to our
+      vessels all harbors of the globe, without having first proceeded to some
+      one of hers, there paid a tribute proportioned to the cargo, and obtained
+      her license to proceed to the port of destination. The French declared
+      them to be lawful prize if they had touched at the port, or been visited
+      by a ship of the enemy nation. Thus were we completely excluded from the
+      ocean. Compare this state of things with that of &lsquo;85, and say whether an
+      opinion founded in the circumstances of that day, can be fairly applied to
+      those of the present. We have experienced, what we did not then believe,
+      that there exist both profligacy and power enough to exclude us from the
+      field of interchange with other nations. That to be independent for the
+      comforts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the
+      manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former question is
+      suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand inquiry now is, Shall
+      we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign
+      nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture, must be
+      for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be
+      clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am
+      not one of these. Experience has taught me that manufactures are now as
+      necessary to our independence as to our comfort; and if those who quote me
+      as of a different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing
+      foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without
+      regard to difference of price, it will not be our fault if we do not soon
+      have a supply at home equal to our demand, and wrest that weapon of
+      distress from the hand which has so long wantonly wielded it. If it shall
+      be proposed to go beyond our own supply, the question of &lsquo;85 will then
+      recur, Will our surplus labor be then more beneficially employed, in the
+      culture of the earth, or in the fabrications of art? We have time yet for
+      consideration, before that question will press upon us; and the axiom to
+      be applied will depend on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in
+      so complicated a science as political economy, no one axiom can be laid
+      down as wise and expedient for all times and circumstances. Inattention to
+      this is what has called for this explanation, which reflection would have
+      rendered unnecessary with the candid, while nothing will do it with those
+      who use the former opinion only as a stalking-horse to cover their
+      disloyal propensities to keep us in eternal vassalage to a foreign and
+      unfriendly people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of great respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0134" id="link2H_4_0134">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIV.&mdash;TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, June 20, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 20, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am about to sin against all discretion, and knowingly, by adding to the
+      drudgery of your letter-reading, this acknowledgment of the receipt of
+      your favor of May the 31st, with the papers it covered. I cannot, however,
+      deny myself the gratification of expressing the satisfaction I have
+      received, not only from the general statement of affairs at Paris, in
+      yours of December the 12th, 1814, (as a matter of history which I had not
+      before received,) but most especially and superlatively, from the perusal
+      of your letter of the 8th of the same month to Mr. Fisk, on the subject of
+      drawbacks. This most heterogeneous principle was transplanted into ours
+      from the British system, by a man whose mind was really powerful, but
+      chained by native partialities to every thing English; who had formed
+      exaggerated ideas of the superior perfection of the English constitution,
+      the superior wisdom of their government, and sincerely believed it for the
+      good of this country to make them their model in every thing; without
+      considering that what might be wise and good for a nation essentially
+      commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse with numerous and
+      powerful neighbors, might not be so for one essentially agricultural, and
+      insulated by nature from the abusive governments of the old world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The exercise, by our own citizens, of so much commerce as may suffice to
+      exchange our superfluities for our wants, may be advantageous for the
+      whole. But it does not follow, that, with a territory so boundless, it is
+      the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry on the
+      business of one half the world at the expense of eternal war with the
+      other half. The agricultural capacities of our country constitute its
+      distinguishing feature; and the adapting our policy and pursuits to that,
+      is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people, than the mimicry of
+      an Amsterdam, a Hamburgh, or a city of London. Every society has a right
+      to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and to say to all
+      individuals, that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these
+      principles, and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they
+      must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and
+      still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude
+      them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease. Such is
+      the situation of our country. We have most abundant resources of happiness
+      within ourselves, which we may enjoy in peace and safety, without
+      permitting a few citizens, infected with the mania of rambling and
+      gambling, to bring danger on the great mass engaged in innocent and safe
+      pursuits at home. In your letter to Fisk, you have fairly stated the
+      alternatives between which we are to choose: 1. licentious commerce and
+      gambling speculations for a few, with eternal war for the many; or, 2.
+      restricted commerce, peace, and steady occupations for all. If any State
+      in the Union will declare that it prefers separation with the first
+      alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I have no hesitation in
+      saying, &lsquo;Let us separate.&rsquo; I would rather the States should withdraw,
+      which are for unlimited commerce and war, and confederate with those alone
+      which are for peace and agriculture. I know that every nation in Europe
+      would join in sincere amity with the latter, and hold the former at arm&rsquo;s
+      length, by jealousies, prohibitions, restrictions, vexations, and war. No
+      earthly consideration could induce my consent to contract such a debt as
+      England has by her wars for commerce, to reduce our citizens by taxes to
+      such wretchedness, as that laboring sixteen of the twenty-four hours, they
+      are still unable to afford themselves bread, or barely to earn as much
+      oatmeal or potatoes as will keep soul and body together. And all this to
+      feed the avidity of a few millionary merchants, and to keep up one
+      thousand ships of war for the protection of their commercial speculations.
+      I returned from Europe after our government had got under way, and had
+      adopted from the British code the law of drawbacks. I early saw its
+      effects in the jealousies and vexations of Britain; and that, retaining
+      it, we must become, like her, an essentially warring nation, and meet, in
+      the end, the catastrophe impending over her. No one can doubt that this
+      alone produced the orders of council, the depredations which preceded, and
+      the war which followed them. Had we carried but our own produce, and
+      brought back but our own wants, no nation would have troubled us. Our
+      commercial dashers, then, have already cost us so many thousand lives, so
+      many millions of dollars, more than their persons and all their commerce
+      were worth. When war was declared, and especially after Massachusetts, who
+      had produced it, took side with the enemy waging it, I pressed on some
+      confidential friends in Congress to avail us of the happy opportunity of
+      repealing the drawback; and I do rejoice to find that you are in that
+      sentiment. You are young, and may be in the way of bringing it into
+      effect. Perhaps time, even yet, and change of tone (for there are symptoms
+      of that in Massachusetts), may not have obliterated altogether the sense
+      of our late feelings and sufferings; may not have induced oblivion of the
+      friends we have lost, the depredations and conflagrations we have
+      suffered, and the debts we have incurred, and to have to labor for through
+      the lives of the present generation. The earlier the repeal is proposed,
+      the more it will be befriended by all these recollections and
+      considerations. This is one of three great measures necessary to insure us
+      permanent prosperity. This preserves our peace. A second should enable us
+      to meet any war, by adopting the report of the war department, for placing
+      the force of the nation at effectual command: and a third should insure
+      resources of money by the suppression of all paper circulation during
+      peace, and licensing that of the nation alone during war. The metallic
+      medium of which we should be possessed at the commencement of a war, would
+      be a sufficient fund for all the loans we should need through its
+      continuance; and if the national bills issued, be bottomed (as is
+      indispensable) on pledges of specific taxes for their redemption within
+      certain and moderate epochs, and be of proper denominations for
+      circulation, no interest on them would be necessary or just, because they
+      would answer to every one the purposes of the metallic money withdrawn and
+      replaced by them. But possibly these may be the dreams of an old man, or
+      that the occasions of realizing them may have passed away without return.
+      A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many,
+      uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their
+      affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed, for a
+      moment, at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its
+      continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than
+      any where else; and for its growth and continuance, as well as for your
+      personal health and happiness, I offer sincere prayers, with the homage of
+      my respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0135" id="link2H_4_0135">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXV.&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, July 12, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 12, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of June the 13th, with the copy of the letters
+      on the calling a convention, on which you are pleased to ask my opinion. I
+      have not been in the habit of mysterious reserve on any subject, nor of
+      buttoning up my opinions within my own doublet. On the contrary, while in
+      public service especially, I thought the public entitled to frankness, and
+      intimately to know whom they employed. But I am now retired: I resign
+      myself, as a passenger, with confidence to those at present at the helm,
+      and ask but for rest, peace, and good will. The question you propose, on
+      equal representation, has become a party one, in which I wish to take no
+      public share. Yet, if it be asked for your own satisfaction only, and not
+      to be quoted before the public, I have no motive to withhold it, and the
+      less from you, as it coincides with your own. At the birth of our
+      republic, I committed that opinion to the world, in the draught of a
+      constitution annexed to the Notes on Virginia, in which a provision was
+      inserted for a representation permanently equal. The infancy of the
+      subject at that moment, and our inexperience of self-government,
+      occasioned gross departures in that draught from genuine republican
+      canons. In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space
+      of political contemplation, that we imagined every thing republican which
+      was not monarchy. We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that
+      &lsquo;governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of
+      their people, and execute it.&rsquo; Hence, our first constitutions had really
+      no leading principle in them. But experience and reflection have but more
+      and more confirmed me in the particular importance of the equal
+      representation then proposed. On that point, then, I am entirely in
+      sentiment with your letters; and only lament that a copyright of your
+      pamphlet prevents their appearance in the newspapers, where alone they
+      would be generally read, and produce general effect. The present vacancy
+      too, of other matter, would give them place in every paper, and bring the
+      question home to every man&rsquo;s conscience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But inequality of representation in both Houses of our legislature, is not
+      the only republican heresy in this first essay of our revolutionary
+      patriots at forming a constitution. For let it be agreed that a government
+      is republican in proportion as every member composing it has his equal
+      voice in the direction of its concerns, (not indeed in person, which would
+      be impracticable beyond the limits of a city, or small township, but) by
+      representatives chosen by himself, and responsible to him at short
+      periods, and let us bring to the test of this canon every branch of our
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the legislature, the House of Representatives is chosen by less than
+      half the people, and not at all in proportion to those who do choose. The
+      Senate are still more disproportionate, and for long terms of
+      irresponsibility. In the Executive, the Governor is entirely independent
+      of the choice of the people, and of their control; his Council equally so,
+      and at best but a fifth wheel to a wagon. In the Judiciary, the judges of
+      the highest courts are dependent on none but themselves. In England, where
+      judges were named and removable at the will of an hereditary executive,
+      from which branch most misrule was feared, and has flowed, it was a great
+      point gained, by fixing them for life, to make them independent of that
+      executive. But in a government founded on the public will, this principle
+      operates in an opposite direction, and against that will. There, too, they
+      were still removable on a concurrence of the executive and legislative
+      branches. But we have made them independent of the nation itself. They are
+      irremovable, but by their own body, for any depravities of conduct, and
+      even by their own body for the imbecilities of dotage. The justices of the
+      inferior courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own
+      body in succession for ever, so that a faction once possessing themselves
+      of the bench of a county, can never be broken up, but hold their county in
+      chains, for ever indissoluble. Yet these justices are the real executive
+      as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
+      tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all the
+      executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military leaders,
+      which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The juries,
+      our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are not selected
+      by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an officer named
+      by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up by the sheriff
+      from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing respectable has
+      retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be found? Not in our
+      constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of our people. That would
+      oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly. Owing to this spirit, and
+      to nothing in the form of our constitution, all things have gone well. But
+      this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by the enemies of reformation, is not
+      the fruit of our constitution, but has prevailed in spite of it. Our
+      functionaries have done well, because generally honest men. If any were
+      not so, they feared to show it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I do
+      not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down true
+      principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their
+      surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against
+      the ascendancy of the people. If experience be called for, appeal to that
+      of our fifteen or twenty governments for forty years, and show me where
+      the people have done half the mischief in these forty years, that a single
+      despot would have done in a single year; or show half the riots and
+      rebellions, the crimes and the punishments, which have taken place in any
+      single nation, under Kingly government, during the same period. The true
+      foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen,
+      in his person and property, and in their management. Try by this, as a
+      tally, every provision of our constitution, and see if it hangs directly
+      on the will of the people. Reduce your legislature to a convenient number
+      for full, but orderly discussion. Let every man who fights or pays,
+      exercise his just and equal right in their election. Submit them to
+      approbation or rejection at short intervals. Let the executive be chosen
+      in the same way, and for the same term, by those whose agent he is to be;
+      and leave no screen of a council behind which to skulk from
+      responsibility. It has been thought that the people are not competent
+      electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know that this is
+      true, and if doubtful, we should follow principle. In this, as in many
+      other elections, they would be guided by reputation, which would not err
+      oftener, perhaps, than the present mode of appointment. In one State of
+      the Union, at least, it has been long tried, and with the most
+      satisfactory success. The judges of Connecticut have been chosen by the
+      people every six months, for nearly two centuries, and I believe there has
+      hardly ever been an instance of change; so powerful is the curb of
+      incessant responsibility. If prejudice, however, derived from a
+      monarchical institution, is still to prevail against the vital elective
+      principle of our own, and if the existing example among ourselves of
+      periodical election of judges by the people be still mistrusted, let us at
+      least not adopt the evil, and reject the good, of the English precedent;
+      let us retain a movability on the concurrence of the executive and
+      legislative branches, and nomination by the executive alone. Nomination to
+      office is an executive function. To give it to the legislature, as we do,
+      is a violation of the principle of the separation of powers. It swerves
+      the members from correctness, by temptations to intrigue for office
+      themselves, and to a corrupt barter of votes; and destroys responsibility
+      by dividing it among a multitude. By leaving nomination in its proper
+      place, among executive functions, the principle of the distribution of
+      power is preserved, and responsibility weighs with its heaviest force on a
+      single head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The organization of our county administrations may be thought more
+      difficult. But follow principle, and the knot unties itself. Divide the
+      counties into wards of such size as that every citizen can attend when
+      called on, and act in person. Ascribe to them the government of their
+      wards in all things relating to themselves exclusively. A justice, chosen
+      by themselves, in each, a constable, a military company, a patrol, a
+      school, the care of their own poor, their own portion of the public roads,
+      the choice of one or more jurors to serve in some court, and the delivery,
+      within their own wards, of their own votes for all elective officers of
+      higher sphere, will relieve the county administration of nearly all its
+      business, will have it better done, and by making every citizen an acting
+      member of the government, and in the offices nearest and most interesting
+      to him, will attach him by his strongest feelings to the independence of
+      his country, and its republican constitution. The justices thus chosen by
+      every ward, would constitute the county court, would do its judiciary
+      business, direct roads and bridges, levy county and poor rates, and
+      administer all the matters of common interest to the whole county. These
+      wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their
+      governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised
+      by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its
+      preservation. We should thus marshal our government into, 1. The general
+      federal republic, for all concerns foreign and federal; 2. That of the
+      State, for what relates to our own citizens exclusively; 3. The county
+      republics, for the duties and concerns of the county; and, 4. The ward
+      republics, for the small, and yet numerous and interesting concerns of the
+      neighborhood: and in government, as well as in every other business of
+      life, it is by division and sub-division of duties alone, that all
+      matters, great and small, can be managed to perfection. And the whole is
+      cemented by giving to every citizen, personally, a part in the
+      administration of the public affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum of these amendments is, 1. General suffrage. 2. Equal
+      representation in the legislature. 3. An executive chosen by the people.
+      4. Judges elective or amovable. 5. Justices, jurors, and sheriffs
+      elective. 6. Ward divisions. And, 7. Periodical amendments of the
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thrown out these, as loose heads of amendment, for consideration
+      and correction: and their object is to secure self-government by the
+      republicanism of our constitution, as well as by the spirit of the people;
+      and to nourish and perpetuate that spirit. I am not among those who fear
+      the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued
+      freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers
+      load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and
+      liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we
+      must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our
+      comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our
+      creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to
+      labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of
+      these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the
+      sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now
+      do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling
+      the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring
+      ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our
+      land-holders, too, like theirs, retaining indeed the title and stewardship
+      of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must
+      wander, like theirs, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury,
+      obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us
+      the salutary lesson that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well
+      as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human
+      governments. A departure from principle in one instance, becomes a
+      precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk
+      of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no
+      sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the
+      <i>bellum omnium in omnia</i>, which some philosophers observing to be so
+      general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the
+      abusive state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public
+      debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem
+      them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe
+      to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what
+      they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well: I belonged to it,
+      and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the
+      present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of
+      experience in government is worth a century of book-reading: and this they
+      would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not
+      an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I
+      think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once
+      known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of
+      correcting their ill effects. But I know, also, that laws and institutions
+      must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes
+      more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths
+      disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of
+      circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the
+      times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted
+      him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of
+      their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately
+      deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding to the
+      gradual changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodation to
+      progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves
+      behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects to seek through blood and
+      violence rash and ruinous innovations, which, had they been referred to
+      the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have
+      been put into acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such
+      examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as
+      another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs. Let us,
+      as our sister States have done, avail ourselves of our reason and
+      experience, to correct the crude essays of our first and unexperienced,
+      although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning councils. And, lastly, let us
+      provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods. What these
+      periods should be, nature herself indicates. By the European tables of
+      mortality, of the adults living at any one moment of time, a majority will
+      be dead in about nineteen years. At the end of that period, then, a new
+      majority is come into place; or, in other words, a new generation. Each
+      generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all
+      which had gone before. It has, then, like them, a right to choose for
+      itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own
+      happiness; consequently, to accommodate to the circumstances in which it
+      finds itself, that received from its predecessors: and it is for the peace
+      and good of mankind, that a solemn opportunity of doing this every
+      nineteen or twenty years, should be provided by the constitution; so that
+      it may be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to
+      generation, to the end of time, if any thing human can so long endure. It
+      is now forty years since the constitution of Virginia was formed. The same
+      tables inform us, that, within that period, two thirds of the adults then
+      living are now dead. Have then the remaining third, even if they had the
+      wish, the right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws heretofore
+      made by them, the other two thirds, who, with themselves, compose the
+      present mass of adults? If they have not, who has? The dead? But the dead
+      have no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own something. Where
+      there is no substance, there can be no accident. This corporeal globe, and
+      every thing upon it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants, during
+      their generation. They alone have a right to direct what is the concern of
+      themselves alone, and to declare the law of that direction: and this
+      declaration can only be made by their majority. That majority, then, has a
+      right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make the
+      constitution what they think will be best for themselves. But how collect
+      their voice? This is the real difficulty. If invited by private authority
+      to county or district meetings, these divisions are so large, that few
+      will attend; and their voice will be imperfectly or falsely pronounced.
+      Here, then, would be one of the advantages of the ward divisions I have
+      proposed. The mayor of every ward, on a question like the present, would
+      call his ward together, take the simple yea or nay of its members, convey
+      these to the county court, who would hand on those of all its wards to the
+      proper general authority; and the voice of the whole people would be thus
+      fairly, fully, and peaceably expressed, discussed, and decided by the
+      common reason of the society. If this avenue be shut to the call of
+      sufferance, it will make itself heard through that of force, and we shall
+      go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless circle of oppression,
+      rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion, reformation, again; and
+      so on, for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These, Sir, are my opinions of the governments we see among men, and of
+      the principles by which alone we may prevent our own from falling into the
+      same dreadful track. I have given them at greater length than your letter
+      called for. But I cannot say things by halves; and I confide them to your
+      honor, so to use them as to preserve me from the gridiron of the public
+      papers. If you shall approve and enforce them, as you have done that of
+      equal representation, they may do some good. If not, keep them to yourself
+      as the effusions of withered age, and useless time. I shall, with not the
+      Less truth, assure you of my great respect and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0136" id="link2H_4_0136">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN TAYLOR, July 21, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN TAYLOR.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 21, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of the 10th is received, and I have to acknowledge a copious supply
+      of the turnip-seed requested. Besides taking care myself, I shall endeavor
+      again to commit it to the depository of the neighborhood, generally found
+      to be the best precaution against losing a good thing. I will add a word
+      on the political part of our letters. I believe we do not differ on either
+      of the points you suppose. On education certainly not; of which the proofs
+      are my bill for the diffusion of knowledge, proposed near forty years ago,
+      and my uniform endeavors, to this day, to get our counties divided into
+      wards, one of the principal objects of which is, the establishment of a
+      primary school in each. But education not being a branch of municipal
+      government, but, like the other arts and sciences, an accident only, I did
+      not place it, with election, as a fundamental member in the structure of
+      government. Nor, I believe, do we differ as to the county courts. I
+      acknowledge the value of this institution; that it is in truth our
+      principal executive and judiciary, and that it does much for little
+      pecuniary reward. It is their self-appointment I wish to correct; to find
+      some means of breaking up a cabal, when such a one gets possession of the
+      bench. When this takes place, it becomes the most afflicting of tyrannies,
+      because its powers are so various, and exercised on every thing most
+      immediately around us. And how many instances have you and I known of
+      these monopolies of county administration! I knew a county in which a
+      particular family (a numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a
+      whole generation. never admitted a man on it who was not of its clan or
+      connection. 1 know a county now of one thousand and five hundred militia,
+      of which sixty are federalists. Its court is of thirty members, of whom
+      twenty are federalists, (every third man of the sect.) There are large and
+      populous districts in it without a justice, because without a federalist
+      for appointment: the militia are as disproportionably under federal
+      officers. And there is no authority on earth which can break up this
+      junto, short of a general convention. The remaining one thousand four
+      hundred and forty, free, fighting, and paying citizens, are governed by
+      men neither of their choice nor confidence, and without a hope of relief.
+      They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free government for
+      life, and indefinitely, for aught the constitution has provided. This
+      solecism may be called any thing but republican, and ought undoubtedly to
+      be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0137" id="link2H_4_0137">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVII.&mdash;TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL, September 5, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO SAMUEL KERCHIVAL.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 5, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 16th is just received. That which I wrote to you
+      under the address of H. Tompkinson, was intended for the author of the
+      pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and therefore, in your hands,
+      found its true destination. But I must beseech you, Sir, not to admit a
+      possibility of its being published. Many good people will revolt from its
+      doctrines, and my wish is to offend nobody; to leave to those who are to
+      live under it, the settlement of their own constitution, and to pass in
+      peace the remainder of my time. If those opinions are sound, they will
+      occur to others, and will prevail by their own weight, without the aid of
+      names. I am glad to see that the Staunton meeting has rejected the idea of
+      a limited convention. The article, however, nearest my heart, is the
+      division of the counties into wards. These will be pure and elementary
+      republics, the sum of all which, taken together, composes the State, and
+      will make of the whole a true democracy as to the business of the wards,
+      which is that of nearest and daily concern. The affairs of the larger
+      sections, of counties, of States, and of the Union, not admitting personal
+      transaction by the people, will be delegated to agents elected by
+      themselves; and representation will thus be substituted, where personal
+      action becomes impracticable. Yet, even over these representative organs,
+      should they become corrupt and perverted, the division into wards
+      constituting the people, in their wards, a regularly organized power,
+      enables them by that organization to crush, regularly and peaceably, the
+      usurpations of their unfaithful agents, and rescues them from the dreadful
+      necessity of doing it insurrectionally. In this way we shall be as
+      republican as a large society can be; and secure the continuance of purity
+      in our government, by the salutary, peaceable, and regular control of the
+      people. No other depositories of power have ever yet been found, which did
+      not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed
+      to their charge. George the III., in execution of the trust confided to
+      him, has, within his own day, loaded the inhabitants of Great Britain with
+      debts equal to the whole fee-simple value of their island, and under
+      pretext of governing it, has alienated its whole soil to creditors who
+      could lend money to be lavished on priests, pensions, plunder, and
+      perpetual war. This would not have been so, had the people retained
+      organized means of acting on their agents. In this example, then, let us
+      read a lesson for ourselves, and not &lsquo;go, and do likewise.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since writing my letter of July the 12th, I have been told, that on the
+      question of equal representation, our fellow-citizens in some sections of
+      the State claim peremptorily a right of representation for their slaves.
+      Principle will, in this, as in most other cases, open the way for us to
+      correct conclusion. Were our State a pure democracy, in which all its
+      inhabitants should meet together to transact all their business, there
+      would yet be excluded from their deliberations, 1. Infants, until arrived
+      at years of discretion. 2. Women, who, to prevent depravation of morals,
+      and ambiguity of issue, could not mix promiscuously in the public meetings
+      of men. 3, Slaves, from whom the unfortunate state of things with us takes
+      away the rights of will and of property. Those, then, who have no will,
+      could be permitted to exercise none in the popular assembly; and of course
+      could delegate none to an agent in a representative assembly. The
+      business, in the first case, would be done by qualified citizens only;
+      and, in the second, by the representatives of qualified citizens only. It
+      is true, that in the general constitution, our State is allowed a larger
+      representation on account of its slaves. But every one knows, that that
+      constitution was a matter of compromise; a capitulation between
+      conflicting interests and opinions. In truth, the condition of different
+      descriptions of inhabitants in any country is a matter of municipal
+      arrangement, of which no foreign country has a right to take notice. All
+      its inhabitants are men as to them. Thus, in the New England States, none
+      have the powers of citizens but those whom they call freemen; and none are
+      freemen Until admitted by a vote of the freemen of the town. Yet, in the
+      General Government, these non-freemen are counted in their quantum of
+      representation and of taxation. So, slaves with us have no powers as
+      citizens; yet, in representation in the General Government, they count in
+      the proportion of three to five; and so also in taxation. Whether this is
+      equal, is not here the question. It is a capitulation of discordant
+      sentiments and circumstances, and is obligatory on that ground. But this
+      view shows there is no inconsistency in claiming representation for them
+      from the other States, and refusing it within our own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the renewal of assurances of my respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0138" id="link2H_4_0138">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 14, 1816
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 14, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter, dear Sir, of May the 6th, had already well explained the uses
+      of grief. That of September the 3rd, with equal truth, adduces instances
+      of its abuse; and when we put into the same scale these abuses, with the
+      afflictions of soul which even the uses of grief cost us, we may consider
+      its value in the economy of the human being, as equivocal at least. Those
+      afflictions cloud too great a portion of life, to find a counterpoise in
+      any benefits derived from its uses. For setting aside its paroxyms on the
+      occasions of special bereavements, all the latter years of aged men are
+      overshadowed with its gloom. Whither, for instance, can you and I look
+      without seeing the graves of those we have known? And whom can we call up,
+      of our early companions, who has not left us to regret his loss? This,
+      indeed, may be one of the salutary effects of grief; inasmuch as it
+      prepares us to loose ourselves also without repugnance. Doctor Freeman&rsquo;s
+      instances of female levity cured by grief, are certainly to the point, and
+      constitute an item of credit in the account we examine. I was much
+      mortified by the loss of the Doctor&rsquo;s visit, by my absence from home. To
+      have shown how much I feel indebted to you for making good people known to
+      me, would have been one pleasure; and to have enjoyed that of his
+      conversation, and the benefits of his information, so favorably reported
+      by my family, would have been another. I returned home on the third day
+      after his departure. The loss of such visits is among the sacrifices which
+      my divided residence costs me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your undertaking the twelve volumes of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism to
+      which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. I have been
+      contented with the humble achievement of reading the analysis of his work
+      by Destutt Tracy, in two hundred pages, octavo. I believe I should have
+      ventured on his own abridgment of the work, in one octavo volume, had it
+      ever come to my hands; but the marrow of it in Tracy has satisfied my
+      appetite: and even in that, the preliminary discourse of the analyzer
+      himself, and his conclusion, are worth more in my eye than the body of the
+      work. For the object of that seems to be to smother all history under the
+      mantle of allegory. If histories so unlike as those of Hercules and Jesus,
+      can, by a fertile imagination and allegorical interpretations, be brought
+      to the same tally, no line of distinction remains between fact and fancy.
+      As this pithy morsel will not overburthen the mail in passing and
+      repassing between Quincy and Monticello, I send it for your perusal.
+      Perhaps it will satisfy you, as it has me; and may save you the labor of
+      reading twenty-four times its volume. I have said to you that it was
+      written by Tracy; and I had so entered it on the title-page, as I usually
+      do on anonymous works whose authors are known to me. But Tracy requested
+      me not to betray his anonyme, for reasons which may not yet, perhaps, have
+      ceased to weigh. I am bound, then, to make the same reserve with you.
+      Destutt-Tracy is, in my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual
+      subjects, or the operations of the understanding. His three octavo volumes
+      on Ideology, which constitute the foundation of what he has since written,
+      I have not entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely
+      abstract, and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte,
+      with his repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has
+      by this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without
+      principle. The next work Tracy wrote was the Commentary on Montesquieu,
+      never published in the original, because not safe; but translated and
+      published in Philadelphia, yet without the author&rsquo;s name. He has since
+      permitted his name to be mentioned. Although called a Commentary, it is,
+      in truth, an elementary work on the principles of government, comprised in
+      about three hundred pages octavo. He has lately published a third work on
+      Political Economy, comprising the whole subject within about the same
+      compass; in which all its principles are demonstrated with the severity of
+      Euclid, and, like him, without ever using a superfluous word. I have
+      procured this to be translated, and have been four years endeavoring to
+      get it printed: but, as yet, without success. In the mean time, the author
+      has published the original in France, which he thought unsafe while
+      Bonaparte was in power. No printed copy, I believe, has yet reached this
+      country. He has his fourth and last work now in the press at Paris,
+      closing, as he conceives, the circle of metaphysical sciences. This work,
+      which is on Ethics, I have not seen, but suspect I shall differ from it in
+      its foundation, although not in its deductions. I gather from his other
+      works that he adopts the principle of Hobbes, that justice is founded in
+      contract solely, and does not result from the constitution of man. I
+      believe, on the contrary, that it is instinct and innate, that the moral
+      sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or
+      hearing; as a wise creator must have seen to be necessary in an animal
+      destined to live in society: that every human mind feels pleasure in doing
+      good to another: that the non-existence of justice is not to be inferred
+      from the fact that the same act is deemed virtuous and right in one
+      society which is held vicious and wrong in another; because, as the
+      circumstances and opinions of different societies vary, so the acts which
+      may do them right or wrong must vary also; for virtue does not consist in
+      the act we do, but in the end it is to effect. If it is to effect the
+      happiness of him to whom it is directed, it is virtuous, while, in a
+      society under different circumstances and opinions, the same act might
+      produce pain, and would be vicious. The essence of virtue is in doing good
+      to others, while what is good may be one thing in one society, and its
+      contrary in another. Yet, however we may differ as to the foundation of
+      morals (and as many foundations have been assumed as there are writers on
+      the subject nearly), so correct a thinker as Tracy will give us a sound
+      system of morals. And, indeed, it is remarkable, that so many writers,
+      setting out from so many different premises, yet meet all in the same
+      conclusions. This looks as if they were guided unconsciously, by the
+      unerring-hand of instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your history of the Jesuits, by what name of the author or other
+      description is it to be inquired for?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What do you think of the present situation of England? Is not this the
+      great and fatal crush of their funding system, which, like death, has been
+      foreseen by all, but its hour, like that of death, hidden from mortal
+      prescience? It appears to me that all the circumstances now exist which
+      render recovery desperate. The interest of the national debt is now equal
+      to such a portion of the profits of all the land and the labor of the
+      island, as not to leave enough for the subsistence of those who labor.
+      Hence the owners of the land abandon it and retire to other countries, and
+      the laborer has not enough of his earnings left to him to cover his back
+      and to fill his belly. The local insurrections, now almost general, are of
+      the hungry and the naked, who cannot be quieted but by food and raiment.
+      But where are the means of feeding and clothing them? The landholder has
+      nothing of his own to give; he is but the fiduciary of those who have lent
+      him money; the lender is so taxed in his meat, drink, and clothing, that
+      he has but a bare subsistence left. The landholder, then, must give up his
+      land, or the lender his debt, or they must compromise by giving up each
+      one half. But will either consent, peaceably, to such an abandonment of
+      property? Or must it not be settled by civil conflict? If peaceably
+      compromised, will they agree to risk another ruin under the same
+      government unreformed? I think not; but I would rather know what you
+      think; because you have lived with John Bull, and know better than I do
+      the character of his herd. I salute Mrs. Adams and yourself with every
+      sentiment of affectionate cordiality and respect;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0139" id="link2H_4_0139">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXXXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 11, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear Sir,
+      how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as much as
+      I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from
+      my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by that light see
+      to write. From sunrise to one or two o&rsquo;clock, and often from dinner to
+      dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this to answer letters
+      into which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters; and often
+      from persons whose names I have never before heard. Yet, writing civilly,
+      it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is the burthen of my life, a
+      very grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of. Delaplaine
+      lately requested me to give him a line on the subject of his book;
+      meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I constantly refuse; but in
+      this instance yielded, that in saying a word for him, I might say two for
+      myself. I expressed in it freely my sufferings from this source; hoping it
+      would have the effect of an indirect appeal to the discretion of those,
+      strangers and others, who, in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me
+      with their concerns, their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and
+      speculations, political, moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical,
+      historical, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c. I hope the appeal will bring me
+      relief, and that I shall be left to, exercise and enjoy correspondence
+      with the friends I love, and on subjects which they, or my own
+      inclinations, present. In that case, your letters shall not be so long on
+      my files unanswered, as sometimes they have been to my great
+      mortification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
+      Tracy&rsquo;s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
+      original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
+      years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now be had,
+      I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
+      Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
+      under the word &lsquo;Ideology&rsquo; all the subjects which the French term <i>Morale</i>,
+      as the correlative to <i>Physique</i>, His works on Logic, Government,
+      Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up the circle of
+      ideological subjects, or of those which are within the scope of the
+      understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies exactly the
+      ground of Locke&rsquo;s work on the Understanding. The translation of that on
+      Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation of mine. I
+      have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very laborious. <i>Le
+      premier jet</i> having been by some one who understood neither French nor
+      English, it was impossible to make it more than faithful. But it is a
+      valuable work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four
+      words, &lsquo;Be just and good,&rsquo; is that in which all our inquiries must end; as
+      the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, &lsquo;<i>Ubi panis, ibi
+      deus</i>.&rsquo; What all agree in, is probably right; what no two agree in,
+      most probably wrong. One of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small
+      men as very great, inquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether
+      he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken of
+      in some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had been my
+      religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly
+      never made the confidants of my creed. My answer was, &lsquo;Say nothing of my
+      religion. It is known to my God and myself alone. Its evidence before the
+      world is to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and dutiful to
+      society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.&rsquo;
+      Affectionately adieu.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0140" id="link2H_4_0140">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXL.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 5, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 5, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Absences and avocations had prevented my acknowledging your favor of
+      February the 2nd, when that of April the 19th arrived. I had not the
+      pleasure of receiving the former by the hands of Mr. Lyman. His business
+      probably carried him in another direction; for I am far inland, and
+      distant from the great line of communication between the trading cities.
+      Your recommendations are always welcome, for, indeed, the subjects of them
+      always merit that welcome, and some of them in an extraordinary degree.
+      They make us acquainted with what there is excellent in our ancient sister
+      State of Massachusetts, once venerated and beloved, and still hanging on
+      our hopes, for what need we despair of after the resurrection of
+      Connecticut to light and liberality. I had believed that the last retreat
+      of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind
+      which had carried the other States a century ahead of them. They seemed
+      still to be exactly where their forefathers were when they schismatized
+      from the covenant of works, and to consider as dangerous heresies all
+      innovations good or bad. I join you, therefore, in sincere congratulations
+      that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a
+      Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and
+      character. If by religion, we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which
+      no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just,
+      &lsquo;that this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no
+      religion in it.&rsquo; But if the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part
+      of his physical constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the
+      sublime doctrines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of
+      Nazareth, in which all agree, constitute true religion, then, without it,
+      this would be, as you again say, &lsquo;something not fit to be named, even
+      indeed, a hell.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You certainly acted wisely in taking no notice of what the malice of
+      Pickering could say of you. Were such things to be answered, our lives
+      would be wasted in the filth of fendings and provings, instead of being
+      employed in promoting the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-citizens.
+      The tenor of your life is the proper and sufficient answer. It is
+      fortunate for those in public trust, that posterity will judge them by
+      their works, and not by the malignant vituperations and invectives of the
+      Pickerings and Gardiners of their age. After all, men of energy of
+      character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every
+      question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect,
+      those who take the other will of course be hostile in proportion as they
+      feel that effect. Thus, in the Revolution, Hancock and the Adamses were
+      the raw-head and bloody bones of tories and traitors; who yet knew nothing
+      of you personally but what was good. I do not entertain your apprehensions
+      for the happiness of our brother Madison in a state of retirement. Such a
+      mind as his, fraught with information and with matter for reflection, can
+      never know <i>ennui</i>. Besides, there will always be work enough cut out
+      for him to continue his active usefulness to his country. For example, he
+      and Monroe (the President) are now here on the work of a collegiate
+      institution to be established in our neighborhood, of which they and
+      myself are three of six Visitors. This, if it succeeds, will raise up
+      children for Mr. Madison to employ his attention through life. I say, if
+      it succeeds; for we have two very essential wants in our way: 1. means to
+      compass our views; and 2. men qualified to fulfil them. And these you will
+      agree are essential wants indeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am glad to find you have a copy of Sismondi, because his is a field
+      familiar to you, and on which you can judge him. His work is highly
+      praised, but I have not yet read it. I have been occupied and delighted
+      with reading another work, the title of which did not promise much useful
+      information or amusement, &lsquo;<i>L&rsquo;Italia avanti il Dominio del Romani, dal
+      Micali</i>. It has often, you know, been a subject of regret that Carthage
+      had no writer to give her side of her own history, while her wealth,
+      power, and splendor prove she must have had a very distinguished policy
+      and government. Micali has given the counterpart of the Roman history, for
+      the nations over which they extended their dominion. For this he has
+      gleaned up matter from every quarter, and furnished materials for
+      reflection and digestion to those who, thinking as they read, have
+      perceived that there was a great deal of matter behind the curtain, could
+      that be fully withdrawn. He certainly gives new views of a nation whose
+      splendor has masked and palliated their barbarous ambition. I am now
+      reading Botta&rsquo;s History of our own Revolution. Bating the ancient practice
+      which he has adopted, of putting speeches into mouths which never made
+      them, and fancying motives of action which we never felt, he has given
+      that history with more detail, precision, and candor, than any writer I
+      have yet met with. It is, to be sure, compiled from those writers; but it
+      is a good secretion of their matter, the pure from the impure, and
+      presented in a just sense of right, in opposition to usurpation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances for Mrs. Adams and yourself of my affectionate esteem
+      and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0141" id="link2H_4_0141">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLI.&mdash;TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 14, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 14, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although, Dear Sir, much retired from the world, and meddling little in
+      its concerns, yet I think it almost a religious duty to salute at times my
+      old friends, were it only to say and to know that &lsquo;all&rsquo;s well.&rsquo; Our hobby
+      has been politics; but all here is so quiet, and with you so desperate,
+      that little matter is furnished us for active attention. With you too, it
+      has long been forbidden ground, and therefore imprudent for a foreign
+      friend to tread, in writing to you. But although our speculations might be
+      intrusive, our prayers cannot but be acceptable, and mine are sincerely
+      offered for the well-being of France. What government she can bear,
+      depends not on the state of science, however exalted, in a select band of
+      enlightened men, but on the condition of the general mind. That, I am
+      sure, is advanced and will advance, and the last change of government was
+      fortunate, inasmuch as the new will be less obstructive to the effects of
+      that advancement. For I consider your foreign military oppression as an
+      ephemeral obstacle only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here all is quiet. The British war has left us in debt; but that is a
+      cheap price for the good it has done us. The establishment of the
+      necessary manufactures among ourselves, the proof that our government is
+      solid, can stand the shock of war, and is superior even to civil schism,
+      are precious facts for us; and of these the strongest proofs were
+      furnished, when, with four eastern States tied to us, as dead to living
+      bodies, all doubt was removed as to the achievements of the war, had it
+      continued. But its best effect has been the complete suppression of party.
+      The federalists who were truly American, and their great mass was so, have
+      separated from their brethren who were mere Anglomen, and are received
+      with cordiality into the republican ranks. Even Connecticut, as a State,
+      and the last one expected to yield its steady habits (which were
+      essentially bigoted in politics as well as religion), has chosen a
+      republican governor, and republican legislature. Massachusetts indeed
+      still lags; because most deeply involved in the parricide crimes and
+      treasons of the war. But her gangrene is contracting, the sound flesh
+      advancing on it, and all there will be well. I mentioned Connecticut as
+      the most hopeless of our States. Little Delaware had escaped my attention.
+      That is essentially a Quaker State, the fragment of a religious sect
+      which, there, in the other States, in England, are a homogeneous mass,
+      acting with one mind, and that directed by the mother society in England.
+      Dispersed, as the Jews, they still form, as those do, one nation, foreign
+      to the land they live in. They are Protestant Jesuits, implicitly devoted
+      to the will of their superior, and forgetting all duties to their country
+      in the execution of the policy of their order. When war is proposed with
+      England, they have religious scruples; but when with France, these are
+      laid by, and they become clamorous for it. They are, however, silent,
+      passive, and give no other trouble than of whipping them along. Nor is the
+      election of Monroe an inefficient circumstance in our felicities. Four and
+      twenty years, which he will accomplish, of administration in republican
+      forms and principles, will so consecrate them in the eyes of the people as
+      to secure them against the danger of change. The evanition of party
+      dissensions has harmonized intercourse, and sweetened society beyond
+      imagination. The war then has done us all this good, and the further one
+      of assuring the world, that although attached to peace from a sense of its
+      blessings, we will meet war when it is made necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The achievement
+      of their independence of Spain is no longer a question. But it is a very
+      serious one, what will then become of them. Ignorance and bigotry, like
+      other insanities, are incapable of self-government. They will fall under
+      military despotisms, and become the murderous tools of the ambition of
+      their respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be for their greater
+      happiness, the rule of one only has taught you to judge. No one, I hope,
+      can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind exercising self-government,
+      and capable of exercising it. But the question is not what we wish, but
+      what is practicable. As their sincere friend and brother, then, I do
+      believe the best thing for them, would be for themselves to come to an
+      accord with Spain, under the guarantee of France, Russia, Holland, and the
+      United States, allowing to Spain a nominal supremacy, with authority only
+      to keep the peace among them, leaving them otherwise all the powers of
+      self-government, until their experience in them, their emancipation from
+      their priests, and advancement in information, shall prepare them for
+      complete independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because
+      her selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
+      disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
+      revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
+      permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension of
+      her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
+      Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
+      send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
+      wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
+      led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
+      sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
+      are matters not belonging to my time. Not so with you, who have still many
+      years to be a spectator of these events. That these years may indeed be
+      many and happy, is the sincere prayer of your affectionate friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0142" id="link2H_4_0142">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLII.&mdash;TO ALBERT GALLATIN, June 16, 1817
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 16, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The importance that the enclosed letters should safely reach their
+      destination, impels me to avail myself of the protection of your cover.
+      This is an inconvenience to which your situation exposes you, while it
+      adds to the opportunities of exercising yourself in works of charity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the opinion I hazarded to you a little before your departure,
+      we have had almost an entire change in the body of Congress. The
+      unpopularity of the compensation law was completed, by the manner of
+      repealing it as to all the world except themselves. In some States, it is
+      said, every member is changed; in all, many. What opposition there was to
+      the original law, was chiefly from southern members. Yet many of those
+      have been left out, because they received the advanced wages. I have never
+      known so unanimous a sentiment of disapprobation; and what is remarkable,
+      is, that it was spontaneous. The newspapers were almost entirely silent,
+      and the people not only unled by their leaders, but in opposition to them.
+      I confess I was highly pleased with this proof of the innate good sense,
+      the vigilance, and the determination of the people to act for themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the laws of the late Congress, some were of note: a navigation act,
+      particularly, applicable to those nations only who have navigation acts;
+      pinching one of them especially, not only in the general way, but in the
+      intercourse with her foreign possessions. This part may re-act on us, and
+      it remains for trial which may bear longest. A law respecting our conduct
+      as a neutral between Spain and her contending colonies, was passed by a
+      majority of one only, I believe, and against the very general sentiment of
+      our country. It is thought to strain our complaisance to Spain beyond her
+      right or merit, and almost against the right of the other party, and
+      certainly against the claims they have to our good wishes and neighborly
+      relations. That we should wish to see the people of other countries free,
+      is as natural, and at least as justifiable, as that one King should wish
+      to see the Kings of other countries maintained in their despotism. Right
+      to both parties, innocent favor to the juster cause, is our proper
+      sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after passing
+      both houses, was negatived by the President. The act was founded,
+      avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the constitution, which
+      authorizes Congress &lsquo;to lay taxes, to pay the debts and provide for the
+      general welfare,&rsquo; was an extension of the powers specifically enumerated
+      to whatever would promote the general welfare; and this, you know, was the
+      federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost
+      the only land-mark which now divides the federalists from the republicans,
+      that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare,
+      but were restrained to those specifically enumerated; and that, as it was
+      never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of
+      the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise
+      money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action:
+      consequently, that the specification of powers is a limitation of the
+      purposes for which they may raise money. I think the passage and rejection
+      of this bill a fortunate incident. Every State will certainly concede the
+      power; and this will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal
+      to them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a
+      mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a
+      claim of universal power. For in the phrase, &lsquo;to lay taxes, to pay the
+      debts and provide for the general welfare,&rsquo; it is a mere question of
+      syntax, whether the two last infinitives are governed by the first, or are
+      distinct and co-ordinate powers; a question unequivocally decided by the
+      exact definition of powers immediately following. It is fortunate for
+      another reason, as the States, in conceding the power, will modify it,
+      either by requiring the federal ratio of expense in each State, or
+      otherwise, so as to secure us against its partial exercise. Without this
+      caution, intrigue, negotiation, and the barter of votes might become as
+      habitual in Congress, as they are in those legislatures which have the
+      appointment of officers, and which, with us, is called &lsquo;logging,&rsquo; the term
+      of the farmers for their exchanges of aid in rolling together the logs of
+      their newly cleared grounds. Three of our papers have presented us the
+      copy of an act of the legislature of New York, which, if it has really
+      passed, will carry us back to the times of the darkest bigotry and
+      barbarism to find a parallel. Its purport is, that all those who shall
+      hereafter join in communion with the religious sect of Shaking Quakers,
+      shall be deemed civilly dead, their marriages dissolved, and all their
+      children and property taken out of their hands. This act being published
+      nakedly in the papers, without the usual signatures, or any history of the
+      circumstances of its passage, I am not without a hope it may have been a
+      mere abortive attempt. It contrasts singularly with a cotemporary vote of
+      the Pennsylvania legislature, who, on a proposition to make the belief in
+      a God a necessary qualification for office, rejected it by a great
+      majority, although assuredly there was not a single atheist in their body.
+      And you remember to have heard, that, when the act for religious freedom
+      was before the Virginia Assembly, a motion to insert the name of Jesus
+      Christ before the phrase, &lsquo;the author of our holy religion,&rsquo; which stood
+      in the bill, was rejected, although that was the creed of a great majority
+      of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been charmed to see that a Presidential election now produces
+      scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison&rsquo;s election there was little, on
+      Monroe&rsquo;s all but none. In Mr. Adams&rsquo;s time and mine, parties were so
+      nearly balanced as to make the struggle fearful for our peace. But since
+      the decided ascendancy of the republican body, federalism has looked on
+      with silent but unresisting anguish. In the middle, southern, and western
+      States, it is as low as it ever can be; for nature has made some men
+      monarchists and tories by their constitution, and some, of course, there
+      always will be.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      We have had a remarkably cold winter. At Hallowell, in Maine, the mercury
+      was at thirty-four degrees below zero, of Fahrenheit, which is sixteen
+      degrees lower than it was in Paris in 1788-9. Here it was at six degrees
+      above zero, which is our greatest degree of cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Present me respectfully to Mrs. Gallatin, and be assured of my constant
+      and affectionate friendship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0143" id="link2H_4_0143">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, May 17, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, May 17, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was so unfortunate as not to receive from Mr. Holly&rsquo;s own hand your
+      favor of January the 28th, being then at my other home. He dined only with
+      my family, and left them with an impression which has filled me with
+      regret that I did not partake of the pleasure his visit gave them. I am
+      glad he is gone to Kentucky. Rational Christianity will thrive more
+      rapidly there than here. They are freer from prejudices than we are, and
+      bolder in grasping at truth. The time is not distant, though neither you
+      nor I shall see it, when we shall be but a secondary people to them. Our
+      greediness for wealth, and fantastical expense have degraded, and will
+      degrade, the minds of our maritime citizens. These are the peculiar vices
+      of commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had been long without hearing from you, but I had heard of you through a
+      letter from Doctor Waterhouse. He wrote to reclaim against an expression
+      of Mr. Wirt&rsquo;s, as to the commencement of motion in the revolutionary ball.
+      The lawyers say that words are always to be expounded <i>secundum
+      subjectam materiem</i>, which, in Mr. Wirt&rsquo;s case, was Virginia. It would,
+      moreover, be as difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began, and
+      what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo
+      becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning. But the most
+      agreeable part of his letter was that which informed me of your health,
+      your activity, and strength of memory; and the most wonderful, that which
+      assured me that you retained your industry and promptness in epistolary
+      correspondence. Here you have entire advantage over me. My repugnance to
+      the writing-table becomes daily and hourly more deadly and insurmountable.
+      In place of this has come on a canine appetite for reading. And I indulge
+      it, because I see in it a relief against the <i>tædium senectutis</i>; a
+      lamp to lighten my path through the dreary wilderness of time before me,
+      whose bourne I see not. Losing daily all interest in the things around us,
+      something else is necessary to fill the void. With me it is reading, which
+      occupies the mind without the labor of producing ideas from my own stock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I enter into all your doubts as to the event of the revolution of South
+      America. They will succeed against Spain. But the dangerous enemy is
+      within their own breasts. Ignorance and superstition will chain their
+      minds and bodies under religious and military despotism. I do believe it
+      would be better for them to obtain freedom by degrees only; because that
+      would by degrees bring on light and information, and qualify them to take
+      charge of themselves understanding; with more certainty, if, in the mean
+      time, under so much control as may keep them at peace with one another.
+      Surely, it is our duty to wish them independence and self-government,
+      because they wish it themselves, and they have the right, and we none, to
+      choose for themselves: and I wish, moreover, that our ideas may be
+      erroneous, and theirs prove well-founded. But these are speculations, my
+      friend, which we may as well deliver over to those who are to see their
+      developement. We shall only be lookers on, from the clouds above, as now
+      we look down on the labors, the hurry, and bustle of the ants and bees.
+      Perhaps, in that super-mundane region, we may be amused with seeing the
+      fallacy of our own guesses, and even the nothingness of those labors which
+      have filled and agitated our own time here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>En attendant</i>, with sincere affections to Mrs. Adams and yourself, I
+      salute you both cordially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0144" id="link2H_4_0144">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, November 13, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 13, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your
+      letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself
+      in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which
+      can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what
+      you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials
+      have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the
+      only medicine. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh
+      the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with
+      yours, will I say a word more where words are vain, but that it is of some
+      comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to
+      deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to
+      ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved
+      and lost, and whom we shall still love, and never lose again. God bless
+      you, and support you under your heavy affliction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0145" id="link2H_4_0145">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLV.&mdash;TO ROBERT WALSH, December 4, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO ROBERT WALSH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 4, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yours of November the 8th has been some time received; but it is in my
+      power to give little satisfaction as to its inquiries. Dr. Franklin had
+      many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision
+      enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on the
+      feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in
+      Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of the
+      proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the
+      Revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which,
+      spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr. Lee
+      was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides
+      enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the
+      agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into that
+      State with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the Doctor&rsquo;s enemy also, but
+      from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges against
+      him. Mr. Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. Laurens, his colleagues also, ever
+      maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he would
+      have waived the formal recognition of our independence, I never heard on
+      any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was urgent to
+      retain them exclusively, France neutral, and I believe, that had they been
+      ultimately made a <i>sine qua non</i>, our commissioners (Mr. Adams
+      excepted) would have relinquished them, rather than have broken off the
+      treaty. To Mr. Adams&rsquo;s perseverance alone, on that point, I have always
+      understood we were indebted for their reservation. As to the charge of
+      subservience to France, besides the evidence of his friendly colleagues
+      before named, two years of my own service with him at Paris, daily visits,
+      and the most friendly and confidential conversations, convince me it had
+      not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the confidence of that government
+      in the highest degree, insomuch, that it may truly be said, that they were
+      more under his influence, than he under theirs. The fact is, that his
+      temper was so amiable and conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never
+      urging impossibilities, or even things unreasonably inconvenient to them,
+      in short, so moderate and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our
+      own, that what his enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that
+      reasonable disposition, which, sensible that advantages are not all to be
+      on one side, yielding what is just and liberal, is the more certain of
+      obtaining liberality and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course,
+      mutual influence, and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin
+      and the government of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too much
+      in detail for the scale of Delaplaine&rsquo;s work, but which may find a cadre
+      in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is in a
+      great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
+      recollections and assurances of respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0146" id="link2H_4_0146">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVI.&mdash;TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO M. DE NEUVILLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 13, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
+      of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
+      no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
+      Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
+      much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from the
+      incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from her
+      slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her central
+      position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than she ever
+      was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future day, remind
+      of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most eagerly. I hope,
+      however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk no new troubles. Her
+      constitution, as now amended, gives as much of self-government as perhaps
+      she can yet bear, and will give more, when the habits of order shall have
+      prepared her to receive more. Besides the gratitude which every American
+      owes her, as our sole ally during the war of independence, I am
+      additionally affectioned by the friendships I contracted there, by the
+      good dispositions I witnessed, and by the courtesies I received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice, as a moralist, at the prospect of a reduction of the duties on
+      wine, by our national legislature. It is an error to view a tax on that
+      liquor as merely a tax on the rich. It is a prohibition of its use to the
+      middling class of our citizens, and a condemnation of them to the poison
+      of whiskey, which is desolating their houses. No nation is drunken where
+      wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes
+      ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote
+      to the bane of whiskey. Fix but the duty at the rate of other merchandise,
+      and we can drink wine here as cheap as we do grog: and who will not prefer
+      it? Its extended use will carry health and comfort to a much enlarged
+      circle. Every one in easy circumstances (as the bulk of our citizens are)
+      will prefer it to the poison to which they are now driven by their
+      government. And the treasury itself will find that a penny a piece from a
+      dozen, is more than a groat from a single one. This reformation, however,
+      will require time. Our merchants know nothing of the infinite variety of
+      cheap and good wines to be had in Europe; and particularly in France, in
+      Italy, and the Grecian islands: as they know little, also, of the variety
+      of excellent manufactures and comforts to be had any where out of England.
+      Nor will these things be known, nor of course called for here, until the
+      native merchants of those countries, to whom they are known, shall bring
+      them forward, exhibit, and vend them at the moderate profits they can
+      afford. This alone will procure them familiarity with us, and the
+      preference they merit in competition with corresponding articles now in
+      use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our family renew with pleasure their recollections of your kind visit to
+      Monticello, and join me in tendering sincere assurances of the
+      gratification it afforded us, and of our great esteem and respectful
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0147" id="link2H_4_0147">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY, March 21, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR VINE UTLEY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 21, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the
+      request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me not a
+      little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied it, of
+      Doctor Rush&rsquo;s answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like other
+      people, that I might refer to ordinary life as the history of my own. Like
+      my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food,
+      and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables,
+      which constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the Doctor&rsquo;s glass
+      and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend; but halve its effect
+      by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I cannot drink, nor do I
+      use ardent spirits in any form. Malt liquors and cider are my table
+      drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of my friend, is of tea and
+      coffee. I have been blest with organs of digestion, which accept and
+      concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate chooses to consign to
+      them, and I have not yet lost a tooth by age. I was a hard student until I
+      entered on the business of life, the duties of which leave no idle time to
+      those disposed to fulfil them; and now, retired, and at the age of
+      seventy-six, I am again a hard student. Indeed my fondness for reading and
+      study revolts me from the drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist,
+      the consequence of an early dislocation, makes writing both slow and
+      painful. I am not so regular in my sleep as the Doctor says he was,
+      devoting to it from five to eight hours, according as my company or the
+      book I am reading interests me; and I never go to bed without an hour, or
+      half hour&rsquo;s previous reading of something moral, whereon to ruminate in
+      the intervals of sleep. But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise
+      with the sun. I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the day,
+      unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular
+      conversation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which
+      unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate than my
+      friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have not had
+      one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight or ten years through
+      life. I ascribe this exemption partly to the habit of bathing my feet in
+      cold water every morning for sixty years past. A fever of more than
+      twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three times in my life. A
+      periodical headache has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps, in six
+      or eight years, for two or three weeks at a time, which seems now to have
+      left me; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I enjoy good
+      health; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without fatigue six
+      or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I may end these
+      egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has been so much
+      like that of other people, that I might say with Horace, to every one, &lsquo;<i>Nomine
+      mutato, narratur fabula de te</i>.&rsquo; I must not end, however, without due
+      thanks for the kind sentiments of regard you are so good as to express
+      towards myself; and with my acknowledgments for these, be pleased to
+      accept the assurances of my respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0148" id="link2H_4_0148">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLVIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, July 9, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 9, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June the
+      22nd. The first, delivered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the gratification
+      of his acquaintance; and a gratification it always is, to be made
+      acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as I found
+      Mr. Greenwood to be. That, on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams Wells, shall
+      not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to his advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg
+      county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Register, which you were
+      so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you seem to
+      think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very
+      unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us as
+      having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago, in that
+      part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I
+      do not remember its precise locality. If this paper be really taken from
+      the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped Ritchie,
+      who culls what is good from every paper, as the bee from every flower; and
+      the National Intelligencer, too, which is edited by a North-Carolinian:
+      and that the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thousand
+      miles from where the spark is said to have fallen. But if really taken
+      from the Raleigh Register, who is the narrator, and is the name subscribed
+      real, or is it as fictitious as the paper itself? It appeals, too, to an
+      original book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint
+      letter from Caswell, Hughes, and Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the
+      dead Caswell, and another sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead,
+      whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has written of North
+      Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is
+      silent in his history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country
+      bordering On Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt,
+      historians of the adjacent States, all silent. When Mr. Henry&rsquo;s
+      resolutions, far short of independence, flew like lightning through every
+      paper, and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of
+      the same date, of the independence of Mecklenburg county, of North
+      Carolina, absolving it from the British allegiance, and abjuring all
+      political connection with that nation, although sent to Congress, too, is
+      never heard of. It is not known even a twelvemonth after, when a similar
+      proposition is first made in that body. Armed with this bold example,
+      would not you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thunder, on
+      their tardy fears? Would not every advocate of independence have rung the
+      glories of Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, in the ears of the
+      doubting Dickinson and others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example
+      of independent Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once
+      quoted. The paper speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their
+      delegation (Caswell, Hooper, Hughes,) &lsquo;in the cause of liberty and
+      independence.&rsquo; Now, you remember as well as I do, that we had not a
+      greater tory in Congress than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering,
+      sometimes firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day was clear or
+      cloudy; that Caswell, indeed, was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to
+      the notch, while he was present; but that he left us soon, and their line
+      of conduct became then uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes, and
+      the vote of the State. I must not be understood as suggesting any
+      doubtfulness in the State of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or
+      forward. Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrication:
+      because the proof of a negative can only be presumptive. But I shall
+      believe it such until positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall
+      be produced. And if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the
+      fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production of such proof. For
+      the present, I must be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely returned to his friends;
+      but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship
+      in our University, which we should have offered him in form. Mr. Bowditch,
+      too, refuses us; so fascinating is the <i>vinculum</i> of the <i>dulce
+      natale solum</i>. Our wish is to procure natives, where they can be found,
+      like these gentlemen, of the first order of acquirement in their
+      respective lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to natives
+      of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our
+      Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance of
+      which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary
+      communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there, here,
+      and every where, I am and shall always be, affectionately and respectfully
+      yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0149" id="link2H_4_0149">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXLIX.&mdash;TO JUDGE ROANE, September 6,1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE ROANE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, September 6,1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had read in the Enquirer, and with great approbation, the pieces signed
+      Hampden, and have read them again with redoubled approbation in the copies
+      you have been so kind as to send me. I subscribe to every tittle of them.
+      They contain the true principles of the revolution of 1800, for that was
+      as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776
+      was in its form; not effected indeed by the sword, as that, but by the
+      rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.
+      The nation declared its will by dismissing functionaries of one principle,
+      and electing those of another, in the two branches, executive and
+      legislative, submitted to their election. Over the judiciary department,
+      the constitution had deprived them of their control. That, therefore, has
+      continued the reprobated system: and although new matter has been
+      occasionally incorporated into the old, yet the leaven of the old mass
+      seems to assimilate to itself the new; and after twenty years&rsquo;
+      confirmation of the federated system by the voice of the nation, declared
+      through the medium of elections, we find the judiciary, on every occasion,
+      still driving us into consolidation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
+      constitution, I go further than you do, if I understand rightly your
+      quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that &lsquo;the judiciary is the
+      last resort in relation <i>to the other departments of the government</i>,
+      but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the compact under
+      which the judiciary is derived.&rsquo; If this opinion be sound, then indeed is
+      our constitution a complete <i>felo de se</i>. For intending to establish
+      three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that they might check and
+      balance one another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one of
+      them alone, the right to prescribe rules for the government of the others,
+      and to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation.
+      For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is
+      not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent
+      cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the
+      case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion
+      beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in,
+      have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion,
+      even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. The
+      constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of
+      the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
+      It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that
+      whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in
+      theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in
+      practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted no where
+      but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but
+      moral law. My construction of the constitution is very different from that
+      you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the others,
+      and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the
+      constitution in the cases submitted to its action; and especially, where
+      it is to act ultimately and without appeal. I will explain myself by
+      examples, which, having occurred while I was in office, are better known
+      to me, and the principles which governed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A legislature had passed the sedition-law. The federal courts had
+      subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and imprisonment.
+      On coming into office, I released these individuals by the power of pardon
+      committed to executive discretion, which could never be more properly
+      exercised than where citizens were suffering without the authority of law,
+      or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorized by the constitution,
+      and therefore null. In the case of Marbury and Madison, the federal judges
+      declared that commissions, signed and sealed by the President, were valid,
+      although not delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete a deed,
+      which, as long as it remains in the hands of the party, is as yet no deed,
+      it is in posse only, but not in esse, and I withheld delivery of the
+      commissions. They cannot issue a mandamus* to the President or
+      legislature, or to any of their officers. When the British treaty of 180-
+      arrived, without any provision against the impressment of our seamen, I
+      determined not to ratify it. The Senate thought I should ask their advice.
+      I thought that would be a mockery of them, when I was predetermined
+      against following it, should they advise its ratification. The
+      constitution had made their advice necessary to confirm a treaty, but not
+      to reject it. This has been blamed by some; but I have never doubted its
+      soundness. In the cases of two persons, antenati, under exactly similar
+      circumstances, the federal court had determined that one of them (Duane)
+      was not a citizen; the House of Representatives nevertheless determined
+      that the other (Smith of South Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him
+      to his seat in their body. Duane was a republican, and Smith a federalist,
+      and these decisions were during the federal ascendancy.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The constitution controlling the common law in this
+     particular.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These are examples of my position, that each of the three departments has
+      equally the right to decide for itself what is its duty under the
+      constitution, without any regard to what the others may have decided for
+      themselves under a similar question. But you intimate a wish that my
+      opinion should be known on this subject. No, dear Sir, I withdraw from all
+      contests of opinion, and resign every thing cheerfully to the generation
+      now in place. They are wiser than we were, and their successors will be
+      wiser than they, from the progressive advance of science. Tranquillity is
+      the <i>summum bonum</i> of age. I wish, therefore, to offend no man&rsquo;s
+      opinions, nor to draw disquieting animadversions on my own. While duty
+      required it, I met opposition with a firm and fearless step. But, loving
+      mankind in my individual relations with them, I pray to be permitted to
+      depart in their peace; and like the superannuated soldier, &lsquo;<i>quadragenis
+      stipendiis emeritis</i>&rsquo;to hang my arms on the post. I have unwisely, I
+      fear, embarked in an enterprise of great public concern, but not to be
+      accomplished within my term, without their liberal and prompt support. A
+      severe illness the last year and another from which I am just emerged,
+      admonish me that repetitions may be expected, against which a declining
+      frame cannot long bear up. I am anxious therefore to get our University so
+      far advanced as may encourage the public to persevere to its final
+      accomplishment. That secured, I shall sing my <i>Nunc demittas</i>. I hope
+      your labors will be long continued in the spirit in which they have always
+      been exercised, in maintenance of those principles on which I verily
+      believe the future happiness of our country essentially depends. I salute
+      you with affectionate and great respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0150" id="link2H_4_0150">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CL.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, December 10, 1819
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 10, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of November the 23rd. The
+      banks, bankrupt-law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing. These are
+      occurrences which, like waves in a storm, will pass under the ship. But
+      the Missouri question is a breaker on which we lose the Missouri country
+      by revolt, and what more, God only knows. From the battle of Bunker&rsquo;s Hill
+      to the treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous a question. It even damps
+      the joy with which I hear of your high health, and welcomes to me the
+      consequences of my want of it. I thank God that I shall not live to
+      witness its issue. <i>Sed hæc hactenus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been amusing myself latterly with reading the voluminous letters of
+      Cicero. They certainly breathe the purest effusions of an exalted patriot,
+      while the parricide Caesar is lost in odious contrast. When the
+      enthusiasm, however, kindled by Cicero&rsquo;s pen and principles, subsides into
+      cool reflection, I ask myself, What was that government which the virtues
+      of Cicero were so zealous to restore, and the ambition of Caesar to
+      subvert? And if Caesar had been as virtuous as he was daring and
+      sagacious, what could he, even in the plenitude of his usurped power, have
+      done to lead his fellow-citizens into good government? I do not say to
+      restore it, because they never had it, from the rape of the Sabines to the
+      ravages of the Caesars. If their people indeed had been, like ourselves,
+      enlightened, peaceable, and really free, the answer would be obvious.
+      &lsquo;Restore independence to all your foreign conquests, relieve Italy from
+      the government of the rabble of Rome, consult it as a nation entitled to
+      self-government, and do its will.&rsquo; But steeped in corruption, vice, and
+      venality, as the whole nation was, (and nobody had done more than Caesar
+      to corrupt it,) what could even Cicero, Cato, Brutus, have done, had it
+      been referred to them to establish a good government for their country?
+      They had no ideas of government themselves, but of their degenerate
+      Senate, nor the people of liberty, but of the factious opposition of their
+      tribunes. They had afterwards their Tituses, their Trajans, and
+      Antoninuses, who had the will to make them happy, and the power to mould
+      their government into a good and permanent form. But it would seem as if
+      they could not see their way clearly to do it. No government can continue
+      good, but under the control of the people; and their people were so
+      demoralized and depraved, as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome
+      control. Their reformation then was to be taken up <i>ab incunabulis</i>.
+      Their minds were to be informed by education what is right and what wrong;
+      to be encouraged in habits of virtue, and deterred from those of vice, by
+      the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all
+      cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which
+      bewilders us in one false consequence after another, in endless
+      succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a
+      sure basis for the structure of order and good government. But this would
+      have been an operation of a generation or two, at least, within which
+      period would have succeeded many Neros and Commoduses, who would have
+      quashed the whole process. I confess then, I can neither see what Cicero,
+      Cato, and Brutus, united and uncontrolled, could have devised to lead
+      their people into good government, nor how this enigma can be solved, nor
+      how further shown why it has been the fate of that delightful country
+      never to have known, to this day, and through a course of five and twenty
+      hundred years, the history of which we possess, one single day of free and
+      rational government. Your intimacy with their history, ancient, middle,
+      and modern, your familiarity with the improvements in the science of
+      government at this time, will enable you, if any body, to go back with our
+      principles and opinions to the limes of Cicero, Cato, and Brutus, and tell
+      us by what process these great and virtuous men could have led so
+      unenlightened and vitiated a people into freedom and good government, <i>et
+      eris mihi magnus Apollo. Cura ut valeas, et tibi persuadeas carissimum te
+      mihi esse</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0151" id="link2H_4_0151">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLI.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, April 13, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 13, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of March the 27th is received, and, as you request, a copy of
+      the syllabus is now enclosed. It was originally written to Dr. Rush. On
+      his death, fearing that the inquisition of the public might get hold of
+      it, I asked the return of it from the family, which they kindly complied
+      with. At the request of another friend, I had given him a copy. He lent it
+      to his friend to read, who copied it, and in a few months it appeared in
+      the Theological Magazine of London. Happily that repository is scarcely
+      known in this country; and the syllabus, therefore, is still a secret, and
+      in your hands I am sure it will continue so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its
+      true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the
+      Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in
+      all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism:
+      he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I
+      require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, &amp;c. &amp;c. It is
+      the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral
+      precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues
+      in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed,
+      needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be
+      founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the
+      sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many
+      passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely
+      benevolence; and others again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so
+      much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible
+      that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I
+      separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him the former,
+      and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of
+      his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great
+      Coryphæus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable
+      interpolations and falsifications of his doctrines led me to try to sift
+      them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that his part composed
+      the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man.
+      The syllabus is therefore of his doctrine, not all of mine: I read them as
+      I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a mixture of
+      approbation and dissent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice, with you, to see an encouraging spirit of internal improvement
+      prevailing in the States. The opinion I have ever expressed of the
+      advantages of a western communication through the James River, I still
+      entertain; and that the Cayuga is the most promising of the links of
+      communication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of our University you know so far. Seven of the ten pavilions
+      destined for the Professors, and about thirty dormitories, will be
+      completed this year, and three others, with six hotels for boarding, and
+      seventy other dormitories, will be completed the next year, and the whole
+      be in readiness then to receive those who are to occupy them. But means to
+      bring these into place, and to set the machine into motion, must come from
+      the legislature. An opposition, in the mean time, has been got up. That of
+      our alma mater, William and Mary, is not of much weight. She must descend
+      into the secondary rank of academies of preparation for the University.
+      The serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to
+      whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous. Their pulpits
+      are now resounding with denunciations against the appointment of Doctor
+      Cooper, whom they charge as a monotheist in opposition to their tritheism.
+      Hostile as these sects are, in every other point, to one another, they
+      unite in maintaining their mystical theogony against those who believe
+      there is one God only. The Presbyterian clergy are loudest; the most
+      intolerant of all sects, the most tyrannical and ambitious; ready at the
+      word of the lawgiver, if such a word could be now obtained, to put the
+      torch to the pile, and to rekindle in this virgin hemisphere the flames in
+      which their oracle Calvin consumed the poor Servetus, because, he could
+      not find in his Euclid the proposition which has demonstrated that three
+      are one, and one is three, nor subscribe to that of Calvin, that
+      magistrates have a right to exterminate all heretics to Calvinistic creed.
+      They pant to re-establish, by law, that holy inquisition, which they can
+      now only infuse into public opinion. We have most unwisely committed to
+      the hierophants of our particular superstition the direction of public
+      opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and
+      privileged days to collect and catechize us, opportunities of delivering
+      their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as wax in
+      the hollow of their hands. But in despite of their fulminations against
+      endeavors to enlighten the general mind, to improve the reason of the
+      people, and encourage them in the use of it, the liberality of this State
+      will support this institution, and give fair play to the cultivation of
+      reason. Can you ever find a more eligible occasion of visiting once more
+      your native country, than that of accompanying Mr. Correa, and of seeing
+      with him this beautiful and hopeful institution <i>in ovo</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although I had laid down as a law to myself, never to write, talk, or even
+      think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore had
+      ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled me
+      with alarm. The old schism of federal and republican threatened nothing,
+      because it existed in every State, and united them together by the
+      fraternism of party. But the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and
+      political, with a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would never
+      more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every
+      occasion, and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and
+      mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I
+      have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of
+      long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great
+      distance, and the direct consequence of this question: not by the line
+      which has been so confidently counted on; the laws of nature control this;
+      but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or more probably, the Mississippi
+      upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is, that
+      I shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the
+      glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers&rsquo; sacrifices of life and
+      fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide
+      ultimately whether man is capable of self-government. This treason against
+      human hope will signalize their epoch in future history, as the
+      counterpart of the medal of their predecessors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You kindly inquire after my health. There is nothing in it immediately
+      threatening, but swelled legs, which are kept down mechanically, by
+      bandages from the toe to the knee. These I have worn for six months. But
+      the tendency to turgidity may proceed from debility alone. I can walk the
+      round of my garden; not more. But I ride six or eight miles a day without
+      fatigue. I shall set out for Poplar Forest within three or four days; a
+      journey from which my physician augurs much good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0152" id="link2H_4_0152">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLII.&mdash;TO JOHN HOLMES, April 22, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN HOLMES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 22, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you, dear Sir, for the copy you have been so kind as to send me of
+      the letter to your constituents on the Missouri question. It is a perfect
+      justification to them. I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers, or
+      pay any attention to public affairs, confident they were in good hands,
+      and content to be a passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not
+      distant. But this momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night,
+      awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell
+      of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve
+      only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked
+      principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry
+      passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will
+      mark it deeper and deeper. I can say, with conscious truth, that there is
+      not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us
+      from this heavy reproach, in any practicable way. The cession of that kind
+      of property (for so it is misnamed) is a bagatelle which would not cost me
+      a second thought, if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation
+      could be effected: and, gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it
+      might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither
+      hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and
+      self-preservation in the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as the
+      passage of slaves from one State to another, would not make a slave of a
+      single human being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over
+      a greater surface would make them individually happier, and proportionally
+      facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation, by dividing the
+      burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An abstinence, too, from this
+      act of power, would remove the jealousy excited by the undertaking of
+      Congress to regulate the condition of the different descriptions of men
+      composing a State. This certainly is the exclusive right of every State,
+      which nothing in the constitution has taken from them, and given to the
+      General Government. Could Congress, for example, say, that the non-freemen
+      of Connecticut shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any
+      other State?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of
+      themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and
+      happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and
+      unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be,
+      that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh
+      the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more
+      likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before
+      they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason
+      against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of
+      the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0153" id="link2H_4_0153">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM SHORT, August 4, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM SHORT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 4, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I owe you a letter for your favor of June the 29th, which was received in
+      due time; and there being no subject of the day, of particular interest, I
+      will make this a supplement to mine of April the 13th. My aim in that was,
+      to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his
+      pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an
+      impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies,
+      the falsehoods, and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him,
+      and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the
+      fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion
+      would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give
+      no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to
+      rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is
+      granted in reading every other historian. When Livy and Siculus, for
+      example, tell us things which coincide with our experience of the order of
+      nature, we credit them on their word, and place their narrations among the
+      records of credible history. But when they tell us of calves speaking, of
+      statues sweating blood, and other things against the course of nature, we
+      reject these as fables not belonging to history. In like manner, when an
+      historian, speaking of a character well known and established on
+      satisfactory testimony, imputes to it things incompatible with that
+      character, we reject them without hesitation, and assent to that only of
+      which we have better evidence. Had Plutarch informed us that Cæsar and
+      Cicero passed their whole lives in religious exercises, and abstinence
+      from the affairs of the world, we should reject what was so inconsistent
+      with their established characters, still crediting what he relates in
+      conformity with our ideas of them. So again, the superlative wisdom of
+      Socrates is testified by all antiquity, and placed on ground not to be
+      questioned. When, therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms,
+      such quibbles on words, and sophisms, as a school-boy would be ashamed of,
+      we conclude they were the whimsies of Plato&rsquo;s own foggy brain, and acquit
+      Socrates of puerilities so unlike his character. (Speaking of Plato, I
+      will add, that no writer, ancient or modern, has bewildered the world with
+      more <i>ignes fatui</i>, than this renowned philosopher, in Ethics, in
+      Politics, and Physics. In the latter, to specify a single example, compare
+      his views of the animal economy, in his Timasus, with those of Mrs. Bryan
+      in her Conversations on Chemistry, and weigh the science of the canonized
+      philosopher against the good sense of the unassuming lady. But Plato&rsquo;s
+      visions have furnished a basis for endless systems of mystical theology,
+      and he is therefore all but adopted as a Christian saint. It is surely
+      time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of
+      names so artificially magnified. But to return from this parenthesis.) I
+      say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of
+      the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers matter
+      of two distinct descriptions. First, a ground-work of vulgar ignorance, of
+      things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, and fabrications.
+      Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the Supreme Being,
+      aphorisms, and precepts of the purest morality and benevolence, sanctioned
+      by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity of manners, neglect of
+      riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors, with an eloquence and
+      persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. These could not be
+      inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them. They are far beyond
+      the powers of their feeble minds. They show that there was a character,
+      the subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above all
+      suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. Can we be at a loss in
+      separating such materials, and ascribing each to its genuine author? The
+      difference is obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read
+      as we run to each his part; and I will venture to affirm, that he who, as
+      I have done, will undertake to winnow this grain from its chaff, will find
+      it not to require a moment&rsquo;s consideration. The parts fall asunder of
+      themselves, as would those of an image of metal and clay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we may,
+      with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence from
+      the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the reformation of
+      some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses. That sect
+      had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific
+      character, cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust. Jesus, taking for
+      his type the best qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice,
+      goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of these, but in infinite
+      perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him really worthy of their
+      adoration. Moses had either not believed in a future state of existence,
+      or had not thought it essential to be explicitly taught to his people.
+      Jesus inculcated that doctrine with emphasis and precision. Moses had
+      bound the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries, and observances, of no
+      effect towards producing the social utilities which constitute the essence
+      of virtue; Jesus exposed their futility and insignificance. The one
+      instilled into his people the most anti-social spirit towards other
+      nations; the other preached philanthropy and universal charity and
+      benevolence. The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is
+      ever dangerous. Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and
+      religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of
+      the priests of the superstition, a blood-thirsty race, as cruel and
+      remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of
+      Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were
+      constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He
+      was justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by
+      misconstructions, and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and in
+      defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, <i>ad
+      homines</i>, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on
+      mankind as the Son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by
+      the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he
+      might conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very
+      possible. The whole religion of the Jews, inculcated on him from his
+      infancy, was founded in the belief of divine inspiration. The fumes of the
+      most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as
+      special communications of the Deity; and as it could not but happen that,
+      in the course of ages events would now and then turn up to which some of
+      these vague rhapsodies might be accommodated by the aid of allegories,
+      figures, types, and other tricks upon words, they have not only preserved
+      their credit with the Jews of all subsequent times, but are the foundation
+      of much of the religions of those who have schismatized from them.
+      Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart, conscious of the high
+      strains of an eloquence which had not been taught him, he might readily
+      mistake the coruscations of his own fine genius for inspirations of an
+      higher order. This belief, carried, therefore, no more personal
+      imputation, than the belief of Socrates, that himself was under the care
+      and admonitions of a guardian Daemon. And how many of our wisest men still
+      believe in the reality of these inspirations, while perfectly sane on all
+      other subjects. Excusing, therefore, on these considerations, those
+      passages in the gospels which seem to bear marks of weakness in Jesus,
+      ascribing to him what alone is consistent with the great and pure
+      character of which the same writings furnish proofs, and to their proper
+      authors their own trivialities and imbecilities, I think myself authorized
+      to conclude the purity and distinction of his character, in opposition to
+      the impostures which those authors would fix upon him; and that the
+      postulate of my former letter is no more than is granted in all other
+      historical works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Correa is here, on his farewell visit to us. He has been much pleased
+      with the plan and progress of our University, and has given some valuable
+      hints to its botanical branch. He goes to do, I hope, much good in his new
+      country; the public instruction there, as I understand, being within the
+      department destined for him. He is not without dissatisfaction, and
+      reasonable dissatisfaction, too, with the piracies of Baltimore; but his
+      justice and friendly dispositions will, I am sure, distinguish between the
+      iniquities of a few plunderers, and the sound principles of our country at
+      large, and of our government especially. From many conversations with him,
+      I hope he sees, and will promote, in his new situation, the advantages of
+      a cordial fraternization among all the American nations, and the
+      importance of their coalescing in an American system of policy, totally
+      independent of, and unconnected with that of Europe. The day is not
+      distant, when we may formally require a meridian of partition through the
+      ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the hither side of which no
+      European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; and when,
+      during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb,
+      within our regions, shall lie down together in peace. The excess of
+      population in Europe, and want of room, render war, in their opinion,
+      necessary to keep down that excess of numbers. Here, room is abundant,
+      population scanty, and peace the necessary means for producing men, to
+      whom the redundant soil is offering the means of life and happiness. The
+      principles of society there and here, then, are radically different, and I
+      hope no American patriot will ever lose sight of the essential policy of
+      interdicting in the seas and territories of both Americas, the ferocious
+      and sanguinary contests of Europe. I wish to see this coalition begun. I
+      am earnest for an agreement with the maritime powers of Europe, assigning
+      them the task of keeping down the piracies of their seas and the
+      cannibalisms of the African coasts, and, to us, the suppression of the
+      same enormities within our seas: and for this purpose, I should rejoice to
+      see the fleets of Brazil and the United States riding together as brethren
+      of the same family, and pursuing the same object. And indeed it would be
+      of happy augury to begin at once this concert of action here, on the
+      invitation of either to the other government, while the way might be
+      preparing for withdrawing our cruisers from Europe, and preventing naval
+      collisions there which daily endanger our peace.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Accept assurances of the sincerity of my friendship and respect for you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0154" id="link2H_4_0154">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, August 15, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 15, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am a great defaulter, my Dear Sir, in our correspondence, but prostrate
+      health rarely permits me to write; and when it does, matters of business
+      imperiously press their claims. I am getting better however, slowly,
+      swelled legs being now the only serious symptom, and these, I believe,
+      proceed from extreme debility. I can walk but little; but I ride six or
+      eight miles a day without fatigue; and within a few days, I shall endeavor
+      to visit my other home, after a twelvemonth&rsquo;s absence from it. Our
+      University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exercise, and the
+      oftener, as I direct its architecture. Its plan is unique, and it is
+      becoming an object of curiosity for the traveller. I have lately had an
+      opportunity of reading a critique on this institution in your North
+      American Review of January last, having been not without anxiety to see
+      what that able work would say of us: and I was relieved on finding in it
+      much coincidence of opinion, and even where criticisms where indulged, I
+      found they would have been obviated had the developements of our plan been
+      fuller. But these were restrained by the character of the paper reviewed,
+      being merely a report of outlines, not a detailed treatise, and addressed
+      to a legislative body, not to a learned academy. For example, as an
+      inducement to introduce the Anglo-Saxon into our plan, it was said that it
+      would reward amply the few weeks of attention which alone would be
+      requisite for its attainment; leaving both term and degree under an
+      indefinite expression, because I know that not much time is necessary to
+      attain it to an useful degree, sufficient to give such instruction in the
+      etymologies of our language as may satisfy ordinary students, while more
+      time would be requisite for those who should propose to attain a critical
+      knowledge of it. In a letter which I had occasion to write to Mr. Crofts
+      who sent you, I believe, as well as myself, a copy of his treatise on the
+      English and German languages, as preliminary to an etymological dictionary
+      he meditated, I went into explanations with him of an easy process for
+      simplifying the study of the Anglo-Saxon, and lessening the terrors and
+      difficulties presented by it&rsquo;s rude alphabet, and unformed orthography.
+      But this is a subject beyond the bounds of a letter, as it was beyond the
+      bounds of a report to the legislature. Mr. Crofts died, I believe, before
+      any progress was made in the work he had projected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reviewer expresses doubt, rather than decision, on our placing
+      military and naval architecture in the department of pure mathematics.
+      Military architecture embraces fortification and field works, which, with
+      their bastions, curtains, hornworks, redoubts, &amp;c. are based on a
+      technical combination of lines and angles. These are adapted to offence
+      and defence, with and against the effects of bombs, balls, escalades, he.
+      But lines and angles make the sum of elementary geometry, a branch of pure
+      mathematics: and the direction of the bombs, balls, and other projectiles,
+      the necessary appendages of military works, although no part of their
+      architecture, belong to the conic sections, a branch of transcendental
+      geometry. Diderot and D&rsquo;Alembert, therefore, in their <i>Arbor scienciæ</i>,
+      have placed military architecture in the department of elementary
+      geometry. Naval architecture teaches the best form and construction of
+      vessels; for which best form it has recourse to the question of the solid
+      of least resistance; a problem of transcendental geometry. And its
+      appurtenant projectiles belong to the same branch as in the preceding
+      case. It is true, that so far as respects the action of the water on the
+      rudder and oars, and of the wind on the sails, it may be placed in the
+      department of mechanics, as Diderot and D&rsquo;Alembert have done; but
+      belonging quite as much to geometry, and allied in its military character
+      to military architecture, it simplified our plan to place both under the
+      same head. These views are so obvious, that I am sure they would have
+      required but a second thought to reconcile the reviewer to their location
+      under the head of pure mathematics. For this word location, see Bailey,
+      Johnson, Sheridan, Walker, &amp;c. But if dictionaries are to be the
+      arbiters of language, in which of them shall we find neologism? No matter.
+      It is a good word, well sounding, obvious, and expresses an idea, which
+      would otherwise require circumlocution. The reviewer was justifiable,
+      therefore, in using it; although he noted at the same time, as
+      unauthoritative, <i>centrality, grade, sparse</i>; all which have been
+      long used in common speech and writing. I am a friend to neology. It is
+      the only way to give to a language copiousness and euphony. Without it we
+      should still be held to the vocabulary of Alfred or of Ulphilas; and held
+      to their state of science also: for I am sure they had no words which
+      could have conveyed the ideas of oxygen, cotyledons, zoophytes, magnetism,
+      electricity, hyaline, and thousands of others expressing ideas not then
+      existing, nor of possible communication in the state of their language.
+      What a language has the French become since the date of their revolution,
+      by the free introduction of new words! The most copious and eloquent in
+      the living world; and equal to the Greek, had not that been regularly
+      modifiable almost <i>ad infinitum</i>. Their rule was, that whenever their
+      language furnished or adopted a root, all its branches in every part of
+      speech, were legitimated by giving them their appropriate terminations:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page331.jpg" alt="Page331 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And this should be the law of every language. Thus, having adopted the
+      adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity,
+      fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize,
+      fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root, and
+      it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist,
+      neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical; its
+      verb, neologize; and adverb neologically. Dictionaries are but the
+      depositories of words already legitimated by usage. Society is the
+      work-shop in which new ones are elaborated. When an individual uses a new
+      word, if ill formed, it is rejected in society, if well formed, adopted,
+      and after due time, laid up in the depository of dictionaries. And if, in
+      this process of sound neologization, our trans-Atlantic brethren shall not
+      choose to accompany us, we may furnish, after the Ionians, a second
+      example of a colonial dialect improving on its primitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But enough of criticism: let me turn to your puzzling letter of May the
+      12th, on matter, spirit, motion, &amp;c. Its crowd of scepticisms kept me
+      from sleep. I read it, and laid it down: read it, and laid it down, again
+      and again: and to give rest to my mind, I was obliged to recur ultimately
+      to my habitual anodyne, &lsquo;I feel, therefore I exist.&rsquo; I feel bodies which
+      are not myself: there are other existences then. I call them matter. I
+      feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where there is an absence
+      of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial space. On the basis
+      of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect the fabric of all the
+      certainties we can have or need. I can conceive thought to be an action of
+      a particular organization of matter, formed for that purpose by its
+      creator, as well as that attraction is an action of matter, or magnetism
+      of loadstone. When he who denies to the Creator the power of endowing
+      matter with the mode of action called thinking, shall show how he could
+      endow the sun with the mode of action called attraction, which reins the
+      planets in the track of their orbits, or how an absence of matter can have
+      a will, and by that will put matter into motion, then the Materialist may
+      be lawfully required to explain the process by which matter exercises the
+      faculty of thinking. When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in
+      the wind. To talk of immaterial existences, is to talk of nothings. To say
+      that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say, they are
+      nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason
+      otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by the
+      Lockes, the Tracys, and the Stewarts. At what age* of the Christian church
+      this heresy of immaterialism, or masked atheism, crept in, I do not
+      exactly know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus taught nothing of it. He
+      told us, indeed, that &lsquo;God is a spirit,&rsquo; but he has not defined what a
+      spirit is, nor said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers
+      generally, of the three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and
+      thin indeed, an ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. &lsquo;<i>Deus
+      reapse corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus</i>.&rsquo;
+      Tertullian,&rsquo; <i>Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?</i>&rsquo; And again, &lsquo;<i>Quis
+      negabit Deum esse corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est,
+      sui generis in sua effigie</i>. St. Justin Martyr,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page332.jpg" alt="332 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And St. Macarius, speaking of angels, says, &lsquo;<i>Quamvis enim subtilia
+      sint, tamen in substantia, forma, et figura, secundum tenuitatem naturas
+      eorum, corpora sunt tenuia</i>.&rsquo; And St. Austin, St. Basil, Lactantius,
+      Tatian, Athenagoras, and others, with whose writings I pretend not a
+      familiarity, are said by those who are better acquainted with them, to
+      deliver the same doctrine. (Enfield x. 3. 1.) Turn to your Ocellus
+      d&rsquo;Argens, 97, 105. and to his Timseus 17. for these quotations. In
+      England, these Immaterialists might have been burnt until the 29 Car. 2.
+      when the writ <i>de hæretico comburendo</i> was abolished; and here until
+      the Revolution, that statute not having extended to us. All heresies being
+      now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing
+      from the material atheist only in their belief, that &lsquo;nothing made
+      something,&rsquo; and from the material deist, who believes that matter alone
+      can operate on matter.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* That of Athanasius and the Council of Nicasa, anno 324]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Rejecting all organs of information, therefore, but my senses, I rid
+      myself of the pyrrhonisms with which an indulgence in speculations
+      hyperphysical and antiphysical, so uselessly occupy and disquiet the mind.
+      A single sense may indeed be sometimes deceived, but rarely; and never all
+      our senses together, with their faculty of reasoning. They evidence
+      realities, and there are enough of these for all the purposes of life,
+      without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am
+      satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without
+      tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of
+      which I have no evidence. I am sure that I really know many, many things,
+      and none more surely than that I love you with all my heart, and pray for
+      the continuance of your life until you shall be tired of it yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0155" id="link2H_4_0155">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLV.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, November 28, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poplar Forest, November 28, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sent in due time the Report of the Visitors to the Governor, with a
+      request that he would endeavor to convene the Literary Board in time to
+      lay it before the legislature on the second day of their session. It was
+      enclosed in a letter which will explain itself to you. If delivered before
+      the crowd of other business presses on them, they may act on it
+      immediately, and before there will have been time for unfriendly
+      combinations and manoeuvres by the enemies of the institution. I enclose
+      you now a paper presenting some views which may be useful to you in
+      conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution is
+      to cost, and reproaches of deceptive estimates. One hundred and sixty-two
+      thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars will be about the cost of
+      the whole establishment, when completed. Not an office at Washington has
+      cost less. The single building of the courthouse of Henrico has cost
+      nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of bricks of William
+      and Mary could not now be built for a less sum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely Governor Clinton&rsquo;s display of the gigantic efforts of New York
+      towards the education of her citizens, will stimulate the pride as well as
+      the patriotism of our legislature, to look to the reputation and safety of
+      their own country, to rescue it from the degradation of becoming the
+      Barbary of the Union, and of falling into the ranks of our own negroes. To
+      that condition it is fast sinking. We shall be in the hands of the other
+      States, what our indigenous predecessors were when invaded by the science
+      and arts of Europe. The mass of education in Virginia, before the
+      Revolution, placed her with the foremost of her sister colonies. What is
+      her education now? Where is it? The little we have, we import, like
+      beggars, from other States; or import their beggars to bestow on us their
+      miserable crumbs. And what is wanting to restore us to our station among
+      our confederates? Not more money from the people. Enough has been raised
+      by them, and appropriated to this very object. It is that it should be
+      employed understandingly, and for their greatest good. That good requires,
+      that while they are instructed in general, competently to the common
+      business of life, others should employ their genius with necessary
+      information to the useful arts, to inventions for saving labor and
+      increasing our comforts, to nourishing our health, to civil government,
+      military science, &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Would it not have a good effect for the friends of the University to take
+      the lead in proposing and effecting a practical scheme of elementary
+      schools? to assume the character of the friends, rather than the opponents
+      of that object? The present plan has appropriated to the primary schools
+      forty-five thousand dollars for three years, making one hundred and
+      thirty-five thousand dollars. I should be glad to know if this sum has
+      educated one hundred and thirty-five poor children? I doubt it much. And
+      if it has, they have cost us one thousand dollars a piece for what might
+      have been done with thirty dollars. Supposing the literary revenue to be
+      sixty thousand dollars, I think it demonstrable, that this sum, equally
+      divided between the two objects, would amply suffice for both. One hundred
+      counties, divided into about twelve wards each, on an average, and a
+      school in each ward of perhaps ten children, would be one thousand and two
+      hundred schools, distributed proportionably over the surface of the State.
+      The inhabitants of each ward, meeting together (as when they work on the
+      roads), building good log-houses for their school and teacher, and
+      contributing for his provisions, rations of pork, beef, and corn, in the
+      proportion, each of his other taxes, would thus lodge and feed him without
+      feeling it; and those of them who are able, paying for the tuition of
+      their own children, would leave no call on the public fund but for the
+      tuition fee of, here and there, an accidental pauper, who would still be
+      fed and lodged with his parents. Suppose this fee ten dollars, and three
+      hundred dollars apportioned to a county on an average (more or less duly
+      proportioned), would there be thirty such paupers for every county? I
+      think not. The truth is, that the want of common education with us is not
+      from our poverty, but from want of an orderly system. More money is now
+      paid for the education of a part, than would be paid for that of the
+      whole, if systematically arranged. Six thousand common schools in New
+      York, fifty pupils in each, three hundred thousand in all; one hundred and
+      sixty thousand dollars annually paid to the masters; forty established
+      academies, with two thousand two hundred and eighteen pupils; and five
+      colleges, with seven hundred and eighteen students; to which last classes
+      of institutions seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars have been given;
+      and the whole appropriations for education estimated at two and a half
+      millions of dollars! What a pigmy to this is Virginia become, with a
+      population almost equal to that of New York! And whence this difference?
+      From the difference their rulers set on the value of knowledge, and the
+      prosperity it produces. But still, if a pigmy, let her do what a pigmy may
+      do. If among fifty children in each of the six thousand schools of New
+      York, there are only paupers enough to employ twenty-five dollars of
+      public money to each school, surely among the ten children of each of our
+      one thousand and two hundred schools, the same sum of twenty-five dollars
+      to each school will teach its paupers (five times as much as to the same
+      number in New York), and will amount for the whole to thirty thousand
+      dollars a year, the one half only of our literary revenue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do then, Dear Sir, think of this, and engage our friends to take in hand
+      the whole subject. It will reconcile the friends of the elementary
+      schools, and none are more warmly so than myself, lighten the difficulties
+      of the University, and promote in every order of men the degree of
+      instruction proportioned to their condition, and to their views in life.
+      It will combine with the mass of our force, a wise direction of it, which
+      will insure to our country its future prosperity and safety. I had
+      formerly thought that visitors of the schools might be chosen by the
+      county, and charged to provide teachers for every ward, and to superintend
+      them. I now think it would be better for every ward to choose its own
+      resident visitor, whose business it would be to keep a teacher in the
+      ward, to superintend the school, and to call meetings of the ward for all
+      purposes relating to it: their accounts to be settled, and wards laid off
+      by the courts. I think ward elections better for many reasons, one of
+      which is sufficient, that it will keep elementary education out of the
+      hands of fanaticizing preachers, who, in county elections, would be
+      universally chosen, and the predominant sect of the county would possess
+      itself of all its schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now more so by the effect of
+      age, renders writing a slow and irksome operation with me. I cannot,
+      therefore, present these views by separate letters to each of our
+      colleagues in the legislature, but must pray you to communicate them to
+      Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge, and to request them to consider this
+      as equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon, being the local representative of
+      the University and among its most zealous friends, would be a more useful
+      second to General Breckenridge in the House of Delegates, by a free
+      communication of what concerns the University, with which he has had
+      little opportunity of becoming acquainted. So also, would it be as to Mr.
+      Rives, who would be a friendly advocate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0156" id="link2H_4_0156">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVI.&mdash;TO THOMAS RITCHIE, December, 25, 1820
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO THOMAS RITCHIE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December, 25, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On my return home after a long absence, I find here your favor of November
+      the 23rd, with Colonel Taylor&rsquo;s &lsquo;Construction Construed,&rsquo; which you have
+      been so kind as to send me, in the name of the author as well as yourself.
+      Permit me, if you please, to use the same channel for conveying to him the
+      thanks I render you also for this mark of attention. I shall read it, I
+      know, with edification, as I did his Enquiry, to which I acknowledge
+      myself indebted for many valuable ideas, and for the correction of some
+      errors of early opinion, never seen in a correct light until presented to
+      me in that work. That the present volume is equally orthodox I know before
+      reading it, because I know that Colonel Taylor and myself have rarely, if
+      ever, differed in any political principle of importance. Every act of his
+      life, and every word he ever wrote, satisfies me of this. So, also, as to
+      the two Presidents, late and now in office, I know them both to be of
+      principles as truly republican as any men living. If there be any thing
+      amiss, therefore, in the present state of our affairs, as the formidable
+      deficit lately unfolded to us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention
+      of Congress to their duties, to their unwise dissipation and waste of the
+      public contributions. They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a loss
+      for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the
+      treasury. I had feared the result, because I saw among them some of my old
+      fellow-laborers, of tried and known principles, yet often in their
+      minorities. I am aware that in one of their most ruinous vagaries, the
+      people were themselves betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
+      Representatives. The deficit produced, and a heavy tax to supply it, will,
+      I trust, bring both to their sober senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it is not from this branch of government we have most to fear. Taxes
+      and short elections will keep them right. The judiciary of the United
+      States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under
+      ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are
+      construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special
+      government to a general and supreme one alone. This will lay all things at
+      their feet, and they are too well versed in English law to forget the
+      maxim, &lsquo;<i>Boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem.</i>&rsquo; We shall see if
+      they are bold enough to take the daring stride their five lawyers have
+      lately taken. If they do, then, with the editor of our book in his address
+      to the public, I will say, that against this every man should raise his
+      voice, and more, should uplift his arm. Who wrote this admirable address?
+      Sound, luminous, strong, not a word too much, nor one which can be changed
+      but for the worse. That pen should go on, lay bare these wounds of our
+      constitution, expose these <i>decisions seriatim</i>, and arouse, as it is
+      able, the attention of the nation to these bold speculators on its
+      patience. Having found, from experience, that impeachment is an
+      impracticable thing, a mere scare-crow, they consider themselves secure
+      for life; they skulk from responsibility to public opinion, the only
+      remaining hold on them, under a practice first introduced into England by
+      Lord Mansfield. An opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a
+      majority of one, delivered as if unanimous and with the silent
+      acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty chief judge, who
+      sophisticates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own reasoning. A
+      judiciary law was once reported by the Attorney General to Congress,
+      requiring each judge to deliver his opinion <i>seriatim</i> and openly,
+      and then to give it in writing to the clerk to be entered in the record. A
+      judiciary independent of a King or executive alone, is a good thing; but
+      independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a
+      republican government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to return to your letter; you ask for my opinion of the work you send
+      me, and to let it go out to the public. This I have ever made a point of
+      declining (one or two instances only excepted). Complimentary thanks to
+      writers who have sent me their works, have betrayed me sometimes before
+      the public, without my consent having been asked. But I am far from
+      presuming to direct the reading of my fellow-citizens, who are good enough
+      judges themselves of what is worthy their reading. I am, also, too
+      desirous of quiet to place myself in the way of contention. Against this I
+      am admonished by bodily decay, which cannot be unaccompanied by
+      corresponding wane of the mind. Of this I am as yet sensible sufficiently
+      to be unwilling to trust myself before the public, and when I cease to be
+      so, I hope that my friends will be too careful of me to draw me forth and
+      present me, like a Priam in armor, as a spectacle for public compassion. I
+      hope our political bark will ride through all its dangers; but I can in
+      future be but an inert passenger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with sentiments of great friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0157" id="link2H_4_0157">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, January 22, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 22, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was quite rejoiced, dear Sir, to see that you had health and spirits
+      enough to take part in the late convention of your State, for revising its
+      constitution, and to bear your share in its debates and labors. The
+      amendments of which we have as yet heard, prove the advance of liberalism
+      in the intervening period; and encourage a hope that the human mind will
+      some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand years ago. This
+      country, which has given to the world the example of physical liberty,
+      owes to it that of moral emancipation also, for as yet it is but nominal
+      with us. The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms, in practice, the
+      freedom asserted by the laws in theory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question, what
+      does the Holy Alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the
+      Missouri question? And this, by the bye, is but the name of the case, it
+      is only the John Doe or Richard Roe of the ejectment. The real question,
+      as seen in the States afflicted with this unfortunate population, is, Are
+      our slaves to be presented with freedom and a dagger? For if Congress has
+      the power to regulate the conditions of the inhabitants of the States,
+      within the States, it will be but another exercise of that power, to
+      declare that all shall be free. Are we then to see again Athenian and
+      Lacedæmonian confederacies? To wage another Peloponnesian war to settle
+      the ascendancy between them? Or is this the tocsin of merely a servile
+      war? That remains to be seen: but not, I hope, by you or me. Surely, they
+      will parley awhile, and give us time to get out of the way. What a
+      Bedlamite is man? But let us turn from our own uneasiness to the miseries
+      of our southern friends. Bolivar and Morillo, it seems, have come to a
+      parley, with dispositions at length to stop the useless effusion of human
+      blood in that quarter. I feared from the beginning, that these people were
+      not yet sufficiently enlightened for self-government; and that after
+      wading through blood and slaughter, they would end in military tyrannies,
+      more or less numerous. Yet as they wished to try the experiment, I wished
+      them success in it: they have now tried it, and will possibly find that
+      their safest road will be an accommodation with the mother country, which
+      shall hold them together by the single link of the same chief magistrate,
+      leaving to him power enough to keep them in peace with one another, and to
+      themselves the essential power of self-government and self-improvement,
+      until they shall be sufficiently trained by education and habits of
+      freedom, to walk safely by themselves. Representative government, native
+      functionaries, a qualified negative on their laws, with a previous
+      security by compact for freedom of commerce, freedom of the press, habeas
+      corpus, and trial by jury, would make a good beginning. This last would be
+      the school in which their people might begin to learn the exercise of
+      civic duties as well as rights. For freedom of religion they are not yet
+      prepared. The scales of bigotry have not sufficiently fallen from their
+      eyes, to accept it for themselves individually, much less to trust others
+      with it. But that will come in time, as well as a general ripeness to
+      break entirely from the parent stem. You see, my dear Sir, how easily we
+      prescribe for others a cure for their difficulties, while we cannot cure
+      our own. We must leave both, I believe, to Heaven, and wrap ourselves up
+      in the mantle of resignation, and of that friendship of which I tender to
+      you the most sincere assurances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0158" id="link2H_4_0158">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C CABELL, January 31, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 31, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favors of the 18th and 25th came together, three days ago. They fill
+      me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature towards the
+      University. I perceive that I am not to live to see it opened. As to what
+      had better be done within the limits of their will, I trust with entire
+      confidence to what yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson shall
+      think best. You will see what is practicable, and give it such shape as
+      you think best. If a loan is to be resorted to, I think sixty thousand
+      dollars will be necessary, including the library. Its instalments cannot
+      begin until those of the former loan are accomplished; and they should not
+      begin later, nor be less than thirteen thousand dollars a year. (I think
+      it safe to retain two thousand dollars a year for care of the buildings,
+      improvement of the grounds, and unavoidable contingencies.) To extinguish
+      the second loan, will require between five and six instalments, which will
+      carry us to the end of 1833, or thirteen years from this time. My
+      individual opinion is, that we had better not open the institution until
+      the buildings, library, and all, are finished, and our funds cleared of
+      incumbrance. These buildings once erected, will secure the full object
+      infallibly at the end of thirteen years, and as much earlier as the
+      legislature shall choose. And if we were to begin sooner, with half funds
+      only, it would satisfy the common mind, prevent their aid beyond that
+      point, and our institution, remaining at that for ever, would be no more
+      than the paltry academies we now have. Even with the whole funds we shall
+      be reduced to six Professors. While Harvard will still prime it over us
+      with her twenty Professors. How many of our youths she now has, learning
+      the lessons of anti-Missourianism, I know not; but a gentleman lately from
+      Princeton told me he saw there the list of the students at that place, and
+      that more than half were Virginians. These will return home, no doubt,
+      deeply impressed with the sacred principles of our Holy Alliance of
+      restrictionists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best
+      friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the
+      necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you say, will
+      explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself they
+      are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that yourself, General
+      Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at your posts in the
+      legislature, until every thing was effected, and the institution opened.
+      If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
+      our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed at
+      all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your country,
+      and your foresight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or later.
+      With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal to this?
+      What object of our lives can we propose so important? What interest of our
+      own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, labor, on what
+      in the single life which nature has given us, can these be better bestowed
+      than on this immortal boon to our country? The exertions and the
+      mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If any member of our
+      college of Visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it
+      would be myself, who <i>quadragenis stipendiis jamdudum peractis</i>, have
+      neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep the field: but I will die in
+      the last ditch, and so I hope you will, my friend, as well as our
+      firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr. Johnson and General
+      Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life wherein to atone for
+      the omissions of this. Pray then, dear and very dear Sir, do not think of
+      deserting us, but view the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as
+      the lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest
+      of all. Continue with us in these holy labors, until, having seen their
+      accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, &lsquo;<i>Nunc dimittas, Domine</i>.
+      Under all circumstances, however, of praise or blame, I shall be
+      affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0159" id="link2H_4_0159">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLIX.&mdash;TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE, February 15, 1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO GENERAL BRECKENRIDGE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 15, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn with deep affliction, that nothing is likely to be done for our
+      University this year. So near as it is to the shore that one shove more
+      would land it there, I had hoped that would be given; and that we should
+      open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our
+      country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections
+      that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they should
+      be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to deliver
+      over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for them, we
+      secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling this duty, we
+      bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of seeing our sons
+      rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high promise; these are
+      considerations which will occur to all; but all, I fear, do not see the
+      speck in our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or
+      later. The line of division lately marked out between different portions
+      of our confederacy, is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and we
+      are now trusting to those who are against us in position and principle, to
+      fashion to their own form the minds and affections of our youth. If, as
+      has been estimated, we send three hundred thousand dollars a year to the
+      northern seminaries, for the instruction of our own sons, then we must
+      have there five hundred of our sons, imbibing opinions and principles in
+      discord with those of their own country. This canker is eating on the
+      vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, will be beyond
+      remedy. We are now certainly furnishing recruits to their school. If it be
+      asked what are we to do, or said we cannot give the last lift to the
+      University without stopping our primary schools, and these we think most
+      important; I answer, I know their importance. Nobody can doubt my zeal for
+      the general instruction of the people. Who first started that idea? I may
+      surely say, Myself. Turn to the bill in the revised code, which I drew
+      more than forty years ago, and before which the idea of a plan for the
+      education of the people, generally, had never been suggested in this
+      State. There you will see developed the first rudiments of the whole
+      system of general education we are now urging and acting on: and it is
+      well known to those With whom I have acted on this subject, that I never
+      have proposed a sacrifice of the primary to the ultimate grade of
+      instruction. Let us keep our eye steadily on the whole system. If we
+      cannot do every thing at once, let us do one at a time. The primary
+      schools need no preliminary expense; the ultimate grade requires a
+      considerable expenditure in advance. A suspension of proceeding for a year
+      or two on the primary schools, and an application of the whole income,
+      during that time, to the completion of the buildings necessary for the
+      University, would enable us then to start both institutions at the same
+      time. The intermediate branch, of colleges, academies, and private
+      classical schools, for the middle grade, may hereafter receive any
+      necessary aids when the funds shall become competent. In the mean time,
+      they are going on sufficiently, as they have ever yet gone on, at the
+      private expense of those who use them, and who in numbers and means are
+      competent to their own exigencies. The experience of three years has, I
+      presume, left no doubt, that the present plan of primary schools, of
+      putting money into the hands of twelve hundred persons acting for nothing,
+      and under no responsibility, is entirely inefficient. Some other must be
+      thought of; and during this pause, if it be only for a year, the whole
+      revenue of that year, with that of the last three years which has not been
+      already thrown away, would place our University in readiness to start with
+      a better organization of primary schools, and both may then go on, hand in
+      hand, for ever. No diminution of the capital will in this way have been
+      incurred; a principle which ought to be deemed sacred. A relinquishment of
+      interest on the late loan of sixty thousand dollars, would so far, also,
+      forward the University without lessening the capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what may be best done I leave with entire confidence to yourself and
+      your colleagues in legislation, who know better than I do the conditions
+      of the literary fund and its wisest application; and I shall acquiesce
+      with perfect resignation to their will. I have brooded, perhaps with
+      fondness, over this establishment, as it held up to me the hope of
+      continuing to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed that the
+      course and circumstances of my life had placed within my power some
+      services favorable to the outset of the institution. But this may be
+      egoism; pardonable, perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my
+      colleagues and successors will do as well, whatever the legislature shall
+      enable them to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thus, my dear Sir, opened my bosom, with all its anxieties, freely
+      to you. I blame nobody for seeing things in a different light. I am sure
+      that all act conscientiously, and that all will be done honestly and
+      wisely which can be done. I yield the concerns of the world with
+      cheerfulness to those who are appointed in the order of nature to succeed
+      to them; and for yourself, for our colleagues, and for all in charge of
+      our country&rsquo;s future fame and fortune, I offer up sincere prayers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0160" id="link2H_4_0160">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLX.&mdash;TO &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- NICHOLAS, December
+      11,1821
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;- NICHOLAS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 11,1821,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of December the 19th places me under a dilemma, which I cannot
+      solve but by an exposition of the naked truth. I would have wished this
+      rather to have remained as hitherto, without inquiry; but your inquiries
+      have a right to be answered. I will do it as exactly as the great lapse of
+      time and a waning memory will enable me. I may misremember indifferent
+      circumstances, but can be right in substance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed at
+      the proceedings of the federal ascendancy in Congress, in the executive
+      and the judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious consideration
+      how head could be made against their enterprises on the constitution. The
+      leading republicans in Congress found themselves of no use there,
+      browbeaten, as they were, by a bold and overwhelming majority. They
+      concluded to retire from that field, take a stand in the State
+      legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest their progress. The alien and
+      sedition laws furnished the particular occasion. The sympathy between
+      Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately confidential,
+      than between any other two States of republican policy. Mr. Madison came
+      into the Virginia legislature. 1 was then in the Vice-Presidency, and
+      could not leave my station. But your father, Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and
+      myself happening to be together, the engaging the co-operation of Kentucky
+      in an energetic protestation against the constitutionality of those laws,
+      became a subject of consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to
+      sketch resolutions for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce
+      them to that legislature, with a solemn assurance, which I strictly
+      required, that it should not be known from what quarter they came. I drew
+      and delivered them to him, and, in keeping their origin secret, he
+      fulfilled his pledge of honor. Some years after this, Colonel Nicholas
+      asked me if I would have any objection to its being known that I had drawn
+      them. I pointedly enjoined that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
+      intimated it before to any one, I know not: but I afterwards observed in
+      the papers repeated imputations of them to me; on which, as has been my
+      practice on all occasions of imputation, I have observed entire silence.
+      The question, indeed, has never before been put to me, nor should I answer
+      it to any other than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed by it,
+      and the desire of tranquillity inducing with me a wish to be withdrawn
+      from public notice. Your father&rsquo;s zeal and talents were too well known, to
+      derive any additional distinction from the penning these resolutions. That
+      circumstance, surely, was of far less merit than the, proposing and
+      carrying them through the legislature of his State. The only fact in this
+      statement, on which my memory is not distinct, is the time and occasion of
+      the consultation with your father and Colonel Nicholas. It took place here
+      I know; but whether any other person was present, or communicated with, is
+      my doubt. I think Mr. Madison was either with us, or consulted, but my
+      memory is uncertain as to minute details.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I fear, Dear Sir, we are now in such another crisis, with this difference
+      only, that the judiciary branch is alone and single-handed in the present
+      assaults on the constitution. But its assaults are more sure and deadly,
+      as from an agent seemingly passive and unassuming. May you and your
+      cotemporaries meet them with the same determination and effect, as your
+      father and his did the alien and sedition laws, and preserve inviolate a
+      constitution, which, cherished in all its chastity and purity, will prove
+      in the end a blessing to all the nations of the earth. With these prayers,
+      accept those for your own happiness and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0161" id="link2H_4_0161">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXI.&mdash;TO JEDIDIAH MORSE, March 6, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JEDIDIAH MORSE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 6, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your letter of February the 16th, and have now to
+      express my sense of the honorable station proposed to my ex-brethren and
+      myself, in the constitution of the society for the civilization and
+      improvement of the Indian tribes. The object, too, expressed, as that of
+      the association, is one which I have ever had much at heart, and never
+      omitted an occasion of promoting, while I have been in situations to do it
+      with effect, and nothing, even now, in the calm of age and retirement,
+      would excite in me a more lively interest than an approvable plan of
+      raising that respectable and unfortunate people from the state of physical
+      and moral abjection, to which they have been reduced by circumstances
+      foreign to them. That the plan now proposed is entitled to unmixed
+      approbation, I am not prepared to say, after mature consideration, and
+      with all the partialities which its professed object would rightfully
+      claim from me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall not undertake to draw the line of demarcation between private
+      associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, and those whose
+      magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the march of regular government. Yet
+      such a line does exist. I have seen the days, they were those which
+      preceded the Revolution, when even this last and perilous engine became
+      necessary; but they were days which no man would wish to see a second
+      time. That was the case where the regular authorities of the government
+      had combined against the rights of the people, and no means of correction
+      remained to them, but to organize a collateral power, which, with their
+      support, might rescue and secure their violated rights. But such is not
+      the case with our government. We need hazard no collateral power, which,
+      by a change of its original views, and assumption of others we know not
+      how virtuous or how mischievous, would be ready organized, and in force
+      sufficient to shake the established foundations of society, and endanger
+      its peace and the principles on which it is based. Is not the machine now
+      proposed of this gigantic stature? It is to consist of the ex-Presidents
+      of the United States, the Vice-President, the Heads of all the executive
+      departments, the members of the supreme judiciary, the Governors of the
+      several States and Territories, all the members of both Houses of
+      Congress, all the general officers of the army, the commissioners of the
+      navy, all Presidents and Professors of colleges and theological
+      seminaries, all the clergy of the United States, the. Presidents and
+      Secretaries of all associations having relation to Indians, all commanding
+      officers within or near Indian territories, all Indian superintendants and
+      agents; all these ex officio; and as many private individuals as will pay
+      a certain price for membership. Observe, too, that the clergy will
+      constitute * nineteen twentieths of this association, and, by the law of
+      the majority, may command the twentieth part, which, composed of all the
+      high authorities of the United States, civil and military, may be outvoted
+      and wielded by the nineteen parts with uncontrollable power, both as to
+      purpose and process. . Can this formidable array be reviewed without
+      dismay?
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The clergy of the United States may probably be estimated
+     at eight thousand. The residue of this society at four
+     hundred; but if the former number be halved, the reasoning
+     will be the same.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It will be said, that in this association will be all the confidential
+      officers of the government; the choice of the people themselves. No man on
+      earth has more implicit confidence than myself in the integrity and
+      discretion of this chosen band of servants. But is confidence or
+      discretion, or is strict limit, the principle of our constitution? It will
+      comprehend, indeed, all the functionaries of the government: but seceded
+      from their consitutional stations as guardians of the nation, and acting
+      not by the laws of their station, but by those of a voluntary society,
+      having no limit to their purposes but the same will which constitutes
+      their existence. It will be the authorities of the people, and all
+      influential characters from among them, arrayed on one side, and on the
+      other, the people themselves deserted by their leaders. It is a fearful
+      array. It will be said, that these are imaginary fears. I know they are so
+      at present. I know it is as impossible for these agents of our choice and
+      unbounded confidence, to harbor machinations against the adored principles
+      of our constitution, as for gravity to change its direction, and gravid
+      bodies to mount upwards. The fears are indeed imaginary: but the example
+      is real. Under its authority, as a precedent, future associations will
+      arise with objects at which we should shudder at this time. The society of
+      Jacobins, in another country, was instituted on principles and views as
+      virtuous as ever kindled the hearts of patriots. It was the pure
+      patriotism of their purposes which extended their association to the
+      limits of the nation, and rendered their power within it boundless; and it
+      was this power which degenerated their principles and practices to such
+      enormities, as never before could have been imagined. Yet these were men;
+      and we and our descendants will be no more. The present is a case where,
+      if ever, we are to guard against ourselves; not against ourselves as we
+      are, but as we may be; for who can now imagine what we may become under
+      circumstances not now imaginable? The object, too, of this institution,
+      seems to require so hazardous an example as little as any which could be
+      proposed. The government is, at this time, going on with the process of
+      civilizing the Indians, on a plan probably as promising as any one of us
+      is able to devise, and with resources more competent than we could expect
+      to command by voluntary taxation. Is it that the new characters called
+      into association with those of the government, are wiser than these? Is it
+      that a plan originated by a meeting of private individuals, is better than
+      that prepared by the concentrated wisdom of the nation, of men not
+      self-chosen, but clothed with the full confidence of the people? Is it
+      that there is no danger that a new authority, marching independently along
+      side of the government, in the same line and to the same object, may not
+      produce collision, may not thwart and obstruct the operations of the
+      government, or wrest the object entirely from their hands? Might we not as
+      well appoint a committee for each department of the government, to counsel
+      and direct its head separately, as volunteer ourselves to counsel and
+      direct the whole, in mass? And might we not do it as well for their
+      foreign, their fiscal, and their military, as for their Indian affairs?
+      And how many societies, auxiliary to the government, may we expect to see
+      spring up, in imitation of this, offering to associate themselves in this
+      and that of its functions? In a word, why not take the government out of
+      its constitutional hands, associate them indeed with us, to preserve a
+      semblance that the acts are theirs, but insuring them to be our own by
+      allowing them a minor vote only?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These considerations have impressed my mind with a force so irrresistible,
+      that (in duty bound to answer your polite letter, without which I should
+      not have obtruded an opinion) I have not been able to withhold the
+      expression of them. Not knowing the individuals who have proposed this
+      plan, I cannot be conceived as entertaining personal disrespect for them.
+      On the contrary, I see in the printed list persons for whom I cherish
+      sentiments of sincere friendship; and others, for whose opinions and
+      purity of purpose I have the highest respect. Yet thinking, as I do, that
+      this association is unnecessary; that the government is proceeding to the
+      same object under control of the law; that they are competent to it in
+      wisdom, in means, and inclination; that this association, this wheel
+      within a wheel, is more likely to produce collision than aid; and that it
+      is, in its magnitude, of dangerous example; I am bound to say, that, as a
+      dutiful citizen, I cannot in conscience become a member of this society,
+      possessing as it does my entire confidence in the integrity of its views.
+      I feel with awe the weight of opinion to which I may be opposed, and that,
+      for myself, I have need to ask the indulgence of a belief, that the
+      opinion I have given is the best result I can deduce from my own reason
+      and experience, and that it is sincerely conscientious. Repeating,
+      therefore, my just acknowledgments for the honor proposed to me, I beg
+      leave to add the assurances to the society and yourself of my highest
+      confidence and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0162" id="link2H_4_0162">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, June 26, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 26, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation
+      of the abuses of tobacco and wine. Yet, however sound in its principles, I
+      expect it will be but a sermon to the wind. You will find it is as
+      difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the
+      present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. I
+      wish success to both attempts, and am happy to learn from you that the
+      latter, at least, is making progress, and the more rapidly in proportion
+      as our Platonizing Christians make more stir and noise about it. The
+      doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. That to love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself, is
+      the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored to
+      reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the demoralizing
+      dogmas of Calvin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. That there are three Gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the
+      proposition, the more merit in its faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved,
+      and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn
+      them; no virtues of the latter, save.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes
+      and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus; or the impious dogmatists, as
+      Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold
+      as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other
+      way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a
+      counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign
+      from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have driven
+      thinking men into infidelity, who have too hastily rejected the supposed
+      author himself, with the horrors so falsely imputed to him. Had the
+      doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his
+      lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice
+      that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has
+      surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the
+      genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is
+      not a young man now living in the United States, who will not die an
+      Unitarian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its
+      votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of creed
+      and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the religion
+      of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they will give up
+      morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser are the Quakers,
+      who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, schismatize
+      about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense, suffer
+      no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of feature, to impair
+      the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of Unitarians, this the
+      holy mantle which shall cover within its charitable circumference all who
+      believe in one God, and who love their neighbor! I conclude my sermon with
+      sincere assurances of my friendly esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0163" id="link2H_4_0163">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXIII.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 27, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your kind letter of the 11th has given me great satisfaction. For although
+      I could not doubt but that the hand of age was pressing heavily on you, as
+      on myself, yet we like to know the particulars and the degree of that
+      pressure. Much reflection, too, has been produced by your suggestion of
+      lending my letter of the 1st, to a printer. I have generally great
+      aversion to the insertion of my letters in the public papers; because of
+      my passion for quiet retirement, and never to be exhibited in scene on the
+      public stage. Nor am I unmindful of the precept of Horace, &lsquo;<i>Solve
+      senescentem, mature sanus, equum, ne peccet ad extremum ridendus</i>.&rsquo; In
+      the present case, however, I see a possibility that this might aid in
+      producing the very quiet after which I pant. I do not know how far you may
+      suffer, as I do, under the persecution of letters, of which every mail
+      brings a fresh load. They are letters of inquiry, for the most part,
+      always of good will, sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much
+      oftener from persons whose names are unknown to me, but written kindly and
+      civilly, and to which, therefore, civility requires answers. Perhaps, the
+      better known failure of your hand in its function of writing, may shield
+      you in greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the
+      misfortune of its disability. I happened to turn to my letter-list some
+      time ago, and a curiosity was excited to count those received in a single
+      year. It was the year before the last. I found the number to be one
+      thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of
+      elaborate research, and all to be answered with due attention and
+      consideration. Take an average of this number for a week or a day, and I
+      will repeat the question suggested by other considerations in mine of the
+      1st. Is this life? At best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no
+      end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is
+      paradise. It occurs, then, that my condition of existence, truly stated in
+      that letter, if better known, might check the kind indiscretions which are
+      so heavily oppressing the departing hours of life. Such a relief would, to
+      me, be an ineffable blessing. But yours of the 11th, equally interesting
+      and affecting, should accompany that to which it is an answer. The two,
+      taken together, would excite a joint interest, and place before our
+      fellow-citizens the present condition of two ancient servants, who, having
+      faithfully performed their forty or fifty campaigns, <i>stipendiis omnibus
+      expletis</i>, have a reasonable claim to repose from all disturbance in
+      the sanctuary of invalids and superannuates. But some device should be
+      thought of for their getting before the public otherwise than by our own
+      publication. Your printer, perhaps, could frame something plausible,
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s name, should be left blank, as his picture, should
+      it meet his eye, might give him pain. I consign, however, the whole
+      subject to your consideration, to do in it whatever your own judgment
+      shall approve, and repeat always, with truth, the assurance of my constant
+      and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0164" id="link2H_4_0164">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXIV.&mdash;TO WILLIAM T. BARRY, July 2, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM T. BARRY.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 2, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 15th of June is received, and I am very thankful for the
+      kindness of its expressions respecting myself. But it ascribes to me
+      merits which I do not claim. I was only of a band devoted to the cause of
+      independence, all of whom exerted equally their best endeavors for its
+      success, and have a common right to the merits of its acquisition. So also
+      in the civil revolution of 1801. Very many and very meritorious were the
+      worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its
+      republican tack. To preserve it in that will require unremitting
+      vigilance. Whether the surrender of our opponents, their reception into
+      our camp, their assumption of our name, and apparent accession to our
+      objects, may strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of republicanism,
+      may be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider the party division
+      of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist in any government, and
+      well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a more dangerous
+      character. We already see the power, installed for life, responsible to no
+      authority (for impeachment is not even a scare-crow), advancing with a
+      noiseless and steady pace to the great object of consolidation. The
+      foundations are already deeply laid by their decisions, for the
+      annihilation of constitutional State rights, and the removal of every
+      check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing* power of which themselves are
+      to make a sovereign part. If ever this vast country is brought under a
+      single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption,
+      indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of
+      surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between
+      reformation and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one
+      or the other is inevitable. Before the canker is become inveterate, before
+      its venom has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond
+      control, remedy should be applied. Let the future appointments of judges
+      be for four or six years, and renewable by the President and Senate. This
+      will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revision and
+      probation, and may keep them in equipoise between the general and special
+      governments. We have erred in this point, by copying England, where
+      certainly it is a good thing to have the judges independent of the King.
+      But we have omitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge
+      removable on the address of both legislative Houses. That there should be
+      public functionaries independent of the nation, whatever may be their
+      demerit, is a solecism in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and
+      inconsistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the printed inquiries respecting our schools, it is not in my power to
+      give an answer. Age, debility, an ancient dislocated, and now stiffened
+      wrist, render writing so slow and painful, that I am obliged to decline
+      every thing possible requiring writing. An act of our legislature will
+      inform you of our plan of primary schools, and the annual reports show
+      that it is becoming completely abortive, and must be abandoned very
+      shortly, after costing us to this day one hundred and eighty thousand
+      dollars, and yet to cost us forty-five thousand dollars a year more until
+      it shall be discontinued; and if a single boy has received the elements of
+      common education, it must be in some part of the country not known to me.
+      Experience has but too fully confirmed the early predictions of its fate.
+      But on this subject I must refer you to others more able than I am to go
+      into the necessary details; and I conclude with the assurances of my great
+      esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0165" id="link2H_4_0165">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXV.&mdash;TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE, July 19, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR WATERHOUSE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, July 19, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An anciently dislocated, and now stiffening wrist, makes writing an
+      operation so slow and painful to me, that I should not so soon have
+      troubled you with an acknowledgment of your favor of the 8th, but for the
+      request it contained of my consent to the publication of my letter of June
+      the 26th. No, my dear Sir, not for the world. Into what a nest of hornets
+      would it thrust my head! the <i>genus irritabile vatum</i>, on whom
+      argument is lost, and reason is, by themselves, disclaimed in matters of
+      religion. Don Quixote undertook to redress the bodily wrongs of the world,
+      but the redressment of mental vagaries would be an enterprise more than
+      Quixotic. I should as soon undertake to bring the crazy skulls of Bedlam
+      to sound understanding, as inculcate reason into that of an Athanasian. I
+      am old, and tranquillity is now my <i>summum bonum</i>. Keep me,
+      therefore, from the fire and faggots of Calvin and his victim Servetus.
+      Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity, I must
+      leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off the false branches
+      which have been engrafted into it by the mycologists of the middle and
+      modern ages. I am not aware of the peculiar resistance to Unitarianism,
+      which you ascribe to Pennsylvania. When I lived in Philadelphia there was
+      a respectable congregation of that sect, with a meeting-house and regular
+      service which I attended, and in which Doctor Priestley officiated to
+      numerous audiences. Baltimore has one or two churches, and their pastor,
+      author of an inestimable book on this subject, was elected chaplain to the
+      late Congress. That doctrine has not yet been preached to us: but the
+      breeze begins to be felt which precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all
+      in a bustle, shutting its doors and windows to keep it out. But it will
+      come, and drive before it the foggy mists of Platonism which have so long
+      obscured our atmosphere. I am in hopes that some of the disciples of your
+      institution will become missionaries to us, of these doctrines truly
+      evangelical, and open our eyes to what has been so long hidden from them.
+      A bold and eloquent preacher would be no where listened to with more
+      freedom than in this State, nor with more firmness of mind. They might
+      need a preparatory discourse on the text of &lsquo;Prove all things, hold fast
+      that which is good,&rsquo; in order to unlearn the lesson that reason is an
+      unlawful guide in religion. They might startle on being first awaked from
+      the dreams of the night, but they would rub their eyes at once, and look
+      the spectres boldly in the face. The preacher might be excluded by our
+      hierophants from their churches and meeting-houses, but would be attended
+      in the fields by whole acres of hearers and thinkers. Missionaries from
+      Cambridge would soon be greeted with more welcome, than from the
+      tritheistical school of Andover. Such are my wishes, such would be my
+      welcomes, warm and cordial as the assurances of my esteem and respect for
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0166" id="link2H_4_0166">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVI.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 1, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have racked my memory and ransacked my papers, to enable myself to
+      answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th; but to little
+      purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, generalities only. I
+      know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the fate of our
+      seafaring men, for some of whom, then in captivity in Algiers, we were
+      treating, and all were in like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the opinion
+      that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a naval force
+      sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this subject we
+      communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to the United
+      States and took part in the administration under General Washington, I
+      constantly maintained that opinion; and in December, 1790, took advantage
+      of a reference to me from the first Congress which met after I was in
+      office, to report in favor of a force sufficient for the protection of our
+      Mediterranean commerce; and I laid before them an accurate statement of
+      the whole Barbary force, public and private. I think General Washington
+      approved of building vessels of war to that extent. General Knox, I know,
+      did. But what was Colonel Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion, I do not in the least
+      remember. Your recollections on that subject are certainly corroborated by
+      his known anxieties for a close connection with Great Britain, to which he
+      might apprehend danger from collisions between their vessels and ours.
+      Randolph was then Attorney General; but his opinion on the question I also
+      entirely forget. Some vessels of war were accordingly built and sent into
+      the Mediterranean. The additions to these in your time, I need not note to
+      you, who are well known to have ever been an advocate for the wooden walls
+      of Themistocles. Some of those you added, were sold under an act of
+      Congress passed while you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that the
+      public safety might require some additional vessels of strength, to be
+      prepared and in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided they
+      could be preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept in the
+      water, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this view I
+      proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level of the
+      tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that places for
+      these docks should be selected where there was a command of water on a
+      high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which the vessels might
+      be floated out, on the principle of a lock. But the majority of the
+      legislature was against any addition to the navy, and the minority,
+      although for it in judgment, voted against it on a principle of
+      opposition. We are now, I understand, building vessels to remain on the
+      stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they will be launched and
+      finished. On my plan they could be in service at an hour&rsquo;s notice. On
+      this, the finishing, after launching, will be a work of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. That of
+      the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among nations. Yet a
+      navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or twelve
+      years a vessel goes to entire decay; or, if kept in repair, costs as much
+      as would build a new one: and that a nation who could count on twelve or
+      fifteen years&rsquo; of peace, would gain by burning its navy and building a new
+      one in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by circumstances.
+      Since my proposition for a force adequate to the piracies of the
+      Mediterranean, a similar necessity has arisen in our own seas for
+      considerable addition to that force. Indeed, I wish we could have a
+      convention with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down the
+      pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of Africa,
+      and for us to perform the same duties for the society of nations in our
+      seas. In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the vessels
+      of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the
+      weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [The annexed is the letter to which the foregoing is a reply.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Montezillo, October 15, 1822. Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon a subject
+      of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You remember the four ships ordered by Congress to be built, and the four
+      captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry, &amp;c,
+      to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
+      Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to you; for several
+      reasons. First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we were at
+      Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly,
+      because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only indifferent
+      about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of the Navy; only
+      four Heads of department. You were Secretary of State; Hamilton, Secretary
+      of the Treasury; Knox, Secretary of War; and I believe Bradford was
+      Attorney General. I have always suspected that you and Knox were in favor
+      of a navy. If Bradford was so, the majority was clear. But Washington, I
+      am confident, was against it in his judgment. But his attachment to Knox,
+      and his deference to your opinion, for I know he had a great regard for
+      you, might induce him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even though
+      Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition to you. That Hamilton was
+      averse to the measure, I have personal evidence; for while it was pending,
+      he came in a hurry and a fit of impatience to make a visit to me. He said,
+      he was likely to be called upon for a large sum of money to build ships of
+      war, to fight the Algerines, and he asked my opinion of the measure. I
+      answered him that I was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of
+      opinion, from the commencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most
+      powerful, the safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country.
+      My advice, therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly
+      be spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. The
+      conversation was of some length, but it was manifest in his looks and in
+      his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
+      that I had expressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, requesting
+      him to procure a commision for her son, in the navy; &lsquo;that navy,&rsquo; says her
+      ladyship, &lsquo;of which his father was the parent.&rsquo; &lsquo;For,&rsquo; says she, &lsquo;I have
+      frequently heard General Washington say to my husband, the navy was your
+      child.&rsquo; I have always believed it to be Jefferson&rsquo;s child, though Knox may
+      have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton&rsquo;s hobby was the
+      army. That Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof from his own
+      lips, in many different conversations, some of them of length, in which he
+      always insisted that it was only building and arming ships for the
+      English. &lsquo;<i>Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus imperii; si non, his
+      utere mecum</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I am in error in any particular, pray correct your humble servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      John Adams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0167" id="link2H_4_0167">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVII.&mdash;TO DOCTOR COOPER, November 2, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO DOCTOR COOPER.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 2, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of October the 18th came to hand yesterday. The atmosphere of
+      our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of
+      fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all.
+      I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and
+      freedom of religion, it could have arisen to the height you describe. This
+      must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy and
+      absurdity of the five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending
+      them, render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone
+      to denunciation. In Boston, however, and its neighborhood, Unitarianism
+      has advanced to so great strength, as now to humble this haughtiest of all
+      religious sects; insomuch, that they condescend to interchange with them
+      and the other sects, the civilities of preaching freely and frequently in
+      each other&rsquo;s meeting-houses. In Rhode Island, on the other hand, no
+      sectarian preacher will permit an Unitarian to pollute his desk. In our
+      Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have
+      their night meetings and praying parties, where, attended by their
+      priests, and sometimes by a hen-pecked husband, they pour forth the
+      effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal, as their
+      modesty would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover. In our village
+      of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice
+      only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either church or
+      meeting-house. The court-house is the common temple, one Sunday in the
+      month to each. Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist,
+      meet together, join in hymning their Maker, listen with attention and
+      devotion to each others&rsquo; preachers, and all mix in society with perfect
+      harmony. It is not so in the districts where Presbyterianism prevails
+      undividedly. Their ambition and tyranny would tolerate no rival, if they
+      had power. Systematical in grasping at an ascendancy over all other sects,
+      they aim, like the Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country,
+      are hostile to every institution which they do not direct, and jealous at
+      seeing others begin to attend at all to that object. The diffusion of
+      instruction, to which there is now so growing an attention, will be the
+      remote remedy to this fever of fanaticism; while the more proximate one
+      will be the progress of Unitarianism. That this will, ere long, be the
+      religion of the majority from north to south, I have no doubt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A handle
+      has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is an institution,
+      not merely of no religion, but against all religion. Occasion was taken at
+      the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might
+      silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to
+      the institution. In our annual report to the legislature, after stating
+      the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious
+      instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the different
+      religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of their
+      own tenets, on the confines of the University, so near as that the
+      students may attend the lectures there, and have the free use our own
+      library, and every other accommodation we can give them; preserving,
+      however, their independence of us and of each other. This fills the chasm
+      objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give
+      instruction in all useful sciences. I think the invitation will be
+      accepted, by some sects from candid intentions, and by others from
+      jealousy and rivalship. And by bringing the sects together, and mixing
+      them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities,
+      liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion,
+      a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time of opening our University is still as uncertain as ever. All the
+      pavilions, boarding-houses, and dormitories are done. Nothing is now
+      wanting but the central building for a library and other general purposes.
+      For this we have no funds, and the last legislature refused all aid. We
+      have better hopes of the next. But all is uncertain. I have heard with
+      regret of disturbances on the part of the students in your seminary. The
+      article of discipline is the most difficult in American education.
+      Premature ideas of independence, too little repressed by parents, beget a
+      spirit of insubordination, which is the great obstacle to science with us,
+      and a principal cause of its decay since the Revolution. I look to it with
+      dismay in our institution, as a breaker ahead, which I am far from being
+      confident we shall be able to weather. The advance of age, and tardy pace
+      of the public patronage, may probably spare me the pain of witnessing
+      consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0168" id="link2H_4_0168">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXVIII.&mdash;TO JAMES SMITH, December 8, 1822
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 8, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the subject of Unitarianism, and
+      to express my gratification with your efforts for the revival of primitive
+      Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is better established,
+      than that the doctrine of one God, pure and uncompounded, was that of the
+      early ages of Christianity; and was amoung the efficacious doctrines which
+      gave it triumph over the polytheism of the ancients, sickened with the
+      absurdities of their own theology. Nor was the unity of the Supreme Being
+      ousted from the Christian creed by the force of reason, but by the sword
+      of civil government, wielded at the will of the fanatic Athanasius. The
+      hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and
+      three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and
+      thousands of martyrs. And a strong proof of the solidity of the primitive
+      faith, is its restoration, as soon as a nation arises which vindicates to
+      itself the freedom of religious opinion, and its external divorce from the
+      civil authority. The pure and simple unity of the Creator of the universe,
+      is now all but ascendant in the eastern States; it is dawning in the west,
+      and advancing towards the south; and I confidently expect that the present
+      generation will see Unitarianism become the general religion of the United
+      States. The eastern presses are giving us many excellent pieces on the
+      subject, and Priestley&rsquo;s learned writings on it are, or should be, in
+      every hand. In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three
+      but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can
+      say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea?
+      He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man,
+      once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities
+      the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every
+      wind. With such persons, gullability, which they call faith, takes the
+      helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I write with freedom, because, while I claim a right to believe in one
+      God, if so my reason tells me, I yield as freely to others that of
+      believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that is
+      the only point society has any right to look to. Although this mutual
+      freedom should produce mutual indulgence, yet I wish not to be brought in
+      question before the public on this or any other subject, and I pray you to
+      consider me as writing under that trust. I take no part in controversies,
+      religious or political. At the age of eighty, tranquillity is the greatest
+      good of life, and the strongest of our desires that of dying in the
+      good-will of all mankind. And with the assurances of all my good-will to
+      Unitarian and Trinitarian, to Whig and Tory, accept for yourself that of
+      my entire respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0169" id="link2H_4_0169">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER, CLXIX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, February 25, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 25, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received, in due time, your two favors of December the 2nd and February
+      the 10th, and have to acknowledge for the ladies of my native State their
+      obligations to you for the encomiums which you are so kind as to bestow on
+      them. They certainly claim no advantages over those of their sister
+      States, and are sensible of more favorable circumstances existing with
+      many of them, and happily availed, which our situation does not offer. But
+      the paper respecting Monticello, to which you allude, was not written by a
+      Virginian, but a visitant from another State; and written by memory at
+      least a dozen years after the visit. This has occasioned some lapses of
+      recollection, and a confusion of some things in the mind of our friend,
+      and particularly as to the volume of slanders supposed to have been cut
+      out of newspapers and preserved. It would not, indeed, have been a single
+      volume, but an Encyclopaedia in bulk. But I never had such a volume;
+      indeed, I rarely thought those libels worth reading, much less preserving
+      and remembering. At the end of every year, I generally sorted all my
+      pamphlets, and had them bound according to their subjects. One of these
+      volumes consisted of personal altercations between individuals, and
+      calumnies on each other. This was lettered on the back, &lsquo;Personalities,&rsquo;
+      and is now in the library of Congress. I was in the habit, also, while
+      living apart from my family, of cutting out of the newspapers such morsels
+      of poetry, or tales, as I thought would please, and of sending them to my
+      grandchildren, who pasted them on leaves of blank paper and formed them
+      into a book. These two volumes have been confounded into one in the
+      recollection of our friend. Her poetical imagination, too, has heightened
+      the scenes she visited, as well as the merits of the inhabitants, to whom
+      her society was a delightful gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have just finished reading O&rsquo;Meara&rsquo;s Bonaparte. It places him in a
+      higher scale of understanding than I had allotted him. I had thought him
+      the greatest of all military captains, but an indifferent statesman, and
+      misled by unworthy passions. The flashes, however, which escaped from him
+      in these conversations with O&rsquo;Meara, prove a mind of great expansion,
+      although not of distinct developement and reasoning. He seizes results
+      with rapidity and penetration, but never explains logically the process of
+      reasoning by which he arrives at them. This book, too, makes us forget his
+      atrocities for a moment, in commiseration of his sufferings. I will not
+      say that the authorities of the world, charged with the care of their
+      country and people, had not a right to confine him for life, as a lion or
+      tiger, on the principles of self-preservation. There was no safety to
+      nations while he was permitted to roam at large. But the putting him to
+      death in cold blood, by lingering tortures of mind, by vexations, insults,
+      and deprivations, was a degree of inhumanity to which the poisonings and
+      assassinations of the school of Borgia and the den of Marat never
+      attained. The book proves, also, that nature had denied him the moral
+      sense, the first excellence of well-organized man. If he could seriously
+      and repeatedly affirm, that he had raised himself to power without ever
+      having committed a crime, it proves that he wanted totally the sense of
+      right and wrong. If he could consider the millions of human lives which he
+      had destroyed or caused to be destroyed, the desolations of countries by
+      plunderings, burnings, and famine, the destitutions of lawful rulers of
+      the world without the consent of their constituents, to place his brothers
+      and sisters on their thrones, the cutting up of established societies of
+      men and jumbling them discordantly together again at his caprice, the
+      demolition of the fairest hopes of mankind for the recovery of their
+      rights and amelioration of their condition, and all the numberless train
+      of his other enormities; the man, I say, who could consider all these as
+      no crimes, must have been a moral monster, against whom every hand should
+      have been lifted to slay him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are so kind as to inquire after my health. The bone of my arm is well
+      knitted, but my hand and fingers are in a discouraging condition, kept
+      entirely useless by an oedematous swelling of slow amendment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      God bless you and continue your good health of body and mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0170" id="link2H_4_0170">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXX.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, April 11, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 11, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wishes expressed in your last favor, that I may continue in life and
+      health until I become a Calvinist, at least in his exclamation of, &lsquo;<i>Mon
+      Dieu! jusqu&rsquo;a quand?</i>&rsquo; would make me immortal. I can never join Calvin
+      in addressing his God. He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be; or
+      rather his religion was daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false God, he
+      did. The being described in his five points, is not the God whom you and I
+      acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent Governor of the world;
+      but a daemon of malignant spirit. It would be more pardonable to believe
+      in no God at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of
+      Calvin. Indeed, I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to
+      atheism by their general dogma, that, without a revelation, there would
+      not be sufficient proof of the being of a God. Now one sixth of mankind
+      only are supposed to be Christians: the other five sixths then, who do not
+      believe in the Jewish and Christian revelation, are without a knowledge of
+      the existence of a God! This gives completely a <i>gain de cause</i> to
+      the disciples of Ocellus, Timasus, Spinosa, Diderot, and D&rsquo;Holbach. The
+      argument which they rest on as triumphant and unanswerable is, that in
+      every hypothesis of cosmogony, you must admit an eternal pre-existence of
+      something; and according to the rule of sound philosophy, you are never to
+      employ two principles to solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They
+      say then, that it is more simple to believe at once in the eternal
+      pre-existence of the world, as it is now going on, and may for ever go on
+      by the principle of reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe
+      in the eternal pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the
+      world, a being whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, and
+      mode, or place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, no power
+      of the mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. On the contrary, I hold
+      (without appeal to revelation), that when we take a view of the universe,
+      in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind
+      not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and
+      indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the
+      heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of
+      centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our earth itself,
+      with its distribution of lands, waters, and atmosphere; animal and
+      vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles; insects, mere
+      atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or mammoth; the mineral
+      substances, their generation and uses; it is impossible, I say, for the
+      human mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause, and
+      effect, up to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter
+      and motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in
+      their present forms, and their regenerator into new and other forms. We
+      see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to
+      maintain the universe in its course and order. Stars, well known, have
+      disappeared, new ones have come into view; comets, in their incalculable
+      courses, may run foul of suns and planets, and require renovation under
+      other laws; certain races of animals are become extinct; and were there no
+      restoring power, all existences might extinguish successively, one by one,
+      until all should be reduced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are
+      these evidences of an intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the
+      infinite numbers of men who have existed through all time, they have
+      believed, in the proportion of a million at least to unit, in the
+      hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that
+      of a self-existent universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this
+      more probable, than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early
+      Christians, indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of both
+      the creator and the world, without changing their relation of cause and
+      effect. That this was the opinion of St. Thomas, we are informed by
+      Cardinal Toleta, in these words; &lsquo;<i>Deus ab terno fuit jam omnipotens, si
+      cut cum produxit mundum. Ah aternopotuit producers mundum. Si sol ah
+      czterno esset, lumen ah æterno esset; et si pes, similiter vestigium. At
+      lumen et vestigium effectus sunt efficients solis et pedis; potuit ergo
+      cum causa æterna effectus coaternus esse. Cujus sententia, est S. Thomas,
+      theologorum primus</i>.&rsquo;&mdash;Cardinal Toleta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page364.jpg" alt="Page364 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/page365.jpg" alt="Page365 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Of the nature of this being we know nothing. Jesus tells us, that &lsquo;God is
+      a spirit&rsquo; (John iv. 24.), but without defining what a spirit is: [Greek
+      phrase] Down to the third century, we know that it was still deemed
+      material but of a lighter, subtler matter than our gross bodies. So says
+      Origen; <i>Deus igitur, cui anima similis est, juxta Originem, reapte
+      corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus</i>.&rsquo;
+      These are the words of Huet in his commentary on Origen. Origen himself
+      says, [Greek and Latin phrase]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two fathers were of the third century. Calvin&rsquo;s character of this
+      Supreme Being seems chiefly copied from that of the Jews. But the
+      reformation of these blasphemous attributes, and substitution of those
+      more worthy, pure, and sublime, seems to have been the chief object of
+      Jesus in his discourses to the Jews: and his doctrine of the cosmogony of
+      the world is very clearly laid down in the three first verses of the first
+      chapter of John, in these words: [Greek phrase] Which, truly translated,
+      means, &lsquo;In the beginning God existed, and reason [or mind] was with God,
+      and that mind was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were
+      created by it, and without it was made not one thing which was made.&rsquo; Yet
+      this text, so plainly declaring the doctrine of Jesus, that the world was
+      created by the supreme intelligent being, has been perverted by modern
+      Christians to build up a second person of their tritheism, by a
+      mistranslation of the word <i>Xoyog</i>. One of its legitimate meanings,
+      indeed, is &lsquo;a word.&rsquo; But in that sense it makes an unmeaning jargon: while
+      the other meaning, &lsquo;reason,&rsquo; equally legitimate, explains rationally the
+      eternal pre-existence of God, and his creation of, the world. Knowing how
+      incomprehensible it was that &lsquo;a word,&rsquo; the mere action or articulation of
+      the organs of speech could create a world, they undertook to make of this
+      articulation a second pre-existing being, and ascribe to him, and not to
+      God, the creation of the universe. The atheist here plumes himself on the
+      uselessness of such a God, and the simpler hypothesis of a self-existent
+      universe. The truth is, that the greatest enemies to the doctrines of
+      Jesus are those calling themselves the expositors of them, who have
+      perverted them for the structure of a system of fancy absolutely
+      incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the
+      day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being
+      as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of
+      the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that
+      the dawn of reason, and freedom of thought, in these United States, will
+      do away all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive
+      and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much for your quotation of Calvin&rsquo;s &lsquo;<i>Mon Dieu! jusqu&rsquo;a quand</i>&rsquo;in
+      which, when addressed to the God of Jesus, and our God, I join you
+      cordially, and await his time and will with more readiness than
+      reluctance. May we meet there again, in Congress, with our ancient
+      colleagues, and receive with them the seal of approbation, &lsquo;Well done,
+      good and faithful servants.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0171" id="link2H_4_0171">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXI.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, June 11, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 11, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering that I had not been to Bedford for a twelvemonth before, I
+      thought myself singularly unfortunate in so timing my journey, as to have
+      been absent exactly at the moment of your late visit to our neighborhood.
+      The loss, indeed, was all my own; for in these short interviews with you.
+      I generally get my political compass rectified, learn from you whereabouts
+      we are, and correct my course again. In exchange for this, I can give you
+      but newspaper ideas, and little indeed of these, for I read but a single
+      paper, and that hastily. I find Horace and Tacitus so much better writers
+      than the champions of the gazettes, that I lay those down, to take up
+      these, with great reluctance. And on the question you propose, whether we
+      can, in any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in favor of
+      liberty, I can give you but commonplace ideas. They will be but the
+      widow&rsquo;s mite, and offered only because requested. The matter which now
+      embroils Europe, the presumption of dictating to an independent nation the
+      form of its government, is so arrogant, so atrocious, that indignation, as
+      well as moral sentiment, enlists all our partialities and prayers in favor
+      of one, and our equal execrations against the other. I do not know,
+      indeed, whether all nations do not owe to one another a bold and open
+      declaration of their sympathies with the one party, and their detestation
+      of the conduct of the other. But farther than this we are not bound to go;
+      and indeed, for the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the
+      jealousies, or draw on ourselves the power, of this formidable
+      confederacy. I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States,
+      never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political
+      interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their
+      balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles
+      of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All
+      their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and
+      lives of their people. On our part, never had a people so favorable a
+      chance of trying the opposite system, of peace and fraternity with
+      mankind, and the direction of all our means and faculties to the purposes
+      of improvement instead of destruction. With Europe we have few occasions
+      of collision, and these, with a little prudence and forbearance, may be
+      generally accommodated. Of the brethren of our own hemisphere, none are
+      yet, or for an age to come will be, in a shape, condition, or disposition
+      to war against us. And the foothold, which the nations of Europe had in
+      either America, is slipping from under them, so that we shall soon be rid
+      of their neighborhood. Cuba alone seems at present to hold up a speck of
+      war to us. Its possession by Great Britain would indeed be a great
+      calamity to us. Could we induce her to join us in guarantying its
+      independence against all the world, except Spain, it would be nearly as
+      valuable to us as if it were our own. But should she take it, I would not
+      immediately go to war for it; because the first war on other accounts will
+      give it to us; or the island will give itself to us, when, able to do so.
+      While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take part in the present war of
+      Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in reward for doing nothing,
+      peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and interest. We may gratify
+      ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as partial to Spain as would be
+      justifiable without giving cause of war to her adversary; we might and
+      ought to avail ourselves of the happy occasion of procuring and cementing
+      a cordial reconciliation with her, by giving assurance of every friendly
+      office which neutrality admits, and especially, against all apprehension
+      of our intermeddling in the quarrel with her colonies. And I expect daily
+      and confidently to hear of a spark kindled in France, which will employ
+      her at home, and relieve Spain from all further apprehensions of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her government
+      is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to look back a little
+      on past events. During the ascendancy of Bonaparte, the word among the
+      herd of Kings was, &lsquo;<i>Sauve qui peut</i>.&rsquo; Each shifted for himself, and
+      left his brethren to squander and do the same as they could. After the
+      battle of Waterloo, and the military possession of France, they rallied
+      and combined in common cause, to maintain each other against any similar
+      and future danger. And in this alliance, Louis, now avowedly, and George,
+      secretly but solidly, were of the contracting parties; and there can be no
+      doubt that the allies are bound by treaty to aid England with their
+      armies, should insurrection take place among her people. The coquetry she
+      is now playing off between her people and her allies is perfectly
+      understood by the latter, and accordingly gives no apprehensions to
+      France, to whom it is all explained. The diplomatic correspondence she is
+      now displaying, these double papers fabricated merely for exhibition, in
+      which she makes herself talk of morals and principle, as if her qualms of
+      conscience would not permit her to go all lengths with her Holy Allies,
+      are all to gull her own people. It is a theatrical farce, in which the
+      five powers are the actors, England the Tartuffe, and her people the
+      dupes. Playing thus so dextrously into each other&rsquo;s hands, and their own
+      persons seeming secured, they are now looking to their privileged orders.
+      These faithful auxiliaries, or accomplices, must be saved. This war is
+      evidently that of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England is
+      also acting her part. &lsquo;Save but the Nobles, and there shall be no war,&rsquo;
+      says she, masking her measures at the same time under the form of
+      friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party, offering
+      herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not permitted openly to
+      oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality at all, is all Spain will
+      get from her. And Spain, probably, perceives this, and willingly winks at
+      it rather than have her weight thrown openly into the other scale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I am going beyond my text, and sinning against the adage of carrying
+      coals to Newcastle. In hazarding to you my crude and uninformed notions of
+      things beyond my cognizance, only be so good as to remember that it is at
+      your request, and with as little confidence on my part as profit on yours.
+      You will do what is right, leaving the people of Europe to act their
+      follies and crimes among themselves, while we pursue in good faith the
+      paths of peace and prosperity. To your judgment we are willingly resigned,
+      with sincere assurances of affectionate esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0172" id="link2H_4_0172">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXII.&mdash;TO JUDGE JOHNSON, June 12, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JUDGE JOHNSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 12, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our correspondence is of that accommodating character, which admits of
+      suspension at the convenience of either party, without inconvenience to
+      the other. Hence this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of April the
+      11th. I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved on
+      continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead of us in
+      preparations for placing their cause favorably before posterity. Yet I
+      hope even from some of them the escape of precious truths, in angry
+      explosions or effusions of vanity, which will betray the genuine
+      monarchism of their principles. They do not themselves believe what they
+      endeavor to inculcate, that we were an opposition party, not on principle,
+      but merely seeking for office. The fact is, that at the formation of our
+      government, many had formed their political opinions on European writings
+      and practices, believing the experience of old countries, and especially
+      of England, abusive as it was, to be a safer guide than mere theory. The
+      doctrines of Europe were, that men in numerous associations cannot be
+      restrained within the limits of order and justice, but by forces physical
+      and moral, wielded over them by authorities independent of their will.
+      Hence their organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still
+      further to constrain the brute force of the people, they deem it necessary
+      to keep them down by hard labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from
+      them, as from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor
+      shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to sustain a
+      scanty and miserable life. And these earnings they apply to maintain their
+      privileged orders in splendor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the
+      people, and excite in them an humble adoration and submission, as to an
+      order of superior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths
+      of opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. And
+      in the convention which formed our government, they endeavored to draw the
+      cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the
+      dependence of the general functionaries on their constituents, to subject
+      to them those of the States, and to weaken their means of maintaining the
+      steady equilibrium which the majority of the convention had deemed
+      salutary for both branches, general and local. To recover, therefore, in
+      practice, the powers which the nation had refused, and to warp to their
+      own wishes those actually given, was the steady object of the federal
+      party. Ours, on the contrary, was to maintain the will of the majority of
+      the convention, and of the people themselves. We believed, with them, that
+      man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an
+      innate sense of justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and
+      protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own
+      choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will. We
+      believed that the complicated organization of kings, nobles, and priests,
+      was not the wisest nor best to effect the happiness of associated man;
+      that wisdom and virtue were not hereditary; that the trappings of such a
+      machinery consumed, by their expense, those earnings of industry they were
+      meant to protect, and, by the inequalities they produced, exposed liberty
+      to sufferance. We believed that men, enjoying in ease and security the
+      full fruits of their own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the
+      side of law and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow
+      their reason as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed,
+      than with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in
+      Europe, by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment of the
+      people then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, that of the
+      other party. Composed, as we were, of the landed and laboring interests of
+      the country, we could not be less anxious for a government of law and
+      order than were the inhabitants of the cities, the strong holds of
+      federalism. And whether our efforts to save the principles and form of our
+      constitution have not been salutary, let the present republican freedom,
+      order, and prosperity of our country determine. History may distort truth,
+      and will distort it for a time, by the superior efforts at justification
+      of those who are conscious of needing it most. Nor will the opening scenes
+      of our present government be seen in their true aspect, until the letters
+      of the day, now held in private hoards, shall be broken up and laid open
+      to public view. What a treasure will be found in General Washington&rsquo;s
+      cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend to truth
+      as he was himself! When no longer, like Caesar&rsquo;s notes and memorandums in
+      the hands of Anthony, it shall be open to the high priests of federalism
+      only, and garbled to say so much, and no more, as suits their views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to his Farewell Address, to the authorship of which, it
+      seems, there are conflicting claims, I can state to you some facts. He had
+      determined to decline a re-election at the end of his first term, and so
+      far determined, that he had requested Mr. Madison to prepare for him
+      something valedictory, to be addressed to his constituents on his
+      retirement. This was done: but he was finally persuaded to acquiesce in a
+      second election, to which no one more strenuously pressed him than myself,
+      from a conviction of the importance of strengthening, by longer habit, the
+      respect necessary for that office, which the weight of his character only
+      could effect. When, at the end of this second term, his Valedictory came
+      out, Mr. Madison recognised in it several passages of his draught; several
+      others we were both satisfied were from the pen of Hamilton, and others
+      from that of the President himself. These he probably put into the hands
+      of Hamilton to form into a whole, and hence it may all appear in
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s hand-writing, as if it were all of his composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have stated above, that the original objects of the federalists were, 1.
+      To warp our government more to the form and principles of monarchy, and 2.
+      To weaken the barriers of the State governments as co-ordinate powers. In
+      the first they have been so completely foiled by the universal spirit of
+      the nation, that they have abandoned the enterprise, shrunk from the odium
+      of their old appellation, taken to themselves a participation of ours, and
+      under the pseudo-republican mask, are now aiming at their second object,
+      and strengthened by unsuspecting or apostate recruits from our ranks, are
+      advancing fast towards an ascendancy. I have been blamed for saying, that
+      a prevalence of the doctrines of consolidation would one day call for
+      reformation or revolution. I answer by asking, if a single State of the
+      Union would have agreed to the constitution, had it given all powers to
+      the General Government? If the whole opposition to it did not proceed from
+      the jealousy and fear of every State, of being subjected to the other
+      States, in matters merely its own? And if there is any reason to believe
+      the States more disposed now than then, to acquiesce in this general
+      surrender of all their rights and powers to a consolidated government, one
+      and undivided?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You request me confidentially, to examine the question, whether the
+      Supreme Court has advanced beyond its constitutional limits, and
+      trespassed on those of the State authorities? I do not undertake it, my
+      dear Sir, because I am unable. Age, and the wane of mind consequent on it,
+      have disqualified me from investigations so severe, and researches so
+      laborious. And it is the less necessary in this case, as having been
+      already done by others with a logic and learning to which I could add
+      nothing. On the decision of the case of Cohens vs. The State of Virginia,
+      in the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1821, Judge Roane,
+      under the signature of Algernon Sidney, wrote for the Enquirer, a series
+      of papers on the law of that case. I considered these papers maturely as
+      they came out, and confess, that they appeared to me to pulverize every
+      word which had been delivered by Judge Marshall, of the extra-judicial
+      part of his opinion; and all was extra-judicial, except the decision that
+      the act of Congress had not purported to give to the corporation of
+      Washington the authority claimed by their lottery-law, of controlling the
+      laws of the States within the States themselves. But unable to claim that
+      case, he could not let it go entirely, but went on gratuitously to prove,
+      that notwithstanding the eleventh amendment of the constitution, a State
+      could be brought, as a defendant, to the bar of his court; and again, that
+      Congress might authorize a corporation of its territory to exercise
+      legislation within a State, and paramount to the laws of that State. I
+      cite the sum and result only of his doctrines, according to the impression
+      made on my mind at the time, and still remaining. If not strictly accurate
+      in circumstance, it is so in substance. This doctrine was so completely
+      refuted by Roane, that if he can be answered, I surrender human reason as
+      a vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us. And I
+      mention this particular case as one only of several, because it gave
+      occasion to that thorough examination of the constitutional limits between
+      the General and State jurisdictions, which you have asked for. There were
+      two other writers in the same paper, under the signatures of Fletcher of
+      Saltoun, and Somers, who in a few essays presented some very luminous and
+      striking views of the question. And there was a particular paper which
+      recapitulated all the cases in which it was thought the federal court had
+      usurped on the State jurisdictions. These essays will be found in the
+      Enquirers of 1821, from May the 10th to July the 13th. It is not in my
+      present power to send them to you, but if Ritchie can furnish them, I will
+      procure and forward them. If they had been read in the other States, as
+      they were here, I think they would have left, there as here, no
+      dissentients from their doctrine. The subject was taken up by our
+      legislature of 1821-22, and two draughts of remonstrances were prepared
+      and discussed. As well as I remember, there was no difference of opinion
+      as to the matter of right; but there was as to the expediency of a
+      remonstrance at that time, the general mind of the States being then under
+      extraordinary excitement by the Missouri question; and it was dropped on
+      that consideration. But this case is not dead; it only sleepeth. The
+      Indian Chief said, he did not go to war for every petty injury by itself,
+      but put it into his pouch, and when that was full, he then made war. Thank
+      Heaven, we have provided a more peaceable and rational mode of redress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This practice of Judge Marshall, of travelling out of his case to
+      prescribe what the law would be in a moot case not before the court, is
+      very irregular and very censurable. 1 recollect another instance, and the
+      more particularly, perhaps, because it in some measure bore on myself.
+      Among the midnight appointments of Mr. Adams, were commissions to some
+      federal justices of the peace for Alexandria. These were signed and sealed
+      by him, but not delivered. I found them on the table of the department of
+      State, on my entrance into office, and 1 forbade their delivery. Marbury,
+      named in one of them, applied to the Supreme Court for a Mandamus to the
+      Secretary of State (Mr. Madison), to deliver the commission intended for
+      him. The Court determined at once, that being an original process, they
+      had no cognizance of it; and there the question before them was ended. But
+      the Chief Justice went on to lay down what the law would be, had they
+      jurisdiction of the case; to wit, that they should command the delivery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The object was clearly to instruct any other court having the
+      jurisdiction, what they should do, if Marbury should apply to them.
+      Besides the impropriety of this gratuitous interference, could any thing
+      exceed the perversion of law? For if there is any principle of law never
+      yet contradicted, it is that delivery is one of the essentials to the
+      validity of a deed. Although signed and sealed, yet as long as it remains
+      in the hands of the party himself, it is in fieri only, it is not a deed,
+      and can be made so only by its delivery. In the hands of a third person it
+      may be made an escrow. But whatever is in the executive offices is
+      certainly deemed to be in the hands of the President; and, in this case,
+      was actually in my hands, because, when I countermanded them, there was as
+      yet no Secretary of State. Yet this case of Marbury and Madison is
+      continually cited by bench and bar, as if it were settled law, without any
+      animadversion on its being merely an obiter dissertation of the Chief
+      Justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be impracticable to lay down any general formula of words which
+      shall decide at once, and with precision, in every case, this limit of
+      jurisdiction. But there are two canons which will guide us safely in most
+      of the cases. 1. The capital and leading object of the constitution was,
+      to leave with the States all authorities which respected their own
+      citizens only, and to transfer to the United States those which respected
+      citizens of foreign or other States: to make us several as to ourselves,
+      but one as to all others. In the latter case, then, constructions should
+      lean to the general jurisdiction, if the words will bear it; and in favor
+      of the States in the former, if possible to be so construed. And indeed,
+      between citizens and citizens of the same State, and under their own laws,
+      I know but a single case in which a jurisdiction is given to the General
+      Government. That is, where any thing but gold or silver is made a lawful
+      tender, or the obligation of contracts is any otherwise impaired. The
+      separate legislatures had so often abused that power, that the citizens
+      themselves chose to trust it to the general, rather than to their own
+      special authorities. 2. On every question of construction, carry ourselves
+      back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit
+      manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be
+      squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable
+      one in which it was passed. Let us try Cohen&rsquo;s case by these canons only,
+      referring always however, for full argument, to the essays before cited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It was between a citizen and his own State, and under a law of his
+      State. It was a domestic case therefore, and not a foreign one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Can it be believed, that under the jealousies prevailing against the
+      General Government, at the adoption of the constitution, the States meant
+      to surrender the authority of preserving order, of enforcing moral duties,
+      and restraining vice, within their own territory? And this is the present
+      case, that of Cohen being under the ancient and general law of gaming. Can
+      any good be effected, by taking from the States the moral rule of their
+      citizens, and subordinating it to the general authority, or to one of
+      their corporations, which may justify forcing the meaning of words,
+      hunting after possible constructions, and hanging inference on inference,
+      from heaven to earth, like Jacob&rsquo;s ladder? Such an intention was
+      impossible, and such a licentiousness of construction and inference, if
+      exercised by, both governments, as may be done with equal right, would
+      equally authorize both to claim all powers, general and particular, and
+      break up the foundations of the Union. Laws are made for men of ordinary
+      understanding, and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules
+      of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical
+      subtleties, which may make any thing mean every thing or nothing, at
+      pleasure. It should be left to the sophisms of advocates, whose trade it
+      is, to prove that a defendant is a plaintiff, though dragged into court,
+      torto collo, like Bonaparte&rsquo;s volunteers into the field in chains, or that
+      a power has been given, because it ought to have been given, et alia
+      talia. The States supposed, that, by their tenth amendment, they had
+      secured themselves against constructive powers. They were not lessoned yet
+      by Cohen&rsquo;s case, nor aware of the slipperiness of the eels of the law. I
+      ask for no straining of words against the General Government nor yet
+      against the States. I believe the States can best govern our home
+      concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore,
+      to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers, established by
+      the constitution for the limitation of both; and never to see all offices
+      transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the
+      people, they may more secretly be bought and sold, as at market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Chief Justice says, &lsquo;there must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.&rsquo;
+      True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate
+      arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in
+      convention, at the call of Congress, or of two thirds of the States. Let
+      them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of
+      their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our
+      constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other
+      nations is at once to force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I rejoice in the example you set of <i>seriatim</i> opinions. I have heard
+      it often noticed, and always with high approbation. Some of your brethren
+      will be encouraged to follow it occasionally, and in time, it may be felt
+      by all as a duty, and the sound practice of the primitive court be again
+      restored. Why should not every judge be asked his opinion, and give it
+      from the bench, if only by yea or nay? Besides ascertaining the fact of
+      his opinion, which the public have a right to know, in order to judge
+      whether it is impeachable or not, it would show whether the opinions were
+      unanimous or not, and thus settle more exactly the weight of their
+      authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The close of my second sheet warns me that it is time now to relieve you
+      from this letter of unmerciful length. Indeed, I wonder how I have
+      accomplished it, with two crippled wrists, the one scarcely able to move
+      my pen, the other to hold my paper. But I am hurried sometimes beyond the
+      sense of pain, when unbosoming myself to friends who harmonize with me in
+      principle. You and I may differ occasionally in details of minor
+      consequence, as no two minds, more than two faces, are the same in every
+      feature. But our general objects are the same; to preserve the republican
+      form and principles of our constitution, and cleave to the salutary
+      distribution of powers which that has established. These are the two sheet
+      anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of
+      foundering. To my prayers for its safety and perpetuity, I add those for
+      the continuation of your health, happiness, and usefulness to your
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0173" id="link2H_4_0173">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIII.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, August 30,1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, August 30,1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I received the enclosed letters from the President, with a request that
+      after perusal I would forward them to you, for perusal by yourself also,
+      and to be returned then to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have doubtless seen Timothy Pickering&rsquo;s fourth of July observations on
+      the Declaration of Independence. If his principles and prejudices,
+      personal and political, gave us no reason to doubt whether he had truly
+      quoted the information he alleges to have received from Mr. Adams, I
+      should then say, that in some of the particulars, Mr. Adams&rsquo;s memory has
+      led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight, and
+      forty-seven years after the transactions of Independence, this is not
+      wonderful. Nor should I, at the age of eighty, on the small advantage of
+      that difference only, venture to oppose my memory to his, were it not
+      supported by written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the spot.
+      He says, &lsquo;The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Franklin, Sherman,
+      Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the subject, and then appointed
+      him and myself to make the draught; that, we, as a sub-committee, met, and
+      after the urgencies of each on the other, I consented to undertake the
+      task; that, the draught being made, we, the sub-committee, met, and conned
+      the paper over, and he does not remember that he made or suggested a
+      single alteration.&rsquo; Now these details are quite incorrect. The committee
+      of five met; no such thing as a sub-committee was proposed, but they
+      unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught. I consented;
+      I drew it: but before I reported it to the committee, I communicated it
+      separately to Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams, requesting their corrections,
+      because they were the two members of whose judgments and amendments I
+      wished most to have the benefit, before presenting it to the committee:
+      and you have seen the original paper now in my hands, with the corrections
+      of Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams interlined in their own hand-writings.
+      Their alterations were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote
+      a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to
+      Congress. This personal communication and consultation with Mr. Adams, he
+      has misremembered into the actings of a sub-committee. Pickering&rsquo;s
+      observations, and Mr. Adams&rsquo;s in addition, &lsquo;that it contained no new
+      ideas, that it is a common-place compilation, its sentiments hacknied in
+      Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis&rsquo;s
+      pamphlet,&rsquo; may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard
+      Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke&rsquo;s Treatise on Government. Otis&rsquo;s
+      pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from reading or
+      reflection I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither book nor
+      pamphlet while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my charge
+      to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had ever
+      been expressed before. Had Mr. Adams been so restrained, Congress would
+      have lost the benefit of his bold and impressive advocations of the rights
+      of Revolution. For no man&rsquo;s confident and fervid addresses, more than Mr.
+      Adams&rsquo;s, encouraged and supported us through the difficulties surrounding
+      us, which, like the ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night
+      and by day. Yet, on the same ground, we may ask what of these elevated
+      thoughts was new, or can be affirmed never before to have entered the
+      conceptions of man?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons for
+      declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, had been
+      hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of July, &lsquo;76, or this
+      dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of memory, let history say. This,
+      however, I will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the Declaration with
+      zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of it. As to myself,
+      I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive auditor of the
+      opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could be, of its merits
+      or demerits. During the debate I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, and he
+      observed that I was writhing a little under the acrimonious criticisms on
+      some of its parts; and it was on that occasion, that by way of comfort, he
+      told me the story of John Thomson, the hatter, and his new sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of it
+      expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other three
+      fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only one he
+      approves), which recommends friendship to his dear England, whenever she
+      is willing to be at peace with us. His insinuations are, that although
+      &lsquo;the high tone of the instrument was in unison with the warm feelings of
+      the times, this sentiment of habitual friendship to England should never
+      be forgotten, and that the duties it enjoins should especially be borne in
+      mind on every celebration of this anniversary.&rsquo; In other words, that the
+      Declaration, as being a libel on the government of England, composed in
+      times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare the
+      feelings of our English friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. But it is
+      not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind; but to cherish the
+      principles of the instrument in the besoms of our own citizens: and it is
+      a heavenly comfort to see that these principles are yet so strongly felt,
+      as to render a circumstance so trifling as this little lapse of memory of
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s, worthy of being solemnly announced and supported at an
+      anniversary assemblage of the nation on its birth-day. In opposition,
+      however, to Mr. Pickering, I pray God that these principles may be
+      eternal, and close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for yourself of
+      long life, health, and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0174" id="link2H_4_0174">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, September 4, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, September 4, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of August the 15th was received in due time, and with the
+      welcome of every thing which comes from you. With its opinions on the
+      difficulties of revolutions from despotism to freedom, I very much concur.
+      The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.
+      Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body fend mind to
+      their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on, to think
+      and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their ignorance and
+      bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the Bonapartes and
+      Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This is the present
+      situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is not desperate. The
+      light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing, has eminently
+      changed the condition of the world. As yet, that light has dawned on the
+      middling classes only of the men in Europe. The kings and the rabble, of
+      equal ignorance, have not yet received its rays; but it continues to
+      spread, and while printing is preserved, it can no more recede than the
+      sun return on his course. A first attempt to recover the right of
+      self-government may fail, so may a second, a third, &amp;c. But as a
+      younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and
+      more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the
+      ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In France, the first effort
+      was defeated by Robespierre, the second by Bonaparte, the third by Louis
+      XVIII., and his holy allies; another is yet to come, and all Europe,
+      Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and all will attain representative
+      government, more or less perfect. This is now well understood to be a
+      necessary check on Kings, whom they will probably think it more prudent to
+      chain and tame, than to exterminate. To attain all this, however, rivers
+      of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object
+      is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation. For what inheritance so
+      valuable, can man leave to his posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and
+      his deadly and eternal hatred to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that
+      he will never submit, but finally defeat this atrocious violation of the
+      laws of God and man, under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and
+      firmness of the Cortes, afford reasonable hope, that that nation will
+      settle down in a temperate representative government, with an executive
+      properly subordinated to that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece,
+      will follow suit. You and I shall look down from another world on these
+      glorious achievements to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I observe your toast of Mr. Jay on the 4th of July, wherein you say that
+      the omission of his signature to the Declaration of Independence was by
+      accident. Our impressions as to this fact being different, I shall be glad
+      to have mine corrected, if wrong. Jay, you know, had been in constant
+      opposition to our laboring majority. Our estimate at the time was, that
+      he, Dickinson, and Johnson of Maryland, by their ingenuity, perseverance,
+      and partiality to our English connection, had constantly kept us a year
+      behind where we ought to have been, in our preparations and proceedings.
+      From about the date of the Virginia instructions of May the 15th, 1776, to
+      declare Independence, Mr. Jay absented himself from Congress, and never
+      came there again until December, 1778. Of course, he had no part in the
+      discussions or decision of that question. The instructions to their
+      Delegates by the convention of New York, then sitting, to sign the
+      Declaration, were presented to Congress on the 15th of July only, and on
+      that day the journals show the absence of Mr. Jay, by a letter received
+      from him, as they had done as early as the 29th of May, by another letter.
+      And I think he had been omitted by the convention on a new election of
+      Delegates, when they changed their instructions. Of this last fact,
+      however, having no evidence but an ancient impression, I shall not affirm
+      it. But whether so or not, no agency of accident appears in the case. This
+      error of fact, however, whether yours or mine, is of little consequence to
+      the public. But truth being as cheap as error, it is as well to rectify it
+      for our own satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
+      month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ever affectionately yours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0175" id="link2H_4_0175">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXV.&mdash;TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 12, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
+      supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious. But
+      while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the recollection
+      of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing.
+      I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing
+      but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours
+      until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this
+      <i>tedium vita</i>, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which,
+      indeed, I should have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but
+      whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an
+      octogenary rider. This is the establishment of a University, on a scale
+      more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old
+      William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of
+      languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness with which such works proceed,
+      may render it doubtful whether I shall live to see it go into action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter
+      as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be
+      poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had
+      for some time observed, in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious
+      innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had
+      opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that
+      friend or his representative. And now it is said to be actually published.
+      It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as
+      seemed most likely to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself.
+      Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the author of
+      this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed
+      at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every
+      honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its impression a
+      seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me, however, no such
+      armor is needed. The circumstances of the times in which we have happened
+      to live, and the partiality of our friends at a particular period, placed
+      us in a state of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be
+      personal also: and there might, not be wanting those who wished to make it
+      so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous
+      phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to
+      me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things concerning
+      each other the most destitute of truth. And if there had been, at any
+      time, a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the
+      whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each other
+      for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men, who have
+      attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colors
+      under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others,
+      have seen also those passions subsiding with time and reflection,
+      dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring to us the
+      sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange,
+      indeed, if, at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt up imaginary
+      or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to
+      the evening of our lives. Be assured, my dear Sir, that I am incapable of
+      receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made to plant
+      thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow tares between
+      friends who have been such for near half a century. Beseeching you, then,
+      not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison
+      its peace, and praying you to throw it by among the things which have
+      never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and constant
+      attachment, friendship, and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0176" id="link2H_4_0176">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVI.&mdash;TO THE PRESIDENT, October 24,1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 24,1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most
+      momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of
+      Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass, and points the
+      course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And
+      never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first
+      and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils
+      of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with
+      cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests
+      distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from
+      that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicile of
+      despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of
+      freedom. One nation, most of all, could disturb us in this pursuit; she
+      now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her
+      proposition, we detach her from the band of despots, bring her mighty
+      weight into the scale of free government, and emancipate a continent at
+      one stroke, which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty.
+      Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one, or
+      all, on earth; and with her on our side we need not fear the whole world.
+      With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship;
+      and nothing would tend more to knit our affections, than to be fighting
+      once more, side by side, in the same cause. Not that I would purchase even
+      her amity at the price of taking part in her wars. But the war in which
+      the present proposition might engage us, should that be its consequence,
+      is not her war, but ours. Its object is to introduce and establish the
+      American system, of keeping out of our land all foreign powers, of never
+      permitting those of Europe to intermeddle with the affairs of our nations.
+      It is to maintain our own principle, not to depart from it. And if, to
+      facilitate this, we can effect a division in the body of the European
+      powers, and draw over to our side its most powerful member, surely we
+      should do it. But I am clearly of Mr. Canning&rsquo;s opinion, that it will
+      prevent instead of provoking war. With Great Britain withdrawn from their
+      scale, and shifted into that of our two continents, all Europe combined
+      would not undertake such a war. For how would they propose to get at
+      either enemy without superior fleets? Nor is the occasion to be slighted
+      which this proposition offers, of declaring our protest against the
+      atrocious violations of the rights of nations, by the interference of any
+      one in the internal affairs of another, so flagitiously begun by
+      Bonaparte, and now continued by the equally lawless Alliance, calling
+      itself Holy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we have first to ask ourselves a question. Do we wish to acquire to
+      our own confederacy any one or more of the Spanish provinces? I candidly
+      confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition
+      which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with
+      Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the
+      countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters
+      flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being. Yet,
+      as I am sensible that this can never be obtained, even with her own
+      consent, but by war; and its independence, which is our second interest
+      (and especially its independence of England), can be secured without it, I
+      have no hesitation in abandoning my first wish to future chances, and
+      accepting its independence, with peace and the friendship of England,
+      rather than its association, at the expense of war and her enmity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could honestly, therefore, join in the declaration proposed, that we aim
+      not at the acquisition of any of those possessions, that we will not stand
+      in the way of any amicable arrangement between them and the mother
+      country; but that we will oppose, with all our means, the forcible
+      interposition of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, or under any
+      other form or pretext, and most especially, their transfer to any power by
+      conquest, cession, or acquisition in any other way. I should think it,
+      therefore, advisable, that the Executive should encourage the British
+      government to a continuance in the dispositions expressed in these
+      letters, by an assurance of his concurrence with them as far as his
+      authority goes; and that as it may lead to war, the declaration of which
+      requires an act of Congress, the case shall be laid before them for
+      consideration at their first meeting, and under the reasonable aspect in
+      which it is seen by himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been so long weaned from political subjects, and have so long
+      ceased to take any interest in them, that I am sensible I am not qualified
+      to offer opinions on them worthy of any attention. But the question now
+      proposed involves consequences so lasting, and effects so decisive of our
+      future destinies, as to re-kindle all the interest I have heretofore felt
+      on such occasions, and to induce me to the hazard of opinions, which will
+      prove only my wish to contribute still my mite towards any thing which may
+      be useful to our country. And praying you to accept it at only what it is
+      worth, I add the assurance of my constant and affectionate friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0177" id="link2H_4_0177">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVII.&mdash;TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, November 4, 1823
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, November 4, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Dear Friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two dislocated wrists and crippled fingers have rendered writing so slow
+      and laborious, as to oblige me to withdraw from nearly all correspondence:
+      not, however, from yours, while I can make a stroke with a pen. We have
+      gone through too many trying scenes together, to forget the sympathies and
+      affections they nourished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your trials have indeed been long and severe. When they will end, is yet
+      unknown, but where they will end, cannot be doubted. Alliances, Holy or
+      Hellish, may be formed, and retard the epoch of deliverance, may swell the
+      rivers of blood which are yet to flow, but their own will close the scene,
+      and leave to mankind the right of self-government. I trust that Spain will
+      prove, that a nation cannot be conquered which determines not to be so,
+      and that her success will be the turning of the tide of liberty, no more
+      to be arrested by human efforts. Whether the state of society in Europe
+      can bear a republican government, I doubted, you know when with you, and I
+      do now. A hereditary chief, strictly limited, the right of war vested in
+      the legislative body, a rigid economy of the public contributions, and
+      absolute interdiction of all useless expenses, will go far towards keeping
+      the government honest and unoppressive. But the only security o£ all, is
+      in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when
+      permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be
+      submitted to. It is necessary to keep the waters pure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are all, for example, in agitation even in our peaceful country. For in
+      peace as well as in war, the mind must be kept in motion. Who is to be the
+      next President, is the topic here of every conversation. My opinion on
+      that subject is what I expressed to you in my last letter. The question
+      will be ultimately reduced to the northernmost and southernmost
+      candidates. The former will get every federal vote in the Union, and many
+      republicans; the latter, all those denominated of the old school; for you
+      are not to believe that these two parties are amalgamated, that the lion
+      and the lamb are lying down together. The Hartford convention, the victory
+      of Orleans, the peace of Ghent, prostrated the name of federalism. Its
+      votaries abandoned it through shame and mortification; and now call
+      themselves republicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles are
+      the same. For in truth, the parties of Whig and Tory are those of nature.
+      They exist in all countries, whether called by these names, or by those of
+      Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and
+      Radicals, Serviles and Liberals. The sickly, weakly, timid man, fears the
+      people, and is a tory by nature. The healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes
+      them, and is formed a whig by nature. On the eclipse of federalism with
+      us, although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question,
+      under the false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the
+      real view of producing a geographical division of parties, which might
+      insure them the next President. The people of the north went blindfold
+      into the snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly moral
+      and laudable, until they became sensible that they were injuring instead
+      of aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they had been used,
+      merely as tools for electioneering purposes; and that trick of hypocrisy
+      then fell as quickly as it had been got up. To that is now succeeding a
+      distinction, which, like that of republican and federal, or whig and tory,
+      being equally intermixed through every State, threatens none of those
+      geographical schisms which go immediately to a separation. The line of
+      division now is the preservation of State rights as reserved in the
+      constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument, to merge
+      all into a consolidated government. The tories are for strengthening the
+      executive and General Government; the whigs cherish the representative
+      branch, and the rights reserved by the States, as the bulwark against
+      consolidation, which must immediately generate monarchy. And although this
+      division excites, as yet, no warmth, yet it exists, is well understood,
+      and will be a principle of voting at the ensuing election, with the
+      reflecting men of both parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you much for the two books you were so kind as to send me by Mr.
+      Gallatin. Miss Wright had before favored me with the first edition of her
+      American work: but her &lsquo;Few Days in Athens,&rsquo; was entirely new, and has
+      been a treat to me of the highest order. The matter and manner of the
+      dialogue is strictly ancient; the principles of the sects are beautifully
+      and candidly explained and contrasted; and the scenery and portraiture of
+      the interlocutors are of higher finish than any thing in that line left us
+      by the ancients; and like Ossian, if not ancient, it is equal to the best
+      morsels of antiquity. I augur, from this instance, that Herculaneum is
+      likely to furnish better specimens of modern than of ancient genius; and
+      may we not hope more from the same pen?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After much sickness, and the accident of a broken and disabled arm, I am
+      again in tolerable health, but extremely debilitated, so as to be scarcely
+      able to walk into my garden. The hebitude of age too, and extinguishment
+      of interest in the things around me, are weaning me from them, and dispose
+      me with cheerfulness to resign them to the existing generation, satisfied
+      that the daily advance of science will enable them to administer the
+      commonwealth with increased wisdom. You have still many valuable years to
+      give to your country, and with my prayers that, they may be years of
+      health and happiness, and especially that they may see the establishment
+      of the principles of government which you have cherished through life,
+      accept the assurance of my affectionate and constant friendship and
+      respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0178" id="link2H_4_0178">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXVIII.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C CABELL, February 3, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 3, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am favored with your two letters of January the 26th and 29th, and am
+      glad that yourself and the friends of the University are so well
+      satisfied, that the provisos amendatory of the University Act are mere
+      nullities. I had not been able to put out of my head the Algebraical
+      equation, which was among the first of my college lessons, that a-a = 0.
+      Yet I cheerfully arrange myself to your opinions. I did not suppose, nor
+      do I now suppose it possible, that both Houses of the legislature should
+      ever consent, for an additional fifteen thousand dollars of revenue, to
+      set all the Professors and students of the University adrift: and if
+      foreigners will have the same confidence which we have in our legislature,
+      no harm will have been done by the provisos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You recollect that we had agreed that the Visitors who are of the
+      legislature should fix on a certain day of meeting, after the rising of
+      the Assembly, to put into immediate motion the measures which this act was
+      expected to call for. You will of course remind the Governor that a
+      re-appointment of Visitors is to be made on the day following Sunday, the
+      29th of this month; and as he is to appoint the day of their first
+      meeting, it would be well to recommend to him that which our brethren
+      there shall fix on. It may be designated by the Governor as the third,
+      fourth, &amp;c. day after the rising of the legislature, which will give
+      it certainty enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You ask what sum would be desirable for the purchase of books and
+      apparatus. Certainly the largest you can obtain. Forty or fifty thousand
+      dollars would enable us to purchase the most essential books of text and
+      reference for the schools, and such an apparatus for Mathematics,
+      Astronomy, and Chemistry, as may enable us to set out with tolerable
+      competence, if we can, through the banks and otherwise, anticipate the
+      whole sum at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remark what you say on the subject of committing ourselves to any one
+      for the Law appointment. Your caution is perfectly just. I hope, and am
+      certain, that this will be the standing law of discretion and duty with
+      every member of our board, in this and all cases. You know we have all,
+      from the beginning, considered the high qualifications of our Professors,
+      as the only means by which we can give to our institution splendor and
+      pre-eminence over all its sister seminaries. The only question, therefore,
+      we can ever ask ourselves, as to any candidate, will be, Is he the most
+      highly qualified? The college of Philadelphia has lost its character of
+      primacy by indulging motives of favoritism and nepotism, and by conferring
+      the appointments as if the professorships were entrusted to them as
+      provisions for their friends. And even that of Edinburgh, you know, is
+      also much lowered from the same cause. We are next to observe, that a man
+      is not qualified for a Professor, knowing nothing but merely his own
+      profession. He should be otherwise well educated as to the sciences
+      generally; able to converse understandingly with the scientific men with
+      whom he is associated, and to assist in the councils of the Faculty on any
+      subject of science on which they may have occasion to deliberate. Without
+      this, he will incur their contempt, and bring disreputation on the
+      institution. With respect to the professorship you mention, I scarcely
+      know any of our judges personally; but I will name, for example, the late
+      Judge Roane, who, I believe, was generally admitted to be among the ablest
+      of them. His knowledge was confined to the common law chiefly, which does
+      not constitute one half of the qualification of a really learned lawyer,
+      much less that of a Professor of law for an University. And as to any
+      other branches of science, he must have stood mute in the presence of his
+      literary associates, or of any learned strangers or others visiting the
+      University. Would this constitute the splendid stand we propose to take?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers of
+      appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I
+      never did appoint a relation to office, and that merely because I never
+      saw the case in which some one did not offer, or occur, better qualified;
+      and I have the most unlimited confidence, that in the appointment of
+      Professors to our nursling institution, every individual of my associates
+      will look with a single eye to the sublimation of its character, and
+      adopt, as our sacred motto, &lsquo;<i>Detur digniori</i>? In this way it will
+      honor us, and bless our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I perceive that I have permitted my reflections to run into generalities
+      beyond the scope of the particular intimation in your letter I will let
+      them go, however, as a general confession of faith, not belonging merely
+      to the present case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Name me affectionately to our brethren with you, and be assured yourself
+      of my constant friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0179" id="link2H_4_0179">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXIX.&mdash;TO JARED SPARKS, February 4, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JARED SPARKS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 4, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I duly received your favor of the 3th, and with it the last number of the
+      North American Review. This has anticipated the one I should receive in
+      course, but have not yet received, under my subscription to the new
+      series. The article on the African colonization of the people of color, to
+      which you invite my attention, I have read with great consideration. It
+      is, indeed, a fine one, and will do much good. I learn from it more, too,
+      than I had before known, of the degree of success and promise of that
+      colony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the disposition of these unfortunate people, there are two rational
+      objects to be distinctly kept in view. 1. The establishment of a colony on
+      the coast of Africa, which may introduce among the aborigines the arts of
+      cultivated life, and the blessings of civilization and science. By doing
+      this, we may make to them some retribution for the long course of injuries
+      we have been committing on their population. And considering that these
+      blessings will descend to the &lsquo;<i>nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis</i>,&rsquo;
+      we shall in the long run have rendered them perhaps more good than evil.
+      To fulfil this object, the colony of Sierra Leone promises well, and that
+      of Mesurado adds to our prospect of success. Under this view, the
+      Colonization Society is to be considered as a missionary society, having
+      in view, however, objects more humane, more justifiable, and less
+      aggressive on the peace of other nations, than the others of that
+      appellation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second object, and the most interesting to us, as coming home to our
+      physical and moral characters, to our happiness and safety, is to provide
+      an asylum to which we can, by degrees, send the whole of that population
+      from among us, and establish them under our patronage and protection, as a
+      separate, free, and independent people, in some country and climate
+      friendly to human life and happiness. That any place on the coast of
+      Africa should answer the latter purpose, I have ever deemed entirely
+      impossible. And without repeating the other arguments which have been
+      urged by others, I will appeal to figures only, which admit no
+      controversy. I shall speak in round numbers, not absolutely accurate, yet
+      not so wide from truth as to vary the result materially. There are in the
+      United States a million and a half of people of color in slavery. To send
+      off the whole of these at once, nobody conceives to be practicable for us,
+      or expedient for them. Let us take twenty-five years for its
+      accomplishment, within which time they will be doubled. Their estimated
+      value as property, in the first place, (for actual property has been
+      lawfully vested in that form, and who can lawfully take it from the
+      possessors?) at an average of two hundred dollars each, young and old,
+      would amount to six hundred millions of dollars, which must be paid or
+      lost by somebody. To this, add the cost of their transportation by land
+      and sea to Mesurado, a year&rsquo;s provision of food and clothing, implements
+      of husbandry and of their trades, which will amount to three hundred
+      millions more, making thirty-six millions of dollars a year for
+      twenty-five years, with insurance of peace all that time, and it is
+      impossible to look at the question a second time. I am aware that at the
+      end of about sixteen years, a gradual detraction from this sum will
+      commence, from the gradual diminution of breeders, and go on during the
+      remaining nine years. Calculate this deduction, and it is still impossible
+      to look at the enterprise a second time. I do not say this to induce an
+      inference that the getting rid of them is for ever impossible. For that is
+      neither my opinion nor my hope. But only that it cannot be done in this
+      way. There is, I think, a way in which it can be done; that is, by
+      emancipating the after born, leaving them, on due compensation, with their
+      mothers, until their services are worth their maintenance, and then
+      putting them to industrious occupations, until a proper age for
+      deportation. This was the result of my reflections on the subject five and
+      forty years ago, and I have never yet been able to conceive any other
+      practicable plan. It was sketched in the Notes on Virginia, under the
+      fourteenth query. The estimated value of the new-born infant is so low
+      (say twelve dollars and fifty cents), that it would probably be yielded by
+      the owner gratis, and would thus reduce the six hundred millions of
+      dollars, the first head of expense, to thirty-seven millions and a half:
+      leaving only the expenses of nourishment while with the mother, and of
+      transportation. And from what fund are these expenses to be furnished? Why
+      not from that of the lands which have been ceded by the very States now
+      needing this relief? And ceded on no consideration, for the most part, but
+      that of the general good of the whole. These cessions already constitute
+      one fourth of the States of the Union. It may be said that these lands
+      have been sold; are now the property of the citizens composing those
+      States; and the money long ago received and expended. But an equivalent of
+      lands in the territories since acquired may be appropriated to that
+      object, or so much at least, as may be sufficient; and the object,
+      although more important to the slave States, is highly so to the others
+      also, if they were serious in their arguments on the Missouri question.
+      The slave States, too, if more interested, would also contribute more by
+      their gratuitous liberation, thus taking on themselves alone the first and
+      heaviest item of expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the plan sketched in the Notes on Virginia, no particular place of
+      asylum was specified; because it was thought possible, that in the
+      revolutionary state of America, then commenced, events might open to us
+      some one within practicable distance. This has now happened. St. Domingo
+      has become independent, and with a population of that color only; and if
+      the public papers are to be credited, their Chief offers to pay their
+      passage, to receive them as free citizens, and to provide them employment.
+      This leaves, then, for the general confederacy, no expense but of nurture
+      with the mother a few years, and would call, of course, for a very
+      moderate appropriation of the vacant lands. Suppose the whole annual
+      increase to be of sixty thousand effective births, fifty vessels, of four
+      hundred tons burthen each, constantly employed in that short run, would
+      carry off the increase of every year, and the old stock would die off in
+      the ordinary course of nature, lessening from the commencement until its
+      final disappearance. In this way no violation of private rights is
+      proposed. Voluntary surrenders would probably come in as fast as the means
+      to be provided for their care would be competent to it. Looking at my own
+      State only, (and I presume not to speak for the others,) I verily believe
+      that this surrender of property would not amount to more, annually, than
+      half our present direct taxes, to be continued fully about twenty or
+      twenty-five years, and then gradually diminishing for as many more until
+      their final extinction; and even this half tax would not be paid in cash,
+      but by the delivery of an object which they have never yet known or
+      counted as part of their property: and those not possessing the object
+      will be called on for nothing. I do not go into all the details of the
+      burthens and benefits of this operation. And who could estimate its
+      blessed effects? I leave this to those who will live to see their
+      accomplishment, and to enjoy a beatitude forbidden to my age. But I leave
+      it with this admonition, to rise and be doing. A million and a half are
+      within their control; but six millions (which a majority of those now
+      living will see them attain), and one million of these fighting men, will
+      say, &lsquo;We will not go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am aware that this subject involves some constitutional scruples. But a
+      liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and an
+      amendment of the constitution, the whole length necessary. The separation
+      of infants from their mothers, too, would produce some scruples of
+      humanity. But this would be straining at a gnat, and swallowing a camel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much pleased to see that you have taken up the subject of the duty on
+      imported books. I hope a crusade will be kept up against it, until those
+      in power shall become sensible of this stain on our legislation and shall
+      wipe it from their code, and from the remembrance of man, if possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I salute you with assurances of high respect and esteem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0180" id="link2H_4_0180">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXX.&mdash;TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, April 4, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, April 4, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was with great pleasure I learned that the good people of New Orleans
+      had restored you again to the councils of our country. I did not doubt the
+      aid it would bring to the remains of our old school in Congress, in which
+      your early labors had been so useful. You will find, I suppose, on
+      revisiting our maritime States, the names of things more changed than the
+      things themselves; that though our old opponents have given up their
+      appellation, they have not, in assuming ours, abandoned their views, and
+      that they are as strong nearly as they ever were. These cares, however,
+      are no longer mine. I resign myself cheerfully to the managers of the
+      ship, and the more contentedly, as I am near the end of my voyage. I have
+      learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason, and give
+      more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions. The radical idea of the
+      character of the constitution of our government, which I have adopted as a
+      key in cases of doubtful construction, is, that the whole field of
+      government is divided into two departments, domestic and foreign, (the
+      States in their mutual relations being of the latter) that the former
+      department is reserved exclusively to the respective States within their
+      own limits, and the latter assigned to a separate set of functionaries,
+      constituting what may be called the, foreign branch, which, instead of a
+      federal basis, is established as a distinct government <i>quo ad hoc</i>,
+      acting as the domestic branch does on the citizens directly and
+      coercively; that these departments have distinct directories, co-ordinate,
+      and equally independent and supreme, each within its own sphere of action.
+      Whenever a doubt arises to which of these branches a power belongs, I try
+      it by this test. I recollect no case where a question simply between
+      citizens of the same State has been transferred to the foreign department,
+      except that of inhibiting tenders but of metallic money, and <i>ex post
+      facto</i> legislation. The causes of these singularities are well
+      remembered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I thank you for the copy of your speech on the question of national
+      improvement, which I have read with great pleasure, and recognise in it
+      those powers of reasoning and persuasion of which I had formerly seen from
+      you so many proofs. Yet, in candor, I must say it has not removed, in my
+      mind, all the difficulties of the question. And I should really be alarmed
+      at a difference of opinion with you, and suspicious of my own, were it not
+      that I have, as companions in sentiment, the Madisons, the Monroes, the
+      Randolphs, the Macons, all good men and true, of primitive principles. In
+      one sentiment of the speech I particularly concur. &lsquo;If we have a doubt
+      relative to any power, we ought not to exercise it.&rsquo; When we consider the
+      extensive and deep-seated opposition to this assumption, the conviction
+      entertained by so many, that this deduction of powers by elaborate
+      construction prostrates the rights reserved to the States, the
+      difficulties with which it will rub along in the course of its exercise;
+      that changes of majorities will be changing the system backwards and
+      forwards, so that no undertaking under it will be safe; that there is not
+      a State in the Union which would not give the power willingly, by way of
+      amendment, with some little guard, perhaps, against abuse; I cannot but
+      think it would be the wisest course to ask an express grant of the power.
+      A government held together by the bands of reason only, requires much
+      compromise of opinion; that things even salutary should not be crammed
+      down the throats of dissenting brethren, especially when they may be put
+      into a form to be willingly swallowed, and that a great deal of indulgence
+      is necessary to strengthen habits of harmony and fraternity. In such a
+      case, it seems to me it would be safer and wiser to ask an express grant
+      of the power. This would render its exercise smooth and acceptable to all,
+      and insure to it all the facilities which the could contribute, to prevent
+      that kind of abuse which all will fear, because all know it is so much
+      practised in public bodies, I mean the bartering of votes. It would
+      reconcile every one, if limited by the proviso, that the federal
+      proportion of each State should be expended within the State. With this
+      single security against partiality and corrupt bargaining, I suppose there
+      is not a State, perhaps not a man in the Union, who would not consent to
+      add this to the powers of the General Government. But age has weaned me
+      from questions of this kind. My delight is now in the passive occupation
+      of reading; and it is with great reluctance I permit my mind ever to
+      encounter subjects of difficult investigation. You have many years yet to
+      come of vigorous activity, and I confidently trust they will be employed
+      in cherishing every measure which may foster our brotherly union, and
+      perpetuate a constitution of government destined to be the primitive and
+      precious model of what is to change the condition of man over the globe.
+      With this confidence, equally strong in your powers and purposes, I pray
+      you to accept the assurance of my cordial esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0181" id="link2H_4_0181">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXI.&mdash;TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT, June 5,1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MAJOR JOHN CARTWRIGHT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 5,1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear and Venerable Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am much indebted for your kind letter of February the 29th, and for your
+      valuable volume on the English constitution. I have, read this with
+      pleasure and much approbation, and think it has deduced the constitution
+      of the English nation from its rightful root, the Anglo-Saxon, it is
+      really wonderful, that so many able and learned men should have failed in
+      their attempts to define it with correctness. No wonder then, that Paine,
+      who thought more than he read, should have credited the great authorities
+      who have declared, that the will of Parliament is the constitution of
+      England. So Marbois, before the French revolution, observed to me, that
+      the Almanac Royal was the constitution of France. Your derivation of it
+      from the Anglo-Saxons, seems to be made on legitimate principles. Having
+      driven out the former inhabitants of that part of the island called
+      England, they became aborigines as to you, and your lineal ancestors. They
+      doubtless had a constitution; and although they have not left it in a
+      written formula, to the precise text of which you may always appeal, yet
+      they have left fragments of their history and laws, from which it may be
+      inferred with considerable certainty. Whatever their history and laws show
+      to have been practised with approbation, we may presume was permitted by
+      their constitution; whatever was not so practised, was not permitted. And
+      although this constitution was violated and set at nought by Norman force,
+      yet force cannot change right. A perpetual claim was kept up by the
+      nation, by their perpetual demand of a restoration of their Saxon laws;
+      which shows they were never relinquished by the will of the nation. In the
+      pullings and haulings for these ancient rights, between the nation, and
+      its kings of the races of Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, there was
+      sometimes gain, and sometimes loss, until the final re-conquest of their
+      rights from the Stuarts. The destitution and expulsion of this race broke
+      the thread of pretended inheritance extinguished all regal usurpations,
+      and the nation reentered into all its rights; and although in their bill
+      of rights they specifically reclaimed some only, yet the omission of the
+      others was no renunciation of the right to assume their exercise also,
+      whenever occasion should occur. The new King received no rights or powers,
+      but those expressly granted to him. It has ever appeared to me, that the
+      difference between the whig and the tory of England is, that the whig
+      deduces his rights from the Anglo-Saxon source, and the tory from the
+      Norman. And Hume, the great apostle of toryism, says in so many words,
+      (note AA to chapter 42,) that, in the reign of the Stuarts, &lsquo;it was the
+      people who encroached upon the sovereign, not the sovereign who attempted,
+      as is pretended, to usurp upon the people.&rsquo; This supposes the Norman
+      usurpations to be rights in his successors. And again, (C. 159,) &lsquo;the
+      Commons established a principle, which is noble in itself, and seems
+      specious, but is belied by all history and experience, that the people are
+      the origin of all just power.&rsquo; And where else will this degenerate son of
+      science, this traitor to his fellow-men, find the origin of just powers,
+      if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in
+      an individual of that minority?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our revolution commenced on more favorable ground. It presented us an
+      album on which we were free to write what we pleased. We had no occasion
+      to search into musty records, to hunt up royal parchments, or to
+      investigate the laws and institutions of a semi-barbarous ancestry. We
+      appealed to those of nature, and found them engraved on our hearts. Yet we
+      did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position. We had
+      never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume
+      it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had entered
+      little into our former education. We established however some, although
+      not all its important principles. The constitutions of most of our States
+      assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise
+      it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent
+      (as in electing their functionaries, executive and legislative, and
+      deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact
+      is involved), or they may act by representatives, freely and equally
+      chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that
+      they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of
+      property, and freedom of the press. In the structure of our legislatures,
+      we think experience has proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two
+      separate bodies of deliberants; but in constituting these, natural right
+      has been mistaken, some making one of these bodies, and some both, the
+      representatives of property instead of persons; whereas the double
+      deliberation might be as well obtained without any violation of true
+      principle, either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by
+      electing a proper number of representatives of persons, dividing them by
+      lots into two chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals,
+      in order to break up all cabals. Virginia, of which I am myself a native
+      and resident, was not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
+      say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men
+      peaceably together to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to
+      writing, and place it among their archives, where every one should be free
+      to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other States,
+      as they proceeded successively to the same work, made successive
+      improvements; and several of them, still further corrected by experience,
+      have, by conventions, still further amended their first forms. My own
+      State has gone on so far with its <i>première ébauch</i>; but it is now
+      proposing to call a convention for amendment. Among other improvements, I
+      hope they will adopt the subdivision of our counties into wards. The
+      former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four miles square; the
+      latter should be about six miles square each, and would answer to the
+      hundreds of your Saxon Alfred. In each of these might be, 1. An elementary
+      school. 2. A company of militia, with its officers. 3. A justice of the
+      peace and constable. 4. Each ward should take care of their own poor. 5.
+      Their own roads. 6. Their own police. 7. Elect within themselves one or
+      more jurors to attend the courts of justice. And, 8. Give in at their
+      Folk-house, their votes for all functionaries reserved to their election.
+      Each ward would thus be a small republic within itself, and every man in
+      the State would thus become an acting member of the common government,
+      transacting in person a great portion of its rights and duties,
+      subordinate indeed, yet important and entirely within his competence. The
+      wit of man cannot devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and
+      well-administered republic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their
+      relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the
+      former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are
+      co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. To the State
+      governments, are reserved all legislation and administration, in affairs
+      which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government is
+      given whatever concerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States; these
+      functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the
+      foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the
+      other, but within its own department. There are one or two exceptions only
+      to this partition of power. But you may ask, if the two departments should
+      claim each the same subject of power, where is the common umpire to decide
+      ultimately between them? In cases of little importance or urgency, the
+      prudence of both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable
+      ground: but if it can neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of
+      the States must be called, to ascribe the doubtful power to that
+      department which they may think best. You will perceive by these details,
+      that we have not yet so far perfected our constitutions as to venture to
+      make them unchangeable. But still, in their present state, we consider
+      them not otherwise changeable than by the authority of the people, on a
+      special election of representatives for that purpose expressly: they are
+      until then the <i>lex legum</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But can they be made unchangeable? Can one generation bind another, and
+      all others, in succession for ever? I think not. The Creator has made the
+      earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powrers can only belong to
+      persons, not to things, not to mere matter, unendowed with will. The dead
+      are not even things. The particles of matter which composed their bodies,
+      make part now of the bodies of other animals, vegetables, or minerals, of
+      a thousand forms. To what then are attached the rights and powers they
+      held while in the form of men? A generation may bind itself as long as its
+      majority continues in life; when that has disappeared, another majority is
+      in place, holds all the rights and powers their predecessors once held,
+      and may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing
+      then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was glad to find in your book a formal contradiction, at length, of the
+      judiciary usurpation of legislative powers; for such the judges have
+      usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of the
+      common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced, is
+      incontrovertible; to wit, that the common law existed while the
+      Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the
+      name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character had ever existed.
+      But it may amuse you, to show when, and by what means, they stole this law
+      in upon us. In a case of <i>quare impedit</i> in the Year-book, 34. H. 6.
+      folio 38. (anno 1458,) a question was made, how far the ecclesiastical law
+      was to be respected in a common law court. And Prisot, Chief Justice,
+      gives his opinion in these words. &lsquo;<i>A tiel leis qu&rsquo;ils de seint eglise
+      ont enancien scripture, covient a nous a donner credence; car ceo common
+      ley stir quels touts manners leis sont fondes. Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus
+      obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eglise: et semblablement ils sont
+      obliges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a nous que
+      Pevesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en tiel cas, adong nous devons ceo
+      adju-ger bon,ou auterment nemy</i>,&rsquo; &amp;c. See S. C. Fitzh.Abr. Qu. imp.
+      89. Bro. Abr. Qu. imp. 12. Finch in his first book, c. 3. is the first
+      afterwards who quotes this case, and mistakes it thus. &lsquo;To such laws of
+      the church as have warrant in holy scripture, our law giveth credence.&rsquo;
+      And cites Prisot; mistranslating &lsquo;ancien scripture&rsquo; into &lsquo;holy scripture.&rsquo;
+      Whereas, Prisot palpably says, &lsquo;to such laws as those of holy church have
+      in ancient writing, it is proper for us to give credence;&rsquo; to wit, to
+      their ancient written laws. This was in 1613, a century and a half after
+      the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into
+      a maxim of the common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot.
+      Wing. Max. 3. and Sheppard, title, &lsquo;Religion,&rsquo; in 1675, copies the same
+      mistranslation, quoting the Y. B. Finch and Win-gate. Hale expresses it in
+      these words; &lsquo;Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.&rsquo; 1 Ventr.
+      293, 3 Keb. 607. But he quotes no authority. By these echoings and
+      re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in 1728,
+      that in the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court would
+      not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity was
+      punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore, 409,
+      ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy and
+      profaneness are offences by the common law; and cites 2 Stra. Then
+      Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that &lsquo;Christianity
+      is part of the laws of England,&rsquo; citing Ventris and Strange. And finally,
+      Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, in Evans&rsquo;s case, in 1767,
+      says, that &lsquo;the essential principles of revealed religion are part of the
+      common law.&rsquo; Thus ingulphing Bible, Testament, and all into the common
+      law, without citing any authority. And thus we find this chain of
+      authorities hanging link by link, one upon another, and all ultimately on
+      one and the same hook, and that a mistranslation of the words &lsquo;ancien
+      scripture,&rsquo; used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot; Wingate does the same.
+      Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch, and Wingate. Hale cites nobody. The court,
+      in Woolston&rsquo;s case, cite Hale. Wood cites Woolston&rsquo;s case. Blackstone
+      quotes Woolston&rsquo;s case and Hale. And Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures
+      it on his own authority. Here I might defy the best read lawyer to produce
+      another scrip of authority for this judiciary forgery; and I might go on
+      further to show, how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated into the
+      text of Alfred&rsquo;s laws, the 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus,
+      and the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from the 23rd to the 29th
+      verses. But this would lead my pen and your patience too far. What a
+      conspiracy this, between Church and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all,
+      rogues all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must still add to this long and rambling letter, my acknowledgments for
+      your good wishes to the University we are now establishing in this State.
+      There are some novelties in it. Of that of a professorship of the
+      principles of government, you express your approbation. They will be
+      founded in the rights of man. That of agriculture, I am sure, you will
+      approve: and that also of Anglo-Saxon. As the histories and laws left us
+      in that type and dialect, must be the text-books of the reading of the
+      learners, they will imbibe with the language their free principles of
+      government. The volumes you have been so kind as to send, shall be placed
+      in the library of the University. Having at this time in England a person
+      sent for the purpose of selecting some Professors, a Mr. Gilmer of my
+      neighborhood, I cannot but recommend him to your patronage, counsel, and
+      guardianship, against imposition, misinformation, and the deceptions of
+      partial and false recommendations, in the selection of characters. He is a
+      gentleman of great worth and correctness, my particular friend, well
+      educated in various branches of science, and worthy of entire confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your age of eighty-four and mine of eighty-one years, insure us a speedy
+      meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and
+      evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have.both witnessed; and
+      in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration
+      and esteem for your person and character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0182" id="link2H_4_0182">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXII.&mdash;TO MARTIN VAN BUREN, June 29, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO MARTIN VAN BUREN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 29, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have to thank you for Mr. Pickering&rsquo;s elaborate philippic against Mr.
+      Adams, Gerry, Smith, and myself; and I have delayed the acknowledgment
+      until I could read it and make some observations on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not have believed, that for so many years, and to such a period of
+      advanced age, he could have nourished passions so vehement and viperous.
+      It appears, that for thirty years past, he has been industriously
+      collecting materials for vituperating the characters he had marked for his
+      hatred; some of whom certainly, if enmities towards him had ever existed,
+      had forgotten them all, or buried them in the grave with themselves. As to
+      myself, there never had been any thing personal between us, nothing but
+      the general opposition of party sentiment; and our personal intercourse
+      had been that of urbanity, as himself says. But it seems he has been all
+      this time brooding over an enmity which I had never felt, and that with
+      respect to myself, as well as others, he has been writing far and near,
+      and in every direction, to get hold of original letters, where he could,
+      copies, where he could not, certificates and journals, catching at every
+      gossipping story he could hear of in any quarter, supplying by suspicions
+      what he could find no where else, and then arguing on this motley farrago,
+      as if established on gospel evidence. And while expressing his wonder, &lsquo;at
+      the age of eighty-eight, the strong passions of Mr. Adams should not have
+      cooled &lsquo;; that on the contrary, &lsquo;they had acquired the mastery of his
+      soul,&rsquo; (p. 100 ;) that &lsquo;where these were enlisted, no reliance could be
+      placed on his statements,&rsquo; (p. 104 ;) the facility and little truth with
+      which he could represent facts and occurrences, concerning persons who
+      were the objects of his hatred, (p. 3 ;) that &lsquo;he is capable of making the
+      grossest misrepresentations, and, from detached facts, and often from bare
+      suspicions, of drawing unwarrantable inferences,&rsquo; if suited to his purpose
+      at the instant,&rsquo; (p. 174;) while making such charges, I say, on Mr. Adams,
+      instead of his &lsquo;<i>ecce homo</i>,&rsquo; (p. 100;) how justly might we say to
+      him, &lsquo;<i>Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur</i>.&rsquo; For the assiduity and
+      industry he has employed in his benevolent researches after matter of
+      crimination against us, I refer to his pages 13, 14, 34, 36, 46, 71, 79,
+      90, bis. 92, 93, bis. 101, ter. 104, 116, 118, 141, 143, 146,150,151,153,
+      168, 171, 172. That Mr. Adams&rsquo;s strictures on him, written and pointed,
+      should have excited some notice on his part, was not perhaps to be
+      wondered at. But the sufficiency of his motive for the large attack on me
+      may be more questionable. He says, (p. 4) &lsquo;of Mr. Jefferson I should have
+      said nothing, but for his letter to Mr. Adams, of October the 12th, 1823.&rsquo;
+      Now the object of that letter was to soothe the feelings of a friend,
+      wounded by a publication which I thought an &lsquo;outrage on private
+      confidence.&rsquo; Not a word or allusion in it respecting Mr. Pickering, nor
+      was it suspected that it would draw forth his pen in justification of this
+      infidelity, which he has, however, undertaken in the course of his
+      pamphlet, but more particularly in its conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arraigns me on two grounds, my actions, and my motives. The very
+      actions, however, which he arraigns, have been such as the great majority
+      of my fellow-citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. Pickering, and
+      of those who thought with him, I had no right to expect. My motives he
+      chooses to ascribe to hypocrisy, to ambition, and a passion for
+      popularity. Of these the world must judge between us. It is no office of
+      his or mine. To that tribunal I have ever submitted my actions and
+      motives, without ransacking the Union for certificates, letters, journals,
+      and gossiping tales, to justify myself and weary them. Nor shall I do this
+      on the present occasion, but leave still to them these antiquated party
+      diatribes, now newly revamped and paraded, as if they had not been already
+      a thousand times repeated, refuted, and adjudged against him, by the
+      nation itself. If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can
+      imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action; no, not
+      even in the life of our Savior himself. But he has taught us to judge the
+      tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to him who can alone see into
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whilst I leave to its fate the libel of Mr. Pickering, with the
+      thousands of others like it, to which I have given no other answer than a
+      steady course of similar action, there are two facts or fancies of his
+      which I must set to rights. The one respects Mr. Adams, the other myself.
+      He observes, that my letter of October the 12th, 1823, acknowledges the
+      receipt of one from Mr. Adams, of September the 18th, which, having been
+      written a few days after Cunningham&rsquo;s publication, he says was no doubt
+      written to apologize to me for the pointed reproaches he had uttered
+      against me in his confidential letters to Cunningham. And thus having &lsquo;no
+      doubt&rsquo; of his conjecture, he considers it as proven, goes on to suppose
+      the contents of the letter (19, 22), makes it place Mr. Adams at my feet
+      suing for pardon, and continues to rant upon it, as an undoubted fact. Now
+      I do most solemnly declare, that so far from being a letter of apology, as
+      Mr. Pickering so undoubtingly assumes, there was not a word or allusion in
+      it respecting Cunningham&rsquo;s publication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other allegation respecting myself, is equally false. In page 34, he
+      quotes Doctor Stuart, as having, twenty years ago, informed him that
+      General Washington, &lsquo;when he became a private citizen,&rsquo; called me to
+      account for expressions in a letter to Mazzei, requiring, in a tone of
+      unusual severity, an explanation of that letter. He adds of himself, &lsquo;in
+      what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment
+      of Washington, will never be known, as some time after his death, the
+      correspondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important period of
+      his Presidency was also missing.&rsquo; The diary being of transactions during
+      his Presidency, the letter to Mazzei not known here until some time after
+      he became a private citizen, and the pretended correspondence of course
+      after that, I know not why this lost diary and supposed correspondence are
+      brought together here, unless for insinuations worthy of the letter
+      itself. The correspondence could not be found, indeed, because it had
+      never existed. I do affirm, that there never passed a word, written or
+      verbal, directly or indirectly, between General Washington and myself on
+      the subject of that letter. He would never have degraded himself so far as
+      to take to himself the imputation in that letter on the &lsquo;Samsons in
+      combat.&rsquo; The whole story is a fabrication, and I defy the framers of it,
+      and all mankind, to produce a scrip of a pen between General Washington
+      and myself on the subject, or any other evidence more worthy of credit
+      than the suspicions, suppositions, and presumptions of the two persons
+      here quoting and quoted for it. With Doctor Stuart I had not much
+      acquaintance. I supposed him to be an honest man, knew him to be a very
+      weak one, and, like Mr. Pickering, very prone to antipathies, boiling with
+      party passions, and, under the dominion of these, readily welcoming
+      fancies for facts. But, come the story from whomsoever it might, it is an
+      unqualified falsehood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter to Mazzei has been a precious theme of crimination for federal
+      malice. It was a long letter of business, in which was inserted a single
+      paragraph only of political information as to the state of our country. In
+      this information there was not one word which would not then have been, or
+      would not now be approved by every republican in the United States,
+      looking back to those times, as you will see by a faithful copy now
+      enclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the subject of the
+      United States, or of its government. This paragraph, extracted and
+      translated, got into a Paris paper at a time when the persons in power
+      there were laboring under very general disfavor, and their friends were
+      eager to catch even at straws to buoy them up. &lsquo;To them, therefore, I have
+      always imputed the interpolation of an entire paragraph additional to
+      mine, which makes me charge my own country with ingratitude and injustice
+      to France. There was not a word in my letter respecting France, or any of
+      the proceedings or relations between this country and that. Yet this
+      interpolated paragraph has been the burden of federal calumny, has been
+      constantly quoted by them, made the subject of unceasing and virulent
+      abuse, and is still quoted, as you see, by Mr. Pickering, (page 33,) as if
+      it were genuine, and really written by me. And even Judge Marshall makes
+      history descend from its dignity, and the ermine from its sanctity, to
+      exaggerate, to record, and to sanction this forgery. In the very last note
+      of his book, he says, &lsquo;A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Mazzei, an
+      Italian, was published in Florence, and republished in the Moniteur, with
+      very severe strictures on the conduct of the United States.&rsquo; And instead
+      of the letter itself, he copies what he says are the remarks of the
+      editor, which are an exaggerated commentary on the fabricated paragraph
+      itself, and silently leaves to his reader to make the ready inference that
+      these were the sentiments of the letter. Proof is the duty of the
+      affirmative side. A negative cannot be possibly proved. But, in defect of
+      impossible proof of what was not in the original letter, I have its
+      press-copy still in my possession. It has been shown to several, and is
+      open to any one who wishes to see it. I have presumed only that the
+      interpolation was done in Paris. But I never saw the letter in either its
+      Italian or French dress, and it may have been done here, with the
+      commentary handed down to posterity by the judge. The genuine paragraph,
+      re-translated through Italian and French into English, as it appeared here
+      in a federal paper, besides the mutilated hue which these translations and
+      re-translations of it produced generally, gave a mistranslation of a
+      single word, which entirely perverted its meaning, and made it a pliant
+      and fertile text of misrepresentation of my political principles. The
+      original, speaking of an Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party,
+      which had sprung up since he had left us, states their object to be &lsquo;to
+      draw over us the substance, as they had already done the forms of the
+      British government.&rsquo; Now the &lsquo;forms&rsquo; here meant, were the levees,
+      birth-days, the pompous cavalcade to the State House on the meeting of
+      Congress, the formal speech from the throne, the procession of Congress in
+      a body to re-echo the speech in an answer, &amp;c. &amp;c. But the
+      translator here, by substituting form in the singular number, for forms in
+      the plural, made it mean the frame or organization of our government, or
+      its form of legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities, co-ordinate
+      and independent: to which form it was to be inferred that I was an enemy.
+      In this sense they always quoted it, and in this sense Mr. Pickering still
+      quotes, it (pages 34, 35, 38), and countenances the inference. Now General
+      Washington perfectly understood what I meant by these forms, as they were
+      frequent subjects of conversation between us. When, on my return from
+      Europe, I joined the government in March, 1790, at New York, I was much
+      astonished, indeed, at the mimicry I found established of royal forms and
+      ceremonies, and more alarmed at the unexpected phenomenon, by the
+      monarchical sentiments I heard expressed and openly maintained in every
+      company, and among others by the high members of the government, executive
+      and judiciary (General Washington alone excepted), and by a great part of
+      the legislature, save only some members who had been of the old Congress,
+      and a very few of recent introduction. I took occasion, at various times,
+      of expressing to General Washington my disappointment at these symptoms of
+      a change of principle, and that I thought them encouraged by the forms and
+      ceremonies, which I found prevailing, not at all in character with the
+      simplicity of republican government, and looking as if wishfully to those
+      of European courts. His general explanations to me were, that when he
+      arrived at New York to enter on the executive administration of the new
+      government, he observed to those who were to assist him, that placed as he
+      was in an office entirely new to him, unacquainted with the forms and
+      ceremonies of other governments, still less apprized of those which might
+      be properly established here, and himself perfectly indifferent to all
+      forms, he wished them to consider and prescribe what they should be; and
+      the task was assigned particularly to General Knox, a man of parade, and
+      to Colonel Humphreys, who had resided some time at a foreign court. They,
+      he said, were the author&rsquo;s of the present regulations, and that others
+      were proposed so highly strained, that he absolutely rejected them.
+      Attentive to the difference of opinion prevailing on this subject, when
+      the term of his second election arrived, he called the Heads of
+      departments together, observed to them the situation in which he had been
+      at the commencement of the government, the advice he had taken, and the
+      course he had observed in compliance with it; that a proper occasion had
+      now arrived of revising that course, of correcting in it any particulars
+      not approved in experience; and he desired us to consult together, agree
+      on any changes we should think for the better, and that he should
+      willingly conform to what we should advise. We met at my office. Hamilton
+      and myself agreed at once that there was too much ceremony for the
+      character of our government, and, particularly, that the parade of the
+      installation at New York ought not to be copied on the present occasion,
+      that the President should desire the Chief Justice to attend him at his
+      chambers, that he should administer the oath of office to him in the
+      presence of the higher officers of the government, and that the
+      certificate of the fact should be delivered to the Secretary of State to
+      be recorded. Randolph and Knox differed from us, the latter vehemently:
+      they thought it not advisable to change any of the established forms, and
+      we authorized Randolph to report our opinions to the President. As these
+      opinions were divided, and no positive advice given as to any change, no
+      change was made. Thus the forms, which I had censured in my letter to
+      Mazzei, were perfectly understood by General Washington, and were those
+      which he himself but barely tolerated. He had furnished me a proper
+      occasion for proposing their reformation, and, my opinion not prevailing,
+      he knew I could not have meant any part of the censure for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Pickering quotes too (page 34) the expression in the letter, of &lsquo;the
+      men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons in the council, but who
+      had had their heads shorn by the harlot England&rsquo; or, as expressed in their
+      re-translation, the men who were Solomons in council, and Samsons in
+      combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore England.&rsquo; Now this
+      expression also was perfectly understood by General Washington. He knew
+      that I meant it for the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what had
+      passed between us at the commencement of that institution, I could not
+      mean to include him. When the first meeting was called for its
+      establishment, I was a member of the Congress then sitting at Annapolis.
+      General Washington wrote to me, asking my opinion on that proposition, and
+      the course, if any, which I thought Congress would observe respecting it.
+      I wrote him frankly my own disapprobation of it; that I found the members
+      of Congress generally in the same sentiment; that I thought they would
+      take no express notice of it, but that in all appointments of trust,
+      honor, or profit, they would silently pass by all candidates of that
+      order, and give an uniform preference to others. On his way to the first
+      meeting in Philadelphia, which I think was in the spring of 1784, he
+      called on me at Annapolis. It was a little after candle-light, and he sat
+      with me till after midnight, conversing, almost exclusively, on that
+      subject. While he was feelingly indulgent to the motives which might
+      induce the officers to promote it, he concurred with me entirely in
+      condemning it; and when I expressed an idea that, if the hereditary
+      quality were suppressed, the institution might perhaps be indulged during
+      the lives of the officers now living, and who had actually served; &lsquo;No,&rsquo;
+      he said, &lsquo;not a fibre of it ought, to be left, to be an eye-sore to the
+      public, a ground of dissatisfaction, and a line of separation between them
+      and their country&rsquo;: and he left me with a determination to use all his
+      influence for its entire suppression. On his return from the meeting, he
+      called on me again, and related to me the course the thing had taken. He.
+      said, that, from the beginning, he had used every endeavor to prevail on
+      the officers to renounce the project altogether, urging the many
+      considerations which would render it odious to their fellow-citizens, and
+      disreputable and injurious to themselves; that he had at length prevailed
+      on most of the old officers to reject it, although with great and warm
+      opposition from others, and especially the younger ones, among whom he
+      named Colonel W. S. Smith as particularly intemperate. But that in this
+      state of things, when he thought the question safe, and the meeting
+      drawing to a close, Major L&rsquo;Enfant arrived from France with a bundle of
+      eagles, for which he had been sent there, with letters from the French
+      officers who had served in. America, praying for admission into the order,
+      and a solemn act of their King permitting them to wear its ensign. This,
+      he said, changed the face of matters at once, produced an entire
+      revolution of sentiment, and turned the torrent so strongly in an opposite
+      direction, that it could be no longer withstood: all he could then obtain,
+      was a suppression of the hereditary quality. He added, that it was the
+      French applications, and respect for the approbation of the King, which
+      saved the establishment in its modified and temporary form. Disapproving
+      thus of the institution as much as I did, and conscious that I knew him to
+      do so, he could never suppose that I meant to include him among the
+      Samsons in the field, whose object was to draw over us the form, as they
+      made the letter say, of the British government, and especially its
+      aristocractic member, an hereditary House of Lords. Add to this, that the
+      letter saying, &lsquo;that two out of the three branches of legislature were
+      against us,&rsquo; was an obvious exception of him; it being well known that the
+      majorities in the two branches of Senate and Representatives were the very
+      instruments which carried, in opposition to the old and real republicans,
+      the measures which were the subjects of condemnation in this letter.
+      General Washington, then, understanding perfectly what and whom I meant to
+      designate, in both phrases, and that they could not have any application
+      or view to himself, could find in neither any cause of offence to himself;
+      and therefore neither needed, nor ever asked any explanation of them from
+      me. Had it even been otherwise, they must know very little of General
+      Washington, who should believe to be within the laws of his character what
+      Doctor Stuart is said to have imputed to him. Be this, however, as it may,
+      the story is infamously false in every article of it. My last parting with
+      General Washington was at the inauguration of Mr. Adams, in March, 1797,
+      and was warmly affectionate; and I never had any reason to believe any
+      change on his part, as there certainly was none on mine. But one session
+      of Congress intervened between that and his death, the year following, in
+      my passage to and from which, as it happened to be not convenient to call
+      on him, I never had another opportunity; and as to the cessation of
+      correspondence observed during that short interval, no particular
+      circumstance occurred for epistolary communication, and both of us were
+      too much oppressed with letter-writing, to trouble either the other, with
+      a letter about nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is, that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive friends
+      of General Washington, have ever done what they could to sink his
+      character, by hanging theirs on it, and by representing as the enemy of
+      republicans him, who, of all men, is best entitled to the appellation of
+      the father of that republic which they were endeavoring to subvert, and
+      the republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the elections
+      proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the nation approved the
+      republican measures. General Washington was himself sincerely a friend to
+      the republican principles of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in its
+      duration, might not have been as confident as mine; but he repeatedly
+      declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair chance for
+      success, and that he would lose the last drop of his blood in its support,
+      against any attempt which, might be made to change it from its republican
+      form. He made these declarations the oftener, because he knew my
+      suspicions that Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my
+      jealousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed, that he
+      considered the British constitution, with all the corruptions of its
+      administration, as the most perfect model of government which had ever
+      been devised by the wit of man; professing, however, at the same time,
+      that the spirit of this country was so fundamentally republican, that it
+      would be visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that,
+      therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct it on the
+      principles their constituents had elected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Washington, after the retirement of his first cabinet, and the
+      composition of his second, entirely federal, and at the head of which was
+      Mr. Pickering himself, had no opportunity of hearing both sides of any
+      question. His measures, consequently, took more the hue of the party in
+      whose hands he was. These measures were certainly not approved by the
+      republicans; yet were they not imputed, to him, but to the counsellors
+      around him; and his prudence so far restrained their impassioned course
+      and bias, that no act of strong mark, during the remainder of his
+      administration, excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time
+      after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct the views into
+      which he had been deluded; and the continued assiduities of the party drew
+      him into the vortex of their intemperate career; separated him still
+      farther from his real friends, and excited him to actions and expressions
+      of dissatisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen their
+      affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary aberration to
+      weigh against the immeasurable merits of his life; and although they
+      tumbled his seducers from their places, they preserved his memory embalmed
+      in their hearts, with undiminished love and devotion; and there it for
+      ever will remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing
+      which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It is vain, then, for
+      Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavor to falsify his character, by
+      representing him as an enemy to republicans and republican principles, and
+      as exclusively the friend of those who were so; and had he lived longer,
+      he would have returned to his ancient and unbiassed opinions, would have
+      replaced his confidence in those whom the people approved and supported,
+      and would have seen that they were only restoring and acting on the
+      principles of his own first administration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I find, my dear Sir, that I have written you a very long letter or rather
+      a history. The civility of having sent me a copy of Mr. Pickering&rsquo;s
+      diatribe, would scarcely justify its address to you. I do not publish
+      these things, because my rule of life has been never to harass the public
+      with fendings and provings of personal slanders; and least of all would I
+      descend into the arena of slander with such a champion as Mr. Pickering. I
+      have ever trusted to the justice and consideration of my fellow-citizens,
+      and have no reason to repent it, or to change my course. At this time of
+      life, too, tranquillity is the <i>summum bonum</i>. But although I decline
+      all newspaper controversy, yet when falsehoods have been advanced, within
+      the knowledge of no one so much as myself, I have sometimes deposited a
+      contradiction in the hands of a friend, which, if worth preservation, may,
+      when I am no more, nor those whom I might offend, throw light on history,
+      and recall that into the path of truth. And if of no other value, the
+      present communication may amuse you with anecdotes not known to every one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had meant to have added some views on the amalgamation of parties, to
+      which your favor of the 8th has some allusion; an amalgamation of name,
+      but not of principle. Tories are tories still, by whatever name they may
+      be called. But my letter is already too unmercifully long, and I close it
+      here with assurances of my great esteem and respectful consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0183" id="link2H_4_0183">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIII.&mdash;TO EDWARD EVERETT, October 15, 1824
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO EDWARD EVERETT.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, October 15, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have yet to thank you for your O. B. K. oration, delivered in presence
+      of General la Fayette. It is all excellent, much of it sublimely so, well
+      worthy of its author and his subject, of whom we may truly say, as was
+      said of Germanicus, &lsquo;<i>Fruitur famâ sui</i>.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your letter of September the 10th gave me the first information that mine
+      to Major Cartwright had got into the newspapers; and the first notice,
+      indeed, that he had received it. I was a stranger to his person, but not
+      to his respectable and patriotic character. I received from him a long and
+      interesting letter, and answered it with frankness, going without reserve
+      into several subjects, to which his letter had led, but on which I did not
+      suppose I was writing for the newspapers. The publication of a letter in
+      such a case, without the consent of the writer, is not a fair practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
+      They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot&rsquo;s opinion with
+      a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake its
+      meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The opinions
+      of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or memoranda, and
+      not with all the developement which they probably used in delivering them.
+      Prisot&rsquo;s opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus paraphrased. &lsquo;To
+      such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and preserved in their
+      ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to give credence; for so
+      is, or so says, the common law, or law of the land, on which all manner of
+      other laws rest for their authority, or are founded; that is to say, the
+      common law, or the law of the land common to us all, and established by
+      the authority of us all, is that from which is derived the authority of
+      all other special and subordinate branches of law, such as the canon law,
+      law merchant, law maritime, law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation
+      laws, local customs and usages, to all of which the common law requires
+      its judges to permit authority in the special or local cases belonging to
+      them. The evidence of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises,
+      books, and writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known,
+      the text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its
+      substance only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings. And if it
+      appears, from their ancient books, writings, and records, that the bishop,
+      in this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has
+      done what an ordinary would have done, in such case, then we should
+      adjudge it good, otherwise not.&rsquo; To decide this question, they would have
+      to turn to the ancient writings and records of the canon law, in which
+      they would find evidence of the laws of advowsons, <i>quare impedit</i>,
+      the duties of bishops and ordinaries, for which terms Prisot could never
+      have meant to refer them to the Old or New Testament, <i>les saincts
+      scriptures</i>, where surely they would not be found. A license which
+      should permit &lsquo;ancien scripture&rsquo; to be translated &lsquo;holy scripture,&rsquo;
+      annihilates at once all the evidence of language. With such a license, we
+      might reverse the sixth commandment into &lsquo;Thou shalt not omit murder.&rsquo; It
+      would be the more extraordinary in this case, where the mistranslation was
+      to effect the adoption of the whole code of the Jewish and Christian laws
+      into the text of our statutes, to convert religious offences into temporal
+      crimes, to make the breach of every religious precept a subject of
+      indictment, submit the question of idolatry, for example, to the trial of
+      a jury, and to a court, its punishment, to the third and fourth generation
+      of the offender. Do we allow to our judges this lumping legislation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The term &lsquo;common law,&rsquo; although it has more than one meaning, is perfectly
+      definite, <i>secundum subjectam materiem</i>. Its most probable origin was
+      on the conquest of the Heptarchy by Alfred, and the amalgamation of their
+      several codes of law into one, which became common to them all. The
+      authentic text of these enactments has not been preserved; but their
+      substance has been committed to many ancient books and writings, so
+      faithfully as to have been deemed genuine from generation to generation,
+      and obeyed as such by all. We have some fragments of them collected by
+      Lambard, Wilkins, and others, but abounding with proofs of their spurious
+      authenticity. Magna Charta is the earliest statute, the text of which has
+      come down to us in an authentic form, and thence downward we have them
+      entire. We do not know exactly when the common law and statute law, the <i>lex
+      scripta et non scripta</i>, began to be contra-distinguished, so as to
+      give a second acceptation to the former term; whether before or after
+      Prisot&rsquo;s day, at which time we know that nearly two centuries and a half
+      of statutes were in preservation. In later times, on the introduction of
+      the chancery branch of law, the term common law began to be used in a
+      third sense, as the correlative of chancery law. This, however, having
+      been long after Prisot&rsquo;s time, could not have been the sense in which he
+      used the term. He must have meant the ancient <i>lex, non scripta</i>,
+      because, had he used it as inclusive of the <i>lex scripta</i>, he would
+      have put his finger on the statute which had enjoined on the judges a
+      deference to the laws of holy church. But no such statute existing, he
+      must have referred to the common law in the sense of a <i>lex non scripta</i>.
+      Whenever, then, the term common law is used in either of these senses, and
+      it is never employed in any other, it is readily known in which of them by
+      the context and subject matter under consideration; which, in the present
+      case, leave no room for doubt. I do not remember the occasion which led me
+      to take up this subject, while a practitioner of the law. But I know I
+      went into it with all the research which a very copious law library
+      enabled me to indulge; and I fear not for the accuracy of any of my
+      quotations. The doctrine might be disproved by many other and different
+      topics of reasoning; but having satisfied myself of the origin of the
+      forgery, and found how, like a rolling snow-ball, it had gathered volume,
+      I leave its further pursuit to those who need further proof, and perhaps I
+      have already gone further than the feeble doubt you expressed might
+      require, I salute you with great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0184" id="link2H_4_0184">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIV.&mdash;TO JOSEPH C. CABELL, January 11, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOSEPH C. CABELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 11, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are dreadfully nonplussed here by the non-arrival of our three
+      Professors. We apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st of
+      February prevails so much abroad (although we have always mentioned it
+      doubtfully), as that the students will assemble on that day without
+      awaiting the further notice which was promised. To send them away will be
+      discouraging, and to open an University without Mathematics or Natural
+      Philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. We therefore publish
+      an advertisement, stating that on the arrival of these Professors, notice
+      will be given of the day of opening the institution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Governor Barbour writes me hopefully of getting our fifty thousand dollars
+      from Congress. The proposition has been originated in the House of
+      Representatives, referred to the committee of claims, the chairman of
+      which has prepared a very favorable report, and a bill conformable,
+      assuming the repayment of all interest which the State has actually paid.
+      The legislature will certainly owe to us the recovery of this money; for
+      had they not given it in some measure the reverenced character of a
+      donation for the promotion of learning, it would never have been paid. It
+      is to be hoped, therefore, that the displeasure incurred by wringing it
+      from them at the last session, will now give way to a contrary feeling,
+      and even place us on a ground of some merit. Should this sentiment take
+      place, and the arrival of our Professors, and filling our dormitories with
+      students on the 1st of February, encourage them to look more favorably
+      towards us, perhaps it might dispose them to enlarge somewhat their order
+      on the same fund. You observe the Proctor has stated in a letter
+      accompanying our Report, that it will take about twenty-five thousand
+      dollars more than we have to finish the Rotunda. Besides this, an
+      Anatomical theatre (costing about as much as one of our hotels, say about
+      five thousand dollars,) is indispensable to the school of Anatomy. There
+      cannot be a single dissection until a proper theatre is prepared, giving
+      an advantageous view of the operation to those within, and effectually
+      excluding observation from without. Either the additional sums, therefore,
+      of twenty-five thousand and five thousand dollars will be wanting, or we
+      must be permitted to appropriate a part of the fifty thousand to a
+      theatre, leaving the Rotunda unfinished for the present. Yet I should
+      think neither of these objects an equivalent for renewing the displeasure
+      of the legislature. Unless we can carry their hearty patronage with us,
+      the institution can never flourish. I would not, therefore, hint at this
+      additional aid, unless it were agreeable to our friends generally, and
+      tolerably sure of being carried without irritation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In your letter of December the 31st, you say my &lsquo;hand-writing and my
+      letters have great effect there,&rsquo; i.e. at Richmond. I am sensible, my dear
+      Sir, of the kindness with which this encouragement is held up to me. But
+      my views of their effect are very different. When I retired from the
+      administration of public affairs, I thought I saw some evidence that I
+      retired with a good degree of public favor, and that my conduct in office
+      had been considered, by the one party at least, with approbation, and with
+      acquiescence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have embarked so
+      earnestly, to procure an improvement in the moral condition of my native
+      State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have strengthened good
+      dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them within our own. The attempt
+      ran foul of so many local interests, of so many personal views, and so
+      much ignorance, and I have been considered as so particularly its
+      promoter, that I see evidently a great change of sentiment towards myself.
+      I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied with myself a respectable minority,
+      if not a majority of the House of Delegates. I feel it deeply, and very
+      discouragingly. Yet I shall not give way. I have ever found in my progress
+      through life, that, acting for the public, if we do always what is right,
+      the approbation denied in the beginning will surely follow us in the end.
+      It is from posterity we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we
+      are making for their service, of time, quiet, and good will. And I fear
+      not the appeal. The multitude of fine young men whom we shall redeem from
+      ignorance, who will feel that they owe to us the elevation of mind, of
+      character, and station they will be able to attain from the result of our
+      efforts, will insure their remembering us with gratitude. We will not,
+      then, be &lsquo;weary in well-doing.&rsquo; <i>Usque ad aras amicus tuus</i>,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0185" id="link2H_4_0185">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXV.&mdash;TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, February 21, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in
+      the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
+      excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which
+      might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have
+      to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few
+      words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God.
+      Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and
+      your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways
+      of Providence. So shall the life, into which you have entered, be the
+      portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is
+      permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life
+      will be under my regard. Farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 21, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, for your
+      imitation</i>.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Lord, who&rsquo;s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
+     Not stranger-like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
+     &lsquo;Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
+     Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart
+          disproves.
+     Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor&rsquo;s fame to wound;
+     Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.
+     Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect;
+     And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
+     Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
+     And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
+     Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ;
+     Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
+     The man, who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
+     When earth&rsquo;s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. Never spend your money before you have it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to
+      you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0186" id="link2H_4_0186">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, December 24, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 24, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have for sometime considered the question of internal improvement as
+      desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so strongly in favor of it
+      as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even the opposition in Congress
+      will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless something can be done which
+      may give a gleam of encouragement to our friends, or alarm their opponents
+      in their fancied security. I learn from Richmond, that those who think
+      with us there are in a state of perfect dismay, not knowing what to do, or
+      what to propose. Mr. Gordon, our representative, particularly, has written
+      to me in very desponding terms, not disposed to yield, indeed, but
+      pressing for opinions and advice on the subject. I have no doubt you are
+      pressed in the same way, and I hope you have devised and recommended
+      something to them. If you have, stop here and read no more, but consider
+      all that follows as <i>non avenue</i>. I shall be better satisfied to
+      adopt implicitly any thing which you may have advised, than any thing
+      occurring to myself. For I have long ceased to think on subjects of this
+      kind, and pay little attention to public proceedings. But if you have done
+      nothing in it, then I risk for your consideration what has occurred to me,
+      and is expressed in the enclosed paper. Bailey&rsquo;s propositions, which came
+      to hand since I wrote the paper, and which I suppose to have come from the
+      President himself, show a little hesitation in the purposes of his party;
+      and in that state of mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the contest,
+      by its effect on the less bold. The olive-branch held out to them at this
+      moment may be accepted, and the constitution thus saved at a moderate
+      sacrifice. I say nothing of the paper, which will explain itself. The
+      following heads of consideration, or some of them, may weigh in its favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may intimidate the wavering. It may break the western coalition, by
+      offering the same thing in a different form. It will be viewed with favor
+      in contrast with the Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening that. It
+      will be an example of a temperate mode of opposition in future and similar
+      cases. It will delay the measure a year at least. It will give us the
+      chance of better times and of intervening accidents; and in no way place
+      us in a worse than our present situation. I do not dwell on these topics;
+      your mind will develope them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first question is, whether you approve of doing any thing of the kind.
+      If not, send it back to me, and it shall be suppressed; for I would not
+      hazard so important a measure against your opinion, nor even without its
+      support. If you think it may be a canvass on which to put something good,
+      make what alterations you please, and I will forward it to Gordon, under
+      the most sacred injunctions that it shall be so used as that not a shadow
+      of suspicion shall fall on you or myself, that it has come from either of
+      us. But what you do, do as promptly as your convenience will admit, lest
+      it should be anticipated by something worse. Ever and affectionately
+      yours,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia, on
+      the Principles of the Constitution of the United, States of America, and
+      on the Violations of them</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf and in the name of the
+      people thereof, do declare as follows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The States in North America which confederated to establish their
+      independence on the government of Great Britain, of which Virginia was
+      one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent States, and, as
+      such, authorized to constitute governments, each for itself, in such form
+      as it thought best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered into a compact (which is called the Constitution of the
+      United States of America), by which they agreed to unite in a single
+      government as to their relations with each other, and with foreign
+      nations, and as to certain other articles particularly specified. They
+      retained at the same time, each to itself, the other rights of independent
+      government, comprehending mainly their domestic interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to appoint, in
+      conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries, legislative, executive, and
+      judiciary, in the manner settled in that compact: while to each, severally
+      and of course, remained its original right of appointing, each for itself,
+      a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive, and judiciary,
+      also, for administering the domestic branch of their respective
+      governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, constitute thus
+      a whole of government, for each State separately; the powers ascribed to
+      the one, as specifically made federal, exercised over the whole, the
+      residuary powers, retained to the other, exercisable exclusively over its
+      particular State, foreign herein, each to the others, as they were before
+      the original compact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this construction of government and distribution of its powers, the
+      Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and affectionately adhere,
+      opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness, the usurpation of either set
+      of functionaries on the rightful powers of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed in others, a
+      right of enlarging its own powers by constructions, inferences, and
+      indefinite deductions from those directly given, which this Assembly does
+      declare to be usurpations of the powers retained to the independent
+      branches, mere interpolations into the compact, and direct infractions of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a right to
+      construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal improvements
+      within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively belonging to the
+      several States, which this Assembly does declare has not been given to
+      that branch by the constitutional compact, but remains to each State among
+      its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable within itself and by its
+      domestic authorities alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Assembly does further disavow, and declare to be most false and
+      unfounded, the doctrine, that the compact, in authorizing its federal
+      branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay the
+      debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United
+      States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may think, or
+      pretend, would promote the general welfare, which construction would make
+      that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation of powers; but
+      that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the
+      taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare, by the various acts of
+      power therein specified and delegated to them, and by no others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these States, by
+      not investing their federal branch with all the means of bettering their
+      condition, have denied to themselves any which may effect that purpose;
+      since, in the distribution of these means, they have given to that branch
+      those which belong to its department, and to the States have reserved
+      separately the residue which belong to them separately: and thus by the
+      organization of the two branches taken together, have completely secured
+      the first object of human association, the full improvement of their
+      condition, and reserved to themselves all the faculties of multiplying
+      their own blessings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained by the
+      States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this State will
+      never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the banner of
+      disaffection, or of separation from their sister States, co-parties with
+      themselves to this compact. They know and value too highly the blessings
+      of their Union, as to foreign nations and questions arising among
+      themselves, to consider every infraction as to be met by actual
+      resistance. They respect too affectionately the opinions of those
+      possessing the same rights, under the same instrument, to make every
+      difference of construction a ground of immediate rupture. They would,
+      indeed, consider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which
+      could befall them; but not the greatest. There is yet one greater,
+      submission to a government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope
+      of avoiding this shall become absolutely desperate, that further
+      forbearance could not be indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties,
+      therefore, contrary to the expectation and hope of this Assembly, prefer,
+      at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal
+      member of the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under the
+      confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the
+      bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the
+      mean while, we will breast with them, rather than separate from them,
+      every misfortune, save that only of living under a government of unlimited
+      powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal
+      brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and
+      perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of
+      living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to
+      its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace; and
+      further to show, that even when the government of its choice shall
+      manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that
+      the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its
+      aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain
+      it within the rightful limits of self-government. And these are the
+      objects of this Declaration and Protest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as some of its
+      co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads and canals should
+      be added to those directly given to the federal branch, as more likely to
+      be systematically and beneficially directed, than by the independent
+      action of the several States, this Commonwealth, from respect to these
+      opinions, and a desire of conciliation with its co-States, will consent,
+      in concurrence with them, to make this addition, provided it be done
+      regularly by an amendment of the compact, in the way established by that
+      instrument, and provided also, it be sufficiently guarded against abuses,
+      compromises, and corrupt practices, not only of possible, but of probable
+      occurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment of this
+      Commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been consented to by
+      the compact called &lsquo;The Constitution of the United States of America,&rsquo;
+      (construed according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its language, to
+      the common intendment of the time, and of those who framed it;) to give
+      also to all parties and authorities, time for reflection and for
+      consideration, whether, under a temperate view of the possible
+      consequences, and especially of the constant obstructions which an
+      equivocal majority must ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the
+      assumption of this power rather than its acceptance from the free will of
+      their constituents; and to preserve peace in the mean while, we proceed to
+      make it the duty of our citizens, until the legislature shall otherwise
+      and ultimately decide, to acquiesce under those acts of the federal branch
+      of our government which we have declared to be usurpations, and against
+      which, in point of right, we do protest as null and void, and never to be
+      quoted as precedents of right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of
+      Virginia, that all citizens of this Commonwealth, and persons and
+      authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at all times to the
+      acts which may be passed by the Congress of the United States, the object
+      of which shall be the construction of post-roads, making canals of
+      navigation, and maintaining the same, in any part of the United States, in
+      like manner as if the said acts were, <i>totidem verbis</i>, passed by the
+      legislature of this Commonwealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0187" id="link2H_4_0187">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 25, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 25, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of the 15th was received four days ago. It found me engaged in
+      what I could not lay aside till this day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far advanced in my eighty-third year, worn down with infirmities which
+      have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight months
+      past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for transactions
+      so far back as that which is the subject of your letter. My memory is
+      indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can probably be
+      given you than by my solemn protestation, that I have not the least
+      recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams and myself, in
+      what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the slightest trace of it
+      remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the exactitude of the statement
+      in your letter. And the less, as I recollect the interview with Mr. Adams,
+      to which the previous communications which had passed between him and
+      yourself were probably and naturally the preliminary. That interview I
+      remember well; not indeed in the very words which passed between us, but
+      in their substance, which was of a character too awful, too deeply
+      engraved in my mind, and influencing too materially the course I had to
+      pursue, ever to be forgotten. Mr. Adams called on me pending the embargo,
+      and while endeavors were making to obtain its repeal. He made some
+      apologies for the call, on the ground of our not being then in the habit
+      of confidential communications, but that that which he had then to make,
+      involved too seriously the interest of our country not to overrule all
+      other considerations with him, and make it his duty to reveal it to myself
+      particularly. I assured him there was no occasion for any apology for his
+      visit; that, on the contrary, his communications would be thankfully
+      received, and would add a confirmation the more to my entire confidence in
+      the rectitude and patriotism of his conduct and principles. He spoke then
+      of the dissatisfaction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the
+      restraints of the embargo then existing, and their restlessness under it.
+      That there was nothing which might not be attempted, to rid themselves of
+      it. That he had information of the most unquestionable certainty, that
+      certain citizens of the Eastern States (I think he named Massachusetts
+      particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the British government,
+      the object of which was an agreement that the New England States should
+      take no further part in the war then going on; that, without formally
+      declaring their separation from the Union of the States, they should
+      withdraw from all aid and obedience to them, that their navigation and
+      commerce should be free from restraint and interruption by the British;
+      that they should be considered and treated by them as neutrals, and as
+      such might conduct themselves towards both parties; and, at the close of
+      the war, be at liberty to rejoin the confederacy. He assured me that there
+      was imminent danger that the convention would take place; that the
+      temptations were such as might debauch many from their fidelity to the
+      Union; and that, to enable its friends to make head against it, the repeal
+      of the embargo was absolutely necessary. I expressed a just sense of the
+      merit of this information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the
+      safety and even the salvation of our country: and however reluctant I was
+      to abandon the measure (a measure which persevered in a little longer, we
+      had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object
+      completely), from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw
+      the necessity of abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by
+      this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then
+      recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the
+      embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in
+      which they could procure a general concurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be in
+      the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the impression
+      remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are too transient
+      and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But the substance was
+      too important to be forgotten, not only from the revolution of measures it
+      obliged me to adopt, but also from the renewals of it in my memory on the
+      frequent occasions I have had of doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating
+      this proof of his fidelity to his country, and of his superiority over all
+      ordinary considerations when the safety of that was brought into question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept
+      assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0188" id="link2H_4_0188">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXVIII.&mdash;TO WILLIAM B. GILES, December 26, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO WILLIAM B. GILES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, December 26, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I wrote you a letter yesterday, of which you will be free to make what use
+      you please. This will contain matters not intended for the public eye. I
+      see, as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with
+      which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the
+      usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation
+      in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that too, by
+      constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. Take
+      together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the
+      President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on
+      by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is but too evident, that
+      the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip
+      their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them,
+      and to exercise themselves all functions, foreign and domestic. Under the
+      power to regulate commerce, they assume indefinitely that also over
+      agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings
+      of one of these branches of industry, and that too the most depressed, and
+      put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all. Under
+      the authority to establish post-roads, they claim that of cutting down
+      mountains for the construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a
+      little sophistry on the words &lsquo;general welfare,&rsquo; a right to do, not only
+      the acts to effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted,
+      but whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general
+      welfare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the
+      constitution? Reason and argument? You might as well reason and argue with
+      the marble columns encircling them. The representatives chosen by
+      ourselves? They are joined in the combination, some from incorrect views
+      of government, some from corrupt ones, sufficient, voting together, to
+      outnumber the sound parts; and with majorities only of one, two, or three,
+      bold enough to go forward in defiance. Are we then to stand to our arms,
+      with the hot-headed Georgian? No. That must be the last resource, not to
+      be thought of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every
+      infraction of a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a
+      dissolution of it, none can ever be formed which would last one year. We
+      must have patience and longer endurance then with our brethren while under
+      delusion; give them time for reflection and experience of consequences;
+      keep ourselves in a situation to profit by the chapter of accidents; and
+      separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the
+      dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without
+      limitation of powers. Between these two evils, when we must make a choice,
+      there can be no hesitation. But in the mean while, the States should be
+      watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights; to denounce
+      them as they occur in the most peremptory terms; to protest against them
+      as wrongs to which our present submission shall be considered, not as
+      acknowledgments or precedents of right, but as a temporary yielding to the
+      lesser evil, until their accumulation shall overweigh that of separation.
+      I would go still further, and give to the federal member, by a regular
+      amendment of the constitution, a right to make roads and canals of
+      intercommunication between the States, providing sufficiently against
+      corrupt practices in Congress (log-rolling, &amp;c.), by declaring that
+      the federal proportion of each State of the monies so employed, shall be
+      in works within the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due
+      <i>salvo</i> of jurisdiction. This is the course which I think safest and
+      best as yet. You ask my opinion of the propriety of giving publicity to
+      what is stated in your letter, as having passed between Mr. John Q. Adams
+      and yourself. Of this no one can judge but yourself. It is one of those
+      questions which belong to the forum of feeling. This alone can decide on
+      the degree of confidence implied in the disclosure; whether under no
+      circumstances it was to be communicated to others. It does not seem to be
+      of that character, or at all to wear that aspect. They are historical
+      facts, which belong to the present, as well as future times. I doubt
+      whether a single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear conviction
+      to it, of the correctness of our knowledge of the treasonable views of the
+      federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the most nefarious
+      and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the Hartford Convention
+      was a subsequent chapter: and both of these having failed, consolidation
+      becomes the first chapter of the next book of their history. But this
+      opens with a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who,
+      having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of &lsquo;76, now look to a
+      single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking
+      institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their
+      favored branches of manufactures, commerce, and navigation, riding and
+      ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. This will be to
+      them a next best blessing to the monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps
+      the surest stepping-stone to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I learn with great satisfaction that your school is thriving well, and
+      that you have at its head a truly classical scholar. He is one of three or
+      four whom I can hear of in the State. We were obliged the last year to
+      receive shameful Latinists into the classical school of the University;
+      such as we will certainly refuse as soon as we can get from better schools
+      a sufficiency of those properly instructed to form a class. We must get
+      rid of this Connecticut Latin, of this barbarous confusion of long and
+      short syllables, which renders doubtful whether we are listening to a
+      reader of Cherokee, Shawnee, Iroquois, or what. Our University has been
+      most fortunate in the five Professors procured from England. A finer
+      selection could not have been made. Besides their being of a grade of
+      science which has left little superior behind, the correctness of their
+      moral character, their accommodating dispositions, and zeal for the
+      prosperity of the institution, leave us nothing more to wish. I verily
+      believe that as high a degree of, education can now be obtained here, as
+      in the country they left. And a finer set of youths I never saw assembled
+      for instruction. They committed some irregularities at first, until they
+      learned the lawful length of their tether; since which it has never been
+      transgressed in the smallest degree. A great proportion of them are
+      severely devoted to study, and I fear not to say, that within twelve or
+      fifteen years from this time, a majority of the rulers of our State will
+      have been educated here. They shall carry hence the correct principles of
+      our day, and you may count assuredly that they will exhibit their country
+      in a degree of sound respectability it has never known, either in our
+      days, or those of our forefathers. I cannot live to see it. My joy must
+      only be that of anticipation. But that you may see it in full fruition, is
+      the probable consequence of the twenty years I am ahead of you in time,
+      and is the sincere prayer of your affectionate and constant friend,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0189" id="link2H_4_0189">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CLXXXIX.&mdash;TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH, January 9, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO CLAIBORNE W. GOOCH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 9, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have duly received your favor of December the 31st, and fear, with you,
+      all the evils which the present lowering aspect of our political horizon
+      so ominously portends. That at some future day, which I hoped to be very
+      distant, the free principles of our government might change, with the
+      change of circumstances, was to be expected. But I certainly did not
+      expect that they would not over-live the generation which established
+      them. And what I still less expected was, that my favorite western country
+      was to be made the instrument of change. I had ever and fondly cherished
+      the interests of that country, relying on it as a barrier against the
+      degeneracy of public opinion from our original and free principles. But
+      the bait of local interests, artfully prepared for their palate, has
+      decoyed them from their kindred attachments, to alliances alien to them.
+      Yet, although I have little hope that the torrent of consolidation can be
+      withstood, I should not be for giving up the ship without efforts to save
+      her. She lived well through the first squall, and may weather the present
+      one. But, Dear Sir, I am not the champion called for by our present
+      dangers; <i>Non tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis, tempus eget</i>.&rsquo; A
+      waning body, a waning mind, and waning memory, with habitual ill health,
+      warn me to withdraw and relinquish the arena to younger and abler
+      athletes. I am sensible myself, if others are not, that this is my duty.
+      If my distant friends know it not, those around me can inform them that
+      they should not, in friendship, wish to call me into conflicts, exposing
+      only the decays which nature has inscribed among her unalterable laws, and
+      injuring the common cause by a senile and puny defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will, however, say one word on the subject. The South Carolina
+      resolutions, Van Buren&rsquo;s motion, and above all Bailey&rsquo;s propositions, show
+      that other States are coming forward on the subject, and better for any
+      one to take the lead than Virginia, where opposition is considered as
+      common-place, and a mere matter of form and habit. We shall see what our
+      co-States propose, and before the close of the session we may shape our
+      own course more understandingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0190" id="link2H_4_0190">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXC.&mdash;TO [ANONYMOUS], January 21, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, January 21, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your favor of January the 15th is received, and I am entirely sensible of
+      the kindness of the motives which suggested the caution it recommended.
+      But I believe what I have done is the only thing I could have done with
+      honor or conscience. Mr. Giles requested me to state a fact which he knew
+      himself, and of which he knew me to be possessed. What use he intended to
+      make of it I knew not, nor had I a right to inquire, or to indicate any
+      suspicion that he would make an unfair one. That was his concern, not
+      mine, and his character was sufficient to sustain the responsibility for
+      it. I knew, too, that if an uncandid use should be made of it, there would
+      be found those who would so prove it. Independent of the terms of intimate
+      friendship on which Mr. Giles and myself have ever lived together, the
+      world&rsquo;s respect entitled him to the justice of my testimony to any truth
+      he might call for; and how that testimony should connect me with whatever
+      he may do or write hereafter, and with his whole career, as you apprehend,
+      is not understood by me. With his personal controversies I have nothing to
+      do. I never took any part in them, or in those of any other person. Add to
+      this, that the statement I have given him on the subject of Mr. Adams, is
+      entirely honorable to him in every sentiment and fact it contains. There
+      is not a word in it which I would wish to recall. It is one which Mr.
+      Adams himself might willingly quote, did he need to quote any thing. It
+      was simply, that during the continuance of the embargo, Mr. Adams informed
+      me of a combination (without naming any one concerned in it), which had
+      for its object a severance of the Union, for a time at least. That Mr.
+      Adams and myself not being then in the habit of mutual consultation and
+      confidence, I considered it as the stronger proof of the purity of his
+      patriotism, which was able to lift him above all party passions when the
+      safety of his country was endangered. Nor have I kept this honorable fact
+      to myself. During the late canvass, particularly, I had more than one
+      occasion to quote it to persons who were expressing opinions respecting
+      him, of which this was a direct corrective. I have never entertained for
+      Mr. Adams any but sentiments of esteem and respect; and if we have not
+      thought alike on political subjects, I yet never doubted the honesty of
+      his opinions, of which the letter in question, if published, will be an
+      additional proof. Still, I recognise your friendship in suggesting a
+      review of it, and am glad of this, as of every other occasion, of
+      repeating to you the assurance of my constant attachment and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0191" id="link2H_4_0191">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCI.&mdash;TO JAMES MADISON, February 17,1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, February 17,1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately on seeing the overwhelming vote of the House of
+      Representatives against giving us another dollar, I rode to the University
+      and desired Mr. Brockenbrough to engage in nothing new, to stop every
+      thing on hand which could be done without, and to employ all his force and
+      funds in finishing the circular room for the books, and the Anatomical
+      theatre. These cannot be done without; and for these and all our debts, we
+      have funds enough. But I think it prudent then to clear the decks
+      thoroughly, to see how we shall stand, and what we may accomplish further.
+      In the mean time, there have arrived for us in different ports of the
+      United States, ten boxes of books, from Paris, seven from London, and from
+      Germany I know not how many; in all, perhaps, about twenty-five boxes. Not
+      one of these can be opened until the book-room is completely finished, and
+      all the shelves ready to receive their charge directly from the boxes, as
+      they shall be opened. This cannot be till May. I hear nothing definitive
+      of the three thousand dollars duty of which we are asking the remission
+      from Congress. In the selection of our Law Professor, we must be
+      rigorously attentive to his political principles. You will recollect,
+      that, before the Revolution, Coke Littleton was the universal elementary
+      book of law students, and a sounder whig never wrote, nor of profounder
+      learning in the orthodox doctrines of the British constitution, or in what
+      were called English liberties. You remember also that our lawyers were
+      then all whigs. But when his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning
+      learning got out of fashion, and the honied Mansfieldism of Blackstone
+      became the students&rsquo; hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the
+      nursery of our Congress) began to slide into toryism, and nearly all the
+      young brood of lawyers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves,
+      indeed, to be whigs, because they no longer know what whigism or
+      republicanism means. It is in our seminary that that vestal flame is to be
+      kept alive; it is thence it is to spread anew over our own and the sister
+      States. If we are true and vigilant in our trust, within a dozen or twenty
+      years a majority of our own legislature will be from our school, and many
+      disciples will have carried its doctrines home with them to their several
+      States, and will have leavened thus the whole mass. New York has taken
+      strong ground in vindication of the constitution; South Carolina had
+      already done the same. Although I was against our leading, I am equally
+      against omitting to follow in the same line, and backing them firmly; and
+      i hope that yourself or some other will mark out the track to be pursued
+      by us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will have seen in the newspapers some proceedings in the legislature,
+      which have cost me much mortification. My own debts had become
+      considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lopping of property, which
+      would have been little felt, when our friend &mdash;&mdash; gave me the
+      coup de grace. Ever since that I have been paying twelve hundred dollars a
+      year interest on his debt, which, with my own, was absorbing so much of my
+      annual income, as that the maintenance of my family was making deep and
+      rapid inroads on my capital, and had already done it. Still, sales at a
+      fair price would leave me competently provided. Had crops and prices for
+      several years been such as to maintain a steady competition of substantial
+      bidders at market, all would have been safe. But the long succession of
+      years of stunted crops, of reduced prices, the general prostration of the
+      farming business, under levies for the support of manufacturers, &amp;c,
+      with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our paper medium, have kept
+      agriculture in a state of abject depression, which has peopled the western
+      States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, and glutted the
+      land-market, while it drew off its bidders. In such a state of things,
+      property has lost its character of being a resource for debts. Highland in
+      Bedford, which, in the days of our plethory, sold readily for from fifty
+      to one hundred dollars the acre (and such sales were many then), would not
+      now sell for more than from ten to twenty dollars, or one quarter or one
+      fifth of its former price. Reflecting on these things, the practice
+      occurred to me, of selling, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery,
+      often resorted to before the Revolution to effect large sales, and still
+      in constant usage in every State for individual as well as corporation
+      purposes. If it is permitted in my case, my lands here alone, with the
+      mills, he, will pay every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free.
+      If refused, I must sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bedford,
+      move thither with my family, where I have not even a log hut to put my
+      head into, and whether ground for burial, will depend on the depredations
+      which, under the form of sales, shall have been committed on my property.
+      The question then with me was, <i>Utrum horum?</i> But why afflict you
+      with these details? Indeed, I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by
+      communication with a friend. The friendship which has subsisted between
+      us, now half a century, and the harmony of our political principles and
+      pursuits, have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long
+      period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the University,
+      or beyond the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a comfort to
+      leave that institution under your care, and an assurance that it will not
+      be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, to believe that you are
+      engaged in vindicating to posterity the course we have pursued for
+      preserving to them, in all their purity, the blessings of self-government,
+      which we had assisted too in acquiring for them. If ever the earth has
+      beheld a system of administration conducted with a single and steadfast
+      eye to the general interest and happiness of those committed to it, one
+      which, protected by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which
+      our lives have been devoted. To myself you have been a pillar of support
+      through life. Take care of me when dead, and be assured that I shall leave
+      with you my last affections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [The following paper it is deemed proper to insert, as well
+     because of the explanation it contains of the reasons which
+     led the author to ask permission of the legislature to sell
+     his property by lottery, as of its otherwise interesting
+     character.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0192" id="link2H_4_0192">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It is a common idea that games of chance are immoral. But what is chance?
+      Nothing happens in this world without a cause. If we know the cause, we do
+      not call it chance; but if we do not know it, we say it was produced by
+      chance. If we see a loaded die turn its lightest side up, we know the
+      cause, and that it is not an effect of chance; but whatever side an
+      unloaded die turns up, not knowing the cause, we say it is the effect of
+      chance. Yet the morality of a thing cannot depend on our knowledge or
+      ignorance of its cause. Not knowing why a particular side of an unloaded
+      die turns up, cannot make the act of throwing it, or of betting on it,
+      immoral. If we consider games of chance immoral, then every pursuit of
+      human industry is immoral, for there is not a single one that is not
+      subject to chance; not one wherein you do not risk a loss for the chance
+      of some gain. The navigator, for example, risks his ship in the hope (if
+      she is not lost in the voyage) of gaining an advantageous freight. The
+      merchant risks his cargo to gain a better price for it. A landholder
+      builds a house on the risk of indemnifying himself by a rent. The hunter
+      hazards his time and trouble in the hope of killing game. In all these
+      pursuits, you stake some one thing against another which you hope to win.
+      But the greatest of all gamblers is the farmer. He risks the seed he puts
+      into the ground, the rent he pays for the ground itself, the year&rsquo;s labor
+      on it, and the wear and tear of his cattle and gear, to win a crop, which
+      the chances of too much or too little rain, and general uncertainties of
+      weather, insects, waste, &amp;c. often make a total or partial loss.
+      These, then, are games of chance. Yet so far from being immoral, they are
+      indispensable to the existence of man, and every one has a natural right
+      to choose for his pursuit such one of them as he thinks most likely to
+      furnish him subsistence. Almost all these pursuits of chance produce
+      something useful to society. But there are some which produce nothing, and
+      endanger the well-being of the individuals engaged in them, or of others
+      depending on them. Such are games with cards, dice, billiards, &amp;c. And
+      although the pursuit of them is a matter of natural right, yet society,
+      perceiving the irresistible bent of some of its members to pursue them,
+      and the ruin produced by them to the families depending on these
+      individuals, consider it as a case of insanity, <i>quoad hoc</i>, step in
+      to protect the family and the party himself, as in other cases of
+      insanity, infancy, imbecility, &amp;c, and suppress the pursuit
+      altogether, and the natural right of following it. There are some other
+      games of chance, useful on certain occasions, and injurious only when
+      carried beyond their useful bounds. Such are insurances, lotteries,
+      raffles, &amp;tc. These they do not suppress, but take their regulation
+      under their own discretion. The insurance of ships on voyages is a
+      vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to exercise it therefore is
+      left free. So of houses against fire, doubtful debts, the continuance of a
+      particular life, and similar cases. Money is wanting for an useful
+      undertaking, as a school, &amp;c. for which a direct tax would be
+      disapproved. It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein the tax is laid
+      on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the price of a
+      ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility of a higher prize. An
+      article of property, insusceptible of division at all, or not without
+      great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so large value as that no
+      purchaser can be found, while the owner owes debts, has no other means of
+      payment, and his creditors no other chance of obtaining it, but by its
+      sale at a full and fair price. The lottery is here a salutary instrument
+      for disposing of it, where many run small risks for the chance of
+      obtaining a high prize. In this way, the great estate of the late Colonel
+      Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his debts, which, had the whole
+      been brought into the market at once, would have overdone the demand,
+      would have sold at half or quarter the value, and sacrificed the
+      creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have lost their debts. This
+      method of selling was formerly very much resorted to, until it was thought
+      to nourish too much a spirit of hazard. The legislature Were therefore
+      induced, not to suppress it altogether, but to take it under their own
+      special regulation. This they did, for the first time, by their act of
+      1769, c.17., before which time, every person exercised the right freely;
+      and since which time, it is made unlawful but when approved and authorized
+      by a special act of the legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised only
+      under the discretion of the legislature. Let us examine the purposes for
+      which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond the date of our
+      independence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1813. c. 1. § 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and
+      c. 2. § 10.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1814. Dec. c. 1. § 3. 1814. Feb. c. 1. § 3. 1818. c. 1. § 1. 1819. c. 1.
+      1820. c. 1.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This then is a declaration by the nation, that an act was not immoral, of
+      which they were in the habitual use themselves as a part of the regular
+      means of supporting the government: the tax on the vender of tickets was
+      their share of the profits, and if their share was innocent, his could not
+      be criminal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. It has been abundantly permitted, to raise money by lottery for the
+      purposes of schools; and in this, as in many other cases, the lottery has
+      been permitted to retain a part of the money (generally from ten to
+      fifteen per cent.) for the use to which the lottery has been applied. So
+      that while the adventurers paid one hundred dollars for tickets, they
+      received back eighty-five or ninety dollars only, in the form of prizes,
+      the remaining ten or fifteen being the tax levied on them, with their own
+      consent. Examples are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1784. c. 34. Authorizing the city of Williamsburg to raise £2000 for a
+      grammar school.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 68. For Randolph Academy, £1000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 73. For Fauquier Academy, £500. c. 74. For the Fredericksburg
+      Academy, £4000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For the Transylvania Seminary, £500. For the Southampton
+      Academy, £300.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 82. For the New London Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 49. For the Fredericksburg Charity School. c» 50. For finishing
+      the Strasburg Seminary. c. 58. For William and Mary College. c. 62. For
+      the Bannister Academy.c. 79. For the Belfield Academy. c. 82. For the
+      Petersburg Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1804. c. 40. For the Hotsprings Seminary. c. 76. For the Stevensburg
+      Academy. c.100. For William and Mary College.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 24. For the Rumford Academy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1812. c. 10. For the Literary Fund. To sell the privilege for $30,000
+      annually, for seven years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1816. c. 80. For Norfolk Academy, $12,000. Norfolk Female Society, $2000.
+      Lancastrian School, $6000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. The next object of lotteries has been rivers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For a bridge between Gosport and Portsmouth, £400.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 83. For clearing Roanoke River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1804. c. 62. For clearing Quantico Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 42. For a toll-bridge over Cheat River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1816. c. 49. For the Dismal Swamp, $50,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. For roads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For a road to Warminster, £200. For cutting a road from
+      Rockfish gap to Scott&rsquo;s and Nicholas&rsquo;s landing, £400. 1796. c. 85. To
+      repair certain roads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 60. For improving roads to Snigger&rsquo;s and Ashby&rsquo;s gaps. c. 61. For
+      opening a road to Brock&rsquo;s gap. c. 65. For opening a road from the town of
+      Monroe to Sweet Springs and Lewisburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 71. For improving the road to Brock&rsquo;s gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1805. c. 5. For improving the road to Clarksburg. c. 26. For opening a
+      road from Monongalia Glades to Fishing Creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1813. c. 44. For opening a road from Thornton&rsquo;s gap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Lotteries for the benefit of counties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 78. To authorize a lottery in the county of Shenandoah. c. 84. To
+      authorize a lottery in the county of Gloucester.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Lotteries for the benefit of towns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1782. c. 31. Richmond, for a bridge over Shockoe, amount not limited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1789. c. 75. Alexandria, to pave its streets, £1500.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. do. do. £5000. 1796. c. 79. Norfolk, one or more lotteries
+      authorized., c. 81. Petersburg, a lottery authorized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1803. c. 12. Woodstock, a lottery authorized c. 48. Fredericksburg, for
+      improving its main street. c. 73. Harrisonburg, for improving its streets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Lotteries for religious congregations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1785. c.lll. Completing a church in Winchester. For rebuilding a church in
+      the parish of Elizabeth River.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 69. For the benefit of the Episcopal society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For building a church in Warminster, £200. in Halifax, £200.
+      in Alexandria, £500. in Petersburg, £750. in Shepherdstown, £250.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. Lotteries for private societies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. For the Amicable Society in Richmond, £1000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 70. For building a Freemason&rsquo;s hall in Charlotte, £750.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Lotteries for the benefit of private individuals. [To raise money for
+      them.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1796. c. 80. For the sufferers by fire in the town of Lexington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1781. c. 6. For completing titles under Byrd&rsquo;s lottery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1790. c. 46. To erect a paper-mill in Staunton, £300. To raise £2000 for
+      Nathaniel Twining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. c. 13. To raise £4000 for William Tatham, to enable him to complete
+      his geographical work. To enable&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-to complete a
+      literary work.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been able
+      to find it again. But there is such an one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have seen, then, that every vocation in life is subject to the
+      influence of chance; that so far from being rendered immoral by the
+      admixture of that ingredient, were they abandoned on that account, man
+      could no longer subsist; that, among them, every one has a natural right
+      to choose that which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable
+      subsistence; but that while the greater number of these pursuits are
+      productive of something which adds to the necessaries and comforts of
+      life, others again, such as cards, dice, &amp;ic, are entirely
+      unproductive, doing good to none, injury to many, yet so easy, and so
+      seducing in practice to men of a certain constitution of mind, that they
+      cannot resist the temptation, be the consequences what they may; that in
+      this case, as in those of insanity, idiocy, infancy, &amp;c, it is the
+      duty of society to take them under its protection, even against their own
+      acts, and to restrain their right of choice of these pursuits, by
+      suppressing them entirely; that there are others, as lotteries
+      particularly, which, although liable to chance also, are useful for many
+      purposes, and are therefore retained and placed under the discretion of
+      the legislature, to be permitted or refused according to the circumstances
+      of every special case, of which they are to judge: that between the years
+      1782 and 1820, a space of thirty-eight years only, we have observed
+      seventy case&rsquo;s, where the permission of them has been found useful by the
+      legislature, some of which are in progress at this time. These cases
+      relate to the emolument of the whole State, to local benefits of
+      education, of navigation, of roads, of counties, towns, religious
+      assemblies, private societies, and of individuals under particular
+      circumstances which may claim indulgence or favor. The latter is the case
+      now submitted to the legislature, and the question is, whether the
+      individual soliciting their attention, or his situation, may merit that
+      degree of consideration, which will justify the legislature in permitting
+      him to avail himself of the mode of selling by lottery, for the purpose of
+      paying his debts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a fair price cannot be obtained by sale in the ordinary way, and in
+      the present depressed state of agricultural industry, is well known. Lands
+      in this State will not now sell for more than a third or fourth of what
+      they would have brought a few years ago, perhaps at the very time of the
+      contraction of the debts for which they are now to be sold. The low price
+      in foreign markets, for a series of years past, of agricultural produce,
+      of wheat generally, of tobacco most commonly, and the accumulation of
+      duties on the articles of consumption not produced within our State, not
+      only disable the farmer or planter from adding to his farm by purchase,
+      but reduce him to sell his own, and remove to the western country,
+      glutting the market he leave&rsquo;s, while he lessens the number of bidders. To
+      be protected against this sacrifice is the object of the present
+      application, and whether the applicant has any particular claim to this
+      protection, is the present question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the answer must be left to others. It is not for me to give it. I
+      may, however, more readily than others, suggest the offices in which I
+      have served. I came of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination
+      of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election
+      following I became one of its representatives in the legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was thence sent to the old Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then employed two years, with Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Wythe, on the revisal
+      and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British statutes,
+      the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the common law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then elected Governor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next to the legislature, and to Congress again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Appointed Secretary of State to the new government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elected Vice President, and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I
+      have been in the public service now sixty-one years; and during the far
+      greater part of the time, in foreign countries or in other States. Every
+      one knows how inevitably a Virginia estate, goes to ruin, when the owner
+      is so far distant as to be unable to pay attention to it himself; and the
+      more especially, when the line of his employment is of a character to
+      abstract and alienate his mind entirely from the knowledge necessary to
+      good, and even to saving management.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it were thought worth while to specify any particular services
+      rendered, I would refer to the specification of them made by the
+      legislature itself in their Farewell Address, on my retiring from the
+      Presidency, February, 1809. [This will be found in 2 Pleasant&rsquo;s
+      Collection, page 144.] There is one, however, not therein specified, the
+      most important in its consequences, of any transaction in any portion of
+      my life; to wit, the head I personally made against the federal principles
+      and proceedings, during the administration of Mr. Adams. Their usurpations
+      and violations of the constitution at that period, and their majority in
+      both Houses of Congress, were so great, so decided, and so daring, that
+      after combating their aggressions, inch by inch, without being able in the
+      least to check their career, the republican leaders thought it would be
+      best for them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into
+      their respective legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could be
+      formed into, and if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch.
+      All, therefore, retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of
+      Representatives, and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as
+      Vice-President. Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the
+      brow-beatings and insults by which they endeavored to drive us off also,
+      we kept the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the
+      legislatures could be brought up to the charge; and nothing on earth is
+      more certain, than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of
+      Vice-President at the head of the republicans, had given way and withdrawn
+      from my post, the republicans throughout the Union would have given up in
+      despair, and the cause would have been lost for ever. By holding on, we
+      obtained time for the legislatures to come up with their weight; and those
+      of Virginia and Kentucky particularly, but more especially the former, by
+      their celebrated resolutions, saved the constitution, at its last gasp. No
+      person who was not a witness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form
+      any idea of the afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to
+      brook. They saved our country however. The spirits of the people were so
+      much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. imposture, and other
+      stratagems and machinations, that they would have sunk into apathy and
+      monarchy, as the only form of government which could maintain itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality
+      and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws in the first
+      crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find that the
+      leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by myself, and
+      carried chiefly by my efforts; supported, indeed, by able and faithful
+      coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as seconds, but who
+      would not have taken the field as leaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The prohibition of the further importation of slaves, was the first of
+      these measures in time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the
+      hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
+      masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country
+      into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But further to complete the equality among our citizens so essential to
+      the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish the
+      principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal
+      inheritance to sons and daughters which made a part of the revised code.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion, was first made by
+      myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for
+      one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and
+      so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill for
+      establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised code
+      also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts
+      chiefly of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was
+      brought forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of our
+      University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time, as I
+      do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the
+      Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw, of course, on me the
+      chief burthen of the enterprise, as well of the buildings, as of the
+      general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this institution
+      on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet be
+      seen but at a distance. But an hundred well educated youths, which it will
+      turn out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with men of
+      superior qualifications, and raise it from its humble state to an eminence
+      among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not in its
+      brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its youth to an
+      order of science unequalled in any other State; and this superiority will
+      be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged there, and the
+      restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering
+      hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits. Those now on the
+      theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable happiness of seeing themselves
+      succeeded by sons of a grade of science beyond their own ken. Our sister
+      States will also be repairing to the same fountains of instruction, will
+      bring hither their genius to be kindled at our fire, and will carry back
+      the fraternal affections which, nourished by the same alma mater, will
+      knit us to them by the indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships.
+      The good Old Dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will then raise her
+      head with pride among the nations, will present to them that splendor of
+      genius which she has ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest
+      uncultivated and unknown, and will become a centre of ralliance to the
+      States whose youths she has instructed, and, as it were, adopted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I claim some share in the merits of this great work of regeneration. My
+      whole labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it, and I stand
+      pledged to follow it up through the remnant of life remaining to me. And
+      what remuneration do I ask? Money from the treasury? Not a cent. I ask
+      nothing from the earnings or labors of my fellow-citizens. I wish no man&rsquo;s
+      comforts to be abridged for the enlargement of mine. For the services
+      rendered on all occasions, I have been always paid to my full
+      satisfaction. I never wished a dollar more than what the law had fixed on.
+      My request is, only to be permitted to sell my own property freely to pay
+      my own debts. To sell it, I say, and not to sacrifice it, not to have it
+      gobbled up by speculators to make fortunes for themselves, leaving unpaid
+      those who have trusted to my good faith, and myself without resource in
+      the last and most helpless stage of life. If permitted to sell it in a way
+      which will bring me a fair price, all will be honestly and honorably paid,
+      and a competence left for myself, and for those who look to me for
+      subsistence. To sell it in a way which will offend no moral principle, and
+      expose none to risk but the willing, and those wishing to be permitted to
+      take the chance of gain. To give me, in short, that permission which you
+      often allow to others for purposes not more moral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Will it be objected, that although not evil in itself, it may, as a
+      precedent, lead to evil? But let those who shall quote the precedent bring
+      their case within the same measure. Have they, as in this case, devoted
+      three-score years and one of their lives, uninterruptedly, to the service
+      of their country? Have the times of those services been as trying as those
+      which have embraced our Revolution, our transition from a colonial to a
+      free structure of government? Have the stations of their trial been of
+      equal importance? Has the share they have borne in holding their new
+      government to its genuine principles, been equally marked? And has the
+      cause of the distress, against which they seek a remedy, proceeded, not
+      merely from themselves, but from errors of the public authorities,
+      disordering the circulating medium, over which they had no control, and
+      which have, in fact, doubled and trebled debts, by reducing, in that
+      proportion, the value of the property which was to pay them? If all these
+      circumstances, which characterize the present case, have taken place in
+      theirs also, then follow the precedent. Be assured, the cases will be so
+      rare as to produce no embarrassment, as never to settle into an injurious
+      habit. The single feature of a sixty years&rsquo; service, as no other instance
+      of it has yet occurred in our country, so it probably never may again. And
+      should it occur, even once and again, it will not impoverish your
+      treasury, as it takes nothing from that, and asks but a simple permission,
+      by an act of natural right, to do one of moral justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the &lsquo;Thoughts on Lotteries,&rsquo; the following paper is referred to. It is
+      here copied to spare the trouble of seeking for the-book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Farewell Address To Th: Jefferson, President Of The United States</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [Agreed to by both Houses, February 7, 1809.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir, The General Assembly of your native State cannot close their session,
+      without acknowledging your services in the office which you are just about
+      to lay down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have to thank you for the model of an administration conducted on the
+      purest principles of republicanism; for pomp and state laid aside;
+      patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a host of superfluous
+      officers disbanded; the monarchic maxim that &lsquo;a national debt is a
+      national blessing,&rsquo; renounced, and more than thirty-three millions of our
+      debt discharged; the native right to nearly one hundred millions of acres
+      of our national domain extinguished; and, without the guilt or calamities
+      of conquest, a vast and, fertile region added to our country, far more
+      extensive than her original possessions, bringing along with it the
+      Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of the west to the Pacific
+      Ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source of
+      permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your
+      administration which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand, and
+      teach posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our peace
+      with the civilized world, preserved through a season of uncommon
+      difficulty and trial; the good-will cultivated with the unfortunate
+      aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended among
+      them; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary, that we
+      have the means of chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing them
+      into justice; and that theme, on which, above all others, the historic
+      genius will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the press,
+      preserved inviolate, without which genius and science are given to man in
+      vain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the principles on which you have administered the government, we see
+      only the continuation and maturity of the same virtues and abilities,
+      which drew upon you in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
+      first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny,
+      until the present day, we mark with pleasure and with gratitude the same
+      uniform, consistent character, the same warm and devoted attachment to
+      liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of your country, her rights,
+      her peace, her honor, her prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to go! How
+      deservedly blessed will it be! For you carry with you the richest of all
+      rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the service of your
+      country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the gratitude, the
+      veneration of your countrymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been virtuous and
+      useful; that our youth may see, in the blissful close of your days, an
+      additional inducement to form themselves on your model, is the devout and
+      earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose the General Assembly of
+      Virginia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0193" id="link2H_4_0193">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCII.&mdash;TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, March 30, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, March 30, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dear Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents of which you
+      have been so kind as to send me a copy, and will state my recollections as
+      to the particular passage of the message to which you ask my attention. On
+      the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible of their right to assume
+      independence, would not condescend to ask its acknowledgment from other
+      nations, yet were willing, by some of the ordinary international
+      transactions, to receive what would imply that acknowledgment. They
+      appointed commissioners, therefore, to propose treaties of commerce to the
+      principal nations of Europe. I was then a member of Congress, was of the
+      committee appointed to prepare instructions for the commissioners, was, as
+      you suppose, the draughtsman of those actually agreed to, and was joined
+      with your father and Doctor Franklin to carry them into execution. But the
+      stipulations making part of these instructions, which respected
+      privateering, blockades, contraband, and freedom of the fisheries, were
+      not original conceptions of mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor
+      Franklin, in some of his papers in possession of the public, and had I
+      think, been recommended in some letter of his to Congress I happen only to
+      have been the inserter of them in the first public act which gave the
+      formal sanction of a public authority. We accordingly proposed our
+      treaties, containing these stipulations, to the principal governments of
+      Europe. But we were then just emerged from a subordinate condition; the
+      nations had as yet known nothing of us and had not yet reflected on the
+      relations which it might be their interest to establish with us. Most of
+      them, therefore, listened to our propositions with coyness and reserve;
+      old Frederic alone closing with us without hesitation. The negotiator of
+      Portugal, indeed, signed a treaty with us, which his government did not
+      ratify, and Tuscany was near a final agreement. Becoming sensible,
+      however, ourselves, that we should do nothing with the greater powers, we
+      thought it better not to hamper our country with engagements to those of
+      less significance, and suffered our powers to expire without closing any
+      other negotiation. Austria soon after became desirous of a treaty with us,
+      and her ambassador pressed it often on me; but our commerce with her being
+      no object, I evaded her repeated invitations. Had these governments been
+      then apprized of the station we should so soon occupy among nations, all,
+      I believe, would have met us promptly and with frankness. These principles
+      would then have been established with all, and from being the conventional
+      law with us alone, would have slid into their engagements with one
+      another, and become general. These are the facts within my recollection.
+      They have not yet got into written history; but their adoption by our
+      southern brethren will bring them into observance, and make them, what
+      they should be, a part of the law of the world and of the reformation of
+      principles for which they will be indebted to us. I pray you to accept the
+      homage of my friendly and high consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0194" id="link2H_4_0194">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER CXCIII.&mdash;TO MR. WEIGHTMAN, June 24, 1826
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      TO MR. WEIGHTMAN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Monticello, June 24, 1826.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respected Sir,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of the
+      city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration on the
+      fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the surviving
+      signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world,
+      is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable
+      accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly
+      to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal
+      participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a duty,
+      under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to control. I
+      should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there
+      congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host
+      of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful
+      election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword;
+      and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our
+      fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity,
+      continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I
+      believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to
+      all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish
+      ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to
+      assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we
+      have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of
+      reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the
+      rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid
+      open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not
+      been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and
+      spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are
+      grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this
+      day for ever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an
+      undiminished devotion to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should
+      have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its
+      vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social
+      intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the
+      public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections, as
+      never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the
+      gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself, and
+      those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and friendly
+      attachments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0195" id="link2H_4_0195">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      ANA.&mdash;EXPLANATION OF THE THREE VOLUMES BOUND IN MARBLED PAPER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Explanation of the Three Volumes bound in Marbled Paper</i>.*
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In these three volumes will be found copies of the official opinions given
+      in writing by me to General Washington, while I was Secretary of State,
+      with sometimes the documents belonging to the case. Some of these are the
+      rough draughts, some press copies, some fair ones. In the earlier part of
+      my acting in that office, I took no other note of the passing
+      transactions; but after a while, I saw the importance of doing it in aid
+      of my memory. Very often, therefore, I made memorandums on loose scraps of
+      paper, taken out of my pocket in the moment, and laid by to be copied fair
+      at leisure, which, however, they hardly ever were. These scraps,
+      therefore, ragged, rubbed, and scribbled as they were, I had bound with
+      the others by a binder, who came into my cabinet, did it under my own eye,
+      and without the opportunity of reading a single paper. At this day, after
+      the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their dates, I have given to
+      the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of the time are passed away,
+      and the reasons of the transactions act alone on the judgment. Some of the
+      informations I had recorded, are now cut out from the rest, because I have
+      seen that they were incorrect, or doubtful, or merely personal or private,
+      with which we have nothing to do. I should perhaps have thought the rest
+      not worth preserving, but for their testimony against the only history of
+      that period, which pretends to have been compiled from authentic and
+      unpublished documents.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      [* These are the volumes containing the Ana to the time that the Author
+      retired from the office of Secretary of State. The official opinions and
+      documents referred to, being very voluminous, are for the most part
+      omitted, to make room for the conversations which the same volumes
+      comprise.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a short review of facts ***** will show, that the contests of that day
+      were contests of principle between the advocates of republican, and those
+      of kingly government, and that, had not the former made the efforts they
+      did, our government would have been even at this early day, a very
+      different thing from what the successful issue of those efforts have made
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alliance between the States under the old Articles of Confederation,
+      for the purpose of joint defence against the aggressions of Great Britain,
+      was found insufficient, as treaties of alliance generally are, to enforce
+      compliance with their mutual stipulations; and these, once fulfilled, that
+      bond was to expire of itself, and each State to become sovereign and
+      independent in all things. Yet, it could not but occur to every one, that
+      these separate independencies, like the petty States of Greece, would be
+      eternally at war with each other, and would become at length the mere
+      partisans and satellites of the leading powers of Europe. All, then, must
+      have looked forward to some further bond of union, which would insure
+      internal peace, and a political system of our own, independent of that of
+      Europe. Whether all should be consolidated into a single government, or
+      each remain independent as to internal matters, and the whole form a
+      single nation as to what was foreign only, and whether that national
+      government should be a monarchy or republic, would of course divide
+      opinions, according to the constitutions, the habits, and the
+      circumstances of each individual. Some officers of the army, as it has
+      always been said and believed, (and Steuben and Knox have ever been named
+      as the leading agents,) trained to monarchy by military habits, are
+      understood to have proposed to General Washington, to decide this great
+      question by the army before its disbandment, and to assume himself the
+      crown, on the assurance of their support. The indignity with which he is
+      said to have scouted this parricide proposition, was equally worthy of his
+      virtue and wisdom. The next effort was, (on suggestion of the same
+      individuals, in the moment of their separation,) the establishment of an
+      hereditary order, under the name of the Cincinnati, ready prepared by that
+      distinction to be engrafted into the future frame of government, and
+      placing General Washington still at their head. The General wrote to me on
+      this subject, while I was in Congress at Annapolis, and an extract from my
+      letter is inserted in 5th Marshall&rsquo;s History, page 28. He afterwards
+      called on me at that place, on his way to a meeting of the society, and
+      after a whole evening of consultation, he left that place fully determined
+      to use all his endeavors for its total suppression. But he found it so
+      firmly riveted in the affections of the members, that, strengthened as
+      they happened to be by an adventitious occurrence of the moment, he could
+      effect no more than the abolition of its hereditary principle. He called
+      again on his return, and explained to me fully the opposition which had
+      been made, the effect of the occurrence from France, and the difficulty
+      with which its duration had been limited to the lives of the present
+      members. Further details will be found among my papers, in his and my
+      letters, and some in the <i>Encyclopédic Méthodique et Dictionnaire
+      d&rsquo;Economic Politique</i>, communicated by myself to M. Meusnier, its
+      author, who had made the establishment of this society the ground, in that
+      work, of a libel on our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The want of some authority which should procure justice to the public
+      creditors, and an observance of treaties with foreign nations, produced,
+      some time after, the call of a convention of the States at Annapolis.
+      Although, at this meeting, a difference of opinion was evident on the
+      question of a republican or kingly government, yet, so general through the
+      States was the sentiment in favor of the former, that the friends of the
+      latter confined themselves to a course of obstruction only, and delay, to
+      every thing proposed; they hoped, that nothing being done, and all things
+      going from bad to worse, a kingly government might be usurped, and
+      submitted to by the people, as better than anarchy and wars, internal and
+      external, the certain consequences of the present want of a general
+      government. The effect of their manoeuvres, with the defective attendance
+      of Deputies from the States, resulted in the measure of calling a more
+      general convention, to be held at Philadelphia. At this the same party
+      exhibited the same practices, and with the same views of preventing a
+      government of concord, which they foresaw would be republican, and of
+      forcing: through anarchy their way to monarchy. But the mass of that
+      convention was too honest, too wise, and too steady, to be baffled and
+      misled by their manoeuvres. One of these was a form of government proposed
+      by Colonel Hamilton, which would have been in fact a compromise between
+      the two parties of royalism and republicanism. According to this, the
+      executive and one branch of the legislature were to be during good
+      behavior, i.e. for life, and the governors of the States were to be named
+      by these two permanent organs. This, however, was rejected; on which
+      Hamilton left the convention, as desperate, and never returned again until
+      near its final conclusion. These opinions and efforts, secret or avowed,
+      of the advocates for monarchy, had begotten great jealousy through the
+      States generally; and this jealousy it was, which excited the strong
+      opposition to the conventional constitution; a jealousy which yielded at
+      last only to a general determination to establish certain amendments, as
+      barriers against a government either monarchical or consolidated. In what
+      passed through the whole period of these conventions, I have gone on the
+      information of those who were members of them, being absent myself on my
+      mission to France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I returned from that mission in the first year of the new government,
+      having landed in Virginia in December, 1789, and proceeded to New York in
+      March, 1790, to enter on the office of Secretary of State. Here,
+      certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had ever
+      contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the first year of
+      her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for reformation.
+      My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be heightened, but it
+      had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The President received me
+      cordially, and my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens,
+      apparently with welcome. The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a
+      stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at once in their familiar
+      society. But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the
+      table conversations filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a
+      preference of kingly over republican government, was evidently the
+      favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I
+      found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the republican side
+      of the question, unless among the guests there chanced to be some member
+      of that party from the legislative Houses. Hamilton&rsquo;s financial system had
+      then passed. It had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular
+      understanding and inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the
+      legislature: for he avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one
+      of two motives only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this
+      country, was out of the question, and the interests, therefore, of the
+      members must be laid hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the
+      executive. And with grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his
+      machine was not without effect; that even in this, the birth of our
+      government, some members were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to
+      their interests, and to look after personal rather than public good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
+      encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
+      fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
+      necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
+      paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
+      individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
+      States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
+      them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of their
+      value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the holders,
+      by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they would never be
+      paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton made no
+      difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent purchasers of
+      this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting these two classes
+      of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions were used to pay the
+      former the full value, and to the latter, the price only which they had
+      paid, with interest. But this would have prevented the game which was to
+      be played, and for which the minds of greedy members were already tutored
+      and prepared. When the trial of strength, on these several efforts, had
+      indicated the form in which the bill would finally pass, this being known
+      within doors sooner than without, and especially, than to those who were
+      in distant parts of the Union, the base scramble began. Couriers and
+      relay-horses by land, and swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in
+      all directions. Active partners and agents were associated and employed in
+      every State, town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up
+      at five shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before
+      the holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
+      par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
+      fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough before.
+      Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of course the
+      chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous instruments
+      of all his enterprises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This game was over, and another was on the carpet at the moment of my
+      arrival; and to this I was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold the
+      candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known by the name of the Assumption.
+      Independently of the debts of Congress, the States had, during the war,
+      contracted separate and heavy debts; and Massachusetts particularly, in an
+      absurd attempt, absurdly conducted, on the British post of Penobscot: and
+      the more debt Hamilton could rake up, the more plunder for his
+      mercenaries. This money, whether wisely or foolishly spent, was pretended
+      to have been spent for general purposes, and ought, therefore, to be paid
+      from the general purse. But it was objected, that nobody knew what these
+      debts were, what their amount, or what their proofs. No matter; we will
+      guess them to be twenty millions. But of these twenty millions, we do not
+      know how much should be reimbursed to one State, or how much to another.
+      No matter; we will guess. And so another scramble was set on foot among
+      the several States, and some got much, some little, some nothing. But the
+      main object was obtained, the phalanx of the Treasury was reinforced by
+      additional recruits. This measure produced the most bitter and angry
+      contests ever known in Congress, before or since the Union of the States.
+      I arrived in the midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to
+      the actors on it, so long absent as to have lost all familiarity with the
+      subject, and as yet unaware of its object, I took no concern in it. The
+      great and trying question, however, was lost in the House of
+      Representatives. So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on
+      its rejection business was suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day
+      to day without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of temper
+      to do business together. The eastern members particularly, who, with Smith
+      from South Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes,
+      threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I was
+      going to the President&rsquo;s one day, I met him in the street. He walked me
+      backwards and forwards before the President&rsquo;s door for half an hour. He
+      painted pathetically the temper into which the legislature had been
+      wrought; the disgust of those who were called the creditor States; the
+      danger of the secession of their members, and the separation of the
+      States. He observed that the members of the administration ought to act in
+      concert; that though this question was not of my department, yet a common
+      duty should make it a common concern; that the President was the centre on
+      which all administrative questions ultimately rested, and that all of us
+      should rally around him, and support, with joint efforts, measures
+      approved by him; and that the question having been lost by a small
+      majority only, it was probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and
+      discretion of some of my friends, might effect a change in the vote, and
+      the machine of government, now suspended, might be again set into motion.
+      I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole subject; that not
+      having yet informed myself of the system of finance adopted, I knew not
+      how far this was a necessary sequence; that undoubtedly, if its rejection
+      endangered a dissolution of our Union at this incipient stage, I should
+      deem that the most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert which all
+      partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I proposed to him, however,
+      to dine with me the next day, and I would invite another friend or two,
+      bring them into conference together, and I thought it impossible that
+      reasonable men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some mutual
+      sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to save the Union.
+      The discussion took place. I could take no part in it but an exhortatory
+      one, because I was a stranger to the circumstances which should govern it.
+      But it was finally agreed, that whatever importance had been attached to
+      the rejection of this proposition, the preservation of the Union and of
+      concord among the States was more important, and that therefore it would
+      be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which,
+      some members should change their votes. But it was observed that this pill
+      would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some
+      concomitant measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them.
+      There had before been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
+      Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac; and it was thought that by
+      giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown permanently
+      afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree the ferment
+      which might be excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac
+      members (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach almost
+      convulsive,) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton undertook to carry
+      the other point. In doing this, the influence he had established over the
+      eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris with those of the middle
+      States, effected his side of the engagement; and so the Assumption was
+      passed, and twenty millions of stock divided among favored States, and
+      thrown in as a pabulum to the stock-jobbing herd. This added to the number
+      of votaries to the Treasury, and made its chief the master of every vote
+      in the legislature, which might give to the government the direction
+      suited to his political views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know well, and so must be understood, that nothing like a majority in
+      Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a division, not
+      very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part of that body,
+      between the parties styled republican and federal. The latter being
+      monarchists in principle, adhered to Hamilton of course, as their leader
+      in that principle, and this mercenary phalanx added to them, insured him
+      always a majority in both Houses: so that the whole action of the
+      legislature was now under the direction of the Treasury. Still the machine
+      was not complete. The effect of the funding system, and of the Assumption,
+      would be temporary; it would be lost with the loss of the individual
+      members whom it had enriched, and some engine of influence more permanent
+      must be contrived, while these myrmidons were yet in place to carry it
+      through all opposition. This engine was the Bank of the United States. All
+      that history is known, so I shall say nothing about it. While the
+      government remained at Philadelphia, a selection of members of both Houses
+      were constantly kept as directors, who, on every question interesting to
+      that institution, or to the views of the federal head, voted at the will
+      of that head; and, together with the stock-holding members, could always
+      make the federal vote that of the majority. By this combination,
+      legislative expositions were given to the constitution, and all the
+      administrative laws were shaped on the model of England and so passed. And
+      from this influence we were not relieved, until the removal from the
+      precincts of the bank, to Washington. Here then was the real ground of the
+      opposition which was made to the course of administration. Its object was
+      to preserve the legislature pure and independent of the executive, to
+      restrain, the administration to republican forms and principles, and not
+      permit the constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be warped,
+      in practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their favorite
+      English model. Nor was this an opposition to General Washington. He was
+      true to the republican charge confided to him; and has solemnly and
+      repeatedly protested to me, in our conversations, that he would lose the
+      last drop of his blood in support of it; and he did this the oftener and
+      with the more earnestness, because he knew my suspicions of Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      designs against it, and wished to quiet them. For he was not aware of the
+      drift, or of the effect of Hamilton&rsquo;s schemes. Unversed in financial
+      projects and calculations and budgets, his approbation of them was
+      bottomed on his confidence in the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
+      corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, for the truth of
+      which I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on his
+      southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth of that
+      month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and War,
+      desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise during his
+      absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested that the
+      Vice-President should also be consulted. This was the only occasion on
+      which that officer was ever requested to take part in a cabinet question.
+      Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited those gentlemen (and the
+      Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to dine with me, in order to
+      confer on the subject. After the cloth was removed, and our question
+      agreed and dismissed, conversation began on other matters, and, by some
+      circumstance, was led to the British constitution, on which Mr. Adams
+      observed, &lsquo;Purge that constitution of its corruption, and give to its
+      popular branch equality of representation, and it would be the most
+      perfect constitution ever devised by the wit of man.&rsquo; Hamilton paused and
+      said, &lsquo;Purge it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality
+      of representation, and it would become an impracticable government: as it
+      stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect
+      government which ever existed.&rsquo; And this was assuredly the exact line
+      which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
+      for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one: the other, for an
+      hereditary King, with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted to his will,
+      and standing between him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a singular
+      character. Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in
+      all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in
+      private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the British example, as to
+      be under thorough conviction that corruption was essential to the
+      government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally been a republican. The
+      glare of royalty and nobility, during his mission to England, had made him
+      believe their fascination a necessary ingredient in government; and
+      Shays&rsquo;s rebellion, not sufficiently understood where he then was, seemed
+      to prove that the absence of want and oppression, was not a sufficient
+      guarantee of order. His book on the American Constitutions having made
+      known his political bias, he was taken up by the monarchical federalists
+      in his absence, and, on his return to the United States, he was by them
+      made to believe that the general disposition of our citizens was favorable
+      to monarchy. He here wrote his Davila, as a supplement to the former work,
+      and his election to the Presidency confirmed him in his errors.
+      Innumerable addresses too, artfully and industriously poured in upon him,
+      deceived him into a confidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity,
+      when the gulph was yawning at his feet, which was to swallow up him and
+      his deceivers. For when General Washington was withdrawn, these <i>energumeni</i>
+      of royalism, kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his
+      firmness, his patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on
+      the car of State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun,
+      drove headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding
+      any thing but the objects they were driving at; until, displaying these
+      fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disbandment of
+      them from the public councils took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the treacheries
+      with which he was surrounded during his administration. He has since
+      thoroughly seen, that his constituents were devoted to republican
+      government, and whether his judgment is resettled on its ancient basis, or
+      not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the will of the majority, and
+      would now, I am persuaded, maintain its republican structure with the zeal
+      and fidelity belonging to his character. For even an enemy has said, &lsquo;He
+      is always an honest man, and often a great one.&rsquo; But in the fervor of the
+      fury and follies of those who made him their stalking-horse, no man who
+      did not witness it can form an idea of their unbridled madness, and the
+      terrorism with which they surrounded themselves. The horrors of the French
+      revolution, then raging, aided them mainly, and using that as a raw-head
+      and bloody-bones, they were enabled by their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in
+      which &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; was a leading mountebank, their tales of
+      tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody-buoys, and pulpit-lyings and
+      slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardiners, their Osgoods, and
+      Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the firmest breasts. Their Attorney
+      General had the impudence to say to a republican member, that deportation
+      must be resorted to, of which, said he, &lsquo;you republicans have set the
+      example&rsquo;; thus daring to identify us with the murderous Jacobins of
+      France. These transactions, now recollected but as dreams of the night,
+      were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us from their liberticide
+      effect, but the unyielding opposition of those firm spirits who sternly
+      maintained their post in defiance of terror, until their fellow-citizens
+      could be aroused to their own danger, and rally and rescue the standard of
+      the constitution. This has been happily done. Federalism and monarchism
+      have languished from that moment, until their treasonable combinations
+      with the enemies of their country during the late war, their plots of
+      dismembering the Union, and their Hartford Convention, have consigned them
+      to the tomb of the dead: and I fondly hope, &lsquo;we may now truly say, We are
+      all republicans, all federalists,&rsquo; and that the motto of the standard to
+      which our country will for ever rally, will be, &lsquo;Federal union, and
+      republican government&rsquo;: and sure I am we may say, that we are indebted for
+      the preservation of this point of ralliance, to that opposition of which
+      so injurious an idea is so artfully insinuated and excited in this
+      history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much of this relation is notorious to the world; and many intimate proofs
+      of it will be found in these notes. From the moment where they end, of my
+      retiring from the administration, the federalists * got unchecked hold of
+      General Washington. His memory was already sensibly impaired by age, the
+      firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable, was beginning to
+      relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor, a desire for
+      tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let others act, and
+      even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he was disgusted with
+      atrocities of the French revolution, and was not sufficiently aware of the
+      difference between the rabble who were used as instruments of their
+      perpetration, and the steady and rational character of the American
+      people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The opposition too of
+      the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous support of the
+      federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of theirs, had made him
+      all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I disapproved of that treaty,
+      and copiously nourished with falsehoods by a malignant neighbor of mine,
+      who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he had become alienated from
+      myself personally, as from the republican body generally of his
+      fellow-citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams and Mr. Carroll,
+      over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we must for ever weep as
+      monuments of mortal decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson. February 4th, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * See conversation with General Washington, of October 1,1792,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ****
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 13th, 1791. Notes of a conversation between Alexander Hamilton
+      and Thomas Jefferson. Th: Jefferson mentioned to him a letter received
+      from John Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever
+      entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary executive, or
+      introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, &amp;c. See his letter.
+      Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams&rsquo;s writings, and most particularly
+      Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the present government, declared in
+      substance as follows: &lsquo;I own it is my own opinion, though I do not publish
+      it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government is not that which will
+      answer the ends of society, by giving stability and protection to its
+      rights, and that it will probably be found expedient to go into the
+      British form. However, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for
+      giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success,
+      indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore, at present,
+      success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and there are
+      still other and other stages of improvement, which, if the present does
+      not succeed, may be tried, and ought to be tried, before we give up the
+      republican form altogether; for that mind must be really depraved, which
+      would not prefer the equality of political rights, which is the foundation
+      of pure republicanism, if it can be obtained consistently with order.
+      Therefore, whoever by his writings disturbs the present order of things,
+      is really blameable, however pure his intentions may be, and he was sure
+      Mr. Adams&rsquo;s were pure.&rsquo; This is the substance of a declaration made in
+      much more lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for
+      a private conversation between two, and as if intended to qualify some
+      less guarded expressions which had been dropped on former occasions. Th:
+      Jefferson has committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      leaving the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 25th, 1791. Colonel Gunn (of Georgia), dining the other day
+      with Colonel Hamilton, said to him, with that plain freedom he is known to
+      use, &lsquo;I wish, Sir, you would advise your friend King to observe some kind
+      of consistency in his votes. There has been scarcely a question before the
+      Senate on which he has not voted both ways. On the representation bill,
+      for instance, he first voted for the proposition of the Representatives,
+      and ultimately voted against it.&rsquo; &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; says Colonel Hamilton, &lsquo;I &lsquo;ll
+      tell you as to that, Colonel Gunn, that it never was intended that bill
+      should pass.&rsquo; Gunn told this to Butler, who told it to Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 28th, 1792. I was to have been with him long enough before
+      three o&rsquo;clock (which was the hour and day he received visits) to have
+      opened to him a proposition for doubling the velocity of the post-riders,
+      who now travel about fifty miles a day, and might, without difficulty, go
+      one hundred, and for taking measures (by way-bills) to know where the
+      delay is, when there is any. I was delayed by business, so as to have
+      scarcely time to give him the outlines. I run over them rapidly, and
+      observed afterwards, that I had hitherto never spoken to him on the
+      subject of the post-office, not knowing whether it was considered as a
+      revenue law, or a law for the general accommodation of the citizens: that
+      the law just passed seemed to have removed the doubt, by declaring that
+      the whole profits of the office should be applied to extending the posts,
+      and that even the past profits should be refunded by the Treasury for the
+      same purpose: that I therefore conceived it was now in the department of
+      the Secretary of State: that I thought it would be advantageous so to
+      declare it for another reason, to wit, that the department of the Treasury
+      possessed already such an influence as to swallow up the whole executive
+      powers, and that even the future Presidents (not supported by the weight
+      of character which himself possessed) would not be able to make head
+      against this department. That in urging this measure I had certainly no
+      personal interest, since, if I was supposed to have any appetite for
+      power, yet, as my career would certainly be exactly as short as his own,
+      the intervening time was too short to be an object. My real wish was to
+      avail the public of every occasion, during the residue of the President&rsquo;s
+      period, to place things on a safe footing. He was now called on to attend
+      his company, and he desired me to come and breakfast with him the next
+      morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 29th. I did so; and after breakfast we retired to his room,
+      and I unfolded my plan for the post-office, and after such an approbation
+      of it as he usually permitted himself on the first presentment of any
+      idea, and desiring me to commit it to writing, he, during that pause of
+      conversation which follows a business closed, said, in an affectionate
+      tone, that he had felt much concern at an expression which dropped from me
+      yesterday, and which marked my intention of retiring when he should. That
+      as to himself, many motives obliged him to it. He had, through the whole
+      course of the war, and most particularly at the close of it, uniformly
+      declared his resolution to retire from public affairs, and never to act in
+      any public office; that he had retired under that firm resolution: that
+      the government however, which had been formed, being found evidently too
+      inefficacious, and it being supposed that his aid was of some consequence
+      towards bringing the people to consent to one of sufficient efficacy for
+      their own good, he consented to come into the convention, and on the same
+      motive, after much pressing, to take a part in the new government, and get
+      it under way. That were he to continue longer, it might give room to say,
+      that having tasted the sweets of office, he could not do without them:
+      that he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health less firm, his
+      memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps the other faculties of his
+      mind showing a decay to others of which he was insensible himself; that
+      this apprehension particularly oppressed him: that he found, moreover, his
+      activity lessened, business therefore more irksome, and tranquillity and
+      retirement become an irresistible passion. That, however he felt himself
+      obliged, for these reasons, to retire from the government, yet he should
+      consider it as unfortunate, if that should bring on the retirement of the
+      great officers of the government, and that this might produce a shock on
+      the public mind of dangerous consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him that no man had ever had less desire of entering into public
+      offices than myself; that the circumstance of a perilous war, which
+      brought every thing into danger, and called for all the services which
+      every citizen could render, had induced me to undertake the administration
+      of the government of Virginia; that I had both before and after refused
+      repeated appointments of Congress to go abroad in that sort of office,
+      which, if I had consulted my own gratification, would always have been the
+      most agreeable to me; that at the end of two years, I resigned the
+      government of Virginia, and retired with a firm resolution never more to
+      appear in public life; that a domestic loss, however, happened, and made
+      me fancy that absence and a change of scene for a time might be expedient
+      for me; that I therefore accepted a foreign appointment, limited to two
+      years; that at the close of that, Doctor Franklin having left France, I
+      was appointed to supply his place, which I had accepted, and though I
+      continued in it three or four years, it was under the constant idea of
+      remaining only a year or two longer; that the revolution in France coming
+      on, I had so interested myself in the event of that, that when obliged to
+      bring my family home, I had still an idea of returning and awaiting the
+      close of that, to fix the era of my final retirement; that on my arrival
+      here I found he had appointed me to my present office; that he knew I had
+      not come into it without some reluctance; that it was, on my part, a
+      sacrifice of inclination to the opinion that I might be more serviceable
+      here than in France, and with a firm resolution in my mind, to indulge my
+      constant wish for retirement at no very distant day; that when, therefore,
+      I had received his letter, written from Mount Vernon, on his way to
+      Carolina and Georgia (April the 1st, 1791), and discovered, from an
+      expression in that, that he meant to retire from the government ere long,
+      and as to the precise epoch there could be no doubt, my mind was
+      immediately made up, to make that the epoch of my own retirement from
+      those labors of which I was heartily tired. That, however, I did not
+      believe there was any idea in either of my brethren in the administration
+      of retiring; that on the contrary, I had perceived at a late meeting of
+      the trustees of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury had
+      developed the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in
+      its view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, that he considered the Treasury department as a much more limited
+      one, going only to the single object of revenue, while that of the
+      Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the objects of administration,
+      was much more important, and the retirement of the officer therefore,
+      would be more noticed: that though the government had set out with a
+      pretty general good will of the public, yet that symptoms of
+      dissatisfaction had lately shown themselves far beyond what he could have
+      expected, and to what height these might arise, in case of too great a
+      change in the administration, could not be foreseen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I told him that in my opinion, there was only a single source of these
+      discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to spread themselves over the
+      War department also, yet I considered that as an overflowing only from
+      their real channel, which would never have taken place, if they had not
+      first been generated in another department, to wit, that of the Treasury.
+      That a system had there been contrived, for deluging the States with
+      paper-money instead of gold and silver, for withdrawing our citizens from
+      the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and other branches of
+      useful industry, to occupy themselves and their capitals in a species of
+      gambling, destructive of morality, and which had introduced its poison
+      into the government itself. That it was a fact, as certainly known as that
+      he and I were then conversing, that particular members of the legislature,
+      while those laws were on the carpet, had feathered their nests with paper,
+      had then voted for the laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of
+      their talents, and instrumentality of their offices, to the establishment
+      and enlargement of this system; that they had chained it about our necks
+      for a great length of time, and in order to keep the game in their hands,
+      had, from time to time, aided in making such legislative constructions of
+      the constitution, as made it a very different thing from what the people
+      thought they had submitted to; that they had now brought forward a
+      proposition far beyond every one ever yet advanced, and to which the eyes
+      of many were turned, as the decision which was to let us know, whether we
+      live under a limited or an unlimited government. He asked me to what
+      proposition I alluded; I answered, to that in the report on manufactures,
+      which, under color of giving bounties for the encouragement of particular
+      manufactures, meant to establish the doctrine, that the power given by the
+      constitution to collect taxes to provide for the general welfare of the
+      United States, permitted Congress to take every thing under their
+      management which they should deem for the public welfare, and which is
+      susceptible of the application of money; consequently, that the subsequent
+      enumeration of their powers was not the description to which resort must
+      be had, and did not at all constitute the limits of their authority: that
+      this was a very different question from that of the bank, which was
+      thought an incident to an enumerated power: that, therefore, this decision
+      was expected with great anxiety; that, indeed, I hoped the proposition
+      would be rejected, believing there was a majority in both Houses against
+      it, and that if it should be, it would be considered as a proof that
+      things were returning into their true channel: and that, at any rate, I
+      looked forward to the broad representation which would shortly take place,
+      for keeping the general constitution on its true ground; and that this
+      would remove a great deal of the discontent which had shown itself. The
+      conversation ended with this last topic. It is here stated nearly as much
+      at length as it really was; the expressions preserved where I could
+      recollect them, and their substance always faithfully stated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March 1, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 2nd of January, 1792, Messrs. Fitzsimmons and Gerry (among others)
+      dined with me. These two staid, with a Mr. Learned of Connecticut, after
+      the company was gone. We got on the subject of references by the
+      legislature to the Heads of departments, considering their mischief in
+      every direction. Gerry and Fitzsimmons clearly opposed to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days afterwards (January the 4th), Mr. Bourne from Rhode Island
+      presented a memorial from his State, complaining of inequality in the
+      Assumption, and moved to refer it to the Secretary of the Treasury.
+      Fitzsimmons, Gerry, and others opposed it; but it was carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 19th. Fitzsimmons moved, that the President of the United
+      States be requested to direct the Secretary of the Treasury, to lay before
+      the House information to enable the legislature to judge of the additional
+      revenue necessary on the increase of the military establishment. The
+      House, on debate, struck out the words, &lsquo;President of the United States.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 7th. The subject resumed. An animated debate took place on the
+      tendency of references to the Heads of departments; and it seemed that a
+      great majority would be against it: the House adjourned. Treasury greatly
+      alarmed, and much industry supposed to be used before next morning, when
+      it was brought on again, and debated through the day, and on the question,
+      the Treasury carried it by thirty-one to twenty-seven: but deeply wounded,
+      since it was seen that all Pennsylvania, except Jacobs, voted against the
+      reference; that Tucker of South Carolina voted for it, and Sumpter
+      absented himself, debauched for the moment only, because of the connection
+      of the question with a further assumption which South Carolina favored;
+      but showing that they never were to be counted on among the Treasury
+      votes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some others absented themselves. Gerry changed sides. On the whole, it
+      showed that Treasury influence was tottering. Committed to writing this
+      10th of March, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th, 1792. Consulted verbally by the President, on whom a
+      committee of the Senate (Izard, Morris, and King) are to wait to-morrow
+      morning, to know whether he will think it proper to redeem our Algerine
+      captives, and make a treaty with the Algerines, on the single vote of the
+      Senate, without taking that of the Representatives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My opinions run on the following heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must go to Algiers with cash in our hands. Where shall we get it? By
+      loan? By converting money now in the treasury?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably a loan might be obtained on the President&rsquo;s authority: but as
+      this could not be repaid without a subsequent act of legislature, the
+      Representatives might refuse it. So if money in the treasury be converted,
+      they may refuse to sanction it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subsequent approbation of the Senate being necessary to validate a
+      treaty, they expect to be consulted beforehand, if the case admits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So the subsequent act of the Representatives being necessary where money
+      is given, why should not they expect to be consulted in like manner, when
+      the case admits? A treaty is a law of the land. But prudence will point
+      out this difference to be attended to in making them; viz. where a treaty
+      contains such articles only as will go into execution of themselves, or be
+      carried into execution by the judges, they may be safely made; but where
+      there are articles which require a law to be passed afterwards by the
+      legislature, great caution is requisite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For example; the consular convention with France required a very small
+      legislative regulation. This convention was unanimously ratified by the
+      Senate. Yet the same identical men threw by the law to enforce it at the
+      last session, and the Representatives at this session have placed it among
+      the laws which they may take up or not, at their own convenience, as if
+      that was a higher motive than the public faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Therefore, against hazarding this transaction without the sanction of both
+      Houses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President concurred. The Senate express the motive for this
+      proposition, to be a fear that the Representatives would not keep the
+      secret. He has no opinion of the secrecy of the Senate. In this very case,
+      Mr. Izard made the communication to him, sitting next to him at table, on
+      one hand, while a lady (Mrs. McLane) was on his other hand, and the French
+      minister next to her; and as Mr. Izard got on with his communication, his
+      voice kept rising, and his stutter bolting the words out loudly at
+      intervals, so that the minister might hear if he would. He said he had a
+      great mind at one time to have got up, in order to put a stop to Mr.
+      Izard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th, 1792. Mr. Sterret tells me that sitting round a fire the
+      other day with four or five others, Mr. Smith (of South Carolina) was one.
+      Somebody mentioned that the murderers of Hogeboom, sheriff of Columbia
+      county, New York, were acquitted. &lsquo;Ay,&rsquo; says Smith, &lsquo;this is what comes of
+      your damned trial by jury.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1791. Towards the latter end of November, Hamilton had drawn Ternant into
+      a conversation on the subject of the treaty of commerce recommended by the
+      National Assembly of France to be negotiated with us, and, as he had no
+      ready instructions on the subject, he led him into a proposal that Ternant
+      should take the thing up as a volunteer with me, that we should arrange
+      conditions, and let them go for confirmation or refusal. Hamilton
+      communicated this to the President, who came into it, and proposed it to
+      me. I disapproved of it, observing, that such a volunteer project would be
+      binding on us, and not them; that it would enable them to find out how far
+      we would go, and avail themselves of it. However, the President thought it
+      worth trying, and I acquiesced. I prepared a plan of treaty for exchanging
+      the privileges of native subjects, and fixing all duties for ever as they
+      now stood. Hamilton did not like this way of fixing the duties, because,
+      he said, many articles here would bear to be raised, and therefore, he
+      would prepare a tariff. He did so, raising duties for the French, from
+      twenty-five to fifty per cent. So they were to give us the privileges of
+      native subjects, and we, as a compensation, were to make them pay higher
+      duties. Hamilton, having made his arrangements with Hammond to pretend
+      that though he had no powers to conclude a treaty of commerce, yet his
+      general commission authorized him to enter into the discussion of one,
+      then proposed to the President at one of our meetings, that the business
+      should be taken up with Hammond in the same informal way. I now discovered
+      the trap which he had laid, by first getting the President into the step
+      with Ternant. I opposed the thing warmly. Hamilton observed, if we did it
+      with Ternant we should also with Hammond. The President thought this
+      reasonable. I desired him to recollect, I had been against it with
+      Ternant, and only acquiesced under his opinion. So the matter went off as
+      to both. His scheme evidently was, to get us engaged first with Ternant,
+      merely that he might have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with
+      Hammond, taking care, at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, to
+      render it impossible we should come to any conclusion with Ternant:
+      probably meaning, at the same time, to propose terms so favorable to Great
+      Britain, as would attach us to that country by treaty. On one of those
+      occasions he asserted, that our commerce with Great Britain and her
+      colonies was put on a much more favorable footing than with France and her
+      colonies. I therefore prepared the tabular comparative view of the
+      footing-of our commerce with those nations, which see among my papers. See
+      also my project of a treaty and Hamilton&rsquo;s tariff. Committed to writing
+      March the 11th, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was observable, that whenever, at any of our consultations, any thing
+      was proposed as to Great Britain, Hamilton had constantly ready something
+      which Mr. Hammond had communicated to him, which suited the subject and
+      proved the intimacy of their communications; insomuch, that I believe he
+      communicated to Hammond all our views, and knew from him, in return, the
+      views of the British court. Many evidences of this occurred; I will state
+      some. I delivered to the President my report of instructions for
+      Carmichael and Short, on the subject of navigation, boundary, and
+      commerce, and desired him to submit it to Hamilton. Hamilton made several
+      just criticisms on different parts of it. But where I asserted that the
+      United States had no right to alienate an inch of the territory of any
+      State, he attacked and denied the doctrine. See my report, his note, and
+      my answer. A few days after came to hand Kirkland&rsquo;s letter, informing us
+      that the British, at Niagara, expected to run a new line between
+      themselves and us; and the reports of Pond and Stedman, informing us it
+      was understood at Niagara, that Captain Stevenson had been sent here by
+      Simcoe to settle that plan with Hammond. Hence Hamilton&rsquo;s attack of the
+      principle I had laid down, in order to prepare the way for this new line.
+      See minute of March the 9th. Another proof. At one of our consultations,
+      about the last of December, I mentioned that I wished to give in my report
+      on commerce, in which I could not avoid recommending a commercial
+      retaliation against Great Britain. Hamilton opposed it violently: and
+      among other arguments, observed, that it was of more importance to us to
+      have the posts than to commence a commercial war; that this, and this
+      alone, would free us from the expense of the Indian wars; that it would
+      therefore be the height of imprudence in us, while treating for the
+      surrender of the posts, to engage in any thing which would irritate them;
+      that if we did so, they would naturally say, &lsquo;These people mean war; let
+      us therefore hold what we have in our hands.&rsquo; This argument, struck me
+      forcibly, and I said, &lsquo;If there is a hope of obtaining the posts, I agree
+      it would be imprudent to risk that hope by a commercial retaliation. I
+      will, therefore, wait till Mr. Hammond gives me in his assignment of
+      breaches, and if that gives a glimmering of hope that they mean to
+      surrender the posts, I will not give in my report till the next session.&rsquo;
+      Now, Hammond had received my assignment of breaches on the 15th of
+      December, and about the 22nd or 23rd had made me an apology for not having
+      been able to send me his counter-assignment of breaches; but in terms
+      which showed I might expect it in a few days. From the moment it escaped
+      my lips in the presence of Hamilton, that I would not give in my report
+      till I should see Hammond&rsquo;s counter-complaint, and judge if there was a
+      hope of the posts, Hammond never said a word to me on any occasion, as to
+      the time he should be ready. At length the President got out of patience,
+      and insisted I should jog him. This I did on the 21st of February, at the
+      President&rsquo;s assembly: he immediately promised I should have it in a few
+      days, and accordingly, on the 5th of March I received it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written March the 11th, 1792.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 12th, 1792. Sent for by the President, and desired to bring the
+      letter he had signed to the King of France. Went. He said the House of
+      Representatives had, on Saturday, taken up the communication he had made
+      of the King&rsquo;s letter to him, and come to a vote in their own name; that he
+      did not expect this when he sent this message and the letter, otherwise he
+      would have sent the message without the letter, as I had proposed. That he
+      apprehended the legislature would be endeavoring to invade the executive.
+      I told him, I had understood the House had resolved to request him to join
+      their congratulations to his on the completion and acceptance of the
+      constitution; on which part of the vote, there were only two dissentients
+      (Barnwell and Benson); that the vote was thirty-five to sixteen on the
+      part which expressed an approbation of the wisdom of the constitution;
+      that in the letter he had signed, I had avoided saying a word in
+      approbation of the constitution, not knowing whether the King, in his
+      heart, approved it. &lsquo;Why, indeed,&rsquo; says he,&rsquo; I begin to doubt very much of
+      the affairs of France; there are papers from London as late as the 10th of
+      January, which represent them as going into confusion. He read over the
+      letter he had signed, found there was not a word which could commit his
+      judgment about the constitution, and gave it to me back again. This is one
+      of many proofs I have had, of his want of confidence in the event of the
+      French revolution. The fact is, that Gouverneur Morris, a highflying
+      monarchy man, shutting his eyes and his faith to every fact against his
+      wishes, and believing every thing he desires to be true, has kept the
+      President&rsquo;s mind constantly poisoned with his forebodings. That the
+      President wishes the revolution may be established, I believe from several
+      indications. I remember, when I received the news of the King&rsquo;s flight and
+      capture, I first told him of it at his assembly. I never saw him so much
+      dejected by any event in my life. He expressed clearly, on this occasion,
+      his disapprobation of the legislature referring things to the Heads of
+      departments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written March the 12th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die. Ten o&rsquo;clock, A. M. The preceding was about nine o&rsquo;clock. The
+      President now sends Lear to me, to ask what answer he shall give to the
+      committee, and particularly, whether he shall add to it, that, &lsquo;in making
+      the communication, it was not his expectation that the House should give
+      any answer.&rsquo; I told Mr. Lear, that I thought the House had a right,
+      independently of legislation, to express sentiments on other subjects.
+      That when these subjects did not belong to any other branch particularly,
+      they would publish them by their own authority; that in the present case,
+      which respected a foreign nation, the President being the organ of our
+      nation with other nations, the House would satisfy their duty, if, instead
+      of a direct communication, they should pass their sentiments through the
+      President: that if expressing a sentiment were really an invasion of the
+      executive power, it was so faint a one, that it would be difficult to
+      demonstrate it to the public, and to a public partial to the French
+      revolution, and not disposed to considered the approbation of it from any
+      quarter is improper. That the Senate, indeed, had given many indications
+      of their wish to invade the executive power: the Representatives had done
+      it in one case, which was indeed mischievous and alarming; that of giving
+      orders to the Heads of the executive departments, without consulting the
+      President; but that the late vote for directing the Secretary of the
+      Treasury to report ways and means, though carried, was carried by so small
+      a majority, and with the aid of members so notoriously under local
+      influence on that question, as to give a hope that the practice would be
+      arrested, and the constitutional course be taken up, of asking the
+      President to have information laid before them. But that in the present
+      instance, it was so far from being clearly an invasion of the executive,
+      and would be so little approved by the general voice, that I could not
+      advise the President to express any dissatisfaction at the vote of the
+      House; and I gave Lear, in writing, what I thought should be his answers.
+      See it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 31st. A meeting at the President&rsquo;s; present, Thomas Jefferson,
+      Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph. The subject was the
+      resolution of the House of Representatives, of March the 27th, to appoint
+      a committee to inquire into the causes of the failure of the late
+      expedition under Major General St. Clair, with the power to call for such
+      persons, papers, and records, as may be necessary to assist their
+      inquiries. The committee had written to Knox for the original letters,
+      instructions, &amp;tc. The President had called us to consult, merely
+      because it was the first example, and he wished that so far as it should
+      become a precedent, it should be rightly conducted. He neither
+      acknowledged nor denied, nor even doubted the propriety of what the House
+      were doing, for he had not thought upon it, nor was acquainted with
+      subjects of this kind: he could readily conceive there might be papers of
+      so secret a nature, as that they ought not to be given up. We were not
+      prepared, and wished time to think and inquire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 2nd. Met again at the President&rsquo;s, on the same subject. We had
+      all considered, and were of one mind, first, that the House was an
+      inquest, and therefore might institute inquiries. Secondly, that it might
+      call for papers generally. Thirdly, that the executive ought to
+      communicate such papers as the public good would permit, and ought to
+      refuse those, the disclosure of which would injure the public:
+      consequently were to exercise a discretion. Fourthly, that neither the
+      committee nor House had a right to call on the Head of a department, who
+      and whose papers were under the President alone; but that the committee
+      should instruct their chairman to move the House to address the President.
+      We had principally consulted the proceedings of the Commons in the case of
+      Sir Robert Walpole, 13 Chandler&rsquo;s Debates. For the first point, seepages
+      161, 170, 172,183, 187,207; for the second, pages 153, 173,207; for the
+      third, 81, 173, Appendix, page 44; for the fourth, page 246. Note:
+      Hamilton agreed with us in all these points, except as to the power of the
+      House to call on Heads of departments. He observed, that as to his
+      department, the act constituting it had made it subject to Congress, in
+      some points, but he thought himself not so far subject, as to be obliged
+      to produce all the papers they might call for. They might demand secrets
+      of a very mischievous nature. [Here I thought he began to fear they would
+      go to examining how far their own members and other persons in the
+      government had been dabbling in stocks, banks, &amp;c. and that he
+      probably would choose in this case to deny their power; and, in short, he
+      endeavored to place himself subject to the House, when the executive
+      should propose what he did not like, and subject to the executive, when
+      the House should propose any thing disagreeable.] I observed here a
+      difference between the British parliament and our Congress; that the
+      former was a legislature, an inquest, and a council (S. C. page 91.) for
+      the King. The latter was, by the constitution, a legislature and an
+      inquest, but not a council. Finally agreed, to speak separately to the
+      members of the committee, and bring them by persuasion into the right
+      channel. It was agreed in this case, that there was not a paper which
+      might not be properly produced; that copies only should be sent, with an
+      assurance, that if they should desire it, a clerk should attend with the
+      originals to be verified by themselves. The committee were Fitzsimmons,
+      Steele, Mercer, Clarke, Sedgwick, Giles, and Vining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 9th, 1792. The President had wished to redeem our captives at
+      Algiers, and to make a peace with them on paying an annual tribute. The
+      Senate were willing to approve this, but unwilling to have the lower House
+      applied to previously to furnish the money; they wished the President to
+      take the money from the treasury, or open a loan for it. They thought that
+      to consult the Representatives on one occasion, would give them a handle
+      always to claim it, and would let them into a participation of the power
+      of making treaties, which the constitution had given exclusively to the
+      President and Senate. They said, too, that if the particular sum was noted
+      by the Representatives, it would not be a secret. The President had no
+      confidence in the secrecy of the Senate, and did not choose to take money
+      from the treasury or to borrow. But he agreed he would enter into
+      provisional treaties with the Algerines, not to be binding on us till
+      ratified here. I prepared questions for consultation with the Senate, and
+      added, that the Senate were to be apprized, that on the return of the
+      provisional treaty, and after they should advise the ratification, he
+      would not have the seal put to it till the two Houses should vote the
+      money. He asked me, if the treaty stipulating a sum and ratified by him,
+      with the advice of the Senate, would not be good under the constitution,
+      and obligatory on the Representatives to furnish the money. I answered, it
+      certainly would, and that it would be the duty of the Representatives to
+      raise the money; but that they might decline to do what was their duty,
+      and I thought it might be incautious to commit himself by a ratification
+      with a foreign nation, where he might be left in the lurch in the
+      execution: it was possible too, to conceive a treaty, which it would not
+      be their duty to provide for. He said that he did not like throwing too
+      much into democratic hands, that if they would not do what the
+      constitution called on them to do, the government would be at an end, and
+      must then assume another form. He stopped here; and I kept silence to see
+      whether he would say any thing more in the same line, or add any
+      qualifying expression to soften what he had said: but he did neither. I
+      had observed, that wherever the agency of either, or both Houses would be
+      requisite subsequent to a treaty, to carry it into effect, it would be
+      prudent to consult them previously, if the occasion admitted. That thus it
+      was, we were in the habit of consulting the Senate previously, when the
+      occasion permitted, because their subsequent ratification would be
+      necessary. That there was the same reason for consulting the lower House
+      previously, where they were to be called on afterwards, and especially in
+      the case of money, as they held the purse-strings, and would be jealous of
+      them. However, he desired me to strike out the intimation that the seal
+      would not be put till both Houses should have voted the money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 6th. The President called on me before breakfast, and first
+      introduced some other matter, then fell on the representation bill, which
+      he had now in his possession for the tenth day. I had before given him my
+      opinion in writing, that the method of apportionment was contrary to the
+      constitution. He agreed that it was contrary to the common understanding
+      of that instrument, and to what was understood at the time by the makers
+      of it: that, yet it would bear the construction which the bill put, and he
+      observed that the vote for and against the bill was perfectly
+      geographical, a northern against a southern vote, and he feared he should
+      be thought to be taking side with a southern party. I admitted the motive
+      of delicacy, but that it should not induce him to do wrong: urged the
+      dangers to which the scramble for the fractionary members would always
+      lead. He here expressed his fear that there would, ere long, be a
+      separation of the Union; that the public mind seemed dissatisfied and
+      tending to this. He went home, sent for Randolph, the Attorney General,
+      desired him to get Mr. Madison immediately and come to me, and if we three
+      concurred in opinion that he should negative the bill, he desired to hear
+      nothing more about it, but that we would draw the instrument for him to
+      sign. They came. Our minds had been before made up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We drew the instrument. Randolph carried it to him, and told him we all
+      concurred in it. He walked with him to the door, and as if he still wished
+      to get off, he said, &lsquo;And you say you approve of this yourself.&rsquo; &lsquo;Yes,
+      Sir,&rsquo; says Randolph, &lsquo;I do upon my honor.&rsquo; He sent it to the House of
+      Representatives instantly. A few of the hottest friends of the bill
+      expressed passion, but the majority were satisfied, and both in and out of
+      doors it gave pleasure to have, at length, an instance of the negative
+      being exercised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Written this the 9th of April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July the 10th, 1792. My letter of &mdash;&mdash; to the President,
+      directed to him at Mount Vernon, had not found him there, but came to him
+      here. He told me of this, and that he would take an occasion of speaking
+      with me on the subject. He did so this day. He began by observing that he
+      had put it off from day to day, because the subject was painful; to wit,
+      his remaining in office, which that letter solicited. He said that the
+      declaration he had made when he quitted his military command, of never
+      again entering into public life, was sincere. That, however, when he was
+      called on to come forward to set the present government in motion, it
+      appeared to him that circumstances were so changed as to justify a change
+      in his resolution: he was made to believe that in two years all would be
+      well in motion, and he might retire. At the end of two years he found some
+      things still to be done. At the end of the third year, he thought it was
+      not worth while to disturb the course of things, as in one year more his
+      office would expire, and he was decided then to retire. Now he was told
+      there would still be danger in it. Certainly, if he thought so, he would
+      conquer his longing for retirement. But he feared it would be said his
+      former professions of retirement had been mere affectation, and that he
+      was like other men, when once in office he could not quit it. He was
+      sensible, too, of a decay of his hearing, perhaps his other faculties
+      might fall off and he not be sensible of it. That with respect to the
+      existing causes of uneasiness, he thought there we&rsquo;re suspicions against a
+      particular party, which had been carried a great deal too far: there might
+      be desires, but he did not believe there were designs to change the form
+      of government into a monarchy: that there might be a few who wished it in
+      the higher walks of life, particularly in the great cities; but that the
+      main body of the people in the eastern States were as steadily for
+      republicanism as in the southern. That the pieces lately published, and
+      particularly in Freneau&rsquo;s paper, seemed to have in view the exciting
+      opposition to the government. That this had taken place in Pennsylvania as
+      to the excise-law, according to information he had received from General
+      Hand. That they tended to produce a separation of the Union, the most
+      dreadful of all calamities, and that whatever tended to produce anarchy,
+      tended, of course, to produce a resort to monarchical government. He
+      considered those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool
+      indeed to swallow the little sugar-plumbs here and there thrown out to
+      him. That in condemning the administration of the government, they
+      condemned him, for if they thought there were measures pursued contrary to
+      his sentiments, they must conceive him too careless to attend to them, or
+      too stupid to understand them. That though, indeed, he had signed many
+      acts which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put his
+      name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. That as to
+      the bank, which had been an act of so much complaint, until there was some
+      infallible criterion of reason, a difference of opinion must be tolerated.
+      He did not believe the discontents extended far from the seat of
+      government. He had seen and spoken with many people in Maryland and
+      Virginia in his late journey. He found the people contented and happy. He
+      wished, however, to be better informed on this head. If the discontents
+      were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the desire that he
+      should remain in the government was not general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My observations to him tended principally to enforce the topics of my
+      letter. I will not, therefore, repeat them, except where they produced
+      observations from him. I said, that the two great complaints were, that
+      the national debt was unnecessarily increased, and that it had furnished
+      the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature; that he must
+      know, and every body knew, there was a considerable squadron in both,
+      whose votes were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest, that the
+      names of a weighty number were known, and several others suspected on good
+      grounds. That on examining the votes of these men, they would be found
+      uniformly for every Treasury measure, and that as most of these measures
+      had been carried by small majorities, they were carried by these very
+      votes. That, therefore, it was a cause of just uneasiness, when we saw a
+      legislature legislating for their own interests, in opposition to those of
+      the people. He said not a word on the corruption of the legislature, but
+      took up the other point, defended the Assumption, and argued that it had
+      not increased the debt, for that all of it was honest debt. He justified
+      the excise-law, as one of the best laws which could be passed, as nobody
+      would pay the tax who did not choose to do it. With respect to the
+      increase of the debt by the Assumption, I observed to him, that what was
+      meant and objected to was, that it increased the debt of the General
+      Government, and carried it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the
+      balances had been settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their
+      deficiencies to the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and
+      by resources of taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by
+      a direct tax in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it
+      would be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
+      argument with him on those points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I had
+      the following conversation with the President. He opened it by expressing
+      his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in the letter I
+      had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said, that he should
+      be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he was in office, and
+      that he could not see where he should find another character to fill my
+      office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether to retire in March or
+      not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it. Nobody disliked more the
+      ceremonies of his office, and he had not the least taste or gratification
+      in the execution of its functions. That he was happy at home alone, and
+      that his presence there was now peculiarly called for by the situation of
+      Major Washington, whom he thought irrecoverable, and should he get well,
+      he would remove into another part of the country, which might better agree
+      with him. That he did not believe his presence necessary; that there were
+      other characters who would do the business as well or better. Still,
+      however, if his aid was thought necessary to save the cause to which he
+      had devoted his life principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer
+      continuance. That he therefore reserved himself for future decision, as
+      his declaration would be in time if made a month before the day of
+      election. He had desired Mr. Lear to find out from conversation, without
+      appearing to make the inquiry, whether any other person would be desired
+      by any body. He had informed him, he judged from conversations that it was
+      the universal desire he should continue, and he believed that those who
+      expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language of
+      apprehension, and not of desire. But this, says he, is only from the
+      north; it may be very different in the south. I thought this meant as an
+      opening to me to say what was the sentiment in the south, from which
+      quarter I came. I told him, that as far as I knew, there was but one voice
+      there, which was for his continuance. That as to myself, I had ever
+      preferred the pursuits of private life to those of public, which had
+      nothing in them agreeable to me. I explained to him the circumstances of
+      the war which had first called me into public life, and those following
+      the war, which had called me from a retirement on which I had determined.
+      That I had constantly kept my eye on my own home, and could no longer
+      refrain from returning to it. As to himself, his presence was important;
+      that he was the only man in the United States who possessed the confidence
+      of the whole; that government was founded in opinion and confidence, and
+      that the longer he remained, the stronger would become the habits of the
+      people in submitting to the government, and in thinking it a thing to be
+      maintained; that there was no other person, who would be thought any thing
+      more than the head of a party. He then expressed his concern at the
+      difference which he found to subsist between the Secretary of the Treasury
+      and myself, of which he said he had not been aware. He knew, indeed, that
+      there was a marked difference in our political sentiments, but he had
+      never suspected it had gone so far in producing a personal difference, and
+      he wished he could be the mediator to put an end to it. That he thought it
+      important to preserve the check of my opinions in the administration, in
+      order to keep things in their proper channel, and prevent them from going
+      too far. That as to the idea of transforming this government into a
+      monarchy, he did not believe there were ten men in the United States whose
+      opinions were worth attention, who entertained such a thought. I told him
+      there were many more than he imagined. I recalled to his memory a dispute
+      at his own table, a little before we left Philadelphia, between General
+      Schuyler on one side and Pinckney and myself on the other, wherein the
+      former maintained the position, that hereditary descent was as likely to
+      produce good magistrates as election. I told him, that though the people
+      were sound, there were a numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation;
+      that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. That I had heard him
+      say that this constitution was a shilly-shally thing, of mere milk and
+      water, which could not last, and was only good as a step to something
+      better. That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in the convention,
+      to make an English constitution of it, and when failing in that, we saw
+      all his measures tending to bring it to the same thing, it was natural for
+      us to be jealous; and particularly, when we saw that these measures had
+      established corruption in the legislature, where there was a squadron
+      devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever he had directed, and
+      ready to do what he should direct. That if the equilibrium of the three
+      great bodies, legislative, executive, and judiciary, could be preserved,
+      if the legislature could be kept independent, I should never fear the
+      result of such a government; but that I could not but be uneasy, when I
+      saw that the executive had swallowed up the legislative branch. He said,
+      that as to that interested spirit in the legislature, it was what could
+      not be avoided in any government, unless we were to exclude particular
+      descriptions of men, such as the holders of the funds, from all office. I
+      told him, there was great difference between the little accidental schemes
+      of self-interest, which would take place in every body of men, and
+      influence their votes, and a regular system for forming a corps of
+      interested persons, who should be steadily at the orders of the Treasury.
+      He touched on the merits of the funding system, observed there was a
+      difference of opinion about it, some thinking it very bad, others very
+      good; that experience was the only criterion of right which he knew, and
+      this alone would decide which opinion was right. That for himself, he had
+      seen our affairs desperate and our credit lost, and that this was in a
+      sudden and extraordinary degree raised to the highest pitch. I told him,
+      all that was ever necessary to establish our credit, was an efficient
+      government and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay our debts,
+      laying taxes for this purpose, and applying them to it. I avoided going
+      further into the subject. He finished by another exhortation to me not to
+      decide too positively on retirement, and here we were called to breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October the 31st, 1792. I had sent to the President, Viar and Jaudenes&rsquo;s
+      letter of the 29th instant, whereupon he desired a consultation of
+      Hamilton, Knox, E. Randolph, and myself, on these points. 1. What notice
+      was to be taken hereof to Spain. 2. Whether it should make part of the
+      communication to the legislature. I delivered my opinion, that it ought to
+      be communicated to both Houses, because the communications intended to be
+      made, being to bring on the question, whether they would declare war
+      against any, and which of the nations or parts of the nations of Indians
+      to the south, it would be proper this information should be before them,
+      that they might know how far such a declaration would lead them. There
+      might be some who would be for war against the Indians, if it were to stop
+      there, but who would not be for it, if it were to lead to a war against
+      Spain. I thought it should be laid before both Houses, because it
+      concerned the question of declaring war, which was the function equally of
+      both Houses. I thought a simple acknowledgment of the receipt of the
+      letter should be made by me to the Spanish Charges, expressing that it
+      contained some things very unexpected to us, but that we should refer the
+      whole, as they had proposed, to the negotiators at Madrid. This would
+      secure to us a continuation of the suspension of Indian hostilities, which
+      the Governor of New Orleans said he had brought about till the result of
+      the negotiation at Madrid should be known; would not commit us as to
+      running or not running the line, or imply any admission of doubt about our
+      tentorial right; and would avoid a rupture with Spain, which was much to
+      be desired, while we had similar points to discuss with Great Britain.
+      Hamilton declared himself the advocate for peace. War would derange our
+      affairs greatly; throw us back many years in the march towards prosperity;
+      be difficult for us to pursue, our countrymen not being disposed to become
+      soldiers; a part of the Union feeling no interest in the war, would with
+      difficulty be brought to exert itself; and we had no navy. He was for
+      every thing which would procrastinate the event. A year, even, was a great
+      gain to a nation strengthening as we were. It laid open to us, too, the
+      chapter of accidents, which in the present state of Europe, was a very
+      pregnant one. That while, however, he was for delaying the event of war,
+      he had no doubt it was to take place between us for the object in
+      question: that jealousy and perseverance were remarkable features in the
+      character of the Spanish government, with respect to their American
+      possessions; that so far from receding as to their claims against us, they
+      had been strengthening themselves in them. He had no doubt the present
+      communication was by authority from the court. Under this impression he
+      thought we should be looking forward to the day of rupture, and preparing
+      for it. That if we were unequal to the contest ourselves, it behoved us to
+      provide allies for our aid. That in this view, but two nations could be
+      named, France and England. France was too intimately connected with Spain
+      in other points, and of too great mutual value, ever to separate for us.
+      Her affairs too, were such, that whatever issue they had, she could not be
+      in a situation to make a respectable mediation for us. England alone,
+      then, remained. It would not be easy to effect it with her; however, he
+      was for trying it, and for sounding them on the proposition of a defensive
+      treaty of alliance. The inducements to such a treaty, on their part, might
+      be, 1. The desire of breaking up our former connections, which we knew
+      they had long wished. 2. A continuance of the statu quo in commerce for
+      ten years, which he believed would be desirable to them. 3. An admission
+      to some navigable part of the Mississippi, by some line drawn from the
+      Lake of the Woods to such navigable part. He had not, he said, examined
+      the map to see how such a line might be run, so as not to make too great a
+      sacrifice. The navigation of the Mississippi being a joint possession, we
+      might then take measures in concert for the joint security of it. He was,
+      therefore, for immediately sounding them on this subject through our
+      minister at London; yet so as to keep ourselves unengaged as long as
+      possible, in hopes a favorable issue with Spain might be otherwise
+      effected. But he was for sounding immediately, and for not letting slip an
+      opportunity of securing our object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. Randolph concurred, in general, with me. He objected that such a
+      reliance could not be effected without pecuniary consideration probably,
+      which he could not give. And what was to be their aid? If men, our
+      citizens would see their armies get foothold in the United States, with
+      great jealousy; it would be difficult to protect them. Even the French,
+      during the distresses of the late war, excited some jealous sentiments,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton said, money was often but not always demanded, and the aid he
+      should propose to stipulate would be in ships. Knox <i>non dissentiente</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President said the remedy would be worse than the disease, and stated
+      some of the disagreeable circumstances which would attend our making such
+      overtures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November, 1792. Hamilton called on me to speak about our furnishing
+      supplies to the French colony of St. Domingo. He expressed his opinion,
+      that we ought to be cautious, and not go too far in our application of
+      money to their use, lest it should not be recognised by the mother
+      country. He did not even think that some kinds of government they might
+      establish could give a sufficient sanction.* I observed, that the National
+      Convention was now met, and would certainly establish a form of
+      government; that as we had recognised the former government because
+      established by authority of the nation, so we must recognise any other
+      which should be established by the authority of the nation. He said we had
+      recognised the former, because it contained an important member of the
+      ancient, to wit, the King, and wore the appearance of his consent; but if,
+      in any future form, they should omit the King, he did not know that we
+      could with safety recognise it, or pay money to its order.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * There had been a previous consultation at the President&rsquo;s
+     (about the first week in November) on the expediency of
+     suspending payments to France, under her present situation.
+     I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by
+     the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs
+     surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an
+     integral legislature, and therefore not competent to give a
+     legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought
+     consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate
+     body came into place; and that I should consider the
+     National Convention, called, but not met as we had yet
+     heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it
+     would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should
+     be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on
+     good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
+     and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a
+     convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be
+     competent to do any thing. It ended by agreeing, that I
+     should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment
+     generally, till further orders.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      November the 19th, 1792. Beckley brings me the pamphlet written by
+      Hamilton, before the war, in answer to &lsquo;Common Sense.&rsquo; It is entitled
+      &lsquo;Plain Truth.&rsquo; Melancthon Smith sends it to Beckley, and in his letter
+      says, it was not printed in New York by Loudon, because prevented by a
+      mob, and was printed in Philadelphia, and that he has these facts from
+      Loudon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 21st, 1792. Mr. Butler tells me, that he dined last winter
+      with Mr. Campbell from Denmark, in company with Hamilton, Lawrence, Dr.
+      Shippen, T. Shippen, and one other person whom he cannot recollect. That
+      after dinner political principles became the subject of conversation; that
+      Hamilton declared openly, that &lsquo;there was no stability, no security in any
+      kind of government but a monarchy.&rsquo; That Lawrence took him up, and entered
+      the lists of argument against him; that the dispute continued long, and
+      grew warm, remarkably so as between them; that Shippen, at length, joined
+      Lawrence in it; and in fine, that it broke up the company. Butler
+      recommended to the company, that the dispute having probably gone farther
+      than was intended, it ought to be considered as confined to the company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thursday, December the 27th, 1792. I waited on the President on some
+      current business. After this was over, he observed to me, that he thought
+      it was time to endeavor to effect a stricter connection with France, and
+      that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on this subject. He went into
+      the circumstances of dissatisfaction between Spain and Great Britain, and
+      us, and observed, there was no nation on whom we could rely, at all times,
+      but France; and that, if we did not prepare in time some support, in the
+      event of rupture with Spain and England, we might be charged with a
+      criminal negligence. I was much pleased with the tone of these
+      observations. It was the very doctrine which had been my polar star, and I
+      did not need the successes of the republican arms in France, lately
+      announced to us, to bring me to these sentiments. For it is to be noted,
+      that on Saturday last, (the 22nd) I received Mr. Short&rsquo;s letters of
+      October the 9th and 12th, with the Leyden gazettes to October the 13th,
+      giving us the first news of the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, and the
+      capture of Spires and Worms by Custine, and that of Nice by Anselme. I
+      therefore expressed to the President my cordial approbation of these
+      ideas; told him, I had meant on that day (as an opportunity of writing by
+      the British packet would occur immediately) to take his orders for
+      removing the suspension of payments to France, which had been imposed by
+      my last letter to Gouverneur Morris, but was meant, as I supposed, only
+      for the interval between the abolition of the late constitution by the
+      dethronement of the King, and the meeting of some other body, invested by
+      the will of the nation with powers to transact their affairs; that I
+      considered the National Convention, then assembled, as such a body; and
+      that, therefore, we ought to go on with the payments to them, or to any
+      government they should establish; that, however, I had learned last night,
+      that some clause in the bill for providing reimbursement of the loan made
+      by the bank to the United States, had given rise to a question before the
+      House of Representatives yesterday, which might affect these payments; a
+      clause in that bill proposing, that the money formerly borrowed in
+      Amsterdam, to pay the French debt, and appropriated by law (1790, August
+      4th, c. 34. § 2.) to that purpose, lying dead as was suggested, should be
+      taken to pay the bank, and the President be authorized to borrow two
+      millions of dollars more, out of which it should be replaced: and if this
+      should be done, the removal of our suspension of payments, as I had been
+      about to propose, would be premature. He expressed his disapprobation of
+      the clause above mentioned; thought it highly improper in the legislature
+      to change an appropriation once made, and added, that no one could tell in
+      what that would end. I concurred, but observed, that on a division of the
+      House, the ayes for striking out the clause were twenty-seven, the noes
+      twenty-six; whereon the Speaker gave his vote against striking out, which
+      divides the House: the clause for the disappropriation remained of course.
+      I mentioned suspicions, that the whole of this was a trick to serve the
+      bank under a great existing embarrassment; that the debt to the bank was
+      to be repaid by instalments; that the first instalment was of two hundred
+      thousand dollars only, or rather one hundred and sixty thousand dollars,
+      (because forty thousand of the two hundred thousand dollars would be the
+      United States&rsquo; own dividend of the instalment.) Yet here were two millions
+      to be paid them at once, and to be taken from a purpose of gratitude and
+      honor, to which it had been appropriated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 30th, 1792. I took the occasion furnished by Pinckney&rsquo;s
+      letter of September the 19th, asking instructions how to conduct himself
+      as to the French revolution, to lay down the catholic principle of
+      republicanism, to wit, that every people may establish what form of
+      government they please, and change it as they please; the will of the
+      nation being the only thing essential. I was induced to do this, in order
+      to extract the President&rsquo;s opinion on the question which divided Hamilton
+      and myself in the conversation of November, 1792, and the previous one of
+      the first week of November, on the suspension of payments to France: and
+      if favorable to mine, to place the principle on record in the letter-books
+      of my office. I therefore wrote the letter of December the 30th, to
+      Pinckney, and sent it to the President, and he returned me his approbation
+      in writing, in his note of the same date, which see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 7th, 1793. I waited on the President with letters and papers
+      from Lisbon. After going through these, I told him that I had for some
+      time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out of office,
+      because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with foreign
+      nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate, in which case, the
+      remaining business of the department would be too inconsiderable to make
+      it worth while to keep it up. But that the bill being now passed, I was
+      freed from the considerations of propriety which had embarrassed me. That
+      &amp;c. [nearly in the words of a letter to Mr. T. M. Randolph, of a few
+      days ago,] and that I should be willing, if he had taken no arrangements
+      to the contrary, to continue somewhat longer, how long I could not say,
+      perhaps till summer, perhaps autumn. He said, so far from taking
+      arrangements on the subject, he had never mentioned to any mortal the
+      design of retiring which I had expressed to him, till yesterday, when
+      having heard that I had given up my house, and that it was rented by
+      another, he thereupon mentioned it to Mr. E. Randolph, and asked him, as
+      he knew my retirement had been talked of, whether he had heard any persons
+      suggested in conversation to succeed me. He expressed his satisfaction at
+      my change of purpose and his apprehensions that my retirement would be a
+      new source of uneasiness to the public. He said Governor Lee had that day
+      informed him of the general discontent prevailing in Virginia, of which he
+      never had had any conception, much less sound information. That it
+      appeared to him very alarming. He proceeded to express his earnest wish
+      that Hamilton and myself could coalesce in the measures of the government,
+      and urged here the general reasons for it, which he had done to me in two
+      former conversations. He said he had proposed the same thing to Hamilton,
+      who expressed his readiness, and he thought our coalition would secure the
+      general acquiescence of the public. I told him my concurrence was of much
+      less importance than he seemed to imagine; that I kept myself aloof from
+      all cabal and correspondence on the subject with the government, and saw
+      and spoke with as few as I could. That as to a coalition with Mr.
+      Hamilton, if by that was meant that either was to sacrifice his general
+      system to the other, it was impossible. We had both, no doubt, formed our
+      conclusions after the most mature consideration; and principles
+      conscientiously adopted, could not be given up on either side. My wish
+      was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested in
+      the bank or public stocks: and that a pure legislature being given us, I
+      should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations, even if
+      contrary to my own opinions; for that I subscribe to the principle, that
+      the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should give law. I confirmed
+      him in the fact of the great discontents to the south; that they were
+      grounded on seeing that their judgments and interests were sacrificed to
+      those of the eastern States on every occasion, and their belief that it
+      was the effect of a corrupt squadron of voters in Congress, at the command
+      of the Treasury; and they see that if the votes of those members who had
+      any interest distinct from, and contrary to the general interest of their
+      constituents, had been withdrawn, as in decency and honesty they should
+      have been, the laws would have been the reverse of what they are on all
+      the great questions. I instanced the new Assumption carried in the House
+      of Representatives by the Speaker&rsquo;s vote. On this subject he made no
+      reply. He explained his remaining in office to have been the effect of
+      strong solicitations after he returned here; declaring that he had never
+      mentioned his purpose of going out but to the Heads of departments and Mr.
+      Madison; he expressed the extreme wretchedness of his existence while in
+      office, and went lengthily into the late attacks on him for levees, &amp;c.
+      and explained to me how he had been led into them by the persons he
+      consulted at New York; and that if he could but know what the sense of the
+      public was, he would most cheerfully conform to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 16th, 1793. E. Randolph tells J. Madison and myself, a
+      curious fact which he had from Lear. When the President went to New York,
+      he resisted for three weeks the efforts to introduce levees. At length he
+      yielded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle the forms.
+      Accordingly, an antechamber and presence-room were provided, and when
+      those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President set out,
+      preceded by Humphreys. After passing through the antechamber, the door of
+      the inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered first, calling out
+      with a loud voice, &lsquo;The President of the United States.&rsquo; The President was
+      so much disconcerted with it, that he did not recover it the whole time of
+      the levee, and when the company was gone, he said to Humphreys, &lsquo;Well, you
+      have taken me in once, but, by God, you shall never take me in a second
+      time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is reason to believe that the rejection of the late additional
+      Assumption by the Senate was effected by the President through Lear,
+      operating on Langdon. Beckley knows this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 26th, 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [See the
+      formal opinions given to the President in writing, and signed.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First question. We were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed
+      merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of
+      success. I expressed myself strongly, that the event was so unpromising,
+      that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on without the
+      least relaxation, and that a day should be fixed with the commissioners
+      for the treaty, beyond which they should not permit the treaty to be
+      protracted, by which day, orders should be given for our forces to enter
+      into action. The President took up the thing instantly, after I had said
+      this, and declared he was so much in the opinion that the treaty would end
+      in nothing, that he then, in the presence of us all, gave orders to
+      General Knox, not to slacken the preparations for the campaign in the
+      least, but to exert every nerve in preparing for it. Knox said something
+      about the ultimate day for continuing the negotiations. I acknowledged
+      myself not a judge on what day the campaign should begin, but that
+      whatever it was, that day should terminate the treaty. Knox said he
+      thought a winter campaign was always the most efficacious against the
+      Indians. I was of opinion, since Great Britain insisted on furnishing
+      provisions, that we should offer to repay. Hamilton thought we should not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second question. I considered our right of preemption of the Indian lands,
+      not as amounting to any dominion, or jurisdiction, or paramountship
+      whatever, but merely in the nature of a remainder after the extinguishment
+      of a present right, which gave us no present right whatever, but of
+      preventing other nations from taking possession, and so defeating our
+      expectancy; that the Indians had the full, undivided, and independent
+      sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, and that this might be for
+      ever; that as fast as we extend our rights by purchase from them, so fast
+      we extend the limits of our society, and as soon as a new portion became
+      encircled within our line, it became a fixed limit of our society: that
+      the executive, with either or both branches of the legislature, could not
+      alien any part of our territory; that by the law of nations it was
+      settled, that the unity and indivisibility of the society was so
+      fundamental, that it could not be dismembered by the constituted
+      authorities, except, 1. where all power was delegated to them (as in the
+      case of despotic governments,) or, 2. where it was expressly delegated;
+      that neither of these delegations had been made to our General Government,
+      and, therefore, that it had no right to dismember or alienate any portion
+      of territory once ultimately consolidated with us; and that we could no
+      more cede to the Indians than to the English or Spaniards, as it might,
+      according to acknowledged principles, remain as irrevocably and eternally
+      with the one as the other. But I thought, that, as we had a right to sell
+      and settle lands once comprehended within our lines, so we might forbear
+      to exercise that right, retaining the property, till circumstances should
+      be more favorable to the settlement, and this I agreed to do in the
+      present instance, if necessary for peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton agreed to the doctrine of the law of nations, as laid down in
+      Europe, but that it was founded on the universality of settlement there;
+      consequently that no lopping-off of territory could be made without a
+      lopping-off of citizens, which required their consent; but that the law of
+      nations for us, must be adapted to the circumstance of our unsettled
+      country, which he conceived the President and Senate may cede: that the
+      power of treaty was given to them by the constitution, without restraining
+      it to particular objects; consequently that it was given in as
+      plenipotentiary a form as held by any sovereign in any other society.
+      Randolph was of opinion, there was a difference between a cession to
+      Indians and to any others, because it only restored the ceded part to the
+      condition in which it was before we bought it, and consequently, that we
+      might buy it again hereafter: therefore, he thought the executive and
+      Senate could cede it. Knox joined in the main opinion. The President
+      discovered no opinion, but he made some efforts to get us to join in some
+      terms which could unite us all, and he seemed to direct those efforts more
+      towards me: but the thing could not be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Third question. We agreed in idea as to the line to be drawn; to wit, so
+      as to retain all lands appropriated, or granted, or reserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourth question. We all thought, if the Senate should be consulted, and
+      consequently apprized of our line, it would become known to Hammond, and
+      we should lose all chance of saving any thing more at the treaty than our
+      ultimatum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President, at this meeting, mentioned the declaration of some person,
+      in a paper of Fenno, that he would commence an attack on the character of
+      Dr. Franklin. He said, the theme was to him excessively disagreeable on
+      other considerations, but most particularly so, as the party seemed to do
+      it as a means of defending him (the President) against the late attacks on
+      him: that such a mode of defence would be peculiarly painful to him, and
+      he wished it could be stopped. Hamilton and Randolph undertook to speak to
+      Fenno to suppress it, without mentioning it as the President&rsquo;s wish. Both
+      observed, that they had heard this declaration mentioned in many
+      companies, and that it had excited universal horror and detestation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The paper in Fenno must lie between two persons, viz. Adams and Izard,
+      because they are the only persons who could know such facts as are there
+      promised to be unfolded. Adams is an enemy to both characters, and might
+      choose this ground as an effectual position to injure both. Izard hated
+      Franklin with unparalleled bitterness, but humbly adores the President,
+      because he is in <i>loco regis</i>. If the paper proceeds, we shall easily
+      discover which of these two gentlemen is the champion. In the mean time,
+      the first paper leads our suspicions more towards Izard than Adams, from
+      the circumstance of style, and because he is quite booby enough not to see
+      the injury he would do to the President by such a mode of defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 28th. Knox, E. Randolph, and myself met at Knox&rsquo;s, where
+      Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time, manner, and place of
+      the President&rsquo;s swearing in. Hamilton had been there before, and had left
+      his opinion with Knox; to wit, that the President should ask a judge to
+      attend him in his own house to administer the oath, in the presence of the
+      Heads of departments; which oath should be deposited in the Secretary of
+      State&rsquo;s office. I concurred in this opinion. Randolph was for the
+      President&rsquo;s going to the Senate chamber to take the oath, attended by the
+      marshal of the United States, who should then make proclamation, &amp;c.
+      Knox was for this, and for adding the House of Representatives to the
+      presence, as they would not yet be departed. Our individual opinions were
+      written, to be communicated to the President, out of which he might form
+      one. In the course of our conversation, Knox, stickling for parade, got
+      into great warmth, and swore that our government must either be entirely
+      new modeled, or it would be knocked to pieces in less than ten years; and
+      that, as it is at present, he would not give a copper for it; that it is
+      the President&rsquo;s character, and not the written constitution which keeps it
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Same day. Conversation with Lear. He expressed the strongest confidence
+      that republicanism was the universal creed of America, except of a very
+      few; that a republican administration must of necessity immediately
+      overbear the contrary faction; said that he had seen with extreme regret,
+      that a number of gentlemen had for a long time been endeavoring to instil
+      into the President, that the noise against the administration of the
+      government was that of a little faction, which would soon be silent, and
+      which was detested by the people, who were contented and prosperous: that
+      this very party, however, began to see their error, and that the sense of
+      America was bursting forth to their conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 2nd, 1793. See, in the papers of this date, Mr. Giles&rsquo;s
+      resolutions. He and one or two others were sanguine enough to believe,
+      that the palpableness of these resolutions rendered it impossible the
+      House could reject them. Those who knew the composition of the House, 1.
+      of bank directors, 2. holders of bank stock, 3. stock-jobbers, 4. blind
+      devotees, 5. ignorant persons who did not comprehend them, 6. lazy and
+      good-humored persons, who comprehended and acknowledged them, yet were too
+      lazy to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure; the persons who knew
+      these characters, foresaw, that the three first descriptions making one
+      third of the House, the three latter would make one half of the residue;
+      and of course, that they would be rejected by a majority of two to one.
+      But they thought, that even this rejection would do good, by showing the
+      public the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which their affairs
+      were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, and nothing spared to
+      present them in the fulness of demonstration. There were not more than
+      three or four who voted otherwise than had been expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 30th, 1793. At our meeting at the President&rsquo;s, February the
+      25th, in discussing the question, whether we should furnish to France the
+      three millions of livres desired, Hamilton, in speaking on the subject,
+      used this expression; &lsquo;When Mr. Genet arrives, whether we shall receive
+      him or not, will then be a question for discussion&rsquo;; which expression I
+      did not recollect till E. Randolph reminded me of it a few days after.
+      Therefore, on the 20th instant, as the President was shortly to set out
+      for Mount Vernon, I observed to him, that as Genet might arrive in his
+      absence, I wished to know beforehand how I should treat him, whether as a
+      person who would or would not be received. He said, he could see no ground
+      of doubt, but that he ought to be received. On the 24th, he asked E.
+      Randolph&rsquo;s opinion on the subject, saying, he had consulted Colonel
+      Hamilton thereon, who went into lengthy considerations of doubt and
+      difficulty, and viewing it as a very unfortunate thing, that the President
+      should have the decision of so critical a point forced on him; but in
+      conclusion, said, since he was brought into that situation, he did not see
+      but that he must receive Mr. Genet. Randolph told the President, he was
+      clear he should be received, and the President said, he had never had any
+      doubt on the subject in his mind. Afterwards on the same day, he spoke to
+      me again on it, and said, Mr. Genet should unquestionably be received; but
+      he thought not with too much warmth or Cordiality, so only as to be
+      satisfactory to him. I wondered at first at this restriction: but when
+      Randolph afterwards communicated to me his conversation of the 24th, I
+      became satisfied it was a small sacrifice to the opinion of Hamilton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 31st. Mr. Beckley tells me, that the merchants&rsquo; bonds for duties
+      on six months&rsquo; credit became due the 1st instant, to a very great amount;
+      that Hamilton went to the bank on that day, and directed the bank to
+      discount for those merchants all their bonds at thirty days, and that he
+      would have the collectors credited for the money at the treasury. Hence,
+      the treasury lumping its receipts by the month in its printed accounts,
+      these sums will be considered by the public as only received on the last
+      day; consequently, the bank makes the month&rsquo;s interest out of it. Beckley
+      had this from a merchant, who had a bond discounted, and who supposes a
+      million of dollars were discounted at the bank here. Mr. Brown got the
+      same information from another merchant, who supposed only six hundred
+      thousand dollars discounted here. But they suppose the same orders went to
+      all the branch banks to a great amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die. Mr. Brown tells me he has it from a merchant here, that during
+      the last winter, the directors of the bank ordered the freest discounts.
+      Every man could obtain it. Money being so flush, the six per cents run up
+      to twenty-one and twenty-two shillings. Then the directors sold out their
+      private stocks. When the discounted notes were becoming due, they stopped
+      discounts, and not a dollar was to be had. This reduced six per cents to
+      eighteen shillings and three pence; then the same directors bought in
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 7th, 1793. Mr. Lear called on me, and introduced of himself a
+      conversation on the affairs of the United States. He laughed at the cry of
+      prosperity, and the deriving it from the establishment of the treasury: he
+      said, that, so far from giving in to this opinion, and that we were paying
+      off our national debt, he was clear the debt was growing on us: that he
+      had lately expressed this opinion to the President, who appeared much
+      astonished at it. I told him I had given the same hint to the President
+      last summer, and lately again had suggested, that we were even depending
+      for the daily subsistence of government on borrowed money. He said, that
+      was certain, and was the only way of accounting for what was become of the
+      money drawn over from Holland to this country. He regretted that the
+      President was not in the way of hearing full information, declared he
+      communicated to him every thing he could learn himself; that the men who
+      vaunted the present government so much on some occasions, were the very
+      men who at other times declared it was a poor thing, and such a one as
+      could not stand, and he was sensible they only esteemed it as a
+      stepping-stone to something else, and had availed themselves of the first
+      moments of the enthusiasm in favor of it, to pervert its principles and
+      make of it what they wanted: and that though they raised the cry of
+      anti-federalism against those who censured the mode of administration, yet
+      he was satisfied, whenever it should come to be tried, that the very men
+      whom they called anti-federalists, were the men who would save the
+      government, and he looked to the next Congress for much rectification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 18th. The President sends a set of questions to be considered,
+      and calls a meeting. Though those sent me were in his own hand-writing,
+      yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissue and suite, that
+      they were not the President&rsquo;s, that they were raised upon a prepared chain
+      of argument, in short, that the language was Hamilton&rsquo;s, and the doubts
+      his alone. They led to a declaration of the executive, that our treaty
+      with France is void. E. Randolph, the next day, told me that the day
+      before the date of these questions, Hamilton went with him through the
+      whole chain of reasoning of which these questions are the skeleton, and
+      that he recognised them the moment he saw them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We met. The first question, whether we should receive the French minister,
+      Genet, was proposed, and we agreed unanimously that he should be received;
+      Hamilton, at the same time, expressing his great regret that any accident
+      had happened, which should oblige us to recognise the government. The next
+      question was, whether he should be received absolutely, or with
+      qualifications. Here Hamilton took up the whole subject, and went through
+      it in the order in which the questions sketch it. See the chain of his
+      reasoning in my opinion of April the 28th. Knox subscribed at once to
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s opinion that we ought to declare the treaty void,
+      acknowledging, at the same time, like a fool as he is, that he knew
+      nothing about it. I was clear it remained valid. Randolph declared himself
+      of the same opinion, but on Hamilton&rsquo;s undertaking to present to him the
+      authority in Vattel (which we had not present), and to prove to him, that
+      if the authority was admitted, the treaty might be declared void, Randolph
+      agreed to take further time to consider. It was adjourned. We determined
+      unanimously the last question, that Congress should not be called. There
+      having been an intimation by Randolph, that in so great a question he
+      should choose to give a written opinion, and this being approved by the
+      President, I gave in mine April the 28th. Hamilton gave in his. I believe
+      Knox&rsquo;s was never thought worth offering or asking for. Randolph gave his
+      May the 6th, concurring with mine. The President told me, the same day, he
+      had never had a doubt about the validity of the treaty; but that since a
+      question had been suggested, he thought it ought to be considered: that
+      this being done, I might now issue passports to sea-vessels in the form
+      prescribed by the French treaty. I had for a week past only issued the
+      Dutch form; to have issued the French, would have been presupposing the
+      treaty to be in existence. The President suggested, that he thought it
+      would be as well that nothing should be said of such a question having
+      been under consideration. Written May the 6th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 6th, 1793. When the question was, whether the proclamation of
+      April the 22nd should be issued, Randolph observed, that there should be a
+      letter written by me to the ministers of the belligerent powers, to
+      declare that it should not be taken as conclusive evidence against our
+      citizens in foreign courts of admiralty, for contraband goods. Knox
+      suddenly adopted the opinion before Hamilton delivered his. Hamilton
+      opposed it pretty strongly. I thought it an indifferent thing, but rather
+      approved Randolph&rsquo;s opinion. The President was against it; but observed
+      that, as there were three for it, it should go. This was the first
+      instance I had seen of an opportunity to decide by a mere majority,
+      including his own vote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 12th. Lear called on me to-day. Speaking of the lowness of stocks
+      (sixteen shillings), I observed it was a pity we had not money to buy on
+      public account. He said, yes, and that it was the more provoking, as two
+      millions had been borrowed for that purpose, and drawn over here, and yet
+      were not here. That he had no doubt those would take notice of the
+      circumstance whose duty it was to do so. I suppose he must mean the
+      President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 23rd. I had sent to the President, yesterday, draughts of a letter
+      from him to the Provisory Executive Council of France, and of one from
+      myself to Mr. Ternant, both on the occasion of his recall. I called on him
+      to-day. He said there was an expression in one of them, which he had never
+      before seen in any of our public communications, to wit, &lsquo;our republic&rsquo;
+      The letter prepared for him to the Council, began thus: &lsquo;The Citizen
+      Ternant has delivered to me the letter wherein you inform me, that
+      yielding &amp;c. you had determined to recall him from his mission, as
+      your Minister Plenipotentiary to our republic.&rsquo; He had underscored the
+      words our republic. He said that certainly ours was a republican
+      government, but yet we had not used that style in this way; that if any
+      body wanted to change its form into a monarchy, he was sure it was only a
+      few individuals, and that no man in the United States would set his face
+      against it more than himself: but that this was not what he was afraid of;
+      his fears were from another quarter; that there was more danger of anarchy
+      being introduced. He adverted to a piece in Freneau&rsquo;s paper of yesterday;
+      he said he despised all their attacks on him personally, but that there
+      never had been an act of the government, not meaning in the executive line
+      only, but in any line, which that paper had not abused. He had also marked
+      the word republic thus X, where it was applied to the French republic.
+      (See the original paper.) He was evidently sore and warm, and I took his
+      intention to be, that I should interpose in some way with Freneau, perhaps
+      withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my office. But I will not
+      do it. His paper has saved our constitution, which was galloping fast into
+      monarchy, and has been checked by no one means so powerfully as by that
+      paper. It is well and universally known, that it has been that paper which
+      has checked the career of the monocrats; and the President, not sensible
+      of the designs of the party, has not, with his usual good sense and <i>sang
+      froid</i>, looked on the efforts and effects of this free press, and seen
+      that, though some bad things have passed through it to the public, yet the
+      good have preponderated immensely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 7th, 1793. Mr. Beckley, who has returned from New York within a
+      few days, tells me that, while he was there, Sir John Temple, Consul
+      General of the northern States for Great Britain showed him a letter from
+      Sir Gregory Page Turner, a member of parliament for a borough in
+      Yorkshire, who, he said, had been a member for twenty-five years, and
+      always confidential for the ministers in which he permitted him to read
+      particular passages of the following purport: that the government was well
+      apprized of the predominancy of the British interest in the United States;
+      that they considered Colonel Hamilton, Mr. King, and Mr. Smith of South
+      Carolina, as the main supports of that interest; that particularly, they
+      considered Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Hammond as their effective
+      minister here; that if the anti-federal interest (that was his term) at
+      the head of which they considered Mr. Jefferson to be should prevail,
+      these gentlemen had secured an asylum to themselves in England.&rsquo; Beckley
+      could not understand whether they had secured it themselves* or whether
+      they were only notified that it was secured to them. So that they
+      understand that they may go on boldly in their machinations to change the
+      government, and if they should be overset and choose to withdraw, they
+      will be secure of a pension in England, as Arnold, Deane, &amp;c. had. Sir
+      John read passages of a letter (which he did not put into Beckley&rsquo;s hand,
+      as he did the other) from Lord Grenville, saying nearly the same things.
+      This letter mentions Sir John, that though they had divided the
+      Consul-Generalship, and given the southern department to Bond, yet he Sir
+      John, was to retain his whole salary. [By this it would seem, as if,
+      wanting to use Bond, they had covered his employment with this cloak.] Mr.
+      Beckley says that Sir John Temple is a strong republican. I had a proof of
+      his intimacy with Sir John in this circumstance. Sir John received his new
+      commission of Consul General for the northern department, and, instead of
+      sending it through Mr. Hammond, got Beckley to enclose it to me for his
+      exequatur I wrote to Sir John that it must come through Mr Hammond
+      enclosing it back to him. He accordingly then sent it to Mr. Hammond.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     [* In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson; &lsquo;Impossible
+     as to Hamilton; he was far above that.]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In conversation with the President to-day, and speaking about General
+      Greene, he said that he and General Greene had always differed in opinion
+      about the manner of using militia. Greene always placed them in his front:
+      himself was of opinion, they should always be used as a reserve to improve
+      any advantage, for which purpose they were the finest fellows in the
+      world. He said he was on the ground of the battle of Guilford, with a
+      person who was in the action, and who explained the whole of it to him.
+      That General Greene&rsquo;s front was behind a fence at the edge of a large
+      field, through which the enemy were obliged to pass to get at them; and
+      that, in their passage through this, they must have been torn all to
+      pieces, if troops had been posted there who would have stood their ground;
+      and that the retreat from that position was through a thicket, perfectly
+      secure. Instead of this he posted the North Carolina militia there who
+      only gave one fire and fell back, so that the whole benefit of their
+      position was lost. He thinks that the regulars, with their field-pieces,
+      would have hardly let a single man get through that field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eodem die (June the 7th). Beckley tells me that he has the following fact
+      from Governor Clinton. That before the proposition for the present General
+      Government, i.e. a little before Hamilton conceived a plan for
+      establishing a monarchical government in the United States, he wrote a
+      draught of a circular letter, which was to be sent to about &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-persons,
+      to bring it about. One of these letters in Hamilton&rsquo;s hand-writing, is now
+      in possession of an old militia General up the North River, who, at that
+      time, was thought orthodox enough to be entrusted in the execution. This
+      General has given notice to Governor Clinton, that he has this paper, and
+      that he will deliver it into his hands, and no one&rsquo;s else. Clinton
+      intends, the first interval of leisure, to go for it, and he will bring it
+      to Philadelphia. Beckley is a man of perfect truth as to what he affirms
+      of his own knowledge, but too credulous as to what he hears from others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 10th, 1793. Mr. Brown gives me the following specimen of the
+      phrenzy which prevailed at New York on the opening of the new government.
+      The first public ball which took place after the President&rsquo;s arrival
+      there, Colonel Humphreys, Colonel W. S. Smith, and Mrs. Knox were to
+      arrange the ceremonials. These arrangements were as follows: a sofa at the
+      head of the room, raised on several steps whereon the President and Mrs.
+      Washington were to be seated. The gentlemen were to dance in swords. Each
+      one, when going to dance, was to lead his partner to the foot of the sofa,
+      make a low obeisance to the President and his lady, then go and dance, and
+      when done, bring his partner again to the foot of the sofa for new
+      obeisances, and then to retire to their chairs. It was to be understood,
+      too, that gentlemen should be dressed in bags. Mrs. Knox contrived to come
+      with the President, and to follow him and Mrs. Washington to their
+      destination, and she had the design of forcing an invitation from the
+      President to a seat on the sofa. She mounted up the steps after them
+      unbidden, but unfortunately the wicked sofa was so short, that when the
+      President and Mrs. Washington were seated, there was not room for a third
+      person; she was obliged therefore to descend in the face of the company,
+      and to sit where she could. In other respects the ceremony was conducted
+      rigorously according to the arrangements, and the President made to pass
+      an evening which his good sense rendered a very miserable one to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 12th. Beckley tells me that Klingham has been with him to-day,
+      and relates to him the following fact. A certificate of the old Congress
+      had been offered at the treasury and refused payment and so endorsed in
+      red ink as usual. This certificate came to the hands of Francis, (the
+      quondam clerk of the treasury who, on account of his being dipped in the
+      infamous case of the Baron Glaubec, Hamilton had been obliged to dismiss,
+      to save appearances, but with an assurance of all future service, and he
+      accordingly got him established in New York). Francis wrote to Hamilton
+      that such a ticket was offered him, but he could not buy it unless he
+      would inform him and give him his certificate that it was good. Hamilton
+      wrote him a most friendly letter, and sent him the certificate. He bought
+      the paper, and came on here and got it recognised, whereby he made
+      twenty-five hundred dollars Klingham saw both the letter and certificate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Irving, a clerk in the treasury, an Irishman, is the author of the pieces
+      now coming out under the signature of Verita&rsquo;s and attacking the
+      President. I have long suspected this detestable game was playing by the
+      fiscal party, to place the President on their side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July the 18th, 1793. Lear calls on me. I told him that Irving, an
+      Irishman, and a writer in the treasury, who, on a former occasion, had
+      given the most decisive proofs of his devotion to his principal, was the
+      author of the pieces signed Veritas: and I wished he could get at some of
+      Irving&rsquo;s acquaintances and inform himself of the fact, as the person who
+      told me of it would not permit the name of his informer to be mentioned.
+      [Note. Beckley told me of it, and he had it from Swaine, the printer to
+      whom the pieces were delivered]; that I had long before suspected this
+      excessive foul play in that party of writing themselves in the character
+      of the most exaggerated democrats and incorporating with it a great deal
+      of abuse on the President to make him believe it was that party who were
+      his enemies, and so throw him entirely into the scale of the monocrats.
+      Lear said he no longer ago than yesterday expressed to the President his
+      suspicions of the artifices of that party to work on him. He mentioned the
+      following fact as a proof of their writing in the character of their
+      adversaries; to wit, the day after the little incident of Richet&rsquo;s
+      toasting &lsquo;the man of the people&rsquo; (see the gazettes), Mrs. Washington was
+      at Mrs. Powel&rsquo;s, who mentioned to her that, when the toast was given,
+      there was a good deal of disapprobation appeared in the audience, and that
+      many put on their hats and went out: on inquiry, he had not found the fact
+      true, and yet it was put into &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s paper, and written
+      under the character of a republican, though he is satisfied it is
+      altogether a slander of the monocrats. He mentioned this to the President,
+      but he did not mention to him the following fact, which he knows; that in
+      New York, the last summer, when the parties of Jay and Clinton were
+      running so high, it was an agreed point with the former, that if any
+      circumstances should ever bring it to a question, whether to drop Hamilton
+      or the President, they had decided to drop the President. He said that
+      lately one of the loudest pretended friends to the government, damned it,
+      and said it was good for nothing, that it could not support itself, and it
+      was time to put it down and set up a better; and yet the same person, in
+      speaking to the President, puffed off that party as the only friends to
+      the government. He said he really feared, that by their artifices and
+      industry, they would aggravate the President so much against the
+      republicans, as to separate him from the body of the people. I told him
+      what the same cabals had decided to do, if the President had refused his
+      assent to the bank bill; also what Brockhurst Livingston said to &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;,
+      that Hamilton&rsquo;s life was much more precious to the community than the
+      President&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 1st. Met at the President&rsquo;s, to consider what was to be done
+      with Mr. Genet. All his correspondence with me was read over. The
+      following propositions were made. 1. That a full statement of Mr. Genet&rsquo;s
+      conduct be made in a letter to G. Morris, and be sent with his
+      correspondence, to be communicated to the Executive Council of France; the
+      letter to be so prepared, as to serve for the form of communication to the
+      Council. Agreed unanimously. 2. That in that letter his recall be
+      required. Agreed by all, though I expressed a preference of expressing
+      that desire with great delicacy; the others were for peremptory terms. 3.
+      To send him off. This was proposed by Knox; but rejected by every other.
+      4. To write a letter to Mr. Genet, the same in substance with that written
+      to G. Morris, and let him know we had applied for his recall. I was
+      against this, because I thought it would render him extremely active in
+      his plans, and endanger confusion. But I was overruled by the other three
+      gentlemen and the President. 5. That a publication of the whole
+      correspondence, and statement of the proceedings should be made by way of
+      appeal to the people. Hamilton made a jury speech of three quarters of an
+      hour, as inflammatory and declamatory as if he had been speaking to a
+      jury. E. Randolph opposed it. I chose to leave the contest between them.
+      Adjourned to next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 2nd. Met again. Hamilton spoke again three quarters of an hour.
+      I answered on these topics. Object of the appeal. The democratic society;
+      this the great circumstance of alarm; afraid it would extend its
+      connections over the continent; chiefly meant for the local object of the
+      ensuing election of Governor. If left alone, would die away after that is
+      over. If opposed, if proscribed, would give it importance and vigor; would
+      give it a new object, and multitudes would join it merely to assert the
+      right of voluntary associations. That the measure was calculated to make
+      the President assume the station of the head of a party, instead of the
+      head of the nation. Plan of the appeal. To consist of facts and the
+      decisions of the President. As to facts we are agreed; but as to the
+      decisions, there have been great differences of opinion among us.
+      Sometimes as many opinions as persons. This proves there will be ground to
+      attack the decision. Genet will appeal also; it will become a contest
+      between the President and Genet&mdash;anonymous writers&mdash;will be same
+      difference of opinion in public, as in our cabinet&mdash;will be same
+      difference in Congress, lot it must be laid before them&mdash;would,
+      therefore, work very unpleasantly at home. How would it work abroad?
+      France&mdash;unkind&mdash;after such proofs of her friendship, should rely
+      on that friendship and her justice. Why appeal to the world? Friendly
+      nations always negotiate little differences in private. Never appeal to
+      the world, but when they appeal to the sword. Confederacy of Pilnitz was
+      to overthrow the government of France. The interference of France to
+      disturb other governments and excite insurrections, was a measure of
+      reprisal. Yet these Princes have been able to make it believed to be the
+      system of France. Colonel Hamilton supposes Mr. Genet&rsquo;s proceedings here
+      are in pursuance of that system: and we are so to declare it to the world,
+      and to add our testimony to this base calumny of the Princes. What a
+      triumph to them to be backed by our testimony. What a fatal stroke at the
+      cause of liberty; <i>Et tu, Brute?</i> We indispose the French government,
+      and they will retract their offer of the treaty of commerce. The President
+      manifestly inclined to the appeal to the people.* Knox, in a foolish,
+      incoherent sort of a speech, introduced the pasquinade lately printed,
+      called the funeral of George W&mdash;n and James W&mdash;-n, King and
+      Judge, &amp;c, where the President was placed on a guillotine. The
+      President was much inflamed; got into one of those passions when he cannot
+      command himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed
+      on him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he
+      had been in the government, which was not done on the purest motives; that
+      he had never repented but once the having slipped the moment of resigning
+      his office, and that was every moment since; that by God he had rather be
+      in his grave than in his present situation; that he had rather be on his
+      farm than to be made Emperor of the world; and yet that they were charging
+      him with wanting to be a King. That that rascal Freneau sent him three of
+      his papers every day, as if he thought he would become the distributor of
+      his papers; that he could see in this, nothing but an impudent design to
+      insult him: he ended in this high tone. There was a pause. Some difficulty
+      in resuming our question; it was, however, after a little while, presented
+      again, and he said there seemed to be no necessity for deciding it now;
+      the propositions before agreed on might be put into a train of execution,
+      and perhaps events would show whether the appeal would be necessary or
+      not. He desired we would meet at my office the next day, to consider what
+      should be done with the vessels armed in our ports by Mr. Genet, and their
+      prizes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him
+     the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into
+     this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the
+     President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and
+     engage for all his connections. The President repeated this
+     twice, and with an air of importance. Now Mr. Morris has no
+     family connections; he engaged then for his political
+     friends. This shows that the President has not confidence
+     enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide
+     in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props
+     necessary.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      August the 3rd. We met. The President wrote to take our opinions, whether
+      Congress should be called. Knox pronounced at once against it. Randolph
+      was against it. Hamilton said his judgment was against it, but that if any
+      two were for it, or against it, he would join them to make a majority. I
+      was for it. We agreed to give separate opinions to the President. Knox
+      said we should have had fine work, if Congress had been sitting these two
+      last months. The fool thus let out the secret. Hamilton endeavored to
+      patch up the indiscretion of this blabber, by saying &lsquo;he did not know; he
+      rather thought they would have strengthened the executive arm.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is evident they do not wish to lengthen the session of the next
+      Congress, and probably they particularly wish it should not meet till
+      Genet is gone. At this meeting I received a letter from Mr. Remsen at New
+      York, informing me of the event of the combat between the Ambuscade and
+      the Boston. Knox broke out into the most unqualified abuse of Captain
+      Courtnay. Hamilton, with less fury, but with the deepest vexation, loaded
+      him with censures. Both showed the most unequivocal mortification at the
+      event.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 6th, 1793. The President calls on me at my house in the
+      country, and introduces my letter of July the 31st, announcing that I
+      should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his
+      repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased
+      by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had counted:
+      that he did not know where he should look to find characters to fill up
+      the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the department of
+      State, but it required a person conversant in foreign affairs, perhaps
+      acquainted with foreign courts; that without this, the best talents would
+      be awkward and at a loss. He told me that Colonel Hamilton had three or
+      four weeks ago written to him, informing him that private as well as
+      public reasons had brought him to the determination to retire, and that he
+      should do it towards the close of the next session. He said he had often
+      before intimated dispositions to resign, but never as decisively before;
+      that he supposed he had fixed on the latter part of next session, to give
+      an opportunity to Congress to examine into his conduct: that our going out
+      at times so different, increased his difficulty; for if he had both places
+      to fill at once, he might consult both the particular talents and
+      geographical situation of our successors. He expressed great apprehensions
+      at the fermentation which seemed to be working in the mind of the public;
+      that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared
+      to be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to
+      assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first
+      expressions of their sentiment would be important; if I would only stay to
+      the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I expressed to him my excessive repugnance to public life, the particular
+      uneasiness of my situation in this place, where the laws of society oblige
+      me always to move exactly in the circle which I know to bear me peculiar
+      hatred; that is to say, the wealthy aristocrats, the merchants connected
+      closely with England, the new created paper fortunes; that thus
+      surrounded, my words were caught, multiplied, misconstrued, and even
+      fabricated and spread abroad to my injury; that he saw also, that there
+      was such an opposition of views between myself and another part of the
+      administration, as to render it peculiarly unpleasing, and to destroy the
+      necessary harmony. Without knowing the views of what is called the
+      republican party here, or having any communication with them, I could,
+      undertake to assure him, from my intimacy with that party in the late
+      Congress, that there was not a view in the republican party as spread over
+      the United States, which went to the frame of the government; that I
+      believed the next Congress would attempt nothing material, but to render
+      their own body independent; that that party were firm in their
+      dispositions to support the government; that the manoeuvres of Mr. Genet
+      might produce some little embarrassment, but that he would be abandoned by
+      the republicans the moment they knew the nature of his conduct; and on the
+      whole, no crisis existed which threatened any thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, he believed the views of the republican party were perfectly
+      pure, but when men put a machine into motion, it is impossible for them to
+      stop it exactly where they would choose, or to say where it will stop.
+      That the constitution we have is an excellent one, if we can keep it where
+      it is; that it was, indeed, supposed there was a party disposed to change
+      it into a monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously declare
+      there was not a man in the United States who would set his face more
+      decidedly against it than himself. Here I interrupted him by saying, &lsquo;No
+      rational man in the United States suspects you of any other disposition;
+      but there does not pass a week, in which we cannot prove declarations
+      dropping from the monarchical party, that our government is good for
+      nothing, is a milk-and-water thing which cannot support itself, we must
+      knock it down, and set up something of more energy. He said, if that was
+      the case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the republican
+      spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, that it was astonishing
+      how any one could expect to move it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the difficulty of naming my successor; he said Mr. Madison
+      would be his first choice, but that he had always expressed to him such a
+      decision against public office, that he could not expect he would
+      undertake it. Mr. Jay would prefer his present office. He said that Mr.
+      Jay had a great opinion of the talents of Mr. King; that there was also
+      Mr. Smith of South Carolina, and E. Rutledge: but he observed, that, name
+      whom he would, some objections would be made, some would be called
+      speculators, some one thing, some another; and he asked me to mention any
+      characters occurring to me. I asked him if Governor Johnson of Maryland
+      had occurred to him. He said he had; that he was a man of great good
+      sense, an honest man, and, he believed, clear of speculations: but this,
+      says he, is an instance of what I was observing; with all these
+      qualifications, Governor Johnson, from a want of familiarity with foreign
+      affairs, would be in them like a fish out of water; every thing would be
+      new to him, and he awkward in every thing. I confessed to him that I had
+      considered Johnson rather as fit for the Treasury department. &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; says
+      he, &lsquo;for that he would be the fittest appointment that could be made; he
+      is a man acquainted with figures, and having as good a knowledge of the
+      resources of this country as any man.&rsquo; I asked him if Chancellor
+      Livingston had occurred to him. He said yes; but he was from New York, and
+      to appoint him while Hamilton was in, and before it should be known he was
+      going out, would excite a newspaper conflagration, as the ultimate
+      arrangement would not be known. He said McLurg had occurred to him as a
+      man of first-rate abilities, but it is said that he is a speculator. He
+      asked me what sort of a man Wolcot was. I told him I knew nothing of him
+      myself; I had heard him characterized as a cunning man. I asked him
+      whether some person could not take my office per interim, till he should
+      make an appointment; as Mr. Randolph, for instance. &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; says he; &lsquo;but
+      there you would raise the expectation of keeping it, and I do not know
+      that he is fit for it, nor what is thought of Mr. Randolph.&rsquo; I avoided
+      noticing the last observation, and he put the question to me directly. I
+      then told him, I went into society so little as to be unable to answer it.
+      I knew that the embarrassments in his private affairs had obliged him to
+      use expedients, which had injured him with the merchants and shop-keepers,
+      and affected his character of independence; that these embarrassments were
+      serious, and not likely to cease soon. He said, if I would only stay in
+      till the end of another quarter (the last of December), it would get us
+      through the difficulties of this year, and he was satisfied that the
+      affairs of Europe would be settled with this campaign: for that either
+      France would be overwhelmed by it, or the confederacy would give up the
+      contest. By that time, too, Congress will have manifested its character
+      and views. I told him that I had set my private affairs in motion in a
+      line which had powerfully called for my presence the last spring, and that
+      they had suffered immensely from my not going home; that I had now
+      calculated them to my return in the fall, and to fail in going then, would
+      be the loss of another year, and prejudicial beyond measure. I asked him
+      whether he could not name Governor Johnson to my office, under an express
+      arrangement that at the close of the session he should take that of the
+      Treasury. He said that men never chose to descend; that being once in a
+      higher department, he would not like to go into a lower one. He asked me
+      whether I could not arrange my affairs by going home. I told him I did not
+      think the public business would admit of it; that there never was a day
+      now, in which the absence of the Secretary of State would not be
+      inconvenient to the public. And he concluded by desiring that I would take
+      two or three days to consider whether I could not stay in till the end of
+      another quarter, for that, like a man going, to the gallows, he was
+      willing to put it off as long as he could; but if I persisted, he must
+      then look about him and make up his mind to do the best he could: and so
+      he took leave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 5th, 1793. E. Randolph tells me, that Hamilton, in
+      conversation with him yesterday, said, &lsquo;Sir, if all the people in America
+      were now assembled, and to call on me to say whether I am a friend to the
+      French revolution, I would declare that I have it in abhorrence?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 8th, 1793. At a conference at the President&rsquo;s, where I read
+      several letters of Mr. Genet; on finishing one of them, I asked what
+      should be the answer. The President thereupon took occasion to observe,
+      that Mr. Genet&rsquo;s conduct continued to be of so extraordinary a nature,
+      that he meant to propose to our serious consideration, whether he should
+      not have his functions discontinued, and be ordered away. He went
+      lengthily into observations on his conduct, to raise against the
+      executive, 1. the people, 2. the State governments, 3. the Congress. He
+      showed he felt the venom of Genet&rsquo;s pen, but declared he would not choose
+      his insolence should be regarded any farther, than as might be thought to
+      affect the honor of the country. Hamilton and Knox readily and zealously
+      argued for dismissing Mr. Genet. Randolph opposed it with firmness, and
+      pretty lengthily. The President replied to him lengthily, and concluded by
+      saying he did not wish to have the thing hastily decided, but that we
+      should consider of it, and give our opinions on his return from Reading
+      and Lancaster. Accordingly, November the 18th, we met at his house; read
+      new volumes of Genet&rsquo;s letters, received since the President&rsquo;s departure;
+      then took up the discussion of the subjects of communication to Congress.
+      1. The Proclamation. E. Randolph read the statement he had prepared;
+      Hamilton did not like it; said much about his own views; that the
+      President had a right to declare his opinion to our citizens and foreign
+      nations; that it was not the interest of this country to join in the war,
+      and that we were under no obligation to join in it; that though the
+      declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet the President had a right
+      to give his opinion of it, and he was against any explanation in the
+      speech, which should yield that he did not intend that foreign nations
+      should consider it as a declaration of neutrality, future as well as
+      present; that he understood it as meant to give them that sort of
+      assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now, would be a deception
+      on them. He was for the President&rsquo;s using such expressions, as should
+      neither affirm his right to make such a declaration to foreign nations,
+      nor yield it. Randolph and myself opposed the right of the President to
+      declare any thing future on the question, Shall there or shall there not
+      be a war? and that no such thing was intended; that Hamilton&rsquo;s
+      construction of the effect of the proclamation would have been a
+      determination of the question of the guarantee, which we both denied to
+      have intended, and I had at the time declared the executive incompetent
+      to. Randolph said he meant that foreign nations should understand it as an
+      intimation of the President&rsquo;s opinion, that neutrality would be our
+      interest. I declared my meaning to have been, that foreign nations should
+      understand no such thing; that, on the contrary, I would have chosen them
+      to be doubtful, and to come and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the
+      President, having received the nation at the close of Congress in a state
+      of peace, was bound to preserve them in that state till Congress should
+      meet again, and might proclaim any thing which went no farther. The
+      President declared he never had an idea that he could bind Congress
+      against declaring war, or that any thing contained in his proclamation
+      could look beyond the first day of their meeting. His main view was to
+      keep our people in peace; he apologized for the use of the term neutrality
+      in his answers, and justified it, by having submitted the first of them
+      (that to the merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we
+      had not objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel
+      Hamilton should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it
+      should then be considered. We were here called to dinner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner, the <i>renvoi</i> of Genet was proposed by himself. I
+      opposed it on these topics. France, the only nation on earth sincerely our
+      friend. The measure so harsh a one, that no precedent is produced where it
+      has not been followed by war. Our messenger has now been gone eighty-four
+      days; consequently, we may hourly expect the return, and to be relieved by
+      their revocation of him. Were it now resolved on, it would be eight or ten
+      days before the matter on which the order should be founded, could be
+      selected, arranged, discussed, and forwarded. This would bring us within
+      four or five days of the meeting of Congress. Would it not be better to
+      wait and see how the pulse of that body, new as it is, would beat. They
+      are with us now, probably, but such a step as this may carry many over to
+      Genet&rsquo;s side. Genet will not obey the order, &amp;c. &amp;c. The President
+      asked me what I would do if Genet sent the accusation to us to be
+      communicated to Congress, as he threatened in the letter to Moultrie. I
+      said I would not send it to Congress; but either put it in the newspapers,
+      or send it back to him to be published if he pleased. Other questions and
+      answers were put and returned in a quicker altercation than I ever before
+      saw the President use. Hamilton was for the <i>renvoi</i>; spoke much of
+      the dignity of the nation; that they were now to form their character;
+      that our conduct now would tempt or deter other foreign ministers from
+      treating us in the same manner; touched on the President&rsquo;s personal
+      feelings; did not believe France would make it a cause of war; if she did,
+      we ought to do what was right, and meet the consequences, &amp;c. Knox on
+      the same side, and said he thought it very possible Mr. Genet would either
+      declare us a department of France, or levy troops here and endeavor to
+      reduce us to obedience. Randolph of my opinion, and argued chiefly on the
+      resurrection of popularity to Genet, which might be produced by this
+      measure. That at present he was dead in the public opinion, if we would
+      but leave him so. The President lamented there was not unanimity among us;
+      that as it was, we had left him exactly where we found him; and so it
+      ended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 21st. We met at the President&rsquo;s. The manner of explaining to
+      Congress the intentions of the proclamation, was the matter of debate.
+      Randolph produced his way of stating it. This expressed its views to have
+      been, 1. to keep our citizens quiet; 2. to intimate to foreign nations
+      that it was the President&rsquo;s opinion, that the interests and dispositions
+      of this country were for peace. Hamilton produced his statement, in which
+      he declared his intention to be, to say nothing which could be laid hold
+      of for any purpose; to leave the proclamation to explain itself. He
+      entered pretty fully into all the argumentation of Pacificus; he justified
+      the right of the President to declare his opinion for a future neutrality,
+      and that there existed no circumstances to oblige the United States to
+      enter into the war on account of the guarantee; and that in agreeing to
+      the proclamation, he meant it to be understood as conveying both those
+      declarations; viz. neutrality, and that the <i>casus foederis</i> on the
+      guarantee did not exist. He admitted the Congress might declare war,
+      notwithstanding these declarations of the President. In like manner, they
+      might declare war in the face of a treaty, and in direct infraction of it.
+      Among other positions laid down by him, this was with great positiveness;
+      that the constitution having given power to the President and Senate to
+      make treaties, they might make a treaty of neutrality which should take
+      from Congress the right to declare war in that particular case, and that
+      under the form of a treaty they might exercise any powers whatever, even
+      those exclusively given by the constitution to the House of
+      Representatives. Randolph opposed this position, and seemed to think that
+      where they undertook to do acts by treaty (as to settle a tariff of
+      duties), which were exclusively given to the legislature, that an act of
+      the legislature would be necessary to confirm them, as happens in England,
+      when a treaty interferes with duties established by law. I insisted that
+      in giving to the President and Senate a power to make treaties, the
+      constitution meant only to authorize them to carry into effect, by way of
+      treaty, any powers they might constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of
+      the weak points in this position, but there were still weaker in the other
+      hypothesis; and if it be impossible to discover a rational measure of
+      authority to have been given by this clause, I would rather suppose that
+      the cases which my hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not thought of
+      by the convention, or if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were
+      thought of and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. Of
+      this last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties offensive and
+      defensive, &amp;c. In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as
+      to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would
+      agree to yield, than too broadly, and, indeed, so broadly as to enable the
+      executive and Senate to do things which the constitution forbids. On the
+      question, which form of explaining the principles of the proclamation
+      should be adopted, I declared for Randolph&rsquo;s, though it gave to that
+      instrument more objects than I had contemplated. Knox declared for
+      Hamilton&rsquo;s. The President said he had had but one object, the keeping our
+      people quiet till Congress should meet; that nevertheless, to declare he
+      did not mean a declaration of neutrality, in the technical sense of the
+      phrase, might perhaps be crying <i>peccavi</i> before he was charged.
+      However, he did not decide between the two draughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 23rd. At the President&rsquo;s. Present, Knox, Randolph, and Th:
+      Jefferson. Subject, the heads of the speech. One was, a proposition to
+      Congress to fortify the principal harbors. I opposed the expediency of the
+      General Government&rsquo;s undertaking it, and the expediency of the President&rsquo;s
+      proposing it. It was amended, by substituting a proposition to adopt means
+      for enforcing respect to the jurisdiction of the United States within its
+      waters. It was proposed to recommend the establishment of a military
+      academy. I objected that none of the specified powers given by the
+      constitution to Congress, would authorize this. It was, therefore,
+      referred for further consideration and inquiry. Knox was for both
+      propositions. Randolph against the former, but said nothing as to the
+      latter. The President acknowledged he had doubted of the expediency of
+      undertaking the former; and as to the latter, though it would be a good
+      thing, he did not wish to bring on any thing which might generate heat and
+      ill-humor. It was agreed that Randolph should draw the speech and the
+      messages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      November the 28th. Met at the President&rsquo;s. I read over a list of the
+      papers copying, to be communicated to Congress on the subject of Mr.
+      Genet. It was agreed that Genet&rsquo;s letter of August the 13th to the
+      President, mine of August the 16th, and Genet&rsquo;s of November to myself and
+      the Attorney General, desiring a prosecution of Jay and King, should not
+      be sent to the legislature: on a general opinion, that the discussion of
+      the fact certified by Jay and King had better be left to the channel of
+      the newspapers, and in the private hands in which it now is, than for the
+      President to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion of it in Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Randolph had prepared a draught of the speech. The clause recommending
+      fortifications was left out; but that for a military academy was inserted.
+      I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitution. Hamilton and Knox
+      approved it without discussion. Randolph was for it, saying that the words
+      of the constitution anthorizing Congress to lay taxes, &amp;c. for the
+      common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he would not
+      choose to recommend any thing against the constitution, but if it was
+      doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure, that he
+      would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves whether the
+      constitution authorized it or not. It was, therefore, left in. I was happy
+      to see that Randolph had, by accident, used the expression &lsquo;our republic,&rsquo;
+      in the speech. The President, however, made no objection to it, and so, as
+      much as it had disconcerted him on a former occasion with me, it was now
+      put into his own mouth to be pronounced to the two Houses of legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No material alterations were proposed or made in any part of the draught.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After dinner, I produced the draught of messages on the subject of France
+      and England, proposing that that relative to Spain should be subsequent
+      and secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hamilton objected to the draught in toto; said that the contrast drawn
+      between the conduct of France and England amounted to a declaration of
+      war; he denied that France had ever done us favors; that it was mean for a
+      nation to acknowledge favors; that the dispositions of the people of this
+      country towards France, he considered as a serious calamity; that the
+      executive ought not, by an echo of this language, to nourish that
+      disposition in the people; that the offers in commerce made us by France,
+      were the offspring of the moment, of circumstances which would not last,
+      and it was wrong to receive as permanent, things merely temporary; that he
+      could demonstrate that Great Britain showed us more favors than France. In
+      complaisance to him I whittled down the expressions without opposition;
+      struck out that of &lsquo;favors ancient and recent&rsquo; from France; softened some
+      terms, and omitted some sentiments respecting Great Britain. He still was
+      against the whole, but insisted that, at any rate, it should be a secret
+      communication, because the matters it stated were still depending. These
+      were, 1. the inexecution of the treaty; 2. the restraining our commerce to
+      their own ports and those of their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every
+      thing. Randolph was for the communications; that the documents respecting
+      the first should be given in as public; but that those respecting the
+      second should not be given to the legislature at all, but kept secret. I
+      began to tremble now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. I
+      urged, especially, the duty now incumbent on the President, to lay before
+      the legislature and the public what had passed on the inexecution of the
+      treaty, since Mr. Hammond&rsquo;s answer of this month might be considered as
+      the last we should ever have; that, therefore, it could no longer be
+      considered as a negotiation pending. I urged that the documents respecting
+      the stopping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that if it should be
+      thought better to withhold them, the restrictions should not go to those
+      respecting the treaty; that neither of these subjects was more in a state
+      of pendency than the recall of Mr. Genet, on which, nevertheless, no
+      scruples had been expressed. The President took up the subject with more
+      vehemence than I have seen him show, and decided without reserve, that not
+      only what had passed on the inexecution of the treaty should go in as
+      public (in which Hamilton and Knox had divided in opinion from Randolph
+      and myself), but also that those respecting the stopping our corn should
+      go in as public (wherein Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph had been against
+      me.) This was the first instance I had seen of his deciding on the opinion
+      of one against that of three others, which proved his own to have been
+      very strong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 1st, 1793. Beckley tells me he had the following fact from
+      Lear. Langdon, Cabot, and some others of the Senate, standing in a knot
+      before the fire after the Senate had adjourned, and growling together
+      about some measure which they had just lost; &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Cabot, &lsquo;things
+      will never go right till you have a President for life, and an hereditary
+      Senate.&rsquo; Langdon told this to Lear, who mentioned it to the President. The
+      President seemed struck with it, and declared he had not supposed there
+      was a man in the United States who could have entertained such an idea.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      March the 2nd, 1797. I arrived at Philadelphia to qualify as
+      Vice-President, and called instantly on Mr. Adams, who lodged at
+      Francis&rsquo;s, in Fourth street. The next morning he returned my visit at Mr.
+      Madison&rsquo;s, where I lodged. He found me alone in my room, and shutting the
+      door himself, he said he was glad to find me alone, for that he wished a
+      free conversation with me. He entered immediately on an explanation of the
+      situation of our affairs with France, and the danger of rupture with that
+      nation, a rupture which would convulse the attachments of this country;
+      that he was impressed with the necessity of an immediate mission to the
+      Directory; that it would have been the first wish of his heart to have got
+      me to go there, but that he supposed it was out of the question, as it did
+      not seem justifiable for him to send away the person destined to take his
+      place in case of accident to himself, nor decent to remove from
+      competition one who was a rival in the public favor. That he had,
+      therefore, concluded to send a mission, which, by its dignity, should
+      satisfy France, and by its selection from the three great divisions of the
+      continent, should satisfy all parts of the United States; in short, that
+      he had determined to join Gerry and Madison to Pinckney, and he wished me
+      to consult Mr. Madison for him. I told him that, as to myself, I concurred
+      in the opinion of the impropriety of my leaving the post assigned me, and
+      that my inclinations, moreover, would never permit me to cross the
+      Atlantic again; that I would, as he desired, consult Mr. Madison, but I
+      feared it was desperate, as he had refused that mission on my leaving it,
+      in General Washington&rsquo;s time, though it was kept open a twelvemonth for
+      him. He said that if Mr. Madison should refuse, he would still appoint
+      him, and leave the responsibility on him. I consulted Mr. Madison, who
+      declined, as I expected. I think it was on Monday the 6th of March, Mr.
+      Adams and myself met at dinner at General Washington&rsquo;s, and we happened,
+      in the evening, to rise from table and come away together. As soon as we
+      got into the street, I told him the event of my negotiation with Mr.
+      Madison. He immediately said, that, on consultation, some objections to
+      that nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated; and was
+      going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when we came to
+      Fifth street, where our road separated, his being down Market street, mine
+      off along Fifth, and we took leave: and he never after that said one word
+      to me on the subject, or ever consulted me as to any measures of the
+      government. The opinion I formed at the time on this transaction was, that
+      Mr. Adams, in the first moments of the enthusiasm of the occasion (his
+      inauguration), forgot party sentiments, and, as he never acted on any
+      system, but was always governed by the feeling of the moment, he thought,
+      for a moment, to steer impartially between the parties; that Monday, the
+      6th of March, being the first time he had met his cabinet, on expressing
+      ideas of this kind, he had been at once diverted from them, and returned
+      to his former party views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July, 1797. Murray is rewarded for his services by an appointment to
+      Amsterdam; W. Smith of Charleston, to Lisbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August the 24th. About the time of the British treaty, Hamilton and
+      Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, dined together, and Hamilton drank freely.
+      Conversing on the treaty, Talleyrand says, &lsquo;<i>Mais vraiment, Monsieur
+      Hamilton, ce n&rsquo;est pas Men honnete</i>, after making the Senate ratify the
+      treaty, to advise the President to reject it.&rsquo; &lsquo;The treaty,&rsquo; says
+      Hamilton, &lsquo;is an execrable one, and Jay was an old woman for making it;
+      but the whole credit of saving us from it must be given to the President.&rsquo;
+      After circumstances had led to a conclusion that the President also must
+      ratify it, he said to the same Talleyrand, &lsquo;Though the treaty is a most
+      execrable one, yet when once we have come to a determination on it, we
+      must carry it through thick and thin, right or wrong.&rsquo; Talleyrand told
+      this to Volney, who told it to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a letter now appearing in the papers, from Pickering to Monroe,
+      dated July the 24th, 1797, which I am satisfied is written by Hamilton. He
+      was in Philadelphia at that date.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 26th, 1797. Langdon tells me, that at the second election of
+      President and Vice-President of the United States, when there was a
+      considerable vote given to Clinton in opposition to Mr. Adams, he took
+      occasion to remark it in conversation in the Senate chamber with Mr.
+      Adams, who gritting his teeth, said, &lsquo;Damn &lsquo;em, damn &lsquo;em, damn &lsquo;em, you
+      see that an elective government will not do.&rsquo; He also tells me that Mr.
+      Adams, in a late conversation,said,&rsquo; Republicanism must be disgraced,
+      &lsquo;Sir.&rsquo; The Chevalier Yrujo called on him at Braintree, and conversing on
+      French affairs, and Yrujo expressing his belief of their stability, in
+      opposition to Mr. Adamses, the latter lifting up and shaking his finger at
+      him, said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what, the French republic will not last three
+      months.&rsquo; This I had from Yrujo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harper, lately in a large company, was saying that the best thing the
+      friends of the French could do, was to pray for the restoration of their
+      monarch. &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; says a by-stander, &lsquo;the best thing we could do, I
+      suppose, would be to pray for the establishment of a monarch in the United
+      States.&rsquo; &lsquo;Qur people,&rsquo; says Harper, &lsquo;are not yet ripe for it, but it is
+      the best thing we can come to, and we shall come to it.&rsquo; Something like
+      this was said in presence of Findlay. He now denies it in the public
+      papers, though it can be proved by several members.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 27th. Tench Coxe tells me, that a little before Hamilton went
+      out of office, or just as he was going out, taking with him his last
+      conversation, and among other things, on the subject of their differences,
+      &lsquo;For my part,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;I avow myself a monarchist; I have no objection
+      to a trial being made of this thing of a republic, but,&rsquo; &amp;c.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 5th, 1798. I receive a very remarkable fact indeed, in our
+      history, from Baldwin and Skinner. Before the establishment of our present
+      government, a very extensive combination had taken place in New York and
+      the eastern States, among that description of people who were partly
+      monarchical in principle, or frightened with Shays&rsquo;s rebellion and the
+      impotence of the old Congress. Delegates in different places had actually
+      had consultations on the subject of seizing on the powers of a government,
+      and establishing them by force; had corresponded with one another, and had
+      sent a deputy to General Washington to solicit his co-operation. He
+      refused to join them. The new convention was in the mean time proposed by
+      Virginia and appointed. These people believed it impossible the States
+      should ever agree on a government, as this must include the impost and all
+      the other powers which the States had, a thousand times, refused to the
+      general authority. They therefore let the proposed convention go on, not
+      doubting its failure, and confiding that on its failure would be a still
+      more favorable moment for their enterprise. They therefore wished it to
+      fail, and especially, when Hamilton, their leader, brought forward his
+      plan of government, failed entirely in carrying it, and retired in disgust
+      from the convention. His associates then took every method to prevent any
+      form of government being agreed to. But the well-intentioned never ceased
+      trying, first one thing, then another, till they could get something
+      agreed to. The final passage and adoption of the constitution completely
+      defeated the views of the combination, and saved us from an attempt to
+      establish a government over us by force. This fact throws a blaze of light
+      on the conduct of several members from New York and the eastern States in
+      the convention of Annapolis, and the grand convention. At that of
+      Annapolis, several eastern members most vehemently opposed Madison&rsquo;s
+      proposition for a more general convention, with more general powers. They
+      wished things to get more and more into confusion, to justify the violent
+      measure they proposed. The idea of establishing a government by reasoning
+      and agreement, they publicly ridiculed as an Utopian project, visionary
+      and unexampled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 6th, 1798. Mr. Baldwin tells me, that in a conversation
+      yesterday with Goodhue, on the state of our affairs, Goodhue said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      tell you what, I have made up my mind on this subject; I would rather the
+      old ship should go down than not&rsquo;; (meaning the Union of the States.) Mr.
+      Hillhouse coming up, &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; says Mr. Baldwin, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll tell my old friend
+      Hillhouse what you say &lsquo;; and he told him. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; says Goodhue, &lsquo;I
+      repeat, that I would rather the old ship should go down, if we are to be
+      always kept pumping so.&rsquo; &lsquo;Mr. Hillhouse,&rsquo; says Baldwin, &lsquo;you remember when
+      we were learning logic together at school, there was the case categorical
+      and the case hypothetical. Mr. Goodhue stated it to me first as the case
+      categorical. I am glad to see that he now changes it to the case
+      hypothetical, by adding, &lsquo;if we are always to be kept pumping so.&rsquo; Baldwin
+      went on then to remind Goodhue what an advocate he had been for our
+      tonnage duty, wanting to make it one dollar instead of fifty cents; and
+      how impatiently he bore the delays of Congress in proceeding to retaliate
+      on Great Britain before Mr. Madison&rsquo;s propositions came on. Goodhue
+      acknowledged that his opinions had changed since that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 15th, 1798. I dined this day with Mr. Adams, (the President.)
+      The company was large. After dinner I was sitting next to him, and our
+      conversation was first on the enormous price of labor,* house rent, and
+      other things. We both concurred in ascribing it chiefly to the flood of
+      bank paper now afloat, and in condemning those institutions. We then got
+      on the constitution; and in the course of our conversation he said, that
+      no republic could ever last which had not a Senate, and a Senate deeply
+      and strongly rooted, strong enough to bear up against all popular storms
+      and passions; that he thought our Senate as well constituted as it could
+      have been, being chosen by the legislatures; for if these could not
+      support them, he did not know what could do it; that perhaps it might have
+      been as well for them to be chosen by the State at large, as that would
+      insure a choice of distinguished men, since none but such could be known
+      to a whole people; that the only fault in our Senate was, that it was not
+      durable enough; that hitherto, it had behaved very well; however, he was
+      afraid they would give way in the end. That as to trusting to a popular
+      assembly for the preservation of our liberties, it was the merest chimera
+      imaginable; they never had any rule of decision but their own will; that
+      he would as lieve be again in the hands of our old committees of safety,
+      who made the law and executed it at the same time; that it had been
+      observed by some writer (I forget whom he named), that anarchy did more
+      mischief in one night, than tyranny in an age; and that in modern times we
+      might say with truth, that, in France, anarchy had done more harm in one
+      night, than all the despotism of their Kings had ever done in twenty or
+      thirty years. The point in which he views our Senate, as the colossus of
+      the constitution, serves as a key to the politics of the Senate, who are
+      two thirds of them in his sentiments, and accounts for the bold line of
+      conduct they pursue.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * He observed, that eight or ten years ago he gave only
+     fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him
+     food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty
+     dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      March the 1st. Mr. Tazewell tells me, that when the appropriations for the
+      British treaty were on the carpet, and very uncertain in the lower House,
+      there being at that time a number of bills in the hands of committees of
+      the Senate, none reported, and the Senate idle for want of them, he, in
+      his place, called on the committees to report, and particularly on Mr.
+      King, who was of most of them. King said that it was true the committees
+      kept back their reports, waiting the event of the question about
+      appropriation: that if that was not carried, they considered legislation
+      as at an end; that they might as well break up and consider the Union as
+      dissolved. Tazewell expressed his astonishment at these ideas, and called
+      on King to know if he had misapprehended him. King rose again and repeated
+      the same words. The next day, Cabot took an occasion in debate, and so
+      awkward a one as to show it was a thing agreed to be done, to repeat the
+      same sentiments in stronger terms, and carried further, by declaring a
+      determination on their side to break up and dissolve the government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th. In conversation with Baldwin and Brown of Kentucky, Brown
+      says that in a private company once, consisting of Hamilton, King,
+      Madison, himself, and some one else making a fifth, speaking of the
+      &lsquo;federal government&rsquo;; &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; says Hamilton, &lsquo;say the federal monarchy; let
+      us call things by their right names, for a monarchy it is.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Baldwin mentions at table the following fact. When the bank bill was under
+      discussion in the House of Representatives, Judge Wilson came in, and was
+      standing by Baldwin. Baldwin reminded him of the following fact which
+      passed in the grand convention. Among the enumerated powers given to
+      Congress, was one to erect corporations. It was on debate struck out.
+      Several particular powers were then proposed. Among others, Robert Morris
+      proposed to give Congress a power to establish a national bank. Gouverneur
+      Morris opposed it, observing that it was extremely doubtful whether the
+      constitution they were framing could ever be passed at all by the people
+      of America; that to give it its best chance, however, they should make it
+      as palatable as possible and put nothing into it not very essential, which
+      might raise up enemies; that his colleague (Robert Morris) well knew that
+      &lsquo;a bank&rsquo; was, in their State (Pennsylvania) the very watch-word of party;
+      that a bank had been the great bone of contention between the two parties
+      of the State, from the establishment of their constitution, having been
+      erected, put down, and erected again, as either party preponderated; that
+      therefore, to insert this power, would instantly enlist against the whole
+      instrument, the whole of the anti-bank party in Pennsylvania. Whereupon it
+      was rejected, as was every other special power, except that of giving
+      copyrights to authors, and patents to inventors; the general power of
+      incorporating being whittled down to this shred. Wilson agreed to the
+      fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hunter of South Carolina, who lodges with Rutledge, [* J. Rutledge,
+      junior] tells me, that Rutledge was explaining to him the plan they
+      proposed to pursue as to war measures, when Otis came in. Rutledge
+      addressed Otis. &lsquo;Now, Sir,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;you must come forward with something
+      liberal for the southern States, fortify their harbors and build galleys,
+      in order to obtain their concurrence.&rsquo; Otis said, &lsquo;We insist on convoys
+      for our European trade, and <i>guarda-costas</i>, on which condition
+      alone, we will give them galleys and fortifications.&rsquo; Rutledge observed,
+      that in the event of war, McHenry and Pickering must go out; Wolcott, he
+      thought, might remain, but the others were incapable of conducting a war.
+      Otis said the eastern people would never abandon Pickering; he must be
+      retained; McHenry might go. They considered together whether General
+      Pinckney would accept the office of Secretary of War. They apprehended he
+      would not. It was agreed in this conversation, that Sewall had more the
+      ear of the President than any other person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 12th. When the bill for appropriations was before the Senate,
+      Anderson moved to strike out a clause recognising (by way of
+      appropriation) the appointment of a committee by the House of
+      Representatives, to sit during their recess to collect evidence on
+      Blount&rsquo;s case, denying they had power, but by a law, to authorize a
+      committee to sit during recess. Tracy advocated the motion, and said, &lsquo;We
+      may as well speak out. The committee was appointed by the House of
+      Representatives, to take care of the British minister, to take care of the
+      Spanish minister, to take care of the Secretary of State, in short, to
+      take care of the President of the United States. They were afraid the
+      President and Secretary of State would not perform the office of
+      collecting evidence faithfully; that there would be collusion, &amp;c.
+      Therefore, the House appointed a committee of their own. We shall have
+      them next sending a committee to Europe to make a treaty, &amp;c. Suppose
+      that the House of Representatives should resolve, that after the
+      adjournment of Congress, they should continue to sit as a committee of the
+      whole House during the whole recess.&rsquo; This shows how the appointment of
+      that committee has been viewed by the President&rsquo;s friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 5th. Doctor Rush tells me he had it from Mrs. Adams, that not a
+      scrip of a pen has passed between the late and present President, since he
+      came into office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 13th. New instructions of the British government to their armed
+      ships now appear, which clearly infringe their treaty with us, by
+      authorizing them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French
+      colonies from those colonies to Europe, and to lake vessels bound to a
+      blockaded port. See them in Brown&rsquo;s paper, of April the 18th, in due form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President has sent a government brig to France, probably to carry
+      despatches. He has chosen as the bearer of these, one Humphreys, the son
+      of a ship-carpenter, ignorant, under age, not speaking a word of French,
+      most abusive of that nation; whose only merit is, the having mobbed and
+      beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted
+      and punished by fine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 25th. At a dinner given by the bar to the federal judges, Chase
+      and Peters, present about twenty-four lawyers, and William Tilghman in the
+      chair, this toast was given; &lsquo;Our <i>King</i> in old England.&rsquo; Observe the
+      double entendre on the word King. Du Ponceau, who was one of the bar
+      present, told this to Tench Coxe, who told me in presence of H. Tazewell.
+      Dallas was at the dinner; so was Colonel Charles Sims of Alexandria, who
+      is here on a law-suit vs. General Irving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May the 3rd. The President some time ago appointed Steele, of Virginia, a
+      commissioner to the Indians, and recently Secretary of the Mississippi
+      Territory. Steele was a Counsellor of Virginia, and was voted out by the
+      Assembly because he turned tory. He then offered for Congress, and was
+      rejected by the people. Then offered for the Senate of Virginia, and was
+      rejected. The President has also appointed Joseph Hopkinson commissioner
+      to make a treaty with the Oneida Indians. He is a youth of about
+      twenty-two or twenty-three, and has no other claims to such an appointment
+      than extreme toryism, and the having made a poor song to the tune of the
+      President&rsquo;s March.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October the 13th, 1798. Littlepage, who has been on one or two missions
+      from Poland to Spain, said that when Gardoqui returned from America, he
+      settled with his court an account of secret service money, of six hundred
+      thousand dollars. <i>Ex relatione</i> Colonel Monroe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January, 1799. In a conversation between Doctor Ewen and the President,
+      the former said one of his sons was an aristocrat, the other a democrat.
+      The President asked if it were not the youngest who was the democrat.
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Ewen. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said the President, &lsquo;a boy of fifteen who is not
+      a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at
+      twenty.&rsquo; Ewen told Hurt, and Hurt told me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 14th. Logan tells me that in his conversation with Pickering
+      on his arrival, the latter abused Gerry very much; said he was a traitor
+      to his country, and had deserted the post to which he was appointed; that
+      the French temporized at first with Pinckney, but found him too much of a
+      man for their purpose. Logan observing, that, notwithstanding the pacific
+      declarations of France, it might still be well to keep up. the military
+      ardor of our citizens, and to have the militia in good order: &lsquo;The
+      militia,&rsquo; said Pickering, &lsquo;the militia never did any good to this country,
+      except in the single affair of Bunker&rsquo;s Hill; that we must have a standing
+      army of fifty thousand men, which being stationed in different parts of
+      the continent, might serve as rallying points for the militia, and so
+      render them of some service.&rsquo; In his conversation with Mr. Adams, Logan
+      mentioned the willingness of the French to treat with Gerry. &lsquo;And do you
+      know why,&rsquo; said Mr. Adams. &lsquo;Why, Sir?&rsquo; said Logan. &lsquo;Because,&rsquo; said Mr.
+      Adams, &lsquo;they know him to have been an anti-federalist, against the
+      constitution.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 2nd, 1800. Information from Tench Coxe. Mr. Liston had sent
+      two letters to the Governor of Canada by one Sweezy. He had sent copies of
+      them, together with a third, (original) by one Cribs. Sweezy was arrested
+      (being an old horse-thief), and his papers examined. T. Coxe had a sight
+      of them. As soon as a rumor got out that there were letters of Mr. Liston
+      disclosed, but no particulars yet mentioned, Mr. Liston suspecting that
+      Cribs had betrayed him, thought it best to bring all his three letters,
+      and lay them before Pickering, Secretary of State. Pickering thought them
+      all very innocent. In his office they were seen by Mr. Hodgen of New
+      Jersey, commissary of military stores, and the intimate friend of
+      Pickering. It happens that there is some land partnership between
+      Pickering, Hodgen, and Coxe, so that the latter is freely and intimately
+      visited by Hodgen, who, moreover, speaks freely with him on political
+      subjects. They were talking the news of the day, when Mr. Coxe observed
+      that these intercepted letters of Liston were serious things; (nothing
+      being yet out but a general rumor.) Hodgen asked which he thought the most
+      serious. Coxe said the second; (for he knew yet of no other.) Hodgen said
+      he thought little of any of them, but that the third was the most
+      exceptionable. This struck Coxe, who, not betraying his ignorance of a
+      third letter, asked generally what part of that he alluded to. Hodgen said
+      to that wherein he assured the Governor of Canada, that if the French
+      invaded Canada, an army would be marched from these States to his
+      assistance. After this it became known that it was Sweezy who was
+      arrested, and not Cribs; so that Mr. Liston had made an unnecessary
+      disclosure of his third letter to Mr. Pickering, who, however, keeps his
+      secret for him. In the beginning of the conversation between Hodgen and
+      Coxe, Coxe happened to name Sweezy as the bearer of the letters. &lsquo;That &lsquo;s
+      not his name,&rsquo; says Hodgen, (for he did not know that two of the letters
+      had been sent by Sweezy also) &lsquo;his name is Cribs.&rsquo; This put Coxe on his
+      guard, and set him to fishing for the new matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 10th. Doctor Rush tells me, that he had it from Samuel Lyman,
+      that during the X. Y. Z. Congress, the federal members held the largest
+      caucus they have ever had, at which he was present, and the question was
+      proposed and debated, whether they should declare war against France, and
+      determined in the negative. Lyman was against it. He tells me, that Mr.
+      Adams told him, that when he came on in the fall to Trenton, he was there
+      surrounded constantly by the opponents of the late mission to France. That
+      Hamilton pressing him to delay it, said, &lsquo;Why, Sir, by Christmas, Louis
+      the XVIII. will be seated on his throne.&rsquo; Mr. A. &lsquo;By whom?&rsquo; H. &lsquo;By the
+      coalition.&rsquo; Mr. A. &lsquo;Ah! then farewell to the independence of Europe. If a
+      coalition, moved by the finger of England, is to give a government to
+      France, there is an end to the independence of every country.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 12th. General Samuel Smith says that Pickering, Wolcott, and
+      McHenry, wrote a joint letter from Trenton to the President, then at
+      Braintree, dissuading him from the mission to France. Stoddard refused to
+      join it. Stoddard says the instructions are such, that if the Directory
+      have any disposition to reconciliation, a treaty will be made. He observed
+      to him also, that Ellsworth looks beyond this mission to the Presidential
+      chair. That with this view, he will endeavor to make a treaty, and a good
+      one. That Davie has the same vanity and views. All this communicated by
+      Stoddard to S. Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 13th. Baer and Harrison G. Otis told J. Nicholas, that in the
+      caucus mentioned ante 10th, there wanted but five votes to produce a
+      declaration of war. Baer was against it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 19th. W. C. Nicholas tells me, that in a conversation with
+      Dexter three or four days ago, he asked Dexter whether it would not be
+      practicable for the States to agree on some uniform mode of choosing
+      electors of President. Dexter said, &lsquo;I suppose you would prefer an
+      election by districts.&rsquo; &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Nicholas, &lsquo;I think it would be best;
+      but would nevertheless agree to any other consistent with the
+      constitution.&rsquo; Dexter said he did not know what might be the opinion of
+      his State, but his own was, that no mode of election would answer any good
+      purpose; that he should prefer one for life. &lsquo;On that reasoning,&rsquo; said
+      Nicholas, &lsquo;you should prefer an hereditary one.&rsquo; &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;we are
+      not ripe for that yet. I suppose,&rsquo; added he, &lsquo;this doctrine is not very
+      popular with you.&rsquo; &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Nicholas, &lsquo;it would effectually damn any man
+      in my State.&rsquo; &lsquo;So it would in mine,&rsquo; said Dexter; &lsquo;but I am under no
+      inducement to belie my sentiment; I have nothing to ask from any body; I
+      had rather be at home than here, therefore I speak my sentiments freely.&rsquo;
+      Mr. Nicholas, a little before or after this, made the same proposition of
+      a uniform election to Rossr who replied that he saw no good in any kind of
+      election. &lsquo;Perhaps,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;the present one may last a while.&rsquo; On the
+      whole, Mr. Nicholas thinks he perceives, in that party, a willingness and
+      a wish to let every thing go from bad to worse, to amend nothing, in hopes
+      it may bring on confusion, and open a door to the kind of government they
+      wish. In a conversation with Gunn, who goes with them, but thinks in some
+      degree with us, Gunn told him that the very game which the minority of
+      Pennsylvania is now playing with McKean (see substitute of minority in
+      lower House, and address of Senate in upper), was meditated by the same
+      party in the federal government, in case of the election of a republican
+      President; and that the eastern States would in that case throw things
+      into confusion, and break the Union. That they have in a great degree got
+      rid of their paper, so as no longer to be creditors, and the moment they
+      cease to enjoy the plunder of the immense appropriations now exclusively
+      theirs, they would aim at some other order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 24th. Mr. Smith, a merchant of Hamburg, gives me the following
+      information. The St. Andrew&rsquo;s Club, of New York, (all of Scotch tories,)
+      gave a public dinner lately. Among other guests Alexander Hamilton was
+      one. After dinner, the first toast was &lsquo;The President of the United
+      States.&rsquo; It was drunk without any particular approbation. The next was,
+      &lsquo;George the Third.&rsquo; Hamilton started up on his feet, and insisted on a
+      bumper and three cheers. The whole company accordingly rose and gave the
+      cheers. One of them, though a federalist, was so disgusted at the
+      partiality shown by Hamilton to a foreign sovereign over his own
+      President, that he mentioned it to a Mr. Schwart-house, an American
+      merchant of New York, who mentioned it to Smith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Smith also tells me, that calling one evening on Mr. Evans, then
+      Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and asking the
+      news, Evans said, Harper had just been there, and speaking of the
+      President&rsquo;s setting out to Braintree, said, &lsquo;he prayed to God that his
+      horses might run away with him, or some other accident happen to break his
+      neck before he reached Braintree.&rsquo; This was in indignation at his having
+      named Murray, &amp;c. to negotiate with France. Evans approved of the
+      wish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 1st. Doctor Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green, that
+      when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the
+      government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had never, on
+      any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the
+      Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address, as
+      to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or
+      not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for
+      them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that,
+      which he passed over without notice. Rush observes, he never did say a
+      word on the subject in any of his public papers, except in his valedictory
+      letter to the Governors of the States when he resigned his commission in
+      the army, wherein he speaks of &lsquo;the benign influence of the Christian
+      religion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
+      believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
+      believed no more of that system than he himself did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March, 1800. Heretical doctrines maintained in Senate, on the motion
+      against the Aurora. That there is in every legal body of men a right of
+      self-preservation, authorizing them to do whatever is necessary for that
+      purpose: by Tracy, Read, and Lawrence. That the common law authorizes the
+      proceeding proposed against the Aurora, and is in force here: by Read.
+      That the privileges of Congress are and ought to be indefinite: by Read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tracy says, he would not say exactly that the common law of England in all
+      its extent is in force here; but common sense reason, and morality, which
+      are the foundations of the common law, are in force here, and establish a
+      common law. He held himself so nearly half way between the common law of
+      England and what every body else has called natural law, and not common
+      law, that he could hold to either the one or the other, as he should find
+      expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
+      in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life had,
+      directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which is an
+      absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty well
+      ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on Davila.
+      This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though long and
+      universally understood to be so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws in
+      his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney&rsquo;s letters on Robbins&rsquo;s case.
+      Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of that
+      place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to about
+      one hundred dollars a year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that Thatcher,
+      on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had been for a
+      declaration of war against France, and many others also; but that on
+      counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore did not
+      attempt it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information. He
+      and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found him
+      keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the study of
+      the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator, and
+      particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still were in
+      concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed him there
+      was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the government,
+      who were in league with France; that France, by a secret article of treaty
+      with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great Britain was likely to be
+      our best friend and dependence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
+      for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
+      General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on him, and
+      he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on their grievances
+      under the government, and particularly the western expedition; that he
+      spoke to him of the advantages that country would have in joining France
+      when she should hold Louisiana; showed him a map he had drawn of that part
+      of the country; pointed out the passes in the mountain, and the facility
+      with which they might hold them against the United States, and with which
+      France could support them from New Orleans. He says, that in these
+      conversations, Collot let himself out without common prudence. He says,
+      Michaux (to whom I, at the request of Genet, had given a letter of
+      introduction to the Governor of Kentucky as a botanist, which was his real
+      profession,) called on him; that Michaux had a commissary&rsquo;s commission for
+      the expedition, which Genet had planned from that quarter against the
+      Spaniards; that &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, the late Spanish
+      commandant of St. Genevieve, with one Powers, an Englishman, called on
+      him. That from all these circumstances, together with Ross&rsquo;s stories, he
+      did believe that there was a conspiracy to deliver our country, or some
+      part of it at least, to the French; that he made notes of what passed
+      between himself and Collot and the others, and lent them to Mr. Ross, who
+      gave them to the President, by whom they were deposited in the office of
+      the Board of War; that when he complained to Ross of this breach of
+      confidence, he endeavored to get off by compliments on the utility and
+      importance of his notes. They now cooled towards each other; and his
+      opposition to Ross&rsquo;s election as Governor has separated them in truth,
+      though not entirely to appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Rush tells me, that within a few days he has heard a member of
+      Congress lament our separation from Great Britain, and express his sincere
+      wishes that we were again dependent on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 25th, 1800. Colonel Hitchburn tells me what Colonel Monroe
+      had before told me of, as coming from Hitchburn. He was giving me the
+      characters of persons in Massachusetts. Speaking of Lowell, he said he
+      was, in the beginning of the Revolution, a timid whig, but as soon as he
+      found we were likely to prevail, he became a great office-hunter. And in
+      the very breath of speaking of Lowell, he stopped: says he, I will give
+      you a piece of information which I do not venture to speak of to others.
+      There was a Mr. Hale in Massachusetts, a reputable, worthy man, who
+      becoming a little embarrassed in his affairs, I aided him, which made him
+      very friendly to me. He went to Canada on some business. The Governor
+      there took great notice of him. On his return, he took occasion to mention
+      to me that he was authorized by the Governor of Canada to give from three
+      to five thousand guineas each to himself and some others, to induce them
+      not to do any thing to the injury of their country, but to befriend a good
+      connection between England and it. Hitchburn said he would think of it,
+      and asked Hale to come and dine with him to-morrow. After dinner he drew
+      Hale fully out. He told him he had his doubts, but particularly, that he
+      should not like to be alone in such a business. On that, Hale named to him
+      four others who were to be engaged, two of whom, said Hitchburn, are now
+      dead, and two living. Hitchburn, when he had got all he wanted out of
+      Hale, declined in a friendly way. But he observed those, four men, from
+      that moment, to espouse the interests of England in every point and on
+      every occasion. Though he did not name the men to me, yet as the speaking
+      of Lowell was what brought into his Read to tell me this anecdote, I
+      concluded he was one. From other circumstances respecting Stephen
+      Higginson, of whom he spoke, I conjectured him to be the other living one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 26th. In another conversation, I mentioned to Colonel
+      Hitchburn, that though he had not named names, I had strongly suspected
+      Higginson to be one of Hale&rsquo;s men. He smiled and said, if I had strongly
+      suspected any man wrongfully from his information, he would undeceive me:
+      that there were no persons he thought more strongly to be suspected
+      himself, than Higginson and Lowell. I considered this as saying they were
+      the men. Higginson is employed in an important business about our navy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 12th, 1801. Edward Livingston tells me, that Bayard applied
+      to-day or last night to General Samuel Smith, and represented to him the
+      expediency of his coming over to the States who vote for Burr, that there
+      was nothing in the way of appointment which he might not command, and
+      particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. Smith asked him if
+      he was authorized to make the offer. He said he was authorized. Smith told
+      this to Livingston, and to W. C. Nicholas, who confirms it to me. Bayard
+      in like manner tempted Livingston, not by offering any particular office,
+      but by representing to him his (Livingston&rsquo;s) intimacy and connection with
+      Burr; that from him he had every thing to expect, if he would come over to
+      him. To Doctor Linn of New Jersey, they have offered the government of New
+      Jersey. See a paragraph in Martin&rsquo;s Baltimore paper of February the 10th,
+      signed, &lsquo;a looker on,&rsquo; staling an intimacy of views between Harper and
+      Burr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 14th. General Armstrong tells me, that Gouverneur Morris, in
+      conversation with him to-day on the scene which is passing, expressed
+      himself thus. &lsquo;How comes it,&rsquo; says he, &lsquo;that Burr, who is four hundred
+      miles off (at Albany), has agents here at work with great activity, while
+      Mr. Jefferson, who is on the spot, does nothing?&rsquo; This explains the
+      ambiguous conduct of himself and his nephew, Lewis Morris, and that they
+      were holding themselves free for a price; i.e. some office, either to the
+      uncle or nephew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February the 16th. See in the Wilmington Mirror of February the 14th, Mr.
+      Bayard&rsquo;s elaborate argument to prove that the common law, as modified by
+      the laws of the respective States at the epoch of the ratification of the
+      constitution, attached to the courts of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June the 23rd, 1801. Andrew Ellicot tells me, that in a conversation last
+      summer with Major William Jackson of Philadelphia, on the subject of our
+      intercourse with Spain, Jackson said we had managed our affairs badly;
+      that he himself was the author of the papers against the Spanish minister
+      signed Americanus; that his object was irritation; that he was anxious, if
+      it could have been brought, about, to have plunged us into a war with
+      Spain, that the people might have been occupied with that, and not with
+      the conduct of the administration, and other things they had no business
+      to meddle with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 13th, 1803. The Reverend Mr. Coffin of New England, who is
+      now here soliciting donations for a college in Greene county, in
+      Tennessee, tells me that when he first determined to engage in this
+      enterprise, he wrote a paper recommendatory of the enterprise, which he
+      meant to get signed by clergymen, and a similar one for persons in a civil
+      character, at the head of which he wished Mr. Adams to put his name, he
+      being then President, and the application going only for his name, and not
+      for a donation. Mr. Adams, after reading the paper and considering, said,
+      &lsquo;he saw no possibility of continuing the union of the States; that their
+      dissolution must necessarily take place; that he therefore saw no
+      propriety in recommending to New England men to promote a literary
+      institution in the south; that it was in fact giving strength to those who
+      were to be their enemies, and therefore, he would have nothing to do with
+      it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      December the 31st. After dinner to-day, the pamphlet on the conduct of
+      Colonel Burr being the subject of conversation, Matthew Lyon noticed the
+      insinuations against the republicans at Washington, pending the
+      Presidential election, and expressed his wish that every thing was spoken
+      out which was known; that it would then appear on which side there was a
+      bidding for votes, and he declared that John Brown of Rhode Island, urging
+      him to vote for Colonel Burr, used these words. &lsquo;What is it you want,
+      Colonel Lyon? Is it office, is it money? Only say what you want, and you
+      shall have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 2nd, 1804. Colonel Hitchburn, of Massachusetts, reminding me
+      of a letter he had written me from Philadelphia, pending the Presidential
+      election, says he did not therein give the details. That he was in company
+      at Philadelphia with Colonel Burr and &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; that in the
+      course of the conversation on the election, Colonel Burr said, &lsquo;We must
+      have a President, and a constitutional one, in some way.&rsquo; &lsquo;How is it to be
+      done,&rsquo; says Hitchburn; &lsquo;Mr. Jefferson&rsquo;s friends will not quit him, and his
+      enemies are not strong enough to carry another.&rsquo; &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; says Burr, &lsquo;our
+      friends must join the federalists, and give the President.&rsquo; &lsquo;The next
+      morning at breakfast, Colonel Burr repeated nearly the same, saying, &lsquo;We
+      cannot be without a President, our friends must join the federal vote.&rsquo;
+      &lsquo;But,&rsquo; says Hitchburn, &lsquo;we shall then be without a Vice-President; who is
+      to be our Vice-President?&rsquo; Colonel Burr answered, &lsquo;Mr. Jefferson.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      January the 26th. Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, calls on me in the
+      evening, having previously asked an opportunity of conversing with me. He
+      began by recapitulating summarily, that he had come to New York a
+      stranger, some years ago; that he found the country in possession of two
+      rich families (the Livingstons and Clintons); that his pursuits were not
+      political, and he meddled not. When the crisis, however, of 1800 came on,
+      they found their influence worn out, and solicited his aid with the
+      people. He lent it without any views of promotion. That his being named as
+      a candidate for Vice-President was unexpected by him. He acceded to it
+      with a view to promote my fame and advancement, and from a desire to be
+      with me, whose company and conversation had always been fascinating to
+      him. That, since, those great families had become hostile to him, and had
+      excited the calumnies which I had seen published. That in this Hamilton
+      had joined, and had even written some of the pieces against him. That his
+      attachment to me had been sincere, and was still unchanged, although many
+      little stories had been carried to him, and he supposed to me also, which
+      he despised; but that attachments must be reciprocal, or cease to exist,
+      and therefore he asked if any change had taken place in mine towards him;
+      that he had chosen to have this conversation with myself directly, and not
+      through any intermediate agent. He reminded me of a letter written to him
+      about the time of counting the votes (say February, 1801), mentioning that
+      his election had left a chasm in my arrangements; that I had lost him from
+      my list in the administration, &amp;c. He observed, he believed it would
+      be for the interest of the republican cause for him to retire; that a
+      disadvantageous schism would otherwise take place; but that were he to
+      retire, it would be said he shrunk from the public sentence, which he
+      never would do; that his enemies were using my name to destroy him, and
+      something was necessary from me to prevent and deprive them of that
+      weapon, some mark of favor from me which would declare to the world that
+      he retired with my confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I answered by recapitulating to him what had been my conduct previous to
+      the election of 1800. That I had never interfered directly or indirectly,
+      with my friends or any others, to influence the election either for him or
+      myself; that I considered it as my duty to be merely passive, except that
+      in Virginia I had taken some measures to procure for him the unanimous
+      vote of that State, because I thought any failure there might be imputed
+      to me. That in the election now coming on, I was observing the same
+      conduct, held no councils with any body respecting it, nor suffered any
+      one to speak to me on the subject, believing it my duty to leave myself to
+      the free discussion of the public; that I do not at this moment know, nor
+      have ever heard, who were to be proposed as candidates for the public
+      choice, except so far as could be gathered from the newspapers. That as to
+      the attack excited against him in the newspapers, I had noticed it but as
+      the passing wind; that I had seen complaints that Cheetham, employed in
+      publishing the laws, should be permitted to eat the public bread and abuse
+      its second officer: that as to this, the publishers of the laws were
+      appointed by the Secretary of State, without any reference to me; that to
+      make the notice general, it was often given to one republican and one
+      federal printer of the same place; that these federal printers did not in
+      the least intermit their abuse of me, though receiving emoluments from the
+      government, and that I have never thought it proper to interfere for
+      myself, and consequently not in the case of the Vice-President. That as to
+      the letter he referred to, I remembered it, and believed he had only
+      mistaken the date at which it was written; that I thought it must have
+      been on the first notice of the event of the election of South Carolina;
+      and that I had taken that occasion to mention to him, that I had intended
+      to have proposed to him one of the great offices, if he had not been
+      elected; but that his election, in giving him a higher station, had
+      deprived me of his aid in the administration. The letter alluded to was,
+      in fact, mine to him of December the 15th, 1800. I now went on to explain
+      to him verbally, what I meant by saying I had lost him from my list. That
+      in General Washington&rsquo;s time, it had been signified to him that Mr. Adams,
+      the Vice-President, would be glad of a foreign embassy; that General
+      Washington mentioned it to me, expressed his doubts whether Mr. Adams was
+      a fit character for such an office, and his still greater doubts, indeed,
+      his conviction, that it would not be justifiable to send away the person
+      who, in case of his death, was provided by the constitution to take his
+      place: that it would moreover appear indecent for him to be disposing of
+      the public trusts, in apparently buying off a competitor for the public
+      favor. I concurred with him in the opinion, and, if I recollect rightly,
+      Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph were consulted, and gave the same opinions.
+      That when Mr. Adams came to the administration, in his first interview
+      with me, he mentioned the necessity of a mission to France, and how
+      desirable it would have been to him if he could have got me to undertake
+      it; but that he conceived it would be wrong in him to send me away, and
+      assigned the same reasons General Washington had done; and therefore, he
+      should appoint Mr. Madison, &amp;c. That I had myself contemplated his
+      (Colonel Burr&rsquo;s) appointment to one of the great offices, in case he was
+      not elected Vice-President; but that as soon as that election was known, I
+      saw it could not be done, for the good reasons which had led General
+      Washington and Mr. Adams to the same conclusion; and therefore, in my
+      first letter to Colonel Burr, after the issue was known, I had mentioned
+      to him that a chasm in my arrangements had been produced by this event. I
+      was thus particular in rectifying the date of this letter, because it gave
+      me an opportunity of explaining the grounds on which it was written, which
+      were, indirectly, an answer to his present hints. He left the matter with
+      me for consideration, and the conversation was turned to indifferent
+      subjects. I should here notice, that Colonel Burr must have thought I
+      could swallow strong things in my own favor, when he founded his
+      acquiescence to the nomination as Vice-President, to his desire of
+      promoting my honor, the being with me, whose company and conversation had
+      always been fascinating with him, &amp;c. I had never seen Colonel Burr
+      till he came as a member of Senate. His conduct very soon inspired me with
+      distrust. I habitually cautioned Mr. Madison against trusting him too
+      much. I saw afterwards, that under General Washington&rsquo;s and Mr. Adams&rsquo;s
+      administrations, whenever a great military appointment or a diplomatic one
+      was to be made, he came post to Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact
+      that he was always at market, if they had wanted him. He was indeed told
+      by Dayton in 1800, he might be Secretary at War; but this bid was too
+      late! His election as Vice-President was then foreseen. With these
+      impressions of Colonel Burr, there never had been an intimacy between us,
+      and but little association. When I destined him for a high appointment, it
+      was out of respect for the favor he had obtained with the republican
+      party, by his extraordinary exertions and success in the New York election
+      in 1800.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April the 15th, 1806. About a month ago, Colonel Burr called on me, and
+      entered into a conversation, in which he mentioned, that a little before
+      my coming into office, I had written to him a letter intimating that I had
+      destined him for a high employ, had he not been placed by the people in a
+      different one; that he had signified his willingness to resign as
+      Vice-President, to give aid to the administration in any other place; that
+      he had never asked an office, however; he asked aid of nobody, but could
+      walk on his own legs and take care of himself; that I had always used him
+      with politeness, but nothing more; that he aided in bringing on the
+      present order of things; that he had supported the administration; and
+      that he could do me much harm: he wished, however, to be on different
+      ground: he was now disengaged from all particular business&mdash;willing
+      to engage in something&mdash;should be in town some days, if I should have
+      any thing to propose to him. I observed to him, that I had always been
+      sensible that he possessed talents which might be employed greatly to the
+      advantage of the public, and that, as to myself, I had a confidence that
+      if he were employed, he would use his talents for the public good: but
+      that he must be sensible the public had withdrawn their confidence from
+      him, and that in a government like ours it was necessary to embrace in its
+      administration as great a mass of public confidence as possible, by
+      employing those who had a character with the public, of their own, and not
+      merely a secondary one through the executive. He observed, that if we
+      believed a few newspapers, it might be supposed he had lost the public
+      confidence, but that I knew how easy it was to engage newspapers in any
+      thing. I observed, that I did not refer to that kind of evidence of his
+      having lost the public confidence, but to the late Presidential election,
+      when, though in possession of the office of Vice-President, there was not
+      a single voice heard for his retaining it. That as to any harm he could do
+      me, I knew no cause why he should desire it, but, at the same time, I
+      feared no injury which any man could do me: that I never had done a single
+      act, or been concerned in any transaction, which I feared to have fully
+      laid open, or which could do me any hurt, if truly stated: that I had
+      never done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of
+      any friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good:
+      that, therefore, no threat or fear on that head would ever be a motive of
+      action with me. He has continued in town to this time; dined with me this
+      day week, and called on me to take leave two or three days ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not commit these things to writing at the time, but I do it now,
+      because in a suit between him and Cheetham, he has had a deposition of Mr.
+      Bayard taken, which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor to any
+      other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to have addressed to
+      me, during the pending of the Presidential election in February, 1801,
+      through General Samuel Smith, certain conditions on which my election
+      might be obtained, and that General Smith, after conversing with me, gave
+      answers from me. This is absolutely false. No proposition of any kind was
+      ever made to me on that occasion by General Smith, nor any answer
+      authorized by me. And this fact General Smith affirms at this moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some matters connected with this, see my notes of February the 12th
+      and 14th, 1801, made at the moment. But the following transactions took
+      place about the same time, that is to say, while the Presidential election
+      was in suspense in Congress, which, though I did not enter at the time,
+      they made such an impression on my mind, that they are now as fresh, as to
+      their principal circumstances, as if they had happened yesterday. Coming
+      out of the Senate chamber one day, I found Gouverneur Morris on the steps.
+      He stopped me, and began a conversation on the strange and portentous
+      state of things then existing, and went on to observe, that the reasons
+      why the minority of States was so opposed to my being elected, were, that
+      they apprehended that, 1. I would turn all federalists out of office; 2.
+      put down the navy; 3. wipe off the public debt. That I need only to
+      declare, or authorize my friends to declare, that I would not take these
+      steps, and instantly the event of the election would be fixed. I told him,
+      that I should leave the world to judge of the course I meant to pursue, by
+      that which I had pursued hitherto, believing it to be my duty to be
+      passive and silent during the present scene; that I should certainly make
+      no terms; should never go into the office of President by capitulation,
+      nor with my hands tied by any conditions which should hinder me from
+      pursuing the measures which I should deem for the public good. It was
+      understood that Gouverneur Morris had entirely the direction of the vote
+      of Lewis Morris of Vermont, who, by coming over to Matthew Lyon, would
+      have added another vote, and decided the election. About the same time, I
+      called on Mr. Adams. We conversed on the state of things. I observed to
+      him, that a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to defeat
+      the Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the right of the
+      Senate to name a President of the Senate, to devolve on him the government
+      during any interregnum: that such a measure would probably produce
+      resistance by force, and incalculable consequences, which it would be in
+      his power to prevent by negativing such an act. He seemed to think such an
+      act justifiable, and observed, it was in my power to fix the election by a
+      word in an instant, by declaring I would not turn out the federal
+      officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national debt. Finding his
+      mind made up as to the usurpation of the government by the President of
+      the Senate, I urged it no further, observed, the world must judge as to
+      myself of the future by the past, and turned the conversation to something
+      else. About the same time, Dwight Foster of Massachusetts called on me in
+      my room one night, and went into a very long conversation on the state of
+      affairs, the drift of which was to let me understand, that the fears above
+      mentioned were the only obstacle to my election, to all of which I avoided
+      giving any answer the one way or the other. From this moment he became
+      most bitterly and personally opposed to me, and so has ever continued. I
+      do not recollect that I ever had any particular conversation with General
+      Samuel Smith on this subject. Very possibly I had, however, as the general
+      subject and all its parts were the constant themes of conversation in the
+      private tête-à-têtes with our friends. But certain I am, that neither he
+      nor any other republican ever uttered the most distant hint to me about
+      submitting to any conditions, or giving any assurances to any body; and
+      still more certainly, was neither he nor any other person ever authorized
+      by me to say what I would or would not do.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      [The following official opinion, though inadvertently omitted in its
+      proper place, is deemed of sufficient importance to be inserted here.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bill for establishing a National Bank, undertakes, among other things,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of
+      land; and so far, is against the laws of <i>Mortmain</i>.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Though the constitution controls the laws of Mortmain, so
+     far as to permit Congress itself to hold lands for certain
+     purposes, yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a
+     similar right to other corporate bodies.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far, is
+      against the laws of Alienage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain
+      line of successors; and so far, changes the course of Descents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat; and so far,
+      is against the laws of <i>Forfeiture</i> and <i>Escheat</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain line; and so
+      far, is against the laws of Distribution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the national
+      authority; and so far, is against the laws of Monopoly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws of
+      the States; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution from
+      the control of the State legislatures; and so, probably, they will be
+      construed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this ground, that
+      all powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution nor
+      prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the
+      people.&rsquo; (Twelfth amendment.) To take a single step beyond the boundaries
+      thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession
+      of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have
+      not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the
+      constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. They are not among the powers specially, enumerated. For these are,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. A power to <i>lay taxes</i> for the purpose of paying the debts of the
+      United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were it
+      a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate would condemn it by
+      the constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. To &lsquo;borrow money.&rsquo; But this bill neither borrows money, nor insures the
+      borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just as free as any
+      other money-holders, to lend or not to lend their money to the public. The
+      operation proposed in the bill, first to lend them two millions, and then
+      borrow them back again cannot change the nature of the latter act, which
+      will still be a payment and not a loan, call it by what name you please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. &lsquo;To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the States, and
+      with the Indian tribes.&rsquo; To erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are
+      very different acts. He who erects a bank creates a subject of commerce in
+      its bills: so does he who makes a bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar out of
+      the mines. Yet neither of these persons regulates commerce thereby. To
+      make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to prescribe regulations
+      for buying and selling. Besides, if this were an exercise of the power of
+      regulating commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the
+      internal commerce of every State, as to its external. For the power given
+      to Congress by the constitution, does not extend to the internal
+      regulation, of the commerce of a State (that is to say, of the commerce
+      between citizen and citizen), which remains exclusively with its own
+      legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its
+      commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian
+      tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not propose the measure as a
+      &lsquo;regulation of trade,&rsquo; but as &lsquo;productive of considerable advantage to
+      trade.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special
+      enumerations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are the two
+      following.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. &lsquo;To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States&rsquo;;
+      that is to say, &lsquo;to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general
+      welfare.&rsquo; For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare
+      the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. Congress are not to
+      lay taxes, <i>ad libitum</i>, for any purpose they please: but only to pay
+      the debts, or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they
+      are not to do any thing they please, to provide for the general welfare,
+      but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not
+      as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and
+      independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good
+      of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations
+      of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a
+      single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever
+      would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole
+      judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil
+      they pleased. It is an established rule of construction, where a phrase
+      will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some
+      meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which will
+      render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant
+      to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the
+      enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could
+      not be carried into effect. It is known that the very power now proposed
+      as a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which formed the
+      constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize Congress to
+      open parials, and an amendatory one, to empower them to incorporate. But
+      the whole was rejected; and one of the reasons of rejection urged in
+      debate was, that they then would have a power to erect a bank, which would
+      render the great cities, where there were prejudices and jealousies on
+      that subject, adverse to the reception of the constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The second general phrase is, &lsquo;to make all laws necessary and proper
+      for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.&rsquo; But they can all be
+      carried into execution without a bank. A bank, therefore, is not
+      necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this phrase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or
+      convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the
+      constitution allows only the means which are &lsquo;necessary&rsquo; not those which
+      are merely &lsquo;convenient&rsquo; for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a
+      latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, as to give any
+      non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which
+      ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to
+      some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all
+      the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before
+      observed. Therefore it was, that the constitution restrained them to the
+      necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant of
+      the power would be nugatory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But let us examine this &lsquo;convenience,&rsquo; and see what it is. The report on
+      this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience to be, the
+      preventing the transportation and re-transportation of money between the
+      States and the treasury. (For I pass over the increase of circulating
+      medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, according to my ideas of
+      paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every State will have to pay a sum of
+      tax-money into the treasury; and the treasury will have to pay in every
+      State a part of the interest on the public debt, and salaries to the
+      officers of government resident in that State. In most of the States,
+      there will be still a surplus of tax-money, to come up to the seat of
+      government, for the officers residing there. The payments of interest and
+      salary in each State, may be made by treasury orders on the state
+      collector. This will take up the greater part of the money he has
+      collected in his State and consequently prevent the great mass of it from
+      being drawn out of the state. If there be a balance of commerce in favor
+      of that State, against the one in which the government resides, the
+      surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for that
+      commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. But if there
+      be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the banks in
+      the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but in the form of
+      money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of exchange, may prevent the
+      displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the aid of
+      any bank: and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with that aid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle than treasury
+      orders. But a little difference in the degree of convenience, cannot
+      constitute the necessity which the constitution makes the ground for
+      assuming any non-enumerated power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides; the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into arrangements
+      for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as there will be a
+      competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill delivers us up bound to
+      the national bank, who are free to refuse all arrangements but on their
+      own terms, and the public not free, on such refusal to employ any other
+      bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe, now does this business by their
+      post notes, which, by an arrangement with the treasury, are paid by any
+      State collector to whom they are presented. This expedient alone, suffices
+      to prevent the existence of that necessity which may justify the
+      assumption of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into effect
+      an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, and well
+      done, without this assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that degree
+      of necessity which can honestly justify it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency all over
+      the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency is limited to
+      a single State. So it would be still more convenient, that there should be
+      a bank whose bills should have a currency all over the world. But it does
+      not follow from this superior conveniency, that there exists any where a
+      power to establish such a bank, or that the world may not go on very well
+      without it. Can it be thought that the constitution intended, that for a
+      shade or two of convenience, more or less, Congress should be authorized
+      to break down the most ancient and fundamental laws of the several States,
+      such as those against mortmain, the laws of alienage, the rules of
+      descent, the acts of distribution, the laws of escheat and forfeiture, and
+      the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a necessity invincible by any other
+      means, can justify such a prostration of laws, which constitute the
+      pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence. Will Congress be too
+      strait-laced to carry the constitution into honest effect, unless they may
+      pass over the foundation laws of the State governments, for the slightest
+      convenience to theirs?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negative of the President is the shield provided by the constitution,
+      to protect against the invasions of the legislature, 1. the rights of the
+      Executive; 2. of the Judiciary; 3. of the States and State legislatures.
+      The present is the case of a right remaining exclusively with the States,
+      and is, consequently, one of those intended by the constitution to be
+      placed under his protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be added, however, that unless the President&rsquo;s mind, on a view of
+      every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear
+      that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the pro and the con hang
+      so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the
+      legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of their opinion.
+      It is chiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by error, ambition,
+      or interest, that the constitution has placed a check in the negative of
+      the President.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Th: Jefferson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      February 15, 1791.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
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